I would not agree that there is more freedom of religion in Hong Kong than the USA merely because the government subsidises some religions. In fact selective subsidy could be argued to be less freedom of religion.
In Birmingham, UK, if children don’t go to school on one of the two (or three) Islamic Eids that is allowed. The council has also funded Sikh and Hindu festivals.
Eid is an arabic word (عيد) which means festival.
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Yeah, but this is MY authoritarian regime, so it would be perfect!
Hehe, you of course realise my post was kinda joking. But you’d be more than welcome to live in my utopia!
However, the current situation does seem like peak insanity of capitalism where we have fast food, convenience and advertising companies all promoting and profiting from things that make you unhealthy, then pharma and lifestyle companies promoting things to make you healthy again. Basically, all those guys at the top profit while the population is suffering physically and economically. That’s messed up.
And while, of course, I strongly support personal freedom, we have systems of governance where there is a level of mutual interdependence. The USA now has a recruitment issue for the military because a large % of people have health conditions. There are massive economic costs from the obesity, diabetes, time off work etc. Those things affect everybody, so I do believe that leaving everything to the free market is not going to produce desirable outcomes.
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I am not opposed to regulation, but there is a balance.
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Yes, of course. But I do think Bryan Johnson makes very valid points in this area; for some reason, we do have a lot of “pro death” culture. Tech companies working to make their stuff more addictive, keep you awake at night. Food companies working to make their food palatable, addictive, encouraging overeating etc. IMO that’s essentially exploiting the population.
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If people demonstrate that it is possible to improve healthspan materially (which will obviously leader to longer lives on average) then there will be few people who will personally choose diabetes, cancer, sarcopenia and osteoporosis.
In fact frailty alone is something I don’t think is that popular amongst the participants.
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L_H
#128
The trouble is we know that won’t work.
A one size fits all tax isn’t the only option. A tax authority with the mandate to adjust and adapt the rules could overcome the gaming.
It would be good to see a country try at least. Every country on the planet is backing the research+education approach. And every country is failing.
Let’s try a nimble-footed tax authority somewhere small like Iceland and see what happens…
L_H
#129
Doctors have a next level beyond frail… “crumbly”. Im very keen to avoid that fate
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Do you really believe so? I think your optimism is admirable, but I am more sceptical.
I still see people driving while inebriated, driving without seatbelts, riding bikes without helmet, smoking cigarettes and taking pills bought from some dude in an alley…
I don’t think car accidents, head trauma, cancer or poisoning are popular or desirable outcomes either, yet plenty of people seem to take actions which increase the risk of those. Hell, look at suicide which is the ultimate “pro death” choice, and plenty of people seem to be taking that too.
And as a society, we can barely even manage the basics of preventative medicine. A huge majority of doctors are absolutely hopeless, don’t have the time, energy or incentive to do anything with disease prevention.
One issue is that people are extremely bad at estimating risk, and people are very driven by their comfort zones. I think people make choices based on the environment they’re in, and we are fundamentally quite lazy and accepting creatures. If Coca Cola cost 5x more, people wouldn’t drink it as much. If it was outright removed from all stores, people might whine for a bit, but they’d get over it. Would they thank their benevolent dictator for their improved healthspan and not getting foot ulcers or eyesight deterioration 15 years in the future? Probably not!
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