3 ms·
The U.S. is a second-world country, but it's not Asia's fault. China had nothing to do with the emergence of tent cities. We have more in common with Brazilian
by pwnstigator 17y ago
The U.S. is a second-world country, but it's not Asia's fault. China had nothing to do with the emergence of tent cities.
We have more in common with Brazilian society (high economic inequality, corruption) than with Europe at this point.
An invariant across societies is that when the value of land and real estate becomes high (relative to incomes) the culture and civic values are in decline, and there's serious risk of a reversion to feudalism. This is why it was obvious in the late '90s that our society was in decline. The question is whether we can reverse the bleeding and get on the right track.
- garply 17y agoYou use a very solid metric with respect to "the value of land and real estate [...] (relative to incomes)", but how do you measure "the decline of culture and civic values"?
- pwnstigator 17y agoObviously, it's more subjective. That said, the fact that X is directly measurable while Y is slightly subjective does not mean that an X:Y connection isn't worth discussing. When real estate is expensive, it means that (1) past wealth is being valued highly against present labor and future potential (e.g. talent) and (2) that the wrong people are winning. It's a really bad sign; it signifies that a society is past its prime, and will fall into feudalism if changes do not occur.
- anamax 17y ago> An invariant across societies is that when the value of land and real estate becomes high (relative to incomes) the culture and civic values are in decline Umm, the value of land and real estate is high relative to incomes only in a few places in the US. In large areas of the US, land and real estate is very inexpensive. The US is not its coastal population centers.
- pwnstigator 17y agoIn the areas with cheap real estate, this is because incomes are low.