My response to this article titled: "FLASHBACK: Albert Einstein Identifies The Inherent Flaw Of The Gold Standard"
Main Quote from Article: “The gold standard has, in my opinion, the serious disadvantage that a shortage in the supply of gold automatically leads to a contraction of credit and also of the amount of currency in circulation, to which contraction prices and wages cannot adjust themselves sufficiently quickly.” Albert Einstein
My Response:
If such an actual check on a nation's production as the gold standard existed we'd not be in the predicament we are in now. No nation or person can run a decades long deficit and not pay the price someday. If there was a gold standard of some type in place our deficit would have never been able to run as high and as long as has today. Consequently, because it is a lasting trend, production has gone overseas and left the USA.
Forget the Gold Standard or any Commodity standard or bias toward it for a moment. The real issue is production. Nations must produce in order to trade with other nations. All we have produced over the last 30 years is a bunch of paper with dead presidents on it. China and other nations now are the producer nations. When the fiat dollar falters, and it will, the US will be in dire straights. Whether gold, silver, copper, corn, oil, beans or lumber, all of these things, these commodities, cannot be counterfeited. Only through work and production can they be made usable for their purposes. Once a nation gives the right to claim the production of another nation or person without having produced themselves then you get abuse. In our case, abuse of the dollar, which has depreciated 96% since 1900. The average person's life savings in 1900 would not be enough to buy a car now. His lifetime gross income not enough to buy a house. How can the wealth of a nation's people be preserved and grown from generation to generation under such conditions? With the fall of the dollar we've seen a corresponding fall in quality of life in the last 50 years. Every household must have 2 earners now to make ends meet. Actual wages are down, costs are up. It does not matter who it is, unless it is God himself, when you give one man, one group or one nation the ability to legally get something for nothing the system will be abused at the expense of the neighboring individual's, societies, nations and eventually the counterfeiter himself.
Recessions caused by trade imbalances under a gold standard, which you discussed above, are not the problem, the imbalance is the problem. The recession is the cure. The nation or person is producing an unwanted, outdated or overpriced product. The recession is the signal that it needs to retool, refocus or be liquidated to more productive means. Instead what we do now is to flush the industry with funds and credit to keep building the unwanted products indefinitely to preserve the jobs, the name or the pride of the endeavor. Giving money to a company who still makes CRT TVs in 2011 to keep jobs or because the company has been around since 1878 etc. will not increase demand for CRTs. People want the Chinese flat screens and the Goodwill down the street from me has big boxy CRT TVs for sale for $10 as far as the eye can see. All propping up such a company in times of trade-imbalance-induced-recession does is waste more glass, more copper, more silver, more wood, more labor and more manufacturing space on junk no one wants or needs.
Life in a non-counterfeit economy is not easy. We cannot just print our way out of trouble at the expense of the rest of the world's and our own neighbor's savings. We have to stay on our toes and realize that whatever it is that got you to where you are today is not enough to get you there tomorrow. There is a cure for gold-standard-trade-imbalance-induced-recession. It's call savings. So long as the deficit is not large, like say... 4:1, reference: http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5700.html#2010 then it should be able to be absorbed by savings until the nation can retool its production to correct the deficit of trade. Unfortunately, a nation with a sometimes negative savings rate and a 4:1 imbalance is in for a rough ride. How on earth did it get to be 4:1 anyways... how could we get 4 tons of stuff in return for 1 ton of stuff in 2010. Well lucky us. Just as you pointed out above, we have an elastic money supply that can issue counterfeit value into the system, thus allowing the imbalance to never force a correction and thus expand as we make more and more stuff nobody wants or just make nothing at all. All of this misused production is not cured by the elastic money, it is merely given a blood transfusion. It is still not able to produce it's own blood and will need the blood of others indefinitely. So now, thanks to the system you endorse, some day the world will stop taking the paper and give us back all the paper we gave them over the years and all we'll have left is 1/4 the productive capability of our neighbors, no savings and a mountain of defaulted debt. All because of an imbalance that a gold standard or any non-fiat standard could have stopped.
The truth is that we only learn through negative feedback. If you are groping in the dark for the light switch you identify and move to correct each time you grasp something that is not the light switch until you find it. If you are doing the correct thing, such as a pilot maintaining a heading, no action is required until the instruments read that conditions have changed or the pilot has made an error and strayed from his course at which point he must act to correct.
Einstein was a genius, but he wasn't always right. That's a fact. Geniuses are always thinking of new ideas, thinking about things. Trying to find which ideas work and which don't. Exploring deeper the plausible ideas and ignoring the bad ones. I'm not saying that this was a bad idea he stated in your quote. I think he is actually absolutely correct. In today's world though I think he'd appreciate it, if he were still alive, if I asked "Mr. Einstein, seeing now what has transpired perhaps you'd be better served by your correct observation of trade imbalances and the gold standard by looking at it differently. Perhaps this characteristic is in fact an advantage of the gold standard. Perhaps is a society with misallocated resources needs a contraction of credit and money to let it know it is veering off course so it can steer itself in the correct direction."
Oh and by the way, The Germans... they make awesome stuff that everyone wants. That is why they are a prosperous nation in the sinking ship of Europe. Even though their neighbors rob them blind every day with bailouts to Greece, Spain and Ireland their production base is strong enough to take it. At least for now.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Response to Kevin Powell and His View on Guns
My Response to this video
Adam Kokesh vs. Kevin Powell on Russia Today
and this article Arizon is America by Kevin Powell
Furthermore, If you don't feel like reading this letter I wrote to Kevin just watch Adam Kokesh read it on his show.
Hi Kevin,
Saw your interview on Russia Today. I really enjoy how you stated at 3 mins and 20 seconds-ish that "As George Earl once said famously that 'Everything is political' and he was absolutely right". Then for the rest of video you tried to say that you were not political, that your opponent on the show was the only political one and he said politics first. Sooo. You're saying that everything is political except you the humble public servant? Also your opponent, Adam, said in his opening statement that everyone out there is saying that this shooting is "Non-partisan" but, oh by the way, I'm right and you're wrong. I don't know if you noticed but he basically wrote your script there for the rest of the segment. The fact that you hardly let the man speak doesn't mean you are any more right it just makes you look like a loud mouth. I also don't see how you can think of yourself as non-political when you're proposals challenge the Bill of Rights.
I'm no gunslinger and I don't own a gun but I do know that the 2nd amendment was not intended to ensure that people have the right to hunt pheasant. It's written "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." Being NECESSARY to the security of a free state! Now the militias were disbanded due to the strength of the US military, which is a woeful thing, so all that is left to defend the 'free state' is the right to bear arms. There are many problems with having a free state but as Jefferson said “I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.”
Furthermore, I once saw a bumper stick that said: 'Mao, Stalin and Hitler all agree, Gun Control works!' Now that's an inflammatory thing to say but it is the truth. All of those societies had controls on fire arms. Not that it made much difference. I mean after all even if the Germans had guns it would not have changed the fact that Hitler was elected democratically and everything he did was completely legal. Even the 'final solution' was 'legal' as the Reichstagg had, through the enabling act, made anything Hitler wanted to do absolutely legal. That citizens of that nation did not have a set of overarching laws considered inalienable to protect them. In that nation the people's rights were delineated by the state. So when the state came to take you away there was no higher law to appeal to. That's what happens when governments grant the rights to their people... they can take them away! There was no overarching philosophy, just the law which, at the end of a gun, said that you no longer had any rights to defend. That's the point where having a gun might be nice, to at least have a chance to defend your natural rights from the artificial rights of the state.
Natural laws are often the most difficult to understand. The men that made our nation were to the first to grasp at them and codify, through experience, those which they thought most fundamental. Those men could have become the monarchs and rulers of a new aristocracy in a new nation but instead chose to acknowledge that there are natural laws and that a state has no authority to govern over them but merely to defend them. These men chose to forgo the power they could have had in their lives to make something much greater. These were the real servants of society who really sacrificed. They knew that these natural laws above all else are the most important to uphold. So to say that you are a public servant in one sentence and then say that you are in favor of gutting the bill of rights in the next is an outrage. We are continuing down a path which has been followed with only one exception in history. That path is that all rights are privileges given by the state. The exception used to be The United States of America. You are but one more brick in the wall who wishes rights to be mere privileges handed down from state authority. I am just one drop of water saying that these rights are innate in our humanity. We'll never be terribly great friends. Right now and for the last 80-100 years the wall has grown high and strong with your help and the help of many many others. Like all walls though, one drop at a time it will be worn down by the laws of nature. It will take years, decades or even more but natural law will peacefully erode the wall with reason and truth to rule once again. It's started to rain again here as people begin to realize the difference. Beginning to learn about legalized plunder and that both parties, Republican and Democrat, believe that the rights of the people are to be delineated by the state. If I'm wrong about you please correct me, but if you are looking to turn a natural right into a privilege given by the government your stance is pretty plain to me.
I wrote this in response to the video but also would like to reference the above article you wrote as well. This above statement should answer your question of "who do they want their country back from?" Most American's have not been able to put their finger on this question quite yet mostly because for their entire lives they've been told to blame the Republicans or blame the Democrats. The answer they seek is that the people want their country back from those who believe that it the duty of the state to deliver the rights to the people not protect the rights they already have from birth. It has little to do with returning to a slave economy or the Jim Crow south. Slavery is a scourge on American/World History and may have already well ruined us. On a conciliatory note based on your above letter you are correct about Americans needing to look long and hard at their country. I'd even agree with the things you recommended they look at. I'd just expand it a little. Look at the welfare system (which make people dependent on the state and expect to be taken care of by the state), social security, The Federal Reserve, The IRS and all fancy schemes to rob Americans blind. Unemployment (which discourages people to take employment which pays less than $300 a week), Minimum wage laws (which discriminates against unskilled workers and causes us to lose jobs to cheaper labor overseas). Over-medication of the public, especially in public schools. Public Education is not adequate and, in my opinion and experience, can even be harmful to creating free thinking and productive individuals. The Patriot Act (Total assault on the Bill of Rights) and the War On Terrorism (how can you fight a war against a military tactic? How about a War On Flanking?). Is medical treatment a right? If so who grants it? God? Is every child born with an indentured, personal physician beside him? Well of course that is not the case. Which means that means that the 'right' to health care is also a right granted by the state and thus one which can be arbitrarily removed by any number of bureaucratic means. Most balk at the notion of eliminating these institutions but they are strands in the fabric of our society just as we are. If WE are the problem, as you said in your post, and if those programs are part of US then they perhaps should be looked at with another perspective as well.
Sincerely,
Rich Clarke
Adam Kokesh vs. Kevin Powell on Russia Today
and this article Arizon is America by Kevin Powell
Furthermore, If you don't feel like reading this letter I wrote to Kevin just watch Adam Kokesh read it on his show.
Hi Kevin,
Saw your interview on Russia Today. I really enjoy how you stated at 3 mins and 20 seconds-ish that "As George Earl once said famously that 'Everything is political' and he was absolutely right". Then for the rest of video you tried to say that you were not political, that your opponent on the show was the only political one and he said politics first. Sooo. You're saying that everything is political except you the humble public servant? Also your opponent, Adam, said in his opening statement that everyone out there is saying that this shooting is "Non-partisan" but, oh by the way, I'm right and you're wrong. I don't know if you noticed but he basically wrote your script there for the rest of the segment. The fact that you hardly let the man speak doesn't mean you are any more right it just makes you look like a loud mouth. I also don't see how you can think of yourself as non-political when you're proposals challenge the Bill of Rights.
I'm no gunslinger and I don't own a gun but I do know that the 2nd amendment was not intended to ensure that people have the right to hunt pheasant. It's written "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." Being NECESSARY to the security of a free state! Now the militias were disbanded due to the strength of the US military, which is a woeful thing, so all that is left to defend the 'free state' is the right to bear arms. There are many problems with having a free state but as Jefferson said “I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.”
Furthermore, I once saw a bumper stick that said: 'Mao, Stalin and Hitler all agree, Gun Control works!' Now that's an inflammatory thing to say but it is the truth. All of those societies had controls on fire arms. Not that it made much difference. I mean after all even if the Germans had guns it would not have changed the fact that Hitler was elected democratically and everything he did was completely legal. Even the 'final solution' was 'legal' as the Reichstagg had, through the enabling act, made anything Hitler wanted to do absolutely legal. That citizens of that nation did not have a set of overarching laws considered inalienable to protect them. In that nation the people's rights were delineated by the state. So when the state came to take you away there was no higher law to appeal to. That's what happens when governments grant the rights to their people... they can take them away! There was no overarching philosophy, just the law which, at the end of a gun, said that you no longer had any rights to defend. That's the point where having a gun might be nice, to at least have a chance to defend your natural rights from the artificial rights of the state.
Natural laws are often the most difficult to understand. The men that made our nation were to the first to grasp at them and codify, through experience, those which they thought most fundamental. Those men could have become the monarchs and rulers of a new aristocracy in a new nation but instead chose to acknowledge that there are natural laws and that a state has no authority to govern over them but merely to defend them. These men chose to forgo the power they could have had in their lives to make something much greater. These were the real servants of society who really sacrificed. They knew that these natural laws above all else are the most important to uphold. So to say that you are a public servant in one sentence and then say that you are in favor of gutting the bill of rights in the next is an outrage. We are continuing down a path which has been followed with only one exception in history. That path is that all rights are privileges given by the state. The exception used to be The United States of America. You are but one more brick in the wall who wishes rights to be mere privileges handed down from state authority. I am just one drop of water saying that these rights are innate in our humanity. We'll never be terribly great friends. Right now and for the last 80-100 years the wall has grown high and strong with your help and the help of many many others. Like all walls though, one drop at a time it will be worn down by the laws of nature. It will take years, decades or even more but natural law will peacefully erode the wall with reason and truth to rule once again. It's started to rain again here as people begin to realize the difference. Beginning to learn about legalized plunder and that both parties, Republican and Democrat, believe that the rights of the people are to be delineated by the state. If I'm wrong about you please correct me, but if you are looking to turn a natural right into a privilege given by the government your stance is pretty plain to me.
I wrote this in response to the video but also would like to reference the above article you wrote as well. This above statement should answer your question of "who do they want their country back from?" Most American's have not been able to put their finger on this question quite yet mostly because for their entire lives they've been told to blame the Republicans or blame the Democrats. The answer they seek is that the people want their country back from those who believe that it the duty of the state to deliver the rights to the people not protect the rights they already have from birth. It has little to do with returning to a slave economy or the Jim Crow south. Slavery is a scourge on American/World History and may have already well ruined us. On a conciliatory note based on your above letter you are correct about Americans needing to look long and hard at their country. I'd even agree with the things you recommended they look at. I'd just expand it a little. Look at the welfare system (which make people dependent on the state and expect to be taken care of by the state), social security, The Federal Reserve, The IRS and all fancy schemes to rob Americans blind. Unemployment (which discourages people to take employment which pays less than $300 a week), Minimum wage laws (which discriminates against unskilled workers and causes us to lose jobs to cheaper labor overseas). Over-medication of the public, especially in public schools. Public Education is not adequate and, in my opinion and experience, can even be harmful to creating free thinking and productive individuals. The Patriot Act (Total assault on the Bill of Rights) and the War On Terrorism (how can you fight a war against a military tactic? How about a War On Flanking?). Is medical treatment a right? If so who grants it? God? Is every child born with an indentured, personal physician beside him? Well of course that is not the case. Which means that means that the 'right' to health care is also a right granted by the state and thus one which can be arbitrarily removed by any number of bureaucratic means. Most balk at the notion of eliminating these institutions but they are strands in the fabric of our society just as we are. If WE are the problem, as you said in your post, and if those programs are part of US then they perhaps should be looked at with another perspective as well.
Sincerely,
Rich Clarke
Monday, January 10, 2011
Where Have All of The Men Gone? The Edge Of The Sword
This was originally posted here: http://dailypaul.com/node/153984
Visit that site for Dailypaul user comments. There are quite a few of them.
I had an interesting social experience a couple of hours ago. I hope those that read it enjoy it or get something out of it.
Here in Georgia (Atlanta) we just got, oh, about 6 inches of snow in approximately 4 hours (tip of the hat to Al Gore). I was at a colleague's house working on a project when he came back from outside and said, "If you want any chance of getting home you should leave now." Myself and another left post haste with already an inch on the ground after about 45 minutes of snowfall. Snow plows down here are about as common as The Yeti so you can imagine the scene. Luckily most motorists were aware of the impending storm and stayed off the road. However there I was in the driving snow thinking to myself that this trip was ill advised/You're an idiot. My fiancée had told be to stay there if the weather got bad so I knew if anything happened I'd get an earful.
Everything was going quite well until I reached a hill on the East West connector about 10 miles from home. Traffic stopped and I was about 50 or so cars back in the mix. I sat for about 5 minutes contemplating my options and seriously wondering if I was going to have to abandon my vehicle and walk that far. I went for the 'walk up and see what's going on' option. I was quite a ways back and it was cold so I ran to the head of the congestion about a quarter mile ahead. There stood a large hill with several vehicles at various elevations and in various forms of stuck-in-the-snow-ness.
Several others had exited their vehicles and we banded together to start pushing. At first it wasn't going well but soon we managed to get a system going. We tried to convince rear wheel drive motorists to pull off to the right lane and wait as front wheel drive vehicles could easily tackle the hill. You can imagine how well that went over. We moved about 100 cars through... maybe more. The rear wheel folks would get through of course and I'd have to go all the way up the hill with them because they'd get stuck every 50 feet or so. After pushing one up the hill with another guy I went down to find only one or two people around and jam up as a rear wheel drive car came to the cue. Most of my original crew was gone as their cars had been freed. I realized that my car was running somewhere about a quarter mile back and probably blocking traffic so after freeing that SUV I ran back what seemed like forever looking for my car. I found it and luckily cars were moving by it in the other lane. I moved it up some, so that I could at least reap some benefit for all the work, and then proceeded on foot back to the front.
On my way to my car everyone was rolling down their windows asking. "Hey what's going on up there?", "Hey are things moving up there?", "Has anyone called the police?" (I laughed at that one. No way in hell they could get here). So on my way back to the front I knocked on windows with male drivers to enlist help as there were not many pushers left. Most just looked at me in a really confused fashion. I knocked on one tough looking guy's window. Looked like the military type and he had a girl with him. He rolled down his window and I asked him to come help. He proceeded to ask me a slew of questions about the situation. I answered, told him why it was backed and he should come help. He then bitched about it yelling out that it's a "Damn Chinese Traffic Jam", whatever that is, in tone like all the people in front of him were idiots. All the while not budging from his seat. I just said "fine don't come" and yelled as I walked away "Enjoy your MAN!" to his blonde passenger. That was probably the most dangerous point of the evening, not because of the snow but because the guy finally got out of the car and now could not seem to stifle his MANhood as he accosted me for saying such a disrespectful thing in front of his lady friend. I apologized and said I'm sorry I've been pushing cars for about 45 minutes. He said "Well that's not my problem you shouldn't take your frustration out on me." Perhaps he's right, but after the blank stares I got through nearly 100% of the windows I appealed to for help I was just like "What is wrong with these men?" So unfortunately he got the brunt of that observation. In all likelihood his elicit reaction was because there was some truth to my statement. He even threatened to snap my neck... All this after I had personally done about 40% of all the work that had kept him inching forward (past my car) for the last 30 minutes. The front was jammed up again when I arrived and we got it cleared and kept going. That distraught man disappeared amongst the commotion. I think I saw him push one car and later only noted his absence. I'm sure I pushed him out later. I hope his girl took note.
Bottom line, and I'm sorry this was so long, is not one man I asked came willingly or sprung to action. I guess all the go-getters had already freed their cars and moved on. I felt like a salesman out there trying to sell them the way out of being stuck in the snow in the middle of nowhere. Some came, but only after much prodding. I'm not saying I'm some great hero or anything. I'm just saying ... where have all the men gone? It really is true that in society it's about 5% of the population that leads. "The edge of sword" as they say. The masses sit in their car, not knowing what's going on just 100 yards in front of them, hoping that someone else will push them out. It makes me really worry about the days ahead as times are sure to go from bad to worse in the relatively near future. Everyone on here should know that you'll be the 5% everyone will look to. You know what's around the bend (more or less) and will take action to make things better while everyone else looks around in confusion wondering what the hell is happening.
P.S.
This for anyone who cares if I got out. Everyone else can go check out other posts :). I looked back to see a Mack truck without a trailer (rear wheel drive) trying to make its way to the front. I went up to him and was said "man... I hate to say this but you might not make it and if you get stuck half way up the hill there's no way we'll be able to push you around like these little SUVs and get you out. You could block the whole road!" He said "naw man... If I can get going I'll make it just fine!" and he was insistent. He was trying to go around a car and was stuck and he then asked... "Is that your car in front of me?" I look and to my amazement... it was. "I said yeah... I can move it for you"... I looked back at that truck knowing what would happen as he climbed the hill and looked ahead and the road was more of less clear. I said to myself, "I've done all I can here" and drove off easily maneuvering past a few stuck rear wheel drive cars. I was home in 10 minutes and exhausted. It took me well over an hour to make a trip that's normally 20 minutes.
Visit that site for Dailypaul user comments. There are quite a few of them.
I had an interesting social experience a couple of hours ago. I hope those that read it enjoy it or get something out of it.
Here in Georgia (Atlanta) we just got, oh, about 6 inches of snow in approximately 4 hours (tip of the hat to Al Gore). I was at a colleague's house working on a project when he came back from outside and said, "If you want any chance of getting home you should leave now." Myself and another left post haste with already an inch on the ground after about 45 minutes of snowfall. Snow plows down here are about as common as The Yeti so you can imagine the scene. Luckily most motorists were aware of the impending storm and stayed off the road. However there I was in the driving snow thinking to myself that this trip was ill advised/You're an idiot. My fiancée had told be to stay there if the weather got bad so I knew if anything happened I'd get an earful.
Everything was going quite well until I reached a hill on the East West connector about 10 miles from home. Traffic stopped and I was about 50 or so cars back in the mix. I sat for about 5 minutes contemplating my options and seriously wondering if I was going to have to abandon my vehicle and walk that far. I went for the 'walk up and see what's going on' option. I was quite a ways back and it was cold so I ran to the head of the congestion about a quarter mile ahead. There stood a large hill with several vehicles at various elevations and in various forms of stuck-in-the-snow-ness.
Several others had exited their vehicles and we banded together to start pushing. At first it wasn't going well but soon we managed to get a system going. We tried to convince rear wheel drive motorists to pull off to the right lane and wait as front wheel drive vehicles could easily tackle the hill. You can imagine how well that went over. We moved about 100 cars through... maybe more. The rear wheel folks would get through of course and I'd have to go all the way up the hill with them because they'd get stuck every 50 feet or so. After pushing one up the hill with another guy I went down to find only one or two people around and jam up as a rear wheel drive car came to the cue. Most of my original crew was gone as their cars had been freed. I realized that my car was running somewhere about a quarter mile back and probably blocking traffic so after freeing that SUV I ran back what seemed like forever looking for my car. I found it and luckily cars were moving by it in the other lane. I moved it up some, so that I could at least reap some benefit for all the work, and then proceeded on foot back to the front.
On my way to my car everyone was rolling down their windows asking. "Hey what's going on up there?", "Hey are things moving up there?", "Has anyone called the police?" (I laughed at that one. No way in hell they could get here). So on my way back to the front I knocked on windows with male drivers to enlist help as there were not many pushers left. Most just looked at me in a really confused fashion. I knocked on one tough looking guy's window. Looked like the military type and he had a girl with him. He rolled down his window and I asked him to come help. He proceeded to ask me a slew of questions about the situation. I answered, told him why it was backed and he should come help. He then bitched about it yelling out that it's a "Damn Chinese Traffic Jam", whatever that is, in tone like all the people in front of him were idiots. All the while not budging from his seat. I just said "fine don't come" and yelled as I walked away "Enjoy your MAN!" to his blonde passenger. That was probably the most dangerous point of the evening, not because of the snow but because the guy finally got out of the car and now could not seem to stifle his MANhood as he accosted me for saying such a disrespectful thing in front of his lady friend. I apologized and said I'm sorry I've been pushing cars for about 45 minutes. He said "Well that's not my problem you shouldn't take your frustration out on me." Perhaps he's right, but after the blank stares I got through nearly 100% of the windows I appealed to for help I was just like "What is wrong with these men?" So unfortunately he got the brunt of that observation. In all likelihood his elicit reaction was because there was some truth to my statement. He even threatened to snap my neck... All this after I had personally done about 40% of all the work that had kept him inching forward (past my car) for the last 30 minutes. The front was jammed up again when I arrived and we got it cleared and kept going. That distraught man disappeared amongst the commotion. I think I saw him push one car and later only noted his absence. I'm sure I pushed him out later. I hope his girl took note.
Bottom line, and I'm sorry this was so long, is not one man I asked came willingly or sprung to action. I guess all the go-getters had already freed their cars and moved on. I felt like a salesman out there trying to sell them the way out of being stuck in the snow in the middle of nowhere. Some came, but only after much prodding. I'm not saying I'm some great hero or anything. I'm just saying ... where have all the men gone? It really is true that in society it's about 5% of the population that leads. "The edge of sword" as they say. The masses sit in their car, not knowing what's going on just 100 yards in front of them, hoping that someone else will push them out. It makes me really worry about the days ahead as times are sure to go from bad to worse in the relatively near future. Everyone on here should know that you'll be the 5% everyone will look to. You know what's around the bend (more or less) and will take action to make things better while everyone else looks around in confusion wondering what the hell is happening.
P.S.
This for anyone who cares if I got out. Everyone else can go check out other posts :). I looked back to see a Mack truck without a trailer (rear wheel drive) trying to make its way to the front. I went up to him and was said "man... I hate to say this but you might not make it and if you get stuck half way up the hill there's no way we'll be able to push you around like these little SUVs and get you out. You could block the whole road!" He said "naw man... If I can get going I'll make it just fine!" and he was insistent. He was trying to go around a car and was stuck and he then asked... "Is that your car in front of me?" I look and to my amazement... it was. "I said yeah... I can move it for you"... I looked back at that truck knowing what would happen as he climbed the hill and looked ahead and the road was more of less clear. I said to myself, "I've done all I can here" and drove off easily maneuvering past a few stuck rear wheel drive cars. I was home in 10 minutes and exhausted. It took me well over an hour to make a trip that's normally 20 minutes.
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