The longer I live, the more I find most things in life are just delaying something, and ultimately just death. My teeth are shit, I fix them a little at a time and just pray they don't break down too much before I'm dead. Some of my muscles/tendons bones are getting weaker, I just baby them enough that hopefully I can keep their use to old age.
We hope to push most the bad stuff beyond or as far towards death as possible, and death as far away as possible so long as not too much bad stuff is already happening. The question then becomes at what rate we slow the delay of schizo-affective disorder or some other mental illness. It's coming for all of us, given enough time.
It is is a real thing though that Russian databases are routinely compromised or stolen.
People that engage in tax fraud in places like Mexico and Russia often legitimately do it because they do not want the mob/cartels to find out how much money they have and then extort them. The data gets out.
Money in this context is just a representation of value. You presume the money for foreign goods is leaving the USA when we import the goods, but that is actually not necessarily the case.
Make no mistake, these countries are getting something in return for the extra goods and services they give to us. It is not for free. One of the big things trade to China to make up this deficit is an investment in the US government (treasury notes) or assets. That is, they are taking the dollars they get and then parking it in the US as investment . The deficit is they're choosing us to invest in rather than themselves!
>The U.S. trade balance has been in a deficit position since the 1970s. This means that the
total value of imported goods has been greater than the total value of exported goods.
This means the U.S. is a “debtor” nation, running a merchandise trade deficit. However,
the merchandise trade deficit refers only to imports and exports of goods and services. It
shows that imports are greater than exports, hence the “deficit.” But, think about it for a
minute, why does the world keep giving us goods, without getting goods from us in
return? Is this a good deal or what? Well, clearly, this can’t be the whole story.
>What is happening is that the people from whom we buy goods abroad are taking our
dollars investing in the U.S. economy. They may buy U.S. government debt (securities
issued by the U.S. government to finance past federal budget deficits) or other assets in
the U.S. For example, they may invest in U.S. companies.
And labor shifts from activities where we have comparative advantage (highly skilled labor) to things where we have less comparative advantage (low skilled labor).
So now you have a lower skill low pay job and paying more than before.
I cannot make sense of it other than as a few others posted here that Trump is preparing for war and wants to soften the blow of the interruption to international trade by making sure we are more prepared for isolation.
Yes they are incredibly popular amongst cartels and shady characters with import/export business, as Trump just handed them the largest geo-arbitrage payday of their lives.
The big city equivalent is closer to a bus pass, $5 for a hot dog, and see you at dusk. The danger of dodging cars arguably is less than being locked in with TikTok. Maybe kids hawk chicharones in the city instead of bailing hay, obviously it won't be a direct translation.
America is handing this opportunity on a platter by practically outlawing child independence.
A kid should be out exploring on their own, shooting squirrels, riding their bike to the next town, bailing hay for cash at the farm at the edge of town. I didn't become a staunch supporter of most American classical liberal principles because an app told me to, it's because it's how I lived when I grew up. If you shut me in or chained me to a parent all day, well maybe you grow up with whatever tiktok tells you since you see it as the only way to stretch your legs.
The cost of free speech, including commercial or propaganda, is people get manipulated by it. Some including myself argue is you end up with even more nefarious control when censored, rather than having the option of which if any propaganda apps you want to consume.
There are some controls like certain pornography, but if these exist they should apply uniformly, not based on whether we like the person publishing it.
Aspirationally yes. In practice US can't even rid itself of civil forfeiture or federal weed laws despite consistent majority against them. We can't get rid of overbearing housing regulations despite it destroying our youth. Hell the democratic party presidential candidate wasn't even chosen in a primary, just installed in without a public vote to ensure viability, handing a default.
In the long run it's better that both China and US have deep tentacles wrapped around each other. The more culture and dependencies merge and intertwine the more cooperation looks attractive over war.