hilop

How? A debt is a promise to transfer. A default is equivalent to a repayment plus a theft.

The only sense in which value is destroyed is if the money ends up in the hands of someone who less productive at invest it. But that can't really be predicted. If value is lost in a default, the value was already destroyed in the past, regardless default choice.

Almost. Hole-digging isn't any meaningful sort of employment, it's merely a tactic to put dollars in the hands of consumers, increasing "aggregate demand" (consumer spending), which DOES provide employment, as that spending is spent on OTHER people's otherwise-unemployed labor (not the hole-diggers' labor)

No, the world became more US like for generations because the US was a relatively homogenous ethnic population (after genociding the competing ethnic groups) that controls a quarter of the planet's natural resources and has oceans for borders, so it rose to economic and military dominance easily.

If Chinese love Trump, why are they disenchanted with democracy? Trump is doing great in democracy, in the #1 or #2 spot. And I'd assume they'd like Trump less if they were more knowledgeable of English and USA news.

Credit agencies?

Hey, in China being a member of the Communist Party helps you get a loan.

"number of friends"? That's stupidly gameable

Credit ratings are about how risky it is to lend you money, not where you are allowed to live, drive, and work.

> > relevant individuals

What does church have to do with this? We can throw people in jail for "corruption"

"modern", but also classical.

Classic Holmes is not unpleasant. Modern Holmes is imitating House -- "life imitating art imitating life" sort of thing

Now you are the one redefining "jerk". When a woman complains that she keeps falling for jerks, she means guys who cheat on her, curse at her, beat her, and spend her money.

You can experience compulsions that don't make you feel good. That mental illness, broadly defined, and very common.

There are two kinds of givers: creators and sacrificers. Be a creator.

If a tree falls in the empty forest, is it happy that it fell?

Democrats are neoliberal now. Baby boomers grew up

Your idea makes no sense, it assigns blame to 2% of the population for turning the preexisting 49% into a majority.

That's an arbitrary advantage given to homeowners over renters (who pay the landlord's taxes)

Most of SV land is parking spaces. The obvious answer is to stack the cars up multilevel, for an easy 2x population density

Why would there be only 3 or 4 towers? NYC and Vancouver have many

No, they build big houses because rich people can afford it and want it. If people couldn't afford it they'd build smaller houses or townhouses/apartments.

Bingo. Every generation discovers why the suburbs are desirable

The people are migrate are the members of the lower class who are exiled by law or economics or racism.

That affects a small fraction of people. Do you prefer tornadoes, blizzards, or earthquakes?

That's not a "right", that's a power struggle. What protects the brothel owner from being kicked out of town?

AirBnB is a distributed hotel with a centralized lobby in Albany.

Intentionally impeding disruptions to protect quality of life... awesome.

The vast majority of Americans are not libertarian, they are opposed to your notion of free markets and property rights.

Should not hotel insurance be cheaper, since they have front desk staff watching it?