XPost: alt.folklore.computers
From: bowman@montana.com

On Tue, 16 Dec 2025 05:54:30 GMT, Charlie Gibbs wrote:

> On 2025-12-15, rbowman  wrote:
>
>> On Mon, 15 Dec 2025 18:34:39 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>>
>>> On 12/12/2025 19:26, rbowman wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Fri, 12 Dec 2025 11:54:38 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> That will change in 4 tears time.
>>>>
>>>> Was that a typo or a subtle statement of the conditions?
>>>
>>> Freudian slip.
>>>
>>> IN my 75 years I have never seen political leaders more incompetent
>>> and yet with greater power to do harm, than now.
>>>
>>> And that is in almost every country.
>>>
>>> The times have changed. But the politics have not. Yet.
>>
>> Perhaps it was youthful naivete but I remember the JFK years with the
>> 'best and the brightest' with some fondness. Then the music died. I
>> recovered some hope with Reagan but it's been downhill from there.
>> Downhill, hell, more like off a cliff.
>
> +1
>
> IMHO the 1980s marked the start of the great decline, evidenced by the
> rise of the Me Generation and the re-definition of greed as a virtue.
>
> As for the 21st century...


I see the watershed as the '73 oil embargo followed by the stagflation.
Many industries had renewed their physical plant during WWII and the
machinery was nearing the end of its service life. Fledgling robotics and
more sophisticated automation promised the new generation of machinery
would increase productivity.

Then the apple cart was upset. It was hard to sell a project on ROI when
you could park money in a bank and get more than 10%. CEOs looked around,
said 'screw capital investment, we'll move the old machinery to someplace
with cheap labor'. The first wave was the deep south and Mexico, followed
by Asia.

Springsteen is becoming sort of an asshole but he nailed it with 'Those
jobs are going boys and the ain't coming back' The US moved to a 'service
economy' with no more of that dirty, noisy manufacturing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sovereign_State

I read that back in the day. ITT was the precursor of things to come,
multinational megacorporations that have no real ties to a country and
only care about their bottom line. 'Made in the USA' came to be the
punchline of a bad joke.

The finest politicians that money can buy watched it all happen.
>
>    This is the dawning of the age of the psychopath Age of the
>    psychopaaaaaaath...

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
 * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)