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stanleykm 16 hours ago

Our problems are caused by like 5 guys owning everything, not because stupid people have more kids than smart people. So no, Idiocracy did not predict all of this.

vannevar 16 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It's possible that stupid people in government have helped lead to the "5 guys owning everything" though. The world we live in is a result of policy choices, not a natural inevitability. And the people we've put in office over the past 50 years have played a large role. If they were being put in office by a population that was getting dumber and dumber every election cycle, that could certainly be a big contributor to the problems in wealth disparity we see today. I'm not saying that's the case, only that the two theories are not mutually exclusive.

NordStreamYacht 15 hours ago | parent [-]

They're not stupid, they're greedy and shameless.

vannevar an hour ago | parent | next [-]

I was just following the parent's wording. I don't really think they were stupid, or even necessarily greedy and shameless though some no doubt have been. I think mostly it has been ignorance. Likewise the general voting population: I don't think they've gotten dumber, but I do think they've gotten more misinformed. As the saying goes, "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble; it's what you know for sure that just ain't so." Never has that been more true in American politics.

happymellon 14 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

They are creating a world that is inhospitable to them.

They are stupid.

xaxbxcxdxe 16 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Our problem is society never was stable without a permanent surplus. Our problem is adaptions to this endless loop. Look at the world where things have run out, those without shoes murdering those with, the decomlexification alure of stone-age ideologies. We are a damaged, danger to itself species, whose highest hope is to aquire one more stick of high tech dynamite for a endless banton run against the odds.

Now is where we are going atm perfect? No. But at least its a plan. A self repairing asbestos orphanage for retarded firestarters which allows for progress at a realistic pacr is the way forward. Everything else is retardation whorship, in booms and busts, where every "unforseeable" regression eats a little something from civilization. If you couldnt predict trump in the 2000s, your whole model of humanity is wrong and flawed, and shouldn't be anywhere near where futures are planned.

16 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]
[deleted]
presentation 16 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That's just, like, your opinion, man.

Personally I think the USA's problems go much deeper than some vague sense that rich people are the source of all problems. Compared the whole US economy, they're a drop in the bucket, and they're not the reason that American institutions are dysfunctional; those dysfunctions were present long before Trump took power and Google got rich.

My opinion is that progressive populists don't know how to fix our problems, let alone have they even come close to identifying them, so they just focus on everything as "us vs the elites." You can see this simply by observing that the actual places that are progressive controlled - major blue cities - are the most dysfunctional places in the country. The solution? Wealth taxes that will cover a tiny percent of expenditures for a year or two tops, and no mention of why things are so expensive and slow in the first place, which has almost nothing to do with those rich guys, and have a lot more to do with dumb bureaucratic requirements; irrational procurement processes; capture from groups that sometimes are tied to wealthy interests but also come from the people like unions, neighborhood and environmental organizations; watering down every project by lacking focus on what they're actually meant to solve; procedural issues that allow cynical political actors to selectively interpret and enforce laws; and so on.

I'm sympathetic to the feeling of unfairness, but I want actual solutions, most of which are too boring for the populists on either side to stay focused on.

Sweepi 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

"You can see this simply by observing that the actual places that are progressive controlled - major blue cities - are the most dysfunctional places in the country."

Serious question - what is 'dysfunctional' about 'blue cities' that works better in 'red cities'?

14 hours ago | parent | prev [-]
[deleted]
DonHopkins 16 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[flagged]

lazyasciiart 16 hours ago | parent [-]

That’s a non sequiter. They are against those things for everyone, which means they are encouraging people of all incomes to have children.

majorchord 15 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Whether that is true or not, they have shown they do not care what happens to your child AFTER it is born. Without better morals and education we are doomed to repeat history ad nauseum/ad infinitum.

eqvinox 14 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> sequiter

sequitur.

I normally wouldn't insist, but on this particular topic, misspelled Latin is just a little too much for me.

DonHopkins 9 hours ago | parent [-]

Unless you mean Sequitery of State Marco Woobio.

DonHopkins 16 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[dead]

ActorNightly 14 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[flagged]

DonHopkins 12 hours ago | parent [-]

You left out the next inevitable steps:

The full pipeline is be conservative -> realize conservatives are morons -> "both sides are bad" -> claim to be Libertarian -> vote for Trump anyway -> leopards eat your face -> whine that you're getting hurt more than the innocent people you hate and intented to hurt