London dad

House prices always go up, right? Some people are just cottoning on to the fact that prices for many homes (especially flats) in the Capital are back where they were in 2013. Factor in inflation and they're even lower!

Thanks for the thought-provoking piece. My main critique is that you are overemphasizing flashy but low probability events like “left-handed bacteria,” while merely giving lip service to the risk of extreme economic concentration of power, which is very real and materializing as we speak. Anthropic is reportedly raising funds at a $350B valuation, and the wealth created thus far has been concentrated into a few hundred (perhaps more like dozens) high net worth individuals / institutions. It’s looking increasingly likely to me that none of the leading AI labs will IPO until they reach valuations in the trillions, at which point retail investors will finally be able to get shares. In order for retail to get a 100x return on these investments, which was achievable for Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, the valuations of the AI labs will need to reach hundreds of trillions of dollars, meaning it’s likely too late for a more equitable redistribution of wealth. Simply put, you are currently exacerbating the problem. The consequences of this are that voters may take matters into their own hands and push for either or both 1) more aggressive / nonsensical forms of redistribution — the CA Founders’ Tax is just the beginning or 2) a drastic knee-capping of the AI industry in America, which make the CCP dominance scenario more likely. The solution is to enable retail ownership now, increasing the number of Americans with economic exposure to Anthropic and other AI labs from hundreds of people to millions.

Happy to announce that after only 7 weeks in Portugal I have managed to put a deposit down on this mansion. Here’s how I did it and how you can too - work really hard - have enough cash to chuck at a high risk endeavour - open a daycare which is government funded - be BRAVE

To help Americans understand the UK situation: In GDP/capita terms, London is comparable to New York. England outside of London is comparable to Puerto Rico (really). The entire country shares roughly the same minimum wage as California. This is a result of policy. For decades successive governments have aggressively prioritised the capital over everywhere else in the country - in terms of infrastructure spending most notably, but also in industrial planning and monetary policy. Londoners see themselves as the nations economic engine, graciously giving charity to poor useless northerners - but this is not at all an accurate picture. England is intentionally kept down in order to maintain London's status as a world city during a period of decline. You can see it in infrastructure - roads outside the capital are left to decay, trains and busses are infrequent and unreliable. The grooming gang scandal was ignored in part because it occurred in post industrial towns in Yorkshire and the West Midlands, places the government could not give less of a crap about. A lot of the political turmoil of late can be understood as an English nationalism in reaction to this mistreatment, and the authoritarianism of the government as the metropole attempting to reassert control.