Ah, the 90's. Bill Clinton raised taxes, which eliminated the deficit, which made interest rates go down.....My biggest problem in life was wondering which company which was trying to recruit me had the best stock option package.
There are a few things which have gotten better. Gay marriage. Marijuana legalization. But Entshitification is real and for the last 25 years has been relentless.
And let's be honest, that is also partially Clinton's legacy. Him and Tony Blair, with their "Third Way" triangulation bullshit, effectively moved the Overton window to the right for good. And here we are.
A couple of things happened. One, the Supreme Court handed the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush, and not Al Gore.
Bush did not continue the policies of Clinton. He cut taxes, which increased the deficit, which made interest rates rise, which made the subprime market collapse, which resulted in the worst recession since the great depression.
What gave him political cover to do this was 9/11. He took the opportunity to spend Trillions on oil wars, which we fought for the next 20 years, and which accomplished absolutely nothing.
The result was that for the first time in American history, the next generation had it worse than the previous generation. When I graduated from college, my biggest problem was choosing which stock option package to accept. When my son graduated from college, his biggest problem was deciding which meals to skip to afford his insulin.
Thank goodness Obamacare fixed my son's insulin problem. And Obama wasn't able to get rid of the deficit, but he at least put it on a path where it was shrinking relative to the size of the economy.
I can't bear to rehearse what the Trump administration has done. Absolutely incalculable damage to the budget, the deficit, civil discourse, our international goodwill, and to the rule of law.
It's hard to even convince people how bad it is, because nobody under the age 40 even really understands what a functional government and economy looks like.
It accepted unfettered capitalism in a very fundamental way. Once you make it axiomatic that taxes should always be low, that the private sector is always better, and that massive inequality is just fine, you basically renounce all meaningful tools to fight for the little guy.
Plus, you can only triangulate effectively if there are two radical sides to play off of. Once your policies effectively disqualify one of those positions, you're left alone to face the other radical group - and they now have no incentive to compromise. Which is exactly what happened over the following decades.
Anybody who remembers the last century knows that any Democrat left of Clinton would have resulted in a President Bob Dole. And at least the Clinton administration tried to give Americans Hillarycare.
I'm so old I remember the first oil crisis of the 1970's. That was a "before" and "after" event: the world has never been the same. Double-digit inflation. Dad bought a house and took on a 14% mortgage.
If the straight of Hormuz isn't opened in the next few weeks, stock markets are going to start to crash.
10% make more than 10,000 a month. Nice! And that is only 16 makers who reported this, and only for 2024–2025. I was too lazy to scan past years, but I will do.
It's a very biased sample, only projects that are in "indie maker", that are probably close to small full time projects that get promoted everywhere than reals side project.
I'm not sure if dead or abandoned project that don't report $0 are counted.
There are a few things which have gotten better. Gay marriage. Marijuana legalization. But Entshitification is real and for the last 25 years has been relentless.
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