<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></head><body dir="auto"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;" dir="auto">Marcus, your reply makes me wonder if you have voted for the orange guy in the White House. If yes, would you do it again? Here from Europe it looks as if the orange menace leaves a trail of destruction on his way between the Golf Club in West Palm Beach and Washington and back. To use a meteorological metaphor for Nick: the guy who is wearing orange makeup acts like a tornado out of control that destroys everything in his path - the economy, the retirement savings, and the last remains of the American dream.</span><div dir="auto"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;" dir="auto"><br></span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;" dir="auto">-J.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;" dir="auto"><br></span></div><div><br></div><div align="left" dir="auto" style="font-size:100%;color:#000000"><div>-------- Original message --------</div><div>From: Marcus Daniels <marcus@snoutfarm.com> </div><div>Date: 4/20/25 6:58 PM (GMT+01:00) </div><div>To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam@redfish.com> </div><div>Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The broken American Dream </div><div><br></div></div><div class="WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">It seems to me to be a little more scale free than that. I just paid my quarterly taxes. The thing that bothers me is not that it a significant cost, but that it is not a responsible spending plan. I am pouring money into a Medicare program that is becoming insolvent and creating increasing deficit spending. It seems to me that if my taxes are 5% higher, that’s fine if it fixes the problem. But many won’t step up to that 5%, so my reaction to those people is: Let’s let this thing fail. Private insurance it is. I am now much more inclined to aggressively write off business expenses than see my productivity go a losing enterprise. I am sick of cheap people.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"> </span></p><div style="border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in"><p style="margin-bottom:12.0pt" class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black">From: </span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black">Friam <friam-bounces@redfish.com> on behalf of Jochen Fromm <jofr@cas-group.net><br><b>Date: </b>Sunday, April 20, 2025 at 7:47 AM<br><b>To: </b>The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam@redfish.com><br><b>Subject: </b>[FRIAM] The broken American Dream</span></p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Stephen Marche's article about the state of America leaves me with the impression that the only thing that all Americans still have in common is the feeling that the country is broken. Stephen writes: </span></p><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">"<span style="color:black">The country clubs are rife with men and women, in incredible luxury, complaining bitterly about the state of the country. The richest and most powerful, the Americans who have won, who have everything, are still not happy, and why? Their answer is that the American dream must be broken."</span></span></p><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/20/american-dream-trump-canada</span></p><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"> </span></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">-J.</span></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"> </span></p></div></div></div></div></body></html>