i’d argue you’re too easily moved by the choice words. “privilege” and “equality” are selected because they confuse the notion of fairness. another way to frame his statement “if you’re accustomed to succeeding due to hard work, ingenuity, risk/sacrifice, and, sure, some amount of luck, having the outcomes reset so that everyone is rewarded more equally feels unfair.”
is succeeding after making good choices, sacrificing personally, and working hard really “privilege”?
is it oppressive that everyone doesn’t get to the same place?
perhaps the real oppression is the loss of individual liberties when naively egalitarian philosophies mutate into marxism, denying opportunities for individual sacrifice, effort, and achievement to be rewarded.
framed as privilege v equality misses the mark.. equality of opportunity and equality of outcome are v different things. silicon valley’s most successful are the immigrants who found america as one of the only places on earth where an individual with zero baseline privilege can struggle and sacrifice and effortfully succeed. calling them privileged after the fact seems hardly the point. but an easy one to make.
GOLD OUT GIVEAWAY! 💛🏈
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#SkiUMah #RTB #Gophers #GoldOut @GopherSports
it is vitally important for america that mamdani get elected mayor of NYC. he can help maximally and swiftly tax the rich, stand up govt-run grocery stores, eliminate the police force, freeze rents, and make public transportation free..
it’s unlikely that taxing the rich will cause them to move to other cities (collapsing nyc tax revenue), or that city-run grocery stores will fail to increase fresh vegetable consumption in the inner city, or that elimination of the NYPD will cause a rise in crime and decline in quality of life, or that freezing rents will drive landlords to dump properties (collapsing prices and property tax revenue), or that free public transportation will result in union-led kleptocracy. no way. i’m sure this time socialism will be different…
if Americans don’t want to learn the lessons of socialism’s failures elsewhere, we should aim to learn them here as quickly as possible.
let’s make sure one or two cities and states fall apart fast so the rest don’t have to.. elect mamdani!
after accruing $2 trillion in student loan debt, that they will never be able to pay down, it’s no surprise “the college educated in nyc are supporting mamdani 61-39”. the current system has failed them.
but the truth is, more government may not be the answer when too much government (indiscriminate federal student loans regardless of cost or quality of degree or institution) may have gotten them to this moment.
a gentle reminder, though, that an articulate ignoramus isn’t more correct than his less charismatic/authentic political rival. facts, data, truth still stand above theory, innuendo, and bullshit. socialism won’t work. if we have to re-learn that lesson the hard way, let’s do it fast and elect mamdani.
@chamath do you know of anyone working on new interventions for people with idetified plaque buildup? Identification is critical but targeted treatments need to be developed. I was already on statins, etc so my cardiologist recommended watchful waiting. Anyone working on new therapies?
After watching the Fox interview with the DOGE team, it’s clear to me that the domestic terrorism against Tesla isn’t bottoms-up vandalism. It’s an organized effort to pressure Elon to walk away from DOGE.
Why?
There are monied interests that have benefited for decades from the organized “leakage” from the government. It’s clear that DOGE is finding and stopping it.
The incentive, then, to hire rent-a-protesters and pay for organized terrorism is clear. What they don’t understand is the Elon will double and triple down.
Separately, the DOJ can uncover all of this by arresting the protestors, making them roll and following the money.
David Friedberg: How to Save Social Security Using Compound Interest
@friedberg with an incredible breakdown on E219:
"The US Social Security Program is meant to be kind of the retirement program for folks that don't have access to private retirement accounts."
"This program was set up in the 1930s after the Great Depression. There's a trust fund, the OASDI, which is the fund that they invest the capital (from)."
"So every year we all put money in with our social security taxes out of our paychecks, (which) goes in there."
"It gets invested in one thing: US Treasuries."
"Which have averaged about 4.8% return per year since the beginning of the program."
"Meanwhile, the S&P 500 has been averaging 11%."
"So here's the math: if in 1971, which was the year that we went off the gold standard in the US, if we invested the Social Security Trust Fund in the S&P, the balance of the social security trust fund today would be $15T."
"That would be roughly one-third of the value of the total S&P 500, which would be jointly owned by all Americans."
"Now here's what's f*cked up: the middle class people who had access to private retirement accounts benefited by buying the S&P 500 and the wealthy were able to access it."
"So all of the equity value that accrued from American enterprise and the prosperity of the American system accrued to the people that had access to the private accounts."
"Meanwhile, the people that only had access to the public accounts got stuck owning treasuries."
"Today, the Social Security Trust Fund has a $2.7T balance, and based on the outflows and inflows, it's going to go bankrupt in 2032."
"So I did the math: If you assume that the S&P 500 continues to grow at 10.5% per year on average, we could put about $500B in the trust fund today, and it will not go bankrupt again."
"And it will continue to grow every year. And then all Americans have participation in American enterprise."
"And importantly, this becomes the world's largest sovereign wealth fund ever. You don't need a separate sovereign wealth fund. We already have one."
"We've totally mismanaged it. And I went back to try and understand why this is the case. Why have we only ever bought treasuries? "
"Early on, the US needed someone to loan money. So they basically forced the citizens to loan the government money in the form of treasuries."
"But today, the social security trust fund owns less than 10%, about 8% of the total treasury bonds outstanding."
"So why are we forcing all the American citizens to participate?"
"Through the social security system, we've created the deep inequity we see in this country."
"If instead we had allowed the social security system to invest in the S&P 500 to buy American enterprises to fund American businesses, then every American would be wealthy and that middle class that uniquely participated by basically arbitraging the market where they forced the treasury bond yields on the poor and they got to take access to the equity yields would have not happened."
Brilliant articulation of America’s new pro growth, regulatory skeptical AI framework by @JDVance. More open. More ambitious. Less scared. “AI will make us more productive, more prosperous and more free.” We are lucky to have JD leading the charge! 🫡🇺🇸🚀@DavidSacks