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Obituary for a quiet life (2023)

bittersoutherner.com

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Re: Obituary for a quiet life (2023)

#261

Post by [deleted] »

vondur wrote: post #182
Archelaos wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Only a small number ever get the opportunity to go to university at all In 2022, 56.4% of people living in Germany of a yearly cohort started university (including universities of higher education/Fachhochschule). 51.7% of males, 61.5% of females. 473,665 people (this number includes some foreign students, though) out of a population of aprox. 84 million. All in all, 2,915,700 people studied in Germany. I would not…

Here's the stats for California (population 39 million): California has the highest number of college students in the United States, with 2.58 million enrolled in 2023.

[deleted]

Re: Obituary for a quiet life (2023)

#262

Post by Retric »

vondur wrote: post #182
Archelaos wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Only a small number ever get the opportunity to go to university at all In 2022, 56.4% of people living in Germany of a yearly cohort started university (including universities of higher education/Fachhochschule). 51.7% of males, 61.5% of females. 473,665 people (this number includes some foreign students, though) out of a population of aprox. 84 million. All in all, 2,915,700 people studied in Germany. I would not…

Here's the stats for California (population 39 million): California has the highest number of college students in the United States, with 2.58 million enrolled in 2023.

GDP/Student is higher in California so they could provide similar aid per student.

Obviously such a program should be run nationwide, but that’s a different question.

Re: Obituary for a quiet life (2023)

#263

Post by seattle_spring »

p1esk wrote: post #253
jzb wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This suggests what they’ve become is desirable - it’s not.

Are you saying that achieving what these two men have achieved is not desirable? Becoming the most powerful or the richest person in the world? I’d say that’s very much desirable, to most people.

In the same way accomplishing what Scrooge McDuck or Dr Evil would be desirable.

Re: Obituary for a quiet life (2023)

#265

Post by int_19h »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #125
onion2k wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how many people would happily trade access to the web for a world where a laundry truck driver can afford a house. I imagine it's quite a lot.

I think the more interesting question would be, who is willing to trade peace for that? I think that it would be far harder to accept being shot at on the warfront than a world with no Internet.

Given how things are going, I think it's quite likely that many humans living today in developed countries will get to experience that part as well.

Re: Obituary for a quiet life (2023)

#266

Post by DavidPiper »

all2 wrote: post #157
flakeoil wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the world would have been a better and friendlier place if the two people you mentioned, and others like them, had an attitude a bit more muted and humble.

If their attitude had been either, they would not have become what they have become. Humble men do not, by and large, take the throne or become captains of industry.

> Humble men do not, by and large, take the throne or become captains of industry.

Citation needed. Other than Musk and Trump, how many throne-sitters and captains-of-industry do you know that blow their own propaganda trumpets as hard as those two? (Something which, incidentally, they both only started doing after they had money anyway, not as a means to obtain it, as far as I know.)

Re: Obituary for a quiet life (2023)

#267

Post by CampyBornPool »

dewey wrote: post #17
epicureanideal wrote: post #13

“ after a day driving a laundry truck. His bride, Grace, snapped the photo outside their first house.” Driving a laundry truck.. first house.. Life was so much better a few decades ago.

But then, he also had to serve in war. Medical care was not that advanced, you couldn't read about any niche topic you want online. Easy to see things through rose tinted glasses.

> Medical care was not that advanced

My great grandfather served in both world wars and went to the hospital exactly once in his life, when he died in his 80s.

Re: Obituary for a quiet life (2023)

#268

Post by dewey »

CampyBornPool wrote: post #267
dewey wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But then, he also had to serve in war. Medical care was not that advanced, you couldn't read about any niche topic you want online. Easy to see things through rose tinted glasses.

> Medical care was not that advanced My great grandfather served in both world wars and went to the hospital exactly once in his life, when he died in his 80s.

Do you think if he would've needed to go to the hospital he would've preferred today's status or the one at the time?

Re: Obituary for a quiet life (2023)

#269

Post by Shinchy »

treflop wrote: post #205

I’ve met and seen a lot of people in life and while it’s nearly impossible for a life to be stress-free, the content and successful people I’ve seen — poor, rich, whatever — seem to share one commonality: they found their passions in life, whether be it running a successful company, working with charity, hanging with neighborhood inline skate friends or raising cattle in the country side, and they get to do it nearly…

This is a great analogy.

Re: Obituary for a quiet life (2023)

#270

Post by acron0 »

TimedToasts wrote: post #139
dzink wrote: post #9

He is not wrong. “If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same” - R. Kipling Media riles up those who have been limited or deprived by circumstances. It waves flags and triggers emotions and creates envy and conjures social ladders to political influence, or financial gains, or popularity and public attention, or peaks of history. The reality though is that those apply to the…

> If you’ve seen a lot or you know evil, you don’t need a public life where you may attract it. When you know what you have and value it, a quiet life is the best way to protect it. People value privacy when they have something to lose. That's a wonderful way of framing it. No one is intent on violating my privacy to give me anything, only to take.

This comes down to perspective. For example, the state would argue they're violating your privacy to give you safety.
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