Community Chat

[151949]

Young people no longer are taught things we learned and felt were needed at that time - but we don't have anywhere near their skills with the technology that is needed today.

[PenneyT]

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@Plaid Pants2 wrote:

What if an asteroid slams in to the planet tomorrow?!

We're doomed, I tell ya!

DOOMED!!!!!!!

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Just don't read any emergency notices unless they're written in cursive, lol! (grinning!!)

[RoughDraft]

There's a commercial on TV that I saw, where the grandchildren come to visit their grandparents.  They are greeted at the door by grandma who hands about six electronic devices (phones, IPads, computers, etc.), to her grandchldren.  She says "None of these work!"  

I'm not worried about the younger generation.  If a GPS, computer, tablet or phone fail us or if the lights go out across the country, the younger generation will figure out  ways to circumvent the problems.  After all, a "younger generation" created  these newfangled gadgets in the first place.  If you have doubts, just hand an electronic gadget to a 4 year old and see how quickly they learn to use it.

I have nieces and nephews in their twenties who are currently studying to become electronic engineers, lawyers, forensic analysts, and medical practitioners.  To augment their expenses they all worked in retail, technical and/or construction jobs during the summer months.  

If there are young people who can't make it in today's world, it's either because they weren't prepared or they will always be incapable or uninterested in change.

[Mominohio]

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@Plaid Pants2 wrote:

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@PenneyT wrote:

Well, I sure don't raise all my food (we grow some, but certainly not an amount/ variety to stay alive, lol!), grow-spin-weave my clothes, lay my paper and bind my books. I cannot manufacture steel and build a car, I do not purify my water and take away my waste water. I don't operate the machines that allow me to be on the internet. I have no way to make my own medicines nor can I operate the robotic surgeons that save so many lives. 

I LOVE old skills and old things! BUT I do not look at the past with rose-colored glasses. 

Cashiers made mistakes all the time. Cars broke down all the time. I love to read, and looking for things in the library used to be so difficult and depended on what the library carried and could get. Now I have the world at my fingertips, and I really like that! Adapt!!!, lol!

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I agree.

The world isn't going to fall apart if there was a world-wide blackout tomorrow that lasted for years.

All this pearl clutching and hand-wringing is so overblown.

Yes, I have been without electricity for 3 - 4 days.

I survived.

So did all of my neighbors and everybody in my community.

The world didn't end because the power was out for several days.

We survived that, and the world will survive even without electronics gadgets and gizmos.

One could "what if" themselves in to a tizzy, if they allow themselves to.

Me?

All that worry over something that may not happen, and most likely won't happen is just wasted energy.

Yes, I have a well stocked supply closet "just in case" armageddon happens, but, odds are, it will sit there for years and never be used.

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I agree with all your statements but the one I highlighted. The world will survive, but it would fall apart and need rebuilt if there was a world wide, long term power issue. 

In the meantime, all the people who have no basic skills will suffer, and most not survive. 

The probability of that happening varies upon who you talk to, and isn't something I waste a lot of sleep over, but I do worry about my own personal crisis, like lack of employment to have money for today's technology, loss of power from storms for short terms etc. leading to having to do without the 'new' etc.

[Melania]

When I read this board many times I feel like I have stepped back in time yet here are people who sit at their COMPUTERS posting with technology bemoaning society. Ha!

Perhaps you need to find out why schools are not teaching these skills. Surely you know why don't you? 

[Plaid Pants2]

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@Mominohio wrote:

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@Plaid Pants2 wrote:

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@PenneyT wrote:

Well, I sure don't raise all my food (we grow some, but certainly not an amount/ variety to stay alive, lol!), grow-spin-weave my clothes, lay my paper and bind my books. I cannot manufacture steel and build a car, I do not purify my water and take away my waste water. I don't operate the machines that allow me to be on the internet. I have no way to make my own medicines nor can I operate the robotic surgeons that save so many lives. 

I LOVE old skills and old things! BUT I do not look at the past with rose-colored glasses. 

Cashiers made mistakes all the time. Cars broke down all the time. I love to read, and looking for things in the library used to be so difficult and depended on what the library carried and could get. Now I have the world at my fingertips, and I really like that! Adapt!!!, lol!

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I agree.

The world isn't going to fall apart if there was a world-wide blackout tomorrow that lasted for years.

All this pearl clutching and hand-wringing is so overblown.

Yes, I have been without electricity for 3 - 4 days.

I survived.

So did all of my neighbors and everybody in my community.

The world didn't end because the power was out for several days.

We survived that, and the world will survive even without electronics gadgets and gizmos.

One could "what if" themselves in to a tizzy, if they allow themselves to.

Me?

All that worry over something that may not happen, and most likely won't happen is just wasted energy.

Yes, I have a well stocked supply closet "just in case" armageddon happens, but, odds are, it will sit there for years and never be used.

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I agree with all your statements but the one I highlighted. The world will survive, but it would fall apart and need rebuilt if there was a world wide, long term power issue. 

In the meantime, all the people who have no basic skills will suffer, and most not survive. 

The probability of that happening varies upon who you talk to, and isn't something I waste a lot of sleep over, but I do worry about my own personal crisis, like lack of employment to have money for today's technology, loss of power from storms for short terms etc. leading to having to do without the 'new' etc.

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And the odds of a "world wide, long term power issue"?

Very, very small.

Not worth loosing sleep over.

At least, I don't.

People will come together and rebuild, and help others.

[Blahblahvampemer]

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@Plaid Pants2 wrote:

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@PenneyT wrote:

Well, I sure don't raise all my food (we grow some, but certainly not an amount/ variety to stay alive, lol!), grow-spin-weave my clothes, lay my paper and bind my books. I cannot manufacture steel and build a car, I do not purify my water and take away my waste water. I don't operate the machines that allow me to be on the internet. I have no way to make my own medicines nor can I operate the robotic surgeons that save so many lives. 

I LOVE old skills and old things! BUT I do not look at the past with rose-colored glasses. 

Cashiers made mistakes all the time. Cars broke down all the time. I love to read, and looking for things in the library used to be so difficult and depended on what the library carried and could get. Now I have the world at my fingertips, and I really like that! Adapt!!!, lol!

---

I agree.

The world isn't going to fall apart if there was a world-wide blackout tomorrow that lasted for years.

All this pearl clutching and hand-wringing is so overblown.

Yes, I have been without electricity for 3 - 4 days.

I survived.

So did all of my neighbors and everybody in my community.

The world didn't end because the power was out for several days.

We survived that, and the world will survive even without electronics gadgets and gizmos.

One could "what if" themselves in to a tizzy, if they allow themselves to.

Me?

All that worry over something that may not happen, and most likely won't happen is just wasted energy.

Yes, I have a well stocked supply closet "just in case" armageddon happens, but, odds are, it will sit there for years and never be used.

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Let's hope our supplies never have to be used, but let's get real for a sec.

What happens when the generators at the hospital dry up and fuel isn't getting delivered?  The first to die will be those on life support.  The next will be those who can't access medicine/devices when they run out.  One of our greatest abilities in WW II was to retrofit existing factories to produce what we needed. Right now those factories are--mostly--long gone.  Our transformers tend to be made in Europe, and orders are placed a year or more in advance of expected delivery.  Outsourcing, ain't it fab.

The average grocery store is stocked for 2-4 days worth of sales.  When the deliveries don't arrive...what then?  We literally do not have enough gas at any time for the public to ride around with a full tank.  This was illustrated clearly when there was a gas shortage a few years ago that left some businesses unable to function--even in this modern age.  Just-in-time inventory has a seriously bad downside.

What happens without water?  See Flint, Michigan.  Now expand it.

What happens in a cashless society with no power?  

I could go on with dozens of other issues, but my point isn't about the short term, it's about what happens with a natural EMP, or any other type of attack on our resources (over half a dozen suspicious events at reservoirs, the power station in Califirnia...etc.).

We just don't have much in the way of a skill set anymore unless it has a chip and tells us what to do.

[Plaid Pants2]

And the odds of that happening, are what again?

Not gonna loose sleep over something that 99% chance of not happening.

But, worry away if you want.

[QVCkitty1]

I think the bottom line is the more skills that you have ,the more useful, confident person you will be, It's not cute to brag that you can't do something because you depend on devices.I don't want to go backward either, but knowledge is power, any knowledge.

[Blahblahvampemer]

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@mstyrion 1 wrote:

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@Blahblahvampemer wrote:

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@PenneyT wrote:

Well, I sure don't raise all my food (we grow some, but certainly not an amount/ variety to stay alive, lol!), grow-spin-weave my clothes, lay my paper and bind my books. I cannot manufacture steel and build a car, I do not purify my water and take away my waste water. I don't operate the machines that allow me to be on the internet. I have no way to make my own medicines nor can I operate the robotic surgeons that save so many lives. 

I LOVE old skills and old things! BUT I do not look at the past with rose-colored glasses. 

Cashiers made mistakes all the time. Cars broke down all the time. I love to read, and looking for things in the library used to be so difficult and depended on what the library carried and could get. Now I have the world at my fingertips, and I really like that! Adapt!!!, lol!

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Adapting is all well and good, but what happens to society with no real skills?  Manufacturing is going overseas, we don't make or grow much on a personal level, $15/hr. jobs will be replaced with automation, blue-collar jobs are dismissed, and as the government attacks ranchers and farmers, we import more of our food.  

When any type of disaster strikes, how will people function?  How will we compete with the rest of the world?

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...as the government attacks ranchers and farmers????

Are you speaking of the criminal Bundys?

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I would, first, suggest digging into the Bundy situation before you form an opinion.

Did you know that there were 52 ranches in that area, and the government has made things so difficult that they closed?  Why are we attacking our food prioducers?  Why does Harry Reid want that land do badly?  He is their neighbor after all, and his son is involved.  

I would suggest doing doing some research into what the government has been doing to ranchers and farmers since the civil war.  It's not a new thing.  

Why is the government trying to seize more and more land each year when we don't have the funds to manage current inventory?  

Why did the EPA give the medical records of an estimated 40,000+ agricultural workers to environmental groups?  

Better yet, talk to some farmers and ranchers to see what they have to deal with.  Maybe it's because my area still has farmers and ranchers that I care about the red tape these people have to slog through.