> The whole US system seems strange to many of us.

Many US systems seem strange to us, for sure. I benefited of free education all the way up to the masters degree, and would have been free to have the PhD, if I wanted to. They even paid me to study... Well, rather because I was studying, i.e. merit scholarship. Of course, it wasn't much at that time, but it was a nice bonus we could get every month instead of paying. In the US, that's quite rare, and it's usually the opposite and very costly. At least that's the impression I got from the movies and people complaining about education costs in the US.

> Letting anyone have absolute power is dangerous, but it's all a compromise.

I agree. Democracy (whatever that still means) seems to be in their way, once they grab power, and this is true for all or most of them.

> I've no idea where the markets are going.

Nobody really knows precisely unless they control it, but one can analyze some potential outcomes based on factors that influence it. Otherwise, being in the market is pointless, if we can't have at least some idea where it's going. That doesn't make us right! Hopefully, it makes us right on average or on longer term, otherwise the only way is down for us.