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Is everything falling apart?

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Re: Is everything falling apart?

#541

Post by UncleOxidant »

treis wrote: post #504
UncleOxidant wrote: post #495

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Journalism was a tawdry, un-respectable business since its conception, but experienced a brief period of valor around the mid-twentieth century And it wasn't just journalism. After WWII many veterans took advantage of the free education offered by the GI Bill. That gave us a lot of highly educated people (with no student loan debt to worry about!) who then went on to use that education to improve things. Couple thi…

I always wonder about people that post things so divorced from reality. We have five times as many college grads today as we did in 1960: https://www.statista.com/statistics/184260/educational-attai...

I added the clause: "With no student loan debt to worry about!" above. That's an important aspect, I think. They could afford to get degrees in subjects that may not have paid all that well (teaching, for example) where as now people have to consider how they're going to pay back that debt and choose degrees in fields that will enable them to do so.

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#542

Post by giantg2 »

epicureanideal wrote: post #295
ozzythecat wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there’s something more fundamental going on in the US. First, I’d want to say that we as humans love to simplify complex things. There are large macroeconomic trends at play that are boring or hard to explain, and it’s easier to blame immigrants, social media, or blame because that gives us an outlet to make sense out of complexity. For politicians, depending on their political leanings, it gives them a way t…

> They want a standard of living that requires competitiveness globally, but in this country, we no longer want to work for it. That’s not what I see at all. Most working people in the current generation are working more hours, at more skilled jobs, with more education than their parents, and yet the lifestyle they can afford (aside from tech gadgets) is worse and less secure than their parents. I’m pessimistic about…

This idea of higher hour and higher skill jobs doesn't necessarily conflict with the claim about not working (or being lazy). Workforce participation rates are historically low in the US.

So the people who work tend to work hard. But a large number of people choose not to work or even seek work (for a variety of reasons, so lazy might be a little too catch-all).

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#543

Post by toomuchtodo »

oicU00 wrote: post #515
Melatonic wrote: post #490

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of those very much do not sound like "things are falling apart" to me

Reality is not unzipping in that the speed of light is different. A lot of inner monologues, sense of belonging, hope for the future, as something like covid makes the masses see a minority who do none of the “real work” as dependents who somehow have far more comfortable lives. Tech oligarchs who were all “Disrupt!” are now all “Wait not me! I’m a rent seeker now!” It’s a predictable circle of life given the common…

Not a wealthy investor but would be interested in your newsletter if it’s reasonably priced.

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#544

Post by Minor49er »

hsnewman wrote: post #199

I don't understand why people who clearly are traitors to the USA are able to get by with it. In the 1950's they would have been immediately arrested and tried for supporting facist countries. Now they are beloved.

This isn't limited to the USA. With the rise of globalism, the sovereignty of nations has been eroding in favor of a one-world government, whether those nations go with it willingly or have it imposed on them. Warfare is now primarily conducted from within, beneath the surface.

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#546

Post by BeFlatXIII »

rabuse wrote: post #383
epicureanideal wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They want a standard of living that requires competitiveness globally, but in this country, we no longer want to work for it. That’s not what I see at all. Most working people in the current generation are working more hours, at more skilled jobs, with more education than their parents, and yet the lifestyle they can afford (aside from tech gadgets) is worse and less secure than their parents. I’m pessimistic about…

This just doesn't seem to be the case with the peers I know, and covid made everything worse for morale. Nobody really wants to work anymore, service speed has fallen off a cliff in my area (South Florida), staff shortages are still in effect, nobody wants to have kids/get married, etc.

Morale falls off a cliff when hard work isn't properly rewarded or if the customers are too uppity.

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#547

Post by jacobolus »

asdff wrote: post #492
throwaway6734 wrote: post #470

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>We engineered away stability for JIT, covid came along and proved to many we live in a Banana Republic exporting memes of exceptionalism, while most people can’t grow a potato for themselves. This is hyperbolic. The US is not a banana republic. Why would you expect the average person to need to know how to grow a potato?

Replace potato with any old piece of handy info, like home or car maintenance. A lot of younger Americans (myself included) have little practical knowledge, so everything needing knowhow in this generation must be outsourced. Compare this to my grandfather's generation, he knew how to frame houses, plumb, electric work, auto work, gardening, etc, and he was not alone. If he needed something done you'd get four of you…

If you go a few generations further back, your ancestors lived in crushing rural poverty but literally hand-made most of the things in their own house, with the rest produced by local craftspeople; grew/raised or gathered/hunted most of their own food; made their own clothing starting from raw materials; etc.

Your buddies today have dramatically greater material wealth due to worldwide supply chains and mass production, but don’t know how to turn an unshorn sheep into a blanket or sweater or build walls out of mud and sticks. Today it’s no longer worth even fixing most stuff because the labor costs to do anything as a one-off are prohibitive compared to buying a new one from a streamlined (capital and energy intensive) factory.

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#548

Post by civilized »

taylodl wrote: post #8

The constant theme since the dawn of civilization threaded through all of history is that everything is falling apart. Change is continual. History is more like the seasons. Nations rise. Nations fall. Sometimes there's revolt. Sometimes there's peace. There's a continual game of King of the Mountain being played at all levels. So what can we say? Situation Normal - all effed up! Enjoy this phenomenon called life. Yo…

I understand taking historical perspective, but I'm not a fan of complete equanimity about change. Lots of bad stuff is "happening all the time", like murder and cancer. It'd be nice to acknowledge when the things that are happening seem to be good or bad.

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#549

Post by BlargMcLarg »

asdff wrote: post #492
throwaway6734 wrote: post #470

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>We engineered away stability for JIT, covid came along and proved to many we live in a Banana Republic exporting memes of exceptionalism, while most people can’t grow a potato for themselves. This is hyperbolic. The US is not a banana republic. Why would you expect the average person to need to know how to grow a potato?

Replace potato with any old piece of handy info, like home or car maintenance. A lot of younger Americans (myself included) have little practical knowledge, so everything needing knowhow in this generation must be outsourced. Compare this to my grandfather's generation, he knew how to frame houses, plumb, electric work, auto work, gardening, etc, and he was not alone. If he needed something done you'd get four of you…

You can still learn these skills. In fact, the wide access to knowledge should give you enough to learn these skills without ever having to ask someone else. The larger reality is a lot of these people don't need to learn these skills, so they won't, for various specific reasons.

Same way you can ask a ton of people gen X and higher how to open a Word document, many of them don't know. They don't even know where to get the information besides asking family and friends, because that's their modus operandi. Tons of human support still has a job only because these people can't figure things out without another person helping them.

Every generation currently alive has a large degree of learned helplessness. The areas where they are helpless just vary.

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#550

Post by boh »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #455
boh wrote: post #243

Things collapsing has been a predominant sentiment in every modern generation. It's unprecedented because of our collective amnesia, that regards the familiar as a stable starting point rather than a random moment in a volatile reality. Journalism was a tawdry, un-respectable business since its conception, but experienced a brief period of valor around the mid-twentieth century when industry concentration, Cold War e…

I think there is a real danger in just arguing basically "things have always been a shit show, empires collapse, pandemics rage, etc. etc." for a couple reasons: 1. While true, lets not ignore the fact that things get really, really, really bad during those periods where empires do collapse, or environmental damage causes ecosystem collapse, etc. etc. I mean, yes, you could argue "Hey, the Black Death killed a 3rd of…

Contextualizing the present with the past is less dangerous than feverishly articulating the uniqueness of circumstances. It's more helpful to be aware of current events as a continuation of past events since it allows a better understanding of the present.

As an individual, it doesn't serve you well to exist in a fog of worry among perceived threats. Volatility should be understood as a common facet of life so you can shape your competence to deal with it, rather than assume a static environment that demands alarm with every variation.

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