This is really, REALLY interesting, Chao. Your examination of the three-headed hydra takes on a very complex problem in a way that's understandable for everyone.
By the way, I drive a 2003 Toyota Matrix that is destined to become a classic within a few years. If your friend wants to swap his $1 million McLaren straight across, I'm willing to listen. Thank you in advance for connecting us!
This is really interesting Chao and I appreciate you laying it all out. It is an interesting phenomenal and feels hopeless in some ways. I’ll add to the problem in these sectors is labor supply. More and more, the smart people who may have had an interest in becoming teachers and healthcare workers see that their counterparts make more money and have less student debt after college. Why go $400k in debt and wait to work fully as a doctor until you’re 30 when instead you could get a cushy tech job (even more accessible because of AI) instead? The supply of people willing to do these jobs in these industries is going down. And to your point about healthcare, it’s a very different experience to go to a low income clinics in San Jose than to Stanford. The care is as good but the staff is swamped. Getting a referral is impossible. This will only get worse.
That all being said, I do feel like this problem was much worse for me when I was in the Bay Area vs the rest of the country. High cost of living cities where the wealth inequality is huge are feeling the effects of this way more.
Thanks Michelle - it so so true what you say about med school students taking on so much debt. It is such an artificial scarcity to restrict the number of medical school acceptances. It's this scarcity that allows med schools to then charge so much
fascinating read! part 2 could also include some background on Peter Turchin's concept of "elite overproduction" throughout history, René Girard on mimetic rivalry, and maybe Peter Thiel who's the modern day "practitioner" regarding the latter's conclusions
Glad you found it interesting, Thomas! Yeah, I was thinking about Girard, and at least peripherally how Thiel fellows are showing another unexplored ladder to excellence
What Marx didn't see was that 'abundance' - production without humans - degrades human life and is the end of social life. Because humans don't need other humans anymore for producing essential products like housing and food. They don't need to cooperate anymore for the 'struggle to survive'. Humans are superfluous. They don't need to reproduce anymore, and this is what one can see in the advanced capitalist countries, including China. They can only consume and 'amuse' themselves.
It is very hard to change capitalism in a way that respects human needs, including restoring humans taking part in production and reproduction. Nowadays, nobody wants to hear about the real problems of capitalism. Without that, the only 'hope' is that it will collapse. I have worked on this problem for 20 years and have suggestions for a way out.
Marx never had serious ideas about communism. He called the party he grounded 'communist' as a critique on socialist parties, as you can read in the introduction to the Communist Manifesto. That Manifesto was a program that is just a bit more radical than that of the Labour Party in England in the 1950's. The same thing goes for Lenin who renamed the socialist party to communist as a critique on the socialist parties who decided to fight along with their countries in World War One.
In hindsight a really stupid move as communism is completely impossible. Even their socialist ideas were flawed. They were far too optimistic about the intellectual capacities of 'the proletariat'. The one thing you can learn from reading Capital, is that capitalism is a real threat to humanity and that something has to be done. That's important enough.
I try to find a way to translate may book on this problem to get attention in the English-speaking world. Especially in the US, the imperialist center of Western capitalism.
This is really, REALLY interesting, Chao. Your examination of the three-headed hydra takes on a very complex problem in a way that's understandable for everyone.
By the way, I drive a 2003 Toyota Matrix that is destined to become a classic within a few years. If your friend wants to swap his $1 million McLaren straight across, I'm willing to listen. Thank you in advance for connecting us!
Thanks, Larry! There's another story I have to share about my neighbor - but maybe in story gym
Go for it!
This is really interesting Chao and I appreciate you laying it all out. It is an interesting phenomenal and feels hopeless in some ways. I’ll add to the problem in these sectors is labor supply. More and more, the smart people who may have had an interest in becoming teachers and healthcare workers see that their counterparts make more money and have less student debt after college. Why go $400k in debt and wait to work fully as a doctor until you’re 30 when instead you could get a cushy tech job (even more accessible because of AI) instead? The supply of people willing to do these jobs in these industries is going down. And to your point about healthcare, it’s a very different experience to go to a low income clinics in San Jose than to Stanford. The care is as good but the staff is swamped. Getting a referral is impossible. This will only get worse.
That all being said, I do feel like this problem was much worse for me when I was in the Bay Area vs the rest of the country. High cost of living cities where the wealth inequality is huge are feeling the effects of this way more.
Looking forward to your next essay!
Thanks Michelle - it so so true what you say about med school students taking on so much debt. It is such an artificial scarcity to restrict the number of medical school acceptances. It's this scarcity that allows med schools to then charge so much
Yes so true! It makes me frustrated because we need more healthcare professionals and create this scarcity. All to your greater point here.
…brutal, and at this pace seems unfixable…now i know why ol’ zuck owns a half island bunker…
fascinating read! part 2 could also include some background on Peter Turchin's concept of "elite overproduction" throughout history, René Girard on mimetic rivalry, and maybe Peter Thiel who's the modern day "practitioner" regarding the latter's conclusions
Glad you found it interesting, Thomas! Yeah, I was thinking about Girard, and at least peripherally how Thiel fellows are showing another unexplored ladder to excellence
Hi Chao,
I live in the Netherlands where things are even worse.
'Productivity skyrockets and prices collapse.' This is true, and was already discovered by Marx in Capital (1867). https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/index.htm .
What Marx didn't see was that 'abundance' - production without humans - degrades human life and is the end of social life. Because humans don't need other humans anymore for producing essential products like housing and food. They don't need to cooperate anymore for the 'struggle to survive'. Humans are superfluous. They don't need to reproduce anymore, and this is what one can see in the advanced capitalist countries, including China. They can only consume and 'amuse' themselves.
It is very hard to change capitalism in a way that respects human needs, including restoring humans taking part in production and reproduction. Nowadays, nobody wants to hear about the real problems of capitalism. Without that, the only 'hope' is that it will collapse. I have worked on this problem for 20 years and have suggestions for a way out.
I am having trouble seeing how communism would help in any of the issues I raised
Marx never had serious ideas about communism. He called the party he grounded 'communist' as a critique on socialist parties, as you can read in the introduction to the Communist Manifesto. That Manifesto was a program that is just a bit more radical than that of the Labour Party in England in the 1950's. The same thing goes for Lenin who renamed the socialist party to communist as a critique on the socialist parties who decided to fight along with their countries in World War One.
In hindsight a really stupid move as communism is completely impossible. Even their socialist ideas were flawed. They were far too optimistic about the intellectual capacities of 'the proletariat'. The one thing you can learn from reading Capital, is that capitalism is a real threat to humanity and that something has to be done. That's important enough.
I try to find a way to translate may book on this problem to get attention in the English-speaking world. Especially in the US, the imperialist center of Western capitalism.
I was hoping for some continuation of the discussion.