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2011-11-05 -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-

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Posted by Steve White 2011-11-05 00:04|| || Front Page|| [11125 views ] Top

Posted by tu3031 2011-11-05 00:25|| 2011-11-05 00:25|| Front Page Top

#2 From the Telegraph: I pass a homeless man, a beggar, most nights on the way home from work. Usually, I give him a pound, less often I pause for a chat. Im not a fool who believes that those without material possessions hold an innate nobility, but nor do I imagine theres anything intrinsically superior about me. He and I are separated by a slight degree in psychological robustness, and the possession, or lack, of enough income to pay a mortgage for three months. Otherwise, theres the same basic mix of good intent and human weakness.
On Tuesday, I stopped and asked him how he was doing. It wasnt one of his better days, and he turned his head away. Angry. I walked along Hackney Road, towards my contingent home, paid with my contingent salary, and I thought: one of us is still running, unaware of the lack of ground beneath his feet. The other has just stopped pretending. Whos the more deluded?

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2011-11-05 01:41|| 2011-11-05 01:41|| Front Page Top

#3 I talked to a middle-aged lady at church who told me that she was on public assistance and couldn't earn more than a poultry amount of money a year for fear of being disqualified. I thought to myself that she would stay poor for the rest of her life. The young man in this story will never suffer her fate.

Posted by Mike Ramsey 2011-11-05 08:41|| 2011-11-05 08:41|| Front Page Top

#4 24 hours after the asteroid strike, culture and society will have sorted out its triage of those who have something to contribute and thus survive and those who will not. The artificiality of modern urban culture will evaporate leaving many a person rudely awakened to his/her value in the overall scheme of things.

Posted by Procopius2k 2011-11-05 08:59|| 2011-11-05 08:59|| Front Page Top

#5 I talked to a middle-aged lady at church who told me that she was on public assistance and couldn't earn more than a poultry amount of money a year for fear of being disqualified.

So, does that mean she is limited to earning one chicken a day? Or two.

Posted by Secret Asian Man 2011-11-05 09:35|| 2011-11-05 09:35|| Front Page Top

#6 >24 hours after the asteroid strike

These are silly examples as the asteroid will generally change the ability to supply food.
If you made no change except taxed rent-seeking instead of taxing comparative advantage, you would see a lot of people who's incomes would suddenly drop below zero. You'd also see a lot of people's incomes rise. This change wouldn't be zero sum either but positive sum as zero-taxing comparative advantage would lead to large productivity gains.

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2011-11-05 10:48|| 2011-11-05 10:48|| Front Page Top

#7 when is the asteroid coming? The one that made the Gulf of Mexico turned Kansas into an inland sea. Perhaps I should get a bass boat.

Posted by bman 2011-11-05 11:03|| 2011-11-05 11:03|| Front Page Top

#8 The asteroid is a metaphor. We had an warning with Katrina about what happens to the social order when the artificial structures of urban life evaporate and "what's important" suddenly comes to the front and who really has the skills and abilities that life is dependent upon.

Posted by Procopius2k 2011-11-05 11:06|| 2011-11-05 11:06|| Front Page Top

#9 We just got our internet, phones and cable restored after 6+ days out due to a tree falling in the NE storm; we got the power back yesterday.

Had enough food and foresight (filled bathtubs) to muddle through with a gas stove and a fireplace. Civilization is fairly fragile and not many (including me) could survie a significant disruption.

Posted by AlanC 2011-11-05 11:14|| 2011-11-05 11:14|| Front Page Top

#10 AlanC it doesn't take long for things to get ugly. Convenience market, gas pumps, banks, anything electronic, no job, and no fast food.
Just allot of quality time.

That asteroid is due about 6-6:00 PM. East coast will see it best if at all on Tuesday. Moving fast. It will pass between the Earth and moon. Nice telescope OK but I'm going with good binoculars.

Posted by Dale 2011-11-05 12:15|| 2011-11-05 12:15|| Front Page Top

#11 Drudge links to an article about the asteroid.

Earth's close encounter with Asteroid 2005 YU 55 will occur at 6:28 p.m. EST (2328 GMT) Tuesday, as the space rock sails about 201,000 miles from the planet.

"It is the first time since 1976 that an object of this size has passed this closely to the Earth. It gives us a great -- and rare -- chance to study a near-Earth object like this," astronomer Scott Fisher, a program director with the National Science Foundation, said Thursday during a Web chat with reporters.

Posted by trailing wife 2011-11-05 12:20|| 2011-11-05 12:20|| Front Page Top

#12 Robert Anton Wilson - admittedly a crackpot - used to ask an interesting question when he lectured: "You are standing in front of a control panel with two buttons on it. One button will make everyone equally poor, the other will make everyone equally rich. Which button do you push?"

He then went on to explain, it did not matter. If you push either button at sunrise, by sunset there will be some people getting richer and others getting poorer all over again...

Posted by M. Murcek 2011-11-05 12:35|| 2011-11-05 12:35|| Front Page Top

#13 Many thanks to those who have chosen to serve instead of complain.

Posted by Abu Uluque 2011-11-05 12:57|| 2011-11-05 12:57|| Front Page Top

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