Are we haggling over the wrong things?

Nah. That is a quote by someone who doesn’t actually understand capitalism. Capitalists are cannibals by nature. “Corporate raiders” have dismantled a thousand times more bloated, scope creeping” corporations in than the government regulators.
I was thinking it was actually Adam Smith… darned if I can find it or remember though. Been a long time since I struggled through “The Wealth of Nations”. I was thinking it was a well known capitalist that said it… was probably Stalin or Castro lol.
 
And yet there seems to be a bit of a cycle to it. I've heard the saying in business that one generation works their tail off to make it, the next generation builds on it, as they grew up during the difficult years of making it, and the 3rd generation loses it, because they grew up in relative opulence as the 2nd generation was building, and lack the discipline and focus of the previous generations. This process takes longer generally with real trust fund type wealth, but I think in many cases the cycle does play out.

I personally think there is massive opportunity to be successful in many blue collar fields right now.
In general, studies of past wealth cycles suggest family wealth almost never lasts more than the 4th generation.
 
In general, studies of past wealth cycles suggest family wealth almost never lasts more than the 4th generation.
Was thinking about this the other day. Billionaires and investors have been increasingly converting their stocks into long term assets that have a fixed supply (land and to a lesser degree, houses). You can imagine a scenario where the US begins to look like Europe with our own "landed gentry". So then they would marry sometimes up or down, split land between children, and sometimes sell the land to upstarts when in need of quick cash or payment of debt due to poor management, etc. Or increasingly just not have children at all!! (Also, what is Gates' plan when he is gone? He says he isn't leaving most of his wealth to his children, so why did he suddenly buy 50k acres in Arkansas? Leave to charitable orgs? Cover the state in solar panels?)

Real estate seems like a pretty safe bet until the end of this century when we are predicted to experience population decline. But be careful what kind of farmer u rent ur land to. Many of them are specialists in scamming for crop insurance possibly degrading your land and/or hurting your ROI long term.

(FWIW at least right now I hear the Gates land is being pretty well managed by local folks in Arkansas at least)
 
Population growth is not filling the spaces - the desire for some to not live in large cities is. We will never come close to peak population an a density basis, energy basis or food basis - particularly since we are pretty close demographically to peak population. But we will have to change our ways.

This is more or less how I see it too. The amount of people is definitely a problem, but where we live, and how we (ab)use the landscape is the bigger problem.
 
Was thinking about this the other day. Billionaires and investors have been increasingly converting their stocks into long term assets that have a fixed supply (land and to a lesser degree, houses). You can imagine a scenario where the US begins to look like Europe with our own "landed gentry". So then they would marry sometimes up or down, split land between children, and sometimes sell the land to upstarts when in need of quick cash or payment of debt due to poor management, etc. Or increasingly just not have children at all!! (Also, what is Gates' plan when he is gone? He says he isn't leaving most of his wealth to his children, so why did he suddenly buy 50k acres in Arkansas? Leave to charitable orgs? Cover the state in solar panels?)

Real estate seems like a pretty safe bet until the end of this century when we are predicted to experience population decline. But be careful what kind of farmer u rent ur land to. Many of them are specialists in scamming for crop insurance possibly degrading your land and/or hurting your ROI long term.

(FWIW at least right now I hear the Gates land is being pretty well managed by local folks in Arkansas at least)
My hunch with Gates buying up big farm properties has to do with places to build nuclear engery plants. Nuclear plant in the middle surrounded by nothing but farm land will make NIMBYism less of an opposition.
 
My hunch with Gates buying up big farm properties has to do with places to build nuclear engery plants. Nuclear plant in the middle surrounded by nothing but farm land will make NIMBYism less of an opposition.
Awesome if true. I'm YIMBY on nuclear. Although I would rather utilize existing industrial space but I see what ur saying.
 
This is more or less how I see it too. The amount of people is definitely a problem, but where we live, and how we (ab)use the landscape is the bigger problem.
Damn, now I feel real guilty.
I had to get away from people to survive, in my mind and I'm hogging 140 acres solo with a dog. It is not what I had in mind, but what worked. I was a builder most of my life too. Town life & neighbors.
This is the last place homesteaded in the lower 48. Laid out in Townships.
I'm on one quarter of the original homestead........and I cannot see a roof for miles.
 
Damn, now I feel real guilty.
I had to get away from people to survive, in my mind and I'm hogging 140 acres solo with a dog. It is not what I had in mind, but what worked. I was a builder most of my life too. Town life & neighbors.
This is the last place homesteaded in the lower 48. Laid out in Townships.
I'm on one quarter of the original homestead........and I cannot see a roof for miles.
Don't feel guilty Hank. You earned your great lifestyle. Life is too short to spend it wallowing in self loathing misery. Give Rio a pet and biscuit for me!
 
Everybody sees the coordination of my red and black crow kit, but they don’t see the 4:30am wake ups and the mile of back country skiing it takes just to get to the car to go work 8hrs of hard manual labor in the cold.

A lot of people see me sliding in hockey stop to fakie under the stage lights at the base of the eagle, but they don’t see me transitioning in the wind at the top of excelerator.

All for a dream they call the west.
 
Damn, now I feel real guilty.
I had to get away from people to survive, in my mind and I'm hogging 140 acres solo with a dog. It is not what I had in mind, but what worked. I was a builder most of my life too. Town life & neighbors.
This is the last place homesteaded in the lower 48. Laid out in Townships.
I'm on one quarter of the original homestead........and I cannot see a roof for miles.

I understand.

Let me help alleviate your guilt. We can do an even swap. You can have my 1905 brick house on a 3940 sqft lot, smack dab middle of Denver. And I’ll take that terrible weight off your shoulders!
 
Population growth is not filling the spaces - the desire for some to not live in large cities is. We will never come close to peak population an a density basis, energy basis or food basis - particularly since we are pretty close demographically to peak population. But we will have to change our ways.
I remember hearing someone say that the US would have to move its entire population to Texas to get the same population density as India. Quick math check shows it is still close enough to declare true. It shows how good we have it in the US. We still have the ability to choose the 10acre place outside of town and have a lot of public land. Eventually that choice goes away for all but those with a number with lot of zeros in the bank. Unfortunately what we want the future to look like and what is possible are completely different.
 
I remember hearing someone say that the US would have to move its entire population to Texas to get the same population density as India. Quick math check shows it is still close enough to declare true. It shows how good we have it in the US. We still have the ability to choose the 10acre place outside of town and have a lot of public land. Eventually that choice goes away for all but those with a number with lot of zeros in the bank. Unfortunately what we want the future to look like and what is possible are completely different.
With inflation, everyone can have a number with a lot of zeros in the bank.
 
I think a lot of people are using weird cop outs: The Sun will eventually burn out. Greenland used to be tropical. If the human population crashed, we would be in a bad way. Etc etc.
Those may be true, but they are so esoteric as to be dismissable. What we are talking about is realistic reductions in resource consumption by humans (mostly Americans if you're talking per capita) in order to preserve something like what we consider a healthy ecosystem in our very predictable near future. If we want healthy landscapes and wildlife to enjoy, or for our kids or grandkids to enjoy, can we keep going like we are? I think most reasonable people agree that the answer is "No." Back to the OP's post, we have to mitigate a wide range of problems, climate change being just one of them.
 
I think a lot of people are using weird cop outs: The Sun will eventually burn out. Greenland used to be tropical. If the human population crashed, we would be in a bad way. Etc etc.
Those may be true, but they are so esoteric as to be dismissable. What we are talking about is realistic reductions in resource consumption by humans (mostly Americans if you're talking per capita) in order to preserve something like what we consider a healthy ecosystem in our very predictable near future. If we want healthy landscapes and wildlife to enjoy, or for our kids or grandkids to enjoy, can we keep going like we are? I think most reasonable people agree that the answer is "No." Back to the OP's post, we have to mitigate a wide range of problems, climate change being just one of them.
I do agree with your narrow take - we have and will continue to change and adapt. But there are plenty of folks predicting full collapse in “near term” as a reason for government driven population regulation. This, I find weird.
 
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