<story><title>Three Big Things: Important forces shaping the world</title><url>https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/three-big-things-the-most-important-forces-shaping-the-world/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>cryptica</author><text>About &amp;#x27;information access&amp;#x27;, I think the new barrier to socioeconomic mobility is going to be misinformation and regulation.&lt;p&gt;Those who have power will do anything to keep that power; with abundant and free information, fake news and misinformation will be used to control the masses.&lt;p&gt;Probably the world will be in such a state that:&lt;p&gt;1. Most of the rules in society will not make sense but you will accept them anyway simply because everyone else accepts them and there will be a lot of myths and misinformation to justify the rules.&lt;p&gt;2. Not believing the myths and not following the rules will get you imprisoned or killed (as has typically been the case throughout human history).&lt;p&gt;I think &amp;#x27;government regulation&amp;#x27; is increasingly taking the place of religious doctrine when it comes to protecting the interests of the rich and powerful. There are a lot of arbitrary laws which were introduced under some vague pretext whose real purpose is to create a moat to protect corporate interests.</text></comment>
<story><title>Three Big Things: Important forces shaping the world</title><url>https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/three-big-things-the-most-important-forces-shaping-the-world/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>Gatsky</author><text>Demography is rightly placed first. Youth is short and life is long, therefore the political and economic implications of an ageing population are huge. In Australia for example, the biggest ticket item for government spending is ‘assistance to the aged’, $70 billion out of a total budget of $500 billion. This is distinct from the money spent on health, which is also heavily skewed towards the elderly. I am not making a value judgement on government spending, but the numbers suggest we will be locked in a cycle where spending on the elderly will continue to be a dominant factor in government spending for the next 30 years.&lt;p&gt;What will be interesting to see is how the governments keep finding the money.</text></comment>