Bernie talks a good game, but socialism isn't the answer to America's problems.
There are people making 6-figures living paycheck to paycheck. You cannot legislate and "safety net" irresponsible spending. Ironically, the best safety net is no safety net. Humans will actually take care of themselves if they have to. People will be charitable to those in true need, America has always done this.
Relative wealth inequality is irrelevant (other than a political football), so long as absolute wealth rises, which it has. America's poor are more wealthy than the average income person in the world.
Finally, the way you get big money out of national politics is to make federal government less powerful so it isn't worth buying. Reduce the federal government back to it's original intended size. Centralization of power will always lead to corruption/waste. It is inevitable.
Everyone in America currently has a right to healthcare (shouldn't be denied for discriminatory reasons).
No one has the right to slave labor. (also why income taxes are immoral)
America's healthcare industry is an enormous rat's nest. I don't think single-payer is the best answer. I'm not sure what is, but right now I do know insurance companies have WAY too much say in dictating care. Shifting all that to the federal government doesn't seem like the best solution.
No one is deprived of basic care. We have medicaid.
We have giant insurance pools already (both public and private). They don't work great.
Like I said, I don't have a solution, but centralizing power doesn't seem to be the best option
Sure. insofar as they both want "freedom". One side that means leave them alone. the other side it means "freedom" from gun violence by gun control. "Freedom" from misinformation by censoring.
But yeah, they both say they value "freedom".
Correct. Freedom means different things to different people. One can mean actual freedom, while another is for people to live the way they demand. Words can be the same, values diametrically opposed. For example "freedom from poverty" or "right to affordable health care"
That is the natural course unfortunately. It doesn't "have" to be that way, but it presupposes strict self-control and shared morals/ethics. For example, it is in your immediate best interest to vote yourself favors/money, but ethically you shouldn't as it would be wrong to take from others or tell them how to live.
This standard, can persist, but it is such a high standard for the masses and breaking it can be done so privately and carried out through a 3rd party so that history has shown this standard always falls, without fail, given enough time.
Proper politics isn't to vote to "better" anyone, but to leave everyone alone to their own actions as much as possible.
Voting in this way (to try to better some group) means you are forcing someone to do what they don't want to do, or rather, you know better how they should live their lives and spend their money than they do.
nostr:note177274ajt0u9fflxtltduv3ey3u7cmxeffl0vm3cek4jpu7e6w6uqrk77hd
They got us.
Credit card companies got everyone to use their credit cards for the points (1.5-2% back) and now every merchant puts a 3%+ surcharge for using a credit card.
Well played
Rumble seems to be biggest after YouTube. Odysee is out there too. No one has the "reach" for newcomers like YouTube currently.
it is a vicious cycle.
Until content creators move, the viewership won't move. Viewers aren't going to go to alternatives and watch nothing. Creators must go first.
I had all kinds of mess. But revolved around using two different computers during setup with it and just starting nostr. Had different accounts and didn't realize it
Is there a chance the future of #Bitcoin follows #linux? Linux dominates enterprise and cloud compute and small minority of individuals.
Bitcoin becomes a treasury asset for corporations and only minority of individuals ever hold it.
Is a flat tax (no deductions) the only way to safeguard against the tyranny of the majority?
Having to pay for what you vote for may make you vote differently?
I must be getting old. instead of watching the latest sports ball I'm buying #bitcoin, running a full node, self-hosting matrix server, getting started on #nostr. what next?
It's odd boomers are terrified of making any changes to social security, which could significantly help younger generations. This is the cohort with $70,000,000,000,000 in wealth. The first generation whose kids may be worse off than them.
The internet is meant to be decentralized, that is its superpower.
The users are to blame for the centralization of the internet, not the corporations. The users must work to decentralize it, the corporations won't.
Money is a huge leverage point for the government to use to manipulate the populace. I agree this doesn't "solve" tyranny in large, but does take one piece out of the equation, money.
Next is censorship and government approved speech. Nostr takes this piece out of the equation, free speach.
Lastly is taking away ones ability to defend themselves but 3D printed guns and ghost guns takes this piece out of the equation, right to bear arms.
That being said tyranny is still not solved but it is kept in better check than before these technologies. To your point though, hopefully not that many bitcoiners are voting for Harris.
fundamentally it is up to the people to secure their rights from being taken by the government. A government cannot grant rights, only take rights, as the default position for humanity is absolute freedom. As history has shown the government will try to take liberty away from individuals in effort to keep an elite group in power under the guise of "security".
Money is a huge leverage point for the government to use to manipulate the populace. I agree this doesn't "solve" tyranny in large, but does take one piece out of the equation, money.
Next is censorship and government approved speech. Nostr takes this piece out of the equation, free speach.
Lastly is taking away ones ability to defend themselves but 3D printed guns and ghost guns takes this piece out of the equation, right to bear arms.
That being said tyranny is still not solved but it is kept in better check than before these technologies. To your point though, hopefully not that many bitcoiners are voting for Harris.
Small summary of a point in "Road to Serfdom", if you wonder why things seem to be getting worse:
"Hayek also warns about the psychological impact of living under a controlled economy. He argues that people’s values and morals can degrade when they’re deprived of autonomy. When individuals become accustomed to the state making decisions for them, they lose the drive for personal responsibility and self-reliance, which are essential for a vibrant and free society."
Dominion voting scanners are messed up. How is this possible? We've been grading college exams via bubbled in scans for decades upon decades. This technology was perfected long ago.
In the race to accelerate as fast as possible, it is good that a minority of people are focused on decentralized technologies that could always remain outside the system.
Arguably this tech is always needed, but it certainly must be developed and deployed before it is ever truly needed as in that moment it would be too late.
It is odd that people living in tight and unnatural quarters (large cities) adopt a socialist ideal. While people living in open and more natural spaces in the country maintain a more conservative ideal.
There must be something about population density that makes people go bonkers and think they are entitled to others property.
Could nostr ever be used to store healthcare records? Every physician would store information assigned to a person's public key. that person has access to all of their info all the time without a formal office request, their key gives them access. same for co-management with physicians. not sure if it is possible and of course cooperation by physicians hospitals would be a challenge
It's difficult because people are conditioned to advertisers doing the valuing for them. They consume the content for "free" and advertisers pay the creator for said viewership in return for the right to run ads alongside their content. V4V is already mainstream, it is just paid by advertisers to creators, not consumer to creators.
Oddbean new post about login | logout
Notes by kurt | export