It's a pure resourcing issue. How many resources are allocated to improving linux desktop experience on laptops? A tiny fraction compared to Microsoft and Apple. Linux paid developers are usually focused on the server side. If next to nothing is invested in making it better then it doesn't get better.
Automation? You don't necessarily need infinite population growth, Japan and other nations with low immigration and population growth may be able to make things better than it seems. Look at corporate tax bases and number of employees in major companies. You could totally run a high income economy with fewer people and better outcomes.
Population growth is not a requirement for economic growth, it is just one of the laziest ways to move the dial up.
If you read Genesis most people mentioned there lived 100s of years. This most likely is an artifact of years corresponding to moon cycles (aka months) in the earlier parts of the Old Testament.
Consider it from a bureaucratic efficiency perspective instead then, if the rules are too broad and there are too many exemptions then the cost of gathering taxes increases. The government should aim for a simpler system that is more efficient (so that it can pass on the cost saving in having an efficient tax system on as reduced taxation if you are a neoliberal believer).
It isn't economically beneficial for people to spend vast sums on creative accountancy in order to minimise their taxation. Tax minimisation encourages investment in areas that do not promote growth or bring new products to market. Yes, there is a personal or individual corporate reward for avoiding tax but there are significant economic downsides too. Tax havens allow corruption, terrorism and organised crime to flourish giving them a way to siphon funds around which is a massive societal detriment.
Power curves are one reason lead isn't more used (they spike a fair bit). The other one to look at is how the tech itself scales, almost all batteries all catch fire easily due to the chemical processes. That becomes a bigger problem the more you pack them in and there has been more research in getting Lithium cells to not catch fire than lead acid lately.
Only if you are not good at process. If you have solid practices, documentation and system design skills you can make yourself removable, then you can go on leave whenever and things will be fine.
A good way to measure this is look at how long it takes to do handover when someone leaves a project. If it is more than half an hour of showing someone where the repo is and a brief explanation then you have a problem that can be fixed with better processes. Ideally, someone should be able to pick up a project or a product very quickly as all the information they need should be in a simple, easily navigable format that they can consume and understand. I realise that is an ideal case but if you are senior enough to lead you can be senior enough to never make yourself a dependency and that callback never comes because it is never required. Ensuring management above you understands your value is another problem (anyone who can code themselves out of a job is worth keeping around and giving harder jobs to and good managers will understand that).
A 360 on a children's swing can definitely be done. I've done it as a child and as an adult. It usually needs to have a much longer rope/chain on it to get the momentum up.
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Remote: Yes
Willing to relocate: Yes, but would prefer not to. E3 eligible.
Technologies: Keras, Tensorflow, Python, R, Ruby on Rails, C, JS, React, Scala, OCaml, Postgres, most of the AWS common toolchain from a devops view.
Résumé/CV: https://chriscurran.work
Email: chris at scut.tl
I've been in the individual contributor game for a long time. Solid development experience (front end, back end, apps and data pipelines), devops and SRE experience and a very strong interest in machine learning with some experience in commercial ML development.
Also important to consider that your taxes are already paying for streets as well so whether it is in a taxpayer funded house or a taxpayer funded street is irrelevant.
