[ugh]

But what if we actually want to eat meat? What if we want a TV? A refrigerator? A dishwasher? A mobile phone? A car?

[protagonist_h]

Being both a carnivore and a big consumer electronics junkie I can relate to your argument. I was mostly answering to parent poster's comment about people starving. However I'm a big believer in technology being able to overcome that kinds of limits. Here's an excellent essay illustrating how 15 billion people could be supported at the level of American living standards: http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/progress/index.html

(As a nice bonus, this is written by John McCarthy, the inventor of LISP).