The Open Question Feb 25: What's the future of America? Are we (USA) in a decline? Are we thriving? Does it matter? Think The Fourth Turning, Ray Dalio's changing world order, The Decline of the Roman Empire, rise of China, and whatever else you bring.
#openquestion
What if Tariffs Are a Good Thing? I was surprised to find that this podcast made me wonder whether tariffs would actually be really good for the US economy and, more importantly, for midd-class American people.
With all the raging about how awful Trump is, it's been very hard to find any thoughtful analysis about which parts of his policies might actually be beneficial for Americans.
In this podcast, Ross Douthat (NYT) interviews Oren Cass, the Founder and Chief Economist at American Compass, a conservative think tank. Oren makes a really good case for the following:
The opportunity that tariffs provide is to buffer globalization and proactively re-shape the American economy to be more self-reliant, more inclusive and more balanced (geographically, industry-wise, etc). For example, Oren notes that globalization has been driving wealth toward tech & financial hubs, like NYC, Austin, San Francisco, while middle America has been largely stagnant. With more manufacturing, job distribution could be more equitably spread across the country.
What I liked most about this podcast were a few things:
As cities like Austin cater to coastal transplants, their unique culture gets diluted, becoming more generic. Is cultural entropy inevitable, or is there a counterforce? As cities like Austin cater to coastal transplants, their unique culture gets diluted, becoming more generic. Is cultural entropy inevitable, or is there a counterforce?
The canary in the coal mine for me is the yuppie coffee shop (which admittedly I love). When you're in one of these shops - the ones with the $6 non-dairy cappuccinos, gorumet chocolate chip cookies topped with malden salt, in a room with lots of wood accents and pothos plants overflowing from their shelves, there's no way to tell if you're in Austin, or Williasmburg, or the mission district of SF or Shoreditch in London.
While the internet enable infinte diversity and microcommunities, physical spaces seems to be converging toward a monoculture. I imagine fueled by things like increased global travel and social media.
#DeepTakes
As cities like Austin cater to coastal transplants, their unique culture gets diluted, becoming more generic. Is cultural entropy inevitable, or is there a counterforce? As cities like Austin cater to coastal transplants, their unique culture gets diluted, becoming more generic. Is cultural entropy inevitable, or is there a counterforce?
The canary in the coal mine for me is the yuppie coffee shop (which admittedly I love). When you're in one of these shops - the ones with the $6 non-dairy cappuccinos, gorumet chocolate chip cookies topped with malden salt, in a room with lots of wood accents and pothos plants overflowing from their shelves, there's no way to tell if you're in Austin, or Williasmburg, or the mission district of SF or Shoreditch in London.
While the internet enable infinte diversity and microcommunities, physical spaces seems to be converging toward a monoculture. I imagine fueled by things like increased global travel and social media.
#DeepTakes
As cities like Austin cater to coastal transplants, their unique culture gets diluted, becoming more generic. Is cultural entropy inevitable, or is there a counterforce? As cities like Austin cater to coastal transplants, their unique culture gets diluted, becoming more generic. Is cultural entropy inevitable, or is there a counterforce?
The canary in the coal mine for me is the yuppie coffee shop (which admittedly I love). When you're in one of these shops - the ones with the $6 non-dairy cappuccinos, gorumet chocolate chip cookies topped with malden salt, in a room with lots of wood accents and pothos plants overflowing from their shelves, there's no way to tell if you're in Austin, or Williasmburg, or the mission district of SF or Shoreditch in London.
While the internet enable infinte diversity and microcommunities, physical spaces seems to be converging toward a monoculture. I imagine fueled by things like increased global travel and social media.
#DeepTakes