Spectral lines: The closed-loop society

Not so many years ago, the forecasts of the great majority of those in the business of telling society where it might expect to find itself five, ten, and more years hence were based largely on trend extrapolation. There was good reason for this. First, World War II had left the industrialized nations with clear-cut needs. Winners and losers alike were in dire need of many basic, material necessities that had been unavailable or were destroyed during the war. And individual and corporate profits resulting from the war were available, as energy in a tank circuit, to provide the impetus for producing and consuming the wanted goods. Population was expanding and thus reinforced the image of an insatiable marketplace. Materials to produce consumer goods seemed in plentiful supply, as did energy to produce and utilize such products.