Is the world spiraling out of control.

FortySeven wrote: »

Don't disregard fair warning. I predicted the financial crisis in 2007. :eek:

A lot of people predicted the financial crisis. Most experts said it was an inevitability because of the way banks were operating but we all just ignored the warnings.

Unless you're an economist you didn't really predict the financial crisis, you heard it somewhere and somehow got convinced you came up with it on your own.

Hologram wrote: »

I would have agreed prior to last year, but I think it's wishful thinking now, given the rise in social, cultural and geopolitical conflict globally.

I don't think anything's changed. europe and the middle east have been fighting each other since greece was an empire. The rest of the world has been abusing Africa for as long.

Europe has never been so peaceful. Especially considering if you go back further than 30 years ago and corrupt people were secure in their position and had no fear of getting caught.

Speedwell wrote: »

No, fear, worry, and anxiety-feeding propaganda are spiralling out of control, and the availability of information makes it seem like it is happening right now and right here to us instead of over there to people we don't know in places we can't imagine.

I don't think it's any worse than the uneducated gossip that would have circulated before the internet came along. I don't think the Japanese government could convince their citizens today that the American army are such monsters that they'd be better off killing themselves and their children than get captured.

People used to believe that their enemies were sponsored by the devil, if someone in charge told you something you had no ability to question what they were saying. people may have lived in constant fear of foreigners and even their own rulers.

Renegade Mechanic wrote: »

Lol.. It doesn't take an economist to put 2 and 2 together and scratch his head wondering why the answer "8" keeps appearing when it should be 4.

Maybe, but if you don't actually have access to the ledger that keeps saying 8 instead of 4 then you can't make an educated guess. You're just assuming things are bad everywhere because they're bad for you.

Basic human geography in secondary schools gave me the tools to understand - before I even finished in 2006 - that I would be very, very lucky to get much of this celtic tiger.

What's basic human geography? We didn't have that class in school. We had geography, biology and economics, but we didn't have them combined into one class like you did.

Oh and another thing I learned. There's no way in hell we'll be getting pensions..

If you pay into a pension you'll more than likely get a pension. I don't think we'll get to our old age and the country will just shrug their shoulders and let everyone over 65 die on the streets because they're no money.

Renegade Mechanic wrote: »

If they're going to be bad for one common Joe - without a family or mortgage over their head - they're going to be a lot worse for a common Joe with those things. Lots of common Joes.

That's not necessarily true. Ireland learned the hard way that we couldn't spend like mad. We were in a somewhat unique position in that we'd been horribly poor before that boom, so we can be forgiven for going a bit off the rails and we're lucky enough in that we maintained a lot of our gains through the bust. We're still massively better off now than we were in the 80s. What we consider poor now would have been almost middle class in the 80s.

The "basic" was a bit superfluous, but in a nutshell, after the junior cert, geography covered an awful lot more than just physical aspects of environmens, mountains, plate tectonics etc etc.
We ended up covering the global population, effects regions have on migration, economies of regions etc etc and some current (at least back then..) conflicts like the Iraq invasion.
Or things like how aid was offered to countries in exchange for their purchase of military equipment on interest...

I see, geography has changed since I did it in school so, it sounds like a much more interesting class. But still, it's more than likely a simplified introduction rather than reliable data. You would have had to go onto study these things in college and gotten a job in the field before you can say you really know what's going on.

It's just that many people are always saying the end is nigh, and sooner or later those people may get some things right. I think we're certainly going to have to accept the fact capitalism is unworkable with future population levels and available resources. But I don't think most people are willing to make the sacrifices, we will more than likely wait until we've no choice, just like we did with the last economic collapse. At this stage economic collapses seem to be an acceptable part of how the economy works, it's as much an opportunity to some people and they'll do nothing to stop it happening.

There are more than enough resources for everyone to live a very comfortable life. We're all just still convinced that we can one day become one of the super rich, then we can look down our nose at the poor people and it will make all the suffering worth while.

Cheerful Spring wrote: »

Russia and United States, they have a toxic relationship right now. Nato is surrounding the Russian border with troops. We have not seen relations this bad since the cold war.

Wesley Clark tried his best to start WW3 with Russia in 1999, so that bits not true.

ScumLord wrote: »

That's not necessarily true. Ireland learned the hard way that we couldn't spend like mad. We were in a somewhat unique position in that we'd been horribly poor before that boom, so we can be forgiven for going a bit off the rails and we're lucky enough in that we maintained a lot of our gains through the bust. We're still massively better off now than we were in the 80s. What we consider poor now would have been almost middle class in the 80s.

True enough, though more of the people I knew from the 80s wagered that while they were all but destitute, they at least had the pleasure of not having to give almost anything they made into loan repayments.

ScumLord wrote: »

I see, geography has changed since I did it in school so, it sounds like a much more interesting class. But still, it's more than likely a simplified introduction rather than reliable data. You would have had to go onto study these things in college and gotten a job in the field before you can say you really know what's going on.

It was wicked interesting. I liked it anyway, and never expected it to branch out like that. Teacher was a proper teacher too, which helped.
But I'm going to have to readily disagree with the bolded bit. Now more than ever, people are coming out of college dumber and more narrowly focused than when they went it. I'd call it an epidemic in need of swift attention tbh.
Smartest people I've known never went to college and I'm not talking about this Book smart/Street smartstuff either.
That, and the Internets greatest gift is that anyone who wants to read up on the sources/info used to teach in college for whatever subject matter interests them, can do so with their phone of an evening over some tea and biscuits.
Or a few cans.. Better than drinking to TV..

ScumLord wrote: »

It's just that many people are always saying the end is nigh, and sooner or later those people may get some things right. I think we're certainly going to have to accept the fact capitalism is unworkable with future population levels and available resources. But I don't think most people are willing to make the sacrifices, we will more than likely wait until we've no choice, just like we did with the last economic collapse. At this stage economic collapses seem to be an acceptable part of how the economy works, it's as much an opportunity to some people and they'll do nothing to stop it happening.

The problem with capitalism is that everyone that hates it, doesn't realise they're hating finance based capitalism, and are making the fatal judgement call of supporting things like socialism or worse communism.
Production based capitalism on the other hand it what we should be aiming for again.
Doesn't matter what society you have, the "top floor" have everything you'll never, ever see.
But at least without socialism the top floor doesn't have the same control - you're still free - within reason - to be you.

ScumLord wrote: »

There are more than enough resources for everyone to live a very comfortable life. We're all just still convinced that we can one day become one of the super rich, then we can look down our nose at the poor people and it will make all the suffering worth while.

There's enough resources for about 2 billion people to live a European standard of living.
Reason European is used is because it achieves that standard at about half the consumption it takes America to do the same...

Case in point, the American Tesla car - despite being all electric - does an MPG equivalent of 130 MPG. By no means something to be sniffed at, but consider where the vast majority of that electricy is coming from. Also consider the Volkswagen Twin-Up! Which puts the drive train - a tiny, 0.6ltr 2 cylinder diesel engine and generator - from the XL1 diesel/electric into a hatchback and achieves almost twice that MPG with actual fuel. Shaping up for game changing mass production right until the scandal which cost VW half it's billions.
Upsize it and imagine a Volkswagen Touareg SUV that does something like 80 or 90mpg
Also worth noting is that there is nowhere near enough lithium in the earth's crust for electric vehicles to contests ICE vehicles. If electric is to take off, without it's lips around the teat of govt green (ironic, given the environmental impact of lithium production/transport/refinement...) grants, it will need something other than lithium.

No, anything over the two billion and you start using more than the planet can replenish. There's nowhere near enough on the planet to elevate 7+ billion people to European standards of living/consumption:(

As for, the bolded bit, that's a sad truth right there. And I know people who seem to think everyone just needs to get off their arse and be a business owner, without realising where they'll source employees if everyone is an employer...

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

There are 3 times as many people using the internet now than there were 10 years ago.

In the last 5 years, the number of people with smartphones has quadrupled and they've gone from being able to send emails on the move to streaming live video and audio instantly around the world.

To make out that news isn't more pervasive and doesn't spread more rapidly than it did a decade ago is at best ignorant and at worst, totally disingenuous.

You do realise people have been saying 'technology now vs before' for over 10 years right? Iirc I first heard that around 2004.

My point is we weren't living in the stone age ten years ago. Heck what if someone makes that statement in 10 years?... Does that mean we are not connected now? Sure feels like it tho right.

Look as time passes technology will get better and more people will use the Internet. That's a no brainer.
But say back in 2006 people could still learn about global events.

Didn't millions of people download the Paris Hilton porno in 2004 after it went viral? :pac:

Renegade Mechanic wrote: »

But I'm going to have to readily disagree with the bolded bit. Now more than ever, people are coming out of college dumber and more narrowly focused than when they went it.

that can be true enough. It's the modern approach though, it removes the need for people to be geniuses. All a company needs is a handful of smart people to do their little bit of the process and it's easy to replace them without bringing everything to a grinding halt. I think that's just the nature of where human technology is at. It's beyond one person at this stage, it takes teams of people working together to manage how complicated everything is getting. It's as much a benefit to the overall project to not have a genius who the work revolves around so that they can't hold the process to ransom.

Also worth noting is that there is nowhere near enough lithium in the earth's crust for electric vehicles to contests ICE vehicles. If electric is to take off, without it's lips around the teat of govt green (ironic, given the environmental impact of lithium production/transport/refinement...) grants, it will need something other than lithium.

Hopefully electric has enough momentum now to develop the next generation batteries. The other thing about electric is that in every way bar range electrics are better than ICE, they're faster and most of all simplier. the simplicity I think is something that scares car manufacturers, they're set to lose a sizeable chunk of money in lost after market sale of consumable parts which ICE have a lot of, electrics don't.

No, anything over the two billion and you start using more than the planet can replenish. There's nowhere near enough on the planet to elevate 7+ billion people to European standards of living/consumption:(

Moving out into the rest of our solar system would fix that problem. We could expand unfettered for a hundred years or so while we work on interstellar travel methods.

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

YMy point is we weren't living in the stone age ten years ago. Heck what if someone makes that statement in 10 years?... Does that mean we are not connected now? Sure feels like it tho right.

It could just mean there's more of it. It doesn't have to be a famine or a feast. I think the big difference now is just the immediacy of it. There's no filter, every opinion get's blurted out at once and it's pretty hard to get accurate information in a time frame that suits people's attention spans. At this stage the crazier opinions get thrown out straight away and by the time the facts come out everyones lost interest and have just lodged the crazy stuff in their memory.

FortySeven wrote: »

Male v female

Black v white

Muslim v christian

Pick your battle

Countries will be the last consideration in the fight.

Just like empire was left for dead in the national war of ww2.

Now nationalism will be left for individual causes.

We segregate. It's personal.

More nonsense

Women and men are going to start a world War?

What black and white people are going to fight? Even in America the black lives matter protests have a healthy portion of white people marching.


There are 1. 6 billion Muslims in the world of varying off shoots. Most are suspicious of each other.
It's the same story with the world's 2.2 billion Christians. Just look at our tiny Island.
The idea that all Muslims or all Christians will unite to fulfil your prophecy of anarchy is ridiculous.

The_Valeyard wrote: »

Looks like an attack taking place in Munich. Hope I am wrong

Just as I'm reading this the BBC app alerts me to the Munich attack.