[ExI] I see pitchforks.

[John Clark]

On Tue, Jul 9, 2019 at 3:21 PM Dan TheBookMan <danust2012 at gmail.com> wrote:

> *I**’m not against discussing wealth inequality, especially the part due
> to special privileges *


40% of the billionaires on Forbes list of the 400 richest people in the
world inherited most of their wealth, 30% inherited virtually all of it.

Did the Forbes 400 Billionaires Really 'Build That'?
<https://www.cnbc.com/id/49167533>

 > *What will the US government actually do with ever more revenue?*


The first thing would not even require more revenue. The US could establish
a health care system like the one every other advanced country on the
planet already has and spend half as much per capita and get better
results; that is to say the life expectancy would go up not down as it has
in the USA for 3 years in a row . Any patriotic American should be utterly
embarrassed by that statistic. And don't tell me this is all liberal fake
news, this comes from the National Review for heavens sake:

For 3 years in a row American life expectancy fell
<https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/11/american-life-expectancy-decline-new-politics-of-meaning-needed/>

And if we let Register Nurses do more of the things that only doctors can
now legally do and take full advantage of recent advances AI has made in
image recognition and diagnoses that no country has yet done then we could
lead the world in life expectancy and spend even less.

> *Make the world a better place? *


Nothing will get better as long as Trump still has the power to put tanks
in the streets; and even with the help of our idiotic Electoral College the
very fact that such a creature could become president should tell you that
there must be extreme social forces at play the likes of which this country
has never experienced before.

The USA is just the canary in the coal mine, the same totalitarian
tendencies are starting to show up in the UK, Eastern Europe, Israel and
the Philippines. Even China, although still far freer than it was under
Communism, has less freedom now than it had 5 years ago.

> *Actually pay down the national debt? *


I certainly hope they wouldn't waste money doing that! A dollar today is
worth more than a dollar in 30 years, and if the technological singularity
happens between now and then it is worth *VASTLY* more.

 John K Clark
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