Posted on 02/21/2012 5:11:24 AM PST by Kaslin
Nassim Nicholas Taleb wrote a fantastic book on the impact of large, high impact, statistically rare events called The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
Technically, Taleb would probably classify the events we're about to discuss as "grey swans," unlikely events that we should still be able to anticipate, but that's splitting hairs. Long story short, we should be aware that our world can change for the worse in a hurry and we should make sure we're taking steps to alleviate the danger.
Default on the Debt: This is, far and away, the scariest option on the list because all we have to do to ensure that it occurs is maintain the status quo for the next 10-15 years -- if that long. Congressman Mike Pence says we may only be a decade away from a default and Senator Tom Coburn thinks we may be less than 5 years away. By 2020, it'll take 19% of the world's GDP just to finance our debt and by 2030 it'll take 36% of all our tax revenue just to pay the interest on the debt. When people call our spending "unsustainable," that's not hyperbole. What happens if America goes bankrupt and defaults? A Depression would begin, your life savings could become worthless overnight, your taxes would explode, your standard of living would plunge, violence and instability would break out, and payments from the government could dramatically drop or stop altogether.
Demographic Assimilation: "According to a 2002 Zogby poll, 58% of Mexicans said that the ‘territory of the United States’ southwest rightfully belongs to Mexico.'" Mexico, being a bad neighbor, actively encourages both illegal aliens and Mexican-Americans to have their first loyalty to Mexico. This hasn't been a big issue thus far, but we still have porous borders and there's a genuine danger that Mexico could become a failed state. What if the worst happens and we go from 10-12 million illegals in the United States to 25-40 million packed into the southwestern United States in a relatively short period of time? Demographics are destiny, which is something we taught both Mexico and the Indians the hard way, which is why it's so ironic that we think that same lesson couldn’t ever apply to us.
EMP: There haven't been any high altitude nuclear explosions since 1962; so it's hard to definitively know exactly how much damage a nuke exploding over the center of the United States would cause. A Solar Storm, which could theoretically produce almost the same effect, is even more of an unknown. However, it's entirely possible that a single nuclear bomb or Solar Storm could fry enough electronics to send us all the way back to the Dark Ages in the space of a few heartbeats. Airplanes would drop from the sky, the power grid would go down long term, the Internet would go offline, and nearly all the electronics, computer circuitry, and automobiles people rely on would stop functioning. Millions would die in a few months’ time, economic activity would grind to a halt, and people all across America would get to experience the old school "Oregon Trail" video game in real time.
Nuclear Weapons: There's always a chance that some dictator or religious nut could launch a nuclear weapon at us, but as nukes proliferate to more unstable nations, the chances of terrorists or hostile intelligence agencies sneaking those weapons into the United States will increase dramatically. This will especially be true if Iran gets nukes, because that would undoubtedly inspire Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Egypt among other nations to also acquire nuclear weapons.
Imagine nuclear weapons going off in LA, DC, NYC, Chicago, Houston, and Philadelphia all in the same day. Millions would be killed, tens of millions would be displaced, it would cost tens of trillions, those cities could be unusable for decades, and it's entirely possible we would likely have NO IDEA who is behind it at first. That would seem to make our porous borders into a high priority problem although you certainly wouldn’t realize it from the lackadaisical approach the Bush and Obama administrations have taken to securing the border.
Biological Weapons: The Black Death killed somewhere between 30%-60% of the population in Europe, smallpox killed roughly 300 million people in the 20th century, and less than a hundred years ago, the Spanish Flu killed somewhere between 50-100 million people. Now consider that there are roughly 20 nations that are believed to have biological weapon programs including Iran, Egypt, Libya, Pakistan, Syria, and North Korea. Put together hostile and/or unstable regimes with access to weaponized biological agents with terrorists (or even environmental extremists who believe the planet is overpopulated) and you have the potential for tens of millions of deaths, nationwide disruptions, and panic that could last for months or even years.
Not that there is anything wrong with that.
I am aware of what I don't know, and question using an am/fm radio as a test of an EMP cabinet.
At a minimum, I know that a faraday cage needs to be grounded. And the range of frequencies that do damage to solid state electronics must be clearly understood, as well as the probable distance to a likely EMP pulse source.
I would spend my time better learning about the behavior of EMP and its effect on modern electronics first.
The most critical need under catastrophic conditions is portable reliable two-way communications. A healthy receiver, with no working civil transmitters is just another paperweight. I would certainly protect a few sets of those, together with a generous supply of rechargeable batteries in a proven faraday cage.
Not too many people can build a faraday cage to protect a modern automobile. Or to protect the energy grid or the gasoline supply. Even most solar panel chargers rely on "modern" EMP-sensitive electronics.
Although there is no substitute for actually reading the book, the next best thing is to see the author's actual words. From te Kindle Second Edition
What we call here a Black Swan (and capitalize it) is an event with the following three attributes.
First, it is an outlier, as it lies outside the realm of regular expectations, because nothing in the past can convincingly point to its possibility.
Second, it carries an extreme impact (unlike the bird).
Third, in spite of its outlier status, human nature makes us concoct explanations for its occurrence after the fact, making it explainable and predictable.
** The highly expected not happening is also a Black Swan. Note that, by symmetry, the occurrence of a highly improbable event is the equivalent of the nonoccurrence of a highly probable one.*
The true ‘Black Swan’ event that no one seriously believes will happen is the *ZOMBIE APOCOLYPSE*!!!
(cue sinister music)
:-P
Here’s the blurb and way to order “Biflationary Depression” on Amazon’s printer. It is cutting edge. https://www.createspace.com/3683488
(Art.) What if the worst happens and we go from 10-12 million illegals in the United States to 25-40 million packed into the southwestern United States in a relatively short period of time? Demographics are destiny.....
The author's behind the curve: we're already there with those numbers, or rather have been. It's like nailing Jell-O to a wall even to guess at a good number, because the Census Bureau, geeing to the nod of the PTB, has been drastically low-balling the number for years.
I would guess that the number of Mexican nationals in -country in illegal status (is there another?) is over 15,000,000 and that immigrated, amnestied, papered (legalized) immigrants, and first-generation "anchor babies" of same drive the total to around 30,000,000.
Recently there has been some recession of these big numbers as Mexicans bail for the old country as jobs dry up in the recession, so "your guess is as good as mine -- and maybe better".
WAG: a couple million "former illegals" with papers and voting rights are probably actually still illegal, slipping by with fraudulent documents and phony claims on citizenship. Not exactly a solid foundation for patriotism in the later generations.
An emerging issue is that generators have purposively made excess (standby) generating capacity go away. It's all about cost control and all that green-eyeshade stuff that minimized the number of boats on the Titanic, for example. It made sense because the Titanic was unsinkable anyway, so how can you defend burdening the shareholders -- of whom J.P. Morgan was the leader -- with a frivolous expenditure? You're going to tell Morgan he has to spend money on excess lifeboat capacity? Good luck with that!
What? What happened with that? I don't remember that.
Got link? Would like to read more.
The reductions needed to stop the fiscal bleeding would set off huge riots. Pols know this and won’t go there.
ping
Well, I am trying. Fasting for two weeks now, how much longer do you need it, 'cuz I'm getting weak?
That’s why I keep saying “No matter what anyone does, much unpleasantness lies ahead”.
Who needs a black swan when you have a black Marxist.
Who needs a black swan when you have a black Marxist.
Thanks for the link...
Jobs are people doing favors for each other - 'money' is the way we keep track of those 'favors' - the bookkeeping.
"Jobs" are people doing favors for each other - 'money' is the way we keep track of those 'favors' - the bookkeeping.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.