Modern Life

There are a lot of kids (and adults) in the United States seeing hardship and
high unemployment. They just don't happen to be yours. The middle class is
disappearing in the United States.

No, there are a lot of uneducated parents (who were themselves raised
by substandard parents) raising kids who are seeing hardship and high
unemployment. Many of these kids are being raised in broken homes by
single parents. Counter-intuitively, nowadays many are single parents
by choice, despite single-parenthood being the single most reliable
predicter of poverty.

It's sad, but it's no one's fault -- and I refuse to feel guilty about
it.

America is full of opportunities for those who wish to take advantage
of them. No one here needs to suffer -- and the vast majority do not.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

- My kids, deprived of both internet and TV (danged cable
modem), were befuddled, and took refuge in reading and DVDs
(once the power came back on)...

Nobody wanted to fly the Kiwi?

The Kiwi is at the hotel. We were at home.

Thankfully, other than a few blinks, we never lost power at the hotel.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On Feb 25, 9:01 pm, "Jay Honeck" wrote:
As we lived through our ice storm these last couple of days, it's been
interesting to note the reaction of people deprived of amenities that
didn't even exist when I was a boy.

Worse, my kids have grown accustomed to being whisked across the
country in an airplane, at a moment's notice, and simply *expect*
everything to work, every day, dammit. Mary and I are trying to
instill a self-sufficient work ethic in them that will allow them to
survive in "the real world" -- but their "real world" has changed so
much in the last 20 years that it would not even be recognizable to my
grand-parents, dead only since the 1970s...

One only needs to look at New Orleans to see how unprepared people are
to survive in the real world. Most expect their lifestyle to be
guarenteed.
--
Gene Seibel
The Farm - http://pad39a.com/gene/farm.html
Because I fly, I envy no one.

On Mon, 26 Feb 2007 03:23:41 +0000, Jose wrote:

Consider that a snowfall can paralyze a city and bring intercontenental
travel to a halt. In the seventeen hundreds, people just walked in the
snow.

Thanks; I love the irony of these two sentences together. In centuries
past, people did travel between continents. But it was not the triviality
it's become today (even including the claimed security at our commercial
airports {8^).

Sure we've a lot more to lose from infrastructure failures today, but
that's only because our infrastructure provides so much more than it did
in centuries past.

All in all, I'm glad for that. It's rather like GA, if you look at it
from the proper perspective (and perhaps squint a bit {8^). I have to
prepare for various failure modes (from engine failure to a closed
airport) that are non-issues for our ground-bound kin. But we still
choose to fly.

It's wealth. We've more to lose by having it, but I'm still happy to have
it.

[...]
The city would be rebuilt in about two weeks

I'm trying to picture this, and I cannot quite. Two weeks to rebuild 1707
NYC or Philadelphia or London?

- Andrew

It's wealth. We've more to lose by having it, but I'm still happy to have
it.

Well put. But I worry that all this wealth has made our kids so soft
that they'll never survive the hardships to come. Between soaring
energy prices, and believers in "global warming" advocating
deconstruction of our economies -- by force, if necessary -- I worry
for our kids' future.

There are so many ironies here. Just think...who would *ever* have
believed that President Jimmy Carter's decision to come out against
building more nuclear power plants would have the long-ranging
ramifications we (and our children) must now face? Who would *ever*
have guessed that one of our most "green" presidents -- a nuclear
engineer, by trade -- would bear the lion's share of blame for "global
warming", if it truly exists?

History, and the interpretation of history in the years after an
event, always has a way of surprising us...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

I'm trying to picture this, and I cannot quite. Two weeks to rebuild 1707
NYC or Philadelphia or London?

Ok, maybe three weeks. My point is that there was much less city to
re-build.

Jose
--
Humans are pack animals. Above all things, they have a deep need to
follow something, be it a leader, a creed, or a mob. Whosoever fully
understands this holds the world in his hands.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

On Mon, 26 Feb 2007 20:22:35 +0000, Jose wrote:

I'm trying to picture this, and I cannot quite. Two weeks to rebuild
1707 NYC or Philadelphia or London?

Ok, maybe three weeks.

Oh, su Three weeks. Okay, then. But not two.

Laugh

My point is that there was much less city to
re-build.

True, but we've also better tools for building. Nail guns and power saws
vs. hand tools and such, not to mention cranes, bulldozers, etc.

But cities were definitely smaller (and lower) Back Then.

- Andrew

Gene Seibel writes:

One only needs to look at New Orleans to see how unprepared people are
to survive in the real world. Most expect their lifestyle to be
guarenteed.

The real world is the one with the infrastructure. A city without
infrastructure is the anomaly, not the rule.

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

On Mon, 26 Feb 2007 12:03:43 -0800, Jay Honeck wrote:

It's wealth. We've more to lose by having it, but I'm still happy to
have it.

Well put. But I worry that all this wealth has made our kids so soft that
they'll never survive the hardships to come. Between soaring energy
prices, and believers in "global warming" advocating deconstruction of our
economies -- by force, if necessary -- I worry for our kids' future.

Don't forget about Apophis, with whom we've a possible date in 2036.

- Andrew

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
oups.com...
As we lived through our ice storm these last couple of days, it's been
interesting to note the reaction of people deprived of amenities that
didn't even exist when I was a boy.



My sister has three boys - pre school through mid elementary - their power
went out for a couple of days - no big deal, go into camping mode. Anyhow,
my sister comes home one evening (dad is home with the boys) and notices as
she drives down the street that the power has been restored. Except, that
is, for her house - it's the only one still dark. She comes in, not real
happy, asking why everyone else has power and we don't. Her husband
shusshes her and said that the power was actually back on, but the boy were
so dissapointed that he went down the basement and pulled the main...

--
Geoff
The Sea Hawk at Wow Way d0t Com
remove spaces and make the obvious substitutions to reply by mail
When immigration is outlawed, only outlaws will immigrate.