C.C. Francis's Blog, page 11
August 16, 2020
August 15, 2020
Great article. Thank you for sharing.
Great article. Thank you for sharing.
August 12, 2020
August 11, 2020
Money-printing and the debt are certainly big problems.
Money-printing and the debt are certainly big problems. But they’re not insurmountable. The shift of generations and the advent of sentient AI will bring about significant changes in 10-20 years’ time, which we can’t now predict.
And America isn’t a civilization in the way you describe. If it is an empire, it is an empire of the mind. It is the leader in a global civilization of competing ideologies of governance. The end of deficit spending & money-printing is inevitable. It would be better if that happened before we lost reserve currency—and even more political capital than we already have. That is our greatest asset—the idea of America.
That idea traces back to our ideals and founding documents. We will move closer to them and to one another after President Trump leaves office and COVID-19 is in the past. But only time will heal the wounds of this crisis. Another financial crisis or even Great Depression wouldn’t end the USA or global civilization. That’s pure fatalism. Unless the AI decides we’re irrelevant. Then we’re in some trouble.
August 7, 2020
Hannibal’s Edge
Three strategic takeaways from Carthage’s near-conquest of Ancient Rome
August 5, 2020
Thank you!
Thank you!
https://www.amazon.com/Elysia-C-C-Francis-ebook/dp/B07P3T9PY8/
It's free on Kindle. It's my first book, so it might start a bit slow. But I learned a lot writing it!
Why Have Millennials and Gen Z Lost Faith in America?
Photo by Natalya Letunova on UnsplashA Short ExplorationThe reason many Millennials and Gen Z unwisely favor socialism is that the metaphorical deck has been stacked against them.
They have been presented with a fraction of the opportunity of older generations, with almost no political representation, at geometrically greater costs of living than previous generations.
Consider these reasons:
1) Education inflation & student loan debt;
2) Monopolies, revolving-door corruption, & corporate political clout;
3) Healthcare feudalism — lack of universal, high-quality coverage;
4) Housing costs — supply constriction/NIMBY policies at state & local level;
5) Lack of any meritocratic selection process for federal civil leadership;
6) Internal strife & in-group party pandering resulting in a dearth of federal leadership;
7) Unstoppable deficit spending & money printing.
Socialism is bad. Common ownership of the means of production destroys incentives & the wealth of nations. Communism has failed every time it has been tried. That’s why the USSR fell. It’s why Venezuela and other nations who have tried these systems have endured chaos and disorder.
But it’s not black or white. Too much inequality is bad for incentives & innovation too. We can do a lot to manage the Pareto Distribution and foster innovation.
Rebuilding an Innovation Economy
Young people today get out of school with $200-400k in debt, paying $3k/month for rent, looking at $800k starter homes, likely with no job and no health insurance and no ability to bring a passion to market or innovate.
If they can find work, they pay for Social Security — a generational wealth transfer to the Boomers that set up this broken system. There’s no chance Social Security will be solvent in 50 years. So our pockets are being picked to pay for old people who couldn’t save, even when building capital was easy — before they ruined our prospects for their own benefit.
Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos has almost $200b. The richest 0.1% owns almost as much capital as the bottom 90%. Small business owners are struggling like mad. Our tax system preferences Capital Gains over income, so 6-figure professionals get hosed while Gates and Buffet pay preferred rates.
What can we do about it?
Replace our taxation model with a national, flat consumption tax (“VAT”) — with an additional annual net worth tax above $50m (no significant negative impact on capital incentive structure — probably the opposite).Ultra-Millionaire Tax | Elizabeth Warren
Forgive student loans and radically overhaul our education system to be efficient, consistent, innovation-focused, & market-driven.Teach Socratic Method & critical thinking in primary school.Replace Social Security’s generational wealth transfer with Universal Basic Income (“UBI”) to foster innovation and maintain America’s competitiveness on the global stage.Do everything possible to increase housing supply & eliminate NIMBY red-tape policies at all levels of government.Use the Sherman Act to break up big tech monopolies & foster competition.Regulate social media as a utility to preserve freedom of speech.Institute improved vetting & initial/routine cognitive testing for federal civil leadership.American youth have inherited a shell of what the United States represents — and what it can be.
Most of us are poorly educated (to market) at great personal indebtedness in a brutal job, housing, and healthcare market. We have little prospect of the “Dream” the Boomers enjoyed for themselves.
At the same time, we have almost no representation in D.C. — Congress is almost entirely Boomers. Boomers control capital. Boomers routinely select incompetent leadership and continuously run deficits. And they seem to have no concept of how much things have deteriorated, or of the urgency of fixing these problems.
It’s a shame. But we will build a better future for our children. Eventually.
August 4, 2020
Find your Flow State
Stop chasing validation, turn off notifications, and lose yourself in the now.
Moments to Midnight
How introspection & the Socratic Method might turn back the “Doomsday Clock.”
