I was on a Yahoo group once that had to do with Peak Oil, and the expectation (hope on many people’s part...) that running out of oil would bring the world back to the medieval and a huge percentage of the world’s population would die as a result of lack of medicines and other essentials.
I was thinking at the time what I would do if anything approaching a pandemic like this were to happen, and the “things” didn’t matter so much as the know-how. And to what I think is one of Rand’s points, if people know how to build things (steel, rail, tools, etc.), then it WILL come back once the impediments are removed. I actually found myself wanting to stock up more on old-time How-To books to be able to maintain my own tools, buildings, equipment, and also how people constructed their basic tools back a couple of hundred years ago. I’m a bit concerned about the fact that SO MUCH of our industrial plant has moved to China and wonder if we could restart at this point. I think so, but am not fully confident of that fact.
Another generation gone and we might not. For instance, I can keep my old Mercedes diesel going forever if I have the basic parts available, and they would be for some time to come. Most of my children’s generation couldn’t. We are really losing the knowledge of doing for ourselves, one generation at a time.
Of course, necessity sometimes is truly the mother of invention, and my son’s generation may have to learn how to restart, and those who can will percolate to the top. The others will either go away or be poor.
“Civilization is always only one generation away from barbarism.” - Roland Bainton