End of the World? Soon?

[Reyzzz]

Both subjects are conspiracy theory bullshit, at least this year. (talking about mayan calendar BS)

Even that got busted some time ago when it occurred mayans didn't account leap year in their calendar.

[Duravian]

So I recently had this conversation today about the economy and what might happen as an effect. I'll try and sum most of it up and show positions.

Remember that these are just ideas thrown out there, they got me thinking and I just came here to share them and see others opinions and thoughts on the topics as well.

First off before I go directly into the whole topic I would like to put this out there. If you remember or learned back when they banned alcohol in the US.

Why?
Well my dads statement was (idk if this is true or not: seems legit though) that the gas and oil companies influenced or made the government do this or the government did this themselves for their own behalf because of money! All the government cares about is money! Look where this got us now, 15 trillion dollars almost 16 now in debt. ( http://www.usdebtclock.org/ ) With each senator and office in the government setting their own wages and avoiding taxation. He also thinks that the government is hold back cures to cancer, and maybe even other things; tumors, aids, hiv, and such. They're doing it yet again for the money.

Back to why they banned it... (again idk if these facts are true) the alcohol, pure alcohol, is a better fuel for cars. It burns better, cleaner, easier on the engine, idk if cheaper. Nascar was created during this time thanks to moonshiners. The way they transported the bear was in vehicles, probably ran on the alcohol as well.

(TL: DR? skip to here for general topic)

What's going to happen to the world?
Wtf are people doing in the government? Not just our government but the others suck too, Greece is supposedly worse than ours and it's helping to bring down england.
Soo... In our century if our country collapses.. how is the world going to react when our country goes down? Most likely the rest of the world will go down with us. Will it be like the great depression? Doubt it, most people will raid Walmart and the next week nothing is left. There wont be enough food for everyone. Crimes and murder around the world. The whole planet will have to go through another great struggle to rebuild it's empire. I think this is human nature of course even though it is horrible. A lot of great empires have all gone down, rome, egypt, aztecs, etc.

No offense, but your father sounds like a college hippie.... :/

[schwarzkopf]

Global financial meltdown wont be the end of the world.
Global glacial meltdown may be the end of a few of us.
Global nuclear meltdown might be the end of the world.

[WarpV2]

Well the reason I created this thread was I wanted to actually find out though see others perspectives even if half of these post just say "no" with no supporting evidence or even a persuasive sentence to back it up.

First off, to everyone. Ya my dad is full of bull shit half the time because he listens to stupid radio shows. He thinks he knows everything and he's right all the time. *sigh*

Yet after he said all this shit it went in my head and I just started to think...
-The US government seems to reap us of money.
-US government hides things from it's people.
-The economic fall of the US might bring down other countries not because it has the highest GDP, BUT it has the highest debt. We owe other countries a great deal of money. Which is not there and wont be after we fall. Dominos.
-The government reason for keeping medical cures from us? Controlling the human population to some point in the US.

[sajin0084]

Walmart has all the worlds food,
Bears are stealing all the alcohol,
Greece is bringing down England,

Seems legit. Can't argue with the facts...

[Drihan]

The reason we haven't got a cure for AIDS, cancer, Down's Syndrome, Parkinsons, etc. is indeed because of money. When a small fraction of the world's populace has a certain illness, the profit in research and vaccine/cure production is extremely low compared to the cost of manpower, equipment, patents, trials and actual production of the vaccine/cure itself. There are charities and some governmental funded projects to help research centers with finding cures for ailments, but the funding is minimal compared to what is required to find a cure in a reasonable amount of time.
Just recently there was a "vaccine" against cancer that has began use in some countries. It's wide spread use is still being tested, but it shows promising results and very minimal side effects. It's not a true cure, but it is a leap forward from chemo therapy.

When it comes to the massive world wide debts, there isn't much of a problem. Yes, many countries are broke and struggles to keep even minimal operations, but the money didn't really go anywhere. Some people profited from the crisis, and those people are using their money, which means the money is still in circulation just not at a massive scale. I am aware that banks can basically just magically make money appear no problem, but looking aside from that, all the money that each country is loaning and lending out didn't go anywhere. It's still on the planet Earth, no one erased it, it's just not in the hands where they used to be. In time all that money will be floating around and the crisis will be averted, but it never really was a crisis.

[sajin0084]

Well the reason I created this thread was I wanted to actually find out though see others perspectives even if half of these post just say "no" with no supporting evidence or even a persuasive sentence to back it up.

First off, to everyone. Ya my dad is full of bull shit half the time because he listens to stupid radio shows. He thinks he knows everything and he's right all the time. *sigh*

Yet after he said all this shit it went in my head and I just started to think...
-The US government seems to reap us of money.

-The government reason for keeping medical cures from us? Controlling the human population to some point in the US.

Well I would say this is a contradiction. You claim that the government reaps you of money and they love money. So what's the best way to make more money? Stop the population from increasing of course....wait a minute...

[WarpV2]

---------- Post added 2012-05-02 at 05:47 AM ----------

When it comes to the massive world wide debts, there isn't much of a problem. Yes, many countries are broke and struggles to keep even minimal operations, but the money didn't really go anywhere. Some people profited from the crisis, and those people are using their money, which means the money is still in circulation just not at a massive scale. I am aware that banks can basically just magically make money appear no problem, but looking aside from that, all the money that each country is loaning and lending out didn't go anywhere. It's still on the planet Earth, no one erased it, it's just not in the hands where they used to be. In time all that money will be floating around and the crisis will be averted, but it never really was a crisis.

The debt was caused by Americans speculating in stocks with people borrowing money to buy more stocks. There was more money out on loan than the entire amount of currency circulating in the US at the time. The rising share prices encouraged more people to invest; people hoped the share prices would rise further. From 1921 to 1929, the Dow Jones rocketed from 60 to 400! Millionaires were created instantly. Soon stock market trading became America’s favorite pastime as investors jockeyed to make a quick killing. Investors mortgaged their homes, and foolishly invested their life savings in hot stocks, such as Ford and RCA. To the average investor, stocks were a sure thing. Few people actually studied the fundamentals of the companies they invested in. Thousands of fraudulent companies were formed to hoodwink unsavvy investors. Most investors never even thought a crash was possible. To them, the stock market “always went up”. Speculation thus fueled further rises and created a credit-inspired economic bubble.
When the market turned downward suddenly, the "panic-selling" started, bringing the market to its knees. After this Crash, the differentiation between commercial banks and investment banks.
There are still debates between economists about what caused such devastation and more than one reasons is given. It is however rather generally agreed that the "stock boom" of the 1920s went too far and caused the Crash.

---------- Post added 2012-05-02 at 05:53 AM ----------

Well I would say this is a contradiction. You claim that the government reaps you of money and they love money. So what's the best way to make more money? Stop the population from increasing of course....wait a minute...

Possibly, but they are in debt. They want money. They are still paying for people, and paying for immigrants, paying for jobless, single parents, etc shit. Not everyone can be rich, and the rich can pay for any medicine they want. Micheal Jackson and *that other lady that OD*.

I'm being speculative.

[Anakso]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I didn't think the government was the one doing research to cure things like cancer, aids or HIV. The usual conspiracy there is that it's the pharmaceutical companies all banding together to agree not to sell it (which I think is untrue, but it's the usual conspiracy)

On topic. I doubt this will actually happen, though I'm reminded of the old saying "Those who don't learn from their mistakes are doomed to repeat them"
Even if this does happen, it won't be the end of the world, just the end of a lot of peoples lives. There is already a vast portion of the planet that is starving to death, but if this happens to the whole world I still don't think its something we couldn't pull back from eventually.

[Powerogue]

Why on earth would they hold back the cure for a deadly, common disease when they could sell the cure, make millions and become loved by everyone for it?

global, great depression-like economic collapse could spur a lot of anarchy, but the great depression not causing everything to get overthrown is a good sign.

[WarpV2]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I didn't think the government was the one doing research to cure things like cancer, aids or HIV. The usual conspiracy there is that it's the pharmaceutical companies all banding together to agree not to sell it (which I think is untrue, but it's the usual conspiracy)

On topic. I doubt this will actually happen, though I'm reminded of the old saying "Those who don't learn from their mistakes are doomed to repeat them"
Even if this does happen, it won't be the end of the world, just the end of a lot of peoples lives. There is already a vast portion of the planet that is starving to death, but if this happens to the whole world I still don't think its something we couldn't pull back from eventually.

Yes probably pharmaceutical companies could be regulating it, government could control that too. - again being speculative

I don't mean end of the world end, i mean end of life as we know it. A new coming, a change with dramatic events. Ya maybe we can pull back from it yes. It's all how it might be dealt with by the countries.

[Blockygame]

Your Dad is the reincarnation of Nostradamus?

[WarpV2]

Why on earth would they hold back the cure for a deadly, common disease when they could sell the cure, make millions and become loved by everyone for it?

global, great depression-like economic collapse could spur a lot of anarchy, but the great depression not causing everything to get overthrown is a good sign.

If they fix you up right in a jiffy they wont make as much. Not everyone might be able to pay for a huge sum amount of money. Yet some people can pay for low subsequent amounts.

[Deleted]

Wtf are people doing in the government? Not just our government but the others suck too..

The same as literally every single government or ruler since the beginning of time.

.. There wont be enough food for everyone. Crimes and murder around the world.

This is already going on, just not amongst the western civilization (as much).

[Vanyali]

If they fix you up right in a jiffy they wont make as much. Not everyone might be able to pay for a huge sum amount of money. Yet some people can pay for low subsequent amounts.

They also won't spend as much creating a whole bunch of things to prolong rather than one to cure. Add to that that the first company to produce a widely known cure (I'm believe there are a few for specific, very slow cancers that don't involve radiation/ removal) gets to tag "cured cancer" to their brand and watch their sales/ investors SKYROCKET...

there's much more profit to make a cure than to hold it. Not to mention the fame for the scientists themselves.

[Pwellzor]

---------- Post added 2012-05-02 at 05:47 AM ----------



The debt was caused by Americans speculating in stocks with people borrowing money to buy more stocks. There was more money out on loan than the entire amount of currency circulating in the US at the time. The rising share prices encouraged more people to invest; people hoped the share prices would rise further. From 1921 to 1929, the Dow Jones rocketed from 60 to 400! Millionaires were created instantly. Soon stock market trading became America’s favorite pastime as investors jockeyed to make a quick killing. Investors mortgaged their homes, and foolishly invested their life savings in hot stocks, such as Ford and RCA. To the average investor, stocks were a sure thing. Few people actually studied the fundamentals of the companies they invested in. Thousands of fraudulent companies were formed to hoodwink unsavvy investors. Most investors never even thought a crash was possible. To them, the stock market “always went up”. Speculation thus fueled further rises and created a credit-inspired economic bubble.
When the market turned downward suddenly, the "panic-selling" started, bringing the market to its knees. After this Crash, the differentiation between commercial banks and investment banks.
There are still debates between economists about what caused such devastation and more than one reasons is given. It is however rather generally agreed that the "stock boom" of the 1920s went too far and caused the Crash.

---------- Post added 2012-05-02 at 05:53 AM ----------



Possibly, but they are in debt. They want money. They are still paying for people, and paying for immigrants, paying for jobless, single parents, etc shit. Not everyone can be rich, and the rich can pay for any medicine they want. Micheal Jackson and *that other lady that OD*.

I'm being speculative.

Did your dad write this half? its a step up in vocab from spelling "beer" as a furry woodland creature. Just confused.

[Ravenblade]

[....]Wtf are people doing in the government? Not just our government but the others suck too, Greece is supposedly worse than ours and it's helping to bring down england.
Soo... In our century if our country collapses.. how is the world going to react when our country goes down? Most likely the rest of the world will go down with us. Will it be like the great depression? Doubt it, most people will raid Walmart and the next week nothing is left. There wont be enough food for everyone. Crimes and murder around the world. The whole planet will have to go through another great struggle to rebuild it's empire. I think this is human nature of course even though it is horrible. A lot of great empires have all gone down, rome, egypt, aztecs, etc.

Still can't figure out why you speak of others then you pick on Greece and how it brings down England which is part of the UK. It's like saying Portugal is bringing down Northrine-Westphalia. The way the EU works every action of every member echoes on the others, so singling out one country and another isn't really demonstrative.

As for what will happen if the US "goes down". First off you underestimate the many million Chinese fingers in the world economy, they are our true overlords, you just didn't realize it yet. Usually if an empire goes down the next one will take over, Rome went down but the Goths and most known Frankish Empire under Charlemagne would soon rule over most of Europe formerly being governed by the Western Roman Empire while the Byzantines still tried to hold out against the Seljuks first and then much later the Ottomans in the East while also being forced to pay tributes to the Huns. Point being, the world did not end with SPQR and there was no "dark time" after, won't be much different with whatever scenario you estimate for the US.

[geewhiz80]

Here's my take on the whole "End of the World" conspiracies.

[WarpV2]

GN, FTL

[Kivimetsan]

lolz its not going to end, its just going to turn to shit very quickly and because people haven't experienced anything catastrophic in there lives on the scale of a collapse (which has happened thousands of times in our history, just because we have airplanes doesn't mean we are different from the people in Rome when that collapsed, etc).

So yes a collapse is coming (imho), be it a huge economic collapse or a war. Don't worry humanity wont end, we'll evolve and learn from it, or maybe we'll embrace a tyrannical leader after its all finished and end up like Ayn Rands book 'Anthem'.

Hopefully we just eradicate government and realize the only way to be free is through direct true capitalism, absent of any government or leader, other than company CEOs and executive, who cannot control you unless you work on there private property, whatever.