USA Today
The current Drudge Report headline: Obama Economy Cures Traffic Woes
“Traffic congestion dropped 30% last year from 2010 in the USA’s 100 largest metropolitan areas, driven largely by higher gas prices and a spotty economic recovery, according to a new study by a Washington-state firm that tracks traffic flows.
That was the largest drop since the nation plunged into recession in December 2007.”
The significance of this trend along with various other trends like the collapse in housing prices, the anemic recovery, the emergence of the salvage economy, and Peak Mexican will only become obvious in hindsight.
The threshold was crossed in December 2007. We’re four years into the “new normal.” Most people assume that eventually we will go back to the world as we knew it before that historical turning point.
The months will pass. The years will pass. Eventually, after enough time has passed, the truth will begin to sink in that we are never going back.
http://www.paradisegone.com/2012/05/17/take-it-back-freedom-of-movement
We’re seeing more traffic here than ever before, people driving off very expensive fuel and wearing out their vehicles “like there’s no tomorrow.” The missing cars must have come to our little town, along with a new Walmart, Lowes and lots of franchise businesses. Apparently no one eats at home or stays in one place for a day anymore, and this is in a low-income, low-employment, poverty area, still over 98% white in the 2010 census.
Fr John, our people should get horses.
Or Ford Model T’s – but with steel wheels – easy to repair, no battery, no electronics, can even pull field implements.
horses are a lot of work. folks tend to think of them as a large pet but they require much more work than an up-sized dog and the medical bills can be pretty damn high.
I was half joshing about the horses and Model T’s, Stonelifter. But we can’t afford to be wasteful in driving. I know very few of us are set up for horses and it’s expensive. I saw recently on a bumper sticker: “Want to go broke? Get a HORSE!” Neverthless I truly wish I had started with a mule when I was young, instead of tractors.
“I was half joshing about the horses and Model T’s, Stonelifter…”
Yankees who are now getting into this Alex Jones headset and “going back to the earth” (the same way they fled the cities in the 70s) are saying things such as this.
Years of watching farmers (both Southern and Western) degraded in movies has convinced them that it’s really simply to toss out a bag of cheap seeds and voila, you can feed a family of eight.
So annoying— as if each plant doesn’t have its own nutritional needs, predators, etc., thing real farmers spend generations learning.
Heard someone going on and on about cutting off the end of their celery from the store and planting it, and just getting a quick new stalk of celery. Everyone was rushing home to create their own celery during a sweltering Southern August. Good luck with that one.
Yes, there is nothing better than letting yankees plant lettuce, garlic and celery in 104 degree temps under a beating sun.
Who the hell did they ever help?
hell no Mosin, tractors are a much better deal than horses and mules. I get a lot more work done with a John Deere than I could ever achieve with my beloved Belgium, or a team of mules. I’m pretty new to horse ownership, under 3 years. I haven’t done a proper cost analyst but I’m fair certain the tractor is cheaper, esp if you buy a good quality used tractor from the start. The return on investment with a horse is intrinsic. It’s been rewarding beyond money….. Farming fits that as well
my hobby farm is 40 acres under production. I could never work it to its full potential with horses, unless I had more man hours. There is no replace for a tractor w/ a pto.
good point Barb, people have no idea how technical farming is. I don’t really know that much about it either which is why I lease more land then I plant. Folks also have the same bullshit notion about how easy hunting and fishing are too. Maybe it’s part of the war on rural White men
One of the things that I remember from the “day without a mexican” protests was that LA’s traffic basically cleared up, wish I’d saved the images from that.
“Fr John, our people should get horses.” – Bicycle.
As to traffic I noticed something pretty interesting on a visit to Puerto Rico. We were basically in the traffic jam hell, so I had plenty of time to watch what was going on. They were all chasing their tails trying to switch into whatever lane was moving, and the net effect of all of this was to bring traffic to a halt. If they’d been conscientious and willing to wait for others to move forward traffic would have gone much more smoothly for all of us. It isn’t just overpopulation that is stressing our roads, but short sighted, unconscientious individuals in large numbers that are bringing traffic to a halt.
There is no way to ever build enough infrastructure if people are going to act like that.
Lack of gridlock means only one thing. Lack of people employed who commute. Gridlock doesn’t occur Sundays at 3AM, gridlock except in rare occurrances occurs only in the morning and evening drive times. Unemployment Obama inherited, but his lack of ability to instill confidence in the economy means they remain unemployed, so continuing unemployment (and the unemployment of those considered to not be in the labor market for various trivial reason) Obama owns.
The cost of gasoline however, has everything to do with Obama, the blood took to his hands as he cheered on the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak. Mubarak was stability in the Middle East. Now Egypt is in the hands of a Sunni Islam military regime.
The price of oil and gasoline will never stabilizes as long there is instabililty in the Middle East. Asia will buy fill its oil needs from whatever producer can deliver at the best price. That is the free market and that is how it should be. If Japan wants Californian Midway Sunset crude when it can’t get Dubai-Oman, then so be it if they want to pay for it. That it competes with our needs should not be a concern in a free market, it is a free market functioning properly.
So in reality it is Obama that cured traffic congestion, and that is in noway something to brag about. It’s like Henry VIII pretending to hold curative powers because he was able to end Catherine Howard and Anne Boleyn’s recurring sore throats.
When governments try and fiddle stats there’s always some metric they miss or can’t control.
“If they’d been conscientious and willing to wait for others to move forward traffic would have gone much more smoothly for all of us.”
Anon- you’re thinking WHITE. Courtesy, giving up a bus seat for an elderly person.
STOP IT.
Non-Whites DON’T THINK THIS WAY. And they consider it weakness when we do.
Until and unles you are willing to reestablish white Hegemony, stop thinking Niggers and Spics are Caucasoids with darker melanin content. They are a SPECIES OTHER THAN WE.
Yup, I live near the Amish. Horses may cost more initially, but when everyone will soon need one, owning a proven Stallion and some fine brood mares could make one rich… either that, or being a farrier/wheelwright when the EBT card dies.
“Non-Whites DON’T THINK THIS WAY.” – I was pointing out as much, that indeed they are incapable of considering such things, and that, if we were so inclined, it would still be impossible to accomodate them.