[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFxYyXGMfZM]YouTube - Noam Chomsky: Is Capitalism Making Life Better?[/ame]
I got some good ideas from this, specially when he referrers to an improvement of living standards in the slave economy before the overthrow.
I take bets on independent self sufficiency, mixed with technological mastery to be the next usurper of the beast.