PFAS - Do you care?

[U_Stormcrow]

How about rates of home ownership, mental illness, physical illness, divorce, abortion, and population density. How about active versus abandoned churches. Even just something basic like wages versus inflation makes it abundantly obvious that the majority of Americans now slave away for peanuts compared to previous generations

With respect, your time frame is FAR too short, and America-centric to boot.

For much of human history, whole families lived in the same house, one smaller than some modern garages, often with their animals, and frequently shared a bed. Divorce was so illegal, Kings created new Churches to change the rules, and Church attendance was either required by law, or attendance was needed to secure employment. America, you may recall, had enough issue with that that our Constitution was written, in part, to forbid such restrictions.

Mental and physical ailments are *diagnosed* more frequently, yes. We've made up all sorts of words for them. In many cases, however, there's no evidence they are actually more prevalent than past generations at similar ages. Chalk that up to improvements in diagnostic tools, and a whole industry offering to ease those ills. Where in the past, the very sick (if young) might meet with a "well accident", while the mentally infirm were either politely tolerated or sent away (often to be ignored).

and if you want to cherry pick a data set, yes, the US absolutely can return to the halcyon days of post WW-II abundance. All we have to do is wait for another World War to reduce competition to dust. The rest of the developed world had no alternative but American products after they had bombed their respective infrastructures into the ground - and bought American products to rebuild on loan out of necessity. We were the only game in town.

Since the 50s, homes have grown, on average from under 940 sq ft to just over 2,100 sq ft (it fell recently). Household size per home has gone from about 3.5 to 2.6, so each member of that house now enjoys, on average, almost as many square feet of living space as the entire family of 1950. Average life span, even after Covid, has increased 12 years. And human over population of the planet has grown as rapidly as we could produce food for them to eat.

I suspect, from the dates you've used in your example, that you've not actually been on this ball of rock the majority of the last 75 years. Few of us still around who might remember turn of last century - when things weren't so rosy.

 

[Sally PB]

I remember the 60s (latter half) from a young child's perspective. I remember the 70s from a coming-of-age perspective. I remember the 80s from a young adult, finding my way perspective.

In the 60s, where I lived, nobody got divorced. My parents did, and I was the only kid in my class in that situation. My best friend didn't know what the word "divorce" meant. There was a fair amount of shame attached back then. Now it's no big deal.

In the 70s/80s, one of the big worries was the nuclear threat from the Russians. I remember telling a friend of mine that "if they drop the bomb, I hope it lands on my head."

Nobody gets out of here alive. My goal is to do my best to not make problems worse, try to help fix a few, and find a reason to smile every day.

 

[No Coop No Problem]

All we have to do is wait for another World War to reduce competition to dust. The rest of the developed world had no alternative but American products after they had bombed their respective infrastructures into the ground - and bought American products to rebuild on loan out of necessity. We were the only game in town.

I've always been under the impression that the prosperity following WWII was due to the Bretton Woods trade agreement, where the majority of the developed world agreed to allow the US Federal Reserve to keep their gold and function as world bank on the explicit condition that the Fed doesn't print more money than they have in gold reserves

The Fed of course began to print far more money than they had in gold, by order of several magnitudes, which resulted in the majority of the planet giving America goods of actual value in return for worthless paper

France found out about the gold scam and asked for their gold back, which resulted in President Nixon taking America off the gold standard. They called it the Nixon shock IIRC and it's what destroyed the value of currency forever

You can see that very moment (in 1971) on countless different charts such as these here

 

[SkyAJK]

With respect, your time frame is FAR too short, and America-centric to boot.

For much of human history, whole families lived in the same house, one smaller than some modern garages, often with their animals, and frequently shared a bed. Divorce was so illegal, Kings created new Churches to change the rules, and Church attendance was either required by law, or attendance was needed to secure employment. America, you may recall, had enough issue with that that our Constitution was written, in part, to forbid such restrictions.

Mental and physical ailments are *diagnosed* more frequently, yes. We've made up all sorts of words for them. In many cases, however, there's no evidence they are actually more prevalent than past generations at similar ages. Chalk that up to improvements in diagnostic tools, and a whole industry offering to ease those ills. Where in the past, the very sick (if young) might meet with a "well accident", while the mentally infirm were either politely tolerated or sent away (often to be ignored).

and if you want to cherry pick a data set, yes, the US absolutely can return to the halcyon days of post WW-II abundance. All we have to do is wait for another World War to reduce competition to dust. The rest of the developed world had no alternative but American products after they had bombed their respective infrastructures into the ground - and bought American products to rebuild on loan out of necessity. We were the only game in town.

Since the 50s, homes have grown, on average from under 940 sq ft to just over 2,100 sq ft (it fell recently). Household size per home has gone from about 3.5 to 2.6, so each member of that house now enjoys, on average, almost as many square feet of living space as the entire family of 1950. Average life span, even after Covid, has increased 12 years. And human over population of the planet has grown as rapidly as we could produce food for them to eat.

I suspect, from the dates you've used in your example, that you've not actually been on this ball of rock the majority of the last 75 years. Few of us still around who might remember turn of last century - when things weren't so rosy.

My parent's closed family friends lived through the great depression in England, they often tell us stories of queuing for food and those cold winter without basic need. We are living in abundant now and without knowing what the past was like, we will never know how much we have that we might not need that much to live.

 

[SkyAJK]

I don’t worry about things I cant control. People genetically speaking really were not meant to live beyond 65-70 years besides the genetic lottery candidates. Think about it, if you were to poll 10 people the age of 65 asking if they were taking medications 80-90% would say they are on some sort of heart medication, insulin, blood pressure medications etc. Because of modern medicine people are living well beyond what they should be. Thats not a bad thing, but let’s not get greedy with spending our lives worrying about how we can live longer instead of learning to be grateful for the moments we do have. I used to be a miserable person and if you asked me what happiness was I would have said that I didn’t know because I never felt happy. One day I realized it was because I spent my time constantly looking back angry about the past and when I wasn’t looking back I was looking beyond into the future worrying about everything I could not control. I have learned to just be happy with what I have each day and not take my time for granted. Could I spend my free time worrying about PFAS, epidemics and world wars? Sure, but how does that improve, prevent or change any of it? Why waste the little time we have worrying about what we have no control over?

My dear grandma passed away at 102 year of age. It was nasty what old age did to her.
Her body was no longer did what it once able to. It pooped everywhere, she was in the nursing home and they only clean her 1 a day, so I came in 1 or 2 a day, call in many times a day to ask them have you check &changed her, feed her, and turned up to check on her to ensure that she received proper care. What keeps her alive for so long? Grandma was not on much medication except pain relief and load of resource drink to provide her body of the nutrients its need as part of aged care nutritional thing.

Her body stopped function properly, her mind was on its way out here and there, but mostly her mind was there and so she suffered a lot more. To have lived through a century of life and suffer this...no word to say.

My grandma lived through the early time of the century lack of basic need like food. She was frugal, eat small portion, eat proper food, no cakes. She was very healthy only suffered old age pain like knees pain... the deterioration of the physical body over time.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I've always been under the impression that the prosperity following WWII was due to the Bretton Woods trade agreement, where the majority of the developed world agreed to allow the US Federal Reserve to keep their gold and function as world bank on the explicit condition that the Fed doesn't print more money than they have in gold reserves

The Fed of course began to print far more money than they had in gold, by order of several magnitudes, which resulted in the majority of the planet giving America goods of actual value in return for worthless paper

France found out about the gold scam and asked for their gold back, which resulted in President Nixon taking America off the gold standard. They called it the Nixon shock IIRC and it's what destroyed the value of currency forever

You can see that very moment (in 1971) on countless different charts such as these here

I am honestly curious as to where that particular view of history is taught. Yes, Bretton Woods was a thing. and Yes, Nixon pulled the dollar off the gold standard - which had much bigger effect than when the the Brits pulled the Pound off Sterling (because we were a larger part of the world economy, 1 - and because the Bretton Woods agreement established the dollar as the currency for settling international debt, 2).

But I can find no support, and plenty of counter examples - for almost everything in between those two facts (the Bretton Woods agreement and Nixon's conversion of the $ to explicitly fiat currency). I will of course concede that banks did as banks do - including the Fed, by lending more than they had in reserves.

 

[Canadian Wind]

This has gone WAY off topic. Just saying.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

This has gone WAY off topic. Just saying.

<= Guilty. Apologies all. Just trying to establish a common frame of reference from which to then judge the veracity of other statements.

 

[Sally PB]

Yeah, equally guilty. My apologies.

 

[No Coop No Problem]

I am honestly curious as to where that particular view of history is taught.

A documentary I watched more than a decade ago called All Wars Are Banker's Wars. It was on youtube back then, might still be

Returning to the topic at hand, yes I try to avoid PFAS and all toxins to the maximal extent possible within reason