68 billion dollar high speed rail from LA to San Fran... (home, living)

[Malloric]

Originally Posted by darkeconomist

It's misleading to use raw debt. The numbers look huge.

Let's compare:

Six times or twelve times, either way in the last 30 years we done f-ed up. And then there's what we were spending the money on... if it was on an investment in our future, that'd be one thing. But it wasn't. We didn't improve infrastructure or prepare for a future of high oil prices by leading the world in science and R&D. Quite the opposite. We ran our infrastructure into the ground, ran our education system into the ground. That money was used on current consumption.

[nullgeo]

Originally Posted by Malloric

Six times or twelve times, either way in the last 30 years we done f-ed up. And then there's what we were spending the money on... if it was on an investment in our future, that'd be one thing. But it wasn't. We didn't improve infrastructure or prepare for a future of high oil prices by leading the world in science and R&D. Quite the opposite. We ran our infrastructure into the ground, ran our education system into the ground. That money was used on current consumption.

So the infrastructure got used -- as intended ... so it needs revamping, rebuilding ... it didn't exist before it existed, right? Had to be created, built. It was. It was used. Now various parts need varying amounts of work. What's the complaint? Get busy. Life is work. Get back to me in 30 or 40 years after you've put in your time and your younger generation is whining that you didn't give them enough.

[Fontucky]

Originally Posted by citynomad

Thanks California!

High speed rail is coming to America!

Don't hold your breath...

[Malloric]

Originally Posted by nullgeo

So the infrastructure got used -- as intended ... so it needs revamping, rebuilding ... it didn't exist before it existed, right? Had to be created, built. It was. It was used. Now various parts need varying amounts of work. What's the complaint? Get busy. Life is work. Get back to me in 30 or 40 years after you've put in your time and your younger generation is whining that you didn't give them enough.

Deferred maintenance. You'll be dead in 40 years, meign. We'll either have kicked the can down the road just like you did or fixed your **** for you. I'd be lying if I said I put my money on the latter, but that remains to be seen. Boomers have got what, ten years until they're mostly retired? They'll be 55-75 then.

Think you'll have paid back the deficit down to the levels it was in the '60s-'80s when you inherited the economy? Think you'll have fixed social security without relying on us paying higher taxes for fewer benefits? Think you'll have seen the country's education improved from bottom of the developed world back to the top? Or do you think those are the problems my generation will fix for you, if they get fixed at all? Going forward is our economy. In ten years, we'll be in our mid-20s to mid-30s. Right now is hand-off time, as the responsibility of the country's future is decreasingly defined by the Boomers and increasingly defined by Gen Y and X. You've got about ten years until hand-off is mostly complete. I'm not confident I won't be sitting in the same boat in thirty years when I go to hand the reigns off to my kids, but I sure as hell won't be proud of it if I am.

[jkbatca]

Originally Posted by citynomad

It's done. Sorry Naysayers. YOU HAVE LOST!!

High speed rail is coming to America!

You've got that right. California's taxpayers have lost.

Who else has lost? Hmmm

• UC School System
• Community college systems

Yep
THANKS CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE AND JERRY BROWN!

[nullgeo]

Originally Posted by Malloric

Deferred maintenance. You'll be dead in 40 years, meign. We'll either have kicked the can down the road just like you did or fixed your **** for you. I'd lying if I said I put my money on the latter, but that remains to be seen. Boomers have got what, ten years until they're mostly retired? They'll be 55-75 then.

Think you'll have paid back the deficit down to the levels it was in the '60s-'80s when you inherited the economy? Think you'll have fixed social security without relying on us paying higher taxes for fewer benefits? Think you'll have seen the country's education improved from bottom of the developed world back to the top? Or do you think those are the problems my generation will fix for you, if they get fixed at all?

Heh ... you still believe in the tooth-fairy? The deficit will never be paid down -- it's not supposed to be paid down ... it is no longer designed for that ... thank you central banking economics. Don't talk to me and the Boomers about that crap ... talk to the same culture of monetary control that has always run the world since the advent of agriculture. How they do what they do, which illusions they play, change over time, but it's not "our" game ... not my generation's ... not yours' either.

Social Security keeps popping up don't it? Phbbbbt ... homo sapiens lived for 10,000 without SS ... now it's been since, what, 1935, I think ... 77 years? System worked for less than a nano-second of human history -- now it's challenged and it's all the Boomers' fault that the whole concept is flawed?

Reality is, today is NOT the future, yet ... so you don't know what will happen ... you have a challenge ahead if you want to restructure or concoct a different retirement security system. Life is full of challenges. Always has been. For everybody.

You want future mobility? HSR? Yeah, maybe a good part of the mix. Rebuilding existing and new roads? Yeah, obviously some of that for a while. But, all told, the real challenge is to recognize that "growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell" -- Edward Abbey.

I nursed my wife through fatal cancer. Lost my brother to same six months later. And a dozen others as well -- several more of whom I undertook the last care for. We, as a species, are living that ideology. 7 billion and "growing" ... and demanding more and more of the less and less that's left.

That's your challenge to figure out now. I figured it out all by my lonesome when I was a little kid, actually ... see all the good it did?

[nullgeo]

Originally Posted by Malloric

Deferred maintenance. You'll be dead in 40 years, meign...

You know, I am in the earliest range of Boomers ... so you might think I'll be dead in 40 ... but, the way my family's genetics run, on both sides, and the way I take care of myself -- I might be still here laughing my arse off at you in your later years when you start to figure out how life works just as you get to not having much of it left. Humor gives me reason to live

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by nullgeo

You know, I am in the earliest range of Boomers ... so you might think I'll be dead in 40 ... but, the way my family's genetics run, on both sides, and the way I take care of myself -- I might be still here laughing my arse off at you in your later years when you start to figure out how life works just as you get to not having much of it left. Humor gives me reason to live

Genetics? I hope not. If so, the way my family history has been, I'll be assuming room temperature in five years and a month.

But I'll make sure it's one hell of a five-year run!

[leonard]

Originally Posted by nullgeo

You know, I am in the earliest range of Boomers ... so you might think I'll be dead in 40 ... but, the way my family's genetics run, on both sides, and the way I take care of myself -- I might be still here laughing my arse off at you in your later years when you start to figure out how life works just as you get to not having much of it left. Humor gives me reason to live

OK, lets see some humor.

OK at times you are humorous, then ...............................................:ee k:

I am a first year Boomer and do not plan on Social Security to make me "secure". I will take what I can get, but my main source of revenue will not be it.

Contributing to society? Yep, the next generation of aircraft (and probably the current models) may be safer because of my efforts.

[nullgeo]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

Genetics? I hope not. If so, the way my family history has been, I'll be assuming room temperature in five years and a month.

But I'll make sure it's one hell of a five-year run!

My family tree is littered with hanger's on ... 96, 97, 99 still functioning and getting around on their own ... even some well into their 100's ... apparently not too much mental slippage either ... I dunno about the oldest, as most of them are / were still up in the arctic circle and I don't care for cold weather anymore But my mother just passed after an accident, at 97 ... still living on her own 100% ... out hiking the day she got banged up ... opened the pool every morning for lap swims at 5:45 AM ... a bit over the top for me maybe .. we'll see

Frightening to think I could still be terrorizing the forum in 40 years ... I expect I'll get sick of it long before ... in fact I been expecting to get sick of it all along ...