This is just nuts. Stuff like this is what made the US a leader. I bet next is to turn off GPS outside the US because no money. That's how you lose world leadership.
Soft power doesn't exist. Iterated games don't exist. Long-term consequences don't exist. Externalities don't exist. Positive sum utility gains don't exist. Systemic effects don't exist. It's all too abstract and cognitively difficult, it's the business of the arrogant intelligentsia.
The problem for them is that reality isn't going to adjust to fit their worldview. The decline will eventually reach people's purchasing power. The laws of reality will catch up to them.
The perpetual problem is that it will in the short term!
It’s just like the MBAs juicing profits by cutting R&D spending — this works every time!
It works, and it works long enough for a few to reap the benefits at the expense of the many.
This will play out over and over until we somehow magically achieve the Star Trek future utopia.
I just realised that per their own stories we’ve got a government headed by folks with extreme daddy issues. I’m not turning this into a Vox article. But perhaps there is overlap between leaders who can’t empathise and whose who admit to having had a trash upbringing.
Basically they are mostly below average intelligence. The ability to think about second, third, N order effects is a sign of intelligence which is clearly lacking here. Those in power are leveraging that lack of intelligence in the populist right to execute their larger plan of dismantling the government for the benefit of the super rich.
(It's almost a return to the old setup, back in the days of the Corn Laws etc - free markets used to be a left-wing position while the right was into mercantilism / protectionism)
These acts that teardown the information that the US makes available, that help us shape our decision making & view of the world, are deeply horrifically un-democratic. To march us from a nation that advocates sunlight & democracy, back into the dark is horror.
Yes.
>> towards a better place.
Weeelll, where the population steer it to isn't really determined by any principles. Rather it goes wherever the population steers it to.
Sometimes the population gets it wrong, and with open eyes pick an option that takes them to a worse place.
Yes, information helps (hence campaigning) but that information has always been gate-kept. That was seen as a flaw.
Turns out though information is like water; you need enough, but too much and you drown.
Anti-vaxers don't exist because of a lack of information. People who voted for tarrifs don't have restricted information. People have shown over and over a willingness to vote against their own best interest, as long as you provide someone else to blame.
How do we slow down or control the flow of information ? Genuine question. I'm just asking to see if there are any studies or proposals that already exist out there.
I've heard people talk about education. But this seems to be part of a long term solution. How can we solve this problem now so that in the next election (next 2 or 4 years) people will not vote against their own best interests ?
Convincing people to quit social medias or stopping listening to TV pundits ? So far that hasn't worked. Facebook/Tiktok just keeps growing.
There's no way that genie goes back into the bottle. And even if you could that's not the issue, people believe whatever they want to believe.
Ultimately education is a good start but if anything US education (which of course is very democratic) is getting worse not better. Book banning and burning spring to mind.
The real root of the issue is individualism over collective good. That's pretty baked into the American psyche (not to mention baked into the constitution) so no amount of education will change that.
For example it's obvious that fewer guns would reduce violence- that's been shown to be true many times over. But the individual's right to bear arms is baked in and not going away.
Of course this isn't necessarily a bad thing. The US acts as a counterbalance to other systems and other ways of life. It fights for women's rights in the middle east and Afghanistan. It traditionally stood up for the little guy against the neighborhood bully (think Kuwait and Iraq).
The pendulum will swing, but just as the USSR exited the world stage, the USA is now doing the same. All empires rise and fall. The gaps left by USaid will be filled by others. China is already buying influence in Africa and Asia.
Let that sink it...
It’s not a completely new problem. Voltaire wrote about this in Candide in the 1750s. I’m sure there are other (earlier or contemporary) examples that I don’t know, but Candide is the one obvious (partial) commentary on the “flood of information” phenomenon that always comes to my mind. Voltaire’s conclusion was to just ignore it. Worry about your own life. Live on a farm and work a physically exhausting job every day then spend your nights with your family and loved ones that you have no time for all the frivolous noise of news and world events that don’t affect you. When there is an actual signal among the noise, it’ll reach you and you should use your educated/good instinct that you have cultivated from the prior years when you were young and absorbing knowledge and information, and vote accordingly.
Obviously this is my interpretation of the work. Also obviously Voltaire was a very vocal opponent of voting and the will of the masses to enact real political and societal change through education and general shift in social beliefs and attitudes. He was also an advocate for acceptance of others and in Candide he had the wise old man who gives the final philosophical point in the book be a Turkish Muslim man in opposition to everything Christian French people believed in the 1700s. He was also a massive racist against black Africans and didn’t even consider them humans. Soooo your mileage may vary.
Many people work hard in Russia and spend nights with their families, it didn't stop them from getting shipped off to die in Ukraine or any other god forsaken Russian made hellscape.
In a way, the life Voltaire is describing is kind of, luxurious ?
I'm not a leftist, I'm a realist mate.
(Mis)Information is just the tool.
Being the world leader in everything was whatade the US great, these sort of data networks was part of what made it great.
What made it less great is the decimation of all industry except for PR,finance,services and software. Plus the fact corporates were allowed to buy politicians.
This caused all the wealth to be super concentrated.
The losers were gaslighted and completely lost trust in the system.
Now the vultures come to finish the job. Blaming transgenders and immigrants for all the problems.
Trivially true.
> Sometimes the population gets it wrong, and with open eyes pick an option that takes them to a worse place.
I think any truly governing body steers the ship in more or less the direction they collectively want. I’m anti-elitist but/and I believe that the elites manage to serve their own interests successfully.
You have to ask yourself if you really live in a democracy. Or if the demos is just another scapegoat when things to “bad”. But don’t worry though. These questionable anti-democratic lines of reasoning tend to fall into a contradiction sooner or later.
> Yes, information helps (hence campaigning) but that information has always been gate-kept. That was seen as a flaw.
Aaaannnnd you’re already there. A democracy where the information is gate-kept? By whom? It can’t be the population. Clearly there is some entity above the people. Then how the hell is that a democracy?
> Turns out though information is like water; you need enough, but too much and you drown.
> Anti-vaxers don't exist because of a lack of information. People who voted for tarrifs don't have restricted information. People have shown over and over a willingness to vote against their own best interest
Pray tell who controls either the gatekept information or the overwhelming firehose of information? The People!?
The people are so thoroughly manipulated, you lament. Well what kind of a farce of a “democracy” is one where the rich control the Media, the rich control the politicians through donations, and the rich control who even is realistically (within 99% chance) able to be voted for President of the US?
The latter boils down to two people. Two people chosen by the elites. And you have the gall to blame “democracy” for pushing the Clown Button?
> , as long as you provide someone else to blame.
The anti-democrats are always there to blame the demos. Thank you for your service.
Keep in mind you’re talking about air quality sensors. Just air quality sensors. In cities with multiple air quality sensors.
Let’s not go overboard
For instance, in Canada he has repudiated a trade agreement he himself negotiated in his first term and threatened repeatedly to annex us.
Americans who treat foreigners as abstractions shrug off that sort of thing and assume you can go back to normal but reliability is shot and trust is broken.
In term one the remaining vestiges of Republican and state apparatus ensured continuity on many fronts. That's all gone.
They care about enriching themselves as much as possible. It's all short-term gain, without any view for the future. Get those tax cuts, reallocate money away from the government and away from those who work for a living and make a true oligarch class.
If events continue down this route, the US is looking at a lost decade or even permanent loss of leadership, letting China catch up and then step up, or maybe India.
I'm not trying to derail the thread, but framing your point as "magnitude of salary" is meaningless and perhaps reflects one of the issues.
It's not the size of the salary that's important- it's the quality of life. Salary is one factor in the equation, but it's not the only factor.
For example, in the US the plumber pays for health care. In Europe he mostly does not.
There are a million things that go into a very subjective quality of live assessment. Salary is part of it, yes, but ultimately only a part.
And, if we're being honest, the US certainly acts the part of leader, it talks a good game, and everyone is happy to take their money. But is anyone actually following their lead?
One measure of the lead of the US is how it is a destination for those looking to create great science, a great startup, build a business, or otherwise build a long-lasting contributor to our institutions. Europe, Japan, other places certainly rank highly here too, but the US is by far the biggest player and attracts the most people as far as I can tell.
On the other hand, VC money for nothing more than a good pitch is certainly easier in the US. Although even there it's limited to very small (very expensive) parts of the US.
One measure of QOL is indeed immigration. The US and Europe both struggle with illegal immigration. The US likely attracts more legal immigration, but to be fair even that is mostly from non-European places.
It's not like there's an army of European plumbers desperately trying to get into the US.
The weather is better in Europe (but both are waaaay worse than Australia. )
And yes QOL is very subjective. Which speaks to my point, simply plucking a single metric like salary out the air is meaningless- even within the US that 7k will mean different things depending on where you live.
I own a nice house in a countryside village that I bought recently (so at the current market price), 10 min walking distance from the train station. I can afford premium quality food, I have enough money (and time !) to go on vacation 4 to 5 weeks per year (not just holidays but going abroad as a tourist). I own two cars. I’ll have a retirement.
Life hasn’t been cool on me on the last decade : I had to go under a 100+k surgery, I now take a treatment of about 150€/month. My grandmother had a stroke and is now living hospitalized under my dad’s roof. I did a burnout and stayed 1 year at home to recover. And you know what ? Everything of this had barely any impact on our finances. Everything health related : 0 impact.
Now everything is fine, my health is better, I still have strong savings, still own my house, my grandmother is greatly taken care of…
I would never exchange that for the extra 4k I could lose at any moment without notice because life.
You are right to make the point that I couldn’t afford this lifestyle if I were alone without a family. Though I’d have very few interest in owning a 120m2 family house in this case, I’d probably live in a way cheaper apartment. I think being alone in the French countryside would be pretty boring, unless you are lucky enough to be near your friends and family.
Also, my point was absolutely not to compare European vs American lifestyle, saying which is better or going into the details, I just wanted to stress that comparing comfort of life by comparing revenue is not possible. It’s way more complex than "European earns less but don’t have to pay for healthcare".
More like in the US he pays for private health insurance (and/or he is covered by Medicare/Medicaid). In Europe he pays for public health system, something like 5% of his earnings, and he may choose to buy private health insurance on top of that (as many do) because the public health system is in shambles.
Yes, some people top up with private health. That is a discretionary spend. And while areas in Europe may vary, public health services are typically good.
That whole process is just a dirty process at least it still was during the 20th century. In 2020s there are other that came or are coming online with the Chinese and Russians willing to build nuclear power plants in the developing world and off course renewable energy is becoming cheaper every year thanks to Chinese industrial and research capabilities.
It might be that China is the last country to go through an extremely dirty development cycle.
Outside America? They’ll just fire the team responsible for maintaining the birds and then act surprised when they degrade.
And they will hand that contract to their friends.
AFAIK, the GPS system needs constant corrections, uploaded periodically from its ground base stations. Without these corrections, it will degrade very quickly (the satellites would still work fine, but their position estimate would no longer be good enough).
It seems that it is just what the US and its cronies claim to be. Which works on any topic:
1. If it does something “good”: self-evident
2. If it does something “bad” or fails to do something good: just say that it is failing to be a “leader” like it obviously has been since sometime (post-WWII maybe). Yeah, even negative evidence can perpetuate the same narrative. Just wistfully look at the mythic past without questioning the premise.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_(satellite_navigation)
my point was regarding privitization of public goods (like GPS)
More to the topic: why the hell are the US embassies reporting other countries' cities air quality? While it's a "nice" thing to do, it would be even nicer if those countries monitored that themselves. The fact that we think we need the US to do it because other countries tend to be dishonest about it is incredibly depressing.
You answered your own question, but there are also other reasons; see the first post.
Infrastructure is also dependent on centralization. As opposed to some industries, the free market actually makes infrastructure less efficient.
Imagine there are 1000 companies developing roads and they all use different signage. All use different licenses. Would that work? Could you live your life? Probably not, and if you did, it would be absurdly expensive.
Some things MUST be a centralized public service. Pretty much all countries, independent of each other, figured this out 150 years ago. But here we are, still arguing the point.
But inevitably, someone comes around and creates something better and new. And it is actually better. Because the problem with standards is they age. They’re fundamentally compromises. They have flaws by their nature.
You even mention innovation. Those are two contradictory ideas. Centralization and standardization are anti-innovation, because they favor status-quo. They tend towards longevity, maintenance, and incremental improvement.
Building the Internet on top of voice lines was certainly a shitty solution. It was slow. But it also allowed existing citizens to access the Internet. I think this perfectly exemplifies the trade-off.
We, of course, can build new infrastructure. But when we do, we do it deliberately, centrally, and slowly. And we’re very careful to leave no gaps. The old and new must exist together, at least for a couple decades.