A general effect of war is that in its aftermath there is a period of endemic grift that is hard to root out until you restart broad-based wealth building somehow. We've been in an invisible war for several years based on the rising grift levels.
-
Show this thread
-
(this happens because it becomes harder and harder to make a decent living honestly, and as more institutions break down, you kinda lose the muscle memory of honest economics... if everything is bribery and black markets, nobody knows how to deal clean)
2 replies 0 retweets 46 likesShow this thread -
Free-market ideologues studiously undertheorize the transaction costs of high-grift environments. They act like lemon markets are a rare special phenomenon under asymmetric info/principal-agent-problem conditions and cannot be a general characteristic of the entire economy.
3 replies 2 retweets 77 likesShow this thread -
The amount of wealth it takes to simply be above the grifty layers of the economy is quite high now. But if you make it there, you'll probably adopt some pious beliefs about how the poors should just live humbly and honestly and forgo the things that are grift-ridden.
2 replies 7 retweets 66 likesShow this thread -
Societal inequality is one of those things that looks like it should have no consequences when you look at first order effects. "The economy is fair rewards for talent and efforts. Nobly accept a lifestyle that you can honorably afford. If you don't, you're the problem."
1 reply 1 retweet 32 likesShow this thread -
Except it isn't even close to that, and people react to the perception of unfairness by trying to get by grift what they cannot get by the narrow possibilities of honesty.
1 reply 0 retweets 37 likesShow this thread -
And there is also the stress. It's not necessarily a result of being at the bottom, but in the layers (mostly towards the bottom) where grifting is the cost of doing business. I suspect grifting when you're not temperamentally suited to it is more stressful than actual poverty.
2 replies 2 retweets 37 likesShow this thread -
Middle class isn't too grifty itself, but is often forced to navigate pervasive grift to sustain its lifestyle. Buying cars, dental services, home contracting... everything is exhausting grift-detection/mitigation. And that's assuming you can at least filter for competence.
2 replies 4 retweets 58 likesShow this thread -
Venkatesh Rao Retweeted Michael Huber
PNW seemed less grifty than SW. Midwest is middling-grifty. DC was also middling. I think for grift to become a big force in the economy, there has to be a disproportionately bigger local wealthy class and smaller middle class.https://twitter.com/nerdsnipe/status/1326592988848431104 …
Venkatesh Rao added,
2 replies 0 retweets 12 likesShow this thread -
Better than SoCal, not as good as PNW
-
-
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.
