We don’t want to do it but it is the only way to deal with a bully. I think tariffs are bad for the people of the country that levies them. If another country puts a tariff on things my country sells, I'm for unilaterally disarming. Let the other country's people enjoy the dubious industry-protecting benefits of that tax, and let us enjoy the benefits of buying whatever is a good deal.

I think it's nonsense to think that when people freely trade money for goods, the person receiving the money "wins" and the person receiving the goods "loses". They made the trade because it was good for both parties.

I'm American, and we're pursing the opposite of what I think is good policy.

On the other side of this, there is the Deep Space Nine episode In the Cards. Nog, a Ferengi, helps Jake do work in exchange for things that people want. Then take some risks, buying stuff they don't know if they can sell, and end up makings some trades that gets people what they want, so Jake can get what he wants. In the end there's a montage showing everyone ends up happier.

So people did work freely. People paid them freely. They took a risk with some of their gains to buy things they hoped might meet someone else's needs, with the hope of making mutually beneficial change. In the end, people served one another freely, not based on guilt or coercion, and everyone ended up with more of what they wanted. That's a world most people want to live in.

The horror of the Soviet Union are will soon pass beyond living memory too.

It feels like the Nazis are passing beyond living memory so there are few people alive who remember how bad they were.

The world is full of Steve Wozniaks who just never get a chance to shine because they are not interested in capital accumulation or are really eccentric or can’t take economic risks or just lost a cutthroat business competition because they trust or are kind.

I actually think the world economy runs on trust and kindness. If even one percent of agreements people make went to the courts, the economy could not function.

There are mozarts and einsteins toiling in fields right now.

I agree. Giving everyone opportunity is the right thing to do and it leads to increased prosperity. There's no easy way to do it. It's something difficult and worth trying to do.

We have an unnecessary zero-sum-game for an economy.

The economy has generated unbelievable amounts of wealth, not zero-sum at all, a huge increased sum.

Defending the right to unpopular and offensive speech is not the same as compromising with the speech. You can truly abhor what someone's saying and not try to some them.

I actually think it would be closer to Atlas Shrugged, where the people generating new means of production begin to disappear and society becomes much poorer.

The US didn't take action to block the app, Tiktok did. Maybe the government would have taken action eventually. It smells like a political plan, where someone at Tiktok agreed to block the app for 24 hours as a political favor.

Whether you think the person he killed deserved it or not is irrelevant, giving a free pass because of that sets an extremely dangerous precedent

It's just patently absurd. It's an angry mob. They probably didn't even know the victim. They could turn on you, me, or each other.

I remember seeing a commemorative plate in a Star Trek magazine in the 80s, when I was kid. I asked my parents to buy me one. They asked what I wanted with a Star Trek plate. That was a good point. I still don't know what I would have done with a commemorative plate.