Comments on: Western Civilization and the Titanic http://whiskeyandgunpowder.com/western-civilization-and-the-titanic/ Whiskey and Gunpowder features articles on gold, oil, currencies, emerging markets, energy, and more. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:43:32 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Robert Dyke http://whiskeyandgunpowder.com/western-civilization-and-the-titanic/comment-page-1/#comment-2237 Robert Dyke Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:33:35 +0000 http://whiskeyandgunpowder.com/?p=4438#comment-2237 Hmm...if this were true then the heathens I live around in Berkeley should be in a worse financial situation then the "good Christians" I visit back in Nashville. This could not be farther from the truth. I am hard pressed to think of anyone in California that I know who has a house with over 2500 sq ft (about 250 sq meters). But I see vast neighborhoods south of Nashville that are chocked full of 8000sq ft (800sq meter!) houses under foreclosure. A decade ago I asked some friends back in Tennessee about their strategy of buying the biggest house possible with as little as possible down then refinancing so they could take out all of the equity after prices had gone up. I asked what they would do if prices fell. They just shrugged and said, "The Good Lord will provide." Yea...He's providing alright. In fact, He's providing a big fat lesson in Darwinian economics. The real reason that these things have happened is that hoards of people believed that bad things would never happen to them. So they did not prepare. Now they are suffering. And there is absolutely no connection to religion or morals. Hmm…if this were true then the heathens I live around in Berkeley should be in a worse financial situation then the “good Christians” I visit back in Nashville. This could not be farther from the truth. I am hard pressed to think of anyone in California that I know who has a house with over 2500 sq ft (about 250 sq meters). But I see vast neighborhoods south of Nashville that are chocked full of 8000sq ft (800sq meter!) houses under foreclosure.
A decade ago I asked some friends back in Tennessee about their strategy of buying the biggest house possible with as little as possible down then refinancing so they could take out all of the equity after prices had gone up. I asked what they would do if prices fell. They just shrugged and said, “The Good Lord will provide.” Yea…He’s providing alright. In fact, He’s providing a big fat lesson in Darwinian economics.
The real reason that these things have happened is that hoards of people believed that bad things would never happen to them. So they did not prepare. Now they are suffering. And there is absolutely no connection to religion or morals.

]]> By: jay moses http://whiskeyandgunpowder.com/western-civilization-and-the-titanic/comment-page-1/#comment-2236 jay moses Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:25:10 +0000 http://whiskeyandgunpowder.com/?p=4438#comment-2236 dear dr. brinsden: as someone who came of age in the era you reference, i can assure you that most of us went about our business much as our parents and grandparents did; studying, working, raising families, buying homes, investing and starting businesses. It's easy to blame the "baby-boomers" for our current difiiculties as though we were some monolithic army of robots all doing exactly the same thing in exactly the same way, but it offers no solutions. The collapse of this nation's industrial base, the virtual end of savings and reliance on debt in the U.S. should more properly be dated to the Reagan years and the emergence of the "greed is good" and "deficits don't matter" ethos. At that time, baby boomers ranged in age from about 16 to 35, hardly the power brokers of society. One of the serious problems in confronting our economic, energy and climate issues is the simple minded reductionism you display. The roots of our current difficulties can not be found in the counterculture of the 1960's sincerely, jay moses dear dr. brinsden:
as someone who came of age in the era you reference, i can assure you that most of us went about our business much as our parents and grandparents did; studying, working, raising families, buying homes, investing and starting businesses. It’s easy to blame the “baby-boomers” for our current difiiculties as though we were some monolithic army of robots all doing exactly the same thing in exactly the same way, but it offers no solutions.

The collapse of this nation’s industrial base, the virtual end of savings and reliance on debt in the U.S. should more properly be dated to the Reagan years and the emergence of the “greed is good” and “deficits don’t matter” ethos. At that time, baby boomers ranged in age from about 16 to 35, hardly the power brokers of society.

One of the serious problems in confronting our economic, energy and climate issues is the simple minded reductionism you display. The roots of our current difficulties can not be found in the counterculture of the 1960’s
sincerely,
jay moses

]]>