He's permitted an entire subculture of optimism built around a counter-ethos that I'm not sure *could* exist without a figure like him. There'd still be scattered individuals finding their way to that thing, but I'm not sure they'd have any Schelling points for finding each other
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We're having a harder time accurately tracking productivity growth than we admit while dealing with extreme costs of protectionism of certain esteemed industries (medical, academia) & investments (homeownership). The culture is wilting. Optimism needs all the footholds it can get
People will try to carve out their own slice of the pie. Elon might just look like a variation on the classic selfish rich guy. To skip past cynicism you have to be hungrier for expansive idea-space than you are for security in a world that feels like it's becoming less secure
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It's not super intuitive, but one thing he's making salient is that humanity may want things that it must get wealthier & more creative to have. You don't redistribute your way to a Mars colony. You must come up w/ ways to make things easier *here* to mainstream life out *there*
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This isn't to say there's not a role for redistribution in any functioning economic system, only that an aspirational society MUST continue to generate better ideas & ways of doing things in order to do truly interesting things that let you touch the ceiling on Maslow's hierarchy
End of conversation
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