Reply #15: No, it doesn't happen overnight.

[Warpy]

What will happen is huge price increases for everything. The oil shocks of the 1970s will be seen as nothing compared to what peak oil will bring. Choices will need to be made about what is important: cheap plastic toys vs. gasoline for H2s vs pharmaceuticals vs. fertilizer and fuel to feed us. My guess is that the choices won't be made, and that conspicuous consumption will proceed until it's far too late. Inflation will disrupt all areas of society as it happens, though, with the poor being hit the hardest and the middle class disappearing entirely, while the rich tool around in their 6 MPG behemoths.

This is if we don't have other pressures, like war and a preexisting economic collapse.

Aggressively funding research into multiple renewable energy systems may alleviate some of the misery, but not all of it. We will start to see a massive increase in fuel costs right after the election, and that's something that is likely to continue as the increased cost of producing and transporting everything we use is spread through the economy.

That's why we have to get the oil barons out of government right now. Their solution is to find more oil and to fight wars to control the oil that's already there. It's temporary, at best, and will serve only to enrich them at our expense.