How long can this keep going on?

As long as there are no voices calling for moderation, a slowdown of using up everything to make more of nothing anyone needs; but there is no demand for less demand, or not enough to staunch the hemmorhaging.
The front porch floor is dry, and the house seems to be done. My mother likes it and even wrote the painters a thank you note. Hers is a generation that insisted upon such gestures, part of a gentle art which seems to be disappearing along with the people who practiced it.