Unprotected heterosexual sex and births were decoupled 55 years ago. Almost as tenuous is the link between births and well raised children who can and will provide the labor that is wanted.

The "free" internet is there, just the same as before. The proportion of people using it in the way they used to might have changed.

-or- use Waymo if you don’t want to spend resources on owning and maintaining a car, and if you are part of the population that has or may feel too intimidated or unsafe to navigate a potentially adversarial conversation with someone more powerful than you, such as women.

10% annual returns over previous 30 year returns for a fully liquid investment, 15% annual returns over previous 10 years.

Glorious for the beneficiaries of the retirement funds.

In the context of differentiating between wealth redistribution and insurance, insurance does not redistribute wealth, insurance redistributes risk since underwriting in a competitive marketplace ensures you only a premium commensurate to your risks.

For example, the government mandates only liability insurance up to $x, for which the premium for the same coverage can be vastly different depending on each person's driving history. While this can be considered a tax because the government mandates it, one can see how this is not wealth redistribution since the "tax" being paid is at least partly dependent on one's risk profile.

Contrast this with a government mandated defined benefit pension contribution equal to a percentage of one's earned income, with a known fact that one's contributions will reflect their benefit less and less as the years go on. That is far more "wealth redistribution" than "insurance".

Another example is in the US, health insurance premiums are more tax than an actuarially calculated premium based on health risk. This is because health insurers are not allowed to price health insurance based on health risks. It is explicitly a redistribution of wealth from the young and healthy to the old and sick, due to the maximum age rating factor and inability to underwrite based on pre-existing health conditions.

It could also be classified as an insurance premium, but a government mandating it is the key characteristic of a tax.

But the fact that the government reduces the annuity amount by increasing retirement age and benefit purchasing power means it is not insurance either. It is wealth redistribution from the working to the non working.

Some businesses can grow, some cannot grow, some grow at different rates. The risk adjusted (subjective) prices determine whether or not an investor should walk away.

If the answer is “No”, then it makes sense they would not follow laws they do not have to.

I assume almost everyone looks into spending less money than more money for equivalent goods and services.

Religions’ primary purpose is to facilitate tribal bonds, not experimentally seek truths and evaluate data for consistency. That is why almost all start with a set of tenets or immutable “facts”, such as the existence of an immortal component of a person (usually called a soul).

I don’t understand this. Why would COGS impact quality? Are Chinese people inherently inferior “Western” people?

The market inefficiency is partly the difference in price of labor, which is being made more efficient by Chinese manufacturers succeeding.

The “west” came up with Tesla and Rivian, and their cars are on the road. And the US tariffed chinese EVs. What else can be done to combat China’s lower priced labor and possibly more lax environmental regulations?

https://dqydj.com/stock-return-calculator/

https://dqydj.com/sp-500-return-calculator/

Could also partly be a curiosity to see what one is capable of, or maybe wanting to be known for helming an organization that accomplishes xyz.

If cannabis smoking also offsets alcohol or other drug use, that seems like a win. I have never seen a person get violent after smoking cannabis, much the opposite.