[Destruction of America’s middle class](https://seekingalpha.com/article/4346450-federal-reserve-and...)

> The crypto currency craze while definitely was a horrible phase, it did end up giving america a lot of advantages, it incurred a ton of demand for american GPU tech which helped it advance faster and have more cash reserves to take risks, this allowed usa to get a headstart to AI which if it uses well, will usher in a new era of innovation for you guys. You might argue that we could just spent 1/20th the amount in gpu market and gotten the same result, but truth is prolly wouldn’t have happened that way.

> You can also tax the shit out of large capital in a non-linear fashion which, unlike inflation, will not hit the small savers.

This will never happen, it’ll cause all of the money to flee out of america overnight, it’s the reason why usa and europe is desperately trying to increase the minimum corporate tax rate globally. In a post globalised world, it’s no longer as simple as just pulling a lever.

> which is the only way to really drive out the oligopoly

The way to drive oligopoly out is by breaking up oligopolies and bringing competition into the market, usa has done this several times, standard oil, AT&T, etc.

You cant shove people’s wallet out into the ocean, and tell them they either spend it or lose it, they’ll panic, they’ll scream for safety, if they cant keep the money in bank, where will they invest ? The most safest and established businesses, ala those oligopolies.

You cant force them to spend and then expect them to start gambling left and right, they’ll instead just want to find safer shores.

The only reliable way to breaking up monopolies is to break up monopolies.

> just a rose-tinted glance at our current situation in post-capitalism.

You’re right, after reading a few more responses i realised i made the comment a bit too hastily and impulsively not seeing through what everything i said actually meant.

But I also don’t think, it’s that “wrong” even the most greedy want to invest in the sane things, if people invested in so many unsustainable businesses, it means there weren’t enough sustainable options to put in that money in the first place.

If USA had not created that 0% interest rate environment, it wouldn’t have been able to take any advantage of the petro dollar benefits.

Initially USA had expected the middle east to invest all their earnings into america, that they got paid with usd for oil, instead most of the money went to asia. That was just the first sign of trouble in usa.

That along with stupid government policies around offshoring so much production to a communist country like China didnt help either.

So yes, i agree with you, it was a bad move, but it wasn’t VCs that created america’s impending ruin, its government policy.

The entire US government is captured by corporate interests and has been for decades. [0]

Voters have effectively no say over who runs for congress or president, as those are controlled by party leaders who are - you guessed it - sponsored by "interest groups." Even at the local level, corporate governors are focused on district chairs (like Anne Wheeler in PW County, VA) to push through all manner of things like rezoning, tax credits etc... for "development."

We're dealing with exactly this right now with Amazon pushing data centers into our farmland and depleting our Aquifer. [1]

[0]https://publicintegrity.org/politics/state-politics/copy-pas...

[1]https://protectpwc.org/

People will always try to corrupt a powerful force like government.

You can cry, shoot VC, destroy them, jail them, whatever, there will always be this VC class

Politicians should be held accountable, they got the vote, they got the protection (police, bodyguards, secret service)

If they betray people for money, then that means they write bad policians.

In CCP, there are a ton more corrupt businessmen who’d love to write their gov’s policy in everything. Yet CCP successfully controls them, breaks them up, write pro consumer policy.

And heck they are run by a dictator !

American politicians have no excuse to write bad policies, its those politicians who should be held accountable, VCs will always try to corrupt politicians, if not them, than foreign governments will happily pay up and take that spot.

It’s not an excuse If a corrupt gov makes bad policies

Then that’s it. It. Makes. Bad. Policies.

Always has always been

I'm unaware of an example where this is not true. Every single major "innovation" came at the cost of some indigenous person's property or is exploiting a worker who is in crisis. In fact when US producers run out of people to exploit in the US, corporations pushed politicians to pass "treaties" such as NAFTA etc... to expand the pool of exploitable labor while ensuring the previous workers cannot compete.

USA spends 6x more money on every american in healthcare, spends more on weapons than next 5 militaries combined, spends way more than any other country on education per child.

No USA isn’t an anarcho capitalist societ, it is just a WILDLY inefficient country hijacked by utopian bullshit people who think money grows on trees, finances bad policies, then facepalm and hide their incompetence, cuz typically people with utopian ideas are terribly bad at reaching that utopia.

This isn’t the 50s or 60s, governments have done a lot to improve the lives of average americans, its just the latest versions of it, are incompetent and the public is to forgiving to them.

Too many politicians who lack drive, intellect and sheer will. When you have presidents and senators older than the average life expectancy of a lot of middle income countries.

This is what happens. Usa isnt some evil doomed country run by anarchists, it’s a country that has saved itself from many threats before, and rediscovered itself many times and pushed through. It needs to fix itself again, NAFTA is not the problem, it’s what’s keeping the americas still “barely” competitive and giving a chance to reshoring manufacturers

Nope: https://www.epi.org/blog/naftas-impact-workers/

"USA spends 6x more money on every american in healthcare"

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/31/health/us-health-care-spendin...

It's tough for me to not look at your claims as not malicious given how thoroughly and completely they have been debunked by the record. The fact taht you use spending as some kind of proxy for good says your foundational conception of what society is for is flawed.

So I'm not sure what else there is to say.

> it is just a WILDLY inefficient country

It has worse outcomes because it wastes a lot, that’s what I was saying.

> It's tough for me to not look at your claims as not malicious

You are too quick to think, everyone on this planet is out to get you or has “malicious” and “evil” intentions.

> "NAFTA is a good thing for usa" Nope: https://www.epi.org/blog/naftas-impact-workers/

You’re missing the long term idea around NAFTA, it’s to make America competitive again and curb its reliance on other continents like europe or asia.

They want to reshore manufacturing to usa and its neighbours. This is necessary.

The way you just shut it up and say “nope” that it removes short term bargaining power for american workers.

It’s like talking about the industrial revolution or the agricultural revolution which brought efficiencies and made those countries more productive.

Back then they argued that it was removing bargaining power of people working at farms, that it was taking away jobs like being a tailor at a sweatshop working your way to death.

Standard of living of americans are much better now, NAFTA long term is planned to be like that, it may fail, but bets are on to make it succeed.

I’d recommend talking to a therapist, all this anarcho capitalism, a random HN commenter being somehow “malicious” and this “evil agenda” to change people’s opinions on HN, idk this is too much drama. Just have a civil conversation, we are humans, not demons or angels.

I suggest reading Diogenes

I have a great therapist already though ;)