Societal Collapse

[Timsup2nothin]

In the UK that restriction is put at the point of sale, in that if you sell cars for a living then you have the product standards. Putting it at the point of purchase seems to me to be distorting the market. But hey, it is up to you how you structure your car market.

The product standards here are at the point of sale, in that car dealers have to meet them when they sell cars. Auctions do not have to meet any standards, because they do not sell to the public. The buyers, who are in the trade, are expected to apply 'buyer beware' and suffer the consequences if they buy something and it does not meet standards for resale.

I am aware that 800 > 500, but that was the only data point I have. I do also understand that my particular car buying habits are unusual, but I do not understand why. I am not convinced that my example is that exceptional, this was me on holiday trying to replace my brothers car in one day from craigslist and that is what I came up with. Surely it cannot be that much of an outlier? It is worth mentioning that this was some years ago, perhaps 4.

Unusual is a tricky word. There are plenty of cars sold 'private party'. Not anywhere near as many as are sold through dealers, for a whole lot of reasons, but plenty. The main thing I always used to discourage private party transactions was 'who takes the blame?' If a used car lot sells a bunk car they have a whole world of reasons to try to 'make things better' and a whole lot of resources to apply to the effort. If I sell you a car off Craig's list and it blows up next week, tough luck.

I am still interested in if you really feel that an "average" german car is really much the same as an "average" american car to someone who enjoys driving.

This all started when I said something along the lines of 'a car is a car', which I usually follow with 'they are all just rubber, tin and glass to me'. Under the right circumstances (my early morning desolation tests) I might enjoy one more than another. If I was going on a date with a really shallow woman there are some that are more useful than others. For the beating back and forth to work every day they are all just a means to an end for me, so maybe I can't answer from the 'someone who enjoys driving' perspective, because I honestly just don't.

PS...how the collapse of society turned into a lengthy interview with a car salesman may seem disjointed, but car salesmen have long been accused of being the cutting edge of the degradation of society so perhaps it relates.

 

[Borachio]

This all started when I said something along the lines of 'a car is a car', which I usually follow with 'they are all just rubber, tin and glass to me'. Under the right circumstances (my early morning desolation tests) I might enjoy one more than another. If I was going on a date with a really shallow woman there are some that are more useful than others. For the beating back and forth to work every day they are all just a means to an end for me, so maybe I can't answer from the 'someone who enjoys driving' perspective, because I honestly just don't.

Yep. I agree. I can't remember when cars really turned into "just cars" for me, and every day driving became just a chore (and an expensive one at that). Somewhere between 30 and 50, I guess.

It's all a bit sad really.

 

[Farm Boy]

I am still interested in if you really feel that an "average" german car is really much the same as an "average" american car to someone who enjoys driving.

I enjoy driving! German cars(until more recently) have had sufficiently poor cupholders as to be an aggravation.

 

[Smellincoffee]

If the systems that most Americans depend on collapsed, I'd put good odds on the Mormons to dominate. They're enthusiastic, vigorous, have a cohesive culture, and are required to prep for disasters.

 

[Hygro]

If the systems that most Americans depend on collapsed, I'd put good odds on the Mormons to dominate. They're enthusiastic, vigorous, have a cohesive culture, and are required to prep for disasters.

I could totally see this happening.

 

[Tahuti]

If the systems that most Americans depend on collapsed, I'd put good odds on the Mormons to dominate. They're enthusiastic, vigorous, have a cohesive culture, and are required to prep for disasters.

I'd say the same about Turks and Bevindelijk Gereformeerden (i.e. Orthodox Calvinists) in the Netherlands.

 

[Kaitzilla]

How did I miss this thread?

The #1 way for society to collapse is from a flu mutation.
Starts in birds and then spreads to pigs and humans.
Hence the panic over bird flu and swine flu.

Recall the last major outbreak 100 years ago.
It killed 3%-6% of all the humans on Earth!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic

The global mortality rate from the 1918/1919 pandemic is not known, but an estimated 10% to 20% of those who were infected died. With about a third of the world population infected, this case-fatality ratio means 3% to 6% of the entire global population died.[31] Influenza may have killed as many as 25 million people in its first 25 weeks. Older estimates say it killed 40–50 million people,[4] while current estimates say 50–100 million people worldwide were killed.[32]

This pandemic has been described as "the greatest medical holocaust in history" and may have killed more people than the Black Death.[33] It is said that this flu killed more people in 24 weeks than AIDS has killed in 24 years, more in a year than the Black Death killed in a century.[34]

The disease killed in every corner of the globe. As many as 17 million died in India, about 5% of the population.[35] The death toll in India's British-ruled districts alone was 13.88 million.[36] In Japan, 23 million people were affected, and 390,000 died.[37] In the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), 1.5 million were assumed to have died from 30 million inhabitants.[38] In Tahiti, 14% of the population died during only two months. Similarly, in Samoa in November 1918, 20% of the population of 38,000 died within two months.[39] In the U.S., about 28% of the population suffered, and 500,000 to 675,000 died.[40] Native American tribes were particularly hard hit. In the Four Corners area alone, 3,293 deaths were registered among Native Americans.[41] Entire villages perished in Alaska.[42] In Canada 50,000 died.[43] In Brazil 300,000 died, including president Rodrigues Alves.[44] In Britain, as many as 250,000 died; in France, more than 400,000.[45] In West Africa, an influenza epidemic killed at least 100,000 people in Ghana.[46] Tafari Makonnen (the future Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia) was one of the first Ethiopians who contracted influenza but survived,[47] although many of his subjects did not; estimates for the fatalities in the capital city, Addis Ababa, range from 5,000 to 10,000, or higher.[48] In British Somaliland one official estimated that 7% of the native population died.[49]

A book was made about just such an apocalypse by Stephen King.
Huge book called The Stand.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Stand-Stephen-King/dp/0307743683

When a man escapes from a biological testing facility, he sets in motion a deadly domino effect, spreading a mutated strain of the flu that will wipe out 99 percent of humanity within a few weeks. The survivors who remain are scared, bewildered, and in need of a leader. Two emerge--Mother Abagail, the benevolent 108-year-old woman who urges them to build a community in Boulder, Colorado; and Randall Flagg, the nefarious "Dark Man," who delights in chaos and violence.

Good old "Captain Trips"

"Captain Trips"[edit]

June 16, 1980 – July 4, 1980

At a remote U.S. Army base, a weaponized strain of influenza, officially known as Project Blue and nicknamed "Captain Trips", is accidentally released. Despite an effort to put the base under lockdown, a security malfunction allows a soldier, Charles Campion, to escape with his family. By the time the military tracks the already-deceased Campion to Texas, he has triggered a pandemic of apocalyptic proportions which eventually kills off 99.4% of the world's human population.

As the pandemic intensifies, a multi-faceted narrative—told partly from the perspective of primary characters—outlines the total breakdown and destruction of society through widespread violence; the failure of martial law to contain the outbreak; the military's increasingly violent efforts to censor information; and, finally, the near-extinction of mankind. The emotional toll is also dealt with, as the few survivors must care for their families and friends, dealing with confusion and grief as virtually everyone they know succumbs to the flu.

The expanded edition opens with a prologue titled "The Circle Opens" that offers greater detail into the circumstances surrounding the development of the virus and the security breach that allowed its escape from the secret laboratory compound where it was created.

And we are in luck!
The virus has already been created and is being stored in Wisconsin, USA.
http://sploid.gizmodo.com/scientist-creates-new-flu-virus-that-can-kill-all-of-hu-1599174385

Scientist creates new flu virus that can kill all of humanity
James Baker
7/02/14 12:52pm


Working at a lab with a relatively low level-two biosafety rating, University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Yoshihiro Kawaoka has created a strain of flu that can completely escape the human immune system. The new genetically-engineered virus is based on H1N1, which may have killed 500,000 people just five years ago.

Most people today have a level of immunity to the H1N1 flu, which is now regarded as a relatively low threat. Kawaoka genetically manipulated H1N1 so it can "escape" our neutralising antibodies. This would make the human immune system—and population—unable to resist an outbreak.

Kawaoka wanted to convert H1N1 to its pre-pandemic state to analyze the genetic changes involved. He told The Independent that he has now finished his study and will submit his findings to a scientific journal. He also told the newspaper that his experiment was to monitor changes to the H1N1 strain that would improve vaccines:

More info:
http://www.businessinsider.com/yoshihiro-kawaoka-creates-deadly-flu-strain-for-resear-2014-7

The work was carried out at Wisconsin University’s $12m (£7.5m) Institute for Influenza Virus Research in Madison which was built specifically to house Professor Kawaoka’s laboratory, which has a level-3-agriculture category of biosafety: one below the top safety level for the most dangerous pathogens, such as Ebola virus.

However, this study was done at the lower level-2 biosafety. The university has said repeatedly that there is little or no risk of an accidental escape from the lab, although a similar US Government lab at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta with a higher level-3 biosafety rating was recently criticised over the accidental exposure of at least 75 lab workers to possible anthrax infection.

Professor Kawaoka’s work had been cleared by Wisconsin’s Institutional Biosafety Committee, but some members of the committee were not informed about details of the antibody study on pandemic H1N1, which began in 2009, and have voiced concerns about the direction, oversight and safety of his overall research on flu viruses.

Rebecca Moritz, who is responsible for overseeing Wisconsin’s work on “select agents” such as influenza virus, said that Professor Kawaoka’s work on 2009 H1N1 is looking at the changes to the virus that are needed for existing vaccines to become ineffective.

“With that being said, this work is not to create a new strain of influenza with pandemic potential, but [to] model the immune-pressure the virus is currently facing in our bodies to escape our defences,” Ms Moritz said.

“The work is designed to identify potential circulating strains to guide the process of selecting strains used for the next vaccine…The committee found the biosafety containment procedures to be appropriate for conducting this research. I have no concerns about the biosafety of these experiments,” she said.

Professor Kawaoka said that he has presented preliminary findings of his H1N1 study to the WHO, which were “well received”.

“We are confident our study will contribute to the field, particularly given the number of mutant viruses we generated and the sophisticated analysis applied,” he said.

“There are risks in all research. However, there are ways to mitigate the risks. As for all the research on influenza viruses in my laboratory, this work is performed by experienced researchers under appropriate containment and with full review and prior approval by the [biosafety committee],” he added.