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just because of the sub-prime mortgage mess. The sub-prime mess occurred in the first place because investors and banks were making money by just moving money around instead of basing their assets on real production and assets. Now these jobs are also being lost by the thousands and some already a fear a collapse of the credit market.

WE DEPEND ON PETROLEUM TO MAINTAIN OUR SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE.

The US erosion of physical infrastructure has been getting a lot of press ever since the deadly collapse of the Minneapolis bridge in 2007. We know for a fact that there are thousands of other bridges across the US is similar, or even worse, condition. Why is this happening? It's happening because the loss of jobs and industry has left states and local governments without a tax base to fund maintenance of infrastructure. At the same time the tax base is disappearing, the cost of running and maintaining the petroleum-fueled machinery necessary to maintain roads and bridges is skyrocketing. Roads and bridges aren't the only casualties in terms of social infrastructure. As money dries up locally, student loan money disappears, police and fire departments shrink, parks are abandoned, school classes get larger and more unruly, property taxes become so high that homes are abandoned and cannot be resold or kept up, young people are left idle and prone to vandalism and criminal careers. We are already seeing this happen. Without a sea change in how we fuel our world, it will only get worse.

The most nightmarish scenario is one in which current trends continue to the point of total social collapse. It could happen, and it could happen fast. Recently, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm gave a State of the State address calling for a major push to attract alternative energy business and industry to the state to replace the failing US auto industry. She was taunted for weeks afterward by conservatives who belittled her ideas as those of an aging hippie. Yet without exactly this kind of innovation, and without it happening fairly fast, the consequences will be dire. We can already clearly see the beginning of the end. Whether the nightmare plays out or a new world dawns is really up to us.

Learn more about this author, Pamela Grundy.
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