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2025 Letter

danwang.co

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Re: 2025 Letter

#241

Post by enraged_camel »

keiferski wrote: post #220
snake_doc wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you be able provide some evidence to the contrary when it comes to the topics discussed in the letter? On industrial infrastructure On technology innovation On internet regulation On central planning Otherwise, your comment becomes an anecdote supporting the common stereotypes (assuming you’re from Europe).

I’m responding to comments like this in the article: So I am betting that the US and China are more compelling forces for change. Stalin was fond of telling a story from his experience in Leipzig in 1907, when, to his astonishment, 200 German workers failed to turn up to a socialist meeting because no ticket controller was on the platform to punch their train tickets, citing this experience as proof of the hopelessne…

>> This isn’t a serious analysis of German culture.

Who said it’s meant to be a serious analysis? This is an essay that shares anecdotes and personal opinions, not a PhD dissertation.

Re: 2025 Letter

#242

Post by pixelpoet »

piker wrote: post #235
hdgvhicv wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No vat on the majority of spending - from rent to food. But buy a £50k Rolex and yes there is vat.

Roughly the same with sales tax, it's just 1/3rd of that number. > But buy a £50k Rolex and yes there is vat. This is wildly ignorant of how less fortunate people live. They are hit with VAT on many daily expenses. Ignoring that fact and "tsk tsk"ing them for being frivolous is the [British] way.

> the European way

There we go, the European monolith strikes again. Because the UK and Germany and Spain and Italy and Poland and Finland and and and are just so alike.

Re: 2025 Letter

#243

Post by piker »

pixelpoet wrote: post #242
piker wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Roughly the same with sales tax, it's just 1/3rd of that number. > But buy a £50k Rolex and yes there is vat. This is wildly ignorant of how less fortunate people live. They are hit with VAT on many daily expenses. Ignoring that fact and "tsk tsk"ing them for being frivolous is the [British] way.

> the European way There we go, the European monolith strikes again. Because the UK and Germany and Spain and Italy and Poland and Finland and and and are just so alike.

For purposes of this discussion, I believe VAT is roughly uniform across the EU + UK and some other European jurisdictions. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I did update the comment to limit the critique to the UK.

Re: 2025 Letter

#244

Post by cycrutchfield »

fragmede wrote: post #156
cycrutchfield wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do they pay property taxes?

In California? With prop 13? Hardly. We invented money as a way of distributing scares resources. When there is housing going empty while people live on the streets in tents with no running water, no electricity, no sewage, one has to realize that something's gone wrong.

I don’t think you understand how prop 13 works

Re: 2025 Letter

#246

Post by snake_doc »

throwaway132448 wrote: post #227
snake_doc wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you be able provide some evidence to the contrary when it comes to the topics discussed in the letter? On industrial infrastructure On technology innovation On internet regulation On central planning Otherwise, your comment becomes an anecdote supporting the common stereotypes (assuming you’re from Europe).

I mean, you only have to quote the letter itself: "I have a hard time squaring the poor prospects of Europe over the next decade with the smugness that Europeans have for themselves. I spent most of the summer in Copenhagen. There’s no doubt that quality of life in most European cities is superb, especially for what I care about: food, opera, walkable streets, access to nature. But a decade of low economic growth is…

What exactly is wrong with Americans or for the most part the rest of the world valuing economic performance as a measure of prosperity and progress?

Your comment is again another anecdote confirming European stereotypes. It’s not a “trap”, it’s a different world view.

Re: 2025 Letter

#247

Post by constantcrying »

xandrius wrote: post #118
constantcrying wrote: post #100

As a European, the commentary felt very biting and accurate. An entire continent defined by being smug about not being the USA. Where not competing is seen as a great virtue and where significant parts of the electorate are actively voting against fixing the glaringly obvious problems. The supposed niceness of the cities also is just not true. Many European cities are awful places. Where, maybe with the exception of…

You haven't been much around outside of Europe then. And given what is currently coming out of the US in terms of worldwide cultural impact, I'm ok to be anti-whatever that is.

Looking down on the US is just masking the enormous dysfunction in the EU and many European countries.

I have been to some countries outside of Europe. Some were much worse some were much better, but I do not particularly care. So many cities in Europe are awful places to live.

Re: 2025 Letter

#248

Post by verbify »

kortilla wrote: post #123
verbify wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I spot checked some of this and from what I can find, the median salary in London is about $12k more than Mississippi, and the median house price in London is about $100k less than California. Bear in mind that obviously the mean salary in London is going to be far higher than the median (the finance industry will skew it), while I'm not sure that's as extreme as Mississippi. Additionally median salaries reflect a lo…

If this was meant to be a rebuttal, it wasn’t. Compare the housing costs of London to the housing costs of San Francisco and then swap out those Bay Area salaries with your “slightly above Mississippi” wages and you’ll see why London looks so broken to people used to LA/SF/NY.

The median home price in San Francisco is $1.5m. In London it's $893,000. These are not comparable places.

San Francisco is much much more expensive, I'm not sure why that means London is "broken". It's just got a different economic dynamic.

Re: 2025 Letter

#249

Post by CalRobert »

cycrutchfield wrote: post #244
fragmede wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In California? With prop 13? Hardly. We invented money as a way of distributing scares resources. When there is housing going empty while people live on the streets in tents with no running water, no electricity, no sewage, one has to realize that something's gone wrong.

I don’t think you understand how prop 13 works

The slow phase-out of prop 13 was voted in a couple years ago so it should become less relevant over time.

Re: 2025 Letter

#250

Post by dtj1123 »

snake_doc wrote: post #246
throwaway132448 wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, you only have to quote the letter itself: "I have a hard time squaring the poor prospects of Europe over the next decade with the smugness that Europeans have for themselves. I spent most of the summer in Copenhagen. There’s no doubt that quality of life in most European cities is superb, especially for what I care about: food, opera, walkable streets, access to nature. But a decade of low economic growth is…

What exactly is wrong with Americans or for the most part the rest of the world valuing economic performance as a measure of prosperity and progress? Your comment is again another anecdote confirming European stereotypes. It’s not a “trap”, it’s a different world view.

The issue is not that it's used as a measure, it's that the thing economic performance is supposed to serve as a proxy for - the general health and stability of a society - is then completely ignored. Homelessness, mental illness and violence are objectively more pronounced in American culture than they are in European culture.
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