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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 10th, 2023

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  • In point 2. you equate your criticism for liberal democracy with that for the scientific method. Your latest argument doesn’t factually or logically hold true for the scientific method.

    Thus I must conclude that a. your arguments for point 1. and 2. are different, and b. your statements are uncorrelated even though they partially argue the same point.

    I mean, I guessed as much, but taking them as logically connected made for an entertainingly surprising take, and I thought I’d share it with you and the class.







  • There’s definite anti-intellectualism, but what you’re describing is the loss of qualified/high innovation industry in the US.

    The previous generation of higher education graduates cannot find gainful employment offsetting their student loans, not to mention qualified work at all. There isn’t enough employment or market to make use of that knowledge (there’s also a discussion to be had about the quality of that knowledge, but with the rest of the world managing – let’s set that aside for now), whereas there’s high demand for the trades.

    The last few centuries have shown that economic growth is greatly accelerated with higher education, and that access to an educated workforce has been key to post-world-war growth. Meaning it might get rough for the next US generation…



  • Having large debt matters for how expensive access to cash is. No matter how “fake” it is, the financial system puts a premium on how long it takes to get their lent money back. The longer it’s stuck, the worse the reputation of getting it back, or simply the higher the demand — the higher the premium.

    And as you need cash to make payments for goods and services (as opposed to tax rebates) that has the effect that US tax dollars and investments have lower rate of return as sufficient cash gets more expensive.

    Another part is that the debt will be taken out in some form, e.g. foreign currency, making that currency more available for cash transactions (while at the same time making yours’ less available due to being locked into what you needed it for). This shifts trade away from USD, which makes it much harder to influence/control what it’s used for, how much it’s worth, and harder to make people care how much of it there is.

    As the world trades in something besides USD and/or avoids investing in the US due to high costs/volatility, the US gets less relevant/influential in global policy, diplomacy, business, investments and even domestic policy.