What's wrong with this country?

[Thor]

You're probably right: the crime was probably poor maintenance rather than poor engineering. But that doesn't change a thing:


--Len.

I would tend to buy into the "poor maintenance" aspect vs the poor engineering. I remember when I first moved to MN. The 494/694 beltway around the Twin Cities area was pretty adequate. That was 1986. It only took the state almost 20 years to act on the beltway to improve the roads for the higher capacity traffic. There's STILL a lot of room for improvement. Instead of funnelling money to the roadways, the state has become convinced that light rail is thew answer. Studies done on the light rail, which travels from downtown Minneapolis to the airport and Mall of America show that the light rail will cost the taxpayers some $ 13 Million/ year. It will NEVER turn a profit. The light rail stations have also become a target of criminals and have become high crime areas. And yet, the most recent election, there was a referendum to divert monies from the roadways to the light rail from the roadways. Due to a lot of misdirection and misinformation, (I could say, "Lies"), the voters were convinced to pass the referendum. So, now, instead of repairing the heavily travelled roadways and bridges, a lot of that money is going to the canard that the light rail has been exposed to be.

[The Rabbi]

I can't wait for the mass influx of Mexican trucks.

These collapses will become a weekly event.

I never knew Mexican trucks to be any heavier than American ones.

[wmenorr67]

I can't wait for the mass influx of Mexican trucks.
These collapses will become a weekly event.

I never knew Mexican trucks to be any heavier than American ones.

I think he meant the increased number of trucks on the road and not the weight factor.

[Len Budney]

I never knew Mexican trucks to be any heavier than American ones.

Maybe the Mexican drivers are heavier? 

--Len.

[Manedwolf]

With the Mexican trucks, I'm just expecting more fatalities of Americans hit by their trucks due to poor maintenance. Tires exploding and taking out the car next to them, duct-taped airbrake lines failing and a trailer sweeping cars off the road as it jackknifes, etc.

[Len Budney]

With the Mexican trucks, I'm just expecting more fatalities of Americans hit by their trucks due to poor maintenance. Tires exploding and taking out the car next to them, duct-taped airbrake lines failing and a trailer sweeping cars off the road as it jackknifes, etc.

I'm not. I think most of that is FUD from American truckers who want to protect their fellow citizens from lower-priced shipping.

--Len.

[The Rabbi]

I never knew Mexican trucks to be any heavier than American ones.

Maybe the Mexican drivers are heavier? 

--Len.

But the toilets are.  You ever hear of "El Ton John"??

[Manedwolf]

With the Mexican trucks, I'm just expecting more fatalities of Americans hit by their trucks due to poor maintenance. Tires exploding and taking out the car next to them, duct-taped airbrake lines failing and a trailer sweeping cars off the road as it jackknifes, etc.

I'm not. I think most of that is FUD from American truckers who want to protect their fellow citizens from lower-priced shipping.

--Len.

John McCain, is that you? 

[Len Budney]

I'm not. I think most of that is FUD from American truckers who want to protect their fellow citizens from lower-priced shipping.

John McCain, is that you? 

McCain is for free markets? I'm shocked. As far as I know, there's only one candidate this time around that actually believes in free markets.

--Len.

[Manedwolf]

Len, I suggest you go into a truckstop somewhere in the midwest and tell some American truckers what you just said.

See what their reaction is. Especially the ones who are still paying for their privately-owned rigs.

[Len Budney]

Len, I suggest you go into a truckstop somewhere in the midwest and tell some American truckers what you just said.

Yeah, and I suggest you go tell some upstate New York dairy farmers that you're against farm subsidies. Then go tell a bunch of welfare queens that you'd like to see the welfare state cut back. Then go tell a roomful of FCC workers that you're for deregulating the airwaves. See what happens to you.

So people are prone to get violent when they want something. So what? 

--Len.

[longeyes]

It's a good thing our infrastructure is old and collapsing.  Mexicans and other Third Worlders need construction jobs, right?  Of course when they're done we'll have Mexican-style infrastructure.  You know, the kind that falls down in a mild earthquake or stiff breeze.

Corrupt politicians + civil service + Mexican day labor = Trouble.

[Paddy]

Here's one thing that's wrong with this country-that this crap should even get to court.  If it was so important, wth didn't he lift the bun before he bit into it?
http://www.dailymail.com/story/News/2007081043/Man-says-hold-the-cheese-claims-McDonalds-didnt-sues-for-10-million/

[280plus]

I don't know how heavy the Mexican truckers are but I seen this Jamaican one once that looked like a house with arms, legs and a head.  Biggest dude I ever saw.

[longeyes]

Here's one thing that's wrong with this country-that this crap should even get to court.  If it was so important, wth didn't he lift the bun before he bit into it?

A good example in microcosm of why America is turning into a joke.  Lawyers who will take any case that promises a big payoff, judges who bought their way onto the bench, juries who live in game show fantasies.  A general moral smog permeates America's social life, growing thicker by the day. 

We are being undone by the very things that used to be our strengths: the rule of law (perverted), commerce (avaricious business people lacking any sense of ethics or good will or community responsibility), and education (the realm of leftist, anti-American propaganda).  We need radical self-surgery--on our souls.  How we do that I don't pretend to know, but we are either going to have to metamorphose or die as a nation.

For those who think I'm being too dark or that we'll squeeze by, well, I think you're kidding yourself.  We have a few years before the iPod generation takes over and does any deal to be left alone with its toys in "peace."

[Manedwolf]

Nestle specifically did not release their self-heating coffee cans in the US for fear of litigation.

[wmenorr67]

Nestle specifically did not release their self-heating coffee cans in the US for fear of litigation.

Where can you find that?  Never even seen it advertised.  Wouldn't have a problem with that.

[Manedwolf]

Nestle specifically did not release their self-heating coffee cans in the US for fear of litigation.

Where can you find that?  Never even seen it advertised.  Wouldn't have a problem with that.

What I just said, it's not available in the US due to their fears of litigation. They're likely afraid someone is going to stick it in their eye, pull the tab and sue.

It's available in other world markets, though, including parts of Europe and South Africa. There's other versions in Japan, too. Just not in the US. Probably won't ever be available in the US. If you're still "over there", you might be able to find self-heating coffee in a store...or, I don't know, a British PX if there is such a thing?

I'd think it'd be an awesome thing for troops! Hot coffee anytime at night in the desert?

It works by mixing water and calcium oxide in a separate iinner chamber when you pull a tab. Pull, shake, wait six minutes or so, have hot coffee.

[wmenorr67]

I am going to have to check with the local vendors and see if they can score me some of this.

[Manedwolf]

I am going to have to check with the local vendors and see if they can score me some of this.

Current brands are, I believe, Nescafe, Wolfgang Puck, Hillside, and something I can't remember in Japanese. There might be others.

[tyme]

Manedwolf, how does that thing work?  Is that a micro nuclear reactor in there?  That would certainly generate lawsuits.

Privatization, again, is NOT the panacea answer to the infrastructure problems that currently exist in the United States.

That applies to the subset of infrastructure that is immune from competition because of logistics (roads, etc).

However, there is infrastructure that's not subject to such logistical difficulties, and that infrastructure should be privatized.  I'm still furious about the effective monopoly of cable and phone providers.  There's no good reason why other companies shouldn't be allowed to run fiber throughout a city.  Sure, there's transient inconvenience as streets and alleys are dug up.  So what?  Live with it.  And, in many cases, existing monopolies haven't and aren't running fiber, yet they're still preventing other companies (Verizon) from doing so.

[ilbob]

I'm disgusted.

First there was the bridge collapse. Mind you, there have been bridge collapses before, and after each one state governments and the Feds have "resolved" to ensure it naver happens again. Then we read that inspectors in Minnesota found cracks in the structure of the bridge, but the recommended method of repairing them was "too expensive" ... so they did nothing. Gee, I'll bet plating those cracks looks a whole bunch better in retrospect.

And now the mine collapse. Check this out:

Government mine inspectors have issued 325 citations against the mine since January 2004, according to a quick analysis of federal Mine Safety and Health Administration online records. Of those, 116 were what the government considered "significant and substantial," meaning they are likely to cause injury.

The 325 safety violations is not unusual, said J. Davitt McAteer, former head of the MSHA and now vice president of Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia.

"It's not perfect but it's certainly not bad," McAteer said.

It's been awhile since I studied arithmatic, but last I knew we still had 12 months in a year. So since January of 2004 we have seen 43 months elapse. So that boils down to an average of 7.6 safety violations per month (roughly two per week), and 2.7 "significant" (defined as likely to cause injury) violations per month (that's one approximately every 11 days).

And a former head of the Federal agency in charge on these inspections says that's "... not bad"? I guess I must be awfully dumb, because it sounds rather bad to me.

Why are we paying government officials to play Russian roulette with our lives? That's what it boils down to. Inspectors inspect, they see problems, and then nothing gets done. They file a report, and the conditions continue, unabated. Why aren't they subject to the same rules of responsibility as ordinary citizens? Suppose my car has a brake failure and I run down a few dozen pedestrians. Can I say "Well, I saw that the brakes were worn out and there wasn't much fluid left in the master cylinder, but brake fluid is expensive, so I deemed it was safe enough and just kept driving it. Sorry 'bout that. Have a nice day."

Didn't think so.

Most government issued safety citations are for things that while they are not totally unimportant, they aren't especially dangerous either. When so called safety inspectors go to a plant, they have to find a certain number of violations or they can't justify their existence. The plants know this. I suspect they do not worry a whole lot about minor things that don't really matter much and leave them to the inspectors to find, so they will leave them alone. That is an old game. This is not much different than the quotas virtually every traffic cop lives by.

[Len Budney]

Manedwolf, how does that thing work?  Is that a micro nuclear reactor in there?  That would certainly generate lawsuits.

Basically, quicklime and water. When the two are mixed, quite a lot of heat is generated.

Privatization, again, is NOT the panacea answer to the infrastructure problems that currently exist in the United States.

That applies to the subset of infrastructure that is immune from competition because of logistics (roads, etc).

Fair observation, but I think you'll find that roads are much less "immune from competition" than you think. Like electric utilities, etc., the monopoly was forcibly imposed first, and then came the argument why monopoly is inevitable.

In the original colonies there were private turnpikes. The courts, however, refused to provide remedy against people who refused to pay. The private turnpikes, facing bankruptcy, were abandoned and taken over by the government whose very courts had driven the private owners out of business.

However, there is infrastructure that's not subject to such logistical difficulties, and that infrastructure should be privatized.  I'm still furious about the effective monopoly of cable and phone providers.  There's no good reason why other companies shouldn't be allowed to run fiber throughout a city....

The argument that cable and phone are "natural monopolies" is the same argument that roads are: namely, that it's prohibitively expensive to "duplicate infrastructure," so the one to lay wires first becomes a monopolist. You can easily see through this argument when it comes to wires; I think if you ponder it a bit, you'll realize that the same considerations apply to roads.

The reason people find the road argument so plausible is that they only have one road in front of their house. They don't realize that "competition" doesn't mean "two or more roads in front of every house," so you can pick which one to ride on. The most appropriate definition of "competition" is "low barriers to entry," so that the guy providing roads in the next town can, if he's doing a better job, buy out the provider in your town. Profit and loss, and its way of driving the bad providers out of business, is the magic of the market--consumer choice is merely one manifestation of that.

--Len.

[tyme]

They don't realize that "competition" doesn't mean "two or more roads in front of every house," so you can pick which one to ride on. The most appropriate definition of "competition" is "low barriers to entry," so that the guy providing roads in the next town can, if he's doing a better job, buy out the provider in your town.

Only if the local provider will sell.  Evil Road Corp manages to buy a few city blocks of roads.  They proceed to set up tollbooths but otherwise do nothing to maintain the roads.  The people living and working there can't move without huge costs (due to plummeting property values), so they're stuck paying the tolls.  Meanwhile, Evil Road Corp makes huge profits, because they're not doing anything except collecting fees.  Why would they sell to Good Road Corp unless the offer was way above fair market value... at which point even Good Road Corp would have to overcharge for quite a while to break even?

It doesn't have to be that sinister.  Evil Road Corp might even maintain the roads, presumably because road maintenance is in some contract with whoever they bought it from, or they somehow got bound by contracts with the people living along the road.  Suppose in 20 years the standard is to have RF beacons in lane markers to allow modern vehicles to navigate by themselves.  Since that was probably an unexpected development at the time of sale to Evil Road Corp, they don't put markers in to keep costs down.  What recourse do people living there have?  Again, property values go down, and the people there are stuck.

The argument that cable and phone are "natural monopolies" is the same argument that roads are: namely, that it's prohibitively expensive to "duplicate infrastructure," so the one to lay wires first becomes a monopolist. You can easily see through this argument when it comes to wires;

Fiber can be run parallel to all the other fiber/copper crap already in place.  It can be run to one neighborhood at a time.  There's not as much of an economy of scale, and there's no logistics problem with providing service to customers of some other data service company.  There could be a dozen fiber companies running fiber throughout a city and there wouldn't be a problem.  How would you have the same thing with roads?  "This lane is for Good Road Corp customers, that lane is for Evil Road Corp customers"?  Building tunnels or elevated roads is not feasible, because the added maintenance costs would make "fair market value" for using those roads even more expensive than the bloated prices Evil Road Corp is charging.

[DustinD]

Wouldn't people just contract out maintinence and construction like they do for a lot of things? You could do like other countries and let companies maintain the roads to a set standard and in return they get exclusive advertising (such as billboards) rights. If you don't like the company fire them and hire someone else.