how many of you grew up with drop drills in case of nuclear attack

Don Quixote

Don Quixote

cancer survivor
Contributor
for a short while when nuclear bombs were measured in kilotons, they may have done some good, but once nuclear bombs reached the megaton range they were a joke, but our government wanted us all to grow up afraid of the dreaded communists

and so the military industrial complex was born and like any living thing it seeks to propagate and grow...and it has so that we have a huge military capable of destroying the world, but cannot win a war against local insurgents without investing trillions of dollars and thousands of lives

also

how many of you developed a philosophy of spend for today because tomorrow may never come

or that our parents would provide for tomorrow

and how many of you carried that philosophy in to your voting

we destroyed the russians, not with nuclear weapons but with economic weapons, but in doing so we destroyed a major part of our own economy

we nearly destroyed our own economy doing it

while the rest of the world watched and learned

how many of you buy the cheapest thing you can find even though it is made in another country and then complain that there are no good jobs

how many of you vote against maintaining your infrastructure and then complain how much it costs (and how inconvenient it is) to repair when it could have been maintained for less than repairing it costs

yes, we have met the enemy, and the enemy is us
 
Don Quixote said:
or that our parents would provide for tomorrow
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Are you kidding? My parents generation has mostly provided us with massive debt.

Don Quixote said:
we destroyed the russians, not with nuclear weapons but with economic weapons, but in doing so we destroyed a major part of our own economy
Click to expand...

The Russians are still there. The USSR imploded due to its own deficiencies.

Don Quixote said:
how many of you buy the cheapest thing you can find even though it is made in another country and then complain that there are no good jobs
Click to expand...

Not many buy the cheapest thing they can find and that does not destroy jobs except when they are penny wise and pound foolish. Most have spent WAY beyond their means and that leaves little seed capital.

Don Quixote said:
how many of you vote against maintaining your infrastructure and then complain how much it costs (and how inconvenient it is) to repair when it could have been maintained for less than repairing it costs
Click to expand...

Maintain/repair that's pretty much the same thing. We need to replace and upgrade in some places. But those that ignorantly attach themselves to antiquated buidlings and technologies have blocked that.
 
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I was 5 when the Cold War ended, so I did not experience Duck & Cover drills. Plenty of fire and earthquake drills, and a handful of active shooter / lockdown drills...
 
TheSuperstringTheory said:
Are you kidding? My parents generation has mostly provided us with massive debt.

my parents generation did not, they worked their asses off and survived the great depression and wwii


The Russians are still there. The USSR imploded due to its own deficiencies.

they imploded not only due to their inefficiencies but by trying to out do our military and space programs

Not many buy the cheapest thing they can find and that does not destroy jobs except when they are penny wise and pund foolish. Most have spent WAY beyond their means and that leaves little seed capital.

i guess you do not shop much or have a hefty income - too many people look for the cheapest thing that they need and buy it

as for spending beyond their means, that is implicit in my post

Maintain/repair that's pretty much the same thing. We need to replace and upgrade in some places. But those that ignorantly attach themselves to antiquated buidlings and technologies have blocked that.
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repairs after something has broken are more expensive than maintainance

i agree that we need to maintain and upgrade our infrastructure, but we also need to expand it
 
All we ever did were fire drills but plenty of people from my generation still spent like mad. I don't believe overspending has anything to do with DQ's morbid nonsense.

It has to do with a sense that the good times will never end. The Great Recession was largely caused by an irrational belief that home prices should "naturally appreciate." Land values may, but homes are depreciating assets just like everything else. Too many fools went out and spent their phoney baloney "equity." They thought they were actually rich because there home values went up. Pension fund managers overpromised too. They were warned.

I still know plenty of people that go into debt for cellphones and furniture. S-T-U-P-I-D. Sit on the floor and get the free one until you can pay cash. My guess is they will still be stupid tommorrow.

Now this is not to say the collapse all falls on the lower and middle classes. The banks knew what was happening and they game the boom and the bust. But trickle down economics is supported by BOTH parties. It might as well be the new third rail.
 
TheSuperstringTheory said:
All we ever did were fire drills but plenty of people from my generation still spent like mad. I don't believe overspending has anything to do with DQ's morbid nonsense.

It has to do with a sense that the good times will never end. The Great Recession was largely caused by an irrational belief that home prices should "naturally appreciate." Land values may, but homes are depreciating assets just like everything else. Too many fools went out and spent their phoney baloney "equity." They thought they were actually rich because there home values went up. Pension fund managers overpromised too. They were warned.

I still know plenty of people that go into debt for cellphones and furniture. S-T-U-P-I-D. Sit on the floor and get the free one until you can pay cash. My guess is they will still be stupid tommorrow.

Now this is not to say the collapse all falls on the lower and middle classes. The banks knew what was happening and they game the boom and the bust. But trickle down economics is supported by BOTH parties. It might as well be the new third rail.
Click to expand...

what about people that bought properties that were overvalued by appraisers and banks

and please support your claim that both parties support trickle down economics
 
Don Quixote said:
what about people that bought properties that were overvalued by appraisers and banks

and please support your claim that both parties support trickle down economics
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The entire market was overvalued and still is.

The bailouts were supported by both parties. The masses are being burdened for the benefit of the upper class in the hope that they will then share some of the benefits with the masses.
 
I remember the drills in the 1950's and early 1960's!

Don Quixote said:
for a short while when nuclear bombs were measured in kilotons, they may have done some good, but once nuclear bombs reached the megaton range they were a joke, but our government wanted us all to grow up afraid of the dreaded communists

and so the military industrial complex was born and like any living thing it seeks to propagate and grow...and it has so that we have a huge military capable of destroying the world, but cannot win a war against local insurgents without investing trillions of dollars and thousands of lives

also

how many of you developed a philosophy of spend for today because tomorrow may never come

or that our parents would provide for tomorrow

and how many of you carried that philosophy in to your voting

we destroyed the russians, not with nuclear weapons but with economic weapons, but in doing so we destroyed a major part of our own economy

we nearly destroyed our own economy doing it

while the rest of the world watched and learned

how many of you buy the cheapest thing you can find even though it is made in another country and then complain that there are no good jobs

how many of you vote against maintaining your infrastructure and then complain how much it costs (and how inconvenient it is) to repair when it could have been maintained for less than repairing it costs

yes, we have met the enemy, and the enemy is us
Click to expand...

It was called Duck and Cover

http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe50s/life_04.html
 
Watch the hilarious and excellent documentary "The Atomic Cafe" if you're interested in this history. It does "Duck & Cover" quite effectively. The film kind of runs like a dark comedy.
 
I grew up with duck and cover and yes there was a very real push to terrify Americans with threats of atomic war. It was a real fear. One of the things about my generation that people forget is that when we were still in high school we had Viet Nam and the draft. People we knew were dying in a place we'd never heard of for reasons that made NO sense. Yes we had a fatalistic tint, how could we not, however we were convinced that we could be better, we could make things work and there could be real equality. Most of us still think that.
 
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