Great Depression of 2016

[chiques chicks]

Trust me, those expiration dates don't mean they can't be eaten! I've been cut off by floods and snow even though town is only three miles away. I grew up always having a supply of " something".

I grew up eating things like organ meats, dandelions, wild game in season, saving bacon grease, reusing and repairing things. Huh, guess I was poor, just didn't know it. I considered that normal. And I still like those things, when I can find them. They became comfort foods.

My parents bought their house during the war, on a dirt road next to a washed out bridge, miles from town. People actually cried when they saw the condition. They fixed it bit by bit. I still live in it, repairing it bit by bit. It's small, and I only use half of it anyway. Wish it was smaller!, Fortunately, I'm surrounded by people who appreciate the simple way of life. We all know what each other brings to the table. We help each other, we share. We watch out for each other. Life is good.

Now it is considered the "in" thing. Guess that makes me a trendsetter!

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

The old SPAM, perhaps. The new stuff with the pull top, not so much. Have read a number of personal accounts of people who go to check their stocks and find SPAM that is only a month or so past "sell by" date bulging and ready to explode. Do they even make SPAM that requires a key to open any more?

So its not like Water World? Spam wont last so many generations that people will have forgotten the world that made it?




Darn..

 

[WYNot]

Perhaps. But more than a few of the accounts are of cans kept in basements and pantries where the temp is controlled.

Personally, even if the key broke, it is easily fixed with a pair of needle nose pliers.

Well, the trick to keeping SPAM from exploding is to keep it cool, I guess. I don't think they make KEYED SPAM anymore....invoked too many swear words when you tried to open them and the darn thing broke off....leaving you with a half opened can and eggs getting cold....heck, I remember strips of bacon in a can! Opened the can, brought out well preserved bacon wrapped up in wax paper...and saltier than the Bonneville Salt Flats. Good times. Now it's pre-cooked bacon that you microwave....just not camping material for me...don't get me started on TURKEY bacon....checked out a turkey....not a slice of bacon to be found....

 

[WYNot]

Oh I agree whole heartedly. If properly canned they last a LONG time. But the newer design of the with the pull top just requires you to check them on a regular basis and keep them in a controlled environment. They can't just be put on a shelf and forgotten till needed.

Trust me, those expiration dates don't mean they can't be eaten!

 

[Oliver Douglas]

Oh I agree whole heartedly. If properly canned they last a LONG time. But the newer design of the with the pull top just requires you to check them on a regular basis and keep them in a controlled environment. They can't just be put on a shelf and forgotten till needed.

Yeah....my position is that if the dust on the can is deeper than the Sahara, pitch it.

 

[Oliver Douglas]

Perhaps. But more than a few of the accounts are of cans kept in basements and pantries where the temp is controlled.

Personally, even if the key broke, it is easily fixed with a pair of needle nose pliers.

Yep. Always keep a pair in the kitchen drawer. Watch your fingers, though. You could shave with those shards.

 

[rufus]

Those sell by dates and use by dates are just guide lines. If you are real hungry you will give that food a try. Give a little to the neighbor's cat first. See how it handles it.

My mother died in 1976. She left behind a box of Hersheys cocoa powder. It has a NRA sticker on it, so I know she got it in the 1930's. I still use it on occasion. We don't make a lot of sweet stuff.

She also had a can of plums. It exploded on me about ten years ago. It was a terrible mess.

We used to buy the canned bacon at K Mart. It was made in Hungary, and yes it was really salty. We can't find it any more. The do gooders probably thought they had to save us from all that salt.

In the Viet Nam war, we ate powdered eggs that were laid years before we were even born. They were terrible. I hate scrambled eggs anyway. The Viet Namese loved them.

I still have a can of potted meat I bought in 1965 at the exchange. Some day I may open it. But not today.

 

[hemet dennis]

While automation does away with certain jobs; it doesn't destroy jobs. it merely shifts jobs around. It will also create lots of other new jobs. Someone has to maintain those vehicles. Someone has to program them. Yes, those low skilled jobs may go away but skilled trades jobs will be created to support the automated vehicles.

Got rather tired of hearing the same argument about robots and automated factories. The robots, again, replaced low skilled jobs. But at the same time it created high skill job opportunities in the design, building, programming, implementation, and maintaining of those facilities.

Hell, the same arguments were tossed around when automobiles started to come around. Oh no! What will all the wagon wheel makers do? What will all the farriers do? What about all the stable owners?

Jobs and skills are not a static landscape. They are always changing. Humans will do what they have done for ages; adapt or go hungry.
Quote: Please tell us what jobs those millions of drivers will be doing.
Automation has cost the auto industries thousands of jobs, it take many less workers to produce a car or truck ! We will have one worker programming and monitoring a hundred trucks ! The cars and trucks will need less maintenance, costing more jobs. What new industries are going to absorb all those drivers ?
I'm glad you had "go hungry" as an option.

 

[hemet dennis]

I find driverless cars some what scary. I guess we just have to be more cautious.

I think unmanned shipping might be more understandable. Just load the ship and program the computer. Then watch it sail away.

Humans haven't set the bar very high for driver-less cars to be safer !

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

At one time just about everyone needed to farm. Now less people need to farm so people made new jobs for all the other people to do. History is full of leaps forward that cost many people their jobs. It is always followed by someone coming up with new jobs for those people to do.

I dont think anyone should loose anymore sleep over automation than they do over the invention of the cotton gin or the tractor.

You can think of it as lost jobs or you can think of it as freeing up manpower to do bigger an better things. Both are actually true.