A Ponzi scheme that works

http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=15108634

by dpapathanasiou • 17 years ago

63 27 17 years ago

tokenadult3• 17 years ago

"If you like low taxes and the death penalty, try Texas. For good public schools and subsidised cycle paths, try Portland, Oregon. Even within states, the rules vary widely. Bath County, Kentucky is dry. Next-door Bourbon County, as the name implies, is not."

That's one of the secrets of the United States. Federalism allows citizens lots of lifestyle choices, while still building a great deal of national cohesion. And that variety state by state is what produces a uniform attractiveness to immigrants (the main point of the submitted article) that keeps the United States growing and innovating.

mcantelon2• 17 years ago

Which state can I move to to opt out of the national debt?

tokenadult3• 17 years ago

That would involve a move to a different country. What country do you prefer on that basis?

a-priori• 17 years ago

If debt is your only criteria, then Oman is your best bet: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_public_deb...

steveplace2• 17 years ago

Sidestepping the question, let's ask:

1. If the US defaults, what country can I move to that will substantially increase my odds of success?

2. If fiat currencies hyperinflate, [same question]?

There's a very, very short list to answer those questions.

dangrossman• 17 years ago

I would prefer if people would link to the normal article, not the printable page. If I want that version I can click the print link myself. If I don't want that version, I have to go search for the original location of the article.

tokenadult3• 17 years ago

In general, linking to the canonical version of an article rather than any other version helps the HN duplicate detector do its job. That is especially hard for articles from the Economist, which live under multiple URLs in different subdirectories on the Economist website. But most of those articles, as this one, are well worth submitting and good food for thought.

whughes2• 17 years ago

This was posted a few days ago. Using the normal link would flag it as a duplicate.

However, I think in most cases I'd prefer the printable version. Some articles are split up into multiple pages, and the printable version combines them and is often cleaner and faster to load.

BerislavLopac• 17 years ago

For readability, you can always use... well... Readability: http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability

praptak• 17 years ago

I like dope and I don't like going to jail, so thanks but no thanks.

lsc• 17 years ago

try Canada.

decode• 17 years ago

Possession of less than 2 ounces of marijuana in Ann Arbor, Michigan is a civil infraction with a $25 fine, like a parking ticket.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_laws_in_Ann_Arbor,_Mic...

ojbyrne• 17 years ago

Massachusetts approved decriminalization - $100 fine for an ounce or less: http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/11/quest...

dunstad• 17 years ago

Duplicate clicky: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1006556

patio11• 17 years ago

Almost nobody in Japan thinks that anyone can become Japanese, yet Japan is rated more “tolerant” than America. This is absurd.

I always joke (mostly good naturedly) that when my best Japanese friend visited me at home he had people assuming he was American literally 20 feet past immigration, and when I visit him at home I get people who have known me for seven years saying "Wow, its so amazing you can use chopsticks, for an American I mean."

joe_the_user• 17 years ago

Hmm,

"A Ponzi scheme that works" set off bell in my mind.

It seems like this article rolls two different questions together. One is whether immigration is good. The other is whether the US can continue to grow economically based only on "Three hundred million" niche markets.

Putting aside the former question, I'd say the answer to the latter question is no. Housing bubbles, health care and state spending have not always America's number one industries. Too many of the "hundred million niche markets" that can be touted have really been just support services for the aforementioned sustainable schemes. The US may be able to keep it's "service economy" afloat for another few years but the crisis of 2008 should have been wake-up call announcing unsustainability of this course. Naturally it wasn't, but there you are.

johnl• 17 years ago

What makes the Ponzi scheme work is strong property rights supported by a large middle class.

lispm• 17 years ago

Somehow I expected a new Scheme implementation, called Ponzi Scheme.

prpon• 17 years ago

I've always considered myself a 'global citizen' after living in the US for 15 years. During a 10 day trip to Germany. I was thrown out of a bar for asking directions in english, yelled at by some crazy dude in a train station for stealing their jobs and people crossed streets just to avoid a dark guy.

When I landed in Los Angeles, the minute I saw a mexican american immigration officer, I almost cried. I was home. No one will question me why I am here. The mexicans, the chinese, the Indians, the whites and the blacks. They are all my people.

I might have my curry everyday but my spirit is american.

DanielBMarkham• 17 years ago

Yeah welcome to America, where if you don't fit in -- you fit in. :) We're the pound-puppies, mongrels, and half-breeds of the planet.

nvn1• 17 years ago

'Listening to her Dutch friends, she assumed that Americans were fat, loutish, naive and sexually repressed. “But then I came here and found it was all false,” she smiles.'

So very true. The same would apply to British attitudes towards the US. Spending a short time travelling around the US cleared away all my misconceptions, thankfully.

As a side note, I suspect that attitudes might be equally uninformed the other way around, that is about Europe from the US. Europe is incredibly diverse yet I often read opinions from the US treating the continent as a whole.

A Ponzi scheme that works

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