General Road and Highway Discussion

[danbrotherston]

There's tons of good happening out there too.  (Just like always).  If anything I'd argue it brings out the best in more people than it brings out the worst.

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So of course that's going to mess up store inventories!  Add in some supply change disruptions, and it's just a massive logistical problem that's going to take time to settle out.  There's no great evil hoarding happening.  People are generally pretty reasonable and we're living through crazy times.

Anyway, a bit of a tangential rant, but the "mad max" type comments always bring out my "People aren't nearly as bad as they're made out to be" rants.

This is my impression too. I think we’re a long way from anything falling apart.

Now if the water or electricity cuts out and stays out, that is a different matter. But I’m pretty sure those are classified as essential and those workers will be continuing their maintenance activities so they should be OK.

The US has so far experienced a run on toilet paper, and then a run on guns and ammo, and are experiencing runs on banks: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/14/busin...-bank.html.

I'm not saying society is breaking down (and certainly the US is in a vastly more concerning situation than Canada), but in history things seem inevitable and obvious, you'll often wonder how people didn't see it coming, but in reality, in context, it's very hard to see coming.  If society were to break down, you wouldn't know it till the water stopped running, even if historians looked back and said, look at all these signs, how did people miss it.

That being said, society on our roads broke down long ago in many places, so....that's really no change. (Just to bring it back to the thread topic).