Science czar Holdren prescribed a less prosperous future for the U.S.

In 2007, John Holdren, the Obama administration's science czar, said in an interview that the United States will have to be less prosperous in the future so the available wealth can be spread more evenly.

HOLDREN: There has been a strain of what many people call “US exceptionalism” in the United States, the notion that the United States is so big, so important, so powerful, so technologically advanced that it can and should do what it wants. I think this strain is misguided.

Q: Will Americans need to reduce their living standards? Is that politically viable, or will technology [unintelligible] do it?

H: I think ultimately that the rate of growth of material consumption is going to have to come down, and there’s going to have to be a degree of redistribution of how much we consume, in terms of energy and material resources, in order to leave room for people who are poor to become more prosperous.