Comment on C-c-changes
explodicle@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks agoWhen and why do you think our time preferences have shortened?
Comment on C-c-changes
explodicle@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks agoWhen and why do you think our time preferences have shortened?
Adalast@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
That is a big question. Rectally sourced information here, but I would probably guess it started in the wake of the Dust Bowl.
frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
Close. WWII America had to invest heavily in farms to feed soldiers who need 4,000 kcal diets to support marching around with heavy packs all day long in potentially cold weather. That investment drove up automation in the farm industry, particularly with corn and soybeans.
War ends, but the infrastructure is all still there. If farms weren’t heavily subsidized, they would collapse. There was real risk of fields going fallow on a mass level, resulting in too little food to feed the population. And then you have to keep subsidizing it, forever. Nobody has figured out a way out of that logic while maintaining a mostly capitalist production system.
Adalast@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Interesting take. Would you attribute the overall look to short term gains to the same point in time and reasoning? It is obviously a nuanced problem and I am sure Nixon and Reagan’s fingerprints can be found on the problem somewhere, but they were obviously not the root.