Pack it Stan

[K-Dog]

Pakistan is not a small place.  The north part is arctic but not because the land is in the far north.  It is because the north is in the Himalayan mountains. 

Lahore does not line up with WA DC as the comparison shows.  Lahore lines up with Huston.  Pakistan's climate is mostly desert, and not as hospitable as the North American land shadowed in the map.  Agricultural land is 35.2% of the total.  As the CIA factbook says.

On this land in 2023 live 247,653,551 people.  Give or take a few.  How does the old tired land support such a large population?  The land has seen human history for 7000 years give or take.  How have the 70 centuries of progress benefited the locals?  "Far too many people are under the illusion that Earth is overpopulated, even though birth rate trends are so obviously headed to population collapse," Musk said.  

America is fond of the great man theory.  To its peril.  All hail to the Musk.

So how are things in Pakistan?  They had a biblical flood last year that most people in America know nothing about.  So goes the incurable tribalism here.

The You Tube algorithm turned me on to Pakistan years ago.  I was interested in melting metal and building my own foundry.

The You Tube algorithm started showing me videos of Pakistani workers recycling metal in mom and pop foundries in bare feet wearing traditional Pakistani sackcloth.  I have seen dozens of such videos.  I am among other things an amateur machinist.

Today an interesting video was pushed my way.  It explains the smiling faces on the faces of the workers.  Wacha gonna do?  You would think these guys liked melting and machining metal to make cool stuff as much as an American guy in St. Louis  with his own garage machine shop.

I figured out they must have been getting paid something like a three bucks an hour or something and figured that must be good wages where they were. 

I was wrong.  More likely they get $0.25 an hour, and at the end of the day they have two bucks.  They smile because the alternative to the job is death.  Keep the boss happy.  I don't think Pakistan has social security, medicare, or unemployment.  If some molten steel splashes on your feet.  That is how it goes, oh well!  Now your kids starve.

Have you ever wondered why some people seem stupidly happy in what you think are adverse working conditions? The answer it turns out, is because they are smarter than you are.  We always point the 'dumb' finger at someone else.

In America all it takes to be a genius is to have more money than god.  So at risk to myself, I take issue with Elon.

Overpopulation Mr. Elon Musk does not lead to paradise, and your fucking electric cars will only ever belong to a minority because the earth does not have enough fucking lithium, solar panels, and windmills for everyone who wants an electric car to have one.  Nor are their enough flying monkeys around to build all that stuff at no minimum wage on a planet that is going to burn if everyone keeps living as we do.

What it is like to live in a 'developing' country?  A country that has hosted civilization for thousands of years.  What does it mean to be a worker there?  A worker in a country which has been the bitch of foreign invaders for centuries.  A country that enjoys all the benefits of capitalism.  Now that the sultans and the British Empire are gone.

Americans 'got into' collapse when we all found out we would not have flying cars and eternal youth.  But what is collapse really?  Pakistan seems to be in perpetual collapse.  Our ideas of collapse must seem quaint to them.

This is what electric cars should be.  Plan your life to the limits of a 100 mile lead acid battery range.  Charged at night from the home Edison battery.

Because that life is better than none.  Which is what Elon would rather you have.