Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Newfie wrote:Think about NJ for a moment. They are crying poor mouth because their transportation trust fund is broke. So they have a large number of roads and bridges in very poor shape.
Yet they just completed a major widening of a portion of the NJ Expressway.
If you don't have enough money to maintain what you have....why build more?
Defies Logic, like so much else in life.
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Newfie wrote:Think about NJ for a moment. They are crying poor mouth because their transportation trust fund is broke. So they have a large number of roads and bridges in very poor shape.
Yet they just completed a major widening of a portion of the NJ Expressway.
If you don't have enough money to maintain what you have....why build more?
Newfie wrote:Think about NJ for a moment. They are crying poor mouth because their transportation trust fund is broke. So they have a large number of roads and bridges in very poor shape.
Yet they just completed a major widening of a portion of the NJ Expressway.
If you don't have enough money to maintain what you have....why build more?
Plantagenet wrote:Newfie wrote:Think about NJ for a moment. They are crying poor mouth because their transportation trust fund is broke. So they have a large number of roads and bridges in very poor shape.
Yet they just completed a major widening of a portion of the NJ Expressway.
If you don't have enough money to maintain what you have....why build more?
Highway construction and repair for major roads in the USA is mainly funded by federal government with money from the federal gas tax. The feds typically pick up as much as 90% of highway projects on expressways and major highways, with the state putting in only 10%.
This provides an incentive for states to spend their infrastructure money on expressways and major highways, while ignoring railroads, local roads and bridges and other infrastructure which isn't subsidized by the feds in the same way. Over time some states have diverted almost all of their infrastructure money to major highway construction, because that yields the biggest bang for the buck in terms of leveraging state dollars to attract maximum federal funds and the concomitant creation of the maximum number of local construction jobs.
pstarr wrote:Tanada, there is a component of agriculture you seem to want to miss. Agriculture enclosed the commons, destroyed the hunter/gatherer/shepherd life human species was adapted to over millions of years of evolution. The original human energy account, BTU's-input/BTU's-expended allowed for a surplus in the form of fecundity and born children. This was the standard of living we enjoyed with all its hardships, horror, and freedom.
Grain agriculture ultimately created the feudal nation state, allocated the germ/lipids to the Master's livestock and the lowly starches to his Peasants. He got the manor house and they got diabetes, heart disease, cancer, dental caries, hypertension and organ death. Grain agriculture allows surplus BTU's not for the individual for the Masters of the grain. Grain agriculture closed the commons, built the Master's armies and turned former free nomads into combat grunts (tasked with encircling more common lands and enslaving other nomads) and domesticated former free woman turning them into soldier-breeding stock.
Tanada, I think you are correct that it is the modern transportation network that has made this modern post-industrial world. It gives the Masters the opportunity to further segment and specialize industrial processes, and segment and divide industrial workers. Every job and every worker will be converted into an atomized repetitive task free from human need or desire. People intuitively understand this. They also intuitively understand this is the final outcome.
pstarr wrote:I see what you mean about dried/salted meat. I wonder if animal husbandry evolved at the same time as grain agriculture? Both can be hoarded almost forever, and dispensed or withheld for favors. This grants the owners power to consolidate wealth and control, even starve the peasants. This has so many implications for empire, corruption, and slavery.
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