Gregory's Server@Natanox this is my eternal bugbear. It is the same issue with society too. If it wasn't for all the inefficient rent seeking we would all be moderately well off.
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@Natanox I'm a big UBI advocate though I agree there's a fair bit of work to get there (esp. around education)  @chris_e_simpson Indeed. It's not *just* education though. I recently watched a very educational documentation on the current science of food and especially sugar, showing how bad food during pregnancy but also childhood and everyday life can severely impact not just your mood, but your very psychological foundation. For example, they conducted tests showing that rational & social behaviour improved after a meal with high nutritional value, while it took a hit after bad ones. Esp. sugar is bad. @chris_e_simpson Of course I'm not saying US americans are often weird because their local cuisine is, uhm... bad. It's merely one piece of an enormous puzzle. π @Natanox Oh I could talk for hours about this stuff (been studying it for 3 years). Humans are very bad at resisting calories or, in fact, any short term gain, even if they "know" there is a long term loss but we are way worse at this when we are in "scarcity" mode. So poverty makes everything worse.  @chris_e_simpson @Natanox very interesting on the sugar and also completely logical. οΏΌ Financial stress is also a major factor in decision-making and can lead to very poor long-term decisions. οΏΌ Itβs not necessarily the case that being stupid makes you poor, but it is certainly true that being poor makes you make stupid decisions. @Natanox @chris_e_simpson I mean, it's not like people are choosing to live in food deserts. (spoiler food deserts exist because of capitalism, it is deemed unprofitable to properly feed those communities) @Natanox there are lots of challenges but I think they can all be mitigated somewhat by starting with the right kind of education. Today's victorian style system where kids just seem to be taught how to get good grades is not adequate for good rational or empathetic thinking |
@chris_e_simpson haha, yeah. That's also why more and more jobs are for ridiculous tasks in systems solely made to generate and raise sales volume - not even revenue at times.
Nobody would have to suffer anymore, they only do because mankind didn't learn to collectively control their worst cravings.
UBI would be a first step, however we'll have to overcome our current late stage capitalism for that first.