Re: Copper theft

On 21 Sep 2006 08:53:13 -0700, bill.sloman@xxxxxxxx wrote:


California has no racial majority, and a third of its residents were
born outside the USA, and it works great; we're all Americans here.

Tell that to the residents of Watts.

We haven't had a good race riot in decades. France and the UK have
overtaken us there, got to admit. I agree that blacks, involuntary
immigrants, have been less than well integrated into the cultural and
economic mainstream.


I think you are under-estimating the effects that rising oil prices are
going to have on the way your society works. You are much more
car-dependent than Europe, and a great deal of your housing stock is
going to be effectively useless when the price of petrol/gasoline makes
car=based commuting uneconomic.

Big, dense US cities are very public-transit oriented; San Francisco
and New York and Boston, for example. For less dense places, public
transit isn't efficient... this is a *big* country. The obvious
adaptation to high gas prices is carpooling, which is already commmon
here, just to share the driving and the car expenses. A radical jump
in gas prices would increase carpooling and alternates, like private
jitney busses. Any real discomfort would probably be transient.

I drive because it's faster and cheaper than taking BART, but the
switch wouldn't be a big deal. And I could certainly get carpool
volunteers, except that I'd have to leave home at some predictable
(and early!) time, which would be a nuisance.

John


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