Sooner or later, things start falling apart.Buildings, industries, systems, entire ways of thinking—everything. Thanks, entropy! At times, the breakdown might be subtle. It might be slow. It might not be noticeable to everyone at first.
However, there are those with keen eyes and sharp minds who sense the impending doom and maybe even take steps to avoid catastrophe.
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The true American middle class.You are either upper middle class or working poor. The middle class has eroded steadily for at least 30 years.
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Factual information on the Internet. There’s a churn of AI created content that’s being taken as fact, and used as the basis for new articles and content. Sifting through information to validate it is already too much effort for many and will only become more difficult.
The secret to systems surviving and thriving in any setting is to consistently put in time, effort, and money to maintain them. That way, they’ll operate optimally and won’t collapse in the far-off future. To paraphrasecomedian John Oliver: infrastructure might not be sexy, but it’s vital.
At the time, the Senate proposal noted that the infrastructure investment gap could be responsible for a loss of $4 trillion of gross domestic product and the loss of 2.5 million jobs. That’s a massive blow to any economy. And the situation may be getting even worse!
The American Society of Civil Engineers states that according to arecent analysis, the total infrastructure investment gap has gone from $2.1 trillion over 10 years to $2.59 trillion. The ASCE notes that the knock-on effects will be devastating. By 2039, it would result in the loss of $10 trillion in GDP, over 3 million jobs, and $2.24 trillion in exports over two decades.
Antibiotic effectiveness.
General common courtesy and civilized behavior.
Bees.We are losing bees at an alarming rate.As far as important species go, they are top of the list. They are critical pollinators: they pollinate 70 of the around 100 crop species that feed 90% of the world. Honey bees are responsible for $30 billion a year in crops.Produce options with BeesProduce options without BeesWhen the Bees are gone, we will shortly follow.
Poor infrastructure affects everyone. “When we fail to invest in our infrastructure, we pay the price. Poor roads and airports mean travel times increase. An aging electric grid and inadequate water distribution make utilities unreliable,” the ASCE says.“Problems like these translate into higher costs for businesses to manufacture and distribute goods and provide services. These higher costs, in turn, get passed along to workers and families. By 2039, America’s overdue infrastructure bill will cost the average American household $3,300 a year, or $63 a week.”
Poor infrastructure affects everyone. “When we fail to invest in our infrastructure, we pay the price. Poor roads and airports mean travel times increase. An aging electric grid and inadequate water distribution make utilities unreliable,” the ASCE says.
“Problems like these translate into higher costs for businesses to manufacture and distribute goods and provide services. These higher costs, in turn, get passed along to workers and families. By 2039, America’s overdue infrastructure bill will cost the average American household $3,300 a year, or $63 a week.”
Publicly traded companies constantly being like “we did good not great. More money next quarter. Oh that’s good not great. Even more money next quarter” in the 4 years ive been with my company, my production quota has tripled and it’s unsustainable. Every quarter has to make more money than the last otherwise it’s failing. This is almost every single publicly traded company. Corners being cut, profits maximised, employees compromised. It’s endlessly happening
Honestly, the education system feels like it’s barely holding on.
The tower of laundry I’ve been avoiding for weeks
Generally speaking, many people don’t give a damn about systems until they startbreaking downand affecting their lives in a negative way.For example, many folks won’t start worrying about exercise and healthy food until they get a health scare. Nor does your average driver care much about road maintenance until they hit a series of potholes, nor your resident worry aboutplumbinguntil there’s a leak. Similarly, a hands-off manager might not notice the signs that their team is burning out until it’s too late.
Generally speaking, many people don’t give a damn about systems until they startbreaking downand affecting their lives in a negative way.
For example, many folks won’t start worrying about exercise and healthy food until they get a health scare. Nor does your average driver care much about road maintenance until they hit a series of potholes, nor your resident worry aboutplumbinguntil there’s a leak. Similarly, a hands-off manager might not notice the signs that their team is burning out until it’s too late.
It’s always best to imagine the possible negative consequences that might arise if you do nothing in terms of maintenance, and then strive to consistently put in the effort to avoid the worst-case scenarios. This strategy might not be perfect, but it’s down-to-earth and very grounded. Incremental maintenance is incredibly powerful. And it sure beats panicked rushing about when things start to fall apart before your eyes.
The red supergiant star, Betelgeuse. It’s speculated to soon be going to or have already undergone a core collapse supernova but the light of the explosion hasn’t yet reached us. It will shine as bright as a full moon for a year when its light reaches Earth, casting its own shadows even. The radius of the supernova is just out of harm’s reach, but wild animals tend to use the moon to help them navigate at night, and scientists are concerned that wildlife all over the globe may confuse this supernova with the moon, potentially disrupting the ecosystem.
The Florida citrus industry – specifically oranges. There is a fungus that is spreading and infecting groves across the state. Unfortunately, we have no way to kill the fungus. The only solution is to cut down all citrus trees within a certain radius of an infected tree. Many farmers are choosing to sell their farm rather than try to start all over.
A month ago I was at my grandparents' house. For an inheritance issue they called an architect. The first thing he told them is that they can no longer live in the house, because it is at risk of collapse. That night nobody slept.
There’s a waste product of burning coal called fly ash. We use it in concrete. It makes the concrete better and cheaper. Nobody is building new coal power plants, and old ones are shutting down. It’s getting harder and harder to source the ash. If we have to source it from far away, like China, the transportation costs erase the cost saving. We can get the same concrete with just cement and added chemicals but it’s more expensive. In ten years we probably won’t be using it at all.It’s a really minor thing that will have far reaching consequences. Architects and engineers will probably look at ways to reduce concrete in their buildings as the costs increase. It’s not likely to impact residential, but big downtown architecture is sure to be affected.
The Colorado river as the main water supply for 3 states with major cities.
Abundant water and food. I think things will hold up ok through most of our lives, but sh**s going to get grim in the next couple generations.
The AmazonTo some degree it generates its own weather patterns with the vast amounts of water evaporated into the atmosphere from leaves. Deforestation is putting it close to a tipping point where it can no longer maintain those patterns. Once reached, the feedback loop is likely irreversible.Random Safety Tip: First dates (with someone you don’t already know and trust) should always be someplace public with cameras like a coffee shop. Trust your gut if something feels off.
The US blood supply is still hard hit from COVID and the American Red Cross isn’t lying when they say we’re in an emergency platelet shortage so if you can donate platelets, please donate.
Well, top soil is getting super depleted. What used to be yards deep fertile soil is down to inches. Washed or blown away due to agriculture and irrigation.
Human migration patterns will put a massive strain on various countries around the globe as the environment changes
The Rio Grande levees in El Paso’s Upper Valley are old and need repair, and will fail in a major flood. The low lying suburbs in the Upper Valley were recently deemed to be in a FEMA flood plain.
The young childcare industry. Increased regulation to make facilities safer (a very good thing!) had the unintended consequence of increasing costs for owners. You now need more teachers who have training and certification, not to mention the patience and stamina to work with young kids all day. The pay is comparable to fast food without the benefits. Owners have to find a way to pay teachers enough to retain them while keeping costs down so parents can afford to send their kids. It’s damn near impossible without an infusion of government investments.
Housing prices along the coast in Florida. Most of the state is barely three feet above sea level and flooding is getting worse and worse every year. In fifty years, sea level is going to be much more inland than it is now and no amount of “beach restoration” is going to help it.
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The UK criminal justice system Edit: For any non Brits passing through. The new gvt has had to announce it’s releasing prisoners early because it’s got no space for incoming suspects on remand and new convicts. The last gvt shut like half the courts, the remaining ones are falling apart and understaffed. There aren’t enough judges so there’s a two year backlog of serious cases. The junior end of the profession are so poorly paid they’ve been on strike repeatedly. And let’s not forget the police have basically stopped investigating shoplifting and other smaller crimes. This after 14 years of the “law and order” party being in power. Thank goodness the former chief prosecutor is now prime minister so maybe there’s a hope of fixing it.
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You will no longer ‘own’ the vehicle you ‘purchase’. I believe that electric vehicles are the way of the future, but manufacturers (of cars, trucks, tractors, boats,etc) have been restricting access to necessary diagnostic and repair information for a couple decades now… and it’s only going to get worse unless we fight for ‘right to repair’ legislation
IT knowledge. There are several factors at work here.* Colleges are mostly a few years behind trends, if not more. So a lot of recent grads are way behind from the gate. Most colleges are now just shills for business licenses called “degrees,” You need this “license” to be “allowed” to have a entry job, and they know it, and charge whatever the market can bear. Pearson Vue has seized a huge amount of this space, which just adds to the cost, and tries to enforce certification tracks with government contract specs and all sorts of inroads.* The “cash cow” of graduating college with 6 figure jobs waiting for them is mostly gone. The junior roles have been outsourced overseas, and have been replaced with people with multiple hats. There are very few “middle roles,” so the track of going from junior to senior has a HUGE gap that keeps getting wider.* The senior roles are starting to age out: many went into management, and some are retiring. Knowledge and experience is getting lost.* Companies reliant on technology to surve are cutting technology costs as a “cost center” because of the pressure of rising capitalism always producing value year to year. Thus, they send more jobs overseas, and senior roles become too costly to maintain.* We are incurring a lot of “debt” in aging infrastructure, and IT is no different. There are systems operating high-cost operations in factories, transportation, and utilities that haven’t been upgraded in decades, and some of the people who knew how it all worked are dying off.Eventually, there won’t be enough senior roles to teacher younger people anything, and there will be a cascading series of knowledge gaps in current infrastructure, leading to huge failures. People say that “kids today know computers” but they really don’t: most only know GUI and how to operate an iPad, not what makes the iPad work under the hood or how the Internet works.
Lots of things according to r/collapsePersonally I live in a city called Lowell MA and there’s the Rourke Bridge built 40 years ago that was meant to be temporary. Honestly it reminds me of those horrible scary bridges you’ve seen over rivers in Siberia or some other place in central Asia. It’s loud and bumpy and you can feel the whole thing sway because it gets 25,000 cars crossing it EVERY DAY.Not only that… you can actually walk under it since there’s a river walk pathway it connects to, and you can see rusted sections just rotting away. About 6 months ago a truck crossed it and a panel on the surface somehow see-sawed up into the gas tank. The truck made it across but not before losing probably 80 to 100 gallons of diesel onto the bridge and into the river below. The river had a marshy / swampy area near the bridge and you could see the fuel slick eddying and collecting into that area. I can’t imagine much survived underneath. I’m sure a lot of fish eggs and small aquatic animals died down there.The city, state and feds have known this bridge needs replacing for decades and they know about the rust and rot, but they continue to say that it will last for now. Don’t they always say that though?There is a plan to make a new one next to it… but it won’t be done until 2028… which we all know means it’ll probably drag on into 2029, 2030, etc.I honestly don’t think it will last that long.
The AMOC: known to Americans as the Gulf Stream section of the current. The ocean is warming, and the whole system is starting to slow.
The Los Angeles Court Reporter system, among many other county services like the Health Department. You can add several county IT systems to that listCourt reporters went home in 2020 and most of them just never came back. There is such demand for court reporters that they now start at $100k a year with signing bonuses. Except they still cant hire enough qualified people. The problem being that they were a very important part of the justice system in Los Angeles.Many courts dont allow electronic recordings as accurate portrayals of court discussions. In some probate and misdemeanor courts they do, but all others need a court reporter. If a judge rules against you, a properly created court transcript is needed to appeal your decision. Those arent being given out in many cases any longer, and cases cant be delayed indefinitely. No transcript, no appeal. No appeal means serious constitutional violations.
The Colorado River’s water levels are dropping consistently and dropping fast. The Hoover Dam eventually won’t be able to make electricity. There’s so much that relies on the Colorado and eventually it’s all going to fall apart. So much farming, several major cities, tens of millions of people. They’re either going to have to relocate or start importing water from elsewhere. On top of that, 53% of aquifers in the US are losing water.
I don’t know, but every time I go to a drugstore it feels like we lost a war
Chrysler/Dodge. Many dealers can’t get rid of all their 2023 models from last year still sitting on the lot.Time to ressurect the K-car. It saved them in the 80s, and it can do it again!
Most municipal water supplies in the US, especially in Florida and New Orleans. I work in the industry. It’s terrible.
A construction worker told me that he warned the city about a sinkhole forming underneath a road, and they ignored him. So I avoid that road.
Rancho Palos Verdes. There is a state of emergency in the city right now, and there’s tons of landslides happening
Large power station Transformers.Let’s say if a few big ones go down unexpectedly, you can expect to wait 8-10 months for a new one.
The Australian housing market.
My mental health
This post, not surprisingly, predicts the following accidents
My relationship with my bestfriend
The relationship I have with my girlfriend is nearing the end.
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