Badri

[Brivael Le Pogam @brivael]

On my way to the office this morning, I passed a group of young people protesting, a Palestinian flag draped over their shoulders.

And I asked myself a question I can't shake: why does this generation always fall into the same trap? No matter the history. No matter the context. Even the ones from wealthy families, who went to the best schools, who were dealt every good card. Always the same trap.

I don't think it's stupidity. I think it's a mechanism. And a mechanism can be taken apart, piece by piece.

A. The observation: everything the state touches becomes unaffordable.

Look at economist Mark Perry's famous chart, the one people call "the chart of the century." It tracks US prices since 2000.

At the top, what explodes: hospital services, college tuition, textbooks, childcare, housing. Increases of +100%, +150%, up to +250%, far above general inflation.

At the bottom, what collapses: TVs, software, phones, toys, clothing. A TV today costs a fraction of what it did in 2000, for an infinitely better product.

Look at what separates the two groups. It isn't technology. It isn't complexity. It's one variable: how much the state is involved.

At the top, sectors that are subsidized, regulated, shielded from competition, where the state funds demand and blocks supply. At the bottom, sectors where companies fight every single morning to serve you better and cheaper.

B. The mechanism: why it's systematic.

When the state subsidizes demand without freeing supply, prices rise. Every time. Guaranteed student loans, and universities raise tuition. Housing aid plus blocked building permits, and rents skyrocket. Administered healthcare, and bureaucracy eats the budget before it ever reaches the patient.

In France it's even more vicious, because the price doesn't disappear: it hides. You never see the hospital bill, you pay it through payroll contributions. You never see the cost of school, you pay it through taxes. Public spending at 57% of GDP, one of the heaviest tax burdens in the world, more than €3.4 trillion in debt. And the result? Overflowing ERs, falling PISA scores, young people who can't afford to live in the city where they work.

The market didn't fail in these sectors. It was never allowed in.

C. Suffering demands a culprit.

A 22-year-old lives all of this in their bones. They can't find a place to live. Their degree either buries them in debt or opens no doors. The future feels blocked. That suffering is real, and I don't deny it for a second.

But human beings can't stand suffering without a culprit. They need a face. A scapegoat.

And this is where everything is decided: who taught them how to read the world?

D. Whoever tells the story picks the villain.

Schools are public. Universities are public. Culture runs on grants. Film goes through funding committees. Public broadcasting shapes the narratives. The people handing down the interpretive framework are, overwhelmingly, paid by the very system that creates the problem.

Do you really think that system is going to name itself as the culprit?

No. It names the capitalist. The boss. The landlord. "The rich." The multinational. The commercial West. Same role, same casting, every time.

E. One lens, a thousand causes.

And this brings me back to that flag. A generation taught to read every situation through a single lens, oppressor on one side, rich, Western, capitalist, oppressed on the other, will apply that lens everywhere. To housing. To climate. To conflicts on the other side of the world. The cause changes, the lens stays. That's why the trap is always the same: it's not the cause that draws them in, it's the way of thinking that was installed in them.

F. The perfect inversion.

Here's the irony. Capitalism is the force that drove down the price of almost everything it touched. The state is the force that blew up the price of almost everything it captured. And young people blame the first for the crimes of the second.

It's like blaming the firefighter for the fire because you saw him at the scene.

G. The ballot box confirms it.

In the US, a few weeks out from the midterms, a large share of urban young voters is getting ready to vote Democrat for more state, more spending, more regulation. New York elected a self-described socialist mayor, carried by young voters, on promises of rent freezes and city-run grocery stores. Rent freezes, the policy that has made housing scarcer everywhere it's been tried. The cure that worsens the disease.

In France, it's the same play in two acts. Part of the youth votes for the radical left, which promises more state. Another part votes for the center, which promises to "manage" the state well, and has dug the debt deeper than ever. Two different ballots, one shared assumption: the problem is the market, the solution is the state.

H. The way out.

These young people aren't stupid. They're right to be angry. They're just aiming at the wrong target.

The day they understand that their rent, their tuition and their hospital are expensive precisely because the state runs them, their anger will change direction. They'll stop protesting against those who create. They'll start protesting against those who capture.

That day, the greatest intellectual scam of our time will be over.

[Dr. Katumwa Kenneth 🇺🇬 @dr_katumwa]

lol I’m literally crying 😭😭😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[Belgian Red Devils @BelRedDevils]

Overturn this. 🧏‍♂️ #USABEL

[Badri @22yardsout]

Rightfully the most beautiful goal of the World Cup so far has been scored by a player from Cabo Verde #fifawc

[Mama @SriniMaama16]

They arrived as debutants & leave s everyone's 2nd favourite team.

Cape Verde's World Cup:
- Ranked #65
- Held off 2024 Euro Champions Spain 🇪🇸
- 3 group stage draws
- First ever WC knockout qualification
- Came back twice before pushing defending champions Argentina to the very end 🇦🇷

Led by the the 40 YO Vozinha! The Silent Guardian & Watchful Protector of the Goal. The Dark Knight of Cape Verde, denying Messi thrice today.

What a team. What a fight! ❤️🇨🇻

[Badri @22yardsout]

Has to go down as the match of the tournament so far. Cabo Verde were so close to being the ultimate underdog story #fifa

[Trendulkar @Trendulkar]

🇨🇻 Cape Verde, a nation of just 500,000 people, playing in their first-ever World Cup, gave 🇦🇷 Argentina a real run for their money. There was a genuine scare till the very last minute of extra time. An incredible underdog story that was worth watching late into the night!

[Cycløn @cyclonUK]

Daylight robbery against Croatia!! You can see here the ball doesn’t change direction at all when the referee claims the croatian player touched it. However, if you follow closely, you can see the ball falling in the portuguese defenders arm. Then they pull out the sound detection system and say there is the sound from contact, so the croatian attacker touched it. False, that sound was from the defender’s hand!!!

[Badri @22yardsout]

How Argentina find themselves facing less fancied teams right up to the semifinals is quite a mystery.Anything less than last 4 would be a absolute shocker #fifa

[DailyAFC @DailyAFC]

You can tell the moment it really sunk in 🥹

🎥 @guapisimaxo

[Forever Arsenal @Arsenal_N10]

Money can’t buy this

[Badri @22yardsout]

@ashwinmurali Not https://t.co/bAhYfc13Ji would have been madness to go toe to toe with PSG.There has been too much emphasis on attack.With all the possession in the first half PSG were going nowhere with their attack playing wide.That said definitely could have played better after the goal !

[Arsenal @Arsenal]

LIFT IT UP ©️

[Arsenal @Arsenal]

We all deserve this ❤️

[Sky Sports Premier League @SkySportsPL]

Mikel Arteta shares how he dealt with moments in the season when Arsenal had to bounce back from difficulties 🔙

[Vinay Aravind @vinayaravind]

Held my tongue all season, but I knew when the dumbest 'neutrals' decided to root for the sportswashing-est, financial doping-est behemoth, that their rage and tears would be the most exquisite icing on the delicious cake of a first Premier League title in 22 years for #Arsenal.

[Badri @22yardsout]

Thank you Mikel # COYG

[Patrick Timmons @PatrickTimmons1]

For everyone who suffered through 8-2.

For everyone who half 6 at Stamford Bridge in Wenger’s 1,000th game.

For everyone who suffered through Baku.

For everyone who had to go to school after conceding 10 to Bayern.

Today is for you. Drink it all in. We deserve this.

[Dushyanth Sridhar @dushyanthsridar]

Until the TN people realise the viciousness of his statement, there is no scope for improvement.