Tim Brien said:Is this a railroad joke? :PRoss Mansell said:... in an overwhelming majority, even though his[b] track record [/b]to that date had not been above reproach. Perhaps robots should be doing the voting, as apart from the 'swinging' voter, most simply vote the same every election.
Remember..the public vote these politicos into power in the first place. Time we all asked more questions of those that govern.
Steve Featherkile said:So what's your points?Tim Brien said:Is this a railroad joke? :P
... in an overwhelming majority, even though his[b] track record [/b]to that date had not been above reproach.
Chris Vernell said:Oh, oh I wonder how this is going to turn out.Steve Featherkile said:So what's your points?Tim Brien said:Is this a railroad joke? :P
... in an overwhelming majority, even though his[b] track record [/b]to that date had not been above reproach.
Tell that to the Germans they R the ones that built my replacement.
Hans-Joerg Mueller said:.
Ahhhhh, what a bummer at the end of the year. [url=http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2011/12/25/19167501.html]The mighty buck and its influence come to bear at the EMD plant in London, Ontario, Canada[/url].
David Russell said:Well Rooster, today was Day One of the lockout. :( :(Hans-Joerg Mueller said:.
Ahhhhh, what a bummer at the end of the year. [url=http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2011/12/25/19167501.html]The mighty buck and its influence come to bear at the EMD plant in London, Ontario, Canada[/url].
Victor Smith said:Globally 10% of the population owns 85% of the assets - that's 700 million people owning 85% of everything and 6 billion, 300million of the rest of us owning only 15%. It's a little better in the US - the 10% only own 71% of everything. But, the lowest 40% of Americans own only .2% of the wealth - that's 2 tenths of 1 percent! And that disparity continues to grow every year.
Yep. Plutocracy here we come. Just wait till they perfect robotic workers that can think for themselves and do tasks like delivery, robots dont have wages, poor people will be truely redundant in the economic system. All the needs of the elites will be provided by automated production that needs little or no human interaction. Once people are not needed they will be shuffled aside with no political voice. God help them once the robotic police security forces are created. Robots only do what they are programmed to do. They have no consciousness. Man I should write SciFi. My mind is a scary place ;)
So, if those stats are accurate and what Victor writes is true, then there will soon be absolutely no use for about 6 1/2 billion of us, using today’s census numbers. But unless the elites figure out a way to eliminate 6 1/2 billion people in a big hurry, the worldwide economy can’t possibly be sustained. Even if 6 1/2 billion of us suddenly disappeared the remaining 700 million would soon be penniless for generations to come because an economy that loses 93% of it’s market - can’t work!
It’s a huge, complicated and scary problem, even scarier than Vic’s mind - and I don’t think anyone, anywhere has the foggiest idea what needs to be done to fix it.
edit: changed 70 million to 700 million.
Walter I think we all know the World is overpopulated with humans. It is the main reason why we are faced with a ruined Planet.
The question is what to do about it?
That will require humanity to; 1) take a serious look at why we are in the situation, 2) admit the truth and 3) take action to do something about it.
Will that happen?
- Maybe.
- Unlikely.
- Not a chance.
Our best chance is for Extra Terrestrials to come and knock some sense into us before we stuff it up completely. 
Walt, yep places where people still substistence farm dont really count as they are not really adding to any economy, I’m only counting industrial nations, eventually corporations are going to run out of cheap places to have people assemble things, look how fast Chinese employees are learning western ways. The move to automation makes more sense every year. One of the main reasons our recovery has been so bad on job growth is that more and more businesses are using automation instead of hiring back old employees. Tony are you kidding? I’m waiting for the Voyager probes to get far enough out into space to photograph the huge “QUARENTINE” signs circling our solar system
(http://cache.io9.com/assets/images/8/2008/08/medium_quarantinedearth2.jpg)
Ummmm, OK, Vic, Tony, and Walter, so the solution that you seem to be proposing is genocide on a scale never seen before, and a return to 18th century agrarian, no, wait, that was the beginning of the industrial revolution, wasn’t it, let’s go back to the 17th century society, shall we, with polluted streets and streams from open sewers, rampant disease because M. Pasteur has not yet discovered the “germ theory,” The feudal system because the American Revolution has not yet been conceived, I could go on, but you get the idea…
Are you volunteering to be the first sacrificial lambs?
I didn’t think so.
Going back to trains, now.
Steve, with respect, you should not be jumping to any conclusions on my behalf.
I didn’t actually propose anything, let alone genocide. Neither did I advocate a return to the past.
I merely proffered a suggestion that we first of all accept that the World is overpopulated, this overpopulation is the main cause of the ongoing rape of our Planet, and then mankind should work out what to do about it.
Bob McCown said:[b]Hey look, politics![/b]
Hey look, politics!
Who’s advocating genocide? I’m certainly not.
I’m mearly considering things that no one wants to consider, everyone thinks things will magicly go away or get better, my concern is the future may end up being alot less Star trek and alot more Mad Max. Seams everyone in charge only focuses on the next election cycle and who can stick their finger in the eye of the other party, meanwhile the water creeps ever higher up the side of the ship. But thats OK the Bachlorette is on tonight, why worry about our kids world 50 years from now when theres something on TV tonight? that will be their problem. thats the prevailing attitude I see around the country from most people.
Bob McCown said:Bob:Bob McCown said:[b]Hey look, politics![/b]
Hey look, politics!
You might need to apply a bigger hammer to drive the point home!!
Happy RRing,
Jerry
Not intentionally treading into the dreaded P topic.
Please…NO POLITICS OR RELIGION on this fine Model Railroading web page.