Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Donald Trump Is Messing Up A Good Thing



Donald Trump is America's Boris Johnson. The two admire each other greatly. Trump is rooting for Boris to become Prime Minister of Britain. This is hubris melting into recklessness.

If America had three dollars in 2001, it made one of those three dollars in the 1990s. Something like the Internet can give you a marked rise in productivity. But the technology on its own is agnostic. It does not innoculate you against harmful inequality. That the people get to do through the democratic process.

If America has five dollars today, it stands to have another 10 dollars by something like 2035. The new technologies are about to bring forth massive gains in productivity. But left to its own devices you could end up with a society like portrayed in The Hunger Games. There is a tiny rich elite. And the masses can barely get by.


Inequality has to be thought of in the same breath as climate change. It will take civilization to a cliff.

Trump's attitude towards it is (1) denial, (2) deliberate misdiagnosis (The Mexicans! The Chinese!), and (3) Pied Piper leadership (read my tweets!).

Projections that put China at number one in 2050 and India at number two also put the US at number three. For the tiny population that the US is in comparison, that is not a bad slot to be in. Measured by per capita income, the US might still be number one.

But that whole projection has to be taken with a grain of salt. Which projection in 1980 put China in 2019 where it is today? The leading economy in 2050 might as well be a country not even on the radar right now.

Boris Johnson will wreck the British economy. Given the chance, Donald Trump will do the same thing on this side of the pond.




Inequality And Climate Change Are Existential: A Blueprint For Survival
Towards A World Government
30-30-30-10: A More Thoughtful And Egalitarian Formula For Equity Distribution In Tech Startups For The Age Of Abundance
The Blockchain: Fundamental Like The Internet
The Character Called The Tech Entrepreneur



India 2050: Amitabh Kant
5G Challenges US Hegemony
Brexit, Aexit, And Trump
African Economic Union
Understanding China (2)
Trump's Prospects In 2020
Understanding China
Political Fallout For Xi
Made In China 2025
Trade War: The Spiral Down Scenario
Three Crises: China, Iran, DC

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