I have to disagree with this post. And I have seventy-five years of experience to base my opinions on.
We are into our fourth century of the industrial revolution. It is that revolution that has made life continually easier. But has it made life better? We turn on the faucet to get water, rather than go down to the stream with a bucket. We have flush toilets. We have electricity. We can get anywhere in the world within twenty-four hours. That's all great, and I don't want to give any of that up. But are things BETTER?
We aren't happier, possibly less happy. We seem less able to cope, perhaps because our ability to cope has atrophied as a result of the easy physical life we have. So many people talk about working from home, as if all jobs can be worked from home. No, we are not happier.
If we are not happier, then what are we? I've spent the last seventy-five years watching people become less resilient, less self-confident, and more dependent. Our federal government has saddled us with a national debt that exceeds $100,000 for every man, woman and child in America. America used to have a net surplus in trade with other countries, but for decades we have had an ever-increasing debt to other countries. The government's solution is to run up more debt. Most of us know what happens when you max out your credit cards. Reality hits, and you have all that debt to pay. Your future income has to pay for past purchases. So, what about future purchases? Good question.
That's America today. That's Europe today. Telling us that it's worse in Europe doesn't make it good in the USA. It hasn't always been like this. Back when we didn't have cell phones and laptops and streaming services and Amazon dropping anything you want at your door, life was better. It was happier.
Whose fault is it? It's OUR fault. In seeking the easy way, we've made things much harder on ourselves. Your problems will not end any sooner than when YOU solve them.
It's genuinely spooky to drive around American suburbs now. So many lawns, so many porches, so many enormous houses, and just...silence, except for the occasional cough of an Amazon van backing up.
It's surreal to walk into a McDonalds in one of these places - you'll be the only one in the place, that is, sitting, while the folks in the back hum along cranking out orders for the drive-thru eaters & for the ubereats drivers...it's like you're the only one left with legs while everyone else has melted irreversibly into their car seats and desk chairs. The McFolks take a while to notice you at the register & they seem surprised to have anyone inside at all. At least the place is sparkling!
People just...don't want to see anyone, and don't want to do anything. You try to come between one of these people and their phones, you get nothing but venom. I feel for their young kids & their old parents. I'm about done with phone society: they don't seem to be interested in running anything and they're not even having a good time in their hedonia. Let me know when we start busting up Apple stores, or if you have any better ideas.
Hedonia a suburb of Dystopia. The device addiction is real. Once we conversed while waiting for food to arrive now people attend to their devices. I now enjoy McDonalds and I especially like the ordering kiosks which reduces the necessity of interacting with counter attendants. Fewer people assures a wider selection of seats and maintaining social distance.
Yes, I still maintain as much social distance as possible. Another gift of COVID. I pretend there is still a lockdown and only venture out for necessary needs and appointments. I wait at the window for the Amazon truck pulling up to the condo.
Better for whom though? I have been alive almost as long as you, and have three daughters in their 30’s and 40’s. Life is much better for them than it was 50 years ago, when most opportunities did not exist for women. I went to a college that had just recently become coed 50 years ago, which was a big deal back then but sounds silly now.
And segregation was still mostly legal.
So, things may well have been better back then, but for much less than half the population of the U.S.A.
We have different perspectives, and that is okay. You are entitled to your perspective, and seem to come by it honestly. But when I read your sentence that you have seen people become less resilient, less self-confident and more dependent, I think about each of my daughters, and believe that they are more resilient, more self-confident and less dependent (like most of the young women I know) than they would be if they were mere housewives/mothers back in the 50’s/60’s/70’s (and each of them has children and a spouse). I do think that there are young white males who have become less reliant, less self-confident and more dependent, but they are by far not everyone.
"That said, Trump himself could well move in directions that cause further decline." 3/4 of the piece here makes the case that there is no such decline--- and then turns to address the threat of Harris to the economy. IF Harris could command an overwhelming majority in the House and a 60 vote majority in the Senate then her "aspirational policies" COULD be a threat to the economy. However most of these are all within the realm of traditional Democratic platforms since 1936 and nothing new.
You are absolutely correct that the national debt is the silent killer in the room and the notion of growing ourselves out of debt as Republicans preach or just "investing" year over year in deficit spending as Democrats wish are both malarkey.
But within the context of this election if Harris was offering a Stalinest 5 year plan that could never pass Congress would be safer for the Republic than to vote for a "lazy-fare" policy that is determined on what Trump believes is best for him and his image. Yesterday he was saying (during the moments where he was speaking coherently) that tariffs are essentially like a tax break for working people. That tariffs will reduce inflation among other absurdities. I dare you to read the entire transcript of his speech before the Economic Club of New York in its entirety without wondering how he could be better for the American economy.
I agree with your overall thesis for the most part and your points on the economic policies of both tickets. However, if Trump does win, the post-covid crime wave will have played a significant part in that. Emerging crime statistics in many major cities since 2022 will not paint a clearer picture when so many police departments don't bother responding to calls dealing with property crimes. Patrols and investigations are so lax and non-existent in many city precincts that what is happening in terms of violent crime will not be fully reported, tracked, and thereby encapsulated by statistics kept at any level of government.
Saying it was worse between the 70s and 90s doesn't alleviate the sense of lawlessness and insecurity that has emerged in places it did not previously exist five years ago. The more significant concern in the post-Floyd world is that broken windows policing has been thrown under the bus despite decades of progress under that law enforcement paradigm that every other sane and safe first-world country practices. It is concerning because it reflects a generational shift among young people who take for granted how relatively safe the first two decades of this century were and are too stupid and ideological to understand the role that increased policing played in that.
It's not really a statistical message. It *feels* like things are in decline, because when you walk around outside, you see increasingly slovenly, increasingly unhealthy people staring at their phones, and you don't see much else. It *feels* like things are in decline because the reading & math abilities of our youth are in decline (although their phone-scrolling skills are way up, I hear). It *feels* like things are in decline because our movies, TV and music have been crummy for years. Like, how is Taylor Swift - god bless her - still the biggest pop artist? She's 34...where are the young folks? She must be so tired...
These are, of course, questions of *feeling* rather than of economics - but I heard someone say, once, that money isn't everything...
While Trump needs to be taken literally at his word, that’s not the case with either Biden or Harris. They are both capable of and have shown the ability and flexibility to differentiate implementation from rhetoric and electoral appeals and party platforms and manifestos.
The author’s alarmism about Harris-Walz electoral strategy and falsely equating to ruinous policy signals is exaggerated at best and intellectually dishonest at the worst. The claim about Harris making it impossible for startups to function is utterly ridiculous!
This nonsense of false equivalence has gone on for too long and needs to stop 🛑!!
"The claim about Harris making it impossible for startups to function is utterly ridiculous!"
I wouldn't say ridiculous but since 90% of all startups fail within a few years trimming back on the money invested in failure (usually because of faulty and optimistic business plans) might not be such a bad thing--- or at least not as devastating as believed.
This is a new level of wack. Do you hear yourself? "How dare you take her words as having meaning? She's obviously lying. And that's a good thing. You're an alarmist! Emoji!"
President of R-Street wrote this. Okay, let's look them up. Website says "R Street experts are exploring the intersection between public policy solutions and the latest AI innovations. AI could deliver trillions in additional global economic activity and significantly boost annual GDP growth. ...AI can help make government more efficient, too."
You are conflating America's internal condition to America's exceptionalism VS our peers. Of course we are better off! I expect this type of argument from NPR or MSNBC. Consider only the illegal immigrant issue, the costs; criminal/mentally ill element; loss of opportunity; national security risk; housing; medical; education; ... ;. Do an 'honest' comparison of policy to policy that's fair. But trying to say all is well because of America's exceptionalism is simply bush league.
The worst prat of the Trump "platform" is extension of the Tax Cuts for the Rich and Deficits Act of 2017" and consequent further increase in the deficit. And Democrats will not repeal all of the reductions in personal taxes and will increase business taxes. We need real-massive revenue increasing increases in personal taxes and reduction in business taxes and to replace the wage tax with a VAT to fully fund social insurance so as to virtually zero out the deficit..
I have to disagree with this post. And I have seventy-five years of experience to base my opinions on.
We are into our fourth century of the industrial revolution. It is that revolution that has made life continually easier. But has it made life better? We turn on the faucet to get water, rather than go down to the stream with a bucket. We have flush toilets. We have electricity. We can get anywhere in the world within twenty-four hours. That's all great, and I don't want to give any of that up. But are things BETTER?
We aren't happier, possibly less happy. We seem less able to cope, perhaps because our ability to cope has atrophied as a result of the easy physical life we have. So many people talk about working from home, as if all jobs can be worked from home. No, we are not happier.
If we are not happier, then what are we? I've spent the last seventy-five years watching people become less resilient, less self-confident, and more dependent. Our federal government has saddled us with a national debt that exceeds $100,000 for every man, woman and child in America. America used to have a net surplus in trade with other countries, but for decades we have had an ever-increasing debt to other countries. The government's solution is to run up more debt. Most of us know what happens when you max out your credit cards. Reality hits, and you have all that debt to pay. Your future income has to pay for past purchases. So, what about future purchases? Good question.
That's America today. That's Europe today. Telling us that it's worse in Europe doesn't make it good in the USA. It hasn't always been like this. Back when we didn't have cell phones and laptops and streaming services and Amazon dropping anything you want at your door, life was better. It was happier.
Whose fault is it? It's OUR fault. In seeking the easy way, we've made things much harder on ourselves. Your problems will not end any sooner than when YOU solve them.
It's genuinely spooky to drive around American suburbs now. So many lawns, so many porches, so many enormous houses, and just...silence, except for the occasional cough of an Amazon van backing up.
It's surreal to walk into a McDonalds in one of these places - you'll be the only one in the place, that is, sitting, while the folks in the back hum along cranking out orders for the drive-thru eaters & for the ubereats drivers...it's like you're the only one left with legs while everyone else has melted irreversibly into their car seats and desk chairs. The McFolks take a while to notice you at the register & they seem surprised to have anyone inside at all. At least the place is sparkling!
People just...don't want to see anyone, and don't want to do anything. You try to come between one of these people and their phones, you get nothing but venom. I feel for their young kids & their old parents. I'm about done with phone society: they don't seem to be interested in running anything and they're not even having a good time in their hedonia. Let me know when we start busting up Apple stores, or if you have any better ideas.
Hedonia a suburb of Dystopia. The device addiction is real. Once we conversed while waiting for food to arrive now people attend to their devices. I now enjoy McDonalds and I especially like the ordering kiosks which reduces the necessity of interacting with counter attendants. Fewer people assures a wider selection of seats and maintaining social distance.
Yes, I still maintain as much social distance as possible. Another gift of COVID. I pretend there is still a lockdown and only venture out for necessary needs and appointments. I wait at the window for the Amazon truck pulling up to the condo.
Retirement has been most pleasant.
Better for whom though? I have been alive almost as long as you, and have three daughters in their 30’s and 40’s. Life is much better for them than it was 50 years ago, when most opportunities did not exist for women. I went to a college that had just recently become coed 50 years ago, which was a big deal back then but sounds silly now.
And segregation was still mostly legal.
So, things may well have been better back then, but for much less than half the population of the U.S.A.
I get your point. But what I said still stands.
We have different perspectives, and that is okay. You are entitled to your perspective, and seem to come by it honestly. But when I read your sentence that you have seen people become less resilient, less self-confident and more dependent, I think about each of my daughters, and believe that they are more resilient, more self-confident and less dependent (like most of the young women I know) than they would be if they were mere housewives/mothers back in the 50’s/60’s/70’s (and each of them has children and a spouse). I do think that there are young white males who have become less reliant, less self-confident and more dependent, but they are by far not everyone.
Both of our perspectives, I think, are real and accurate. I don't think they're mutually exclusive.
Agreed
"That said, Trump himself could well move in directions that cause further decline." 3/4 of the piece here makes the case that there is no such decline--- and then turns to address the threat of Harris to the economy. IF Harris could command an overwhelming majority in the House and a 60 vote majority in the Senate then her "aspirational policies" COULD be a threat to the economy. However most of these are all within the realm of traditional Democratic platforms since 1936 and nothing new.
You are absolutely correct that the national debt is the silent killer in the room and the notion of growing ourselves out of debt as Republicans preach or just "investing" year over year in deficit spending as Democrats wish are both malarkey.
But within the context of this election if Harris was offering a Stalinest 5 year plan that could never pass Congress would be safer for the Republic than to vote for a "lazy-fare" policy that is determined on what Trump believes is best for him and his image. Yesterday he was saying (during the moments where he was speaking coherently) that tariffs are essentially like a tax break for working people. That tariffs will reduce inflation among other absurdities. I dare you to read the entire transcript of his speech before the Economic Club of New York in its entirety without wondering how he could be better for the American economy.
https://singjupost.com/full-transcript-trump-speaks-at-the-economic-club-of-new-york/?singlepage=1
The best course is to elect Harris and then fight politically to curb any extremist policies.
I agree with your overall thesis for the most part and your points on the economic policies of both tickets. However, if Trump does win, the post-covid crime wave will have played a significant part in that. Emerging crime statistics in many major cities since 2022 will not paint a clearer picture when so many police departments don't bother responding to calls dealing with property crimes. Patrols and investigations are so lax and non-existent in many city precincts that what is happening in terms of violent crime will not be fully reported, tracked, and thereby encapsulated by statistics kept at any level of government.
Saying it was worse between the 70s and 90s doesn't alleviate the sense of lawlessness and insecurity that has emerged in places it did not previously exist five years ago. The more significant concern in the post-Floyd world is that broken windows policing has been thrown under the bus despite decades of progress under that law enforcement paradigm that every other sane and safe first-world country practices. It is concerning because it reflects a generational shift among young people who take for granted how relatively safe the first two decades of this century were and are too stupid and ideological to understand the role that increased policing played in that.
It's not really a statistical message. It *feels* like things are in decline, because when you walk around outside, you see increasingly slovenly, increasingly unhealthy people staring at their phones, and you don't see much else. It *feels* like things are in decline because the reading & math abilities of our youth are in decline (although their phone-scrolling skills are way up, I hear). It *feels* like things are in decline because our movies, TV and music have been crummy for years. Like, how is Taylor Swift - god bless her - still the biggest pop artist? She's 34...where are the young folks? She must be so tired...
These are, of course, questions of *feeling* rather than of economics - but I heard someone say, once, that money isn't everything...
While Trump needs to be taken literally at his word, that’s not the case with either Biden or Harris. They are both capable of and have shown the ability and flexibility to differentiate implementation from rhetoric and electoral appeals and party platforms and manifestos.
The author’s alarmism about Harris-Walz electoral strategy and falsely equating to ruinous policy signals is exaggerated at best and intellectually dishonest at the worst. The claim about Harris making it impossible for startups to function is utterly ridiculous!
This nonsense of false equivalence has gone on for too long and needs to stop 🛑!!
"The claim about Harris making it impossible for startups to function is utterly ridiculous!"
I wouldn't say ridiculous but since 90% of all startups fail within a few years trimming back on the money invested in failure (usually because of faulty and optimistic business plans) might not be such a bad thing--- or at least not as devastating as believed.
This is a new level of wack. Do you hear yourself? "How dare you take her words as having meaning? She's obviously lying. And that's a good thing. You're an alarmist! Emoji!"
God.
Trump’s track record and his disastrous 4 years are why he needs to taken literally and seriously.
President of R-Street wrote this. Okay, let's look them up. Website says "R Street experts are exploring the intersection between public policy solutions and the latest AI innovations. AI could deliver trillions in additional global economic activity and significantly boost annual GDP growth. ...AI can help make government more efficient, too."
No thanks, Skynet!
You are conflating America's internal condition to America's exceptionalism VS our peers. Of course we are better off! I expect this type of argument from NPR or MSNBC. Consider only the illegal immigrant issue, the costs; criminal/mentally ill element; loss of opportunity; national security risk; housing; medical; education; ... ;. Do an 'honest' comparison of policy to policy that's fair. But trying to say all is well because of America's exceptionalism is simply bush league.
The worst prat of the Trump "platform" is extension of the Tax Cuts for the Rich and Deficits Act of 2017" and consequent further increase in the deficit. And Democrats will not repeal all of the reductions in personal taxes and will increase business taxes. We need real-massive revenue increasing increases in personal taxes and reduction in business taxes and to replace the wage tax with a VAT to fully fund social insurance so as to virtually zero out the deficit..