Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Collapse

In Man in a Shed's working world there are banks of lights in control rooms, or at least there used to be before visual displays took over.

It was not usual to see flashing yellow and red lights as alarms went of around a plant. It took a skilled operator to know what to worry about, and what was of secondary importance.

Well right now more and more financial lights are flashing in the news. The Euro, our national debt ( still climbing and with no reduction in national spending planned - despite what a bunch of middle class students think ), even China.

It all looks unstable. The problem is we are, as a result of our political system, lead by amateurs, who have short term interests written into their contracts. If you though annual bonuses for bankers encourage reckless speculation, then quintennial elections do the same for politicians ( who live for the next election - not the future ).

So what the rest of us need to start thinking about right now is a broader, and hopefully short lived - collapse.

We know from the weather that there isn't much food in the country any more. Does anyone believe the government could feed the country for 6 months as the world sorted itself out ? Or indeed that what we produce in this country would be worth battering for food afterwards ?

It is time to start considering some of the unpalatable possibilities of collapse facing the world. The warning lights are flashing - the question is what do they mean and is our government making preparations for some of the less electorally fabvourable outcomes that might be life or death issues to us in two years time ?

3 comments:

Barnacle Bill said...

Too very true, keep a close eye on the silver markets, there's a bubble building in it; that when it burst could make 2008 seem like a walk in the park in summer time!
On top of which we have Ben Bernanke printing money as if tomorrow will never come.
For further reading I recommend this.

James Higham said...

We know from the weather that there isn't much food in the country any more. Does anyone believe the government could feed the country for 6 months as the world sorted itself out ? Or indeed that what we produce in this country would be worth battering for food afterwards ?

It's worried me for some time that we all seem to shop only from supermarkets for our weekly shop. This is in about five hands in the UK.

Very easy to cease to supply and what would the average person do?

Cromwells apprentice said...

It is time to start considering some of the unpalatable possibilities of collapse ....... the question is what do they mean and is our government making preparations

Hmmmm, I think you have perceived the problem but come to the wrong conclusion on how it can be resolved.

Food supply is indeed precarious, but energy supply in the next ten years will be disastrous.

Emergency food supplies would be a good idea, energy is more difficult. The government is not your friend.

Be a good boy scout-be prepared.