4 ms·

So collapse is...life goes on.

• kevin_b_er 6y ago
  If you read the article, life went on for the rich. Others just suffered.
• tuatoru 6y ago
  Yeah. Until it doesn't. One day the bridge you used every day is closed for repair, and after a few years you realize it isn't going to get fixed. Protection rackets appear, because the police can't get in to maintain order any more. Working around them takes a lot of thought and social connection, but life goes on. At some point, the water stops coming through the taps. Getting water is a hassle, but life goes on. Phones stopped working a while back too, you realize. So did the street lights. Potholes in the roads stay there and get bigger and bigger. But you can still use the road. Until one day you can't. A few years later you look around and say, "hey, where is everybody?"
  • kspacewalk2 6y ago
    You are describing my childhood in the mid-90s Ukraine. Difference is, I never knew any different because I was 6 when the USSR collapsed, and by then even its version of "normal life" has been slowly decaying for a while. This decay accelerated in the 90s, but it was all normal to me. Hyperinflation, no hot water or heating for weeks, no electricity for 2-3 hours every evening (better not be stuck in an elevator at 6 pm when the blackout is scheduled to start!) Every piece of physical infrastructure slowly decays and doesn't get replaced. It was so strange to go from that to Canada at 12 years old.