how Keynes is still appropriate in a post-industrial society that is going to suffer (is suffering) a rather strong shrinkage of its resource base (oil, food, water, general ecosystem, ...).

afaik, keynes had little or no clue that hubbard's curve lay ahead, but imagining he were here today, i think he may guess that we would go to war again, because it makes more money for the rentier class and kills off the youth unemployed surplus who may make trouble in the domestic arena if not safely engaged with another propangandised 'enemy' somewhere preferably far away on some steppe or similarly godforsaken place.

like libya or the falklands...

anyways some could argue that the industrial expansion to gin up for war was a (perverted) keynesian solution to a problem...who's gonna whine about deficits when the future of democracy is at stake?

basically the iraq war was about digging holes and filling them up again, but with the added bonus of the gamble on commanding some of the richest petrochem real estate. either way they win... get paid for reconstruction afterwards too.

war is the age old solution to overpopulation, and dwindling bank profits.

of course if enough people realised there is another way, even the bankers could win, once they let go of the banana in the bottle.

true visionary keynes would be something like the new deal under fdr, but global in scope. something like the blueprints of the advanced western democracies, but even better greed-proofed, and geared to fix unemployment by facing the energy issue head-on, all hands on deck, 24/7, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
return energy generation to the Commons, and half the problems are solved. thanks to certain pioneers amongst us, this idea is gestating nicely, out on the edge, while the titans clash at the centre.

victory gardens are another old idea ready to be recycled anew... so many brilliant ideas, all held back because the lead boots of the status quo are afraid more than anything of what they would lose, and utterly blind to what we all could win.

waiting till we are backs to the wall is just immature.

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty