[theluckycountry]

What is the longest train in the world?
The export powerhouse BHP iron ore train, with 682 cars and a total length of 7.3 km.
Rail is the basis of every great civilization. Where the rail goes, there the nation's fortunes go.

Meanwhile in China.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/SvPfg6RK ... ture=share

[AdamB]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('theluckycountry', 'W')hat is the longest train in the world?

[Newfie]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('theluckycountry', '[')b]America’s Crumbling Infrastructure
None of this is really in dispute. And there are no ideas how to fix it.
If you have a weak heart I advise against watching the following sixty minutes documentary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoYYxs9OSUg

California's Hi-speed rail, 16 years later...
Don't worry, there is plenty of CGI imagery of what it "would" be like if it ever gets off the ground
The US is the world leader in CGI as far it comes to portraying future achievements.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHk_F42RtDQ

[theluckycountry]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', '
')IMHO the world finds itself in a hole we can NOT build ourselves out of. We need to learn how be happy with less of more quality.

But Cali is just an unnatural environment...
Water, or the lack there of, will likely be the end of Cali.

[AdamB]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('theluckycountry', ' ')I have lived with less in my youth when traveling and was happy then.

[theluckycountry]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('theluckycountry', '[')b]America’s Crumbling Infrastructure
California's Hi-speed rail, 16 years later...

[theluckycountry]

Rail, it's the key to future mass transit, and any nation without it will be stuck up a cul-de-sac in a cement SUV without a fill-up. All collapsing nations abandon their rail networks, all advancing nations improve and expand them. it's as simple as that!

Australia’s rail renaissance: a nation on the move
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')Paul Comfort recently returned from a 10 day tour of public transport in Australia where he was a guest speaker at AusRail, the Australasian Railway Association’s annual conference and met with numerous national rail leaders. From that trip he brings this report. Australia’s rail sector is on the rise. Visitors heading Down Under cannot fail to be impressed by the urban infrastructure projects popularising train travel in cities across the country.

These new developments showcase the local commitment to investment and innovation, driven by leadership that is willing to look beyond its own region to gather international expertise.

[AdamB]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('theluckycountry', '
')

[theluckycountry]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')n an April 2022 memo, Martin Oberman, chairman of the Surface Transportation Board, a federal regulator, raised concerns about major rail companies like Norfolk Southern, CSX, and others cutting their workforces to “bare bones” to satisfy shareholders — citing staffing levels down 29% from just six years earlier.

[AdamB]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('theluckycountry', '
')https://nypost.com/2023/03/04/is-the-us ... ong-track/
https://www.climatecentral.org/news/oil ... ters-16946
https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=847&t=6

[theluckycountry]

Societal Collapse Is Not a Bug

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'L')iving in small homes built entirely from locally available resources and using manpower alone is not a fairy tale. However, it will take an awful long time and a lot of hardship till we get to that point… again. This is how the story of building one civilization after the other based entirely on non-renewable resources always ends, and it won’t be any different this time either.

After a couple of deep-dive articles on human energy consumption — and before leaving for a holiday break — I suggest to take a broader look on where we are headed as a global civilization. And while many argue that there is no ‘we’ let alone a ‘global civilization’ to talk about, at the end of the day almost each and every one of us serve the same globalized extraction scheme. Except for the very few entirely self-sustained indigenous villages and tribes scattered around the globe, many of us give our labor to feed the globalized human system with raw inputs (food, energy, minerals etc.) or working on and with technologies consuming those resources, turning them into products and services and ultimately: waste.

[AdamB]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('theluckycountry', '
')When will these depletions of resources affect us?

[theluckycountry]

The latest Honest Sorcerer post above should be an eyeopener for anyone living down the bottom of the food chain, but consider this, it's predicated on "The good times" rolling on. That is to say that we have access to debt still, that the stock market stays relatively high so our retirement investments are secure, that most jobs still exist.

But not only is this not guaranteed, it pretty much guaranteed that we will see the opposite! After all the triggers for depressions are not as obscure as the mainstream histories would have you believe. The Great depression in the US was blamed on the error of the FED to print money when needed, that's ludicrous. The depression was already moving around the world, beginning first in Germany. Indeed the cause was a lack of money, but not money printed, but money people had in the bank or wages to repay the debts they had accumulated during the roaring twenties. The stock market collapse was simply the trigger that revealed the underlying problem, the same as in 2008.

But whether you believe the potted history or not the fact remains that the depression came at the end of a massive debt bubble, just like the one now in existence. What did the nations' lack back then? Nothing material. There was so much food they were dumping wheat in the ocean, pouring milk into trenches and piling oranges on ovals, leaving them to rot because no one had the money to buy them all. Money was Very Tight. There was oceans of oil underfoot, mines bursting with minerals, factories of all types fully operational and able to produce anything the people could want. forests of lumber and vast swathes of land. But there was no money to buy any of it, at least as far the many were concerned.

This time around there will be no money, but no oil hardly either. Certainly no factories making household goods. The mines are mostly depleted, the forests stripped of trees, and the farmland now in the hands of corporate giants that care little if half the nation starves to death. You think you're important? You're a number on a social security computer, a number on a bank computer, and an address, if you own one, to a local council that wants taxes. The next Depression, because there is always a next depression, will be very painful for the average man and woman. What use is a house currently valued at $500,000 really worth if you can't sell it and can't pay the taxes? If you have $200,000 in debt and no job? It's just something you may have to walk away from.

Have a look back
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4F5gIWS_Is

[AdamB]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('theluckycountry', 'T')he latest Honest Sorcerer post above should be an eyeopener for anyone living down the bottom of the food chain, but consider this, it's predicated on "The good times" rolling on.

[AgentR11]

I don't know about Lucky, but a definition of collapse that seems logical to me, is when food fails to make it to the grocer. As long as that chain is intact, we ought to count our blessings for living in an environment flush with energy.

[AdamB]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AgentR11', 'I') don't know about Lucky, but a definition of collapse that seems logical to me, is when food fails to make it to the grocer.

[theluckycountry]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AgentR11', 'I') don't know about Lucky, but a definition of collapse that seems logical to me, is when food fails to make it to the grocer. As long as that chain is intact, we ought to count our blessings for living in an environment flush with energy.

[theluckycountry]

Zombie companies. Businesses that are barely surviving, generating just enough cash to cover operating expenses and debt interest, but not enough to invest in growth or pay down their debt. They are often burdened by high levels of debt and rely on continued access to credit to stay afloat. That's probably 1/2 the stock market companies.

Tesla is technically a zombie, Sears, BBBY, Macy, JC Penny, Door dash, Rivian, the list is quite long. What we need is a real market collapse and let them all go to the wall, write all that debt off the books lol. And the US government too! But it can't go bankrupt, all it can do is keep printing and inflating. A war, a massive way works. You can write off a lot of debt then, offshore debt! But the bulk of the US debt is onshore, 25 trillion or so. Ahhhh, interesting times ahead.

[AdamB]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('theluckycountry', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AgentR11', 'I') don't know about Lucky, but a definition of collapse that seems logical to me, is when food fails to make it to the grocer. As long as that chain is intact, we ought to count our blessings for living in an environment flush with energy.

[theluckycountry]

It's all explained here. Take a few precious minutes away from your texting friends to see.

The art of mastering cognitive dissonance near the end of the industrial age
https://thehonestsorcerer.medium.com/li ... aef61cf6fc

"cognitive dissonance". That's the odd feeling in your brain caused by being a techo-cornucopian wind sock but having to see the world outside your door crumbling apart.