Why Nobody Will Tell You The Truth

17 thoughts on “Why Nobody Will Tell You The Truth”

1. I’ve often thought a person’s politics can be learned very quickly by a simple test. When you see a homeless person on the street do you think “that person made a lot of bad choices” or do you think to yourself “there but for the grace of God go I”? That simple view of our fellow humans seems to affect everything else about our outlook on the world.

   1. What if one believes both are true?

      1. Then you are probably registered as an independent ( no party affiliation ) voter.

   2. What I think is how can I help?

   3. What I generally think is… “why is this a possible outcome of an advanced economy?” We produce homelessness on purpose… as a tool of domination, an ever present form of observable torture. “Be a good little drone and do as your told or you’ll become a non-entity with no chance of escape”. When people speak of neo-feudalism homelessness is what makes people happy to be serfs.

2. H

   I really enjoy your writing when you are an essayist. You are good at it and you also reprint the insightful essays of some others I would never have known about if not for you. Thanks for expanding my world.

3. All economics is political-economics. Yet, virtually noone in the discipline admits this. Virtually no universities teach it this way. And of course Wall Street will be the last to admit it. We are witnessing the failure, and I think impending collapse, of a failed political-economic ideology.

   The ossification of this ideology has been on display for all to see for a couple decades now. Structural change, usually coincident with geopolitical realignments, is like a natural force of history. And ossified structures are fragile. The US has been tragically, and hubristically, trapped in a failed end-of-history theoretical and ideological framework for far too long.

   Nothing short of a new social contract, and I’d also argue a new global reserve system (end of the petrodollar), is going to resolve the structural crises.

   1. It becomes clearer with each passing year and once-in-a-century extreme weather event that the liberal/neoliberal political economies of the West will need to be reimagined and -structured to address accelerating climate change. Not a question of if, only when. China is going to do what it deems is in its own best interest, but I’d be willing to bet that that political-economic model will collapse long before democratic capitalism goes down in flames.

      1. As the two key economic models are structurally intertwined at a deep level, any transformation of either will force a dramatic change on the other. The two models are connected at the hip.

         1. The society that keeps the majority of the masses distracted, relatively happy, economically viable will last. You need to please most of the people most of the time. The American Revolution could never happen today. Ideologies are just white noise, promises bandied about, almost impossible to fulfill, relativism abounds.

            Rome was ossified for 300 years before it’s demise.

4. Regardless of how (the sum of their decisions or an unfair system) certain people ended up financially disadvantaged, we need a better safety net to ensure that all citizens have the opportunity to secure a basic level of housing, food, healthcare, and education (including technical workplace skills). If we don’t have enough private market jobs, then the government will have to develop some more worthy programs (environmental cleanup & better education?) that employ people. We can add to the 22M already employed by federal, state and local governments.
   Certain people, especially within the homeless population (600,000), have debilitating mental health issues and we need to care for those individuals and not leave them on the streets.
   Most other people (who do not have debilitating mental health issues) would probably rather live from their own efforts than from a handout (which is not great for one’s sense of self-worth). If there are some people that just want to freeload, so be it.
   Setting the level of the social safety net to provide for the basic necessities in life but not so high that the individual is still incentivized to want to improve their situation by making good decisions, delaying gratification, getting an education and working hard to improve their position seems both humane and appropriate.
   Education is the most important tool for financial independence; and should be available to all. Those who are smart and/or hard working will rise to the top and have an opportunity to be recognized and remunerated in the workforce at a higher rate. Our primary education system (K-12) is in need of an overhaul, for sure. However, if you make it to college, you probably shouldn’t spend $300,000 getting a film degree at Columbia University (reference to a recent NYT article) unless your parents are paying and you don’t need to count on much income after you graduate.

5. The sad truth is that a not insignificant number of children come into this world with virtually no chance at being successful. Their situation and the system virtually guarantees that their road to success will be almost impossible to follow. As you mentioned people give themselves way to much credit and assume that regardless of their circumstances that they would find a way to overcome those obstacles.

   1. Maybe those people should wait before having children.

6. Thank you for this piece. I think from the comments most do not have the epiphany that is required to truly benefit from that attempt to break the myths around us. I’m not sure I do either but I have been telling people that I got lucky in my description of my financial situation. I’m not a wealthy man but compared to the people down in the creek or many people in my apartment complex I do not have any concerns. What I can see though from this is how we’ve been in cultured to believe the scaffolding that we work hard we will succeed and therefore are successes depend upon our hard work. This negates all the decisions as you pointed out that gave me the opportunity to work hard in the first place in a situation I would pay me well for hard work.

   I’m sure there’s more to the points you’re making that I’m missing, but at least I can say thank you for starting the process of recognizing why I am who I am. Ultimately that is very satisfying to me feel like I know who I am and why. Is that really though helping anyone other than me? Not sure what I can or anyone can do to help others see the point and then apply that to help other people.

   Some would say without an ability to help other people philosophy is just mental masturbation. So I think that’s the question of the day if you are starting to become enlightened by these thoughts what do you do?

7. I know a fellow who lived in govt housing the cheapest housing in town, from about 5 yrs of age to 10 or so. His mom eventually married up, and that new household supported him properly but as a matter of principal required the exit of all children shortly after graduation. Long story short upon retirement from the military he became six figure successful, and a Tucker Carlson fan. I occasionally drive by those old buildings that sheltered him, I am proud of my friend for his success. I do not believe he gives credit toward the govt support he received. Granted i have never asked about it. He is not egotistical but he is caught up in the meritocricity myth, while social program spending grinds on him.

8. I’m relatively successful (seven figures). In my 50s I said it was 25% luck and 75% good choices. Now (65+) I think it’s more like 75% luck, 20% good choices, and 5% not making any really bad choices. One piece of luck that’s made a huge difference is having been born in America in the exact middle of the baby boom.

   1. Yep.