You’re On Your Own, by Robert Gore
Within a twenty-four-hour span the Catalonian people voted 90 percent in favor of secession from Spain, despite the Spanish government’s effort to violently squelch the referendum, and a man in a Las Vegas hotel room opened fire on a concert, killing fifty-nine and wounding over 500. There’s no tangible connection between the two incidents, but they illustrate incipient forces still gathering steam that are transforming the world.
This is an excerpt. For the complete article, please click the above link.
This is an excerpt. For the complete article, please click the above link.
For what its worth, when I talk with a person I dont know or watch them act, thats how I determine if I feel comfortable around them. I dont even see skin color at that point. Its NOT preferences based on race at all- its preferences based on culture.
Its so politically correct to not saying anything negative about somone who is part of a minority race. That is BS. Most people make their determination based on cultural traits and beliefs, NOT genes.
I can't stand entitlement or victim thinking, but I hate racism even more.
I reject defining people by groups, esp based on how they look physically, out of hand.
Your entire premise of viewing people as racial groups is wrong. Criminals commit crimes, mostly against other criminals or people tangentially involved in crime. It's going down. The physical appearance of the perpetrators and victims does not matter.
I don't remember race being a big issue in the 08 campaign. I remember it because in the primary I was for Obama, and my wife was for Clinton. I remember saying "he could change Washington". She said she knew from working in Washington that Washington would change him more than he changed it. She also said the old line about seeing how Washington works is like watching the sausage-making process. She said Clinton had experience with disgusting sausage-making process.
We seem to agree that instead of thieves mugging us, its government that steals far more than the thieves ever did.
Any sincere and effective alternative to the US dollar, or other fiat currencies, are met by strong government resistance. If gold and silver became big time alternatives to the US dollar, it would simply be made illegal and confiscated, as in the 1930's. Everything else is pretty much denominated in terms of fiat currencies unfortunately, all of which are subject to major inflationary pressures from printing press economic policies.
I dont think the white people will get violent against the blacks. I say the blacks will (and have) get violent against the white people for not satisfying their entitlements.
I lean toward thinking all stories about culture changing based on the president are false. Many times I hear of some act of racism, and people say it's related to the president. It doesn't sound remotely true to me.
"The big dangers caused BY government-"
Right. It's not a think where we're afraid of a mugging, but it's this constant sending in huge amounts of money every quarter, the looming threat of such a powerful becoming wholesale totalitarian, the looming threat of a crisis related to borrowing.
"forcing us to rely primarily on the fiat currency"
I don't believe in this. If people want to trade value and don't want to barter, they can find some stable store of value to use, e.g. bit coin, foreign currency balanced with foreign exchange derivatives, precious metals, cases of brandy. There is no problem with someone wanting their lawn mowed, wireless functionality added to a product, or a meal at a restaurant but they cannot find a stable medium of exchange. It just does not happen in any form.
"but it’s just under the surface"
You're saying it's there but it's gone underground. I think it's just gone and we've turned to worry to higher-hanging fruit. If you're right, some emergency or crisis will bring this latent violence to the surface. If we go decades with actual physical violence staying low, I'll say I was right.
I would disagree about saving being safer now. The big dangers now are not petty thieves, I would agree. The big dangers are caused BY government- forcing us to rely primarily on the fiat currency, and then printing dollars and causing monetary destruction. Gold and silver are better stores if value but they will be confiscated again as they were in the 1930’s. Destroy the currency and our economy in the USA will crash.
Maybe physical. Violence is reduced, but it’s just under the surface, propelled by collectivism. Our intellectual base has been diminishing over the years. Riots are just under the surface, fed by entitlement
Another issue which makes it difficult to save is our litigious culture and the “bringing down” of people who are wealthy.
I find these things a bit disturbing
Wow. You were there for desegregation, as a child. I walked around Little Rock High School, and I felt like I could feel the struggle. One group of people denied access to education on account of racism. The "racist" people in those old photographs from the museum down the street. I oddly felt like I could see it from there point of view too. My impression is we are lucky desegregation wasn't more violent. That all feels like ancient history. I feel like it's over, something my parents barely remember. It actually give me hope because the political crap people are fired up over now is nothing: politicians want to lock one another up on technicalities. That's nothing. Those people in the 50s had legitimate big issues to fight about.
So if you were right, I completely miss what's happened in recent history. I see this world where violence dropped precipitously, and with nothing to worry about we turn to "microagressions" and politicians' wanting to lock one another up-- i.e. absolutely nothing, the "problems" of people with no real problems.
" in the pockets of the big mfrs who didnt want startups around."
I have seen it from both sides, big company and small company, and I agree. I have seen big companies lobby for more regulation, basic rent-seeking.
"Saving is ridiculous really. Spend it all just before you die."
I say NONSENSE. We're all free to do what we want with our wealth, but some people turned one restaurant into Outback and little store into PDQ, which just sold to a major chain. And for people who just to store their wealth, I've seen unsophisticated people buy, fix up, and rent out apartments. People who just want to store their wealth buy annuities, portfolios of bonds of various maturities, or even ladders of CD, which keep wealth save at the price of around 1% a year of inflation. I have a good friend with some traditional sock mutual funds and a decent bit of wealth locked in a safe in the form of gold, silver, and ammo. If you want the perfect ideal store of value that is the universal benchmark, that doesn't exist. But there are more safe ways for average people to store wealth than in most of history.
I definitely feel less safe. There is much more racial problems now than earlier in my life. The rise in black entitlement is a real problem that I feel could erupt at any time, and which contributes to my unease.
I would agree that actual crime is affecting me less, although I tend to live in more upscale neighborhoods now than I used to.
Regulations have expanded to the point that I no longer manufacture medical equipment. One small hiccup could mean the FDA could shut you down, plus they were in the pockets of the big mfrs who didnt want startups around.
Maybe people are more aware of lawsuits and stay under the radar more to avoid them.
Deficit spending and inflation are major problems which it is hard to escape from. Saving is ridiculous really. Spend it all just before you die.There is going to be a financial meltdown which will tear apart our society. No one knows when it will happen though. Stretching the rubber band will have a limit for sure.
I'm 42, so I don't have personal experience before the 80s. But it feels safer now, consistent with crime rates going down. Training for jobs that are interesting and pay well are is more widely available. The "laws, regulations, and restrictions" are a problem, but regulations have made us less litigious, making the average person less likely to be involved in a lawsuit. Regulations eliminated problems like acid rain and ozone depletion, which seemed huge. This does NOT excuse ever expanding gov't spending and power and use of regulations to squeeze out competitors. The world is FAR from utopia. The gov't borrowing and spending really stands out for me as enormous problem. And all this amazing data processing technology is making gov't surveillance and intrusion possible at level never seen before. So I get the risks and problems. But overall it feels like an amazingly safe and prosperous time. History might remember it as the brief period of a few hundred years after photos become available but before there's a cure for aging.
It just seems like we solve one problem after another, huge problems, and well within the course of one lifetime.
I really appreciate hearing from people don't see it that way.
It did happen on UW Madison campus, but I don't have numerical evidence to back my perception that it's way down across all areas of society. We have obviously had nothing like the 1967 Dow Chemical Protests in 2017. I don't think we'll have another Sterling Hall in 2020.
"Hatred of Trump all the time no matter what he does, or what shoes his wife wears."
We've become more sensitive where simply hating someone or being mean is considered "violence" or "bullying". This is bad, but IMHO it's also one symptom of how much physical violence has decreased.
Do you think a) crime rates have risen, b) people get away with violent acts now, or c) there is less violence now but it's more effective? In my view crime is way down, cameras and DNA make it harder to get away with, and thugs are less likely to get their way through violence. I would love to see shocking evidence that my perception is wrong and it's actually increased. I wouldn't love the result, but I love learning that something I thought was true was an illusion.
Verbal violence is hard to quantify. Could it be that people are just more sensitive and consider hearing things they don't like a form of violence?
"violence of all types is increasing in the last 50 years at least." "physical violence on college campuses, neighborhoods, etc"
You think there is more physical violence now on campuses than in 2017-50=1967?
"Trump rallies were uplifting and exciting and definitely not violent. Hillary supporters are definitely violent by nature."
Isn't this a case your chance of winning the lottery being much more if you buy five tickets than three? Either way your chance is really low? I wonder if we compared rallies that you consider "violent by nature" to rallies for Nixon, George Wallace, and Humphrey 50 years ago. I would be surprised to learn modern rallies are more violent.
The breakdown of our complex system would be very ugly. Starvation within weeks for millions.
You might check out The Last Ship tv series.
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