invention, innovation, and diffusion of new products, new inputs, new production, marketing, and decision-making methods… are leading now, as they have in the past, to overlapping, imbalanced waves of development, to counterpoints of growth and decline as old modes of production and consumption are abandoned in favor of more competitive alternatives and as established mores give way to new patterns of living.

These facts are sometimes recognized by politicians and general commentators, but often too late to plan effective action to alleviate their social effects. The recent onset of the energy crisis underscores this fact. It seems to have been recognized long after it was in the making; little seems to have been done to prepare for it; few agree on its importance, or, conceding its importance, few agree on what to do about it.