I never said it was a moral failing. What I did say is that people lack a values system to find meaning in their life. Even if you are poor, you can find meaning in your life, yet our society is completely geared around material goods= meaning. Religion used to fill that role.

That hole is often times filled with meaningless partying that can include experimentation with drugs. Of course many people get addicted via actual prescriptions. I havent done much research, but the article below suggests that few people are getting addicted via prescriptions.

why do people start using opioids in the first place?

https://tonic.vice.com/en_us/article/a3z98b/big-pharma-didnt...

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The media hurts because we are exposed to the "lifestyles of the rich and famous". Im gen X which seems to have the suicide problem. Gen X was raised with "greed is good" and glamorized miami vice. That is a hollow empty promise even when fulfilled.

I think another of the key problems is a lack of life philosophy (spirituality?) where people can find meaning in their lives outside of material goods. This is partially due to the death of religion. There also is a lack of understanding that life is fundamentally unfair and there somehow is the expectation that it should be fair. Without religion people are missing a clear moral compass that guides their life to find meaning. There needs to be a new modern philosophy that has moral underpinnings, but incorporates science, without necessarily having a deity.

Finally, children (including my generation) have been sheltered from lifes daily challenges by being given too much. I suspect when they become adults they simply can't handle what their lives actually are.

I think the current generation of kids are being raised to try to change the world and to seek meaning in helping other people. However they are also being raised to think that life should be fair and they are going to be bitterly disappointed.

People living in garbage dumps are able to figure out to be happy.

I live in the same country and I have a great life based on the actual people around me, not based on news media that pulls the worst things from around the country to try to generate more clicks.

My parents once told me that one of my biggest problems is that I was too happy. I have always had the mantra "the path to true happiness is to want for nothing". This means you can either have the things you wanted or choose not to want the things you dont have. If I want something badly enough I work to get/achieve it. If I'm not willing to work to get it, then I am at peace with my decision because apparently I didn't want it that badly.

I have a lot of material possessions and I enjoy them, yet if I were to lose them all it would be ok. There was a time in my life where I had to dig change out of the couch to buy enough to eat and I reveled in the moment, that I was a person that had to live that way. There was a certain thrill to finding a dollar so I could go to the farmers market to buy a basket of the veggies of the day which could be an entire basket of green peppers (yuck). I enjoyed learning a variety of recipes to make do with green peppers.

Im happy to be able to travel, help others, raise kids, do hobbies etc. I enjoy them, but the loss of all of that, especially as I get older, I think I can accept. Every phase of life brings something new to enjoy, even pain.

I often think about all the things I will lose, especially people, even to the point where it brings me to tears. I work to accept that loss today and to enjoy the having right now. One day I will lose my parents, I might lose my spouse, a child, a friend. When they are gone, I'll have the sadness, but I'll still have the joy of having had them in my life.

Someday I might not be able to walk, see, or get out of bed. But I will appreciate and treasure the time I did have.

As a concrete example I look at people who are so angry at trump, most of them are simply angry. The anger itself is pointless. In my world view you either act to create the change you want or accept that you dont care enough to act. Each person is motivated differently and people aren't bad because they don't care as much as you.

Even if you act, you might fail. If you recognize that failure is possible, even feel anguish over the failure, yet try to see the pleasure in the attempt and the failure, then you can have peace.

This means not being afraid of failure, because there is still joy in failure, the journey as well as the learning.

If you want peace, you can have it. Many people simply dont want peace.

It creates a logic chain that could happen, without any discussion of actual probabilities or costs.

For example banning of assault rifles, discusses how it could save lives. People are surprised to learn that there are less than 200 deaths per year from any type of rifle.

The same goes for universal background checks.

People can still work 9 to 5 and comfortably raise a family. While it is becoming more pretentious with tech money, it isn't too bad.

Austin is a tier 4 city that can at times still feel like a small town with some bigger city amenities.

https://timeular.com/?gclid=CjwKCAiA767jBRBqEiwAGdAOryNJfX4e...

It is an 8 (or more) sided shape that you flip to change tasks. The jury is still out as the people who are testing it havent had time to set it up..

You have to start with a hypothesis and then come up with the measures and expected outcomes based on it. Then you design the experiment to determine if the hypothesis is false.

There will always be work that machines cant do.

So predictit at least disagrees that mueller finds collusion.

And as always if you are absolutely certain that mueller will find collusion, you can make some money. Put your money where your mouth is.

There is a second path too which is slow and steady wins the race. If you live well below your means and invest your money you will also end up with enough money that you don't need to work. My wife's private school just got a $3M donation from their janitor of 50 years when he passed away. If you save 30-40% of your pre tax income, then you will be able to retire at a reasonably young age, with a very high probability.

Americans are very obese due to having a terrible diet and our heart disease kills more proportionally than our peer countries.

If you look at life expectancy of various ethnicities they are comparable to their countries of origin. If you look at life expectancy after 40 (where people are using medical care) the gap between the US and europe closes (but not completely).

1) marijuana enforcement can be a huge deal, getting let go vs going to prison

2) fireworks enforcement

3) zoning and permitting, is absolutely huge

4) taxes (sales, property, and even income)

5) "sanctuary cities" can have huge implications for illegal aliens

6) homeless policies

etc etc

Lets assume the product that B makes has a value which allows a 50% gross margin

A loans $100K cash to B at 10% markup (total value of system= 100K)

B buys raw material from A for 100K cash (total value of system now 200K as a magic 100K of raw materials were just added)

B creates product X and Y, now worth 200K (system is now at 300K)

A buys 60K of product X with cash (doesnt change value of system)

A cannot buy 60K of product Y with cash, though the total value of the system has increased.

There isnt enough cash in the system to settle all debts, but the total value of the system has increased. Cash would need to be printed to cover debts.

Fiat currency to some extent is balanced against the total GDP of the US.

Even better is that as long as the shareholder holds, they have increased value, but can defer taxes.