response to Chris Weller, Max Joseph, and Danielle Flug's post The Economy
Whatch'a gonna do?
Commented on August 7, 2008 by - ConsumerX
MY PROFILE
About ConsumerX
ConsumerX
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- Portland (97202, USA)
- Joined on:
- 08/07/08
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The latest from ConsumerX (15)
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Business & Money
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Politics
response to Max Joseph, Chris Weller, and Danielle Flug's post Campaign Fundraising
LOVE IT
Yes, and I don't usually go "all caps," even when I'm shooting for emphasis. I'm a huge fan of the more recent documentary style of flashy/facty music video. This and the one on the Economy had me filled with glee and more knowledgeable. I think I'd kill a person and eat their heart for a shot at an internship with this production team. (disclaimer: I am not actually homicidal or a zombie)
Commented on August 7, 2008 by - ConsumerX
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Health
response to Chris Weller and Max Joseph's post Breast Cancer
We are what we eat
And a lot of us eat death. I think the correlation between rising breast cancer rates and countries with rising levels of meat consumption is telling. The same goes for the lower risk of cancer in vegetarians. Admittedly, correlations aren't always causalities, but it merits attention.
Commented on August 7, 2008 by - ConsumerX
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This is the situation that's drawn me to economics as a major. The hockey stick is going to be the symbol of our times, with exponential growth in so many areas equating exponential depletion in so many others. One of the fascinating things is how, despite everything, hunger is a political problem. Distribution most directly, but political most ultimately. Encroaching "resource peaks" are a consumption efficiency problem most directly, but a political problem ultimately. They are also technology challenges and since we've solved so many other challenges with technology we're tempted to rely on it. The analogy I like most is of a guy who was fat in high school but worked out a lot in order to make it on the football team so later he thinks can always do it again if he really needs to, even though he's becoming morbidly obese and a half-donut away from triple-bypass surgery. We got to the moon within a time-frame we set for ourselves and we win world wars and we built a country from nothing, so we can handle anything, right? So debt spirals out of control, numbers used to measure economic health and growth are changed in increasingly sneaky and dangerous ways (look up "hedonics" and you'll feel like the financial news show you watch totally cheated you), and we're at the wrong end of a housing market and credit bubble. Even GOLD could be overvalued right now. Smart financial policy, a major scaleback of the military industrial complex and a major increase in infrastructure investment and other domestic projects could save us. Bold technology investment would be part of that. Think Extra Bold, like mining asteroids. A lot of materials are difficult to mine because we have to dig so deep, but there's mountains of all kinds of inorganic, usually lighter metals. Sounds crazy, but communication satellites were laughable sci-fi 30 years before Sputnik. Just need the political <strike>will</strike> leadership.