Inflation is framed not just as rising prices, but as a form of secretive theft. Since only a small percentage of Americans own significant assets that appreciate with inflation, the policy mechanistically funnels wealth upward from the working and middle classes to the top 10%, creating vast, systemic inequality.
Effective politicians operate less as policy experts and more as skilled entertainers. They adopt a specific 'genre'—like different styles of rap—to emotionally move their audience. This allows them to build a strong following and obfuscate a lack of concrete, cause-and-effect policy planning, focusing on feeling over function.
The feeling of correctly predicting economic disaster due to flawed policies, yet being powerless to stop it, is akin to the Greek myth of Cassandra. She was cursed to know the future but have no one believe her. This illustrates the frustration of seeing knowable, mechanistic failures unfold while warnings go unheeded.
While current brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are for medical patients, the timeline for healthy individuals to augment their brains is rapidly approaching. A child who is five years old today might see the first healthy human augmentations before they graduate high school, signaling a near-term, transformative shift for society.
To prevent political stalemates from causing prolonged government shutdowns, a mechanism could automatically reopen government after a set period. This 'dead hand switch' would trigger pre-agreed, across-the-board budget cuts, forcing politicians to negotiate in good faith to avoid an automated outcome that neither side fully controls.
Populist leaders often correctly identify public suffering but propose solutions that worsen the problem. This is compared to Steve Jobs' fruit juice diet for pancreatic cancer, which accelerated his illness by feeding the tumor carbohydrates. Similarly, policies focused on punishing the wealthy rather than fixing root causes are catastrophically counterproductive.
The MAGA movement didn't spontaneously arise with Donald Trump. It was the result of a decade-long media strategy by figures like Rupert Murdoch. By acquiring and synchronizing messaging across AM radio stations and Sinclair Broadcasting's local news networks, they cultivated a national conservative base long before Trump's political ascent.
Just as shielding children from all hardship makes them soft, bailing out communities from their poor policy choices prevents them from learning. New York, having made its decision, must be allowed to suffer the consequences. The resulting pain is the necessary catalyst for the city to become tougher and eventually correct its course.