From the Editior of the RWWNL.
Will We Change?
Terence R. Wilken
Well, I last left you with a thought. Are we going to have to change our life style in order to allow our economy and the world the ability to gain some breathing space? I for one think that we need to do that; but we have all become used to the good life. As an example do you realize that there are now more registered cars in America than there are licensed drivers? There is certainly something wrong with this picture. We have turned into a society that has learned to over indulge.
What can we do? Well the first thing that must be done is to look at ways to save on the need for automobiles and energy. The first place to start is right here in my home state. Let me explain.
A study has been done in the Oklahoma City area where Interstate 35 has been under construction for what seems like forever. They have determined that there are more people that are involved in accidents (some of them fatal) than on other sections of I-35 that are not under construction. They also determined that the construction also added to drive times and gasoline consumption. I do not know how much they spent on this survey, but I could have told them that this would be the case without their having to do all that research and analysis. But then those in California had over 100 candidates for governor. Go figure!
Another study was conducted on all of Interstate 35 between Oklahoma City and Dallas Texas. Major construction is currently underway on many miles of this highway system. It was determined that the busiest weekend of the year for this stretch of Highway occurred during the Oklahoma Texas football game held each year. The contractor is trying very hard to have all lanes open for this occasion. In order to insure that this occurs, the state built into the contract a penalty clause. They will fine the contractor $5,000 per lane mile that is not open by the time that the game is held. Now for those who think that this is not enough to pay by the money hungry contractor, one must add the final part to the contract agreement. The fine will be assessed for each hour of the weekend. Now that is an incentive.
The reason for this analysis is to present my idea of dealing with the energy crisis as well as saving our economy hundreds of millions of dollars and lives as well. We need to shutdown all football stadiums. Oh, the games could still be played: but they would just not have to be held in stadiums anymore. Everyone could watch them on television. Can you imagine the savings that would be involved? It would even save all our cities the costs of having to build new stadiums. The games could be played on any patch of grass that would allow enough room for the TV cameras. Most of us have to watch it on TV anyway, so this idea would only inconvenience the minority. That has always been the fair way to do things in our society, and it feels good, so it must be a good idea.
All of this is to show what our country has become. We had a huge bubble in the 90′s building a technology back bone for all of us to enjoy. The only problem is that not enough of us bought into it. Some of us made the decision that the lifestyle that we were used to was OK with us. We were happy with what we had. We did not need more. The bubble broke in our stock portfolio, Companies are having to contract, and now more of us will be in a position of living with what we currently have. Our lifestyle will remain static. Is this a bad thing? I leave it to my readers to answer that question.
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