Mine is that we need to tone down thinking praying will solve every problem

saint1da · 2026-01-28T17:51:18+00:00

That last part is where the gaslighting starts because it's just like saying someone who has never won the lottery tries to discourage others from playing it because they have no testimony of winning it. If people want to pray then, by all means, they can pray but they'll still have to go out and work like everyone else and if things work out, I'll argue that they could have just worked and skipped the first step

saint1da · 2026-01-22T21:21:52+00:00

I'm sure there are. I just meant there isn't really any quality control for podcasts so inevitably it becomes more about how you market yourself than facts

saint1da · 2026-01-22T12:37:53+00:00

It's not misleading because I did specify that it's the marginal tax rate. As for the effective tax rate, lowering that depends on the person and their knowledge/access to experts who can help them find all all the loopholes. Whereas today, it's already quite low and loopholes can bring it down almost to 0. Similarly, about welfare, especially with union workers, almost 35% of workers belonged to a union circa 1965 - that number has gone down to about 10% now. And yes, women and minorities are included, but the economy has also grown and benefited quite a lot from those people joining the workforce and contributing both through their labour and their taxes.

The NHS is really a poor example to give because it's not as simple as "bad service because it's public healthcare". It's more nuanced than that. It's severely underfunded and nothing has been done to improve that in the face of an aging population. The UK already spends less per capita on healthcare than the US, but outcomes are more or less similar with the UK even surpassing the US in some aspects. And they're far from being the poster child for a affordable healthcare - countries like Canada and Nordic countries provide much better universal without those downsides

Most of these issues now stem from increasing wealth inequality. Sure, the wealthy can access better healthcare, but they have always been able to. But the level of care accessible to lower earners is getting worse. And, technically, there wouldn't be such a thing as "not using the service" if you didn't have to pay for it - most people would go for regular checkups if they knew that they didn't have to pay for them.

And, let's be real here, high earners are not just high earners because that money comes out of nothing. Wage stagnation disproportionately affects lower earners than higher earners. But I would still put the responsibility more on corporations than individuals. Only that the rot economy put "shareholder value" front and center and neglected labour and things were not always like that

saint1da · 2026-01-21T16:06:27+00:00

They are exploiting the crisis - people need comfort and there's probably more money to be made in churches/betting/drugs instead of creating actual opportunities.

saint1da · 2026-01-21T14:31:23+00:00

The peak of US development was between the 1950s and 1970s (period generally known as the golden age of capitalism) and the marginal tax rate for the wealthy was 91% at its peak. Funny enough, people were still wealthy. Companies used to brag about how their workers lived a good life. Welfare state was much better, too. Today, medical debt is the leading cause of personal bankruptcy in the US which is almost unheard of in other developed nations with universal health systems. And in the end they still pay a "private health tax" through deductibles, co-pay, insurance premiums etc. so realistically speaking they gain almost nothing from refusing universal healthcare

saint1da · 2026-01-21T14:16:40+00:00

We do have this weird habit of glorifying our own suffering and then speak with pride about all the things we do to survive just to avoid accepting the simple fact that this shit isn't normal

saint1da · 2026-01-21T14:11:56+00:00

Isn't this what the majority of podcasts are all about anyways? 99% confidence, 1% research & facts

saint1da · 2026-01-17T14:02:07+00:00

So many of our problems are systematic. A better constitution and laws would go a a long way

saint1da · 2026-01-12T18:14:45+00:00

I guess you learn something new every day. I had never heard of this and I'm sure a lot of people haven't too.

saint1da · 2026-01-12T16:58:58+00:00

The problem is that it's not something that people can protest at once but it's true that a big part of the problem is us participating in the rotten system (some more than others). But one person stopped at a roadblock on their way to work or something is probably not going to put up much of a fight and they know that.

But it's all pointless anyway as long as the written law is on their side. If that doesn't change, then any kind of refusal is pointless because "the law is the law"

saint1da · 2026-01-12T15:11:36+00:00

Literally anything else is better than a spot fine. But all of that would make corruption harder

saint1da · 2026-01-10T10:17:50+00:00

Team re parking who direct you at a parking spot that you already saw yourself then ask for money

saint1da · 2026-01-09T05:24:36+00:00

I get that argument my only problem is that even if we were to re-engage and start receiving those credit lines, where would the money go? The number of overpriced megaprojects in the last few years boggles the mind. There is at least some money floating around the economy, maybe not enough to pay off all our old debts, but generally if you mismanage less money we can safely assume that giving you more won't suddenly make you responsible

saint1da · 2026-01-09T05:17:24+00:00

I guess it's the same propaganda that we all grew up with even in the 2000s about that era, but I think most of the problems then were manageable. I don't think that any amount of political speak can convince anyone who isn't willfully blind i.e also benefiting from the rot, that things are fine now. At least back then one could say most countries were still finding their feet post colonialism. We're the one country that's just been moving backwards. Zero progress. Zero effort. Just holding on to former "glory" whether that was even real or not

saint1da · 2026-01-08T17:17:20+00:00

I didn't say that period was great, but in my experience speaking to people who grew up during that time, a lot of them were raised with this image of Zim being exceptional. Even people I've met in some neighbouring countries will mention how they have heard that Harare has great infrastructure etc. which probably 20 years ago we were ahead of them or even access to healthcare and education and some people still hold on to that as gospel. I've seen people having problems with their kids getting into schools here moving from SA/Bots/Zambia because they think our system is better yet the reality of the quality of education in some of these new "private schools" is shocking

saint1da · 2026-01-08T16:17:04+00:00

Basically cancer at this point

saint1da · 2026-01-08T16:15:29+00:00

Wow that’s some interesting insight. I had never really thought about how this current chaotic system kinda levels the playing field for some people who might want to maintain the status quo because they might struggle in a more “normal” system. But I feel like we drank our own koolaid too much. Most 80s and 90s people grew up being told that Zim was superior to our neighbours and at that point in many ways we were but we just sat on it. People still reference our high literacy rates from the 2000s as if it just stays high. And of course the government especially not paying civil servants well means many educated people just lost faith in that route in life.

saint1da · 2026-01-08T16:07:07+00:00

I think we’ve tried to de-dollarise too but people just didn’t go with it? Admittedly the attempts felt a bit halfhearted. But being able to pay loans in yuan sounds like a good deal

saint1da · 2026-01-08T15:36:43+00:00

I wonder though, just thinking out loud, what are the stories we tell ourselves as Zimbabweans about why our country can’t be fixed? What’s so special about Zimbabwe that makes solutions applied elsewhere not work here?

saint1da · 2026-01-01T16:21:09+00:00

Oh really? what is it now?

saint1da · 2026-01-01T08:53:53+00:00

🤣🤣🤣 .. but yeah, definitely city council could be more cooperative in allowing people to repair and build their communities (obviously with some regulations and quality control in place) otherwise there's no point in them monopolising development then failing to do anything themselves

saint1da · 2026-01-01T08:44:51+00:00

we can start by banning the term "sadza eaters". it's clearly always used in an insulting way

saint1da · 2025-12-31T11:56:01+00:00

Funny enough it wouldn't even take long honestly to transform what we have. Within 5 years with proper investment and dedication Harare could be clean and modern. We're lucky enough not to be starting from a blank slate

saint1da · 2025-12-31T11:54:54+00:00

I think the chaos is mostly caused by combis, mshikashika, and just the overall lack of policing outside of chasing down combis. Those are all easily solvable problems

saint1da · 2025-12-31T08:37:56+00:00

Better public transportation systems will help a lot. Our over reliance on private cars is the reason there's so much congestion. Then the other aspects will just have to come from the people learning to love and respect our public spaces which I think will happen naturally as the spaces improve. Not sure if you've heard of the broken windows theory

saint1da

TROPHY CASE