JOEL KOTKIN: Our Feudal Future

Leading cultural analyst and policy maven Joel Kotkin will join me to discuss his book The Coming of Neo-Feudalism, as well as the state of California vs. Texas and more. Kotkin will help provide a map to understand the today's geopolitical and economic realities in America.



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[lancewren]

This episode reminded me of a couple passages of scripture. The Bible tends to be ahead of its time, or maybe its just that people make the same dumb mistakes over and over.

“The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the country you possess, you shall allow a redemption of the land.
Leviticus 25:23-24

Woe to those who join house to house,
who add field to field,
until there is no more room,
and you are made to dwell alone
in the midst of the land.
The LORD of hosts has sworn in my hearing:
“Surely many houses shall be desolate,
large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.
For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath,
and a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah.
Isaiah 5:8-10

[nathanjames]

Foreign money pouring into our housing markets is a byproduct of our monetary system. We use fiat currency to buy foreign manufactured goods, and then they invest some of the currency to buy our assets. We get cheap goods and rising asset prices. Which is great, unless you wanted to buy those assets.

[marcgrant]

society hasn’t gone crazy its gone poor. and without a remedy.

[skylinefever]

When too much of the market is owned by too few, and those few can afford politicians, good luck for the commoner.
16:05 Welcome to the price of low interest rates which encourage speculative bidding. When people could leave money in the bank and collect good interest, they didn't need to risk it in dumb investment schemes.
18:26 Mainlanders do it because they need to hide wealth from the CCP. Also, rich mainlanders are second to the CCP of China. However, the CCP might crush them. Jack Ma is the richest mainlander, and he has to hide on a yacht in Europe. Maybe he has to hide from the average person, he is promoting "996 work culture." He is trying to get people to work from 9 AM to 9 PM 6 days per week.
19:40 Yes, and if population is allowed to increase, it will further crush the system.
34:39 In 2014, I was wondering how big this trans thing was going to get. I asked "How long before someone declares themselves trans everything?" Everybody I knew laughed, but they also saw it as the future. It was a future they didn't want, but were sure would happen.
36:14 Conservatives would like deregulation on several things, except the DEA.
38:00 I wasn't exactly a fan of Bernie, but he was against those huge interests. I'm convinced those huge interests bought Hillary the primaries. It was like saying "Oh, you average people want to have influence on primaries? Too bad." It may have been another reason Trump rose to the top, he dared defy several oligarchs that backed the Republican party. Such oligarchs loved offshoring business to China, growing their stock portfolio, and maybe giving average people a small discount on stuff. They also liked open borders to ruin the supply and demand of labor. Had a bunch of angry senators and congressmen been siding with Trump, more would get accomplished for the average voter and person younger than voting age. I think some of those senators and congressmen did it out of spite as well as for their big financial backers.
40:43 I think about how 4chan is one of the last free spaces on the internet. I'm sure 4chan could be delisted by these companies, but if such companies did, they might shoot themselves in the foot. I love that when Trump got banned by some major social media company, their stock took a hit. I made fun of such companies. I said
This company is private property we do what we like.
You will bake gay cakes, your property doesn't matter.
41:45 Agreed. I loved Joker 2019. One reason was that in a year full of mostly woke trash, Joker dared not to be. The annoying film critics wanted to do anything for the movie to flop. Too bad, the ordinary moviegoers rose up. I thought it was funny how begrudgingly the bigshots had to award Joaquin Phoenix. I think they realized that after years of people not watching awards ceremonies, they would be even closer to irrelevant if they gave the award to someone else.
43:00 Agreed. Well, these companies might do what they want to create even more ambiguous terms and services about what they consider hate speech. I loved how South Park mocked internet agreements with the episode "HumanCentIPad." I don't know that either of you would like it, it was a joke based on one of the worst horror movies ever made. However, the South Park staff create some very nasty ideas to make a point.
43:44 I sometimes like when someone digs up an old newspaper that says "Miami underwater by year XXXX" and that year already passed.
45:38 Broken famlies of that kind were extremely rare decades ago.
46:48 Well, I love bringing the St. Thomas Aquinas argument of the sex trade into it.
48:34 Some people have joked that there will be one rule, that rule is "No fun allowed."
49:04 I think it is a sort of backlash. Push someone one way, and they might get so angry they do everything else. I see it as another story of authoritarian parents who see their child turn 18 and do every single stupid thing they were ordered not to.
54:21 I also say the environmental elite will decide what invention is good for the environment and what is not, even if there is some evidence an invention they hate is good. Here is an idea of the reverse happening. Imagine if the Catholics fight against birth control and they use the environmental damage of BC pills. Now imagine if someone invents a devices that repairs the environment from BC pills, but the Catholics don't want that invention, they just want BC pills removed from existence entirely. If keeping that invention helps the agenda, fine. Alex Jones may have gotten it wrong on his famous frog rant, but similar things do happen to fish.
55:54 I love how saving the world from car smog and R12 Freon didn't matter anymore.
57:21 I don't know how many cities built train systems only for them to be a massive flop. Not every city can be NYC, and not every city should. Sure, I don't like driving as far as I do in order to buy my basic needs. However, I don't like being stuck in a crowded city so that I can use a train. I love visiting NYC, but I'm also happy that I go back home. The same thing will happen when I take my dream trip to Tokyo. I'll get exposed enough to not need to take the trip again. They might have great trains, but do I really want to go to Shibuya Crossing often? No way.
58:08 Well, that hellfire and brimstone stuff was an effective way to get the population to be obedient. I do wonder how many non-believers were around back then, I know they had to exist. It just doesn't get talked about in documentaries I have seen.
58:54 Not only do they have the Dems, only the freakish ones who support all this trans stuff get to the top. I doubt people like it, but good luck.
1:02:01 Yes, those political classes live where there are gated communities and armed guards and telling everyone else what's good for them. The 2019 Joker film did a great job with that. A bunch of angry average guys rose up and wore clown masks, then Thomas Wayne ran for mayor. On TV he said that he knows what's good for all those clowns. It was fun to watch, even though nobody should have killed Thomas Wayne or Martha Wayne.
1:03:25 This is why some people say that modern conservatives are just liberals driving the speed limit.