# What would happen if the earth's destruction was pinpointed and inevitable? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 2, 2006, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-earths-destruction-was-pinpointed-and-inevitable/359201 "2006-06-02T21:21:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-earths-destruction-was-pinpointed-and-inevitable/359201/41 "2006-06-09T13:48:32Z")
[QUOTE=gonzomax] We have a case study for this. We elected people from this weird religious cult that thinks the world is set to end. They see three days of darkness and then god will suck the believers out of thier clothes into heaven. They have no respect for the environment because it doesnt matter. The Rupture is coming soon to save the chosen. It of course a dirty trick to play on aboriginies ,islanders and Other people in a remote island that never heard of it. These people would be capable of the weirdest political stances wars exploitation .Because it all doesnt matter. [/QUOTE] Could you diagram those sentences, please? I know all the words in them, but they make no discernable sense. Myself- I’d go further than Radar O’Reilly, get married & spent out the last days in hot Christian marital sex (not an oxymoron). ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-earths-destruction-was-pinpointed-and-inevitable/359201/42 "2006-06-09T14:15:47Z")
I would be doing my utmost to help build as many Orion ships to both fight the space-dingos and preserve something of our world aside from the beetles. If nothing else I can cook chow for the engineers and astronauts. as an aside, **When Worlds Collide** is one of my favorite movies. as a further aside, I’v been laughing almost continually at my desk since reading the phrase “space-dingos” ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-earths-destruction-was-pinpointed-and-inevitable/359201/43 "2006-06-09T14:24:40Z")
I think the entire economy would slowly go into a tail-spin. You’d be hard pressed to find many people that are still going to want to work a 40-hour week. Universities and schools everywhere would slowly start to empty (why work toward a degree that you will never get to). Everyone would take to an early retirement. Only problem would be it would be everyone. So who’s going to be running the stores, building products, pumping gas, giving loans, trading on wall street, making food at restaurants? Nobody. Cause they all quit. Looting would certainly occur but nobody would really care. All the police retired, the business owner retired, so who would stop them or who would care to stop them. Same for utilities. Water, electricity, phones don’t run themselves. What happens when all these people walk off the job? The entire economic infrastructure would just collapse. So basically you’d have everyone fending for themselves figuring out how to spend the next 730 days surviving in a society where no one works and no services are available. You might be okay at first but what are you and your family going to do when the power goes out? Where are you going to go when you can’t get gas anywhere? And how long until restaurants and food stores have their food stock completely taken? ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-earths-destruction-was-pinpointed-and-inevitable/359201/44 "2006-06-09T14:37:23Z")
[QUOTE=Eonwe] I’m actually really curious on how the economic repercussions of this would play out. With two years left to go, what happens to banks and institutions that loan money. What happens to that 30 year mortgage? What happens to investment portfolios? Any sort of long-term investments or loans would become pretty worthless, no? I imagine that while operating like nothing is going to happen would be best for stability, at least until the final months when it really wouldn’t matter, how would we maintain the financial normalcy needed to keep society running when certain pieces of our economic fabric clearly become unraveled? [/QUOTE] I think it would depend on how certain the catastrophe was. If there was any doubt, courts & banks would probably continue to expect loans to be repaid and taxes collected. Even if it was pretty certain, there would always be the remotest chance that the world would NOT come to an end, dangnab it. Then wouldn’t some people look pretty foolish if they took out a 30 year loan, spent it all on an end-of-the-world orgy and had to repay it after all? :smack: :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-earths-destruction-was-pinpointed-and-inevitable/359201/45 "2006-06-09T16:08:38Z")
Hopefully, the rest of you would be saying, “Please, Skald, for God’s sake, call of your mutant star goat! We surrender our sovereignty!” ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Clam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3bc359/32.png) [@Happy\_Clam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Clam)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-earths-destruction-was-pinpointed-and-inevitable/359201/46 "2006-06-09T18:32:40Z")
I hope that when you’re galactic overlord you can assign someone to check your spelling. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-earths-destruction-was-pinpointed-and-inevitable/359201/47 "2006-06-09T18:39:11Z")
[QUOTE=Happy Clam] I hope that when you’re galactic overlord you can assign someone to check your spelling. [/QUOTE] Today’s my day for typos, Clam. But why would I want to be GALACTIC overlord? (Actually I just want to rule Jersey.) ---
**Author:** ![Stan\_Shmenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-earths-destruction-was-pinpointed-and-inevitable/359201/48 "2006-06-11T08:09:23Z")
Larry Niven wrote a short story about a guy who noticed the moon was WAY too bright and figured out that the Sun had gone nova and when it became daytime they were finished. Can’t remember the title. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-the-earths-destruction-was-pinpointed-and-inevitable/359201.md?page=2)