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No one expects young men to do anything and they respond by doing nothing (2022)

robkhenderson.com

281–290 of 600 posts

Re: No one expects young men to do anything and they respond by doing nothing (2022)

#281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

can you tell your neighbor not to have a loud party, burn garbage, or release toxic chemicals into the air?

That should be open to a tort, but the mere fact that someone wants to live next to you should be considered "fundamentally fine".

You didn’t say “someone wants to live next to you”. You said “build a house”. Presumably, this includes a “house” that can hold 1000 people at low rent. If it doesn’t (since that would undeniably destroy your property value), then you’re willing to impose regulations on the pretty deregulated picture you’ve painted. If it does, then you’re not going to find that many people who own property agree with you.

Re: No one expects young men to do anything and they respond by doing nothing (2022)

#282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got mine done at 37, after having two kids, and they still asked me if I was sure. I can see why you'd be hesitant to do it on a 22-year-old. If you asked me at 22, I'd probably say I don't want kids. But I completely changed my mind as I approached 30.' Also, vasectomies are less reversible than people think.

Why not adopt? There are plenty of kids already who need a parent or two.

Pretty sure adoption is very difficult nowadays. Also people do change their minds about having their biologically own kids.

Re: No one expects young men to do anything and they respond by doing nothing (2022)

#283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as you're not tearing down 10 units to build 5, more supply is more supply. Doesn't matter nearly as much whether they are luxury or basic.

Not if the investors are willing to warehouse units to keep prices high, rather than lower prices in order to sell. If prices of luxury units are high enough, you're talking a significant percentage of units that can just be held while investors still break even or profit. Why lock in a loss or low profit (and, in doing so, hurt the value of your other holdings)?

More supply is more supply. Eventually the strategy breaks.

Re: No one expects young men to do anything and they respond by doing nothing (2022)

#284

This article spells out the incentive structure that leads to low-status men underperforming. > Some of the jobs he can get don’t pay enough to give him the self-respect he feels he needs, and others require him to get along with unpleasant customers and coworkers, and to maintain a submissive attitude toward the boss. > The educated class decides cohabiting partnerships are just as valid and important as marriage. A…

but this is the nature of all employed work: "submissive attitude toward the boss." Even if you're the CEO of a major corporation, you still have a submissive attitude towards shareholders.

Re: No one expects young men to do anything and they respond by doing nothing (2022)

#285
post #99

Many have not yet squared up to the fact that society itself is an unprofitable boondoggle that requires massive moral radicalization and willingness to participate in odd, polarizing institutions and practices. We live inside the semi-decayed skeleton of a society built by deeply religious people who believed that society should be built and maintained because that is the moral thing to do . They weren't only motiva…

[deleted]

Re: No one expects young men to do anything and they respond by doing nothing (2022)

#286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most doctors refuse to perform sterilization procedures on young people, at least until after they have had children. After all, what if they change their minds? My girlfriend couldn’t get hers done until she was over 30.

This decision really needs to be removed from the hands of doctors, as long as there is no physical risk to the patient.

This amounts to saying doctors should be forced to perform procedures they believe are not in the best interests of their patients, go against conscience, or expose them to significant litigation risk.

Re: No one expects young men to do anything and they respond by doing nothing (2022)

#287
post #99

Many have not yet squared up to the fact that society itself is an unprofitable boondoggle that requires massive moral radicalization and willingness to participate in odd, polarizing institutions and practices. We live inside the semi-decayed skeleton of a society built by deeply religious people who believed that society should be built and maintained because that is the moral thing to do . They weren't only motiva…

Not sure why the negative votes on this one, one of the only takes that doesn't make me feel insane so far. I'll reword my understanding of it. Society requires effort and investment that doesn't produce immediate material benefits. Rationalizing everything down to profit and loss encourages people to see the collected effort as a tragedy of the commons. You need to actually want to be part of a society to start, the…

For what it's worth, the comment score that I can see is oscillating between 0 and 2, so if it's showing greyed out, that may just be an indication that it's a polarizing comment.

I totally agree with your second paragraph.

Re: No one expects young men to do anything and they respond by doing nothing (2022)

#288
post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Instead of encouraging healthier diets which have lots of follow-on nutritional and long-term medical benefits This has been done for a while and mostly doesn't work.

Cool statement. Why not?

Junk food is convenient and more enjoyable, at least in the moment of eating. In the last 60 years there have been changes to the environment that reduce physical activity (more automobiles, less walking, less strenuous physical labor on the job) but I think that the most relevant change is the abundance of highly palatable calories. 60 years ago we largely didn't have "convenience foods" and the fastest snack you could make yourself (like a cold sandwich or a piece of fruit) didn't have the "craveability" of Doritos or microwaveable egg rolls. Back then the average American could afford to buy far more calories than needed, but those calories would take prep labor and/or not be highly palatable, so in practice many fewer Americans overate buttered popcorn the way that people overeat Doritos today.

America was on-average wealthier than most of the world and an early adopter of highly palatable convenience foods, so its obesity problem came on earlier. Global obesity rates are rising as more people globally can afford microwave ovens, frozen pizzas, drive-through restaurants serving french fries, and other such aids for high speed ingestion of delicious, calorie-dense foods.

Most people who need to lose weight cannot willfully maintain diet alterations in the long term. They go back to old habits. For 99.9% of human existence starvation was a much more common health threat than obesity and we're just not "wired" to experience excess food intake as a threat. The GLP-1 drugs like semaglutide reduce the desire to overeat, regardless of how palatable the food is, so people who could not lose weight before are able to eat less without having to consciously suppress desire every day.

Re: No one expects young men to do anything and they respond by doing nothing (2022)

#290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got mine done at 37, after having two kids, and they still asked me if I was sure. I can see why you'd be hesitant to do it on a 22-year-old. If you asked me at 22, I'd probably say I don't want kids. But I completely changed my mind as I approached 30.' Also, vasectomies are less reversible than people think.

Why not adopt? There are plenty of kids already who need a parent or two.

Why question a human’s innate desire to raise their own off-spring like we’ve evolved to do for millions of years?

So often people chime in with the “just adopt” and while I agree in a perfect world, that’s exactly what would happen, but in reality it goes against a very fundamental part or human nature to opt to raise someone else’s child instead of your own. It just completely misses the human element of why people are so naturally driven have kids and families to begin with.

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