Well, to the few listening, the party is now officially over. Five years ago, I would attend heavy equipment auctions regularly with my pal George Sack. Lots over two hundred acres of machinery, awaiting the auctioneer. Row, after row after row. THOUSANDS of machines of all sorts. An indoor stadium with comfortable seating made the wait for the particular bidding item you were waiting for, a sort of party feeling. Everyone around you would turn their heads to the right as the parade of equipment came into view. Small stuff first. Riding lawn mowers, then, small tractors, leading into the really big boys, ‘dozers and cranes. In between, giant six wheel drive water trucks, graders with six foot tall tires, rollers, snow plows, chippers, welding trucks, fleets of vehicles from bankrupted companies all over the South West. The Richie brothers had their act down pat. To make it all go, hundreds of lot men and drivers…O.K. Kim, swell, but, why would I even care, sitting with my latte and watching the news in my little piece of America. Well, because, soon, they will be coming for your little piece too, my friends. Now, five years later, the bidding crowd is not the gang of builders and construction people looking for deals to keep building going. Nope, now it’s all VULTURES. Are they looking to buy a D10 Bulldozer to grade some new road? Nope. For its’ weight in SCRAP. Ditto for all the row after row after row of machinery to MAKE THINGS. Screw machines, punch presses, metal bending, welding rigs, ALL FOR SCRAP. Well, why not. No one is using them any more, plus, THERE’S NO ONE COMING ALONG TO LEARN. And where do you think all this metal is going? Not here. All overseas. To be used there, or, rendered into usable metal for brand new units, for the other guys’ kids to learn trades on. Look around. Most of our kids are in the military. Machinists? Carpenters? Metal fabricators? Plastic formers? Heavy Equipment Operators or Repair people?…Even if we started to turn things around, TODAY, it would take five years to see any results. Involved in moving my 1948 UNIT crane, it all came into focus like a bright light switching on suddenly. Having parked this beast five years ago, then bolting it as a flying buttress for my tower, I was relieved to not have to drive it again. It was just too much work. You have to do everything by hand. No warning horns if you exceed a weight limit or extend the boom too far. No safety anything actually. Only your own common sense and experience kept you and your co-workers alive. Now, this prick had been sitting for FIVE YEARS in the rain and snow. My son Noah charged the big battery, we pour some gas into the old 1948 carb, hit the starter. IT FIRED RIGHT UP AND PURRED LIKE A KITTEN! No special electronics that takes a NASA scientist with a laptop to program. Good thing it did. Otherwise, the county would have scrapped it. Still has five flat tires and needs to be broken down to be put on a low boy dozer trailer to move it. I went on the internet to see about parts if I need them. NONE. I have the ONLY ONE LEFT IN THE WORLD. All have been junked for the scrap value. This brings us full circle to my first paragraph. Who could even fabricate a part? NO ONE…Extend this to all of our farmers and people who make this country run. Voting for a Ron Paul saviour then going to the mall days are over. Wake up and actually DO SOMETHING…
