We've been anatomically modern humans for 250 to 300 thousand years. "Civilization" as far as we know it, is as old as 12,000 years or so. What is there that has the potential to be a serious threat to our species' survival? The only existential threats we face that aren't a result of our advancement & scientific "progress", are cosmic in origin. Yes, with enough advancement we might eventually be able to save civilization & a moderate percentage of the population from a massive impactor, micronova, supervolcanic winter, etc., most likely by going underground. Has attempting to solve those threats been a goal of even what .00001% of our minds, resources, & energy been going towards? ------ Is it really progress to be forced to innovate to get ourselves out of predicaments we get ourselves into by exploiting resources and not striving to maintain an equilibrium with the world we depend on for survival? We have contaminated ourselves & our environment with so many toxic substances that our food is devoid of nutrients, a third of our children have developmental disabilities, and the bird, insect, & sea life populations are crashing. We might even nuke ourselves. If those were an inevitable result of us striving to survive the next impact event, it would be one thing. But they haven't been. -----All of our "progress" has only led to a world where more people can be more completely controlled by fewer, while being enticed by baubles that make our lives easier so we don't have to try or struggle or have any real meaning whatsoever. We're the human version of Calhoun's mouse utopia experiment. It isn't "health" that makes our population stabilize, nor is it lack of resources. Increasing abundant resources makes population quickly grow, but the loss of competition and meaning to life makes it plateau long before resources run out.

What you say is correct, abundance removes all evelutionary pressures, even when evolution is intellectual rather than physical. That is why new frontiers must be found, such as colonisation of other worlds. The 'only one world' mentality common among the eco-cranks is a mental prison. It is very well to criticise 'progress' in you nice comfortable controlled environment which resulted from it, but what have you to offer which is of a positive nature. Whinging and whining is all very well, but what actual solutions do you offer?

Elites are only in their positions because they've convinced people that money has value. If people didn't keep working to keep "the economy" going, there goes the whole power structure of the world. That is why their power has grown concurrently with the centralization of industry. Tens of thousands of smaller local factories instead of a few gigantic ones, keeps "money" being more of a medium of exchange instead of a medium of control. It is hard to produce advanced electronics and such that way, and that is precisely why they've made a society where they exist & we rely on them. Isolation and ignorance makes for more complacent employees/slaves. They know the charade of their economic control system can't sustain once they've consolidated all of the real wealth & resources. That is why they want population to decrease proportionally, concurrent with their acquisition of resources.