Comments on: An Idle Class That Can Only Dream

By: Peter Blood

Peter Blood — Thu, 21 Jan 2016 20:27:58 +0000

Kunstler never has gotten around to why everyone fled the cities for the suburbs in the first place.

By: Redan

Redan — Thu, 21 Jan 2016 19:48:27 +0000

Stephen Gustav says, in part: "...freaking out somewhere around 1972." From the Richmond Fed FAQ on Gold and Silver:

If, however, one considers the gold standard as a monetary system in which the unit of money is backed by gold even if the monetary unit cannot be converted into gold, one could argue that the United States went off of the gold standard on August 15, 1971 when President Nixon announced that the U.S. dollar would no longer be convertible into gold in the international markets. The President was able to suspend the ability to convert the dollar into gold because there was no legal requirement that the United States exchange gold for dollars. On December 18, 1971 the President devalued the dollar, and even though the devaluation was effective immediately, only Congress could officially change the gold value of the dollar. Early in 1972, Congress passed Public Law 92- 268, which gave formal approval to the December 1971 devaluation.

By: Alrenous

Alrenous — Thu, 21 Jan 2016 14:56:53 +0000

Children of the revolution, Gustav.

1945. Massachusetts finally finishes conquering the world. Institutes its changes, such as bringing all American science under state control.

However, institutions have inertia. Prewar-trained professionals continue to work. Until 1970 or so, when they retire, passing the torch to postwar professionals.

At the same time, 1965: children of the revolution are turning twenty. The children of the devil always try to eat their parents.

We’re now going through the second stage. The first set of postwar professionals were trained by prewar professionals. They are now retiring, being replaced by professionals with no prewar roots at all, and the grandchildren of the revolution are eating the children of the revolution.

By: Stephen Gustav

Stephen Gustav — Thu, 21 Jan 2016 14:31:49 +0000

Average Annual Gas Prices Adjusted for Inflation. Gas just hit $1.62 in VA. Looking at the chart above, it occurs to me that a lot of historical time-series data charts have the same look — steady on a trend from the distant past, then freaking out somewhere around 1972.

By: Scipio Americanus

Scipio Americanus — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 18:06:57 +0000

Lately, whenever I need a good chuckle I go and read some of his peak oil stuff. Getting funnier every day!

By: Dan Kurt

Dan Kurt — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 17:50:38 +0000

Regarding Slovenian Guest’s evisceration of Kunstler:

Yes it is a problem of the American Negro and increasingly Mexican/Latinos but it stems IMHO from two factors:

1) Johnson’s Great Society which married the lower classes to Single Mother Welfare with fathers not included, and
2) Mean IQ of Blacks at 80-85 and Mexicans/Latinos 85-90.

By: Slovenian Guest

Slovenian Guest — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 13:58:02 +0000

I like his a priori signaling stance on guns. Someone should tell him that despite multiple surges in gun purchases, the homicide rate declined by nearly half since 1992. Or was the article about black America specifically? Because whitey isn't any more violent than his European counterpart. The weapons-of-war, assault-rifles thing is also funny. Who does he think soldiers fear more, the Kalashnikov- or the Lee-Enfield-wielding Taliban? More people are killed by cows in the US than by full autos. Definitely NOT Isegoria worthy, Kunstler a #NewYorkValues liberal theater major... James LaFond said it better: "It is a brutal thing; the suffering of the man who has been denied a test of his merits or a rite of passage; the suffering that no primitive society — no matter how cruel and dedicated to the torture, and even the eating, of its enemies — would ever consider inflicting on one of its own."