People Share 30 Things That Are Dangerously Close To Ending

Literally all infrastructure in North America. The majority of underground infrastructure (pipes, water lines, sewer systems) has been completely ignored in terms of maintenance, and has been TOTALLY ignored in terms of budgeting replacing the assets.

There are towns that have coming bills of 10s-100s of millions (not even mentioning larger cities) that have saved approximately 0% of the required amount by constantly pushing out the life time estimation of the assets.

lots and lots of bills are coming due shortly if the engineering estimates are accurate and very few towns have saved anything for this scenario.

We're basically living in a world where no one wants to be the person to say that we need to save money for long term planning, and instead everyone hopes things don't fail while they are leading and they can pass the buck.

The US blood supply is still hard hit from COVID and the American Red Cross isn’t lying when they say we’re in an emergency platelet shortage so if you can donate platelets, please donate.

Well, top soil is getting super depleted. What used to be yards deep fertile soil is down to inches. Washed or blown away due to agriculture and irrigation.

Internet security. Both keeping our information safe & keeping the internet lights on. Some predict that a 24 hour worldwide shutdown could be cataclysmic & this whole system is being held up by toothpicks.

Human migration patterns will put a massive strain on various countries around the globe as the environment changes

The Rio Grande levees in El Paso's Upper Valley are old and need repair, and will fail in a major flood. The low lying suburbs in the Upper Valley were recently deemed to be in a FEMA flood plain.

The young childcare industry. Increased regulation to make facilities safer (a very good thing!) had the unintended consequence of increasing costs for owners. You now need more teachers who have training and certification, not to mention the patience and stamina to work with young kids all day. The pay is comparable to fast food without the benefits. Owners have to find a way to pay teachers enough to retain them while keeping costs down so parents can afford to send their kids. It's damn near impossible without an infusion of government investments.

Housing prices along the coast in Florida. Most of the state is barely three feet above sea level and flooding is getting worse and worse every year. In fifty years, sea level is going to be much more inland than it is now and no amount of "beach restoration" is going to help it.

The UK criminal justice system  Edit: For any non Brits passing through. The new gvt has had to announce it's releasing prisoners early because it's got no space for incoming suspects on remand and new convicts. The last gvt shut like half the courts, the remaining ones are falling apart and understaffed. There aren't enough judges so there's a two year backlog of serious cases. The junior end of the profession are so poorly paid they've been on strike repeatedly. And let's not forget the police have basically stopped investigating shoplifting and other smaller crimes. This after 14 years of the "law and order" party being in power. Thank goodness the former chief prosecutor is now prime minister so maybe there's a hope of fixing it.