Social media and phone addicts should have no say in deciding the fate of smartphones and not be allowed any input on social media policy.
If you use your phone more than 30 minutes a day for non-work purposes, sorry, your voice is not needed.
I use my phone maybe 2-5 minutes a day for non-work purposes. Sometimes none.
Even though many US idiots will says it’s “impossible,” we could have good universal health coverage like other developed countries.
When I told a UK friend of mine how health insurance works in the US and how bad it is, she thought I was pulling her leg. She truly believed I was lying and trying to make her laugh or playing a prank (she was not at all familiar with US politics). Then she looked it up and said something like, “People actually live like this?”
And that is the reaction of people from sane countries when told how the US handles health care. People cannot believe it. Because no other developed country does it as crappily as we do.
nobody in Europe is talking about the polish housing supply miracle.
The median household in polish cities (!) now only spends 13% of their income on housing.
They build about 200k units a year for a 36 million people country. pic.twitter.com/SVCQmnIVUs
— space cadet 🇪🇺🌐🇩🇪 (@actsmaniac) May 15, 2025
And that is how you do it. At least 60% of the Polish economic miracle is due to the fact that they did not artificially constrain housing supply.
We could do the same here. But we probably will not.
Job Search After 4,000 Applications.
How in the hell do you put in 4,000 applications? I can’t even imagine. I think the most I’ve ever done is a few dozen and that was a huge slog.
These days, I don’t apply to anything. Places apply to me.
China’s Exports to U.S. Plunge as Trump’s Tariffs Bite.
It has begun, and it only gets worse from here. Hope everyone has enough of what they want and need for the next few years.
Store shelves will start being empty in 3-5 weeks, depending on how much hoarding there is when people realize what’s happening.
Luckily most food that Americans consume is grown and packed in the US, so food shortages won’t be particularly bad. But everything else…well, that all comes from China. And it ain’t comin’ no more.
We’ve already prepped and are ready. Hope you all did too.
The private sector isn’t efficient. It’s just better at marketing the illusion.
Dead on. The efficiency of private sector companies is a libertarian fucking myth. I was in the army for five years and yeah there were inefficiencies (mostly foisted on us by others), but we did far more with far less than any private sector company I worked for after that.
And that’s pretty typical. There’s just so, so much waste, corruption, graft and utter clownishness in private sector corps. It’s absurd to think most of them are at all efficient. It is simply false.
Most Americans alive today have not experienced an era of extended decline. I haven’t either, but was around people commonly as a kid who had struggled to survive through the Great Depression. I suspect the upcoming calamity will be one that most people are totally unequipped to deal with.
It’s hard to know specifics now, of course, but I expect the Trump Depression to last 8-ish years (though it could be as much as 20), at the peak to have about 40% unemployment and to result in a decrease in US GDP of 20-30% in real dollar terms.
And that’s the most likely but far from how bad it could get. Worst case could be even more horrifyingly terrible. The middle-bad case is locked in now; it’s coming, like it or not. (And no one should like it, not even the most MAGA-addled doofball.)
Trump's tariffs are deindustrializing America https://t.co/Bjx8oDsQDe
— Noah Smith 🐇 (@Noahpinion) May 1, 2025
This was the only possible result of such stupidity.
I cannot stress this enough: if there is something you think might want or need in the next few years and it’s not perishable, buy it now. There’s an extremely good chance you might not be able to obtain it in the future, or perhaps ever again in the worst case. Very best case, it’ll just cost vastly more.
We’ve already bought computers and related that is likely to last 10-ish years, enough food to last a few months if we’re fairly austere 1, some water and other supplies. We probably still should buy some batteries and related things, but what’s left is minor. We own our own home free and clear (no lien) so it’s nearly impossible to dislodge us as long as we keep paying taxes. And we live in a warm enough climate that we could survive the winter even without reliable heat and/or electricity.
We’re about as ready as we can be without going full prepper-in-the-mountains. Which we have no plans to do.
A very bad few years lie ahead of us. I hope everyone is doing the best they can to avoid the refrigerator box by the side of the road, which will be the fate of all too many Americans.
US economy shrinks in first quarter of Trump 2.0 amid sweeping tariffs.
This is the beginning of the beginning of the depression that is on the way. This quarter of economic decline didn’t occur because of tariffs, but rather due to business uncertainty. That is actually worse than tariffs and as long as Trump makes random unaccountable decisions the economy will only get worse.
Too much is up in the air at the moment for more substantive claims, but we are definitely going to be in a depression for a while. The best case scenario is 2-3 years. I give this a 30% chance. The most likely case is 5-8 years of depression followed by low growth. I give this one a 60% chance. And the apocalyptic case is complete destruction of the economy with further Trump-like figures succeeding him. This would perpetuate depression conditions (even if there is some intermittent growth occurring due to how great was the decline) for 20+ years. This of course has a 10% chance of happening.
We are living in terrible times. They’re already here. Most people just don’t know it yet because they can’t see that the plane has already lost all power and the mountains loom in the distance.
Trump's tariffs are fucking literally everyone in the country https://t.co/GlAE3wNJvc
— Noah Smith 🐇 (@Noahpinion) April 28, 2025
This is going to be worse than I initially thought, so I bought more crap than I had originally planned. It’s the last chance now and in the next week or two.
Then, many many things will be vastly more expensive or impossible to get at all. It’s coming. Be warned. Or don’t. Either way, I’ll avoid doing the stupid. Maybe we should’ve immigrated, but too late for that now.
We’re here and are as ready as we can be.
U.S. faces $90 billion tourism hit as Trump tariffs, deportation push drive away visitors pic.twitter.com/QUJbAaSneS
— NewsWire (@NewsWire_US) April 20, 2025
I mean, who in the fucking world would want to visit this clown show? No one with any brain.
If all y’all want to buy something, do it now. Soon it will be unavailable or vastly more expensive. And by “something,” I mean nearly everything. Economy is about to fly apart like a washing machine on spin cycle with a brick thrown in it.
Do it now or you might only be able to get it again in 5-10 years. Maybe. If you’re lucky.
Hear me now and believe me later. Or don’t. I ain’t care.
Flexport CEO: "Thousands, and then millions, of American small businesses, including many iconic brands, will go bankrupt this year if the tariff policies on China don’t change … When the brands fail, they will be purchased out of bankruptcy by their Chinese factories" https://t.co/EaiNcNlBsy
— Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) April 17, 2025
That is the most likely result, yes. Unsure if deliberate or idiocy. Either way, the result is the same: poverty and immiseration for the American people.