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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 24, 2023

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Without steady supplies of chips, modern economies are finished. Chips are needed for cars, for everything. I'll bet they're needed for semiconductor plants, and in large quantities. What is Apple without steady production of high quality chips - almost all of which come from Taiwan or South Korea?

Semiconductor factories can be blown up, but they can also be built. There's already a factory in Arizona capable of making M1 chips. If we get to hot war threatening South Korean semiconductor production or availability (extremely unlikely without going to full WWIII), the sorts of regulations that prevent expansion will either tend to melt away, or at worst more factories will be built just south of the US-Mexico border (and run by former Taiwanese, probably). This is regardless of who is in charge in the US, perhaps unless it is the California State Assembly (which isn't very likely for obvious reasons).

What about all the debt Americans are in? There are all these statistics floating around about how many Americans can't afford a sudden $1000 expense

You've heard the old saw about "lies, damned lies, and statistics". That's that kind of statistic. Bankrate runs that survey on a regular basis and the media lies about the results every time.

The survey asks "If hit with a $1,000 expense for an emergency room visit or car repair, you would:"

One answer is "Pay the cost from your savings". This is 43%. This is then used to claim that 57% of Americans can't afford the sudden $1000 expense.

When the nybbler is biting back on the blackpill it significantly changes my priors.

Is the needle cooling?