<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div>On Dec 6, 2558 BE, at 8:29 PM, spike <<a href="mailto:spike66@att.net">spike66@att.net</a>> wrote:</div><div><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><b>From:</b></span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"> extropy-chat [<a href="mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org">mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org</a>] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Dan TheBookMan</span></div><blockquote type="cite"><div class="WordSection1"><div><blockquote style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt"><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">>>…Perhaps they are training for what happens if there is a nationwide power outage or some kind of civil unrest, and soon you have hordes of starving people, just wandering around looking for some means of staying alive? </span><o:p></o:p></p></div></blockquote><div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">>…</span>Depends on what your goal is here. If you're only concerned about your safety and well being, then things are quite simple. But if you do care about those starving folks, it's an almost trivial matter to feed and clothe them and give them shelter<span style="color:#1F497D">…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Trivial matter? When we can’t move food? How long will it take to devour all the food available in every major city? I would think about ten days would do it.</span></p></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>The US is not ten days away from starvation. Just a matter of moving stuff around. Trivial as long government does shut down access to the stuff. Recall, too, now government destroys or stocks up food surpluses -- instead of letting the prices fall.</div><div><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div class="WordSection1"><div><blockquote style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt"><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">>>… Mikhail Gorbachev writes in his memoirs about the communists taking over and forming the Soviet Union…They starved.</span><o:p></o:p></p></div></blockquote><div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">>…</span>The Soviet Union was in far worse shape then than the US is now. Not only does the US have a better over economy, it actually over-produces food<span style="color:#1F497D">…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">Sure but what if we cannot process it or move it to the population centers?</span></p></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>The allow people to migrate to the food. Yes, I know this goes against the nationalist ideal of keeping people from roaming about. </div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div class="WordSection1"><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><blockquote style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt"><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-right:.5in;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">>>…zombie apocalypse?</span><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></blockquote></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">>…</span>Do you see these folks, mainly victims of generations of bad social policy, as zombies? I don't<span style="color:#1F497D">…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Not generations of bad social policy, I had in mind victims of an EM pulse which took down our communications and power infrastructure. Then the zombie hordes would be seen within a couple weeks. It is not at all clear to me how the system could be restarted effectively.</span></p></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div>The bad social policy is removing mutual aid and regulating or prohibiting voluntary interactions. My point here is if we start undoing the bad policy now -- in particular, doing countereconomic stuff -- then the resulting society will be less fragile than what we have now. (Though now, despite fascist economic policies, things aren't that bad.)<br><div><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div class="WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">>…</span> I don't see collapse as all that likely anyhow<span style="color:#1F497D">…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">I hope you are right.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">>…</span> -- but the real world system is likely to just muddle through, IMO.<span style="color:#1F497D"> </span>Regards,<span style="color:#1F497D"> </span>Dan<span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">Hope so. This might be one of those black swan scenarios worth pondering.</span></p></div></blockquote><div><br></div>Well, if you're truly worried about that, then you should be against the current system -- the one that centralizes control and tend to shield the elites from their errors with bailouts and regulations making black swans far more likely. Smooth seas don't make for skilled sailors, you know?<br><br><style><!--
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--></style><div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="line-height: 20px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Regards,</span></div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="line-height: 20px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="line-height: 20px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Dan</span></div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> Sample my Kindle books via:</span></div><div style="line-height: normal;"><a href="http://author.to/DanUst" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://author.to/DanUst</font></a></div></div></div></body></html>