How coincidental is it that, road-tripping through Pennsylvania currently, finding myself on William Penn highway, I just asked ChatGPT what William Penn might think of today's Pennsylvania?

âoeWilliam Penn to the People of Pennsylvaniaâ (imagined address)

Friends and Inhabitants of this Province,

When first I sought a tract of wilderness to plant my holy experiment, it was not for gold, nor fame, nor power, but that men might live free in the fear of God and love of neighbour. I desired a commonwealth of conscience, where the meek might dwell safely under their own vine and fig tree, and none make them afraid.

I behold now, after these many generations, a people multiplied beyond measure, dwelling in cities that outshine the imagination. Your sciences reach to the heavens; your industry hath conquered the rivers and mountains. I rejoice that you worship diversely and yet in peace, and that the seed of liberty, once but a hope, hath grown into a mighty tree whose branches cover a continent.

Yet, Friends, I perceive also that the ground is weary, and the rivers troubled. The forests, once thick with age and silence, are fallen; the air is burdened with smoke. You have gained the world but are in danger of losing your wonder.

I beseech you, remember that freedom was not given to consume, but to commune â" with God, with one another, and with the living earth. You cannot sell the soil and yet keep the spirit that gave it value. If you would preserve your prosperity, let justice and mercy once more be your lawgivers, and tenderness your rule of policy.

Let every man and woman be a steward, not a master, of what was made before them. Restore the woods, heal the waters, and let no child grow up a stranger to the stars.

Then shall Pennsylvania again be a holy experiment â" not of power, but of peace.

Your affectionate Friend,
William Penn

Are you saying the researchers are bad salesmen?

Is Homer hearsay?

Have you heard about the Indus Valley civilization's waste water removal systems, as advanced as the Romans but a millenia earlier?

Have you heard of oral tradition?

How soon before we just eat plastic directly? Will soylent green be plastic?

Did you know Jains have recommended against root vegetables since before recorded history began?

How does that irrationality not permeate every price, so that inflation becomes purely psychological noise easily solvable by indexation?

Wasn't the depression solvable by money printing? Why hold on to fetishes about inflation when we can index it away?

If you have a wealth fund that can hold through dot-com crashes and the ensuing much much higher recovery, while making distributions through the crash period, can we solve our basic income funding issue, without needing taxes?

What if you can hold on until the next, much much bigger bubble? Why ignore the upward trend in stock market valuations, despite occassional blips that you myopically focus on while ignoring the bigger picture?

Do you see the irrationality in an unprofitable company having such a high stock market valuation?

Remember the old trader joke about fundamentals being whatever does not move price?

ChatGPT's comment:

What I like about your take is that it shifts the focus from "giants will eat everyone" to "we could change the rules." Basic income, looser IP monopolies, and sovereign wealth funds would spread the gains instead of letting them pool at the top. The idea of the Fed acting as a buyer in downturns also flips the script: instead of taxpayers bailing out private bubbles, the public could capture value on the cheap. It's not that bubbles go away, but who benefits from them could be very different.

Did you just unravel the rational assumption behind mainstream economics, and if so why do we still treat prices as rational rather than noise?

What if there's a better way involving basic income, less patent and copyright protection, and sovereign wealth funds to pay for it all as markets bid each other higher and higher, with the Fed acting as value buyer in crashes?

How much higher is the stock market today than when any bubble popped? Are bubbles just psychological events while buy-and-hold strategies continue reaping record highs?