Because they're the ones doing it and they have the power? Sorta inevitable outcome of markets in everything, really.

> I don't understand how any human in good faith could look at Iran's government and say they are the evil regime,

Well mainly by having Iranian friends who tell us their government is an evil regime, and when we try to insist our government is evil too, lecture us about our privilege to show they really mean it.

But buying a lot of tacky stuff isn't independence in any meaningful way. It's just choosing a lifestyle with a larger dependency surface.

This sounds like a wise parent explaining some higher truth to a kid. Except that it is not truth but some our of blue baseless conclusion you've managed to somehow extract from my sentence.

Look man I'm just telling you about my own life. I feel more independent when I have a smaller space and less stuff that's easier to account for or move around.

> I say again — why would investors trust him if his only track record is losing investor money?

Because they look at a serial fraudster and see themselves in him.

What are the substantive safety or environmental objections to the project that TerraPower is bypassing by allegedly bribing the government?

I don't know. I guess we'll find out the hard way.

Libertarianism is just privatized authoritarianism.

Libertarian principles encourage relationships built on mutual consenting parties rather than coercion. This implies that both parties have the freedom to choose. Imagine being stuck with a small dating pool of undesirable partners, the choices may not be good but that doesn't make it authoritarian.

> Isn't it more a cultural issue though?

No. Culture is downstream of institutions.

Horses couldn't revolt.

And we won’t. Uber Eats Burger Reich and all.

What's the difference in predictions made between a theory of elite overproduction vs one of proletarianization?

Different systems and elite overproduction doesn’t discuss capital and production allocation eg means of production split.

> Yet we do not pay poll taxes today. We are not getting lynched in the streets. We are not being directly racially discriminated from employment.

No thanks to the present government, who post about deporting slightly less than 1/3 the US population.