[DayDollar]

It also suspicously starts to look like planned economics, once the mono-duo-poly stage is reached.

Rare goods, long queues, no choice, bad products and the leadership is off, chasing its own tail in some basebal metric detached from the world. It even features market-libertarians having to defend practices like shredding perfectly fine goods in ware houses.

The moment the ussr was gone, the race horse finally could binge and become something very similar to the ussr economy, but instead of obsessing on tanks & steel, it focused on excel sheet virtual wealth wankery, disguising the slide back into the gilded age feudalism.

[abvdasker]

I mean if you look at the astronomical levels of defense spending the US greatly resembles the USSR even in terms of the "tanks & steel". Broadly this kind of waste and stratification is characteristic of just about every fading empire.

[georgeecollins]

Yet US defense spending vs GDP is nearly the lowest it has ever been in the last fifty years. If defense spending v GDP is a sign of a falling empire, we fell in 1960.

Plus seriously, if you think spending 4% of GDP will cause a country or "empire" to collapse you need to read some history books.

Source:

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS?locat...

[vGPU]

The argument can easily be made that the US began its period of decades-long decline right around then.

[rchaud]

US defense research gave us DARPA, the first step towards the Internet.

What are we getting via VC-led industrial policy? More jobs in selling advertising?

[Melting_Harps]

> What are we getting via VC-led industrial policy?

Oh, its much worse than that, it exposes the hyporacy of hustle culture, and entrepreneur porn entirely if you're paying close enough attention with things FTX.

The covertness of ivy leagues parents leaning on the VC heavy hitters (Sequoia et al) and making this Sam and his girlfriend to be a super genius' while operating like 2-bit clowns with almost no oversight or due diligence and bribing politicians to get favourable legislation in place for them to corner the market.

I wish it were just crumby ad jobs, but it goes way deeper.

[leereeves]

I completely agree, just want to point out that I think you mean ARPANET.

DARPA is the agency that funded ARPANET, and other defense research.

[mistermann]

There are some compilations on TikTok of people showing China's public infrastructure to America's (including the ~slums many neighborhoods have become)....not a good look. If the general public had a clue any of this was going on I think they'd be livid.

[flybrand]

Yes!

So much of the recent nuttiness worldwide is due to embracing a rebranding of ‘central planning’. It doesn’t work.

[the_gipsy]

What is the point of power if not to abuse it. Start a business, it's new and good and you penetrate the market, you grow and grow and... are you willing to let the next better product put you out of business? No of course not, you will throw all the weight you have to squash the competition disregarding fair play and ethics - that's why you grabbed that power, so that you can use it!

The USSR collapsed and 3 decades have past. Except Venezuela there is no menace of worker revolution at the horizon anywhere in the world. There is absolute zero menace to corrupt capitalist governments who run a two-party turnist democracy.

[eastbound]

> It also suspicously starts to look like planned economics

EU certainly is, or we have all signs of it: Most funding for French startups come from the BPI, so the BPI drives everyone to the AI Blockchain TechHR and whatsnot, while…

…while, as an example, and I underline it’s just one example of broader customs, French people regularly take hostage managers in factories for 2 to 10 days, until they sign off an agreement, provided limited supplies of water and food. None of those agreements was cancelled for duress. So we put all public funding into having the next Apple, while not letting actual customer demand drive the economy, and still preventing middle class people from actually going big.

I’m already rich so I try to remain emotionally detached, but when the state drives what should be built (Macron putting 500m into AI, and a billion into Intel chips of the previous-previous generation), it really is a state-driven economy.

[hef19898]

Well, a couple of things: France =|= EU, which should be obvious. Also, you have to put 500 million in context: Liquid Death (canned H2O) has a valuation of 700 million USD, MS dumped 10 billion on OpenAI and Germany burned 500 million on a road toll system that cannot be built because the whole concept is illegal. Someone else already brought up Adam Newman. And now put that in relation to the budget of an entire nation state. Peanuts, actually.

Regarding those Intel chips: Which chips exactly caused the chip crisis? High end latest gen ones or older tech? And now you can guess on which chips the vast, vast majority of national defence hardware runs. That idea actually isn't to bad.

[ClumsyPilot]

> I’m already rich so I try to remain emotionally detached, but when the state drives what should be built

This is simply ahistorical, every developed country got there with the help of the state.

Did the interstate highway system get built by venture capital? Did the power grid?

Western governments are no longer capable of these kind of major projects.

London is running out of water.

United Kingdom has huge canals connecting manchester, London, and Birmingham. They were dug without industrial machinery. With shovels.

When I propose to English people that there is plenty of water in scotland and maybe they should expand canals network and repurpose it to redistribute water, they think its madness. Some kind of unachievable, socialist plan.

China has built a canal network to redistrubute water. That why they will be earing our lunch - actually its their own lunch. We arent making lunch, we are wondering why market didn’t bring us lunch.

[imtringued]

If you are rich you could have done your part. It is really easy. All you have to do is read some books and then start a fintech (expected budget: 20 million USD, less if you can find a cooperating banking partner) and then all the things you complain about will disappear and you will even earn money in the process. I am dead serious.

[RandomLensman]

Where are those long queues, lack of choice, etc. - not my experience. Maybe there is some country specificity to it?

[x86x87]

Go and try to buy a car. It's not unusual to have to wait months and pay above MSRP

[RandomLensman]

Where I live, wait is normal - never really been different and MSRP isn't much of thing here, either.

Maybe indeed a more localized phenomenon.

[x86x87]

hah. okay, in the US, in the "good" old days only very poorly informed or suckers would pay MSRP (manufacturer’s suggested retail price). you would normally have to go to multiple dealerships, figure out what you want vs options that were actually on the car, haggle a lot and usually you would get a [way] better price than the MSRP. Dealers had inventory and cars to sell, so selling a car was better than not selling it.

in the brave new world (where we had a pandemic + supply chain shock + shortages of all kinds) you no longer have an option. Dealers do not have the car or if they do it goes away instantly. You have zero leverage and they will 1/ get whatever price they want for it (usually above MSRP) and 2/ will wait and be happy you managed to work something out.

Here: https://evto.ca/toyota-vehicle-wait-time-guide/ https://caredge.com/guides/factory-order-wait-times-2023 https://www.whichcar.com.au/news/toyota-wait-times-2023-deli...

I'm going to buy a used car you say? Well, you'd be shocked to learn how much used cars are going for (and there used to be a time during the pandemic, not too long ago where, for certain brands you could actually sell your car for more than you bought it new - which to me it's crazy)