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[wierd]

For a rural american, a trip to the grocery store often takes 4 hours or more.

It does not seem to inhibit their ability to buy an iphone 6s.

[Bauglir]

IMO, the best solution at this point is to re-open the virtual reality thread, since the painful bowel obstruction that caused its closure has been violently vented and cleared up here.

Yeah, if I'm gonna be serious, quit shitting up the thread with this.

[Shadowlord]

I looked at that thread once, and that was right after it was locked.

[cochramd]

Misconception:  Trip is made daily.

Reality-- Trip is made twice weekly, on average, from what I understand from my Laosian ethnic relative. (She is a Laosian immigrant, originally native to such a village.)  Typically, because hauling water is both labor intensive and exhausting, very large pots are hauled, and water stockpiled for several days use.

Alright, fair enough. But there is still a significant cost to gathering your water from far away which strongly incentivizes creating a closer water source.

For a rural american, a trip to the grocery store often takes 4 hours or more.

It does not seem to inhibit their ability to buy an iphone 6s.

Rural Americans make enough money that 4 hours transit every couple weeks isn't a big deal.

[smjjames]

Anyhoo...... The foriegn relations damage that would result from Trump becoming president has already begun along with damage to Trumps brand: http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/11/politics/donald-trump-world-allies-turn-on-candidate/index.html Normally I would say they should butt out (including that Saudi prince), but it's good that they are joining in protest against what Trump is saying given the inflammatory nature.

Also, I remember someone on here saying that as soon as his brand starts taking a financial hit, he'll probably drop out. However, his narccissisic ego seems to be making him blind to the hit, or maybe it hasn't gotten bad enough yet, or maybe he doesn't care about the parts outside the US.

I can't help but wonder if his 'negotiation skills' are of the iron fisted gunboat diplomacy kind.

[Frumple]

... speaking as someone who lives in rural america, that depends very heavily on who it is. There's plenty for whom that bimonthly 4 hours is cheerfully helping to fuck their ability to get things like, y'know, medical care, housing, etc., etc. Extreme poverty exists in the US, if in smaller amounts.

In any case, can y'all take this massive example of the perfect trying to cockblock the good somewhere else? Please?

[wierd]

Some small part of me wishes that the Trump situation makes other world economic powers more willing to ostracise the US as a trade partner in a phase-out plan, rendering the US less financially important, and thus less able to exert extra-jusidictional powers over the rest of the world.

It would also insulate the prosperity of the rest of the world against political forces inside the US that they have no real political recourse to prevent.

Then the American Nationalism program kicks in, and I jerk, and flail while saying "God bless america"

[cochramd]

Some small part of me wishes that the Trump situation makes other world economic powers more willing to ostracise the US as a trade partner in a phase-out plan, rendering the US less financially important, and thus less able to exert extra-jusidictional powers over the rest of the world.

It would also insulate the prosperity of the rest of the world against political forces inside the US that they have no real political recourse to prevent.

Then the American Nationalism program kicks in, and I jerk, and flail while saying "God bless america"

Part of me wants Trump to lose this election harder than anyone has ever lost a national election before and laugh at his Chernobyl-tier meltdown of rage and ego-collapsing. The other part of me wants him to win and laugh as every nation on the planet cuts all ties to America.

[wierd]

Sadly, such ties CANNOT be cut overnight.  A phase-out plan is the best that can be accomplished, and a Trump Election would progress down the slip&slide to oblivion faster than any reasonable phaseout plan could accommodate.

It would be bad. Very bad.

Instead, I hope that the THREAT of how close Trump is to being nominated, causes this phaseout to happen, regardless of who wins.

[mainiac]

Some small part of me wishes that the Trump situation makes other world economic powers more willing to ostracise the US as a trade partner in a phase-out plan, rendering the US less financially important, and thus less able to exert extra-jusidictional powers over the rest of the world.

I think this optimism is misplaced.  The problems in the american financial sector are generally much worse elsewhere in the world.  The only place the american financial sector really stands out as being bad is it's inordinate size.

The EU was a glimmer of hope but the stereotypes of the rapacious evil foreign banker actually turned out to be pretty accurate for the European banking system.

There's a bit of a bias towards painting the entirety of Africa sans South Africa as "third world countries" despite the fact that some countries in Africa have steadily improving economies. For example, this does not look like the economic plan for a country that struggles to provide water to its residents.

It's really quite exciting.  What took 200 years for England and 100 years for Japan and 50 years for China might happen in Sub-Saharan Africa in 30 years.

[smjjames]

Sadly, such ties CANNOT be cut overnight.  A phase-out plan is the best that can be accomplished, and a Trump Election would progress down the slip&slide to oblivion faster than any reasonable phaseout plan could accommodate.

It would be bad. Very bad.

Instead, I hope that the THREAT of how close Trump is to being nominated, causes this phaseout to happen, regardless of who wins.

Not to mention that Washington would likely fight tooth and nail to stop the phaseout.

Besides, with our major economic engine, probably THE most major, even if it's a limping engine, it wouldn't be easy to do a phase out and disconnect from the most major global economic engine, redirect, probably, completely disconnect, no.

[misko27]

I wouldn't want a more balanced economy unless you guys can prove that there is something in it for me.

Sadly, such ties CANNOT be cut overnight.  A phase-out plan is the best that can be accomplished, and a Donald "All of the women on The Apprentice flirted with me" Trump Election would progress down the slip&slide to oblivion faster than any reasonable phaseout plan could accommodate.

It would be bad. Very bad.

Instead, I hope that the THREAT of how close Donald "All of the women on The Apprentice flirted with me" Trump is to being nominated, causes this phaseout to happen, regardless of who wins.

This is so incredibly hilarious. Like, I want to be annoyed, but I can't just keep myself from giggling (this is why I enjoy politics so much, incidentally; I can take pleasure in the absurdity). It's like, I could rebut it, but, I mean, there is just so much, and it's a result of a world-view point that really shows no sign of abating. I bet the "some small part of me" is bigger then you imply, frankly. Some small part of me wants WW3 to break out tomorrow and watch the fireworks, but I don't say "hey, I hope this sets that off".

[wierd]

I have a very well manicured and maintained case of cogitative dissonance, Misko. It's the next best thing to actual mental illness!

I can't help but see how less authoritarianism, globally, would be a very good thing for the human race in general.

On the other, I can't help but see how a reduction in the de-facto power used by the US government would negatively impact my quality of life.

At some point, the two need to be reconciled. I consider the long term prospects of prosperity for the human race as a whole to be more important than my own personal petty desires.

[cochramd]

Some small part of me wants WW3 to break out tomorrow and watch the fireworks, but I don't say "hey, I hope this sets that off".

I think we're all in that boat. Many times, I think to myself "Man, it would be great if every human society was just burned to the ground and we got the chance to build new governments from the ground up." Then I remember all the wonderful things that would go up in smoke if that happened.

[Shadowlord]

One should always be careful what they wish for, because they just might get it.