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America, 1926: A forgotten 100-year-old report

derekthompson.org

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Re: America, 1926: A forgotten 100-year-old report

#91

Post by chneu »

dgellow wrote: post #46
davoneus wrote: post #11

Great article. Just reminds me of how much societies resemble a pendulum; swinging from one extreme to the other. And of course you have the problem that some people want to freeze it mid-swing, or worse tear the damn thing down completely.

I’m really not sure, if you look at things before the 20th century it’s difficult to see a pendulum swing pattern. That works relatively well between the 20th and 21st centuries, but I don’t think we can see it as a general rule. It’s also pretty dependent on the region you look at, and movements you decide to take in consideration or filter out. There is just so much room for biases, it’s easy finding a pattern beca…

A lot of folks forget that ancient Egypt existed for thousands of years without major changes.

Pre-industrialization, civs tended to come and then go(dispersing with other groups), as power structures came and went.

Re: America, 1926: A forgotten 100-year-old report

#92

Post by SKILNER »

Schiendelman wrote: post #47
ck2 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes almost all americans now have running water and indoor toilets except we have more homeless than ever so they don't even have that with taxes slashed for billionaires and safety-nets for food and healthcare being destroyed, we are actually headed back to 1926 on purpose

I did a quick check, and the HUD point-in-time counts show the rate of homelessness was dropping slowly from 21.5 per 10000 in 2007 (the first year of a national standard), to around 17.5 per 10000 in 2020, then rose in 2023-2024 up to 22.9, and in 2025 was back down to 21.9. During the Great Depression this rose up to 100-200 per 10,000. Keep in mind that "more homeless than ever" (and I would prefer "more people ex…

Thanks for providing some actual facts.

Re: America, 1926: A forgotten 100-year-old report

#93

Post by dgellow »

retired wrote: post #88
dgellow wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europe isn’t a single country. We have multiple countries where you can create a company in no time, with little capital. And have freedom of movement within the whole EU

> And have freedom of movement within the whole EU To a certain degree. In the US you can drive to another state thousands of kilometers away and decide to just live there for the rest of your life.

I can do the same within the EU, what difference are you pointing at?

Re: America, 1926: A forgotten 100-year-old report

#94

Post by jandrewrogers »

wqaatwt wrote: post #42
jandrewrogers wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best geography of any country by a large margin and a non-ethnic culture that believes anything is possible and celebrates the ambition to try. The money is largely a side effect of these two things.

Europe probably has the “best geography” and the climate, though? Coastal California is probably one of the nicest places on earth but generally US is quite harsh.

Geography isn't just climate. The US has exceptional soil for agriculture at incredible scales, one of the richest mineral belts in the world, and pervasive waterways outside of the Great Basin. Add to that just about every biome that exists within its borders.

Many people find Europe to be gloomy -- too little sun and too much rain. The US is only "harsh" if that is your platonic ideal for weather. The Pacific Northwest is a sunnier version of this climate. Most of the US is well within the range people can naturally adapt to and be comfortable in. The US is also an incredibly sunny place by comparison, even the parts not known for heat. The US does have unusually extreme weather but those events don't define the day-to-day and the built environment is adapted to it.

There are only a few parts of the US with irredeemable weather in my opinion. The low deserts of the southwest (e.g. Mojave) are literally among the hottest places on Earth. The northern Plains reach Arctic temperatures during winter. This is why almost no one lives in these places. The South famously has tropical heat/humidity during the summer, which Americans complain about, but that is like tropics everywhere and is quite pleasant during the winter.

That said, the best weather in the US (and arguably the world) is widely considered to be in San Diego. Perfect sunny days at an almost ideal temperature with no humidity for virtually the entire year.

Re: America, 1926: A forgotten 100-year-old report

#95

Post by axpy906 »

artisinal wrote: post #15
axpy906 wrote: post #13

No offense but outside of money does the US have anything going for it?

Natural parks. Tasty drinkable water from the tap in nearly the entire country. Being able to flush toilet paper. Free toilets almost everywhere. Being a country for 250 years is also quite an achievement. I’m European and have witnessed many wars on my continent in my lifetime. A childhood friend was shot down with a Russian surface to air missile.

I don’t know. There are other countries that have those properties. I am envious of Western Europe’s healthcare, social safety net, healthier food and holidays that you don’t work on.

The comment came about from the last charts show religion, patriotism, etc down while money rose. It clicked.

Re: America, 1926: A forgotten 100-year-old report

#96

Post by lovich »

UncleOxidant wrote: post #32
stackghost wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has felt inevitable to me for a few years now. The market != the economy but a major crash can still trigger a credit crunch that will materially affect regular people. Look at the insane valuations on some of these companies. They can't continue forever. As for WW3, well, there's a diaper-wearing senile old man, with an inferiority complex to boot, in charge of a nuclear arsenal and major conventional forces.

I think there's a compelling case to be made that WW3 started in 2014 when Putin invaded Crimea.

I’m not sure it’s a world war but Pax Americana definitely died then.

Re: America, 1926: A forgotten 100-year-old report

#97

Post by jandrewrogers »

artisinal wrote: post #41
2muchtime wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The water is drinkable but in many places not what I would call tasty.

Water tastes pretty gross in coastal Spain. In countries like Albania I wouldn’t even drink it at all. On Greek islands it is safe but everyone buys water from the stores. Due to the age of many places in Europe there is also still a lot of copper pipe used for tap water. Not deadly but also not very healthy. In Amsterdam over 20 percent of homes have copper pipes.

A few places in the US have tap water that tastes famously bad, largely due to where they get the water from. San Diego is a famous example. The water is safe and clean but discolored and the flavor is pretty awful.

Much of the US has great tasting tap water.

Re: America, 1926: A forgotten 100-year-old report

#98

Post by lovich »

Spooky23 wrote: post #50
jmyeet wrote: post #14

I an a completely unabashed leftist who has been "radicalized" (if you call free school lunches "radical", which apparently it is in modern America) by seeing the rapidly accelerating wealth and income inequality since 2008. I mean it really kciked off in the 1970s but the effects post-2008 became impossible to ignore. In the spirit of all models are wroong but some models are useful and that generational politics is…

Personally, I think GenX are the lost. (I'm a late GenX) Our colleages took the brunt of the global war on terror, and because we entered the workforce at the peak boomer pivot away from the pre-Internet era of business those of us that were in the corporate/government workforce were basically stuck waiting for people to die to move up. We're the people who got computers and internet in a way that neither our elders…

I don’t know any millennials who are inheriting anything. Everyone’s boomer parents who inherited family wealth are either losing it to healthcare costs extracting everything at their end of life or (literally in at least one friends case) saying “you can’t take it with you” and burning the family wealth on luxuries while their kids struggle.

Maybe there’s a handful of ultra wealthy families tending the family wealth well but most of the middle class boomers don’t even have a concept of leaving something for future generations.

Re: America, 1926: A forgotten 100-year-old report

#99

Post by lovich »

axpy906 wrote: post #13

No offense but outside of money does the US have anything going for it?

Some of every industrial resource, seemingly for every new technology to need one. As a country it’s been like playing civ and every tech upgrade you lucked out in a resource node popping up on your territory.

Re: America, 1926: A forgotten 100-year-old report

#100

Post by II2II »

sanguinesphinx wrote: post #65
II2II wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not that single person who threatens the world The question is: is he enabling them, or are they enabling him? I suppose it could be working in both directions. That said: while the "elite" were problematic before his second rise to power, they were also more constrained. I also have some question as to who the elite are? Certain individuals are more prominent these days, while others have faded in the backgro…

It depends on how closely you tie the metrics and the values. Do you consider someone becoming a billionaire/trillionaire a reflection of their values or just a metric they happen to have?

Both. A person who places the interests of others above their own and lacks ambition is unlikely to achieve wealth in their life. Yet that doesn't mean a wealthy person has limitless ambition, nor does a willingness to place their interests above others mean that they are willing to sacrifice others in their own interest. While one needs to hold certain values to acquire or maintain wealth, there is still an element of "luck" to it (even if part of that luck has to be manufactured).

Take someone like Gates. He is a famously immoral businessman. Kildall once remarked that he had the urge to keep one hand on his wallet and the other on his source code listings when in Gates' presence. Yet Gates also has an interest in the human condition, something he has backed with both influence and money. I have no doubt that his rationale behind these interests differ from his less wealthy kin, but that is not sufficient reason to disregard it just because of his wealth. Now contrast that to someone like Musk. He has arguably done more for the environment by actually getting electric vehicles into mass production and he has arguably done more for science (without actually doing scientific research) through financing the development of launch vehicles. That said, it is doubtful that he has any form of grasp on reality. His morality appears to be of the sort where a pacifist wouldn't trust themselves in Musk's presence.

Anyhow, I've forgotten where I was going beyond that. Hopefully it is enough to illustrate that wealthy people have different values and that wealth should not be used as a metric of their values. That said, I'm not sure that I've convinced anyone (even myself), that some wealthy people have sensible values.

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