DBWI: slow decline of U.S. middle class following 1973 oil embargo?

I think one of the best things that has come out of the STEM boom and the infrastructure boom is that it has created lots of additional jobs for design guys, and it has created a whole new set of styles of architecture to go with the new infrastructure. I mean, when Amtrak was created many of the freight railroads thought it wouldn't last more than a few years and they designed their first locomotives so that they could be sold to freight lines when Amtrak shut down.

Yeah, look at them now, the next time they want to piggyback on a high-speed project for their uses. At least Southern Pacific, Burlington Northern and Conrail have enough common sense to be investors in such projects before they go asking for favors....

And look what its done to train stations, too. Anybody else remember the days of getting drenched on platforms waiting? Yeah, train stations have gone from this:

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to this:

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Any questions on which is better? :)
 
. . . Wind Turbines can run at great efficiencies, but only at certain times, and they need backup at other times. Solar cells are the same. Hydroelectricity can be dependent on rainfall and water supplies. . .
Agree with you on wind and solar, but I've read that hydro is available in the low 90 percentiles. Basically because periods of significant drought are pretty rare. Of course you still need the petroleum plants you're running at low capacity that you can crank up if and when the periods of drought hit.

I guess I'm rather boring, but I'm still a big believer in the high-efficiency natural gas turbines. A lot of bang for the buck, not much auxiliary pollution besides the carbon. This is one reason we're done rather well. This is a bend-the-path kind of solution.
 
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This is a bullet train pulling into Austin, Texas from Houston.

Yes, it's made by a Japanese company, but in a plant outside Des Moines, Iowa.
 
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Following airline deregulation in the late 1970s, Frank Lorenzo of Texas Air holding company would use planes and management from Texas International to start nonunion New York Air. Texas Air would later launch successful takeover bids against both Continental Airlines and Eastern.

*OOC (new edit): this actually happened in OTL.
 
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Bob Crandall at American Airlines was in many ways a highly-competent business executive and even a straightforward and decent boss. All the same, he would introduce the B-pay scale in the 1980s.

*OOC (new edit): and this actually happened in OTL, but maybe a different ending. ;)
 
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The April 1991* American Airlines Flight Attendant Strike.
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With support from the pilots, both women

and men. Well, of course.

And this kicks off a very pro-union 1990s!


OOC: *the actual strike was in Nov. '93.
 
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I was talking with a friend I sometimes shoot pool with. He knows a shitload about history. And he had the idea of AM Radio talk shows. What if different unions and citizen groups didn't buy up various stations, and what if the Pacifica Network didn't expand to 200+ stations. He even pitched me, what if they only had a handful! And what if the liberals and progressives just left the whole field to the religious broadcasters and the rightwing ideologues. And he pitched me, what if progressives didn't even make a real effort to win over religious persons? ?

Well, I appreciate the heck out of him listening to me and pitching different ideas. But, like so many other potential PODS, I'm going to have to classify this as, not very realistic. So, I ask you, please . . come up with an realistic idea in which the American middle class could go through a long, slow decline, let's say for at least a decade and a half. Although I'm sure it would feel longer to actually live through it! Any idea?
 
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Amtrak's Pacific Daylight passenger train, northbound on Southern Pacific's Coast Division south of Monterrey, California. The dome cars are further back in the train, but this consist is fairly typical of the train, which runs its largest loads between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The Pacific Daylight, which runs daily between Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and San Diego, California, runs exclusively on the most scenic routes available along its route:

- Burlington Northern Northwest Gateway (Vancouver, BC to Seattle, WA)
- Conrail West End Lines (Seattle, WA to Portland, OR)
- Southern Pacific Shasta Division (Portland, OR to Grants Pass, OR)
- Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad (Grants Pass, OR to Eureka, CA)
- Southern Pacific Redwood Division (Eureka, CA to Vallejo, CA)
- CalTrain State Capitol Line (Vallejo, CA to San Francisco, CA)
- CalTrain Peninsula Line (San Francisco, CA to San Jose, CA)
- Southern Pacific Coast Division (San Jose, CA to Santa Barbara, CA)
- Southern Pacific Los Angeles Division (Santa Barbara, CA to Santa Ana, CA)
- Santa Fe Southern California Division (Santa Ana, CA to San Diego, CA)

In the process giving passengers truly great views of everything from the incredible British Columbia Rockies and the Washington and Oregon Cascades (as well as the Salish Sea to the west) to the vast Redwood Empire of northwestern California, followed by California's incredible Pacific Coast and the beaches of Santa Fe's Surf Line.
 
The really interesting personality is Crystal Lee Sutton.

As I'm sure people remember, she's the real life Norma Rae. The movie came out mid '70s, was it 1976*, the Bicentennial year ? ? ?

And no, Hollywood didn't treat Crystal Lee right at first. At one point Sally Field caught hell for not returning her phone call. But eventually Hollywood did right and agreed to pretty much the same profit points that any other principal 'based-upon' person would get. And Sally apologized and said this was a phone call which was important and one she definitely should have returned.

Crystal Lee started her show at a North Carolina radio station. And then was picked up by the local Sparrow TV affiliate and within two years was throughout the South and in most Sparrow markets nationwide. And she had a real knack for interviewing regular people, including low-income persons, with the same respect and easy grace she interviewed everyone else.

Crystal Lee Sutton passed away several years ago.

OCC: *actually, Norma Rae opened in U.S. theaters on March 2, 1979.
 
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And, as we all probably know President du Pont eased into the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) through a series of small and medium steps starting in 1989. He said, no, we're not knowing to have a new agency. Our Labor Dept. and their Labor Dept. are either going to work together in the border factories, or not. And as the story goes, his longtime trusted aide gave him a raised eyebrow and du Pont said, We no longer have a really healthy Soviet Union to motivate the business community to do things right.

So, we might come up with an ATL in which NAFTA is a big all-or-nothing agreement, in which lip service is given to labor side agreements, but that's that, with little effective follow through. But again, I'm going to have to classify this as, not very realistic.
 
When President du Pont ran for re-election in 1992, trade with Mexico was definitely an issue. Majority Leader Dick Gephardt was the Democratic nominee (he had actually considered running in '88 but decided not to), and he challenged du Pont that globalization was a race to the bottom with hourly wages and living standards as prime example number one.

President du Pont came back and said, No, look at the balance of trade in '89, '90, '91, and '92. And yes, '92 is down from '91, that has my attention and we are looking at things we can do. Even though it's most probably a residual effect from the '91 recession, we are still actively looking at what we can do. But the '92 balance of trade is still better than '90, which is in turn better than '89. And American exports mean jobs, you better believe it does.

Du Pont was elected with 53% in '92.

And when NAFTA was passed in 1995, it was more of a formalization of trade policies already in practice. And this might be a hinge point for an ATL--if we come up with a scenario where it's more clunksville and an administration which is married to it obvious mistakes and all.
 
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And yes, it did take a while for Americans to get used to officials from the Secretaría del Trabajo y Previsión Social de México having access to U.S. border factories. And to the fact that Mexicans often refer to themselves as living in (the continents of) América, too! :)

But Secretary of Labor Jack Kemp played it straight. He welcomed the advisory and consulting role of the Mexican government with U.S. border factories, as the U.S. government had the same role with border factories on the Mexican side. And Secretary Kemp also played it straight that U.S. companies had to follow labor law. Somehow his street cred as a former athlete helped with this part.
 
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