"But me a coffee" isn't literally coffee. It's a way of asking for $5 or so but making it sound more palatable as "well you are just buying a mate a coffee" which people normally do rather than "you are transacting $5 on the internet to a stranger" which people might be more reluctant to do.
But the money won't be spent on coffee, otherwise the influencer will OD. "Buy me a chance to escape the rat race" might be a more accurate title.
So what if people still use DVD players. I bet the monthly cost of broadband and Netflix streaming is way more expensive than a plain-old DVD player and Netflix by mail.
I guess people are missing out on wasting their time binge watching garbage television shows. And yes, in theory you can binge watch an entire season on DVD(s).
This kind of blind exceptionalism is exactly why nothing ever moves here. We are stuck in 30 years ago of "we're so much better than everyone" that we're refusing to see how our lead has quickly worsened, and also attacking the messenger's background instead of taking the message to heart.
I think we're still leaders in education, for example, but that's under threat.
China has built thousands of miles of high speed rail in the past 10 years, and the people are using it like CRAZY. There are months-long waits if you want to take the Beijing-Lhasa train, for example.
Yes there's definitely what you're talking about. But I'd rather be lamenting overbuilding than the lethargic underbuilding (or no-building) we have going on in the US.
> We are stuck in 30 years ago of "we're so much better than everyone" that we're refusing to see how our lead has quickly worsened
Those who have lived through the scares geopolitical threat of the Cold War in the 1970's, and the economic threat of Japan Inc. in the 1980's can be a little more circumspect about the growing Chinese "threat". I don't have illusions about "we're so much better", but we do have something special. Market driven economies and stable liberal democratic structures have served us quite well, from the explosion in growth in the Netherlands in the 17th century, through the expansion of Great Britain in the 18th and 19th and down to the United States in the 20th. That Western Europe would rather pay for a social safety net rather than an expansive military is a public choice.
Should the US invest more in infrastructure? Possibly. At the same time, I'm skeptical to things that have a whiff of industrial policy and central planning, it really hasn't worked as well for those who have embraced it.
I agree with that in general, by the way, at least in theory. But those institutions have been tested like crazy in the past few years, to the point where fundamental things are changing (some immigrants going to other countries like Canada, etc).
I just think it's depressing to think that we've built zero miles, ZERO miles of high speed rail in 10 years, when China built 8,000.
Let's be realistic, it's China's embrace of capitalism through Special Economic Zones that's truly led to their vibrant economic growth. So I'm not advocating for central planning. I'm just saying that resting on our laurels based on the idea that America was once so far ahead, without realizing that we're not THAT far ahead anymore, is a mistake. (seems like you're saying similar things though)
In the last fifteen years, the Beijing subway went from a laughable toy with only three lines to the largest subway system in the world. Despite this rapid expansion by an order of magnitude, the system remains extremely busy, with rush hour trains so crowded you can barely move, and off-peak trains still full of people. This pattern is repeated all over the place. “Ghost cities,” if real, are the exception and not the norm.
The US has profited immensely from "building stuff to build stuff" back from the new deal programs in the 30's, wartime factory infrastructure investments in the 40's, as well as massive infrastructure buildout of the highway systems, water and sewers, etc. in the 50-60's. I think coasting on a lot of that build out is what allowed lower than typical infrastructure expenditures for many decades, but also gave us (and our political/business leadership that grew up in those years), a warped low view of how much infrastructure investment is reasonable.
It is totally true that we have wasted trillions on wars we will never win at the expense of improving our infrastructure which is very clearly inadequate.
It is true that our education system (pre college) sucks.
It is true that we don't enable people who don't have money to succeed.
Most of what Jack Ma said was true. Do I think that the Chinese have all the answers, that the Chinese infrastructure projects are all value adding, that the US should behave like China, or that China should take a larger role in the world? No, but that has nothing to do with the truth value of Jack Ma's statements.
The big nerd ranch books often have you build applications across a collection of chapters. I learned iOS development from their book; it's not a single project for the whole book, but there are large chunks that use the same example app that you add functionality to.
I love the the style of learning they advocate: reading the book and typing in every single line of code yourself. It suits my learning style really well.
