Defying the Odds

No this isn't a craps table success story. I took some time while I was in Vegas this week to actually get off the strip. I know most of you think Vegas is confined to the two miles that make up Las Vegas Boulevard, but there really are things to do in Vegas outside of the casinos.

For example, a colleague and I drove 45 minutes and visited Hoover Dam one afternoon. We took the extended tour and I have to tell you that this is an engineering marvel. Did you know that the base of the dam is one 600 foot block of unreinforced concrete. One big block of concrete the size of two football fields. It took five years to build the dam (two years ahead of schedule by the way) and cost approximately 700 men their lives. They spent the first two years just cutting the tunnels needed to divert the Colorado river so they could build the dam. The truly amazing thing is that it was constructed in the 30's.  It is hard to imagine we could build this dam with the tools that were available back then.

The most amazing thing about the dam is that not one penny of the cost to build or manage the dam has ever cost the US taxpayers anything. The dam was built with money borrowed on a 50 year loan that was paid off in the 80's. The cost of the dam has always been offset by the revenue generated by the power plant.  Can you imagine if they tried to do something like this today. It would probably cost two billion dollars and all of it would be charged to us taxpayers. And to be honest, we probably wouldn't do it because the politicians couldn't agree on who was going to get the credit or the campaign contributions.

If you ever have a chance you should check it out. It is considered one of the 7 engineering wonders of the modern age.

My buddy and I remarked while we were walking through the tunnels of this marvel that it is unlikely that we as a society would ever take on such a huge challenge again. I can't imagine our society trying to do something that is so out of our technological ability. The last time he and I  could remember us taking on this kind of challenge was the race to the moon in the 60's. When Kennedy promised we would go to the moon by the end of the decade there were so many challenges involved that most of the insiders must have thought he was crazy.  Much the same as when Hoover proposed the Boulder Dam project. Are there other times that humanity has accepted a challenge that stretched our capabilities?

I am not sure that we have the tenacity to take on these types of challenges anymore. I mean we have one staring us in the face and we do everything we can to discredit it or downplay it's significance. I am of course talking about global warming. If there is one challenge that we as a people should step up and take, global warming is it. However I think until the answers to global warming lead to a gain in revenue for big business and not a loss, we will continue to not act. That is until it is to late.

I really wonder how long we will let our country be run by big business and special interests. Marx said that the end of a capitalistic society is preceded by an awakening of the have nots (I am paraphrasing a bit). I wonder if I will see this awakening in my lifetime. I wonder if we will have this awakening in time. I wonder what kind of world my grandchildren will live in.

It has been a long time since I had a good rant. Maybe it is the political season coming out in me, but it sure feels good. Get involved. Vote!