Just too many people in America.

[jeff2006]

I have a lot more money now too, but it's mainly because I'm older and have worked and saved for years. For most people, incomes have been pretty much flat (after inflation, adjusted for age).

To me, the rest of the stuff is pretty trivial -- my life is not all that different because I have CDs rather than LPs or cable rather than rabbit ears (cable was available 25 years ago, but I was too cheap to get it!). I had a Jetta too. It got me where I wanted to go, just like my car does today . . .

Personally (YMMV), I am worried about peak oil, global warming, overpopulation, impossible medical care costs, and things like that . . .

[dumpster56]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeff2006 I have a lot more money now too, but it's mainly because I'm older and have worked and saved for years. For most people, incomes have been pretty much flat (after inflation, adjusted for age). To me, the rest of the stuff is pretty trivial -- my life is not all that different because I have CDs rather than LPs or cable rather than rabbit ears (cable was available 25 years ago, but I was too cheap to get it!). I had a Jetta too. It got me where I wanted to go, just like my car does today . . . Personally (YMMV), I am worried about peak oil, global warming, overpopulation, impossible medical care costs, and things like that . . .

Interesting I feel the same way!

That jetta was a trooper though, got me thru some big snowstorms in Jersey, front wheel drive a bit underpowered!!

Anyway this NC move seems to be a good one, I have gotten a part time coaching position in Cary for the spring and will sub in southern wake county starting next week on days I feel like it!

It really is all good!

[jeff2006]

Congrats on the coaching job in Cary. Good school -- you will have a good time, especially compared to Newark!

Yes -- the Jetta was a tough little bugger -- lasted me a long time. But underpowered, like you said (mine was a deisel).

[donheff]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeff2006 To me, the rest of the stuff is pretty trivial -- my life is not all that different because I have CDs rather than LPs or cable rather than rabbit ears (cable was available 25 years ago, but I was too cheap to get it!). I had a Jetta too. It got me where I wanted to go, just like my car does today . . .

I agree with this. In many respects our lives are not much different than they were in the 50s. Just look at your house - same old beds, bathrooms, kitchens, living rooms. Sure there are some new novelties but the basics remain the same. I don't think the next 25 years will be so shattering that we won't recognize the place.

If Ray Kurzweill is right we are in for a big surprise when the singularity takes a two by four to our heads in a decade or two. But I'm not holding my breath.

[lazygood4nothinbum]

mesmerized by the population clock at the 1964 world's fair, i've advocated zero growth since i became a lazy environmentalist (young post-hippie; born too late--i would have made a good beatnik). however, i just got a new speakman showerhead and removed the water saver. anyone adding to population should continue with conservation measures and suffer less luxurious showering, having already made your bed.

if oceans really are rising between 3 & 20 ft within the next 100 years, then i don't see our generation being affected much other than becoming sad as we watch polar bears head towards extinction. could be a problem for the next generation towards the end of their life and if coastal cities start getting swamped your grandkids might have it difficult so you might want to consider them in your wills.

but as much as the observer might consider my view negative, i try to maintained optimism in the long run. so even after global warming shuts down the gulf stream so that a mini ice age brings about a temperature correction, humanity will find ways to survive. they might even invent something cooler than ipods.

[lets-retire]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5076322.stm

http://www.co2science.org/scripts/CO.../V9/N45/C2.jsp

http://www.nature.com/news/2005/0505...050516-10.html

http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/20...uthseaice.html

I wouldn't be too worried about the sea level. These are just a few articles I can quote stating many glaciers are actually growing thicker. Yes some are older, but there are many out there with similar themes and a lot more, like the New York Times and others, that require you to register with the website.

[RP]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo! OK, Al. You go first.

Haha that was my thought too. How many remember my old governor in Colorado, Dick Lamm. He made himself famous buy proposing his own solution to the problem of an aging population and elder health care costs ... "people have a duty to die".

So far, Dick, I'm disobeying you ;-) But I'll probably knuckle under and submit some day .....

[lazygood4nothinbum]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lets-retire http://www.nature.com/news/2005/0505...050516-10.html I wouldn't be too worried about the sea level. These are just a few articles I can quote stating many glaciers are actually growing thicker.

interesting take but my layman's mind is not convinced that thickness is the issue, that the poles might fare better spread thin. from what i've read and what seems to make sense to my limited experience in dealing even with just tropical sunlight here, without the light colored ice coverage at the poles to reflect the sun's rays, global warming will increase. this also makes sense in terms of the above-mentioned thickening theory of the poles, that as the temperature increases, so does precipitation, at the poles, in the form of snow. the earth doesn't need a mountain of snow there, it needs plains of ice.

http://tinyurl.com/yhhuy2

by Guillaume Lavallee
41 minutes ago

MONTREAL (AFP) - An enormous ice shelf broke away from Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic last year, researchers said, warning it could be another symptom of global warming.

The 66-square-kilometer (25.5-square-mile) ice island tore away from Ellesmere, a huge strip of land in the Canadian Arctic close to Greenland.

The break occurred in August 2005 and was so violent that it caused tremors that were detected by Canadian seismographs 250 kilometers (155 miles) away, but at the time no one was able to pinpoint what had happened.

[Martha]

I read that the ice that broke off was 3000 years old.

[lets-retire]

lazy--I agree that the ice shelf needs to be larger and flater to slow global warming, however I was referencing the thought that the seas are raising. If the ice shelves are getting thicker the water has to be coming form somewhere and that leaves the sea, resulting in slower increases of the sea levels or even a lowering of the sea levels.

[lazygood4nothinbum]

lets, i'm so far out of my league here. i know even less about his than i do about finance. sorry, but i have nothing better than intuition. i do not mean or tend to be an alarmist, but i wonder, based on what absolutely little i read--and only what you've supplied on thickening--if this might just be a temporary phenomenon before even that mountain of snow thaws and there is no place for the snow to land but in a dark, warming & rising sea.

also another supposed problem with the warming sea is that you don't need to add more water to make the levels rise. you just need to increase its rate of vibration. i relearn that almost every time i put too much water in the pot to cook pasta.

[mmg2681]

Quote:

Originally Posted by newguy888 Maybe those survivalist types in Idaho and montana got it right years ago when they went OFF the grid.

I agree.
I have actually been looking into the cob housing.
http://www.chicobco.com/cob-house-in-Eco-Village.gif
Unfortunately, there arent many here in the US (that I can tell, so far).
Not sure how many counties would approve these structures.
Housing made from mud.
Farm and eat from the feilds.
Live off of the energy from wind-mill.

Sounds like a great, relaxing retirement to me!
The only problem(s): my fiance is NOT into it at all and I have a good 20 years until ER...if I'm lucky!