33862 replies to this topic

[PItiful Boar]

2 it's a good mix of rural and urban

 

but defense is probably biggest player in town

ahhhh lack of sleeeeeeep

i hate the hot weather

[pokari]

3

Yeah, hot sleep is awful x.x

[PItiful Boar]

4 its gotten a bit cooler today and yesterday

[PItiful Boar]

damn eating out is rather expensive

[pokari]

Yeah, this morning when I stepped out the weather was nice ~w~

5

And yes, inflation is hittin' food hard.

I don't envy the Federal Reserve and other governing bodies right now whose job it is to try to prevent either rapid inflation or a depression—since we're heading in opposite directions for that on different parts of the economy right now.

[PItiful Boar]

6 they get what they deserve

 

we've been putting things off and just print money to get a sugar high to stimulate the economy. The economy looks vibrant but only because of the massive steroids they're pumping into the system.  

after i cleaned out so much shit i lost my watch... tbh it's what happens when i get two pairs of the same thing

i can tell you that involution in the states is not going to get any easier.... the amount of electronic catharsis around... 

[pokari]

Eh... In the past couple years the alternatives to egregiously printing money were raising taxes on those who could afford it (which there's never any will for) or just giving everyone whose jobs went away from Covid the big middle finger. From the choices available, I don't see anything better.

7

i can tell you that involution in the states is not going to get any easier.... the amount of electronic catharsis around...

I see that this is English yet understand not a word of it. o.o What buzzword-filled stuff have you been reading, Pit? :'p

[PItiful Boar]

8 the problem with flooding the market with lots of money is that theres no where the money can go- so it gets absorbed into the least productive parts of the economy, the real estate

 

if you put it into the stock market then it ultimately becomes some kind of rent extraction and makes everybody work harder for no gain - thats the original term of involution. I believe it was funded by the CIA , to study the agricultural output of indonesia (https://www.worldcat.org/title/agricultural-involution-the-process-of-ecological-change-in-indonesia/oclc/1905899) specifically the phenomenon where your output is not keeping up with productivity. In another words, you're spinning in neutral gears, hence involution, rather than the more positive evolution.

[pokari]

Disregarding the Covid-related stuff of the past two years for a moment, that doesn't seem like a good description of our economic problems in general. Productivity per capita working on producing things is way up, surely. Rather, wealth leaves the working class like produce leaving the colonies for Europe; not paid for, because the (increasingly effective) means of this industry are owned wholly by those who already had money, just as in the industrial revolution.

Only once we get down to what the rest of us are doing with the scraps—a lot of menial but necessary jobs taking care of our fellow workers, restaurants and deliveries and cleaning and whatever—do we have a situation where we just work harder and harder without seeing any increase in productivity per person.

...Well, that's probably not totally fair but I think there's a grain of truth or something there. I'm sleepy so I may be rambling a little.

9

Anyway that sort of mood was how we ended up with Marxism and whatnot, but I don't think I'll ever me a Marxist regardless. He got some many things right about what the problem was, but like all societal problems, identifying what's wrong is much easier than working out a viable solution.

[PItiful Boar]

10 yes marx did not fully explore state government, particularly military industrial complex, as instrumental to developing ones macro-economy. It's why small states are not in charge of their own destiny.

i think is capital leaving for europe and for the US, which is a safe haven. IDK

The most secure place for money in this world is also the cause of its greatest instability....

[pokari]

In the short run a certain amount of capital is also going to India and China in the form of cheap Russian oil and goods. ...Honestly, it's fascinating that that has to be "cheap"; that's about a third of the world as their customers between just those two countries.

(I can't begrudge India for it—even if I'm a bit cynical about the motivations of its current leaders, I can at least understand the reasonable temptation of the "grow the economy at all costs, sort out the mess later" approach they're taking and how hard it would be to pass up with that mentality.)

11

Alas, the game theory of nations is such an unholy mess. And that's before you add the perverse humans in. Man, I remember when it was the 90's and we were going to have world peace, or something. Ah well x.x

[PItiful Boar]

12 um.. there's been a big drop in the stock market lately so i guess capital is leaving the US...

 

"Grow the economy at all costs/sort out the mess later" applies to every country on the path of modernization. Nobody wants to deal with the externality like global climate change or inequality distribution.

What's worth fighting for these days? Is the continuation of this path worth it? 

[pokari]

I mean, it's potentially worth it for the descendants of the people trying it... if they succeed, that is.

If we want hardball-plays in the international rat-race not to ever be worth it, at a bare minimum we who are ahead would have to talk about giving up a serious percentage of our purchasing power to build infrastructure and knowledge base in other countries, altruistically and without an expectancy of return, and knowing the rewards for our efforts would be that we'd empowered our economic competitors.

Which... is probably a difficult sell. As long as climate change and wealth inequality aren't going to end the world outright, it doesn't seem likely. So instead we hope technological advances or something will save us, I guess. Which seems at least somewhat less-implausible.

13

In other fun news now one of my household members has covid, so it's everybody-shut-themselves-in-their-room time! Whee... x_x;

Edited by pokari, 03 July 2022 - 12:30 AM.

[PItiful Boar]

who? any symptoms? i heard sore throat is common symptom

hope they're ok

 

14

i think its not climate change or wealth inequality but the disgruntlement from those things that will cause enough disturbance in the system to make it unstable

for example, the recent war in ukraine is a reflection of the disenchantment with the global wealth distribution order - where russia is being relegated to 3rd world status economically which it isn't happy about

how is it possible that a (much) smaller ukraine get to join the EU before it does? fk that sh*t

Edited by Feishy Pit Boar, 04 July 2022 - 06:14 PM.

[pokari]

My father, he seems to be doing okay for now, thankfully.

15

This may be flippant and trite because it's 3:30 AM, but, I'm not sure the war in Ukraine is accountable to anything other than Putin going bonkers, honestly.

Like nobody should have looked at that and said "yeah let's do it".

It certainly wasn't about jealousy about Ukraine joining NATO or the EU, though.

...Well, er, okay, I mean, it was, actually, but Ukraine wasn't who they wished they were in that metaphorical romance; rather, they're jealous of the EU who was wooing their (one-sidedly declared, in violation of restraining orders, etc) boyfriend Ukraine.

[penrosecat]

16

 

i want to say a lot about russia and the situation of various countries, but in short most of them have big issues. even china, despite doing good on the world stage by mentally crippling the next generation (reducing attention span, etc.) permanently with tiktok, acquiring large stakes in companies like discord, getting the world's authoritarian governments together, debt trap diplomacy, etc. will have a lot of problems due to little to no taxable population and weird stuff they do with their land (they lease it out and the leases are running out...people will be mad...no one is sure how exactly to resolve this...)

 

plus its not like the us is having it particularly pretty over there with how the last month ended up turning out, it honestly feels a little scary to go there at this point in time, just show up and get shot? 

 

the war in ukraine has a lot of connection to the siloviki whispering in putin's ear and his own dream of reuniting the USSR, but also if there was ever a time to have a war, this was it because their demographic decline and aging scientists wouldn't leave them in position to make any kind of war attempt a few years into the future, whether to grab ice free ports or anything else. (i probably said this sometime before)

 

g'night zzzz

[pokari]

Hi Penrowo~ >w< I hope you are presently sleeping well.

*hugs*

plus its not like the us is having it particularly pretty over there with how the last month ended up turning out, it honestly feels a little scary to go there at this point in time, just show up and get shot?

It should be said you are currently about ten times as likely to die of Covid in America than you are to get shot, each day (Not even die of shooting. Just get shot, period).

Said chances of getting shot per day are less than 1 in a million. On average, you are not at much risk of gun death in America. Now, go to the wrong neighborhood in the wrong city, it might actually become a legitimate concern.

The mass shootings, on the other hand, which are the news of the hour, there's essentially zero chance of getting caught up in. It might at this point be at least more likely than winning the lottery; indeed chances of dying in one are approximately the same as getting killed by lightning (though doesn't peak in the summer like U.S. lightning deaths do).

The psychological harm on the other hand obviously hits much more broadly, extending well beyond the immediate victims.

17

Yeah, I suppose it's quite reasonable to think Putin is just surrounded by an aggressive variety of yes-men and has simply had his world -view slowly warped to the point where he can't discern that that's what they are.

...It's all the sort of thing that almost makes one wish one could go into god mode, turn back time and tweak the circumstances, and see what would or wouldn't make things turn out differently.

Edited by pokari, 07 July 2022 - 01:22 AM.

[PItiful Boar]

Hi penrose, hope all is well with you. Be sure to get enough sleep.  

 

I'm not going to comment on the depressing things... we're too small of a fish in a big big pond anyway. I don't want to sound like a pessimist but whatever amount of stress you're getting from the news? ain't worth it if it's not directly affecting you. Only eat as much as you can digest. Else you would end up like me (or what I was for a long time): angry at the world, not sure what I'm really angry at... Not healthy at all. 

[pokari]

19

Yup, yup. ~w~

[pokari]

20

Can finally emerge from quarantine x.x

Like a subterranean creature suddenly exposed to the light.