Once you understand the pattern of Welfare, you can see it everywhere.

Europe, specifically NATO countries, has been on US arms foodstamps for decades.

Take that welfare away and they are forced to re-arm, just like the big baby in Spirited Away was forced to grow up outside of his mother's "care".

This is good. Downstream welfare programs would inevitably suffer in each country, forcing the EU to re-evaluate Infinite Welfare as a general principle.

It won't happen but it should.

@UncleIroh “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.”
― Alexander Fraser Tytler

@Tfmonkey I've come to appreciate the role of history more and more.

All our current problems, every single one, has been understood by our forbears many times over.

I'm convinced that education needs a radical change that puts the study of patterns front and center. That a person cannot be considered educated until they have understood that patterns of a deep cyclical or seasonal nature govern everything from the rise and fall of Empires to our own appetites.

And evolutionary biology.