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US National Debt Surpasses GDP

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Re: US National Debt Surpasses GDP

#21

Post by gucci-on-fleek »

linguae wrote: post #3
OsrsNeedsf2P wrote: post #2

Are folks really optimistic about the US in the long term? Like obviously right now it's one of the best places to be for career growth and income, but do people really imagine staying here for the next 20, 30 years, or do they just not think about it?

The scary thing is I don’t know of a place that would be better for Americans in the next 20-30 years: - Western Europe needs to figure out quickly how to adapt to a likely diminished or non-existent American role in NATO while at the same time dealing with a very assertive Russia. - Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are nice but have astronomically high housing prices. - Japan is struggling with three decades of st…

> - Canada, [...] are nice but have astronomically high housing prices.

Vancouver, Toronto, and the surrounding areas have crazy housing prices, but the rest of the country is still mostly okay. These are the two biggest English-speaking cities, and about a third of the country lives in either of them, so they're where most new immigrants tend to go, but there are still tons of other great cities in Canada with better housing prices.

Re: US National Debt Surpasses GDP

#22

Post by curio_Pol_curio »

nostrademons wrote: post #10
watwut wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Western Europe needs to figure out quickly how to adapt to a likely diminished or non-existent American role in NATO while at the same time dealing with a very assertive Russia. Primary, western europe seems to be last chance for democracy. Like, last democracies standing.

That assumes only nation-state-level entities. This has been a very poor assumption: even within my lifetime, the last ~40 years, we've seen nations like Yugoslavia and the USSR break up, and some of the successor states (eg. Slovenia, Croatia, Ukraine, and the Baltic States) have developed robust democracies where previously totalitarian communist governments existed. Within the territory of the U.S, states like Cal…

According to 2024 GDI, using the generous "HN definition" which includes Finland and Czechia, only 1/2 of robust democracies are in "Western Europe"

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-state-of-democracy-arou...

Bonus: https://old.reddit.com/r/imaginaryelections/comments/krvb1y/...

Re: US National Debt Surpasses GDP

#23

Post by bluefirebrand »

gucci-on-fleek wrote: post #21
linguae wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The scary thing is I don’t know of a place that would be better for Americans in the next 20-30 years: - Western Europe needs to figure out quickly how to adapt to a likely diminished or non-existent American role in NATO while at the same time dealing with a very assertive Russia. - Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are nice but have astronomically high housing prices. - Japan is struggling with three decades of st…

> - Canada, [...] are nice but have astronomically high housing prices. Vancouver, Toronto, and the surrounding areas have crazy housing prices, but the rest of the country is still mostly okay. These are the two biggest English-speaking cities, and about a third of the country lives in either of them, so they're where most new immigrants tend to go, but there are still tons of other great cities in Canada with bette…

Calgary's housing has gone kind of out of control too. It's slowed down now, but for a while it was crazy. I own my house in Calgary and my property value went up by ~250k since I bought in 2018. Lucky for me but kind of insane growth

Re: US National Debt Surpasses GDP

#24

Post by tedggh »

linguae wrote: post #3
OsrsNeedsf2P wrote: post #2

Are folks really optimistic about the US in the long term? Like obviously right now it's one of the best places to be for career growth and income, but do people really imagine staying here for the next 20, 30 years, or do they just not think about it?

The scary thing is I don’t know of a place that would be better for Americans in the next 20-30 years: - Western Europe needs to figure out quickly how to adapt to a likely diminished or non-existent American role in NATO while at the same time dealing with a very assertive Russia. - Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are nice but have astronomically high housing prices. - Japan is struggling with three decades of st…

Add to Europe’s challenges: Africa’s population will be 6X bigger.

Re: US National Debt Surpasses GDP

#28

Post by BobbyTables2 »

kilroy123 wrote: post #14
OsrsNeedsf2P wrote: post #2

Are folks really optimistic about the US in the long term? Like obviously right now it's one of the best places to be for career growth and income, but do people really imagine staying here for the next 20, 30 years, or do they just not think about it?

I left the US over 10 years ago. Not for any political reasons, but because I just wanted to live abroad all my life. This has given me an interesting perspective. I think the World is in a major transitional period. The next 5 years will be very rough for most regular Americans. Kind of like in 1939-40. It's going to be bad for a little while and then get better once a new world order is established.

What areas have you lived in? What did you find?

I’ve come to appreciate how few English speaking countries there actually are in the world.

Western Europe seems cute and glamorous but it feels like a lot of people not much above poverty are just trying to survive. (Hence small buildings and their characteristic way of life). Prices are high, taxes high, incomes low. (Sure, they might say they’re less capitalistic and are happier.)

Maybe I’ve also just gotten older but I feel a kind of enthusiasm prevalent in the 80s/90s has been lost.

We went from dreaming about space, computers, and technology to a world focused on social media, analytics, and artificial intelligence. It’s hard to get excited about the latter…

Re: US National Debt Surpasses GDP

#30

Post by gucci-on-fleek »

bluefirebrand wrote: post #23
gucci-on-fleek wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - Canada, [...] are nice but have astronomically high housing prices. Vancouver, Toronto, and the surrounding areas have crazy housing prices, but the rest of the country is still mostly okay. These are the two biggest English-speaking cities, and about a third of the country lives in either of them, so they're where most new immigrants tend to go, but there are still tons of other great cities in Canada with bette…

Calgary's housing has gone kind of out of control too. It's slowed down now, but for a while it was crazy. I own my house in Calgary and my property value went up by ~250k since I bought in 2018. Lucky for me but kind of insane growth

I'm in Calgary too, and housing has definitely jumped a lot since Covid, but we're still not quite at the Vancouver/Toronto insanity of $1MM for a 1-bedroom apartment (and hopefully it stays that way!).
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