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Reading the news is certainly not good for your productivity. Similarly, being politically active is on average a waste of your time if your goal is to maximiz

Reading the news is certainly not good for your productivity. Similarly, being politically active is on average a waste of your time if your goal is to maximize lifetime earnings. But if every able citizen follows the logic of those two facts, the country will be much worse off. Yes, I agree, its better to free-ride off the citizen-participation of other, more naive citizens than to invest your own time in improving society. But at a certain point, when everyone becomes a free-rider, the political class becomes predatory and you get a dysfunctional state. Riots. Shortages. Pollution. Failing healthcare. Invasion. Corruption. Each time the form is different but the source is citizen apathy. In other words, if you ignore the news long enough, the news will come and knock on your door.

wussboy 3y ago
> The news will come and knock at your door I would argue that for the vast amount of things that happen in the world, this is a good thing. Just about the right level of care and concern.
- TheMagicHorsey 3y ago
  It is usually too late to save your house and your savings when this happens. As experienced by my ancestors who had to flee their homeland and move to America. This is why I am not politically apathetic in America. Things happen very slowly and then very quickly in a governmental collapse. By then, your savings are confiscated or inflated away before you can take action. Travel can become prohibitively expensive or forbidden. It becomes very difficult to get your family and resources out. Usually you leave penniless and arrive on foreign shores as a destitute refugee no matter what your status and expectations were in your former life and country. Engineers become taxi drivers. Scientists become house cleaners. Then you rebuild and you teach your kids that you should always prepare for the worst case and never take civil society for granted.

wussboy 3y ago

> The news will come and knock at your door I would argue that for the vast amount of things that happen in the world, this is a good thing. Just about the right level of care and concern.

TheMagicHorsey 3y ago
It is usually too late to save your house and your savings when this happens. As experienced by my ancestors who had to flee their homeland and move to America. This is why I am not politically apathetic in America. Things happen very slowly and then very quickly in a governmental collapse. By then, your savings are confiscated or inflated away before you can take action. Travel can become prohibitively expensive or forbidden. It becomes very difficult to get your family and resources out. Usually you leave penniless and arrive on foreign shores as a destitute refugee no matter what your status and expectations were in your former life and country. Engineers become taxi drivers. Scientists become house cleaners. Then you rebuild and you teach your kids that you should always prepare for the worst case and never take civil society for granted.