Right, I should clarify that trade still has a role in the decline in manufacturing. My point would be though that mechanization has been much more of an explanatory variable for the decline in trade as Chinese manufactured goods that compete with American goods didn’t ratchet up until the late 90's to 2000's with the…

Mhm. So improving education and lower taxes income taxes and corporate taxes is socialism? Well guess what, your president elect is proposing to do all of those. I guess he’s socialist too, right? Or is the very existence of social welfare programs the definitive def of socialism? Because in that case, every single…

Not sure how reducing taxes and bureaucracy, especially corporate taxes and capital gains tax along with making starting businesses easier fits into socialism, but if doing sensible economic policy that works is socialism then I guess I am a socialist. And you, who is proposing trade barriers which is anti-free market…

No, we don’t give up. We adapt to the situation.

We do what countries like Singapore and other European countries are doing. We work on providing great education that’s accessible to everyone regardless of income levels at the primary and secondary level, increase access to higher education, utilize community colleges…

Mexico has an advantage in that it has more free trade agreements with countries than the US excluding NAFTA. That’s why many non-American car companies are also investing in building car manufacturing plants there. Cutting off US car companies from producing in Mexico doesn’t just raise prices across the board…

I think about every single one of my friends who’s been to the UK has complained about British food. In comparison to Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Singaporean, and Thai food which is what my friends were used to, they told me that British food in general was always lacking something. They described it as bland in…

“I personally think all millennial have parent anger issues and just end up hating boomers in general. Its like the easy cop out.” I guess we’re so alike then, since millenials seem to be your convenient scapegoat.

“It’s the way the system works.” I love how you conveniently forget that the system of entitlements came…

No, it’s really not just about math that makes boomers cost so much. Yes of course, health costs should rise once someone gets older but you can look it up. US health costs per person skyrockets and diverges considerably once age 60 hits compared to other OECD countries and this is one of the main factors which…

Baby Boomers are one of the primary reasons for the obscene amount of money the US spends per person compared to every other civilized country. Millenials will have to pay more and more as Baby Boomers retire. If anything, you sound like an old entitled twat who demands that young people take care of you after…

Wukong is one of the most famous legends of course he’s going to be popular

BAN IT

Except, your door isn’t edging into someone else’s space, nor does opening it make another person uncomfortable. It isn’t hard to take the time to warn the other person that you’re going to recline. It’s just good manners and like all manners, you don’t have to observe them but in doing so, you have no one to blame…

You ask because it’s polite. It’s manners, just like how you should open doors for the person behind you, stand to the side of an escalator to let people pass, or give up your seat on the bus and subway to the elderly, handicapped, or expectant mothers.

After the election, my fellow Singaporean friends turned to me and made this statement:

“I think this is an excellent case study of people voting against their self-interests.”

If screwing over the entire world by denying climate change is real when almost every other country acknowledges it’s a real problem, then yes,…

Those phantom costs are one of the reasons costs are so high and premiums for insurance plans get higher and higher. Those phantom costs that the hospital and drug companies charge insurance companies are arbitrary. The set them out really high knowing that the insurance company will negotiate a lower price that is…

I’m using modern parameters to explain why cities haven’t converged. As I described in the second paragraph, old cities can experience expansion based on land policies that were relevant in the 20th century and are still relevant in the 21st, where old cities such as the Tier 1 cities in China have experienced…

Protection of farms isn’t about providing food for people, it’s about protecting the domestic market from foreign competition. A country or state can simply import food from other states or countries if it isn’t producing enough food. Small cities like Singapore don’t dedicate more than half of their land area to food…

I think this is where road design, infrastructure, and biking culture comes into play. For example in Tokyo, it’s quite common for bikes to be on sidewalks since they’re wide but sometimes you can see them on urban roads as well where they will weave in and out of traffic. It’s also common for there to be small…

Killing off foot traffic also kills of small business, shops, and restaurants that rely on ground level foot traffic. Just like Cyber Mind Grrl pointed out, Calgary’s CBD was turned into an effective ghost town as a result of the Plus 15 system and the city is re-evaluating the system because of the decrease in street…

I’m not sure how Florida being part of a union entails that land around Floridian cities doesn’t need to be set aside for crops. Much of France is farmland because the French agricultural industry is more protectionist compared to the US and that’s part of the reason why there’s plenty of farmland surrounding French…