We need a few decades to fix everything for sure. Hopefully this will get others to inspect their dams!
Yes, our elected officials need to realize that our infrastructure was not built by Mr. Popeil and we canāt
"...Just set it and forget it".
Mike
Yes, and even our lower economic classes today have a more comfortable lifestyle that is better than most royalty in the past.
However, our better lifestyle is based on better productivity and cheaper ways to produce goods not because wages went up.
But the money as a unit of measure for wealth is worth less per unit.
Mike
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agree
The emergency spillway was not lined with concrete, so the dirt just started washing away, leaving it near collapse. A local group fought for it to be lined with cement some years back, but they were stifled by state and federal agencies.
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I spent a day in Vista and Fallbrook this past weekend and oh my was it wonderful seeing the place wet and green! Just beautiful. Iāve only seen it before in summer when it looks like a desert with trees.
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Yes, here is a nice summary of this story: http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/02/12/oroville-dam-feds-and-state-officials-ignored-warnings-12-years-ago/
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Actually, I believe you are mistaken. After the economic collapse of 2008 quantitative easing (the Feds equivalent of printing money) should have vastly reduced the value of the dollar internationally, but the world couldnāt afford a cheap dollar- they own too many of them to admit they are empty symbols and there is no currency to replace them right now. So the rest of the world actually suffered more from Wall St. bad loans and bundled derivatives than the U.S.
Conservatives were shocked that there was not spiraling inflation, but most economists (the majority of world renown economists are āliberalā) predicted this outcome.
The American empire has the best hustle going in the history of the planet. Much of the rest of the world slaves to make products for us, often polluting their land,.air and water terribly in the process, and we give them symbols in return. The only power they have over us is they can stop making us stuff.
Shhh, donāt tell anyone, or they may figure it out and we will have to go back to doing factory work (or have robots do it, anyway).
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I think you hit the nail on the headā¦maintain status quoā¦full steam ahead. If other countries want to keep taking USD for oil, autos, cellphones, tropical fruits go right ahead. There is no alternative and no one (China) doesnāt seem to want to step in and take over (yet?).
The government (feds) will throw a bunch of money at this dam and get it put back togetherā¦hopefully it holds together. Iād drain as much water as possible before the next storms.
@Alan on the surface Iād agree, but there are deeper levels that need to be considered. Inflation did not happen partially because as you say everyone had a vested interest in keeping the dollarās value up (something that likely will not be true forever). But it also did not show up because much of the newly created dollars stayed in bank and company accts to prop up balance sheets and did not circulate. When (and if) they make it into day to day commerce then inflation will not be far behind.
We (and the FED) have painted ourselves into a corner. If you allow the new dollars to circulate, you get inflation. That makes the US debt situation look more sustainable. However it eventually pushes up interest rates which make paying the interest on the debt more expensive, debt situation less sustainable. Its an interesting dilemma, and explains why there have been no āresultsā on this malaise. There are systemic problems which no one wants to face, so they donātā¦
The only currency that remains constant is the currency called time.
How long does it take me to earn a certain number of monetary units (dollars for example) and when I decide to spend those dollars on a toy I am really valuing how much of my life (time) am I willing to give up for that toy.
I suspect that it took that guy who was willing to spend 5 cents on that bagel about pretty much the same time to earn that nickel as it would take someone who is willing to spend the $12.00 for that bagel today.
Mike
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Would it be possible to keep political and economic theory discussions in the Lounge, while this topic remains about stuff related to California weather?
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Very well
I donāt feel comfortable commenting on much of this latter discussion other than this:
Iāll go a step further and say, many times fails to answer prayers in any fashion we desire or envision.
Iāve also learned, both from history and experience, getting what one wants isnāt always the best either, yet, on the other side total suffering grinds people to nothing and advances no goal I can see. Not at all trying to lecture anyone here, least of all you Alan, just writing things as I see them.
Here is a vid of WWII (from a the German perspective) which shows the intense suffering in Europe and probably resulted in more secularism following as a result. Itās not only the German history which is relevant. I could have easily posted history from the perspective of Russians, Japanese, or Americans (Americans suffered the least by far in that war (and also were among the least culpable)).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsWjsdiOGFw&t=362s
Drew,
Imo, this is very close to some arguments I hear on the radio that humans arenāt strong enough to destroy the planet. Iāve never really bought into that.
If one defines ādestroying the planetā as completely vaporizing all the mass of the earth (as an extreme) then we are unable to do that (unless we can develop a death star) 
.
But in terms of destroying higher life as we know it, I think weāve been able to do that for some time. During the cold war, the U.S. had a stockpile of about 30,000 nuclear warheads. The Soviet Union had about 45,000 nuclear warheads at the maximum in their arsenal. These weapons were significantly more powerful than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima or Nagasaki, by about a factor of 10. I think, should the U.S. or the Soviet Union have decided to launch, it would have essentially been the end of mankind.
Iām not mentioning this as a political statement (sometimes the best deterrent against war is a lethal defense). My point is humans have been able to destroy the planet (at least as we know it) for quite some time.
The thought that mankind can destroy the planet isnāt arrogant, itās just simply true. With 7 bil people, much of the habitable land is highly populated. It seems to me we are big enough to easily destroy life for ourselves and other higher life forms, though for a pure naturalist that may not be a big deal.
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Time is an anthropomorphic concept and in reality only a symptom of momentum.
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When I read a comment I consider inaccurate- political or otherwise, I will throw in my 2 cents and I usually move it to private conversation or the lounge after that (unless the original topic has long since run its course). Some spillover is only human- I recommend tolerance- say a single off topic comment and a response to it and anything more is generally excessive and should move elsewhere. Iāve often taken such back and forth to the private response app on this forum.
This forum adheres to a fairly loose philosophy about policing relevance. I believe that is a good thing and makes it much more interesting. It isnāt an accident and has been discussed by staff.
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So Iāve been following the news on this dam. When is the storm supposed to come that has everyone worried about the dam integrity?
You miss my point, the earth doesnāt care if we do or not, it will go on, and we will not. What is probably the point youāre hearing on the radio too. So yeah I do believe even with 10 million nuclear bombs going off at once, we will destroy ourselves, but certainly not the earth, you just proved my point (how egocentric and arrogant we are). The earth would not care one bit. Itās dealt with bigger issues than us. Can we destroy this planet, knock it out of orbit? No we cannot. Because 10 billion, forget million nuclear bombs will only be a reboot for life. So it would be the 6th mass extinction on earth? I forget, losing count? Every living thing on this earth will become extinct no matter what we do. Sure we can control the quality of life, but to think we really have a say about life on this planet I feel is extremely arrogant. A huge rock doesnāt even have to hit us, just be close and it will rip the atmosphere off the earth. Our core, like what happened on Mars could get cold. Which would allow cosmic rays to barbecue us and all life. Their is one consensus 99% of all scientists agree, no matter what we do our climate will not change. Nobody believes stopping all industry will stop global warming, not one scientist believes that. If all man were killed tomorrow, nothing will change, and all agree on that.Even the global cooling deniers. Itās where I heard it from actually. Yes, for a short time we can ruin things for ourselves, and other animals, but in the big picture, we donāt even exist, at least in the sense of our importance to earth. When I see āsave the planetā I canāt help but think it doesnāt need saving, we do. But these days humans come last even to ourselves. Putting people out of work to save something that doesnāt need saving.
We canāt even stop a dam from busting, let alone save the planet. Good luck all, it sure looks like that dam is going to let go. Having fought numerous house fires, one canāt help but feeling small, I sure did knowing I could not change one thing.
Sorry to get so off subject, I wonāt be commenting anymore, but will pray for all of us.
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Thursday weāre supposed to get hit with another 2-4 inches of rain.
Iāve been watching the dam too. I hope the rain shuts off for folks in CA soon, at least for a while.