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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

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Freedom to say (almost) anything, publicly, including criticism of the elite and powerful. Most European nations strongly protect free speech, allowing open public critique and satire of politicians, the wealthy, and the powerful. > Freedom to do, to create a business with far fewer roadblocks than in, say, Europe. Several European countries actually lead global easy business rankings, some offering fully digital,…

> The schengen zone grants passport-free travel across 29 nations, spanning thousands of miles without a single border checkpoint. Not anymore. I got stopped between The Netherlands and Germany, between France and Spain, Denmark and Sweden. Germany has border checkpoints with most of its bordering countries. That is unheard of in the USA. You can travel thousands of kilometers without getting stopped by authorities f…

> Not anymore. I got stopped between The Netherlands and Germany, between France and Spain, Denmark and Sweden. Germany has border checkpoints with most of its bordering countries.

Schengen allows to have temporary border controls, you can see the, here: https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/policies/schengen/schengen...

I also was really surprised to get controlled between Germany and Denmark. But it’s not the same as the old border checkpoints. Though I wish that didn’t exist

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

#162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"vaccines cause autism" "well, I'm certainly surprised by how much you know, good day."

I laughed but I think that example undermines your own point. I read "how much" in that context as dripping sarcasm.

OK this is of course not about you but I am starting to get somewhat annoyed by the subject, you are correct it would be sarcastic, with the sarcasm I have demonstrated two ways in which "how much" can be used to mean the opposite.

in the first one would say: I am surprised by how much you know, which is very little indeed.

the second is the sarcastic one I made that you noted above.

Of course sarcasm is generally conveyed by tone. One can make the sarcasm completely deadpan. Now someone has to evaluate the text to determine if "How much you know" actually means "you know very little", my friends would know I meant that the person did not know much when I said how much, someone else might mistake my meaning, but really, probably not. Because in the context who actually would respond in that way?

But let's go back to the original statement I made that how much and how little are technically equivalent and everybody being so peeved at it. Because there are some other ways that we can use the phrases that show their equivalence.

"hey you have to pay for that"

"how much or rather how little?" there is of course a nuance, by saying how much I am asking what amount I have to pay, and when I follow with how little I am asking the amount I have to pay but asserting I expect that it should be a minimal amount.

"hey you have to pay for that"

"how little?"

I am asking the amount but communicating I consider whatever amount it could possibly be to be so minimal it's almost not worth discussing. Obviously here we have another place where the common "how much" would almost always be used, as "how little" would be somewhat annoying and maybe announce that one is a bit of a show-off.

Someone earlier made the comment about that English is very context-dependent, indeed it is, the original "how much" usage was so obviously being used in a way that it meant what would commonly be said "how little" that someone actually asked "do you mean 'how little'". Because of the various ways that much can refer to a small or indeterminate amount - for example

"you have to pay for that"

"how much"

"one penny"

"how much is one penny"

"one penny is very little"

"how little"

"it is the smallest coin in our currency"

it should be clear that the phrases "how much" and "how little" while having common usages and meanings these are still very much determined by their context, and in the response to the original phrasing I think, given all the ways they can be used, that it would have been more reasonable to ask not if he meant "how little" but assume that "how much" was being used to describe something small, which is one of the ways it can be used, as demonstrated (albeit not exhaustively) in various scenarios here.

All of which comes back to the example I also made earlier that as comparative statements how much and how little are only really tightly locked when used together, as in "How little do I get for how much!?"

on edit: obviously smallest coin in this context means coin holding the smallest monetary value.

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

#163
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…

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

#164
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes I wish Strauss–Howe theory hadn't been hijacked. It seems noteworthy how similar (cyclical?) things are even if it's a coincidence..

A key feature of the human condition is thinking "this time will be different"

From my perspective more like "it didn't work the last 20 times we tried it, but it damn well ought to!"

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

#165
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Why leave wealth to generations that joblessly leech off their parents for decades and then refuse to reproduce?

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

#166
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Why leave wealth to generations that joblessly leech off their parents for decades and then refuse to reproduce?

Because you love your children.

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

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

46% dont even know what America 250 is... Worse 61% of https://www.cato.org/blog/gen-z-fails-basic-civics-quiz-amer... a gross percent can't name the 3 branches or their Reps.

For the non-Americans in the room, is "America 250" anything other than the 250th anniversary of the war of independence?

The American Revolutionary War began [1] in 1775:

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shot_heard_round_the_world

As I understand it, America250 is the official organization/celebration [2] established [3] to commemorate the signing of the Declaration of Independence [4] in 1776:

> America250’s mission is to celebrate and commemorate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, marking America’s Semiquincentennial.

[2] https://america250.org/about-america250/

> The U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission was established by Congress in 2016 to plan and orchestrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

[3] https://america250.org/about-america250/a250-leadership/

> We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness

[4] https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcrip...

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

#169
post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I don’t know about Washington State, but Oregon’s rent control is capped at 7% increases after inflation per year, which isn’t exactly stopping market forces. Now, I agree with you that rent controls are bad, generally, but a system simply reasonably dampens real price increases, rather than eliminating them altogether is effectively a different kind of law. I don’t support it, but I think it’s reasonable. That from…

[flagged]

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

#170
post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know about Washington State, but Oregon’s rent control is capped at 7% increases after inflation per year, which isn’t exactly stopping market forces. Now, I agree with you that rent controls are bad, generally, but a system simply reasonably dampens real price increases, rather than eliminating them altogether is effectively a different kind of law. I don’t support it, but I think it’s reasonable. That from…

[flagged]

I would disagree with that statement.

When I talk about "rent control" I'm talking about it in the form of "general price controls" that keep the price of things from meeting supply on the demand curve. The controls in the party platform have everything to do with already subsidized housing that isn't actually on the demand curve anyway. The distinction is subtle but matters.

Similarly, a price-shock dampener that allows the underlying good to return to market rates in a reasonable amount of time is not messing with the demand curve, it's just a generalized safety measure, no different than a circuit breaker on a trading floor.

Again, rent controls and restrictive zoning laws both fall on the small-c conservative side of the spectrum, because both see stasis as a kind of natural order. The populists on the left are generally more aligned with small-c conservatives on the political spectrum, but again, the single-pole, right-left spectrum doesn't capture that distinction.

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