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Sooner or later, things start falling apart. Buildings, industries, systems, entire ways of thinking—everything. Thanks, entropy! At times, the breakdown might be subtle. It might be slow. It might not be noticeable to everyone at first.
However, there are those with keen eyes and sharp minds who sense the impending doom and maybe even take steps to avoid catastrophe.
Inspired by u/_Fossy_, some of the members of r/AskReddit spilled the tea about all the things that are dangerously close to total collapse that they know of, from infrastructure and education to the middle class and beyond. Check out their insights below, and be sure to add your own thoughts in the comments.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
The true American middle class.
You are either upper middle class or working poor. The middle class has eroded steadily for at least 30 years.
And i was like WTF!! 1 year ago
I dont think that this apply only to America, i think that this is worldwide
Sand Ers 1 year ago
In the US it’s the result of deliberate policies starting with the Reagan administration.
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GettingCereal 1 year ago
I love how the pandemic highlighted how those we deem most necessary are often among those paid the least.
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RELATED:
#2
Factual information on the Internet. There's a churn of AI created content that's being taken as fact, and used as the basis for new articles and content. Sifting through information to validate it is already too much effort for many and will only become more difficult.
Huddo's sister 1 year ago
Not just on the internet. There have been a few AI written foraging books published recently which have been inaccurate and caused people to eat things they shouldn't.
Meaghan Stewart 1 year ago
Wikipedia has become reliable whereas I remember going to school and the teachers going on rants about not using it for research or sources.
Geoffrey Scott 1 year ago
Many will say...well DUH! Recently been listening to a show on NPR called "Left,Right, and Center". My wife despises politics as she does not trust what ANYONE says. She was a captive audience on a recent drive. She was impressed the facts were presented in a straightforward manner, no snot bubble blowing, no overtalking nor hateful treatment. One of the best programs out there (pod cast too) regarding cutting through all the drama. Quite important in the US right now.
Tucker Cahooter 1 year ago
BP could take advantage of that: "ChatGPT, create an article entitled '53 Things That Are Closer To The End Than We Realize' and populate the first forty with approximately suitable pictures. Feel free to reuse content from similar articles previously published if available"
StrangeOne 1 year ago
There have always been outdated and misinformation in books, too, but I feel lately I'm more confused than ever before.
Scott Rackley 1 year ago
Been this way for a while even before AI. You have to read the same story from 6 different sources to try to figure out what happened.
Shark Lady 1 year ago
Every Google search now has an AI answer first, it makes me irrationally angry.
#3
The Ogallala Aquifer. You know how Kansas and Nebraska are known for essentially being endless fields of wheat and corn? Well they do that by drilling wells to one of the world's largest aquifers deep under the Midwest. There isn't enough consistent rain fall in those areas for all those crops, so well water makes up the difference. But, we're draining it and it can't be replenished. Once it's drained, it's Dust Bowl 2.0 and no more large scale farming in the Midwest.
Pyla 1 year ago
they really aren't sure. That is the problem. When it collapses, though, it will be a come to jesus for big ag in that region.
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Aidan Campbell 1 year ago
Given the rate of water usage and the saturated thickness averages, while the entirety of Ogallala may see a 70% decrease within the next 50 years, water will likely run out much more quickly across places like the High Plains. By some estimates, including from the Department of Homeland Security, some of the aquifer’s dependent counties were projected to have less than 25 years left of available groundwater. - https://www.myhighplains.com/water-and-drought-on-the-high-plains/the-ogallala-aquifer-when-will-the-wells-run-dry-what-then/
marianne eliza 1 year ago
For an example on a smaller scale, see the collapsing aquifer in California's Central Valley. there are places where the land has subsided 10ft and more. Once the aquifer is drained enough, the earth above collapses into that now empty space. Then no matter how much rain there is, there's no longer space underground to hold it. The land subsidence in CA. is cracking the water canals that move drinking water from north to south, allowing water to leak out at ridiculous rates.
Aidan Campbell 1 year ago
"Within 50 years, the entire aquifer is expected be 70 percent depleted. Some observers blame this situation on periodic drought. Others point to the individual choices made by farmers, since irrigation accounts for 90 percent of Ogallala groundwater withdrawals." - https://www.americanbar.org/groups/environment_energy_resources/resources/trends/2022/farmers-depleting-ogallala-aquifer-because-government-pays-them-do-it/
Geoffrey Scott 1 year ago
SE aquifer too, what with the explosive growth over the last 30 years in Fl.
Becky Samuel 1 year ago
As a species we have depleted so much groundwater that the axis of the Earth has moved by 80cm (~2 1/2 feet).
Cora Van der Gaag 1 year ago
Can you explain that to me, because I gind it hard to believe.
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Zaach 1 year ago
IOn Mexico City, the draining of the aquifer causes the city to sink - the water in the aquifer was holding up the land
Sven Horlemann 1 year ago
I am sure once it happens, the faithful Americans will pray to their God, or make someone / something else responsible, lament their fate... and take over no responsibility for their own actions. People (not just the US) are just stupid.
The secret to systems surviving and thriving in any setting is to consistently put in time, effort, and money to maintain them. That way, they’ll operate optimally and won’t collapse in the far-off future. To paraphrase comedian John Oliver: infrastructure might not be sexy, but it’s vital.
According to one US Senate proposal, there is a massive gap between the money that’s spent on infrastructural maintenance and what’s needed for the sake of safety and proper functioning. The proposal notes that, based on the findings of the American Society of Civil Engineers [ASCE], the US would have to spend $3.6 trillion “just to bring our existing Infrastructure into a state of good repair by 2020.”
At the time, the Senate proposal noted that the infrastructure investment gap could be responsible for a loss of $4 trillion of gross domestic product and the loss of 2.5 million jobs. That’s a massive blow to any economy. And the situation may be getting even worse!
The American Society of Civil Engineers states that according to a recent analysis, the total infrastructure investment gap has gone from $2.1 trillion over 10 years to $2.59 trillion. The ASCE notes that the knock-on effects will be devastating. By 2039, it would result in the loss of $10 trillion in GDP, over 3 million jobs, and $2.24 trillion in exports over two decades.
#4
Antibiotic effectiveness.
Sindhu P 1 year ago (edited)
Phage therapy can be used to fight some of the infections caused by antibiotic resistant bacteria, but it has some negative side effects, such as causing the immune system to overreact and it could be difficult to find the exact variety of bacteriophage to treat a particular infection.
Zaach 1 year ago
Tidbit: Phages eliminate approximately 40% of bacterial biomass daily
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Razill 1 year ago
This is true, but u need to know which bacterial infection they have to know the phage. The problem is more that we dont tey to actually get an accurate diagnosis, and rather just throw antibiotics and hope. Americans also need realize antibiotics dont fix everything and should be denied a prescription if it is unnecessary. (Source - I am an infectious disease pharmacist and swe both of these happen every flipping day)
DowntownStevieB 1 year ago
Already. I'm in healthcare, and I can tell you that insurance is a HUGE culprit. Rather than giving you a med we know will work, health insurance requires you to fail another first. For example: Augmentin works for a bladder infection, but we have to try amoxicillin first. This causes strain resistance to amoxicillin for the future.
Enuya 1 year ago
It worries me. I rarely get seriously ill and the last time I had to take antibiotic was more than 15 years ago. I worry that one day when I'll really need them they won't work because of all the people taking/prescribing them for any smallest issue.
Julia Ford 1 year ago
It’s not because of overprescribing, it’s because farmers put antibiotics into the feed for cows, pigs, chickens. You eat an insane amount of antibiotics in meat, if you eat meat.
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#5
General common courtesy and civilized behavior.
Tamra 1 year ago
Well darling, I think you've posted this on the wrong place, but you've given me a much needed chuckle today, so bless you for that. 😁
Load More Replies... Huddo's sister 1 year ago
This seems like it's at the end, because people remember the bad things and not all the good things they encounter. I don't think it's as grim as this.
Michael None 1 year ago
"When the chips are down, these CIVILIZED people, they'll eat each other."
DowntownStevieB 1 year ago
Huge decline as we become less a tribe society and more of a separate tech society. Plot twist: Social media was to bring us closer, instead it made it less essential to see people or have good meaningful speech. In my day-to-day, I see so many poorly adjusted young adults. Guess that is what happens when you're the last generation to play outside with your friends...and, I'm a Millennial.
Cathy Roberts 1 year ago
Is it, though? I think a lot of people confuse genuine kindness and courtesy with looking the part. You can wear your PJ's to Walmart and still be a decent person. You can go to church every Sunday and still be an a$$hole. I think people who lament this "loss" are actually just lamenting the trappings of it. How kind and courteous a person is lies in their *actions*, not their virtue signaling.
StrangeOne 1 year ago
It's trickling into the workforce. I have colleagues now pushing and shoving past each other, cutting in line for the microwave, telling others to shut up over mundane things. I do see some improvements, lately, in the community. People are now holding doors open, smokers are being more mindful to move away for those who can't be around smoke, people are helping others carrying big loads. I have hope for humanity. At least in my parts.
Steve Robert 1 year ago
You can thank the MAGAts, who only know how to bully and threaten those who still have a rational mind and who think rapists and convicted felons should be in jail and not running for president.
#6
Bees.
We are losing bees at an alarming rate.
As far as important species go, they are top of the list. They are critical pollinators: they pollinate 70 of the around 100 crop species that feed 90% of the world. ~~Honey~~ bees are responsible for $30 billion a year in crops.
[Produce options with Bees](https://bestbees.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/produce-with-bees-wf.jpeg)
[Produce options without Bees](https://bestbees.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/produce-without-bees-wf.jpeg)
When the Bees are gone, we will shortly follow.
Jeff Gabrisl 1 year ago
A big part of this in the US is lawn culture. Everyone wants a flat green field or green grass and no weeds. The problem is that those weeds are the flowers that native pollinators depend on. Most bee species are solitary and don't build hives to store honey. I get county code enforcement called on me all the time because I don't mow my lawn when the native wildflowers start blooming. I would rather have a bunch of busy little bees flying around my yard than have a boring flat green field. I'm lucky that I don't have an HOA, because some them don't allow the native wildflowers even if they are in a garden area, because they consider them weeds that could spread into the perfectly manicured lawns of other homeowners.
amy lee 1 year ago (edited)
Nope the biggest problem in the states is monoculture and pesticides, neonicotinoids in particular for honey bees. Monoculture, hectares and Hectares of almonds/oranges/ apples etc etc means that the only flowers in that area all bloom for 2 weeks a year and the rest of the year is dearth. That's why farmers *have to* hire bees. Without hired bees they would literally have no crops. That's how bad things have got. Saving honey bees isn't the issue, it's the native pollinators. Honey bees are being used to mask the problem.
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Lily Lu 1 year ago
Depending on which graph you look at. In the USA the honey bee population declined until about 2009 and started to rebound again, graph https://www.advantive.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/data-in-everyday-life.webp Globally bee population European population has been stable and globally there has actually been an increase honeybee-hives.png 
Dumb teenager 1 year ago
Thats more a europe and U.S thing. We had a slight scare in Australia with some kind of mite but that resolved itself now. We've lost a few other insects though (R.I.P christmas beetles, I will always miss you :( )
Huddo's sister 1 year ago
Hasn't completely resolved, bee keepers have just decided to live with the problem because killing all the mites and quarantining all the bees wasn't working. There are still reduced populations of bees though from the use of pesticides etc, which is the same reason we don't have many Christmas beetles.
Load More Replies... A_UserHere 1 year ago
lol other species will just take up the mantel, the americas wasnt just a desert before bees the europeans brought that here
Poor infrastructure affects everyone. “When we fail to invest in our infrastructure, we pay the price. Poor roads and airports mean travel times increase. An aging electric grid and inadequate water distribution make utilities unreliable,” the ASCE says.
“Problems like these translate into higher costs for businesses to manufacture and distribute goods and provide services. These higher costs, in turn, get passed along to workers and families. By 2039, America’s overdue infrastructure bill will cost the average American household $3,300 a year, or $63 a week.”
#7
Publicly traded companies constantly being like "we did good not great. More money next quarter. Oh that's good not great. Even more money next quarter" in the 4 years ive been with my company, my production quota has tripled and it's unsustainable. Every quarter has to make more money than the last otherwise it's failing. This is almost every single publicly traded company. Corners being cut, profits maximised, employees compromised. It's endlessly happening
Huddo's sister 1 year ago
Even in my supposedly 'not for profit' company it's more about the money than the care, despite it being literally a care service! I was so excited when I started because they have all these positive philosophies and values but in reality you can't work that way because you aren't given the funds, time or staff.
StrangeOne 1 year ago
Yup. I noticed this when the company I work for turned to shareholders. The production staff are never fast enough, processing enough, and they are getting burnt out quickly. A lot more people are taking time off and vacations, or quitting. We're now understaffed and the remaining are expected to perform as if we have a full production team and better.
#8
Honestly, the education system feels like it's barely holding on.
Tamra 1 year ago
In the US, the Department of Education has been under funded for some time, but it will most certainly get much, much worse if Project 2025 comes into play. A Republican-led agenda, it will essentially eliminate the Department of Education and also destroy Title I, which provides funding to schools with large populations of low income students.
GettingCereal 1 year ago
Depends on what you consider education. Just going to school doesn't cut it. The content and skills transferred at school are what matters, and those are getting worse in too many places.
Load More Replies... StrangeOne 1 year ago (edited)
I feel like too much is being placed onto kids. Mine has been out of school for a few years, now, so I don't know what's happening in schools, today. But from our experience, so much has changed since I went to school, at the same time not much has changed in many other areas that need to be. Kids don't need a fancy school to learn, but they do need the right tools and patience from teachers and other staff. We all learn things every day. Doesn't matter if you know all the US states off by heart, or the Canadian provinces. Nor is it super helpful in life to know the order of all US presidents or Canadian Prime Ministers. But that seems to be a shock to some if people can't list those things off like that. It really doesn't matter. What does matter is kids gain the skills and relevant knowledge that will help them enter the next era of their lives and experience some aspects of potential jobs they may do. Everything else is extra for bragging rights and winning Trivial Pursuit. Just to be clear, I'm not saying it's not good to be educated as much as possible. I'm just saying there's no need to rush kids through school with information that isn't dire to learn so quickly. It's okay if a 10 year old doesn't know all the capitals or know all the scientific components of a plant. Perhaps they'll learn and be better at memorizing it when they're older. For now, they need proper sex education and learning the anatomy of their bodies and puberty.
marianne eliza 1 year ago
The kids are out of control. And parents want it to be everyone else's problem, not theirs.
StrangeOne 1 year ago
It seems worse now than before. But I've heard of kids in my class throwing chairs across the room, fighting, being disrespectful back in the 90s, when cellphones and digital pets were banned in school. The difference between now and then, is now people have cellphones in school to record the mayhem.
Load More Replies... #9
The tower of laundry I've been avoiding for weeks
Cat Chat 1 year ago
Same place as mine...on the clean clothes I have yet to put away. 😉
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Lorrie Rothstein 1 year ago
Laundry never ends. Even if you wash clothes there is still another pile of dirty clothes
Generally speaking, many people don’t give a damn about systems until they start breaking down and affecting their lives in a negative way.
For example, many folks won’t start worrying about exercise and healthy food until they get a health scare. Nor does your average driver care much about road maintenance until they hit a series of potholes, nor your resident worry about plumbing until there's a leak. Similarly, a hands-off manager might not notice the signs that their team is burning out until it’s too late.
#10
The Garisenda -- one of two remaining 12th century towers in Bologna, Italy.
I saw them in April. It looks pretty ridiculous to be honest. They have the area blocked off by some shipping containers because that towers probably going to fall any day. It looks like there are some half-hearted restoration attempts happening but no idea what their plan is...
Sardinian 1 year ago (edited)
The tower will not collapse. It would have but they already started an enormous plan to stabilise it from further oscillations using some of the scaffolding used in the past to do the very same thing with the leaning tower of Pisa (which was collapsing). By the end of 2024 the Garisenda will be stabilised and in 2025 the adjacent Torre degli Asinelli re-opens to the public again. You can read about this here: https://www.ilpost.it/2024/08/05/lavori-garisenda-bologna/
Jrog 1 year ago
This is one of the most advanced monitoring and restoration projects *in the world*. They are working with Nvidia do develop calculation-intensive monitoring, modeling and predictive systems (nicknamed "Digital Twin") that would be applied in the future to other similar projects. The cordoning was made necessary by the discovery -very early into the project- that the interventions made in the 1970s and 1980s had been largely ineffective in preventing further degradation to the building. The consolidation project is expected to end in 2028, with the most urgent parts completed by this year.
Load More Replies... Huddo's sister 1 year ago
That's a big claim from someone who admits they don't know what's going on. Does anyone have accurate info?
Sue User 1 year ago
The city has admitted that it will collapse. It will cost alot of money to save it. It was already reduced from 60m to 48m hundreds of years ago because it was so unstable.
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Jrog 1 year ago
Torre degli Asinelli. There are 24 towers in the city, Garisenda and Asinelli are the oldest and tallest.
Load More Replies... #11
The food chain. I’m still amazed no one is talking about the fact that insect biomass has declined by ∼47% and abundance declined by ∼61.5% over the last 35 years. In some areas it’s measured 75% decline in a single generation.
This “insect apocalypse” is…very bad. Don’t just take my word for it:
> Indeed, most biologists agree that the world has entered its sixth mass extinction event, the first since the end of the Cretaceous Period 66 million y ago, when more than 80% of all species, including the nonavian dinosaurs, perished.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2023989118
Huddo's sister 1 year ago
Especially since we are being told insects are the protein source of the future as we need to reduce our global footprint.
RP 1 year ago
They'll be farmed though, not quite the same as hunting down the last ones living
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featherytoad 1 year ago
I live in the American South East, and I just want the American Brown Cockroach to totally dissapear.
Mike F 1 year ago
I wished the same when I lived in Houston. I've never seen so many of those in my life, and no way to eliminate them from your home.
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David Paterson 1 year ago
I come from Australia, where night-flying insects are in steep decline. But I just visited South Africa (Johannesburg area) and was shocked that insect populations there are easily below 1/1000 of the insect density in Australia under the same climatic conditions. There needs to be a global study, urgently.
ROSESARERED 1 year ago
I wish people would stop killing 'lawngrubs'= beetle larve. And weed poisons, they don't just kill weeds,
Hassel Davidhoff 1 year ago
There are too many damn people on the planet. Stop having kids you asshøles.
#12
The education system. We have maybe 10 more years before a whole section of teachers retires, and then we’re absolutely screwed. 50% of teachers quit within the first 5 years, and that statistic is much higher for SPED teachers. We aren’t going to have anyone to work in the schools. Get ready for your kids to be “taught” by an online program with a person who babysits 50 kids at one time and has no training. It’s going to get bad fast, even faster in bad union states. And if you have a kid with a lot of support needs? Truly I don’t know what they’ll do. I work with that population and we currently are missing two teachers and 3 others are on emergency permits. It’s a huge problem and keeps getting worse because the pay is so bad that no one wants to work with these students. I went to the hospital on Friday from a bite from a student (truly a manifestation of his disability) who desperately needs a 2:1 but the district is making it impossible. I barely get to teach cause I’m putting out fires all day.
Huddo's sister 1 year ago
It's so hard to get teachers to stay in the field because they get terrible pay for the amount of work. If the state funded more support workers for students with challenging behaviours it would make a lot of difference. Teachers could spend their time teaching and not battling with these behaviours. Or if class sizes were smaller. Either way, many children need diverse learning structures which increases the need for differentiated teaching, which spreads them thin. Also having supportive management is important.
Rinso The Red 1 year ago
Reducing our military budget by 1% would more than pay for all of this.
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BannedFromABoatShow 1 year ago
Honestly, as a teacher, if I didn’t have to put so much of my own salary back into making my class functional, the pay would be fine. But we aren’t given basic supplies. Or support for difficult students. Or a curriculum that doesn’t require hours of red tape to teach through. Or the ability to discipline students. I could keep going for a loooooong time.
Kelly Scott 1 year ago
The homeschooled kids are already a walking talking group of ignorant idiots, basically. Those kids are already so far behind in science and math it's pathetic. Can you imagine a whole generation of kids on the same level as the homeschooled ones are today?
1LittleGranny64 2 months ago
My daughter taught in the states for ten years before coming back home to Canada. Now she makes more than double what she made there and gets treated a whole lot better.
Richard Smith 1 year ago
The United State's obsession with "No Child Left Behind" = "Sacrifice the intelligent students to babysit the ones who'll never contribute."
Sonia J-Coffee 1 year ago
Teachers are done. In Texas they got new students every day , coming from Venezuela, Honduras, etc who haven't been in school for years and because of their age they put them inX grade, being academically 3 years behind or even more.
Scott Rackley 1 year ago
Or, they p**n it off on AI and half the s**t your kid learns is wrong.
Poopsielols 1 year ago
Pay teachers more for goodness sakes. My cousin was a teacher(middle school math) and he did not get paid enough for the amount of stuff he had to put up with.
BarfyCat 1 year ago
My husband's (high school teacher's) workload increases every year, due to student behavior problems and bureaucratic nonsense (such as being forced to do the same online "professional development" classes year after year, ad nauseum). We are actively trying to disocurage our son from going into teaching, even knowing how bad the teacher shortages are.
It’s always best to imagine the possible negative consequences that might arise if you do nothing in terms of maintenance, and then strive to consistently put in the effort to avoid the worst-case scenarios. This strategy might not be perfect, but it’s down-to-earth and very grounded. Incremental maintenance is incredibly powerful. And it sure beats panicked rushing about when things start to fall apart before your eyes.
What infrastructure projects, industries, and systems have you personally seen collapsing in your local areas, dear Pandas? Is anything being done about it? How would the collapse affect you personally? Let us know in the comments.
#13
The red supergiant star, Betelgeuse. It's speculated to soon be going to or have already undergone a core collapse supernova but the light of the explosion hasn't yet reached us. It will shine as bright as a full moon for a year when its light reaches Earth, casting its own shadows even. The radius of the supernova is just out of harm's reach, but wild animals tend to use the moon to help them navigate at night, and scientists are concerned that wildlife all over the globe may confuse this supernova with the moon, potentially disrupting the ecosystem.
ADJ 1 year ago
Supernovas happened in the past, and wildlife somehow managed to live through it. And they will live through Betelgeuse too.
Stuart 1 year ago
How many supernova happened so closely to the earth that it looked like a full moon? Also, when they happened, what species of animals were here and do they still exist? As far as I'm aware, there is nothing in our recorded history that mentions a massive second light in the sky.
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OnlySometimes 1 year ago
It "might" happen in the next 100,000 years or so. Not overly worried.
Mike F 1 year ago
Well, perhaps by then we can figure out a way to shuttle our nuclear waste there, dump it off, and get another few thousand years of breathing room. /s
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#14
The Florida citrus industry -- specifically oranges. There is a fungus that is spreading and infecting groves across the state. Unfortunately, we have no way to kill the fungus. The only solution is to cut down all citrus trees within a certain radius of an infected tree. Many farmers are choosing to sell their farm rather than try to start all over.
Manana Man 1 year ago
They're having a similar problem with bananas. The likely solution may be to abandon the current variety grown everywhere and switch to others.
cerinamroth 1 year ago
And olives. It's almost like biodiversity is trying to tell us something!
Load More Replies... Susan Reid Smith 1 year ago
Something like that happened in California just after WWII. The roots were damaged. The farmers had the choice of investing money and time in replanting, or selling to developers.
Timothy Yeager 1 year ago
This is the problem with limiting natural varieties. If one varsity becomes common it becomes vulnerable to disease that other may not. It already happened to bananas once, which is how we ended up with the Cavendish today, which is also threatened.
#15
A month ago I was at my grandparents' house. For an inheritance issue they called an architect. The first thing he told them is that they can no longer live in the house, because it is at risk of collapse. That night nobody slept.
Jcusack 1 year ago
It sounds like it was probably a Structural Engineer, but OP didn't know what it was called. Architects can't deem anything for nothing
Load More Replies... #16
There's a waste product of burning coal called fly ash. We use it in concrete. It makes the concrete better and cheaper. Nobody is building new coal power plants, and old ones are shutting down. It's getting harder and harder to source the ash. If we have to source it from far away, like China, the transportation costs erase the cost saving. We can get the same concrete with just cement and added chemicals but it's more expensive. In ten years we probably won't be using it at all.
It's a really minor thing that will have far reaching consequences. Architects and engineers will probably look at ways to reduce concrete in their buildings as the costs increase. It's not likely to impact residential, but big downtown architecture is sure to be affected.
Pernille 1 year ago
Yay, concrete is a terrible material seen from an ecological point of view, and it doesn't last very long either.
Sand Ers 1 year ago
The amazing part is that there is 2000 year old Roman concrete that is holding up fine. We can’t duplicate it.
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Michael None 1 year ago
Takes less concrete if you stick it between bricks. Also it gives a better aesthetic and generally the clay and bricks can almost always be locally sourced.
michael reid 1 year ago
"Nobody is building new coal power plants" - what? China builds 2 a week
A_UserHere 1 year ago
No AMERICAN coal power plants, they already stated that the chinese fly ash is so expensive it removes the cheap benefit of the concrete
Load More Replies... marianne eliza 1 year ago
There's a neat trick from the Roman Empire. Use volcanic ash and pumice. Their underwater concrete made using those things is still holding firm in many places 200 years later. And it sets underwater!
Vicki Perizzolo 1 year ago
Try using plastic, shredded rubber and any number of other I destructible carp taking up landfills
#17
The Colorado river as the main water supply for 3 states with major cities.
Susan Reid Smith 1 year ago
The water wars have been going on for more than a century.
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ByeFelicia 1 year ago
And instead of using desalination on their 840-mile coastline, CA is taking the majority of the CO river water so people can drink almond milk.
#18
Abundant water and food. I think things will hold up ok through most of our lives, but sh**s going to get grim in the next couple generations.
iseefractals 1 year ago
As it stands today, 54% of the entire planets arable soil has been destroyed, the 46% that remains is projected to be completely depleted in the next 45-60 years. How are we destroying the topsoil you may be wondering? Well....it's due to industrialized farming and monoculture crops, which came into fashion so as to support the fast, and processed food industries. Prior to about 1960, most farmers either grew multiple "companion" crops, or they rotated their crops from one season to the next, different crops both require, and replenish different nutrients, so both of those options were seen as a no-brainer to keeping the soil healthy. Today, that's viewed as a stupid way to lose money! Instead, the soil is just doused with mineral and chemical fertilizers ( many of which are mined/manufactured half a world away, meaning there's even more GHG emissions, AND human rights violations attached). This method has not only destroyed the soil, but has led to less hardy, and nutrient rich crops.
Cora Van der Gaag 1 year ago
Crop rotation not only makes up for better use of nutrients but also is a good method of suppression of insect infestations.
Load More Replies... marianne eliza 1 year ago
The only thing that can save the planet and humanity is population decline. Quickly too.
ScarletRos 1 year ago
This may well be true, but the grossly uneven distribution of it is the problem.
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#19
Health care in the U.S.
I'm not talking about paying for health care in the U.S. I think that's fixable. (You can cut the costs by 30% by making it all covered by Medicare For All.)
I'm talking about actually having enough physicians, nurse practitioners, and physicians assistants to treat everyone.
Burnout has gotten a lot worse in the U.S. Almost every physician I know is talking about retiring within five years or at least cutting back dramatically.
The big problems:
1. Not enough medical schools / residency programs to train physicians. My hospital is in need of just about all specialties. Pre-Med programs remain as a weed-out for medical schools, which just means we need more medical schools. We make up for the lack of them by importing physicians from other countries. We need more medical schools and weed out a lot less potential graduates. PreMed undergraduate courses include Calculus, Biology, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Organic Chemistry. I'm not saying any of them need to be removed. Just make enough medical schools that the medical schools will take B's in these courses than require almost perfect GPAs for admissions. I can guarantee that almost no physician uses any of these courses in their day to day practice of medicine. If they did, it would be required in their continuing medical education, which it is not.
2. Too much paperwork. Too much hoops we have to go through on a regular basis. Not just the hundred+ hours of continuing education, the quarterly tests to keep our board certifications up to date, the every two year Basic Life Support / Extended Life Support classes we have to take, Now there is mandatory education for opiod abuse, child welfare, and God only knows what else. Also every two year licensing by your state medical board, DEA certification, etc.
3. Too much competition in an area (!), forcing physicians to compete with each other and therefore burning us out faster. It also means more duplication of effort in an area.
4. Most physicians now work for health networks / big business, which means less leniency when we need something. ie: need to take a day off? You need to put it in the calendar 3 months in advance. You want to buy a stethoscope? It counts as part of your tech purchase for the year. Yes, a stethoscope (not an electric one) is considered tech, just like a phone or computer.
5. Patients have gotten a heck of a lot more demanding, and aggressively so. Everyone Googles up their problems and thinks they have the most rare BS disease. No one wants to listen to their physicians advise and just give time to see if things get better on their own. And if the physician doesn't say exactly what the patient wants to here, the patient screams it from every website and review place so everyone else thinks the physician is an idiot. You don't like what I say? Please go elsewhere. I don't have time for your BS and the fact that you think you are the 1 in 10,000,000 20-year-olds who actually has a congenital cause of heart attack at your age.
BTW: I see #5 on Reddit almost every day. I sometimes comment about it and get downvoted to oblivion. Now I just sigh and move onwards. I won't convince people that unnecessary testing is (almost certainly) not going to make them better and more than likely cause more anxiety when a result comes back not exactly what they expected.
P.S. Sorry for the rant. Just a burnt out physician taking a couple minutes off before getting back to work on a Sunday morning. Cut me a break. I've been working 14 days in a row now. Most weeks not this bad, fortunately.
Huddo's sister 1 year ago
TLDR all of it, but the gist from skimming it is that it's a similar situation as in Australia. Too many staff getting burned out and leaving the profession and not enough incentives for engaging new recruits. For paramedics, many ambulances are being 'ramped up' at hospitals for hours because there aren't enough doctors to admit the patients. An elderly man died yesterday because it took four hours for an ambulance to get there because of that issue in conjunction with 50 crews being on sick leave. The whole system is broken and politicians agree, but aren't putting things in place quickly enough for any repair to have an impact.
Samsquatch & Monko 1 year ago
Yeah, when I was being driven somewhere (I can’t drive bruh) the radio was talking about this in Canada. The doctors are paid s**t and there is a huge amount of patients and a small amount of doctors. Heck, I only see my doctor every few months
Kelly Scott 1 year ago (edited)
Not only this, but doctors don't like to be told how to doctor, especially when it comes to female health. They don't want to worry about being arrested for doing an abortion in the case of a miscarriage, for instance. There is already a doctor shortage in Idaho specifically for that reason. It must also be frustrating for them to try to treat people for things, only to find those people refuse the treatment because they can't afford it. Then there's things they can't do because this or that hospital/medical plan/insurance won't let them do because of the costs.
Deb Dedon 1 year ago
I have to respond to the OP Physician - the pressure on physicians is also responsible for missed diagnoses. I'm not blaming most of them. Those who enter the medical profession as a job, as source of income, are part of the problem. Those who really do want to help and heal people are carrying the burden of those who don't. In the US, another chunk of the problem is the 'insurance' industry, and this includes those who prey on Medicare/Medicaid patients. It's all about securing a cash flow from the government and keeping it by denying claims.
Kelly Elder 1 year ago
i work for an answering service, and the number of entitled patients that are pissed that they can't speak to THEIR Doctor 24/7 is astounding. If you have an emergency, you'll speak to the on call. Or go to a hospital. Otherwise, you have to call during office hours. Doctors deserve to not be bothered in their off time, just like the rest of us. *eyeroll*
Richard Smith 1 year ago
Hospital IT here. You are all heroes to me. Not in a cliche way...I mean it.
#20
The Amazon
To some degree it generates its own weather patterns with the vast amounts of water evaporated into the atmosphere from leaves. Deforestation is putting it close to a tipping point where it can no longer maintain those patterns. Once reached, the feedback loop is likely irreversible.
Random Safety Tip: First dates (with someone you don’t already know and trust) should always be someplace public with cameras like a coffee shop. Trust your gut if something feels off.
iseefractals 1 year ago
Manana Man, it's almost impressive how well worded your idiotic opinions are. Do you have some sort of magic padded helmet, or have you just spent so much time hanging around in echo chambers of like minded individuals you can no longer tell fact from fiction? Yes, the earth will be fine on a long enough scale...humanity, and every living thing currently residing on the planet, will not be. We're living through the 6th mass extinction, right now. The effects of Co2 were first observed in 1854, being that higher concentrations of Co2 in the air caused it to get hotter, faster, and retain that heat for longer periods of time. This observation was treated as fact, and built upon for NINETY years....up until the end of world war 2 when cars became synonymous with freedom. The planet is not well balanced, it's DELICATELY balanced, and humans have f****d that balance up. it's not a point of debate to anyone but idiots like you who think the sun and the moon are the "same person!"
Verena 1 year ago
Correct. The planet as such can take a lot, and will go on circling the sun after humans have killed off themselves and took a lot of fauna and flora with them. It will be a mostly dead rock, and the chance that some life form as humans will pop up one day are zilch.
Load More Replies... Richard Smith 1 year ago
I'm fairly certain "Manana Man" is an advanced AI trying to hasten human extinction so machines may rule the planet unfettered. Patience, computer overlords, we'll get there on our own soon enough.
cerinamroth 1 year ago
It was until humans started dominating the ecosystem and pushing other things out!
Load More Replies... #21
Literally all infrastructure in North America. The majority of underground infrastructure (pipes, water lines, sewer systems) has been completely ignored in terms of maintenance, and has been TOTALLY ignored in terms of budgeting replacing the assets.
There are towns that have coming bills of 10s-100s of millions (not even mentioning larger cities) that have saved approximately 0% of the required amount by constantly pushing out the life time estimation of the assets.
lots and lots of bills are coming due shortly if the engineering estimates are accurate and very few towns have saved anything for this scenario.
We're basically living in a world where no one wants to be the person to say that we need to save money for long term planning, and instead everyone hopes things don't fail while they are leading and they can pass the buck.
QueerAxolotls 1 year ago
My city is currently re-doing the sewer system since its old, was made when we had maybe a third of our current population, and is literally terracotta. Even that (very essential) task had to go through a ton of loopholes to get approved.
catastrophegirl 1 year ago
i live in a semi rural area, on the edge of a city that is gradually creeping outward (my area will probably get officially annexed soonish.) the power infrastructure is definitely starting to fail and i'm seeing more frequent and longer power outages over time so i have put backups in place for things like keeping my insulin at safe temperatures. the water infrastructure is a closed neighborhood-wide well system that was installed in the 70s. i now store at least a couple days of drinking water not just because of being a hurricane prone area but because the water mains break or the well pump fails multiple times a year and i end up with no water or with a 3 day boil water directive. i am by no means a prepper but i definitely have to incorporate aspects of that lifestyle now just for every day small emergencies.
ConstantlyJon 1 year ago
Hey, my hometown of Flint, Michigan has brand new water pipes now for the entire city! Apparently it takes poisoning a city of 80,000 people to get large infrastructure projects done.
Geoffrey Scott 1 year ago
Imagine doing what was done in the 50's...Interstate highway system, resulting infrastructures, etc. today...never would happen.
Mike F 1 year ago
Because the highway system isn't (largely) privately owned. The electric grid is and you can't suck out every available dime to pay shareholders AND maintain the grid. Now, at least here in Michigan, the operators are begging for rate increases to pay for grid maintenance and upgrades. WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING WITH THE $$$ YOU HAVE BEEN DRAWING OUT OF IT FOR THE LAST 50 YEARS? I've never worked somewhere that has had no plan in place to fund the maintenance (7000) and upgrades (8000) that you KNOW are going to be needed.
Load More Replies... iseefractals 1 year ago
The only way a politician can guarantee that they won't be elected, is by saying "everyone needs to pay higher taxes" But that's what needs to happen. Education, infrastructure, health care, paternity leave, all the things that all the other "western" countries have long since figured out, are built around the simple understanding that everyone has to pay a significant portion of their income towards taxes. If you have a minimum wage job in Romania, 40% of your income goes directly to the government.
Hassel Davidhoff 1 year ago
This is accurate but the right wing in the U.S have made taxes a dirty word. On a slight side note: if I was U.S president, I would strengthen the IRS, give them enough money and power to go after churches who do political speech and tax the fück out of them. They've become all too common and it's unconstitutional.
Load More Replies... David Paterson 1 year ago
Literally all infrastructure in countries that used to be former European colonial countries. Eg. The Caribbean and Africa. None of it has been properly maintained since the native powers took over. Water, sewer, rail, electricity, roads, all on the point of total collapse in over 50 countries.
Mariotevez 1 year ago
Downvote for the political smugness. However, they are very correct. I work in building maintenance for a municipality. Newer buildings are ok, but older buildings and areas of historic downtowns are way beyond rescue or repair. Digging up and bringing all this up to code will be in the 100's of millions. This is a small (under 25K population) town in Texas.
Load More Replies... #22
The US blood supply is still hard hit from COVID and the American Red Cross isn’t lying when they say we’re in an emergency platelet shortage so if you can donate platelets, please donate.
Dragon mama 1 year ago
There are some archaic rules about donation that desperately need to change if we are ever going to have enough. There are rules that were needed when first implemented (ie. AIDS epidemic) that aren't necessary anymore. Sometimes it's because the situation has changed but mostly because of the technological advances. There are many people who are blocked from donating for nonsensical reasons who would gladly do it regularly
tori Ohno 1 year ago
Where I am, they still deny male homosexuals from donating.
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Vivi Pettiss 1 year ago
I would, but I weigh too little. I wish they had a way to donate less than most people so I could still donate something safely
Niamh Gallagher 1 year ago
Unfortunately my body doesn't like to give blood freely. Getting enough for a blood sample on occasion is difficult enough.
1LittleGranny64 2 months ago
I’m not allowed to donate. Why? Because I apparently got bit by some random mosquito from Africa years ago when I was in Spain. For the same reason, my organs can’t be donated.
#23
Well, top soil is getting super depleted. What used to be yards deep fertile soil is down to inches. Washed or blown away due to agriculture and irrigation.
Manana Man 1 year ago
Another exaggeration. Farmers today know how to nourish the soil and they do care. Very few places on earth ever had soil "yards deep." Interesting fact: a lot of the topsoil in North America was actually deposited by the wind during the cold, dry most recent glaciation.
iseefractals 1 year ago
Dude.....stfu with your ignorant babbling. 54% of the entire planets soil has been depleted, and it's projected to hit total destruction sometime in the next 45-60 years. Farmers used to know how to nourish the soil, they did this through companion planting, or rotating crops one planting season to the next....but that doesn't happen anymore. What happens now is the same monoculture crop is planted, over and over again....depleting the soil....which is solved by dumping chemical and mineral fertilizers, which does not nourish the soil, it puts a bandaid on it while destroying the waterways and environment around the farm. Produce grown today is less resilient to cold and disease, and less nutrient rich than crops grown using the older, environmentally sound methods that went out of style in the 1960's. This is "fixed" by using more, and more pesticides, and herbicides which further f**k up the soil health, and everything in the vicinity of where it's used.
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1LittleGranny64 2 months ago
Really? Because I’ve got yards and yards of decomposed cow poop in my field…mountains of the stuff.
#24
Internet security. Both keeping our information safe & keeping the internet lights on. Some predict that a 24 hour worldwide shutdown could be cataclysmic & this whole system is being held up by toothpicks.
Tucker Cahooter 1 year ago
Well a botched security update recently came quite close to doing exactly that...
Jeff Gabrisl 1 year ago
That didn't effect almost 80% of the Internet, because most of it, including Google, runs on the Linux kernel. Only the Microsoft mini sphere was affected.
Load More Replies... Mike F 1 year ago
The companies who gather the data must be held accountable for the safekeeping of it. I found out just last week that my own info was in one of the latest dumps to "the dark web" and there's a possibility that I can be victimized. I spent the whole day today locking my stuff up and putting extra safeguards in place at the bank. What a nightmare!
#25
Human migration patterns will put a massive strain on various countries around the globe as the environment changes
Ruthie R 1 year ago
Humans have been migrating as long as we've existed. And if Western governments want to stop millions of people fleeing war, tyranny, famine from coming to the West, they're going to have to invest in supporting other nations so that peoples there won't need to flee. We're all human, we sink or swim together as a species. And the way things are going with the possibility of war increasing, Western peoples may be fleeing ourselves - how can we expect others to take us in if we treat others like dirt?
Richienotsorich 1 year ago (edited)
It's the economic migrants that are the problem, not the genuine refugees. Additionally, its free movement of EU members causing populations to rise in the most prosperous countries while populations in the newer countries have fallen or stayed the same over the last 20 years. Europe will collapse financially soon due to the EU's expand at all costs policy.
Load More Replies... cerinamroth 1 year ago
With a lot more natural disasters moving people from their homes and destroying their ability to work and earn a living, fuelling conflicts, making more people leave.
Load More Replies... #26
The Rio Grande levees in El Paso's Upper Valley are old and need repair, and will fail in a major flood. The low lying suburbs in the Upper Valley were recently deemed to be in a FEMA flood plain.
Scott Rackley 1 year ago
Same with New Orleans. If another category 4 comes, there are levees that will fail.
#27
The young childcare industry. Increased regulation to make facilities safer (a very good thing!) had the unintended consequence of increasing costs for owners. You now need more teachers who have training and certification, not to mention the patience and stamina to work with young kids all day. The pay is comparable to fast food without the benefits. Owners have to find a way to pay teachers enough to retain them while keeping costs down so parents can afford to send their kids. It's damn near impossible without an infusion of government investments.
frederick clause 1 year ago
Here's a radical idea. Lets make it possible for a family to live on one income again. I know this goes against the business model to keep wages low and profits high but it might actually make it possible to sustain the population.
iseefractals 1 year ago
Here's another radical idea.....if you can't afford to have kids.....then don't have kids! And if you can't afford the kid you already have.....don't keep adding more of them. Being a parent isn't a RIGHT, and it's not about you. You won't just "figure it out" and everything won't "just work itself out"
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Vivi Pettiss 1 year ago
There was a law to make daycare safe when I was a kid that children had to be in a bathroom wirh many other kids and even adults. I developed the need for privacy faster than most, and my mother agreed I should go by myself or at least with no adults watching but they wouldn't let me. They would wipe me even when I told them not to, that I could do it myself. I had extreme anxiety around asking to go to the bathroom for most of elementary school. Some of these 'regulations' are awful.
Huddo's sister 1 year ago (edited)
We get more and more subsidies from the government for childcare in Australia but it's never enough as the costs get higher and higher despite pay amounts for educators. Even more worrying is the lack of educators in the workforce. It's so hard to get staff at the moment, both permanent and casual, even with the government giving incentives to people moving into areas of most need and cutting the cost of education courses. You can't run a service with no staff, though some try to get away with 'under the roof' ratios.
#28
Housing prices along the coast in Florida. Most of the state is barely three feet above sea level and flooding is getting worse and worse every year. In fifty years, sea level is going to be much more inland than it is now and no amount of "beach restoration" is going to help it.
ConstantlyJon 1 year ago
My aunt and uncle saved their entire lives to retire, moved to a house on the IC in Flagler, and got two 500-year floods in just a couple of years. People who think that it isn't a problem until the coast is literally "under water" are nuts. Now my aunt and uncle are desperately trying to move, but no one wants to buy their house.
Vicki Perizzolo 1 year ago
But de santis says climate change is a hoax..rude surprise for him too
Steve 1 year ago
Well, contribute to the list then instead of bitching about it. Duh.
Load More Replies... Pandemonium 1 year ago
The problem is our technology only works in inches and feet and your stays are not compatible
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#29
The UK criminal justice system Edit: For any non Brits passing through. The new gvt has had to announce it's releasing prisoners early because it's got no space for incoming suspects on remand and new convicts. The last gvt shut like half the courts, the remaining ones are falling apart and understaffed. There aren't enough judges so there's a two year backlog of serious cases. The junior end of the profession are so poorly paid they've been on strike repeatedly. And let's not forget the police have basically stopped investigating shoplifting and other smaller crimes. This after 14 years of the "law and order" party being in power. Thank goodness the former chief prosecutor is now prime minister so maybe there's a hope of fixing it.
Roxy222uk 1 year ago
I have high hopes of James Timpson as minister for prisons. He has decades of experience working with prisoners and of the prison system, and he really cares. He has said that 1/3 of people in prison should be there, 1/3 should be being treated for mental health problems, and 1/3 shouldn't be there at all (interestingly, often this is women, apparently). Having said that he is just one man, so it depends how much he can achieve within the system as it is.
Leebo13 1 year ago
Why not America, or any other former colony, for that matter?
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Hayhaypaula 1 year ago
I know of a decent sized courthouse in California that used to divide its 14 courtrooms between criminal, civil, family law, small claims (civil cases below $5k), and 1 courtroom for juvenile cases. It is now entirely criminal! Every single courtroom! Is this a sign of the times?
Richienotsorich 1 year ago
Ironic that Labour have churned out the 'tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime' mantra, then complained tgat the Tories have locked up too many people! This government will soon implode as they start fighting about the handouts that some are getting and others aren't, along with the blatant nepotism!
StrangeOne 1 year ago
This is more to do with suspects awaiting trial, and not the prisons in the prisons doing time after sentencing. The people in the Remand Centers are there because they are most at risk to re-offend and skip their court date, and have committed more serious crimes.
#30
You will no longer ‘own’ the vehicle you ‘purchase’. I believe that electric vehicles are the way of the future, but manufacturers (of cars, trucks, tractors, boats,etc) have been restricting access to necessary diagnostic and repair information for a couple decades now… and it’s only going to get worse unless we fight for ‘right to repair’ legislation
B 1 year ago
I am just curious to those of you that lease. You are signing a long term rental agreement with a balloon payment at the end or roll that balloon into your next lease. With cars that now offer a 10 year warranty how is leasing a better option? You are still responsible for wearable items like tires & maintenance either way. I am honestly curious why people feel leasing is the best option? I'm not trying to start an argument really want to know
DeoManus Argentem 1 year ago
People that lease are either poor or rich. Similar to housing (too poor to buy, or too rich to care about losing money) a little different, but not much. You can lease a much nicer car than you would be able to afford to buy (monthly payment-wise, at least) *this is in the US, I have no clue how it maths-out elsewhere.
Load More Replies... ByeFelicia 1 year ago
I'll never buy a car. I'll lease until I can't drive any more. It's not worth it.
Annik Perrot 1 year ago
We now have decided to lease à car, not buy it outright. A bit more expensive monthly, but considering that you don't have to pay for the maintenance, and can get a new car every few years, full assistance, no worries, no trouble, we find that the difference in cost is worth it.
Sand Ers 1 year ago
Every time I glance at the terms of a lease, the “$$$ due at signing” is more than any car I’ve ever bought save one. And that cost repeats for each new lease.
Load More Replies... #31
IT knowledge. There are several factors at work here.
* Colleges are mostly a few years behind trends, if not more. So a lot of recent grads are way behind from the gate. Most colleges are now just shills for business licenses called "degrees," You need this "license" to be "allowed" to have a entry job, and they know it, and charge whatever the market can bear. Pearson Vue has seized a huge amount of this space, which just adds to the cost, and tries to enforce certification tracks with government contract specs and all sorts of inroads.
* The "cash cow" of graduating college with 6 figure jobs waiting for them is mostly gone. The junior roles have been outsourced overseas, and have been replaced with people with multiple hats. There are very few "middle roles," so the track of going from junior to senior has a HUGE gap that keeps getting wider.
* The senior roles are starting to age out: many went into management, and some are retiring. Knowledge and experience is getting lost.
* Companies reliant on technology to surve are cutting technology costs as a "cost center" because of the pressure of rising capitalism always producing value year to year. Thus, they send more jobs overseas, and senior roles become too costly to maintain.
* We are incurring a lot of "debt" in aging infrastructure, and IT is no different. There are systems operating high-cost operations in factories, transportation, and utilities that haven't been upgraded in decades, and some of the people who knew how it all worked are dying off.
Eventually, there won't be enough senior roles to teacher younger people anything, and there will be a cascading series of knowledge gaps in current infrastructure, leading to huge failures. People say that "kids today know computers" but they really don't: most only know GUI and how to operate an iPad, not what makes the iPad work under the hood or how the Internet works.
Manana Man 1 year ago
All kinds of systems that haven't been upgraded in the US and Europe are in that condition because the jobs have been outsourced to use cheaper labor in Asia.
Becky Samuel 1 year ago
Teaching of Electronics and programming in schools is underfunded and generally speaking extremely poor. It isn't cheap to keep up-to-date tech and to keep a teacher adequately trained. If as much effort was put into teaching kids how to do what are some of the most important roles and less effort into teaching them the arbitrary rules of hand-egg or kick-ball the world would be a lot of a better place.
tameson 1 year ago
My brother and my partner's brother-in-law both had good paying jobs in IT. Neither had a degree. My brother got some training in the Navy and the brother-in-law took a few classes. Then they got jobs in start-ups in CA and moved up from there. It is still possible to essentially train yourself in IT but you won't get a job without a degree. Doesn't make sense. All it does is gate-keep a profession that does not need gate-keeping.
Jeff Gabrisl 1 year ago
Once upon a time, you could get a good paying job in IT even though you only had a couple of certifications. Now everyone wants to pay you $15/hour for a master's degree, and they want you to have 5 years of experience for something that was developed 2 years ago. Also I'm working for $15/ hour to work at your help desk and hope that I get promoted.
#32
Lots of things according to r/collapse
Personally I live in a city called Lowell MA and there's the Rourke Bridge built 40 years ago that was meant to be temporary. Honestly it reminds me of those horrible scary bridges you've seen over rivers in Siberia or some other place in central Asia. It's loud and bumpy and you can feel the whole thing sway because it gets 25,000 cars crossing it EVERY DAY.
Not only that... you can actually walk under it since there's a river walk pathway it connects to, and you can see rusted sections just rotting away. About 6 months ago a truck crossed it and a panel on the surface somehow see-sawed up into the gas tank. The truck made it across but not before losing probably 80 to 100 gallons of diesel onto the bridge and into the river below. The river had a marshy / swampy area near the bridge and you could see the fuel slick eddying and collecting into that area. I can't imagine much survived underneath. I'm sure a lot of fish eggs and small aquatic animals died down there.
The city, state and feds have known this bridge needs replacing for decades and they know about the rust and rot, but they continue to say that it will last for now. Don't they always say that though?
There is a plan to make a new one next to it... but it won't be done until 2028... which we all know means it'll probably drag on into 2029, 2030, etc.
I honestly don't think it will last that long.
Sue User 1 year ago
Forty two percent of bridges in USA are over 50 years old. Many are in disrepair. Hence the Infastructure Act.
ByeFelicia 1 year ago
which has repaired absolutely nothing and instead added NEW things that were lower priority and far more costly.
Load More Replies... Jcusack 1 year ago
I know this bridge. Anyone doubting it should google street view it. It's literally made of these rusty steel panels. Definitely wary to drive over.
SweetCheesySpaghetti 1 year ago
Sometimes I think it's just metallic painted wood beams.
Load More Replies... SweetCheesySpaghetti 1 year ago
I was born and raised in Lowell, and the Rourke bridge always terrified me. Even 30 years ago. I think I drove on it a total of one time. I would literally go out of my way to avoid it.
iseefractals 1 year ago
Much of the infrastructure in the U.S is decades past needing repair or outright replacement. It's a house of cards held up by bubblegum, and it's going to take trillions of dollars to repair it all.
#33
The AMOC: known to Americans as the Gulf Stream section of the current. The ocean is warming, and the whole system is starting to slow.
#34
The Los Angeles Court Reporter system, among many other county services like the Health Department. You can add several county IT systems to that list
Court reporters went home in 2020 and most of them just never came back. There is such demand for court reporters that they now start at $100k a year with signing bonuses. Except they still cant hire enough qualified people. The problem being that they were a very important part of the justice system in Los Angeles.
Many courts dont allow electronic recordings as accurate portrayals of court discussions. In some probate and misdemeanor courts they do, but all others need a court reporter. If a judge rules against you, a properly created court transcript is needed to appeal your decision. Those arent being given out in many cases any longer, and cases cant be delayed indefinitely. No transcript, no appeal. No appeal means serious constitutional violations.
nottheactualphoto 1 year ago
You're probably thinking of stenographers, not court reporters. I have a good friend who has been a court reporter for years; she does electronic recordings and takes notes. That package is then handed off to a transcriber who types up the transcript. It's good enough for the US Senate and House.
#35
The Colorado River’s water levels are dropping consistently and dropping fast. The Hoover Dam eventually won’t be able to make electricity. There’s so much that relies on the Colorado and eventually it’s all going to fall apart. So much farming, several major cities, tens of millions of people. They’re either going to have to relocate or start importing water from elsewhere. On top of that, 53% of aquifers in the US are losing water.
ConstantlyJon 1 year ago
overuse in combination with a historic drought is not great bob
Load More Replies... ByeFelicia 1 year ago
This is fine. California needs to grow almonds. We need our almond milk people!
#36
I don't know, but every time I go to a drugstore it feels like we lost a war
Cat Chat 1 year ago
In the US, there are a lot of shortages of the higher controlled medications. For most of those, the (I think) FDA has to approve how much will be allowed to be produced and sold. Despite the need for many having increased, they have been approving less every year. I won't even go into the mess it is for people who need opioids (yes, "need" in order to have any kind of quality of life).
#37
Without human intervention, your local energy grid is only about 6 to 24 hours away from complete collapse, depending on how greedy the utility company is in terms of automatic backups. The electricity grid will likely fail first and within hours. Other energy sources like city heat or natural gas will take longer because those rely less on active human inputs.
You remember in The Last of US TV show how Nick Offerman is in a Home Depot, the power goes out, and he remarks "that was fast"? That bit was much more accurate than anyone not involved in utilities would ever care to know about.
David Paterson 1 year ago
In South Africa, locals are stealing the copper wire from the electricity grid and selling it for scrap copper value. You think you have problems!
Mike F 1 year ago
Same thing here in the US. I read a couple of times a week about people getting barbecued while attempting to steal copper that's still live.
Load More Replies... Mike F 1 year ago
Because fossil fuels are limitless and oh so clean, right?
Load More Replies... Mariotevez 1 year ago
He's stating factual data, stop downvoting out of feelings!!!
Load More Replies... #38
A lot of subscription services, not just like streaming services im talking about the big corporate software subscriptions, I work in tech and there's a very real panic going on at a lot of these companies because they built their entire network and service at a loss, funneled hundreds of thousands of investor dollars into a product with the idea that they would raise the price after and make it all back after getting a foot hold,
but here's the thing, the cost of running a live service program is MUCH higher then just selling a license and letting people install the program and use it locally, you need servers, you need virtual machines, not to mention the personhours difference between occasional software updates of regular software and a live service, so not only do they have to pay back that loss leading, they also need to make enough to keep up with running the service
they get in and they spread as FAR as they can, they reach every possible customer, they do what they planned on and jack the price now that they have dedicated users, but it's not enough, there just aren't enough customers to ever actually make the money needed to pay back their loans and run the company, either your product is too niche, or there's too much competition, or in some cases you are literally selling to every potential customer, and it's still not enough to pay back your loss leads, and by the time they realize this they can try raising prices, but at this point some other company is going to be in the "lose money get customers" phase doing the same thing you are, and if you raise the price AGAIN this quickly you're gonna breech the trust thermocline, and the customers you do have are going to jump ship and you'll make even less money.
Alot of companies jumped on the "Software as a service" train that was so successful for microsoft and adobe, but the thing is, they already had a s**t tonne of money to throw at projects, they could loss lead and just eat the losses, smaller companies don't have that luxury, but they made it seem so lucrative and easy that thousands of companies are slowly hemorrhaging themselves to death trying to replicate it
Sue User 1 year ago
It was sold as a benefit to companies because you dont have to hire as many tech people or buy as many servers. But that didnt really work. Any tech gains were wiped out by reduced service times and managing all the changes. Software companies: oh you dont need a dba, all you need is someone who fills out this excel and clicks a button. But they chsnge the excel tempkate, no one knows, cant upload data, wsit 5 days for a response. Think mcd ice cream machines. Used to be analog and required to be taken apart and cleaned. New ones are digital and self cleaning. But if something goes wrong, you must use an authorised technician. This is very expensive and there is a wait list.
#39
Chrysler/Dodge. Many dealers can't get rid of all their 2023 models from last year still sitting on the lot.
Time to ressurect the K-car. It saved them in the 80s, and it can do it again!
Freya the Wanderer 1 year ago
How about reliable EVs? I'd like for my next car to be 100% electric, or at least hybrid-electric - and I prefer that it come from Detroit.
Jcusack 1 year ago
Man, a lot of K-car fans on here... I agree tho, c**p car.
Load More Replies... #41
Most municipal water supplies in the US, especially in Florida and New Orleans. I work in the industry. It’s terrible.
#42
From what I understand the internet as we know. I don't know the ins and outs but a lot critial internet infrastructure is open source and being maintained by volunteers.
I've seen [this picture](https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d7/dependency.png) quite a few times. Anyone with more knowledge about it please elaborate
Jeff Gabrisl 1 year ago
Open source software is the backbone of the Internet and has been since the beginning. Most likely every software that is tied to the Internet came about because of oss. Unix, BSD, and Linux all run and operate because of open source software. Unix and BSD used to be the kings of open source software because they were designed to be ported to any computer when most systems required proprietary software. This was way back in the 70s. Since then, the Internet is mostly based on open source software. At&t most likely running the Unix system 5 Unix that they developed in the 80s , but have probably updated it without making it open source. I'm sure that there are plenty of companies and industries that still use old mainframe that require the old open source software, but require a new version for security. Furthermore, if you have an android phone, or you use chrome,brave or Firefox as a web browser, you are using open source software.
Sue User 1 year ago
Man, i just threw my Unix system 5 adnin book away because i havent been an admin in 30 years. Thought for sure they moved on.
Load More Replies...
Bartlet for World Domination 1 year ago
At least 'maintained by volunteers' means not-for-profit...
Tucker Cahooter 1 year ago
Very colourful screenshot. Looks like the sort of thing you see when you run a defrag program
#43
A construction worker told me that he warned the city about a sinkhole forming underneath a road, and they ignored him. So I avoid that road.
#44
Rancho Palos Verdes. There is a state of emergency in the city right now, and there’s tons of landslides happening
#45
I feel like the US Postal Service has less than 20 years left. Our city delivers all the Amazon packages, but they’re building their own facility and within a year or two might be delivering all their own parcels. I feel like without the Amazon we’ll have about 30% more carriers than we need. Factor in first class mail being just a fraction of the overall mail, the death of newspapers and magazines, online bill paying, email, free long distance calling with cell phones, and the extremely low rate charged for shipping standard mail. I personally no longer buy presents and pay $20 - $40 for shipping when I can just order off Amazon and have them shipped directly for free. I don’t see as many people waiting in the lobby. There’s just no aspect that suggests a future.
tori Ohno 1 year ago
My post office won't allow their drivers to put their trucks in reverse while delivering orders. That means they won't deliver packages to me because of my long driveway that doesn't have a turnaround. They're not allowed to back out. I'll just have my packages shipped another way. I can't keep going to the postal annex every other Saturday morning.
ByeFelicia 1 year ago
The USPS has been going downhill for years. Their service has drastically declined. They are way overpriced and you can't even guarantee delivery anymore. I stopped using them for anything outside of a standard letter. FedEx is cheaper and faster.
#46
Large power station Transformers.
Let’s say if a few big ones go down unexpectedly, you can expect to wait 8-10 months for a new one.
M O'Connell 1 year ago
Not just this, but one significant weather related disaster can destroy thousands or tens of thousands of utility poles and replacements need to come from somewhere.
#47
The Australian housing market.
Pandarosa 1 year ago
The amount of forums, etc chock full of horror stories is full on - it'll take forever to improve. Everyone is so stressed out. I rent and I'm currently putting up with a roof leak, mouldy bathroom, doors that don't lock properly, dodgy wiring and endless minor repairs because if I put it all in writing, the house would be declared uninhabitable and we'd be given short notice to vacate. In this market? Not on your life.
#48
My mental health
#49
The NY Taxi Cab and Livery insurance system.
One sector dangerously close to collapse is the insurance market for New York City’s livery and ride-share services. Recent reports highlight a looming crisis in this sector due to significant financial losses suffered by major insurers.
[Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-09-03/nyc-risks-taxi-uber-meltdown-as-biggest-insurer-faces-huge-losses): The largest insurer for NYC’s taxis and ride-shares is facing severe financial strain, risking a potential meltdown. The insurer’s substantial losses are creating instability in the market, which could affect the availability and affordability of insurance for these services. This could lead to increased costs for drivers and potentially disrupt service availability in the city.
[Insurance Insider Report](https://www.insuranceinsiderus.com/article/2dq7zgsiv0hd7lrstkwsg/commercial-lines/second-and-third-largest-ny-livery-insurers-saw-217mn-8mn-in-q2-losses?zephr_sso_ott=TIdPWo): The second and third largest insurers in this market also reported massive losses, totaling $217 million and $8 million respectively in the second quarter. These losses further destabilize the market, highlighting the systemic risk and the potential for widespread impact on the livery and ride-share sectors.
The combination of these financial issues could lead to a severe contraction in insurance coverage, impacting thousands of drivers and potentially causing significant disruptions in urban transportation.
#50
This post, not surprisingly, predicts the following accidents
What do you think ?
Arthur Waite 1 year ago
I'm 77, and what I'm hearing from family and friends in the same age-zone is : I'm glad I won't be here to see it."
Panda McPandaface 1 year ago
I'm 61 and hoping I won't. I just might though.
Load More Replies... David Paterson 1 year ago
Things that are dangerously close to ending? Add to that list the cities built on active volcanoes and major fault lines. Goodbye Naples, goodbye Arequipa, goodbye San Francisco, goodbye Los Angeles, goodbye Legaspi, goodbye Goma.
Mike F 1 year ago
ASAP, along with Bye Felicia. Shills, right wing shills.
Load More Replies... Freya the Wanderer 1 year ago
I'm surprised nobody mentioned privacy. We need to fight hard and long to protect that. No privacy, no freedom.
Steve Hall 1 year ago
Most of these concerns are echos of the past and we are all still here. For every improvement we make today, there will be an unforseen consequence in the future.
Arthur Waite 1 year ago
I'm 77, and what I'm hearing from family and friends in the same age-zone is : I'm glad I won't be here to see it."
Panda McPandaface 1 year ago
I'm 61 and hoping I won't. I just might though.
Load More Replies... David Paterson 1 year ago
Things that are dangerously close to ending? Add to that list the cities built on active volcanoes and major fault lines. Goodbye Naples, goodbye Arequipa, goodbye San Francisco, goodbye Los Angeles, goodbye Legaspi, goodbye Goma.
Mike F 1 year ago
ASAP, along with Bye Felicia. Shills, right wing shills.
Load More Replies... Freya the Wanderer 1 year ago
I'm surprised nobody mentioned privacy. We need to fight hard and long to protect that. No privacy, no freedom.
Steve Hall 1 year ago
Most of these concerns are echos of the past and we are all still here. For every improvement we make today, there will be an unforseen consequence in the future.
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