Summary: The article discusses the increasing challenges faced by the U.S. government, particularly regarding rising national debt and healthcare costs. It highlights the strength of the Democratic Party in maintaining centralized control and the need for serious discussions about funding and spending. The author suggests that addressing debt and healthcare spending is crucial for solving broader issues like child poverty and climate change.
this paints a picture of a country whose leaders, elites, and voting public are deeply unserious. Instead of addressing the country’s myriad challenges, they are choosing to dither, bury their heads in the sand, indulge in comforting fantasies, and look out for themselves instead of for the national interest. As a result, things are getting worse, both for Germany and for Europe itself. (View Highlight)
AI startups don’t end up making money the same way internet startups did, the VC bust will be even bigger than it has been so far. (View Highlight)
no matter which party triumphs in this year’s election, pressures for fiscal austerity are going to increase. (View Highlight)
There’s no magic number at which the debt load becomes a full-on crisis. But it steadily becomes a bigger and bigger problem, and the trajectory we’re on is worrisome. (View Highlight)
colleges didn’t become more efficient, they were simply unable to keep charging sky-high prices in the face of shrinking demand. (View Highlight)
America’s health care costs twice as much as other rich countries’, relative to GDP, despite achieving similar results. Everyone wants to keep shoveling money into this system, but at some point it’s got to stop. (View Highlight)
Not only does politicized science reduce society’s trust in the enterprise of science in general, but it also encourages researchers to embrace shoddy theories, poor analysis, and fraudulent data. (View Highlight)
The authors interview some scientists who post on Twitter and find that they know their credibility will take a hit from their posts. But they think the impact of their public political expression is so important that they go ahead and do it anyway. (View Highlight)
Just because people trust scientists to tell them facts about biology or physics doesn’t mean they care about scientists’ opinions on racism or immigration or democracy any more than the opinion of the average citizen. (View Highlight)
Currently, we live in a water-constrained world — water scarcity raises the price of food, as well as all kinds of other stuff. (View Highlight)
Thanks to cheap solar energy, desalination is about to get much cheaper on a mass scale. When that happens, many of the water constraints that now define our world could suddenly be relaxed, opening up vast realms of human possibility. (View Highlight)
Energy abundance is water abundance, and it’s on the way. (View Highlight)