But if you dont know any better I guess its fine

Btw I've lived in one of those regimes. Yes people often privately expressed their stark opinions against the system, sometimes in more vague forms also publicly. There is infinite amount of gray between those 2 extremes, and US is already somewhere there moving darker a bit each day.

I hope being wrong for your sake, but I've met such folks, brilliant in 1 very narrow direction but socials are lacking pretty badly.

Just 1 nitpick - women who care about you suddenly once you have some wealth and/or show off you have are not good partners, not even short term. Its obvious common knowledge yet when looking around its surprisingly often ignored.

Parent's claim are as old as human civilization, we are still just a bit better apes and what he wrote is still valid for 100% of the humans. It doesn't mean 100% will admit it, far from it.

Nobody is arguing against just getting more money (well it gets philosophical at least) but how much you lose of your most precious item you have in this world to attain it and if its worth it.

Or to put it in other way, just check by far the biggest regret of many dying people. If you think you can behave the same but somehow avoid ending up in same situation well... good luck I guess, you'll need it.

What I see from outside is complete full reversal of US and China and their roles in the world regarding politics and security. US has nothing to offer to anybody - backstabbing, frequent changes of policies on morning whims of an old sick man, or very direct economical attacks to closest former allies and threats of military attacks. Plus completely destabilizing global oil transport, massively increasing prices and helping trigger a global recession.

Only an absolute fool would think US has anything positive to offer. In such world, China is by far the least of the evil, role traditionally held by US but not anymore.

One suggestion - don't travel much around the world and certainly avoid backpacking and interacting with locals and understanding things like history or culture, you may eventually lose those... beautiful opinions of yours

There are many places which are more democratic and free than US ever was, its not a secret information but you won't hear about it in latest hollywood flick or fox/cnn. One only needs to travel a bit outside US bubble with open mind.

US system of 2 parties is pretty dumb if you think about it, artificial in pretty bad ways and not really transferable elsewhere. Constitution and laws which are less than toilet paper when power is taken by sufficiently motivated bad actor, 0 working checks and balances. It could have been worse of course if thats how we want to rank it, but we are not even in the half of it and something tells me we haven't seen the worst of it yet.

Not sure if airliners are regulated like that, but 'free business' is not anarchy by any means, unlike you suggest.

Its still pretty lame and shows vast incompetence on all levels. Maybe I am a bit naive but correct solution is to tackle underlying problems, not just give up because thats what you basically suggest.

I don't think morals and ethics are drilled too deep into those recruits, more like 'the end justifies the means' style of operation.

If can be just factually and morally correct step of taxing given company for income from given country and thats almost it. Maybe close few biggest loopholes how to hide income while having massive revenues. None of the faangs operate like that, with such move their revenues and stock prices would fall down since part of valuation is based on continuing this tax scam/fraud.

This would spawn few hundred billions globally to start with. Of course tech bros et al would launch some massive PR counter-campaign also here, thats all fine and expected.

Will it solve everything? No but will set a better path for future while helping also right now massively. If you have kids and cared even a little what world they will inherit from us, this is how you build its foundations. Not hoarding money at all costs and fuck the rest since everybody relies on rest for existence and thriving.

And this is where we go full speed, and if anybody voices concern there is 'think about children!' for 'em or just laugh them off as luddites. If you ever wanted to move social layers, yesterday was too late.

But imagine the control - how desperate folks will be for some pocket money if half of population is unemployable. So much control! So many cheap gardeners / sex slaves to choose from! You would have to work outside openai / anthropic to refuse that, for sure you will be one of few on top of the pile, not some trash within it right.

Time to rewatch V for Vendetta and Gattaca.

Shocks do come, nothing is static. One may end up bankrupt earlier than correction happens though. Vote with your feet if you want change earlier than it coming from the top.

What is smart is to use those money and build (or at least head towards) future that will allow you to chill a bit more and focus on more important matters in our short lives. I am doing my best, it may be enough or not, we shall see soon.

Find life satisfaction from other sources is my advice, but not corporate world and career in such. Thats a sure sign of life wasted on many levels.

Sad country, just US. Rest of the western world works much better. But this is what US population wants, more direct money at all costs and praying all the time no nasty health surprise is around the corner. Otherwise you are a commie or worse. Higher education is exactly the same.

Given overall health of US population thats not a good bet and it only gets worse with age.