RE: [Paddlewise] Chief Seattle's words

I know. I must be ignorant because I don't accept all this politically
correct garbage as the gospel truth.

The air in the Los Angeles California area is cleaner than it has ever been
for the time it has been inhabited by humans. A trip to the Museum in
downtown LA will reveal a picture of smog in this area over 100 years ago
and it wasn't new then. Wood fires are worse than current automobiles for
smog.

Speaking of automobiles, when I was a kid, I can remember smog alerts when
it hurt to breathe at all and visibility was only a couple hundred feet.
That doesn't happen anymore.

I have all the oil I need, I have all the food I need. I would be shocked if
anyone on this list has a different experience. If so, loose your internet
connection and buy food with the money. 

I will concede that food is overproduced in the US as a government subsidy
to farmers. It doesn't fall victim to natural economic forces because the
government does it at my expense without my consent. OK, but we do ship some
of that food elsewhere. This allows us to help some people and also exercise
some political leverage on the people that need it. Also, the surplus
insures that I have plenty of it. I'm in favor of shipping more of it to
people who need it though.

In any case, starvation in other parts of the world is not because the USA
over produces food, it is because they under produce it. We should help
where we can, but we didn't create the problem.

Nevertheless, I don't view this issue as the global meltdown of life as we
know it. It's not perfect, but it actually serves Americans quite well
because we never run out of food.

My recollection is that fossil and other records of "native" Americans
indicate that their food supply was not nearly as robust as our. It seems to
me our way of life works better. 

Steve Brown

-----Original Message-----


You are either extremely lucky or very ignorant of your own 
existance.  Look up the effects of air pollution on decreasing life 
expectancy in North American cities.  Consider that a significant 
part of your resources, and much of your oil, is imported.  Also, 
contact your local senator or rep for information on how much of your 
tax dollars are spent on financially supporting food production that 
goes nowhere.  Then look up the same for other countries.  Food 
production is the most overly subsidized industry in the OECD and 
there is definitely overproduction.  Starvation in other parts of the 
world is due to an inability to deal with transporting food from 
places where it's overproduced to places where it's scarce.

Mike
***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed
here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire
responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author.
Submissions:     PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net
Subscriptions:   PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net
Website:         http://www.paddlewise.net/
***************************************************************************