We only won World War II because we could produce our tanks faster than the Germans could destroy them and we could destroy their tanks faster than they could produce them. The Germany tanks were superior but our supply lines and manufacturing capacity are ultimately why we won. If we fought a large scale war today, we would be supply constrained by China and other 'rivals' who we can't rely on. We've outsourced everything in the name of efficiency, but have left ourselves spread incredibly thin and exposed huge weaknesses. Remember how fast supply chains broke down during the pandemic? Imagine how fast that breaks down for complex logistics needed to produce complex weapons... I think America is one war away from losing its 'super power' status and being diminished to a much lower status. Look at how we've already empowered Iran into an even more powerful adversary through this war/conflict.
Thanks, I didn't even know this existed. It reminds me of how Reddit made the entire experience hostile unless you know to use old.reddit.com instead of the default URL.
Yep, the product was so much better when it was minimal and focused on doing one specific thing well. I really miss what it used to be... I hate the current Dropbox and Google Drive and OneDrive are also terrible alternatives.
Agree, it's almost entirely about profit and convenience but I just think there's something false about modern 'convenience' in that it actually isn't 'convenient' when you think about all the other things you lost. The tiny bit of friction exerted to actually go into a store is now gone, but now you lose the opportunities to meet other people into the same things as you... get tips from retail workers on interesting movies/music/video games. It's convenient in that one singular moment, but now you're lonely and have no friends or connections... I think that's why people are more depressed and on more depression medicine. There's a lack of just casual interaction and socialization now that we're replacing with 'social media' doom scrolling and it's clearly not making people more fulfilled--just more convenient.
I would argue a lot of this could be changed by better zoning laws and better city planning. Big box stores should be relegated to the outskirts of city limits... let local and small businesses have downtown areas. Otherwise, everything is becoming one homogenous experience across the entire country.
I miss toy stores, butcher shops, record stores, movie renal stores... everything moving online has really made culture so isolating and a lot harder to meet people. I remember when I was younger I could just go to a retail area and get some coffee, look at magazines/books, then go to a record store, then a video game store, a pet store, etc. Now everything is either a big box store in a giant parking lot or online. There are obviously exceptions, but I remember having so many more retail options and now they can't compete with Amazon and the rising cost of real estate and labor. Capitalism is strangling culture and making people more lonely and anti-social. They want us at home, buying subscription services, and getting taxis for our burritos so we don't have to actually go out and do anything or see anyone...
Cool, but why is Apple making the new iPhone 17e chips in Israel when Israel just coordinated a mass terrorist attack using pagers? I personally don't want my iPhone being used as a bomb if I say something to criticize Israel. Israel is the last place I want to have anything to do with my phone.
I have never seen them consultants that provide a value commensurate with the prices they charge. They seem more like a proxy for fraud. When I worked at PayPal, there was a director who had an army of Deloitte consultants who just so happened to be from her husband's team at Deloitte. It was a clear conflict of interest and even though execs were aware, nothing was ever done. I imagine that's going on all over the place.
We've forgotten how to do most basic things. Roads are paved terribly, food quality is equally gross, our colleges are diploma mills, homes are built like crap... Everything has steadily been going in the wrong direction my entire life. It feels like we're almost in a dark age where basic skills from a generation ago are being forgotten.
The reason Toyota prices are still so high is because they're one of the only vehicles that are still so reliable (Mazda and Honda are actually great too). I think a 2025 Lexus GX 550 will almost certainly be on the road in 2035. Anything electric I am less certain of because they depreciate way faster and the build quality sucks.
I think it was boomers who demanded McMansions with 3 car garages and new cars every 4 years and drove lifestyle inflation to a point it's no longer sustainable/affordable for the next generation. Millenials are struggling to afford the bare minimum. Housing used to be 3-5x your salary. Now it's 10-15x in some areas. Meanwhile our taxes are sent to Israel to subsidize genocide and we can't even pave roads in the most expensive zip codes (La Jolla). There's something fundamentally broken with our society at the moment.
I think you're focusing on the wrong thing and missing the point. Housing supplies have not significantly increased with population growth (demand) in decades--thus the price equilibrium has moved up. I don't care if you build up or out and neither does the law of supply and demand. The left gets all hung up on 'the right kind of housing' and doesn't realize they're part of the problem--making it harder to build housing (of any kind) is pushing housing costs up.
America is rich, Americans not so much. We've strip mined the middle class since the 1970s. Good jobs were outsourced. Then we used immigration to make sure that the good paying jobs were unavailable for most native born citizens. Now they import H-1Bs and L-1Bs to use as indentured servants and scab workers to undermine whoever is left with a job. Then on top of that a shitty healthcare system that only extracts wealth and cares little about the outcomes of its customers. You can't even own a home anywhere nice anymore because now you as an individual have to compete with AirBNBs and home flippers. The stock market has never been higher, but the economy itself feels paper thin. Quality of almost everything is in rapid decline--restaurant food/service, new homes are low quality (using lower quality materials, almost no brick or wood), college education is no longer a signal for actually being intelligent, you buy a vegetable at the grocery store (Whole Foods) and it's still several months old junk from sitting in a packing house and now it goes back in a week when you bring it up. Meat prices at Costco are up 25% in a single year.
It honestly feels like we optimized all the wrong stuff--social media, sports betting, crypto, etc. and then anything that matters--housing, healthcare, food... it's all just pathetic now.
I predict the next trend in technology will be low tech or analog whenever possible like SpeedQueen washer/dryers, etc. It's funny looking at antique appliances that actually have superior functionality and features to modern ones. There are old washing machines that have much faster rinse rotation speeds and can empty the water within seconds and almost always have replaceable parts. We need to somehow require machines and appliances be built like this and not this disposable trash we have become used to.
>Perhaps you joke, but does Tucker really have a chance at the Presidency?
People had the same attitude about Trump. Tucker has millions of followers and regularly gets more viewers than CNN. He is also one of the only talking heads that isn't on Israel's propaganda payroll. I think he'd actually go far in the primaries if he ran. Whoever wins next will be whoever is the least cozy with Israel. Democrats still polling at all-time lows despite this. I think whoever distances themselves from Israel the most (democrat or republican) is going to be the winner. People see how AIPAC and donors like the Adelsons control our country and force us into wars that don't benefit us. There will absolutely be blow back from this.
>Explain how the US would even approach or even be made to forcibly accept the idea of bowing to another country, especially those three? They are not the average European country and do not behave like them.
We don't control the Middle East--as proven by Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, etc. We definitely can't control the Strait of Hormuz and Iran can choke off 20% of of the world's energy/fertilizer. They will inflict global pain on the economy and we're nearly out of interceptor missiles, but Iran can keep producing cheap drones faster than we can re-arm interceptor missiles. America won't be able to end the conflict without China and India helping to negotiate with Iran. We've already cut sanctions on Russian oil... this is not helping America it's just empowering Russia, China, India, and Iran. The end result of this will be Iran will end up taking a toll on all goods allowed to pass by the Strait of Hormuz, sections on Russia will be dropped, and Iran will sell oil in Chinese yuan. So yeah, this will hurt the US--but I actually think that was Israel's plan all along. They want to control the Middle East and for the US to withdraw and be unable to dominate the region.
They're destroying oil production and distribution capacity daily. This is likely the last time we will see oil prices this low. It's only going up from here. Oh and choking off the supply of fertilizer will drive up food prices... so we're looking at sharp increases in fuel and food prices--basically everything will be impacted. Oh and the Valero refinery in Texas conveniently caught fire today. Prices are going up and staying there. Supply chains will be destroyed and Iran will require a toll to be paid in the future--this will further drive prices up.
I don't think he cares? He's going to cash out after this and his donors will make sure he is paid handsomely for this. He can't run again and Israel just took 10% of Lebanon and is poised to be the great regional power. They're already talking about Turkey and Pakistan as the new threats... They will just keep moving the goalposts until it stops working. I have no clue where this ends, but Iran could end up buying a nuclear weapon from Pakistan if this keeps heating up.
It'll force American to negotiate with Iran and China/India will be the mediators. It will be the beginning of the end of the Petrodollar and likely force America to leave the Middle East. It will empower Russia, China, and India while hurting US interests. I don't know why we started this war at all other than to serve Israel's interests even when it means harming our own.
My kids are 3 and 5 so right now the only activity we do is swimming lessons which are done in a group setting, but aren't really a team sport and the kids/parents in the class change constantly due to scheduling etc. I'm thinking next year once the oldest is 6 we will put her in some team sports.
My oldest has made a few friends in kindergarten, but so far we haven't really hung out with those kids/parents outside of a few birthday parties.
We still text frequently, but it really just isn't the same level of connection. It's really hard for me to make time to socialize in person when kids and work are so demanding and all consuming. Hoping once both kids are in elementary school we get some breathing room back.
Since I've had kids and moved cities, I have basically zero friends. I have a two friends about 40 minutes away but we're all too busy with kids and work to meet up more than really once a year. Having young kids really changes your social life in a way I wasn't entirely prepared for. I have no time left for anything other than family and work.
Wow it's almost like the law of supply and demand is in fact accurate. Who would have thought basic economic 101 would be proven out? It's almost like when you allow supply to increase to meet demand the price equilibrium can move down. Shocking.
I say this with a bit of righteous anger though because the moronic democrats in California want to virtue signal about housing and homelessness but they make it downright as difficult and expensive as possible to increase housing supplies. The democrats in California have done nothing but make our problems worse, even as there are states we can look to with proven examples to solve our problems. Nope... more housing lotteries and BMR units will be required instead of just making it easier to actually build..
No, it's incompetent mentally ill weirdos being put in charge of things that they should because of DEI and woke virtue signaling that I disagree with. And again, if that's the hill that democrats want to die on when they think the entire country is under siege... then it shows just how unserious they really are. Those are elitist and luxury beliefs.
Remember https://wpde.com/news/nation-world/non-binary-ex-biden-nucle... or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Levine That is why democrats are losing. This isn't normal and 80% of the country outright rejects this. Democrats refuse to make even the smallest compromises to just go back to what was 'normal' only a few years ago. How willing to win are they really? Doesn't seem like they care to win if they won't give up the policies that are holding them back. Voter registrations tell you the story--democrats down 5M since 2020 and republicans up by about the same. Democrats have to change course and quit digging the hole deeper.
The furthest left member of Congress, AOC, voted to give Israel more military aid and never pushed for a floor vote on Medicare for all. None of them are center left. They're all right wing.