If we believe the official inflation figures, supposedly living standards in the US are rising: Yet the proportion of people with cars is falling, the proportion of households with a car is falling faster, and the amount of meat people are eating is falling – consistent with a cpi rising at about the rate that shadowstats claims, about six to ten percent
Tag: decline of the west
Monsters among us
One curious and difficult to explain aspect of the left, is the tendency to hate what is good and true and to love monstrous evil and barefaced lies. Thus, for example, compare the worshipful treatment of China from 1956 to 1972, with the high pitched moral outrage directed at China when the Chinese government ended mass murder and artificial famine in the late seventies, and set to replacing slave labor …
Technological decay
Earlier I argued that technology in the west peaked in 1970, Tallest building 1972, coolest muscle cars, last man left the moon,though it continues to advance in some other parts of the world: Unreasonable expectations points at another indicator. The most advanced plane ever built, the SR71, was built in 1966, retired 1972. One would have expected stealthed mach three fighters and bombers to replace it, but instead, slower, lower …
Inflation
Total sales are rising ten percent a year in nominal terms.   Surprise surprise, shadowstats estimates ten percent inflation per year if we use the measure of inflation that was used in the the 1980s.   Hawaiian Libertarian reports that that is pretty much what he is seeing when he puts his money down. So what is the true rate of inflation? There is no one true rate of inflation, since to …
Stultum facit fortuna
Consensus leads to the madness of crowds, not the wisdom of crowds. As we move to a society ruled by consensus, madness and evil prevails.
The cause of the decline
Lately there as been a lot of concern about the increasingly visible decline of the west, notably Peter Thiel on “The End of the Futureâ€:
Progressives are not commies.
Commies propose the government run everything by a central plan. Progressives propose the government run everything with no plan at all. Commies believe that underdevelopment is a sin committed by wealthy capitalists against poor people, and propose to fix this by commanding stuff to be developed. Progressives believe that development is a sin committed by wealthy capitalists against Gaea and the trees, and propose to fix this by prohibiting stuff …
Curious cuddles between the Cathedral and Islam
If someone is a called a “moderate Muslim”, he is probably part of the establishment, part of our ruling elite, or spends much of his day in their circles. If someone is a Muslim, and part of our ruling elite or close to it, he is probably a terrorist, or spends much of the rest of his day in their circles. There is at most one degree of separation between …
Gabrielle Giffords needed killing
And so do most of congress, most of the regulators, and most of the businessmen in the revolving door between business and regulation. All the conservative criticism of her seems to be disappearing off the web, but what the hell, she stank, critics pointed out she stank, so someone killed her. Â It might have been a leftist who did not think she was left enough, but chances are, was …
The end of the road to serfdom
Hayek, in “The Road to Serfdom†predicted the welfare regulatory state must inevitably become the totalitarian terror state. Observe: We have arrived. America is now a totalitarian terror state. In 1992 I visited Cuba. Thereafter, I argued it was a totalitarian state, because when I asked certain questions some people fled, fearing that merely hearing the question would result in them being punished for the thoughts it might elicit, and …