The freeway lights regulate the entry of traffic onto the freeway, to prevent congestion at the ramp entrances. It works too.
Ben, I'm not saying that the problem is new. I'm saying that California's standard of living is still higher than it is here in Louisiana. The other posters seem to think it's a new problem that is catastrophic. I believe a lot of that feeling is righteous indignation at a society that lives so much better than we do here, and we can't figure out how they do it. Instead we assume they're doing something wrong - that we can't figure out either.
Having lived in Texas for ten years and in several parts of California as well as the greater New Orleans area, my experience suggests that the more affluent states tend to move in cycles of boom and bust mostly because the widespread practice of financial speculation (the engine that drives the US economy) in those places makes them vulnerable to poor economic times more so than Louisiana where financial stagnation long ago removed that risk. Here the low education level means that companies don't want to speculate in the local markets, and the result is that when the economy is up, we don't rise, but when the economy is down we don't sink either.
If the whole nation was like Louisiana, the United States would cease to exist as a financial powerhouse, and become more like Russia where motivation to speculate is low among the middle classes, but high among the oligarchs who have the political connections to protect their investments.
Ben, I'm not saying that the problem is new. I'm saying that California's standard of living is still higher than it is here in Louisiana. The other posters seem to think it's a new problem that is catastrophic. I believe a lot of that feeling is righteous indignation at a society that lives so much better than we do here, and we can't figure out how they do it. Instead we assume they're doing something wrong - that we can't figure out either.
Having lived in Texas for ten years and in several parts of California as well as the greater New Orleans area, my experience suggests that the more affluent states tend to move in cycles of boom and bust mostly because the widespread practice of financial speculation (the engine that drives the US economy) in those places makes them vulnerable to poor economic times more so than Louisiana where financial stagnation long ago removed that risk. Here the low education level means that companies don't want to speculate in the local markets, and the result is that when the economy is up, we don't rise, but when the economy is down we don't sink either.
If the whole nation was like Louisiana, the United States would cease to exist as a financial powerhouse, and become more like Russia where motivation to speculate is low among the middle classes, but high among the oligarchs who have the political connections to protect their investments.
