You seem to be confusing today's third world countries with the kind of post industrial, post silicon valley future I am writing about. The reason those people are walking around in the cast offs from the west is because we dump it on them. They are wearing our surplus from a clothing industry that churns out new fashions every week. Once the supply chains break down and the factories stop producing, nobody will be wearing cheap t-shirts and hoodies.

A Mercedes like most modern cars is controlled by microprocessors. You only have to look at what's happening in the car industry to see how production is getting stalled because they can't get the chips. High tech requires a strong infrastructure of connected services and material deliveries. These things are already crumbling. Good luck driving your new sophisticated, highly efficient car when the parts break down.

I propose a steam driven future because I think that's where our technology will slide back to. A technology that can be produced and maintained using basic tools, driven by a fuel that does not need to be refined or transported across continents. Virtually every industrialised country has access to coal and access to oil is going to get harder as the years go on. A diesel driven generator is going to be useless when you can't rock up to the gas station in your truck and fill it up. If you have the skill and knowledge you could convert it to wind or steam power.