Horace Heffner wrote: > If the situation becomes so drastic that there are food shortages, an > ordinary urban American would be helpless. > > > This is the worst kind of thinking possible in regards to civil > preparedness. It is those who fail to prepare for emergencies that will be > utterly helpless in emergencies. >
I was not referring to short term emergencies such as hurricanes, floods and earthquakes, or freezing rain in Atlanta, which shuts down the electricity for days at a time. Any sensible person takes precautions to deal with such things. I meant long term, serious food shortages. Depending on the government to do everything for you is the *antithesis* of > what being American has meant, at least until recently, and not what made > America successful in overcoming the Civil war, the depression, or WWII. > Americans of the past have been proud to be as self reliant as possible . . > . > That is completely incorrect. It is a myth. As long ago as 1650, and throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, visitors from Europe and later Japan remarked on how communal Americans are, and how dependent they are on the government. Americans had to be this way because they were confronted by open wilderness and hostile native Americans for a long time. Americans have also had highly intrusive government compared to Europe. (The Japanese premodern government was more intrusive.) For example, in Colonial New England, the local government monitored every child, and when the parents did not teach the children how to read and memorize prayers by age 6, the government would sometimes take the children away and assign them to foster parents. Finally, the U.S. and England have always led the world and had highest level of government funding and activity in education, public works, research, development and technology. This began with the first roads and the Erie canal, and went on to land grant colleges and the Transcontinental Railroad, and universal public education. Government projects on this scale were unheard of and unthinkable in other nations. Almost every major technology invented since the mid-1700s has been paid for, promoted and supported by the government. I have listed them here before. They include things most people have no idea were developed on government money, such as interchangeable parts and mass production, the telegraph, most aviation technology, the computer, the laser, the internet and so on. The laser was developed by Townes, a professor, but the money came from the NRL, which is also supporting cold fusion. If cold fusion ever becomes practical, a large share of the credit will go to Uncle Sam. The government has done more for it so far than all industrial corporations put together. - Jed
