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.
>>
>>
>>
>>Michael Brown
>>Sheridan, WY
>>mwsaber6@msn.com

Further to my last post: just read a bit further into the wiki links, 
and found a useful summary of the ideas here:

http://www.csiss.org/classics/content/18

which includes this bit:

"....Meanwhile, communities in the Empty Quarter are organized around 
extraction of natural resources such as the oil and timber that are 
their economic mainstay....."

Jon (GZG)

>
>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)
>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>   Date: Sat, 28 Jan 2012 17:54:00 +0000
>>>   To: gzg@firedrake.org
>>>   From: jon@gzg.com
>>>   Subject: Re: More future history questions - USA
>>>
>>>   >textfilter: chose text/plain from a multipart/alternative
>>>   >
>>>   >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.
>>>
>>>
>>>   Interesting stuff, as you say... following those links also led 
>>>me to this:
>>>
>>>   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)
>>>
>>>   >
>>>   >On Mon, Jan 23, 2012 at 3:04 PM, John Tailby
>>><john_tailby@xtra.co.nz> wrote:
>>>   >
>>>   >> textfilter: chose text/plain from a multipart/alternative
>>>   >>
>>>   >> 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/).
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>