stan wrote:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nah. It's all the lead in things that has made the present generation/
s insufficiently intelligent; so we pass stupid regulations. Wait 20
years or so and maybe the next, lead free, generation will have more
sense!

You may very well be right, but don't you want your kids to have the same
opportunities you did? (That's why I decline child-proof caps at the
pharmacy.)


Meanwhile we have a banking system, which unlike many other countries/
areas of the world, is out of control, and rife with corruption and
greed! Viz: Enron, AIG, Bernie Madeoff, corrupt mortgages etc.

No one has ever claimed there was corruption in the banking system. Greed,
sure, but greed is good. Corruption is the sole province of government.



An industrial/financial system with so much emphasis on the 'bottom
line' (and individual profit) that it has exported industrial
production and services out of North America, which was once the world
hub/leader of efficient and ingenious management and production!

Both of those, emphasis on 'bottom line' and exporting projects that can be
done more cheaply elsewhere, are good.


Has created an agricultural system that is so costly to run that the
North American farm system has to be subsidized and/or propped up by
imposing tariffs; even though foods can be produced more cheaply and
with work creating benefit to farming communities elsewhere. By
artificially raising costs, we are often paying twice for our food
(including tarffs and subsidies).

I notice a disconnect - you complain about American industrial production
moving offshore and also complain about not being able to import cheaper
food. Hmm.


It's an odd thing to worry about when there are many much more serious
pollution problems!

Pollution is not an on-going problem. By any metric, pollution has been
consistently dropping since the mid-60's. And it will drop even more when
all these harmful books are removed from the libraries!


Ah well; I guess when all the ground water has been used up or
polluted; there is too much methane, carbon dioxide and carbon
monoxide in the air everyone breathes and world population spirals out
of control we will welcome a bit of lead in something to dumb down the
population so humans don't realise what's going on. Washington
lobbyists for the metals industry take note.

When all the ground water is used up, we'll desalinate sea water - there's
plenty of that. Carbon monoxide in the air has been decreasing for the past
decade. If the total atmosphere could be represented by a football field,
the amount of CO2 is roughly equal to the area between the offensive and
defensive lines (22 sq ft out of 57,000). Most of the increase in CO2 is the
result of global warming, but we've got a long way to go before anybody but
plants notice the increase.


Was it not the Romans, whose Emperors thought their empire was forever
and then poisoned themselves with wine sweetened by keeping it in
containers made of lead and often went mad? By contrast the common
folk (plebeians?) who couldn't afford lead and depended on simple
pottery for containers, fortunately, survived.

Uh, I don't think so. The Roman Empire fell because they kept electing gods,
or proto-gods, as leaders.