RE: More future history questions - USA

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>I find the idea of "the Empty Quarter" a little surprising.  LOTS of 
>mineral wealth and other resources.  Maybe few people, but New 
>England and The Foundry need Coal.
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>Michael Brown
>Sheridan, WY
>mwsaber6@msn.com

I haven't read the book, only found the wikipedia page by following a 
couple of links, so I have no idea of the details beyond the very 
sketchy wiki entry; I'm assuming (which could easily be wrong, of 
course) that by "Empty Quarter" he's referring mainly to sparse 
population density rather than implying a worthlessness or lack of 
any useful resources....?

Jon (GZG)

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>>  Date: Sat, 28 Jan 2012 17:54:00 +0000
>>  To: gzg@firedrake.org
>>  From: jon@gzg.com
>>  Subject: Re: More future history questions - USA
>>
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>>  >Earlier than Jesusland, look for Ecotopia by Callenbach.
>>  >
>>  >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Callenbach
>>  >
>>  >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecotopia
>>  >
>>  >Another possible model: How about Vinge's "Bobble" landscape:
>>  >
>>  >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peace_War
>>  >
>>  >Further down the road, but some interesting stuff there.
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>>
>>  Interesting stuff, as you say... following those links also led me
to this:
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>>  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Nations_of_North_America
>>
>>  How relevant do folks think these thoughts (from a 1981 book) are to
>>  the situation now and in the near future?
>>
>>  Jon (GZG)
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>>  >
>>  >On Mon, Jan 23, 2012 at 3:04 PM, John Tailby 
>><john_tailby@xtra.co.nz> wrote:
>>  >
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>>  >> Richard Morgan had a similar split for the US. The Pacific Rim,
Eastern
>>  >> States and Jesus Land.
>>  >>
>>  >> It's been stated by other non finctional authors that many of the
middle
>>  >> states of the US would ahve 3rd world economies if it wasn't for
central
>>  >> government spending. How that will go with defence and NASA
budget cuts
>>  >>
>>  >> It's also been postulated about how the US would / could fall
from it's
>>  >> position as world number 1.
>>  >>
>>  >> Either scenarios like the EMP pulse from Dark Angel or a terroist
nuking
>>  >> like Babylon 5. Alternatively look at the American economy. They
are the
>>  >> worlds biggest debtor and the struggle to export and mounting 
>>personal debt
>>  >> makes it harder for domestic consumption to get the economy out 
>>of trouble.
>>  >> With the government struggling to balance it's books as well it's
hard to
>>  >> see where the economic stimulous will come from.
>>  >>
>>  >> The one thing that the US has going for it is that it is "too 
>>big to fail"
>>  >> a failure by the US economy would have major impacts on their 
>>major trading
>>  >> partners (nearly everyone) and so have ripple effects around the
world.
>>  >> People are far less likely to call in their loans on the US 
>>than they might
>>  >> be on smaller countries like Greece..
>>  >>
>>  >> it will be intersting to see if Greece can get itself out of the
mess or
>>  >> whether it triggers a domino effect accross the Euro zone.
>>  >>
>>  >>
>>  >
>>  >
>>  >--
>>  >F.P. Kiesche III "Ah Mr. Gibbon, another damned, fat, square book.
Always,
>>  >scribble, scribble, scribble, eh?" (The Duke of Gloucester, on
being
>>  >presented with Volume 2 of The Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire.)
>>  >Blogging at The Lensman's Children (
>>  >http://theeternalgoldenbraid.blogspot.com/).
>>
>>
>>
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