Charles Hugh Smith

There is a good essay with a similar theme under the title of "The Nearly-Free University" at https://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-nearly-free-universi… As someone with two degrees (B.A. English, followed after I caught on a bit, by a B.S. in physics and computer science with minors in math and chemistry), I can say that I would not take that route again. Mostly a waste. "What you can accomplish in the real world will rapidly become more valuable than a credential such as a conventional college degree. The credentialing gatekeepers are protecting an 'asset'--the college diploma--that is largely a phantom asset for the vast majority of students." I wish.

Now that the 2008 financial crises is past (deferred?) why is no one talking about breaking up these "too big to fail" institutions into companies that are small enough to fail? I am regular reader of Charles Hugh Smith's "Of Two Minds" blog: http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/ He has a recent post where he compares the Dodd-Frank supposed reform bill (over 2300 pages!) to the Glass Steagall act (37 pages) http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2012/03/we-have-no-other-choice.h… He goes on to provide a common sense, 5 paragraph law that would provide some actual reform to our banking system.

They are potentially attempting to create surplus labor by destroying federal employment, due to the tight labor market caused by structural demographics. Demographic stats: ~2M in the US 55+ die every year, ~5k per day. ~4M Boomers retire per year, ~11k per day. A healthy economy creates ~2M jobs/year. Citations: Biden's immigration silver lining - https://www.axios.com/2024/02/27/biden-immigration-workers-inflation-w… - February 27th, 2024 Immigrants are rescuing a worker-starved U.S. economy - https://www.axios.com/2023/08/29/us-economy-immigration-labor - August 29, 2023 Are Older Workers Propping Up the U.S. Economy? - https://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2022/08/are-older-workers-proppi… - August 8th, 2022 (think in systems)

Here is a summary of network effect involving general government I agree with: http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2019/11/corporate-america-is-anti…

On why index funds are not such a safe bet necessarily: http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-illusion-of-safety-in…

A hierarchical organization that centralizes so much unchecked power as the NSA will attract a good share of sociopaths. Sociopaths seek power over others. Then it's a matter of time until a sociopath manages to climb to the top, and then you have a full-blown tyranny. http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2013/05/centralization-and-sociop…

Because the U.S. doesn't actually have a supply problem, despite this often getting repeated. U.S. construction of homes has actually kept up with population growth and moves, by every conceivable metric. What IS happening though is that landlords (private and corporate) "warehouse" units constantly to artificially restrict supply and demand, and they do it in collaboration with each other. Every single city and state in the U.S. has a vacancy problem. We DO have both houses and apartments that are ready and able to be rented and owned. The problem is simply the price, and the prices aren't being driven by legitimate supply and demand. You can see this effect happen where prices increase NOT to match population (and often in SPITE of it), but they increase to match the upper bounds of regional income. You need a place to live more than landlords need a few months of rent. This strategy to prevent downward price pressure from the market allows them to justify the current prices while setting up a "baseline" for the next few years. Some free reading: * https://www.construction-physics.com/p/is-there-a-housing-shortage-or-… * https://reventureconsulting.com/the-myth-of-the-us-housing-shortage/ * https://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-problem-isnt-housing…

The kinds of people who have historically gotten screwed by biases come from every religion, ethnic group and culture in the world. Any genuine discussion would have to acknowledge that as a prerequisite. The narrative of oppressor and oppressed falls apart against the backdrop of reality when peoples real culture and history's are discussed. So does any potential political and economic power that can be gained through black and white grievance politics. American Identity politics is about erasing peoples identities and histories and putting them into segregated groups based exclusively on skin color and gender then assigning a sliding scale between oppressor and oppressed to these groups. With 'white people' and 'male' being the oppressor and the other groups falling into some victim grievance class hierarchy who demand but will never get 'justice'. Its the perfect war of all against all that can be carefully manipulated by media and distract the population away from serious political and policy failures that we see all around us. Identity Politics in the tech industry is simply ridding this wave trying to extract whatever power and resources it can before they become an inconvenience and money sink to corporations who think thy can use idpol for there own nefarious objectives. I will point you to Charles H Smith who wrote an interesting essay on idpol from a leftist point of view. Identity Politics = Totalitarianism "The truth is we have more in common with people of…

> It is not the case that a government wields absolute power. I don't believe it's the case that there is no way to keep a government in check. Tell that to the people of every tyrannical regime in the history of mankind. Perhaps they were just doing it wrong? > Also, I don't think "someone else [having] the right to rule [us]" is a correct characterization of functioning democratic governance (even in a representative democracy). How would you characterize it then? > You have shown neither that the above is sound reasoning, nor that other frameworks are not. What reasoning and "other frameworks" might you be referring to? > And if 100 people decide I don't have a right to a spleen in a context without government, how does that go any better? How is that relevant to what I said? > But my point was deeper. One of the consequences of prohibition (of alcohol or drugs) was to remove government as a means of settling disputes for a group of people handling relatively large sums of money. Why not say something like that then? :p Disregarding whether you've described a real problem, you seem to be suggesting that a government's decision caused a big problem, and therefore, government is.. good? > Yes, precisely. And much like any technology it can be misused, poorly designed, poorly configured; and this can lead to frustration or harm. This is just way out there.. :p But tell me, how exactly is government a "technology", how should it be "used", and why didn't we do so?…