"A fatal injury in 1960 might be easily treatable today. To put concrete numbers on it: if aggravated assaults in the United States had been as lethal in 1999 as they were in 1960, the murder rate would have been 3.4 times higher (Harris et al 2002)"
"In both Western Europe and the United States, the mid-20th century was several times safer than today, despite being younger, poorer, thinner, and having far worse forensics."
“This has led many populists to swallow the leftist delusion that America’s problems are caused by the top 1%. In reality, 90% of America’s problems are caused by the bottom 1%. Virtually all of America’s problems are caused by the bottom 25%.”
Thought-provoking piece.
I was entirely with you at the beginning of this essay.
I am directionally with you on the middle, even if you go a bit too far for me.
But your last sentence quoted above, that ”Virtually all of America’s problems are caused by the bottom 25%”, is just wrong,
At least if we use the plain meaning of words and you mean bottom 25% by income (vs. by morality, or some other measure you make up but did not disclose).
Now if you were talking about *crime* problems ONLY, I would go back and agree with you directionally and spiritually. I agree that something like 90% of the crime problem comes from the bottom 5%-8% (plus a tiny percentage of their rich-from-crime leaders and foreign cartel leaders).
But if the topic is more than just crime, then IMO it is left elites who are responsible for far more than half of America’s problems.
Now if you really did mean just crime, you shoulda been clearer.
And of course, you would be wrong in ignoring the white collar crime and fraud as being only a trivial (100% minus “virtually all”) portion. But that’s a smaller exaggeration problem.
At some point, the artificial womb is gonna be invented — we’ve already reverse engineered about 25% of the job via NICU care.
And at least a few generations after that happens, it stands to reason that people will view abortion as a barbaric practice on the level of leeching, trepanation, and lobotomy — something people once thought was necessary for completely valid reasons, but was nonetheless misguided and morally abhorrent in its results, and thankfully unnecessary with modern technology.
Funny enough, it could end up being the solution to the fertility crisis.
"This has led many populists to swallow the leftist delusion that America’s problems are caused by the top 1%. In reality, 90% of America’s problems are caused by the bottom 1%. Virtually all of America’s problems are caused by the bottom 25%."
That's not the full story though. The reason the bottom % are such a problem is because the top 1% profit from them, and so protect them. It's both ends against the middle, and it's easier to fix the problem of those at the top first.
Why would a UBI, giving money to criminals for being criminals, mean that criminals do less crime? As opposed to more crime, since they now have more money?
This is the delusion that people would flower and do their best work if they had leisure. As opposed to what most people do when they have leisure, which is at best sit and consume, or at worst do more crime.
Note on the murder chart- the lethality rate of violent crime has decreased substantially due to improved communication tech and medical techniques. See https://arctotherium.substack.com/p/murder-as-measuring-stick?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
"A fatal injury in 1960 might be easily treatable today. To put concrete numbers on it: if aggravated assaults in the United States had been as lethal in 1999 as they were in 1960, the murder rate would have been 3.4 times higher (Harris et al 2002)"
"In both Western Europe and the United States, the mid-20th century was several times safer than today, despite being younger, poorer, thinner, and having far worse forensics."
fair enough
“This has led many populists to swallow the leftist delusion that America’s problems are caused by the top 1%. In reality, 90% of America’s problems are caused by the bottom 1%. Virtually all of America’s problems are caused by the bottom 25%.”
Thought-provoking piece.
I was entirely with you at the beginning of this essay.
I am directionally with you on the middle, even if you go a bit too far for me.
But your last sentence quoted above, that ”Virtually all of America’s problems are caused by the bottom 25%”, is just wrong,
At least if we use the plain meaning of words and you mean bottom 25% by income (vs. by morality, or some other measure you make up but did not disclose).
Now if you were talking about *crime* problems ONLY, I would go back and agree with you directionally and spiritually. I agree that something like 90% of the crime problem comes from the bottom 5%-8% (plus a tiny percentage of their rich-from-crime leaders and foreign cartel leaders).
But if the topic is more than just crime, then IMO it is left elites who are responsible for far more than half of America’s problems.
Now if you really did mean just crime, you shoulda been clearer.
And of course, you would be wrong in ignoring the white collar crime and fraud as being only a trivial (100% minus “virtually all”) portion. But that’s a smaller exaggeration problem.
I would add abortion.
At some point, the artificial womb is gonna be invented — we’ve already reverse engineered about 25% of the job via NICU care.
And at least a few generations after that happens, it stands to reason that people will view abortion as a barbaric practice on the level of leeching, trepanation, and lobotomy — something people once thought was necessary for completely valid reasons, but was nonetheless misguided and morally abhorrent in its results, and thankfully unnecessary with modern technology.
Funny enough, it could end up being the solution to the fertility crisis.
Artificial wombs already exist, and have been used to bring animals to term.
"This has led many populists to swallow the leftist delusion that America’s problems are caused by the top 1%. In reality, 90% of America’s problems are caused by the bottom 1%. Virtually all of America’s problems are caused by the bottom 25%."
That's not the full story though. The reason the bottom % are such a problem is because the top 1% profit from them, and so protect them. It's both ends against the middle, and it's easier to fix the problem of those at the top first.
Always thrilled to see another escapee.
This has been underway my whole life. Acclaimed 1995 film that illustrates this: Dead Man Walking.
A good UBI can corral the Permanent Underclass to prevent them from being a threat and pacify the liberals who bleat about "criminals' rights".
Why would a UBI, giving money to criminals for being criminals, mean that criminals do less crime? As opposed to more crime, since they now have more money?
This is the delusion that people would flower and do their best work if they had leisure. As opposed to what most people do when they have leisure, which is at best sit and consume, or at worst do more crime.