Comment by lifestyleguru
2 months ago
> Her motto was "idiots _have_ to be scammed".
So all Americans in context of health insurance? All Italians in context of their byzantine bureaucracy and taxation system? All Europeans in context of social and retirement systems? All developed world in context of housing market? It turned into dog eat dog "eat the sucker" attitude. On top of the hierarchy we got really nasty predators, they look at YOU and see an idiot sucker.
Moreover, when this kind of attitude prevails, there are costs to the society at large. In a low-trust society, everyone needs to invest in walls around their house-compounds, and to avoid going out at night. You need to keep your wits about you to avoid scams and pickpockets -- mental energy that might otherwise go to other purposes. These small costs then compound across the whole of the society: There is less economic growth, there is less technological development. More individual wealth is required to maintain the same overall quality of life. Would you rather be a middle class person in 2024 or a medieval king? In those societies you're, at best, more like the medieval king. It's not as good.
The solution to these kinds of game theoretic issues is strong social norms, and punishment for violation. If this woman is scamming people, she needs to face consequences -- ideally within the official legal system, but perhaps also informally.
> All Europeans in context of social and retirement systems?
Can you please explain? You probably know something I don't
I don't know of a single case where a person actually got the retirement money they were promised along the way.
First demography of native populations, second the population from last decade's migration crisis don't seem to be contributing into the systems. Employed suckers think that 40% deduction from monthly paycheck is waiting there to help and save them in case of any troubles in the future or in the old age.
Yeah, you probably into something. Very possible the social systems collapse at some point
Most of the social protections and regulations underpinning life in the 'developed world' came about due to the horrors of the Great Depression and World War II. States knew that without a social safety net, availability of jobs and housing, national unity would be impossible to have, especially with an expansionist Soviet Union next door.
All of these lessons are being rapidly forgotten. Casino capitalism wrecked people's retirements in 2008. Almost 2 decades on, housing costs are out of control for millions of working people, because private equity can buy homes with cash at 0%, while families have to show all sorts of creditworthiness for the privilege of paying 6%.
On top of that, businesses that are already profitable (Google/FB, oil and gas, banks) are now charging even more because they can get away with it.