If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad? • Hacker News Board

Re: If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?

#551

Post by orwin » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 8:42 PM UTC

joaogui1 wrote: post #360

nozzlegear wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and we deserve all the motivational Corpspeak we have to suffer through on LinkedIn posts. > We get what we deserve. Why? You don't actually justify this reasoning in your post.

I believe their justification is on the first sentence > That sort of stuff causes pitchforks to rise up in other countries. (Not that I agree)

Your countrymen applauded putting chains on foreign workers that were told by their company to build a factory in your country. Your union representative were giddy. You absolutely deserve corpo-speak, that's the least you deserve.

Re: If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?

#552

Post by vakili » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 8:43 PM UTC

Lammy wrote: post #521

randomNumber7 wrote: post #459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Money should only have the purpose of realizing ones goals, it has no purpose in itself. The whole society has lost its goal when the only target is to maximize money.

It was inevitable as soon as enough people believed that spending money is necessary to live. Money is the next stage of life. As individuals, people's only truly limited resource is their attention, their time, and so the same is true of Humanity as a singular whole. Money is a way to coerce another person's attention toward an endeavor that benefits the spender, like paying the chain of farmers/pickers/processors/d…

Terminological nitpick: equality is a relation, not an operation. What you refer to as a "commutative operation" is more accurately described as a "symmetric relation".

Re: If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?

#553

Post by decimalenough » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 8:43 PM UTC

davesque wrote: post #464

HDThoreaun wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America is new. Even in the 90s boulder was largely empty, competition for land was low, so land was cheap. As people spread to newer cities and gained wealth they bid up the price on land.

> Even in the 90s boulder was largely empty Uh, no it wasn't? I was living there and continued living there for the next 30 years. It always felt about as dense to me as it did back then.

Even today Boulder is "largely empty". It's an overgrown village and not a city, and planning rules ensure it will stay that way.

Re: If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?

#554

Post by TitaRusell » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 8:44 PM UTC

tim333 wrote: post #305

As an occasional visitor to the US from England I was surprised by how expensive it's become. The US always used to seem cheaper than England I think largely because the government got out of the way so houses were cheap because you could build them, cars were cheap because you could import them, food was cheap because you could just grow stuff in huge fields whereas in England much of that was restricted. On my trip…

They're opening Action stores in the US because their CEO has noticed that it's a huge potential market.

Cheap Chinese shit is like mana from heaven for the poor and couple that with Dutch frugality and America is saved.

Re: If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?

#555

Post by decimalenough » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 8:47 PM UTC

pepperoni_pizza wrote: post #412

kenjackson wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree the article is smarter than the title makes it seem. And honestly, much better than comments on HN. The articles keeps diving deeper and asking questions. The comments here take hold of a single theory, without even thinking about the counters that article mentions. This is probably the best example of read the article, and not the comments.

The HN comments are sadly mostly just people pushing their favorite thing, whether COVID denialism, "everything is going bad because people are atheists" or whatever, without engaging with the article at all.

> COVID denialism

> "everything is going bad because people are atheists"

I don't think I have ever seen anybody express either of these opinions on HN, and if they tried, they would immediately get downvoted to oblivion.

Re: If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?

#556

Post by joe_mamba » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 8:48 PM UTC

jimbokun wrote: post #485

joe_mamba wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

The French have excellent government benefits and services and that’s partly due to their willingness to riot.

[flagged]

Re: If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?

#557

Post by tekla » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 8:49 PM UTC

bryanlarsen wrote: post #513

bdangubic wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want all social media to be banned. Until that happens - nothing else matters... What I am doing about it - I do not use social media apps of any kind (since 2017), do not allow my offspring to be on social media, trying to convince my wife she should do the same (she is on facebook still because of marketplace), and absolutely ridicule anyone that uses social media (in a fun way)...

Is Hacker News not social media?

It totally is.

Re: If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?

#558

Post by realo » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 8:52 PM UTC

anovikov wrote: post #492

snikeris wrote: post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Houses got expensive because of usury (loans made for unproductive purposes). It destroys civilizations over time. That is why it was encoded into ancient religious traditions. Housing, education, and cars, all typically financed via loans, all exorbitantly expensive.

I'm not even sure where "houses got expensive" come from. Houses certainly did not increase in price (per unit of area) in last ~80 years, inflation adjusted - they tightly fluctuate around the same point. Housing affordability is in fact 4th best in the US among all countries in the world, and it got better in the last decades (although with fluctuations, and periods when it was getting cheaper were not pleasant as…

Interesting.

This posture contradicts quite a few testimonials we can read about everywhere, including here in HN.

Maybe it's the salaries, then, that are half what they should be?

Re: If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?

#559

Post by spixy » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 8:55 PM UTC

cperciva wrote: post #538

bobthepanda wrote: post #518

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s also the question of, “what’s inflation?” A lot of major necessities like healthcare and housing have outpaced CPI.

Yes, and a lot of major necessities haven't . CPI is an average -- of course some things will be higher.

Necessary stuff (houses, healthcare, education) have outpaced CPI, and generally it is becoming more expensive.

Unnecessary stuff (electronics, appliances, other tech) did not, and generally it is becoming cheaper (Planned obsolescence is another topic though...)

Re: If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?

#560

Post by Lammy » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 8:56 PM UTC

vakili wrote: post #552

Lammy wrote: post #521

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was inevitable as soon as enough people believed that spending money is necessary to live. Money is the next stage of life. As individuals, people's only truly limited resource is their attention, their time, and so the same is true of Humanity as a singular whole. Money is a way to coerce another person's attention toward an endeavor that benefits the spender, like paying the chain of farmers/pickers/processors/d…

Terminological nitpick: equality is a relation, not an operation. What you refer to as a "commutative operation" is more accurately described as a "symmetric relation".

Appreciate it; not a math person :)