Guest Post by Jim Kunstler
A nation literally falling apart certainly might want to Build Back Better, but it also might want to consider building back differently, consistent with the signals that reality is sending to humankind these days. For instance, the signals that the old industrial paradigm is coming to an end, and that the furnishings and accessories of it may not be the ones that humankind actually requires going forward.
Alas, the psychology of previous investment tends to dictate that societies pound their capital — if they still have any —down a rat-hole in the vain and desperate attempt to keep old rackets going, and this is the essence of Mr. Biden’s infrastructure bill, a colossal confection of government over-reach with its thin cake layers, cloyingly thick “social justice” frosting, and its giant cherry-on-top of drawing on “capital” that doesn’t exist.
The main racket is the ongoing effort to replace a transactional economy of individual enterprise with the managerial state that attempts to allocate all resources and direct markets. We’ve seen that movie before. It beats a path directly to totalitarian tyranny, and that is already sickeningly visible in the pre-production activities for the new movie, with social media assisting government to set up total control of its citizens lives — actually copying the techniques already operating in China. (And you have to wonder whether we’re doing this on our own or at China’s prompting, considering all the money China lavished on the Biden family in recent years.)
Some pieces of the bill are just plain tragic, like the effort to prop up mass motoring by switching out electric cars for the old gasoline-powered cars that have ruled the land for a century. It’s an appealing fantasy, of course… but the electric car thing ain’t a’gonna happen, not at the scale envisioned, not unless the government plans to buy the electric cars and give them away to everybody, and that’s rather a stretch.
First, the whole mass motoring racket is falling apart more on its financial model than on whether the cars move by gasoline or electricity. Americans are used to buying cars on installment loans, and, with the middle-class withering away, there are ever-fewer credit-worthy borrowers for those loans (for ever more expensive cars). Soon, as the debt markets groan and wobble under the weight of massive new debt, there will also be even less hallucinated capital (“money”) to loan out to this shrinking pool of borrowers.
Second, the decrepit US electric grid can’t handle the charging needs of such a gigantic electric car fleet (and fixing the grid alone would be a trillion-dollar project). Third, the manufacturing of electric cars depends on scarce rare mineral resources that are not readily available in the US, but controlled by foreign nations. Fourth, car-making utterly depends on far-flung international supply lines for parts and electronics in a time when the integrated global economy is cracking up under the strain of desperate competition for dwindling resources and the ill-will generated by that. There are yet more kinks in the electric car scheme but those are enough.
Of course, this whole initiative is in the service of preserving a set of living arrangements that is going obsolete, namely, suburbia. The previous investment represented by all the housing subdivisions, commercial highway strips, malls, office parks, and super-highways pretty much drove the American economy since the Second World War. It’s understandable that we would be desperate to keep it all running, and fix the pieces that are falling apart, because it’s where we put most of our national wealth. It’s the whole American Dream in one nifty package. And, it sure seemed like a good idea at the time, in such a big country, with so much cheap land, and all that oil. But now things have changed and reality is sending us clear signals that we have to live differently. The effort to oppose reality is apt to be ruinous for us.
A thumping sense of triumph attended the roll-out of the Build Back Better infrastructure bill, at least on the Democrats’ side, especially with all the chocolate Easter eggs for “social justice” lodged in the $1.9 trillion basket. I imagine it will mark the Biden regime’s high point of esprit. By the time Congress churns through it all, the financial markets will be sending florid distress signals of deepening instability and, with Covid lockdowns ending (or even if they resume), warm weather will bring out people angry about one thing or another into the streets, and a number of pending legal matters — the Derek Chauvin verdict, the Durham investigation, the Hunter Biden case at DOJ, and perhaps the burgeoning and rather sinister new Matt Gaetz melodrama — will stir the pot that the American zeitgeist is brewing in, with plumes of chaos wafting over the land. By fall, Build Back Better might transmogrify into the ominous question: build back anything?
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More TRUTH about the covid Bull Sh*t.
Tangential, perhaps, but I hear that the Russian military is bayoneting babies all through eastern Ukraine.
Or maybe they were just taking the babies out of their incubators and laughing at them as they died. They were killing puppies, too.
With coal shovels.
And they toss the babies in the air first.
Get your stories straight.
Don’t forget the part about roasting the dead babies on spits and eating them while swilling cheap vodka.
And they made lamps shades and soap from the bodies of six gorillion gassed…..reeeee.
Speaking of a “paradigm of failure”, I was listening to YT channel Liberty and Finance with Kaiser Dunagun. He has Steve DeAngelo as a guest from the SRS ROCCO report. Really worth a listen!
He discussed the energy cliff – how close we are to it and supply line failure. A crisis in computer parts is on the horizon. Today, the world runs on computer parts like transistors.
He tied the Romans enormous use of wood as a fuel source ( staggering) and our current energy(oil) dilemma. The Romans fight in Germania was for control of the forests wood.
I’ve been mulling over solar energy for a few years. Having the ability to produce at least a bit of energy for lights, fan, fridge, etc is an imperative for any semblance of modern living.
Their discussion was enough to get me motivated to that end. I figure a $12K investment now could keep me minimally energy independent for 15 years. Past my expiration point…
Any thoughts out there along these lines?
Independence is never a bad thing
I just purchased a 200w panel with charger and inverter to play around with before diving into a bigger system. I will use it to charge tool batteries and to run some lights in my greenhouse this winter.
Steve – This is a reply I got from Doc in January regarding his solar system. Definitely some good advice.
I recommend Schneider Electric, as they are one of the premier industrial electrical equipment manufacturers, and is the parent of many brands such as Square D. (I have no financial interest in them). I went with the Conext series. I built my system and it will use the solar panels to keep the batteries charged and run household appliances until the sun is shaded by a cloud or it rains (or night time) and then automatically switch to grid power. It will only switch to batteries when there is no sun and the grid goes down.
Get a MPPT battery charge controller as it is the most efficient type. It will not overcharge your battery bank. I’d recommend going with a higher battery voltage system such as 48Volts or maybe 24Volts. The higher the battery voltage, the lower the current demands which will reduce battery charge/discharge cycles and hence, wear and tear. Although Li chemistries have higher energy storage densities, I believe the additional cost doesn’t justify their use and stick to lead acid. The Rolls Royce of batteries for this would be Nickel – Iron chemistries which will outlive you if taken care of but the cost is in the Rolls Royce category.
Since I live in a very rural area that loses power on a regular basis, and sometimes for a week at a time, I do NOT use a grid tie system. Although you can sell your surplus energy back to the grid with a grid tie, the system will shutdown if the grid goes down. It is very important to me that I not lose power when the grid goes down, but you have to decide on that one for yourself.
I hope you find this helpful.
My suggestion would be to get the critical components sized for the number of Watts you expect to build out to (inverter and charge controller) first. Don’t plan to run all of your appliances at the same time on a solar system. I can run any two large electric appliances as well as lights, etc. at any time on my system. I planned to be able to run the well pump and electric hot water heater. I can also run central A/C and the washing machine at the same time. A little bit of scheduling based on priorities like the fridge and furnace let’s me run the place continuously that way. My system will run 4kW continuously with a 7kW surge (think well pump). Start with a few panels and batteries and then add panels and batteries as time and finances allow.
I sourced much of the hardware as new items on eBay and have been very pleased at the result. I bought the PV panels and batteries locally. The panels were Sharp industrial panels with a 25 year warranty that spent three years on a commercial rooftop. The warranty didn’t carry over, but being used, the price made them very attractive. The batteries are heavy so get them from a local dealer. I would recommend Trojan 6V batteries (again – no financial interests.)
Here is a company I found on e-bay who sells all types of solar equipment. He has some controller packages that seem to be quite reasonably priced and I’ll bet if you give him a call, he can provide a lot of advice. everyonessolar.com
TN Patriot,
Thanks! I’ve been mulling it all seriously for about 1 year. I have a good idea on purchases. The Panasonic HIT panels are 330 W, MPPT for sure. I’m thinking 2 40amp boxes. 24 v for sure. With a 48v I’d probably electrocute myself. I’m not interested in any grid tie. No govt involvement.
Thanks again!
Doc is running a 4KW system, which is enough to power a decent sized house, but you have to be careful when running large motor driven equipment. Be sure and check out the website. He has some pretty good pricing on controllers and for $12K, you can get a nice system.
Don’t know if you ever watched Green Acres, but here is a clip for how they handled the electric capacity of their house:
Our society relies upon cheap abundant energy to drive the economic engine. Jim is correct that investing heavily into electric cars will be money unwisely spent. The only way to ensure cheap energy is to utilize the energy of the stars. Hydrogen power is the future. Batteries lose charge, are a chemical nightmare for the environment, and are not zero emission when the build emissions are taken into context. All the foolish propoganda to convince people they need to spend more for a less reliable, environmental albatross is ludicrous. If the leaders of this world truly cared about the people, they would address the 2nd biggest shortfall of our age which is rising energy costs. Since the technicrats don’t want a free populace, they pursue tech that will ensure that the peoples cost to live will continue to increase. Which brings me to the biggest shortfall. Lack of ethics. Our politicians, corporate oligarchs, and presstitutes have all failed free America miserably.
Right, harvest hydrogen from the stars, that sounds plausible…
Utilize, not harvest or collect. Hydrogen, Thorium, fuel cells, CNG, all seem like fabulous ideas but for some reason they don’t catch on or are not as easy to implement as one might hope.
I was always a big fan of CNG. It runs fairly clean, we have an abundance of it in the US and it is easy to convert a gasoline engine to one that burns CNG.
Build Back Better is directly from the “New Reset” under United Nations “Agenda 21” !
It’s a global new world order wet dream on the verge of becoming a nightmare for average people especially US citizens where the standard of living is on a slippery slope to oblivion and the WOKE leftists are greasing the path . In this process the haves will lose nothing and average people will lose or willingly surrender everything with a government boot on our necks . Unlike the leftist poster child of the day , the dead George Floyd nobody will give a shit as long as those suffering and losing the most are white !
5-6 yrs ago, I won a contract to remediate water damage & mold at an apartment complex in Bowman, GA. When calculating round trip mileage, saw that the infamous Georgia Guidestones were literally a stone’s throw away. Well, around 8 miles.
I was impressed, but never thought they would be anywhere close to being achieved. I was wrong.
Transportation is so expensive that when people are offered a ride service involving a subscription to an autonomous electric-powered car they will hop on board. More so in large cities where owning and parking a car is a pain. Every administration pushes something and puts more debt based money towards an idea. Biden has been led by progressives to pursue this green crap. It’s coming whether you like electric cars and green energy or not.
If it had been to governments at the time, they’d still be trying to make horses and oxen more efficient and environmentally friendly.
They never talk about what the automobile took away. Every street ankle deep in horse shit. When it rained it all washed into the ditches and rivers. In the winter it was frozen like rocks in the street. When you slipped or fell on the street you fell on piles of shit. Progs are morons in a class unto themselves. Maybe we should start calling them Shit Lovers?
Build back better? Yeah, rebuild the coal fired electric plants! America has hundreds of years of coal reserves. If you crush the coal and mix it with crushed limestone and then burn it in a blast of air, the limestone turns to lime and absorbs the coals impurities (like mercury). Water scrubbers in smoke stacks can clean the air. Large ponds with plants clean the water. The lime is then turned into cement which is a valuable building material which becomes rock and holds the impurities for ages. This has been known for decades but TPTB don’t like the coal business; coal can be burned cleanly and I’d rather live near a coal plant than a nuclear plant myself.
Fuck Elon and his electric car bullshit.
Fuck GM, Ford, BMW, and every other gasoline car manufacturer.
“The Flintstone” is THE car of our futures.
Nick’s Dad talked fondly of the Rhodes Canardly they had when the boys (Nick and brother, deceased) were kids in Cleveland. It can hardly get down one hill and up the next one… Canardly.
They all laughed every time.
I personally would never buy one of these… no cup holder.
This is a good read, very instructive.
https://www.cato.org/policy-report/march/april-2021/how-i-became-libertarian
About 1/3 of trhe way down, the author says this-
“Progressivism rests on two critical assumptions. The first is that we know how to improve society: “social science” provides us with a reliable basis for the necessary social engineering. The second critical assumption is that government is a suitable instrument for improving society. My second and third lessons taught me that these two critical assumptions were unfounded and unrealistic.”
The important thing is that planned economies, just like top down social engineering, always fail, and usually in horrible ways.
The key is one of the promises of America, economic liberty with protected property rights.
What will be built is anyone’s guess, but it is a certainty it will be better if it’s built by individuals making their own decisions about what to build.
“…actually copying the techniques already operating in China.” check out the video, named below, on youtube- age restricted- and notice the race of the asshole attacking the messenger….reeee.
No need to question authority – Everything on TV is always true | Biker smash passager window COVID
Link here…if it posts.
That was a rather violent reaction, wasn’t it? I admit, the guy was getting annoying, but that was over the top.
Rather mundane when you consider Red Guards killed 80 million of the own. Keeping that in mind, imagine how they’ll treat a people not of their own race. reeeeee.
There are unexpected benefits of even bad things like the shutdown. I live in a tech heavy area, and have asked many people in tech whether working remote from the office is here to stay. They all say yes. I just had lunch with some lawyers, who since the shutdown have made appearances at court and even conducted hearings and trials on Zoom, and they all think this will now be a permanent thing. This is a paradigm shift, and will impact the how business and life is conducted. The potential savings in time wasted traveling and commuting could be huge. And if people can work remotely in less crowded areas, and still make a decent wage, it may lead to a new localism.
What is interesting is that the technologies enabling remote work already existed before the shutdown. What was lacking was the imagination to genuinely envision a new work culture. The whole construct of workers commuting to city centers, while living in ring suburbs, is weakening, and I think this can only be a good thing. But as in many cases, it took an emergency to reveal these possibilities.
So, in a way, yes. Take my son, for example, who had just started his career as a software engineer for Cerner (yes, global corporate giant networking medical Skynet) when the reality of being in Kansas City during a pandemic along with the increased homeless presence in the city sent him home for a few months.
Now, he has resumed his career engineering software for another medical data corporation and has worked at home for almost four months and has yet to enter the building, which is less than a half-mile from his apartment complex.
He is on a project with other young rocket scientists who live in the same apartment grouping and so they interact outside of the actual workplace. He (and they) are a highly privileged group of young people who are able to ignore the rules because of the rules. By forcing their engineers to work on teams from home, the teams started congregating to actually work as a team. It has lead to some interesting work approaches, but overall?
Has doomed the sort of interaction young people his age need. Is sad for an old lady like me who just wants grandchildren .
Opinion on this?
Jaws remake?