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Notes -
Remember when I said this system was fundamentally just child sacrifice?
Well, I meant it.
Or in other words, the sacrifices to the academic-managerial system have consumed everything, just like those Easter Island heads. The system has to look for more and more people who are born outside of it (and ban every other sector of economic activity) to keep its asset prices inflated.
One notices the system lives in fear of those who would rather burn them at the stake instead, and the split between Blue and Red (and the other dichotomous groups that are proxies for this) is in many ways a looming socioeconomic pension crisis specifically because we sacrificed too many kids, and too much youth, in the service of building [or inflating, if you will] so many heads.
Which is perhaps in large part why, right now, the political fight in the West is between the academic-managerial class and everyone else. That class is expecting a payout in political power that most countries simply can't afford to honor if they want to remain solvent.
I largely agree, though I think it’s also the old people as well, as so much of current social and political activity seems to be going towards coddling the elderly and at best ignoring if not punishing the young that it’s almost absurd. Tax rates for retired people is capped in my state, especially real estate taxes which fund stuff that workers and parents need like good roads, schools, police departments, etc. Most of the entitlement programs outside of WIC by dollar are for old people— SSI and Medicare cost more than the military at this point, and with no requirement that the older people do anything productive for the economy or society in general.
As far as infrastructure, there’s much more political will for things that older people want around than for stuff younger people want. Play grounds are too much money, but golf courses get breaks. Low end restaurants you could reasonably take a family with kids aren’t built as often as higher end places that are pretty kid-unfriendly. If you’re under 40, you don’t matter
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