The US government is basically the guy who took out a huge home mortgage, then kept refinancing and borrowing against equity, while trading in his car for a new one (and a larger payment) every two years, and now finds himself visiting car title and payday lenders every week just to keep himself in groceries.
Tag: future
Taxed Enough Already, You Say? Trump Disagrees.
Don’t be fooled. No matter how he gussies them up as correctives for “unfair competition” and “trade imbalances,” tariffs are taxes on American consumers, and that’s all they are. They aren’t paid by Chinese manufacturers. They’re paid by you, at the cash register, in the form of higher prices on the goods you shop for.
How To Have the “Best Years of Your Life” (Again)
It’s the rate of rapid change and development and self-discovery that makes the teen years the best and most memorable/important years of many peoples’ lives. It’s the feeling of potential. It’s the feeling of camaraderie. It’s perfectly possible to replicate and even top these elements of your “best years” at any time in life.
The Race Away From Big
Ray Kurzweil has recently made a significant change in his view of the future regarding the relative association between biological man and artificial intelligence. Although his views should not be capsulized — he is a very broad thinker — it is worthy of note that he has expanded beyond thinking only of a singularity in which machines overtake, and make obsolete, human consciousness.
Encouragement as Bad as Discouragement
In our society, we commonly and appropriately demonize discouragement because we see it as someone interjecting themselves into this exploration. Discouragement is a tool to distort the exploration of a child in favor of the insecurities and self-interest of the discourager. It is a means of the adult trying to live through their child. Discouragement is someone trying to tip and distort the scales within the ecosystem of a child’s discovery process. The last paragraph also perfectly describes the problems of encouragement.
A “Red Flag” for Your Rights; Yes, They’re Coming for Your Guns
The latest scheme from the gun grabbers is called “red flag” laws and, unlike most their other schemes, even nominally conservative pundits and publications are getting on board with this attempt to disarm certain people. That’s the trick, you see, the classic divide-and-conquer strategy that has worked in so many other cases. They don’t want to take away your guns, oh no, they just want to take away that guy’s guns. He’s kind of weird, anyway, right?
My Inner 10 Year-Old and Personalities of Other Ages
It’s a fun thought experiment to break down your personality and likes/dislikes into “ages”. I often find myself acting with the priorities and characteristics I might normally associate to a young boy, or to a grandfather.
Credentialed Experts: Protectors of the Sacred Dogma
Credentialed Experts are not at the forefront of innovation and discovery, driving truth forward. Their job is to tell a story about the past that doesn’t threaten the present and stymies the future. The process of winning the credential itself is a trial intended to prove how effectively you imbibe and re-enforce the dominant dogma of the academy, or “The Republic of Science”.
The Job Skills That Will Be Essential in 20 Years (Aren’t What You Think)
It will be the things which technology can’t really teach you that will be in short supply. It will be all the things which are essential for business but which are psychologically uncomfortable.They will be the interpersonal and “soft” human skills that everything in our world is training us to lose. And because those things power innovation and make the world work, they will be highly valuable to have on your side.
The Trouble with Abundance
Humans aren’t evolved to have or handle abundance. Our nature has a very hard time dealing with abundance. Our abilities, desires, motivations, tools, and everything about us were forged in an evolutionary history of extreme scarcity. What we are evolved for is the journey of survival in the face of scarcity, not the destination of contentment in the face of abundance.