Haha. Not a real American. My wife was born in Arizona, but she's an anarchist so I don't think that really counts either. They say I was born under a canadian flag but I have no recollection and I don't trust anyone. :)

If the American dream is to start a business and buy a house, then its over. Houses are $500K and wages $20 per hour. There is no way. Owning any business capable of even paying wages needs 250K to start and a couple inside connections. The only progress here is for the elites while everyone else scrapes by. Apples are $6/kg, people spend 2 weeks per month to pay rent then the government takes the next week's pay leaving barely enough to insure an old car.

Sounds like your Yellow team is like our Democrat team, and the Duerte is trying to shake out the rust. From here he seems pretty respectable, although I assume governments are kinda the same all over. Filling the pockets of their friends and giving commoners the stick. That he is cleaning up anything at all is pretty incredible, although I'm sure its much slower and less effective than anyone dared to dream.

I don't think we can do much with governments. They comfortably crush all opposition and the idea of rising against the power seems like a fool's errand. Pretty sure they'll take care of themselves and we will pick up the pieces later.

I don't believe the federal system is viable, too many small interest groups trying to prop up each other's small interest in this collective grab at the feed trough of government. We will never get power lines underground while the firefighter's union is in cahoots with the power company to co-opt the legislators. If we could have direct voting then maybe there'd be a chance, but its for sure that no one currently in power is going to let that start.

Fun chat. I followed your blog and need to check out the 3D printing of houses in your post. That future seems so much more functional than the fiasco that is the current building department system. Cheers!