European Tribune

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I dunno. Happiness is not "I'm fine with a decent horse and cart", it's "I want a car like all the others, then I'll stop looking like a poor sod."

Bulgarians' hope for the future is probably, for the majority, economic growth so they can start living like the rest of us. They may be forced to go without it, but will they shrug their shoulders and go on living in the old way with good grace?

When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Sat Dec 1st, 2007 at 03:03:50 PM EST
It is a matter of timing. If they get the cars before the collapse, the old pre-combustion engine infrastructure will be easily revived because the folk skill memory will still be there. Just as in Finland there is a folk skill memory only 3 generations old - and every Finn pines for the simple life, experiencing it only for 4 weeks in the summer.

I even met someone (now dead) who built a wood-fired engine for a truck during the Continuation War.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Sat Dec 1st, 2007 at 03:17:18 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Yes, that was a point I intended to make. that the skills will still be there because the generations now coming into adulthood are schooled in the ways the world will need soon.

This is not true of the "West". Our patterns of pre-industrial low energy use are mostly obliterated and inoperable. Bulgaria and romania may want their cars, but they can operate without oil, the west can't.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Sat Dec 1st, 2007 at 03:43:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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