Ioper
2mo ago
There is probably also the part of not having a literal dementia patient in the oval office, which is pretty exciting almost regardless of policy platform.
Perhaps we're misunderstanding each other, when I say drastically cut consumption then I mean that they barely get any healthcare and no elderly care, most will work until they die. Retirement is consumption.
Ioper
2mo ago
Ioper
2mo ago
I think the underlying assumption here is that the majority of the population won't save nearly enough so they will be forced to work longer and/or drastically cut consumption when they retire.
Maybe I'm just surrounded by giga-chads but that has not been the issue for any of the men around me IRL, whether they found their partner the old fashioned way or through online dating, but it's a complaint I hear repeatedly online. Then again, people in places like the ww threads here and elsewhere frequently have bizarre stories of their issues dating which suggest to me that they are not just slightly below the median in mate attractiveness but very much so.
I think the issue here is that the internet amplifes the voice of the bitter losers that always have had issues, but were just invisible before. People like to trot out the graph of recently increasing sexlessness among young men but that has since rebounded.
As for why people don't have kids, I always come back to historic fertility trends and note that urbanism killed fertility a hundred years before feminism or modern dating markets, and it's remained remarkably consistent throughout time and place and the primary thing that has changed is the rate of urbanisation.
It seems to me that some combination of children being a major economic drain rather than a boon, delayed pair bonding, higher cost of living (particularly sufficiently large housing in safe areas with jobs), access to entertainment and maybe female labour force participation (lots of evidence against this being a major factor though) are the real culprits.
They have the same GDP per capita as Spain, or 66% of the UK.
In PPP terms they're about equal to the UK though, so I guess it depends on what you think about nominal GDP Vs PPP, as well as maybe GDP per capita per hours worked.
Ioper
2mo ago
He's been funny since he came back imo, starting with the COVID stuff, but the schtick is a bit old at this point.
Still, better an old tired routine than utterly wingcucked and sanitised garbage.
Ioper
2mo ago
Couldn't the same can be said for America? The art center certainly isn't Hollywood. Neither is youth culture.
Televised media is in cologne/Mainz, print media is in Hamburg.
As for tech the "perception" certainly is that Berlin is the center but I'm not sure it's true. It is true that the primary start up scene is in Berlin but far more information technology workers are employed in Munich (SWEs etc., not mechanical engineers), which is why I said there is an argument for both Berlin and Munich.
Used to be more important but is still a very important financial and media center. The undisputed nr 2.
The obvious one is China:
Political - Beijing
Financial - Shanghai
Tech - Shenzhen
Media - Dongyang or Shanghai
I think there is also a case to be made for Germany:
Political - Berlin
Financial - Frankfurt
"Tech" - There are arguments for both Berlin and Munich here
Media - Cologne or Hamburg
Ioper
2mo ago
You're aware that you can buy pre-cooked/softened legumes that are ready to eat right out of the can/package right? Its more expensive than the dried stuff but its still cheap and super low effort.
Or is it some other part of the process that feels like a pain?
Ioper
2mo ago
I see two ways to do this. One would be to abuse the refund feature and the other would be some combination of aggressive regional pricing and/or handing out coupons for the game in a region you wouldn't make much money in anyway, in order to gain exposure in regions you care about making real sales in.
Now, I don't believe this is what's happening but it's absolutely possible to do. Much more likely is that the game just is very popular in china.
Chinese actors are still universally very pretty, only with slightly different beauty norms than in Korea. If anything, the dominating beauty norms in china are still more boyish than Korea or even Japan.
The reason Korean dramas are more popular in the west than the Japanese or Chinese equivalents isn't because their actors are better looking, they're not (than the Chinese anyway), it's because they're much better written, acted, formatted and directed. Are they formulaic? Absolutely, but not more so than their Japanese or Chinese counterparts. I do agree that the Japanese sometimes act better though.
I absolutely agree with you that the CCP is a (probably the) major drag on things. Have you noticed the jingle/music they play when the propaganda segments start? I'm of two minds, either this is too is mandated by the party or they're winking towards the audience.
Ioper
2mo ago
which ends with the death of all the gods but also the birth of a new world without them and free of their influence.
The majority of the narrative- but not the final act in which reflects generational change
Isn't that what Ranni's ending is? Someone has to pick up the ring so she does, free from the elder will and takes the power away from the world, to the stars, so that it can no longer influence the world and it can be free.
Ioper
2mo ago
Balder's gate, a western studio making a game using a californian IP
Baldur's gate was made by bioware in Edmonton, DnD was created by gygax in Wisconsin and the forgotten realms was created by Ed greenwood in Toronto?
Ioper
3mo ago
As a self admitted enjoyer of east Asian cultural products I agree that they're doing well and are even ascendant but the Chinese don't really factor into this.
LoL is an American game, made by an American studio in America, that was acquired by a Chinese company well after it was released and got popular.
China is lagging in all areas of culture production, games, movies, TV and books. There are a few standout hits like wukong or the three body problem but in general the output is trash, unbelievably so. Have you tried playing the chinese mobile Skinner box games? Watch Chinese hit tv shows? Movies? They're almost universally god-awful. They have the technical and financial capacity to create good things but overwhelmingly aren't, even compared to woke America, which really says something.
Ioper
3mo ago
When cities skim the top talent from the countryside at least they're paying taxes in the same country, which isn't the case for immigrants.
Ioper
3mo ago
When you say you "make" soup or pizza do you mean that you make them or do you heat prepared meals, like canned soup and frozen pizza? Just wondering what we're dealing with.
If it's the first I would say that there is absolutely nothing wrong with soup and pizza.
Ioper
3mo ago
I think that the ZIRP economy has not inflated the need for SWEs but the capacity for tech companies to magazine away tons of SWEs and having them essentially do no productive work.
The end of ZIRP will not mean SWEs will go without work but that some of them will filter out into the real economy, where there is both a need for them and where they can do real material good.
There will be some readjustment of compensation downwards and overall compensation will still be good but not astronomic.
AI as it exists today will increase productivity some but that will mostly just mean that more work is possible to do profitably, not unemployment.
Ioper
3mo ago
I doubt that much would change if they made tips tax exempt. Tax fraud in those lines business is rampant anyway and not dependant on tips. IRS enforcement would still focus on those businesses and find about as much fraud, just using marginally different methods.
Making tips tax exempt just seems like a handout to some demographic (Nevada?), and not any kind of real attempt at improving either the IRS or general tax compliance.
Ioper
3mo ago
"Sword hunts" was a fairly common occurrence in Japan as well.
His interests of what? This is theMotte, not an opinion column in the NyT.
He is not claiming that Kamala is good or that you should vote for her but that in his real life democrats are excited and centrists less apprehensive about the democrats, which seems to align well with what polling and donations show.
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