Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Thomas Piketty: 'The reality is the US is losing control of the world'

lemonde.fr

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 212 posts

Re: Thomas Piketty: 'The reality is the US is losing control of the world'

#151

Post by pasttense01 »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #141
IAmBroom wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> India is yet to harmonise widespread organisation. I've always said that if India got a unified national language they would become a nearly instant world power. Imagine an India where English was mandated in every public school - and every child, regardless of caste (which officially doesn't exist...), attended school. English, because it's more internationally useful than Hindi, and doesn't have the same ethnolog…

Isn’t English the de facto national language in India? Everyone who can afford to, teaches their kid English. India’s big problem is lack of natural resources, and lack of clear hierarchy to manage the limited resources (including choosing to screw some people for the greater good). China had the same issue of enormous population relative to natural resources, but it had the clear hierarchy to be able to execute.

Natural resources aren't that important anymore. Look at Singapore with essentially no natural resources, but a high standard of living for example. And the U.S. has strong natural resources, but they represent a fairly small portion of the economy.

Re: Thomas Piketty: 'The reality is the US is losing control of the world'

#152

Post by giardini »

watwut wrote: post #68
InMice wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both political far sides are rocking the boat, not just rights even tho they are in power. It's both of them together and the dysfunction of their inability to compromise or reason on anything. Moderates or centrist voters in the USA have no representation and haven't for some time.

Frankly, bullshit. The center is ruling the democratic party, actively suppressing left and frequently tacitly enabling the far right. Meanwhile, left barely does anything. They are not rocking the boat, they are powerless. Both Obama and Biden were center choice. The whole democratic party is ruled by centrist politicians and ideology which is why they cant oppose the increasingly radical republicans all that effect…

>"Meanwhile, left barely does anything. They are not rocking the boat, they are powerless."

The left's judicial branch is very active: they sue every chance they get. And since they've diligently packed the court systems for decades, and since population centers that are predominantly Democratic are usually the locations for filing significant legal issues, i.e., they have left-leaning populations, therefore left-leaning juries and leftist judges, they usually get what they sue for.

Maybe someday we'll be able to look at Epstein's mail or Clinton's e-mails even.

Re: Thomas Piketty: 'The reality is the US is losing control of the world'

#153

Post by ericmay »

skywhopper wrote: post #69
ericmay wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what specific way is the United States self-sabotaging on GLP-1s? Is the current Republican administration against them? I’m confused.

They are decimating academic research into health care tech in general. There’s been mixed messaging from the administration on GLP-1s (although if they keep pushing on the eugenics theme, they will solidify as anti on those as well soon enough) but that wasn’t really the point. I named mRNA and GLP-1s as two examples of modern tech revolutions that are not AI or space-related. Those are the modern tech breakthroughs…

> There’s been mixed messaging from the administration on GLP-1s

Do you have any examples?

This is what I've seen:

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/06/trump-eli-lilly-novo-nordisk...

  Wegovy and Zepbound have not been covered by Medicare for weight loss, “and they’ve only rarely been covered by Medicaid,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “They’ve often cost consumers more than $1,000 per month, some a lot more than that. ... That ends starting today."

  "“This is the biggest drug in our country, and that’s why this is the most important of all the [most favored nation] announcements we’ve made,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said during the briefing. “This is going to have the biggest impact on the American people. All Americans, even those who are not on Medicaid, Medicare, are going to be able to get the same price for their drugs, for their GLP-1s.""

Re: Thomas Piketty: 'The reality is the US is losing control of the world'

#154

Post by giardini »

SanjayMehta wrote: post #103
akka47 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The US are by no means innocent of terrorism and invasion of other countries, but at least with countries commonly counted as "the west", the US was a friendly nation. >If we have the likes of terrorist states like Russia taking over, then we got some very dark times ahead of us. Did you seriously write these two sentences one right next to the other and not see the hypocrisy in what you're saying?

It's pointless trying to educate the wilfully ignorant.

We gave up on you guys a long time ago: told your Dad to leave you behind a bush but he was a good Dad so, lucky you! Our bad.

Re: Thomas Piketty: 'The reality is the US is losing control of the world'

#155

Post by jswelker »

Hendrikto wrote: post #41
lotsofpulp wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Those who know where this will lead are unwilling to speak up and the rest follow. They did speak up. And they lost the popular vote. Democracy is only as good as its voters. A country is only as good as its people. Replace good with productive/sane/not corrupt, etc.

If you do not get votes, it’s not the voters who failed, it is you. If politicians got that through their heads, and started trying to convince voters on their own merit, instead of simply trash-talking their opponents and telling people they voted “wrong”, they would start to get things done again, and we could actually solve real problems.

I think it is fair to say everyone has failed on every level and every side to some extent. This is classic tragedy of the commons, where the commons is the seemingly unlimited power and wealth of America that everyone wanted to cash in on and externalize the costs.

Re: Thomas Piketty: 'The reality is the US is losing control of the world'

#157

Post by tim333 »

ericmay wrote: post #45
23434dsf wrote: post #30

Americans cant have their cake and eat it too. The allies are quietly leaving the room and forming alliances without Americans.

Any specific examples you can speak to? Which countries? Who are they allying with?

Not sure what 23434dsf means but America's traditional allies like Canada, Europe and maybe post WW2 Japan are forming an alliance against Russia's invasion into Europe, while Trump's position seems to be it's ok for Russia to take land by force as long as he/the US get a cut of the plunder.

Re: Thomas Piketty: 'The reality is the US is losing control of the world'

#158

Post by jswelker »

gradus_ad wrote: post #99
pjc50 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hegemonic liberalism is way, way, better than hegemonic illiberalism.

Hegemonic idealism is dangerous either way. We can pick and choose what works best.

Yes "we" can, but the difference is that in a liberal order "we" at least ostensibly represents the people, and in an illiberal order, "we" represents a naked power grab by whichever elite group currently has the reigns.

Re: Thomas Piketty: 'The reality is the US is losing control of the world'

#159

Post by tim333 »

akka47 wrote: post #15

Thank god. I don't understand how we, as in humanity, allow a single country to be "world police". Seriously, no one asked for it.

It sort of happens because in the absence of a proper world police, when one county tries to steal another countries stuff/land it falls to the most powerful decent country available to stop it. See Hitler sending tanks into Ukraine and Putin sending tanks into Ukraine.

Re: Thomas Piketty: 'The reality is the US is losing control of the world'

#160

Post by lotsofpulp »

Hendrikto wrote: post #142
lotsofpulp wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When voters vote for the person who baseless attacked an election (counts as treason in my book), and campaigned on aiding and abetting those who perpetrated treason against the country, it is the voters (and non voters) who failed.

You fell into the same trap: You only provided an argument for WHY NOT to vote for Trump. Instead, provide an argument for why to vote for somebody else.

In a first past the post election system, those are logically equivalent.

Claiming that the two choices are equally bad is the “trap”, when actions clearly indicate one is worse for democracy, and societal trust in general.

Post reply on HN