[rodguy911]

Detroit has lot in common with New Orleans. both cities may be raised, set on fire and rebuilt with little or no interruption except in gang warfare.

[Bernard]

I started thinking about New Orleans earlier this week when the Army Corps of Engineers started talking about flooding farm land upriver in order to prevent flooding in NO. After all the city is built BELOW SEA LEVEL and needs levees to stay dry. What could possibly go wrong? So now we need to take active steps to destroy crops to protect cites, and eventually somebody will want to reimburse the farmers and homeowners for the destructive actions the government took. And all in the name of Fairness, the Goddess of Unintended Consequences.

To quote one of the great cosmic philosophers (Mr. Scott of the Starship Enterprise) "The more you complicate the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain." Of course, nobody would ever consider doing less in the first place, because then some special interest group would lose out.

The one thing I don't see yet in the future is the actual Lady Thatcher Point, where we finally do run out of other people's money. Since we have spent 2 generations spending more than we have coming in, developing the ability to control that spending habit will be an ugly process to watch.