Just Slow Down and Take a Breath

[beechnut79]

Title of this thread says it all. Over the past half century the pace of life seems to have constantly speeded up to the point that many institutions have been sacrificed to the Gods of Money. Things such as bowling leagues, church potluck suppers, and many long time hobbies. Do you see any hope of us reversing course and being able to carve out space for us to slow down and take a breath, just like a cat bathing in the sun, being able to luxuriate in how you feel in your body/mind. A return to days when, for example, restaurant diners would often linger over their meals with coffee and/or cocktails. It wasn't really supposed to be this way. COVID may have forced the issue for a time, but don't really see lasting results here.

[Eric the Green]

(10-10-2021, 04:06 PM)beechnut79 Wrote: Title of this thread says it all. Over the past half century the pace of life seems to have constantly speeded up to the point that many institutions have been sacrificed to the Gods of Money. Things such as bowling leagues, church potluck suppers, and many long time hobbies. Do you see any hope of us reversing course and being able to carve out space for us to slow down and take a breath, just like a cat bathing in the sun, being able to luxuriate in how you feel in your body/mind. A return to days when, for example, restaurant diners would often linger over their meals with coffee and/or cocktails. It wasn't really supposed to be this way. COVID may have forced the issue for a time, but don't really see lasting results here.

According to the saeculum, trends move that way once the first turning has gotten deeper (assuming a progressive 4T victory as has happened in every previous english-speaking saeculum). Too bad for us, that may be beyond the life span of some of us boomers. But, we can carve out some space where we can. There's really no technological need for this speed; it's just the neoliberal ideology and other causes of rising prices and falling income for the middle class and poor that has caused this. If Build Back Better passes this year, neoliberalism may start to recede and progress restart, so there's hope in that, if we can sufficiently-pressure Sinema and Manchin to support enough of it.

[pbrower2a]

(10-10-2021, 04:06 PM)beechnut79 Wrote: Title of this thread says it all. Over the past half century the pace of life seems to have constantly speeded up to the point that many institutions have been sacrificed to the Gods of Money. Things such as bowling leagues, church potluck suppers, and many long time hobbies. Do you see any hope of us reversing course and being able to carve out space for us to slow down and take a breath, just like a cat bathing in the sun, being able to luxuriate in how you feel in your body/mind. A return to days when, for example, restaurant diners would often linger over their meals with coffee and/or cocktails. It wasn't really supposed to be this way. COVID may have forced the issue for a time, but don't really see lasting results here.

Bowling leagues and church potluck suppers are exactly the sorts of things that revive when people are more settled. I expect more equity in the economic order so that people no longer need to work sixty hours or more a week just to pay bills including the rent and student-loan payments. To the extent that people are poor despite their toil indicates the dominance of money in life.

People were moving around much to escape places that have no economic opportunity for places that have it -- but with exorbitant housing costs attached. Such reflects extreme inequality from which economic elites profiteer. This is a consequence of a neoliberal ideology that recognizes the desires of the economic elites as the sole social objective. America has taken that ideology to its logical conclusion.

[tg63]

I equate this feeling to the sense of urgency that a 4T brings - the same drivers that require a response to the crisis of the day are the things that make us unable to relax & slow down at a personal level.
Really what you're asking for is a 21st century version of a Leave it To Beaver lifestyle ... it's coming ...

[pbrower2a]

Things that people used to defer suddenly become lethally serious and stay that way until they are worked out. .

[Eric the Green]

(10-13-2021, 11:33 AM)tg63 Wrote: I equate this feeling to the sense of urgency that a 4T brings - the same drivers that require a response to the crisis of the day are the things that make us unable to relax & slow down at a personal level.
Really what you're asking for is a 21st century version of a Leave it To Beaver lifestyle ... it's coming ...

But not until the late 2030s.

[pbrower2a]

(10-13-2021, 11:33 AM)tg63 Wrote: I equate this feeling to the sense of urgency that a 4T brings - the same drivers that require a response to the crisis of the day are the things that make us unable to relax & slow down at a personal level.
Really what you're asking for is a 21st century version of a Leave it To Beaver lifestyle ... it's coming ...

It won't be quite the same, but the next 1T will be

material and not spiritual (Boomers really blew that on the whole!)

intolerant of the lunatic fringe

conformist (at least within the ethnic groups)

male-chauvinist (sorry about that, feminists: those who still have professional occupations will keep those, but the rest of womanhood will be re-cast into traditional female roles. Getting male breadwinners to work may be far easier if women are again relegate d to Kinder, Kuche, and Kirche... which is far better than having angry, unemployed men joining the K... K.... K....


Politically we will see one side of the political division prevail, with the other side rendered irrelevant. If the Right wins, then we will see a social order that lionizes the economic elites and expects everyone else to defer in all things -- and be thankful to those elites for all the blessings of a plutocratic order. The worker will be humiliated with the expectation to be thankful to his bosses and the executives for not firing him today (as everyone not in the elites deserves either to starve or die of exposure) in an economic order devoid of any safety net. Elites will be pitting regions, religions, and ethnic groups against each other in a world in which everyone competes to protect themselves in a race to the bottom while making things worse for everyone else. Labor unions? They will probably be criminalized. There might even be a secret police that harasses anyone seen as an "enemy of prosperity". That would set up a highly-politicized 2T in which Socialist revolution becomes possible. What do you have to lose, exploited and humiliated Proletariat? Lives of extreme deprivation and anguish with elites putting it in your face?

More likely, American people are better than that. They can demand that prosperity be the norm for all but the laziest, stupidest, and most profligate. As the American Civil War and the Second World War showed it is far safer and reliable to use consumer goods as rewards than it is to use the lash as the incentive. We will need to deal with the end of necessary scarcity, and that will require that people not be able to profiteer from creating and exploiting scarcity. The technology of manufacturing will be so efficient that people will need to work much fewer than 40 hours a week unless they are trying to achieve some unusual level of excellence (extreme excellence necessary for being a ballerina, concert violinist, film star, popular musician, physician, attorney, or pro athlete will still take the 10,000 hours of preparation that Malcolm Gladwell says is necessary for such. More people may get to put in such efforts, but such is itself progress. Having to work 70 hours to pay off money-grubbing monopolists who have hooks into people because they must buy housing, food, or medical care is pure, simple exploitation.

As in the late 1940's and the 1950's, an honest social order will promote cheap housing. There will be slum clearance, and many of the tiny post-WWII that can't be sold because they have only one bathroom and a one-car garage will be demolished for high rises with far-better urban planning than the infamous "projects" that became crime-infested nightmares for residents and police alike.

I hope to see a tax system that fosters small business. Maybe the new sort of housing will be more like a block in New York City in which the lowest floor has stores and shops -- with part of the housing block having room for elementary schools, medical offices, daycare centers, postal substations, repair shops, and places of worship. We will need small business for that. One of the glories of small business is that it can't buy the political system as was the norm for giant enterprises in the neoliberal era.

[nguyenivy]

(10-13-2021, 02:37 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(10-13-2021, 11:33 AM)tg63 Wrote: I equate this feeling to the sense of urgency that a 4T brings - the same drivers that require a response to the crisis of the day are the things that make us unable to relax & slow down at a personal level.
Really what you're asking for is a 21st century version of a Leave it To Beaver lifestyle ... it's coming ...

But not until the late 2030s.

Every time I hear future years anywhere nowadays I end up doing the maths: Late 2030s feels so long from now, especially with all the climate change talk going on. I'll be 52 in 2037, my parents almost 80. An extremely low number of people in my family remember the last 1T. Most who did already passed on over the last 20+ years. I'm an only-child and am not looking forwards to the 2030+ timeframe in my personal life. I have anxiety when thinking of anything beyond the current decade. I'm interested in what technological advancements are coming, given that comp sci is my field.

[Eric the Green]

(10-14-2021, 04:53 PM)nguyenivy Wrote:

(10-13-2021, 02:37 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(10-13-2021, 11:33 AM)tg63 Wrote: I equate this feeling to the sense of urgency that a 4T brings - the same drivers that require a response to the crisis of the day are the things that make us unable to relax & slow down at a personal level.
Really what you're asking for is a 21st century version of a Leave it To Beaver lifestyle ... it's coming ...

But not until the late 2030s.

Every time I hear future years anywhere nowadays I end up doing the maths: Late 2030s feels so long from now, especially with all the climate change talk going on. I'll be 52 in 2037, my parents almost 80. An extremely low number of people in my family remember the last 1T. Most who did already passed on over the last 20+ years. I'm an only-child and am not looking forwards to the 2030+ timeframe in my personal life. I have anxiety when thinking of anything beyond the current decade. I'm interested in what technological advancements are coming, given that comp sci is my field.

It's the earliest we can expect a Leave It to Beaver mood and lifestyle. We are in an era like the 1930s and 1940s. We need to pass through the fire first. But it's only in eras like ours that changes can be made. We should be interested now in helping to make the changes and restart progress after our 40-year hiatus and regression. We need action now on climate change, and that means some people need to give up their desire and greed regarding fossil fuels. We need to change our energy system now. But crisis motivates innovation and opportunities, and I'm sure more tech advancement is coming during our era. The biggest challenge now is recovering political will, however, and that means hauling Republicans out of the damn way. It's very touch and go right now whether we'll be doing this.

[beechnut79]

Just a friendly reminder that it would be hard to imagine today's womanhood being able to put up with returning to what in its heyday was known as the Suzy Homemaker role. Most of today's women are too well educated for that, and for them the idea of going back to Suzy Homemaker seems comparable to returning to the days when women couldn't vote.

As far as an era in which changes can be made, they can be done in any turning. In the era of hiatus and regression there were vast changes in both technology and philosophies, I will admit not all for the better. One key area where the regression comes in is in the area of workers' rights. We should move form at-will employment to a just cause model. But will we? There doesn't seem to be that kind of consensus despite some movement such as Fight for 15. Amazon has become a near monopoly by treating their workers as livestock at best, vermin at worst.

Where fossil fuels is concerned, one poster recently stated that we might first need to abandon the car culture. Not to long ago I read where in only about 12 percent of the US can one get by fairly well without a car. If you are anywhere within "the other 88" you will have significant difficulties. And besides, the nature of the spread out landscape makes is not cost effective to run public transit in said areas.

The pandemic has hastened the idea of putting innovative ways of working to the test, most notably remote works paces sans a physical office. Such flexibility might even result in more folks being determined to follow through on a plan or project and do a great job. We also can achieve greater work-life balance if we work to work smarter not harder.

[pbrower2a]

(02-10-2022, 09:23 PM)beechnut79 Wrote: Just a friendly reminder that it would be hard to imagine today's womanhood being able to put up with returning to what in its heyday was known as the Suzy Homemaker role. Most of today's women are too well educated for that, and for them the idea of going back to Suzy Homemaker seems comparable to returning to the days when women couldn't vote.

The dirty little secret of life was that many women worked. Slave women certainly worked, often doing back-breaking field work. Small farms depended on women doing the food-processing... and when farm families were typically large the women did much cooking and childcare that obviously wasn't paid. It was certainly necessary. Poor women worked in factories or did domestic work if recent immigrants, often under harsh conditions. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire that killed 146 workers, mostly women or even girls (two of the dead were 14 years old) in 1915, then almost entirely Italian or Jewish immigrants, illustrates how things were for the working class just over a century ago. People were not doing such work for expressing themselves. That was middle class, and there was little middle class in America in those days.    

Quote:As far as an era in which changes can be made, they can be done in any turning. In the era of hiatus and regression there were vast changes in both technology and philosophies, I will admit not all for the better. One key area where the regression comes in is in the area of workers' rights. We should move form at-will employment to a just cause model. But will we? There doesn't seem to be that kind of consensus despite some  movement such as Fight for 15. Amazon has become a near monopoly by treating their workers as livestock at best, vermin at worst.

Big Business does what it can get away with. If it could get away with debt-bondage it would. We had huge regression in workers' rights in the 1980's. Strikes became riskier. More states enacted Right-to-Work (for much less, as union people call them) laws. As for Amazon being the baddie, it exploits the demise of brick-and-mortar stores such as Tower Records and Shakespeare, Beethoven & Company that had large selections of recorded music. (I will stick to that area because I am a a music lover and know the business reasonably well as a customer). Keeping a huge selection in the hope that it will attract an impulse buyer is not without its cost. When people were flush with cash for making impulse purchases it was possible to put the merchandise within an easy drive of people. Now not so many people are flush with cash. With Amazon it does not matter whether the customer is in Boston if the customer is in Philadelphia. 

I see Amazon replicating what Sears-Roebuck did with mail-order in 1887 with the Internet instead of the mails for soliciting sales. 

Quote:Where fossil fuels is concerned, one poster recently stated that we might first need to abandon the car culture. Not to long ago I read where in only about 12 percent of the US can one get by fairly well without a car. If you are anywhere within "the other 88" you will have significant difficulties. And besides, the nature of the spread out landscape makes is not cost effective to run public transit in said areas.

Just to keep housing costs down, Americans will need to accept, and builders will need to build, high-density housing. High-density housing is the norm in Japan and South Korea, but it is infamous in the more rowdy culture that is America (especially among the poor) for becoming dreadful slums. As it is, landlords wax fat on a housing shortage, and you can expect them to resist any solution to housing other than the usual way of the monopolist or near-monopolist: gouging. For something to be most profitable, people must be priced out of it -- especially if it is a necessity. Urban landlords are the only well-heeled right-wing elite in many cities, and they may be more effective in getting their way than their political representation would suggest in giant cities. A hint: Donald Trump has been above all else a landlord. 

Quote:The pandemic has hastened the idea of putting innovative ways of working to the test, most notably remote works paces sans a physical office. Such flexibility might even result in more folks being determined to follow through on a plan or project and do a great job. We also can achieve greater work-life balance if we work to work smarter not harder.

For me, part of a work-life balance is that I do not need to live in a community in which a landlord takes 70% of my after-tax income.

[Skabungus]

The future

3D printed, self-powered, houses. They started rolling them out last year. Very cost effective.

The office sector of the real estate industry will be retooled to subscription service office hubs and centers. There will still be gleaming corporate headquarters, but no longer large campuses where all the ants go to work 9-5. Remote work, with performance based on productivity, will be a default standard.

There will be no crazy truck drivers on the roads. It's happening in Europe, and in Colorado, Arizona and California as we speak. Freight trucks, trains and ships will be almost entirely piloted by AI.

Power utilities as we know them now will be eliminated or completely retooled. Participation will be elective.

The place to eat will be at home, or at someone else's home. You may order the food delivered, but the Artisan dining craze with a dine in eatery on every block will be gone. Fast food will grow to fill the gap. As it is now, I can order a full four star quality Indian dinner for me and my seven friends, delivered. In. Rural. Michigan. Look for that to expand.

The idea of a 40 hour work week will be over. Many people will work less, and some might work more, but the structured "work week" will become less and less defined. Productivity will be the defining feature. If you produce, you get paid.

Factory and distribution work will continue to be automated and channeled in a manner that eliminates jobs.

Healthcare will become a universal right.

Local government will grow in importance, and regional government will become more popular and relevant. This will make the founding fathers smile in their graves, and the far left happy as well.

A universal base income COULD become a reality, but it is more likely that means tested subsidies and vouchers will make up the largest part of it with cash payments still frowned upon.

The death penalty will be gone. State and federal prison systems will begin to shrink, with fewer inmates to hold, and a strong desire among the feds and the state to transfer responsibility downward onto local jurisdictions. This will result in an growth of the deferral systems (drug court, vets court, domestic court, etc.) and community based corrections to reduce cost, and keep corrections dollars at work in the community.

I'm simply pointing out stuff that is currently happening and increasing. I'm sure there are other things (like the great Sino American War of 2077) that I'm forgetting right now.

[beechnut79]

(02-11-2022, 12:53 PM)Skabungus Wrote: The future

3D printed, self-powered, houses.  They started rolling them out last year.  Very cost effective.

The office sector of the real estate industry will be retooled to subscription service office hubs and centers.  There will still be gleaming corporate headquarters, but no longer large campuses where all the ants go to work 9-5.  Remote work, with performance based on productivity, will be a default standard.

There will be no crazy truck drivers on the roads.  It's happening in Europe, and in Colorado, Arizona and California as we speak.  Freight trucks, trains and ships will be almost entirely piloted by AI.

Power utilities as we know them now will be eliminated or completely retooled.  Participation will be elective.

The place to eat will be at home, or at someone else's home.  You may order the food delivered, but the Artisan dining craze with a dine in eatery on every block will be gone.  Fast food will grow to fill the gap.  As it is now, I can order a full four star quality Indian dinner for me and my seven friends, delivered.  In. Rural. Michigan.  Look for that to expand.

The idea of a 40 hour work week will be over.  Many people will work less, and some might work more, but the structured "work week" will become less and less defined.  Productivity will be the defining feature.  If you produce, you get paid.  

Factory and distribution work will continue to be automated and channeled in a manner that eliminates jobs.

Healthcare will become a universal right.

Local government will grow in importance, and regional government will become more popular and relevant.  This will make the founding fathers smile in their graves, and the far left happy as well.

A universal base income COULD become a reality, but it is more likely that means tested subsidies and vouchers will make up the largest part of it with cash payments still frowned upon.

The death penalty will be gone.  State and federal prison systems will begin to shrink, with fewer inmates to hold, and a strong desire among the feds and the state to transfer responsibility downward onto local jurisdictions.  This will result in an growth of the deferral systems (drug court, vets court, domestic court, etc.) and community based corrections to reduce cost, and keep corrections dollars at work in the community.

I'm simply pointing out stuff that is currently happening and increasing.  I'm sure there are other things (like the great Sino American War of 2077) that I'm forgetting right now.

Do you see any effort toward reducing dependency on the auto as the only transportation choice for about 88 percent of the country?

And how about the future of personal escorting? When might the PTB finally wake up to the fact that  prohibition of this activity hasn't worked any more than it did with liquor a century ago?

[Skabungus]

(02-11-2022, 05:55 PM)beechnut79 Wrote:

(02-11-2022, 12:53 PM)Skabungus Wrote: The future

3D printed, self-powered, houses.  They started rolling them out last year.  Very cost effective.

The office sector of the real estate industry will be retooled to subscription service office hubs and centers.  There will still be gleaming corporate headquarters, but no longer large campuses where all the ants go to work 9-5.  Remote work, with performance based on productivity, will be a default standard.

There will be no crazy truck drivers on the roads.  It's happening in Europe, and in Colorado, Arizona and California as we speak.  Freight trucks, trains and ships will be almost entirely piloted by AI.

Power utilities as we know them now will be eliminated or completely retooled.  Participation will be elective.

The place to eat will be at home, or at someone else's home.  You may order the food delivered, but the Artisan dining craze with a dine in eatery on every block will be gone.  Fast food will grow to fill the gap.  As it is now, I can order a full four star quality Indian dinner for me and my seven friends, delivered.  In. Rural. Michigan.  Look for that to expand.

The idea of a 40 hour work week will be over.  Many people will work less, and some might work more, but the structured "work week" will become less and less defined.  Productivity will be the defining feature.  If you produce, you get paid.  

Factory and distribution work will continue to be automated and channeled in a manner that eliminates jobs.

Healthcare will become a universal right.

Local government will grow in importance, and regional government will become more popular and relevant.  This will make the founding fathers smile in their graves, and the far left happy as well.

A universal base income COULD become a reality, but it is more likely that means tested subsidies and vouchers will make up the largest part of it with cash payments still frowned upon.

The death penalty will be gone.  State and federal prison systems will begin to shrink, with fewer inmates to hold, and a strong desire among the feds and the state to transfer responsibility downward onto local jurisdictions.  This will result in an growth of the deferral systems (drug court, vets court, domestic court, etc.) and community based corrections to reduce cost, and keep corrections dollars at work in the community.

I'm simply pointing out stuff that is currently happening and increasing.  I'm sure there are other things (like the great Sino American War of 2077) that I'm forgetting right now.

Do you see any effort toward reducing dependency on the auto as the only transportation choice for about 88 percent of the country?

And how about the future of personal escorting? When might the PTB finally wake up to the fact that  prohibition of this activity hasn't worked any more than it did with liquor a century ago?

I don't see us opting wholesale for public modes of transport as a replacement for the personal auto.  Instead, I see things shifting as they have been.  Less auto use, less auto dependence and less consumptive automobiles.  The same goes for airlines.  Less use.

I'd be the first to trade in my car for a bus/train pass, but let's be frank, I live 30 minutes from the nearest village, and an hour from any reasonable form of public transit.  Besides, I work from home, don't visit off the property entertainment venues and don't go shopping but every two weeks.  Building extensive infrastructure so we can have a bus in my neighborhood would be a gross misuse of public funds.

This isn't Europe, or Japan where everyone is crammed into giant, often merged metroplexes.  It's America which is spread out.  I see the auto as sticking with us, but in a much transformed state.  Don't forget, we're supposed to be getting flying cars in a couple years, so there's that.

As for hookers, I don't know.  It's pretty accessible now with the internet, and all the other modern conveniences like Lyft, Uber, burner phones, etc.  It's out there and accessible, if that's what you want/need.  Is it legal?  No (except in certain jurisdictions in NV). Should it be?  Yea, probably since then you could regulate against STDs, drug-related problems and human trafficking.  Will it be?  Probably not everywhere, but probably in more places than in the current climate.  Sex work is work, and should enjoy all the protections that a unionized worker enjoys (speaking as a unionized government professional myself) but they will have to organize themselves, or the IWW will have to organize them, because SEIU, UAW and all the other staples of labor wont touch that with a ten foot dildo.

[pbrower2a]

(10-14-2021, 04:53 PM)nguyenivy Wrote:

(10-13-2021, 02:37 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(10-13-2021, 11:33 AM)tg63 Wrote: I equate this feeling to the sense of urgency that a 4T brings - the same drivers that require a response to the crisis of the day are the things that make us unable to relax & slow down at a personal level.
Really what you're asking for is a 21st century version of a Leave it To Beaver lifestyle ... it's coming ...

But not until the late 2030s.

Every time I hear future years anywhere nowadays I end up doing the maths: Late 2030s feels so long from now, especially with all the climate change talk going on. I'll be 52 in 2037, my parents almost 80. An extremely low number of people in my family remember the last 1T. Most who did already passed on over the last 20+ years. I'm an only-child and am not looking forwards to the 2030+ timeframe in my personal life. I have anxiety when thinking of anything beyond the current decade. I'm interested in what technological advancements are coming, given that comp sci is my field.

The 1T is nigh when few people remember the last one from personal experience... such is the same with a 2T (possible only after there were few people who remembered the Gay Nineties) for the Boom Awakening, with a 3T possible only when few people could remember the political, economic, and cultural depravity of the 1920's were still around, and a 4T is possible when the heroic figures of the last 4T are no longer present in large numbers. 

It is easy to believe that the late 2030's seem so far away, but such is because we see no evidence of their existence. They are closer than you think. The late 2030's are much closer now in time than the 1990's  that you probably remember well. You may have just watched a movie from the 1990's on your TV or listened to 1990's music on your car radio. You cannot have just watched a movie or listened to music from any year earlier than 2022. 1997 is 25 years away and 2037 is fifteen years away.

The clock and calendar go in only one direction, and memories or at least the reconstruction of the past go the other. I am satisfied that people will still recognize the greatness of Michelangelo, Shakespeare, and Bach in 2037 as they do now. Wise people will still read Plato. Scientific truth and the potential in engineering will be no less then than now.  Americans will recognize the Silent comedians as offering some self-effacing humor necessary for people to not become excessively full of themselves. 

Imagine that you are on the California Zephyr headed west toward San Francisco, a place in which you have never been. While you are in Nevada you may still remember the farmland of Iowa and eastern Nebraska You may have a strong memory of seeing Cornhusker Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska. You have yet to roll through the Sierra Nevada, let alone into the eastern Bat Area (the train gets to Emeryville, and not to San Francisco)... but you are by then closer to San Francisco even if you have no experience of it. Depending on where you are in Nevada, you may be closer to both (and certainly the Sierra Nevada) than you were to the Colorado Rockies and even the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Time, and the history that goes with it, is a journey. I take my age (66) in 2022 and I have a fair idea of what life was like in 1890. I was closer to the horse-and-buggy era when I was born than I was to this time. I knew lots of people born in the 1890's and even the 1880's. I remember a relative born in 1874 who told me of an attempt to settle in western Nebraska in the 1890's. That area, Arthur County, Nebraska, is too far west to have adequate water unless one drills deep into the Oglalalla Aquifer, and of course their effort to start a lasting life too far west in the prairies failed. They went by train out there (not covered wagon) and returned to Indiana by train. This family now lives almost entirely in southern Michigan and northeastern Indiana whence they started. The ones who went earlier by covered wagon got little farther west than central Nebraska or went all the way to the West Coast and could stay where they settled. 

Does this sound like a place with a remarkable future ahead for it?

Quote:  Arthur County is a county in the U.S. state of Nebraska. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 434,[1] making it Nebraska's third least populous county and the seventh-least populous county in the United States (behind only Loving County, Texas; Kalawao County, Hawaii; King County, Texas; Kenedy County, Texas; McPherson County, Nebraska; and Blaine County, Nebraska). Its county seat and only incorporated community is Arthur.[2]
In the Nebraska license plate system, Arthur County is represented by the prefix 91 (it had the 91st-largest number of vehicles registered in the state when the license plate system was established in 1922).
Arthur County contains the historic First Arthur County Courthouse and Jail, believed to be the smallest courthouse in the United States.[3]

Arthur County was established in 1913 from the western part of McPherson County following an effort to move the McPherson County seat from Tryon to the more centrally located Flats: rather than lose the county seat, the residents of Tryon, Nebraska agreed to have the county divided approximately in half, according to boundaries for sandhills counties originally proposed in 1887. The half which became Arthur County had been in the process of settlement by 1884, by ranchers seeking open grazing land. The placement of a post office at Lena in 1894 and the passage of the homesteading act in 1904 (which allowed claims of 640 acres compared to the previous 160 acres in this area) further influenced the county's founding and expedited the new county's establishment processes.

The new county was named after President Chester A. Arthur, and the village of Arthur, similarly named, was established to serve as the county seat.[4] Principal postal service moved from Lena to the village of Arthur in 1914, which also held the county's public schools, general store, bank and co-op, principal churches, newspaper and other businesses and services, all aimed at continuing and facilitating the county's rural lifestyle.

The 1920 United States Census counted 1,412 residents in Arthur County, which was then and has remained entirely rural, essentially ranching. Although the village of Arthur underwent electrification in the 1920s, most of the county did not see power or telephone services until 1950–1951. At that time also, highway construction and improvements facilitated transportation, which was especially dependent upon the north-south State Highway 61 and the east-west Highway 92: motor vehicles were the sole means of mechanical transportation throughout Arthur's history as it had no railroad or canal. Irrigation of the sandhills land started by 1900 and continued through the first half of the twentieth century, with center-pivot irrigation dominating. The population peaked around 1930 at 1,344 persons, but declined with the Great Depression. By 1950, the county population was down to 803, by 1980 down to 513.

According to the US Census Bureau, the county has an area of 718 square miles (1,860 km2), of which 715 square miles (1,850 km2) is land and 3.0 square miles (7.8 km2) (0.4%) is water.[5]

Historical population
Census
Pop.

%±
1920
1,412

—
1930
1,344

−4.8%
1940
1,045

−22.2%
1950
803

−23.2%
1960
680

−15.3%
1970
606

−10.9%
1980
513

−15.3%
1990
462

−9.9%
2000
444

−3.9%
2010
460

3.6%
2020
434

−5.7%
US Decennial Census[6]
1790-1960[7] 1900-1990[8]
1990-2000[9] 2010-2013[1]

As of the 2000 United States Census,[10] of 2000, there were 444 people, 185 households, and 138 families residing in the county. The population density was 0.618 people per square mile (0.239/km2). There were 273 housing units at an average density of 0.380 per square mile (0.147/km2). The racial makeup of the county was 96.40% White, 0.23% Native American, 0.68% Asian, 0.23% Pacific Islander, 0.90% from other races, and 1.58% from two or more races. 1.35% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 50.4% were of German, 13.1% English, 6.2% Irish and 5.7% Swedish ancestry.
There were 185 households, out of which 27.60% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 63.20% were married couples living together, 7.60% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.40% were non-families. 21.60% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.80% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.40 and the average family size was 2.80.

The county population contained 23.90% under the age of 18, 5.40% from 18 to 24, 29.50% from 25 to 44, 24.80% from 45 to 64, and 16.40% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 101.80 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 107.40 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $27,375, and the median income for a family was $31,979. Males had a median income of $21,544 versus $13,125 for females. The per capita income for the county was $15,810. About 7.90% of families and 13.80% of the population were below the poverty line, including 15.10% of those under age 18 and 7.80% of those age 65 or over.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_County,_Nebraska


Does anyone want to start a new life there? This looks like the sort of place in which adulthood means that one has started a life in Denver, Lincoln, Casper, or... 


You can't see the future, but if you don't end up in the graveyard first you will get there. You cannot go back.

[Eric the Green]

(10-13-2021, 02:37 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(10-13-2021, 11:33 AM)tg63 Wrote: I equate this feeling to the sense of urgency that a 4T brings - the same drivers that require a response to the crisis of the day are the things that make us unable to relax & slow down at a personal level.
Really what you're asking for is a 21st century version of a Leave it To Beaver lifestyle ... it's coming ...

But not until the late 2030s.

Remember, IF we get the stubborn and greedy politics dominant today out of the way, a big IF, the 1T should start at the end of this decade. The Leave it to Beaver Lifestyle refers to the middle or later parts of the 1T; the early 1T is still somewhat less settled, less comfortable, complacent or insidiously authoritarian than the middle 1T Leave it to Beaver, Ward Cleaver dominated lifestyle. In the early 1T, the aftershocks still shake us a bit. Things are more like The Honeymooners than Leave it to Beaver.

And remember, if we don't make some dramatic advances on the road back to progress, chiefly reversing climate change, as well as getting back to less domination by the wealthy and more willingness to pay taxes and support each other, the years scheduled in our cycle for the 1T will not be comfortable, and there will be no Leave it to Beaver complacency to look forward to.

But on a personal level, we can relax and slow down at any time. It may be harder if you are caught up in today's crises-- such as if you go to war, or your house burns or floods or gets blown away and you have to move or seek refuge, or go to the hospital with your life in danger or isolate at home, or lose your source of income...... but it can still be done....

[Eric the Green]

(02-10-2022, 09:23 PM)beechnut79 Wrote: Just a friendly reminder that it would be hard to imagine today's womanhood being able to put up with returning to what in its heyday was known as the Suzy Homemaker role. Most of today's women are too well educated for that, and for them the idea of going back to Suzy Homemaker seems comparable to returning to the days when women couldn't vote.

As far as an era in which changes can be made, they can be done in any turning. In the era of hiatus and regression there were vast changes in both technology and philosophies, I will admit not all for the better. One key area where the regression comes in is in the area of workers' rights. We should move form at-will employment to a just cause model. But will we? There doesn't seem to be that kind of consensus despite some  movement such as Fight for 15. Amazon has become a near monopoly by treating their workers as livestock at best, vermin at worst.

Where fossil fuels is concerned, one poster recently stated that we might first need to abandon the car culture. Not to long ago I read where in only about 12 percent of the US can one get by fairly well without a car. If you are anywhere within "the other 88" you will have significant difficulties. And besides, the nature of the spread out landscape makes is not cost effective to run public transit in said areas.

The pandemic has hastened the idea of putting innovative ways of working to the test, most notably remote works paces sans a physical office. Such flexibility might even result in more folks being determined to follow through on a plan or project and do a great job. We also can achieve greater work-life balance if we work to work smarter not harder.

You have made many posts and private messages over the years asking when will we get beyond auto dependency. I don't know where your most-recent comment was.

I used to wonder that too. Mass transit is more efficient, and car culture creates urban sprawl and danger to pedestrians.

But cars can still have their place if they are no longer fueled by polluting fossils. They could one day allow us to explore and tour our beautiful lands again and get away and slow down.

But we don't even have that benefit of cars anymore. And the horrific trucker revolt in Canada against covid restrictions and spreading elsewhere makes clear to me that even more than car dependency, it is truck dependency that I deplore and wish we could get beyond and liberated from.

I wrote this comment today to a post I made on my facebook page: 

I am pretty much against truckers anyway. I wish we would go back to trains. They are much more fuel efficient and financially efficient. I don't know why they declined, except to benefit the car, tire and gas companies. Trains should do the longer trips, and trucks the local ones. And truckers should go work for railroads. It sure would ease this situation; you can't park your own train and block a city or a bridge with one. The truckers are individualists; they shout "freedom" as if freedom means care not a fig about others getting sick or losing THEIR jobs because YOU decide to block their roads.

I used to enjoy long trips in my car or my parents' car. The interstate highways were built in the late 1950s and 1960s and were supposed to be a great leap forward in infrastructure and show that we as a nation could do things collectively. No more. They are ruled by the truckers. You can't drive on the interstate without a truck slowing you down or speeding up and tailgating you, and then you take your life in your hands and pass trucks over and over, or tremble while they speed pass you. Accidents have increased. The interstate highways belong to the truckers now because we diminished our railroads and depend on truckers so the truck and car companies, tire makers and gas companies can make their profits and so truckers can work as lonely and angry individuals. So much for a pleasant tourist trip to a park or an interesting city.

[beechnut79]

(02-13-2022, 12:00 AM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(02-10-2022, 09:23 PM)beechnut79 Wrote: Just a friendly reminder that it would be hard to imagine today's womanhood being able to put up with returning to what in its heyday was known as the Suzy Homemaker role. Most of today's women are too well educated for that, and for them the idea of going back to Suzy Homemaker seems comparable to returning to the days when women couldn't vote.

As far as an era in which changes can be made, they can be done in any turning. In the era of hiatus and regression there were vast changes in both technology and philosophies, I will admit not all for the better. One key area where the regression comes in is in the area of workers' rights. We should move form at-will employment to a just cause model. But will we? There doesn't seem to be that kind of consensus despite some  movement such as Fight for 15. Amazon has become a near monopoly by treating their workers as livestock at best, vermin at worst.

Where fossil fuels is concerned, one poster recently stated that we might first need to abandon the car culture. Not to long ago I read where in only about 12 percent of the US can one get by fairly well without a car. If you are anywhere within "the other 88" you will have significant difficulties. And besides, the nature of the spread out landscape makes is not cost effective to run public transit in said areas.

The pandemic has hastened the idea of putting innovative ways of working to the test, most notably remote works paces sans a physical office. Such flexibility might even result in more folks being determined to follow through on a plan or project and do a great job. We also can achieve greater work-life balance if we work to work smarter not harder.

You have made many posts and private messages over the years asking when will we get beyond auto dependency. I don't know where your most-recent comment was.

I used to wonder that too. Mass transit is more efficient, and car culture creates urban sprawl and danger to pedestrians.

But cars can still have their place if they are no longer fueled by polluting fossils. They could one day allow us to explore and tour our beautiful lands again and get away and slow down.

But we don't even have that benefit of cars anymore. And the horrific trucker revolt in Canada against covid restrictions and spreading elsewhere makes clear to me that even more than car dependency, it is truck dependency that I deplore and wish we could get beyond and liberated from.

I wrote this comment today to a post I made on my facebook page: 

I am pretty much against truckers anyway. I wish we would go back to trains. They are much more fuel efficient and financially efficient. I don't know why they declined, except to benefit the car, tire and gas companies. Trains should do the longer trips, and trucks the local ones. And truckers should go work for railroads. It sure would ease this situation; you can't park your own train and block a city or a bridge with one. The truckers are individualists; they shout "freedom" as if freedom means care not a fig about others getting sick or losing THEIR jobs because YOU decide to block their roads.

I used to enjoy long trips in my car or my parents' car. The interstate highways were built in the late 1950s and 1960s and were supposed to be a great leap forward in infrastructure and show that we as a nation could do things collectively. No more. They are ruled by the truckers. You can't drive on the interstate without a truck slowing you down or speeding up and tailgating you, and then you take your life in your hands and pass trucks over and over, or tremble while they speed pass you. Accidents have increased. The interstate highways belong to the truckers now because we diminished our railroads and depend on truckers so the truck and car companies, tire makers and gas companies can make their profits and so truckers can work as lonely and angry individuals. So much for a pleasant tourist trip to a park or an interesting city.

We are now approaching the half century mark since the big gasoline shortage which first called into question America’s love affair with the automobile. I don’t really believe that we still have a love affair with it these days as it is more like a money draining beast of burden. During our postwar marriage to car culture many give their cars (mostly female) pet names such as Miss Linda B. A name someone I knew gave to his car. Don’t hear that sort of thing much anymore, just as there are far fewer popular songs with female names as titles.

For years many have predicted that by 2015 high speed rail would surpass both private car and airplane. We are now seven years beyond, and HSR is not even close to that status, at least not here in the US. Do you feel it ever will become dominant here?

And, where truckers are concerned, you may though be a fan of perhaps the most famous trucker of all time. He was best known for something entirely unrelated.

[Eric the Green]

(02-13-2022, 01:29 PM)beechnut79 Wrote:

(02-13-2022, 12:00 AM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(02-10-2022, 09:23 PM)beechnut79 Wrote: Just a friendly reminder that it would be hard to imagine today's womanhood being able to put up with returning to what in its heyday was known as the Suzy Homemaker role. Most of today's women are too well educated for that, and for them the idea of going back to Suzy Homemaker seems comparable to returning to the days when women couldn't vote.

As far as an era in which changes can be made, they can be done in any turning. In the era of hiatus and regression there were vast changes in both technology and philosophies, I will admit not all for the better. One key area where the regression comes in is in the area of workers' rights. We should move form at-will employment to a just cause model. But will we? There doesn't seem to be that kind of consensus despite some  movement such as Fight for 15. Amazon has become a near monopoly by treating their workers as livestock at best, vermin at worst.

Where fossil fuels is concerned, one poster recently stated that we might first need to abandon the car culture. Not to long ago I read where in only about 12 percent of the US can one get by fairly well without a car. If you are anywhere within "the other 88" you will have significant difficulties. And besides, the nature of the spread out landscape makes is not cost effective to run public transit in said areas.

The pandemic has hastened the idea of putting innovative ways of working to the test, most notably remote works paces sans a physical office. Such flexibility might even result in more folks being determined to follow through on a plan or project and do a great job. We also can achieve greater work-life balance if we work to work smarter not harder.

You have made many posts and private messages over the years asking when will we get beyond auto dependency. I don't know where your most-recent comment was.

I used to wonder that too. Mass transit is more efficient, and car culture creates urban sprawl and danger to pedestrians.

But cars can still have their place if they are no longer fueled by polluting fossils. They could one day allow us to explore and tour our beautiful lands again and get away and slow down.

But we don't even have that benefit of cars anymore. And the horrific trucker revolt in Canada against covid restrictions and spreading elsewhere makes clear to me that even more than car dependency, it is truck dependency that I deplore and wish we could get beyond and liberated from.

I wrote this comment today to a post I made on my facebook page: 

I am pretty much against truckers anyway. I wish we would go back to trains. They are much more fuel efficient and financially efficient. I don't know why they declined, except to benefit the car, tire and gas companies. Trains should do the longer trips, and trucks the local ones. And truckers should go work for railroads. It sure would ease this situation; you can't park your own train and block a city or a bridge with one. The truckers are individualists; they shout "freedom" as if freedom means care not a fig about others getting sick or losing THEIR jobs because YOU decide to block their roads.

I used to enjoy long trips in my car or my parents' car. The interstate highways were built in the late 1950s and 1960s and were supposed to be a great leap forward in infrastructure and show that we as a nation could do things collectively. No more. They are ruled by the truckers. You can't drive on the interstate without a truck slowing you down or speeding up and tailgating you, and then you take your life in your hands and pass trucks over and over, or tremble while they speed pass you. Accidents have increased. The interstate highways belong to the truckers now because we diminished our railroads and depend on truckers so the truck and car companies, tire makers and gas companies can make their profits and so truckers can work as lonely and angry individuals. So much for a pleasant tourist trip to a park or an interesting city.

We are now approaching the half century mark since the big gasoline shortage which first called into question America’s love affair with the automobile. I don’t really believe that we still have a love affair with it these days as it is more like a money draining beast of burden. During our postwar marriage to car culture many give their cars (mostly female) pet names such as Miss Linda B. A name someone I knew gave to his car. Don’t hear that sort of thing much anymore, just as there are far fewer popular songs with female names as titles.

For years many have predicted that by 2015 high speed rail would surpass both private car and airplane. We are now seven years beyond, and HSR is not even close to that status, at least not here in the US. Do you feel it ever will become dominant here?

And, where truckers are concerned, you may though be a fan of perhaps the most famous trucker of all time. He was best known for something entirely unrelated.

No, I don't know any trucker of whom I am a fan. I know the word was used in a clever way in a good song by a group for whom I am grateful. 

I hope we can go back to trains more. Both for the sake of not being as dependent on the car, as well as for my point that trains will also open up a place for our cars again when we want to go exploring and touring.

The primary message of the gas shortage is the need to switch from fossil fuels. We need to do that and stop making excuses.

[pbrower2a]

(02-13-2022, 12:00 AM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(02-10-2022, 09:23 PM)beechnut79 Wrote: Just a friendly reminder that it would be hard to imagine today's womanhood being able to put up with returning to what in its heyday was known as the Suzy Homemaker role. Most of today's women are too well educated for that, and for them the idea of going back to Suzy Homemaker seems comparable to returning to the days when women couldn't vote.

As far as an era in which changes can be made, they can be done in any turning. In the era of hiatus and regression there were vast changes in both technology and philosophies, I will admit not all for the better. One key area where the regression comes in is in the area of workers' rights. We should move form at-will employment to a just cause model. But will we? There doesn't seem to be that kind of consensus despite some  movement such as Fight for 15. Amazon has become a near monopoly by treating their workers as livestock at best, vermin at worst.

Where fossil fuels is concerned, one poster recently stated that we might first need to abandon the car culture. Not to long ago I read where in only about 12 percent of the US can one get by fairly well without a car. If you are anywhere within "the other 88" you will have significant difficulties. And besides, the nature of the spread out landscape makes is not cost effective to run public transit in said areas.

The pandemic has hastened the idea of putting innovative ways of working to the test, most notably remote works paces sans a physical office. Such flexibility might even result in more folks being determined to follow through on a plan or project and do a great job. We also can achieve greater work-life balance if we work to work smarter not harder.

You have made many posts and private messages over the years asking when will we get beyond auto dependency. I don't know where your most-recent comment was.

I used to wonder that too. Mass transit is more efficient, and car culture creates urban sprawl and danger to pedestrians.

But cars can still have their place if they are no longer fueled by polluting fossils. They could one day allow us to explore and tour our beautiful lands again and get away and slow down.

But we don't even have that benefit of cars anymore. And the horrific trucker revolt in Canada against covid restrictions and spreading elsewhere makes clear to me that even more than car dependency, it is truck dependency that I deplore and wish we could get beyond and liberated from.

I wrote this comment today to a post I made on my facebook page: 

I am pretty much against truckers anyway. I wish we would go back to trains. They are much more fuel efficient and financially efficient. I don't know why they declined, except to benefit the car, tire and gas companies. Trains should do the longer trips, and trucks the local ones. And truckers should go work for railroads. It sure would ease this situation; you can't park your own train and block a city or a bridge with one. The truckers are individualists; they shout "freedom" as if freedom means care not a fig about others getting sick or losing THEIR jobs because YOU decide to block their roads.

I used to enjoy long trips in my car or my parents' car. The interstate highways were built in the late 1950s and 1960s and were supposed to be a great leap forward in infrastructure and show that we as a nation could do things collectively. No more. They are ruled by the truckers. You can't drive on the interstate without a truck slowing you down or speeding up and tailgating you, and then you take your life in your hands and pass trucks over and over, or tremble while they speed pass you. Accidents have increased. The interstate highways belong to the truckers now because we diminished our railroads and depend on truckers so the truck and car companies, tire makers and gas companies can make their profits and so truckers can work as lonely and angry individuals. So much for a pleasant tourist trip to a park or an interesting city.

We are stuck with moving about with fossil fuels until we run out of them because fossil fuels are profitable. Profit is the only virtue that our economic system recognizes.When the profit disappears, and only then, does the business die. I could imagine automobiles being driven onto and off carrier cars so that people have short distances (most of the time) for driving. Really, the railroads would have been wise to introduce rental cars at stations so that someone could rent a car at the closest station to one's destination.

One of the supreme ironies of the disruptive protest is that it is the one thing Big Business most hates: a strike.If Corporate America could get away with it, unions would be outlawed so that workers could be 'free' to sign peonage contracts, possibly hereditary.Serfdom, USA!