Food for thought, September 25

First, this was great:

“My Car is More Important Than My Body”

for a LOT of people, their cars are their livelihoods.  It gets them to work, to school, to the store, and it hauls around other people and things.  It get them from point A, to point B and C and D and back again.  A lot of people wouldn’t know what to do without their cars.  They depend on them.

McBloggenstein, the writer, goes on to compare people’s concern with their cars to their concern for thier own health, and how many people are careful to get good gas and motor oil for their cars, but oblivious to the food they put in their own bodies.

We live in a world where our bodies aren’t important, but our cars are our livelihood. What do you expect?

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Second, has anyone noticed how bad the traffic has been recently? I realize there are backups associated with the hurricane power-outages, but seriously.

Free tolls was not the greatest idea I think. Combine that with no HOV lane on I-10, and my co-workers and I are hurting pretty bad. For purposes of comparison, I live in Midtown and drive out to I-10 and Campbell for work (I know, I know, I wish the office was some place better, but at least I can park my car when I’m not going to and from work). My co-worker lives out I-10 at about Fry Road. We both like to compare our commutes, since we’re both going about 10-12 miles on the same freeway but in opposite directions.

Yesterday he spent 1 hour and 45 minutes getting from Fry Road to Campbell Road on I-10, having left his house about 7. I spent about 40 minutes on the road, having left a bit before 8.

Today I went down to the Upper Kirby area to have breakfast before coming into the office. Bad call. Over an hour to get from Kirby to Campbell using the freeways.

The frustrating and ridiculous part is that neither of us has any real alternate route. Our office is on the freeway frontage, and as many of you are aware there is no circulation within the Memorial Villages area. It’s tragic.

I’ve been watching TranStar to see how bad the beltway has been now that it’s toll-free. It’s sick. I’ve watched that road a lot since I used to need it to get to and from Jersey Village, and I’ve never seen it this bad for this long. I hope they put the toll back and double it. At least *that* would get things flowing a little better.

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Lots of panic about the financial markets over the past week. People can’t agree about much, though, except that it’s all bad.

Bush Warns “Entire Economy Is In Danger”

Bailout could deepen Crisis

It’s sad, really. People in this country are so obsessed with owning the biggest possible home they impale themselves upon these insane mortgages. Then when the anticipated raise doesn’t come, or gas prices go up, or a new baby is born, or the interest rate increases…

failure.

I’m dubious about this bailout. I liken it to forest management. In the early 1900′s they came up with this idea that they should put out all forest fires within a few minutes of spotting smoke, thus protecting and preserving our great national woodlands. Now, over the last 20 years they’ve realized this was a big mistake. By putting out all the little fires they forests got overloaded with fuel, and when a fire eventually gets out of control, it’s devastating.

In the financial and housing markets we’ve been trying so hard to put out every fire, to quench every thirst, to make sure that no person experiences any discomfort or inconvenience. We feed the American addition to the suburban house by creating every kind of voodoo financing available to get anyone who wants a house in to one. After all, you’re not a real American if you don’t own a home.

Now we have it starting to burn down, and the government is focused on sustaining the unsustainable.

Living this way isn’t phsyically, emotionally, or financially healthy. Our country is rotting, and I’m afraid it may be time to amputate. Certainly the heavy morphine dose congress has prescribed isn’t going to fix anything in the long run.

Alas, we don’t seem to be a country with leadership anymore. Our national aversion to pain has become so strong that we cannot endure the normal cycles of the economy. Thus we come up with every kind of painkiller we can imagine to treat the symptoms, putting off and enlarging the final inevitable collapse. We could face these things head on and start building a better country, but as of yet we’re not.

I fear for our children. If things continue as they are going now, they will be born into a world where China leads, and America withers away.

There’s a great book by Jared Diamond, called “Collapse.” In it, he studies the history of various societies, and observes trends in their eventual collapse. The main point he makes is this:

Most great civilizations collapse very suddenly, just after the peak of their power.

That we’ve already begun the decline is a sad warning for us.

I don’t believe it’s too late for things to change, but honestly, I’m concerned there will be a long, dark time for our nation in front of us, no matter what we do. I just hope we wake up in time to climb out of the hole.