As I previously promised, here's some information about why #neoliberalism is an irrelevant misdirection when talking about today's problems.
Neoliberalism is essentially the idea that we should let people and economies be free to do what they're going to do and then it'll be better for everyone. The policy consequences of this ideology ought to be lower taxes, lower government spending, staying away from government debt, and less regulation overall.
People can blame neoliberalism, but in a lot of ways neoliberalism failed. Neoliberalism has features like lower taxes and less regulation, but we're living in the highest taxed, most regulated times in human history. That's part of the problem. Blue collar folks are paying well over half their income to government, and what do they see around them? Tent cities, crime waves, good people losing their homes working three jobs while people who are snuggly with the government (and for those on the Elon Musk hate train, where do you think his billions came from?) become the richest people in human history. Despite the massive taxation, governments can't keep it in their pants, and so every government out there has massively increased their debts in the recent decades. My own country doubled its national debt, my home province increased its debt by several times, and meanwhile households are at record high debt levels and record low savings levels.
What we've actually seen is an overwhelming state stealing virtually everything from the middle class and handing it to the most powerful people on earth. That isn't neoliberalism by any definition -- it's just corruption.
The United States has an interesting case because one of the taxes is specifically for healthcare, and yet most people need health insurance. This sort of heavy corruption is what I'm talking about -- People pay enough money for a thing once through heavy taxation, then the system is so busy siphoning money to powerful interests that people need to go broke paying for a parallel system to get the thing they need, and sometimes even that parallel system fails individuals. The per capita public money spent on healthcare in the United States is the same as countries with universal healthcare, and that money isn't earmarked for research(a common argument made), it's earmarked for direct care.
Occasionally we see a little bit of deregulation here or there, but that's largely irrelevant next to the whole -- a massive, bloated central authority that tells us every little thing gives a tiny sliver or freedom back, then we blame all the problems in the world on that? It's absurd.
The 2008 financial crisis was blamed on deregulation, but the reality is much more complicated -- the banks that caused the collapse may have been slightly deregulated, but they are one of the most government protected forms of business on the planet, including having the literal money printer at the central reserve created solely to keep them in business. The banks were dealing in loans that were in one form or another insured by the government, paid for with deposits that are insured by the government, following directives by the government, and then when a little slice comes off of that people say it's lack of regulation that caused the problem, when in reality it's all the government money propping up the whole sector that let things get as bad as they did!
For many people in the western world, if they make an extra dollar, the government gets half. In some places it's even higher, closer to 75%. That level of taxation isn't compatible with the concept of neoliberalism. In many places debt/gdp ratios are exceeding 100%, that level of spending isn't compatible with the concept of neoliberalism, which advocates for lower government spending.
To give an idea of what another view of the universe might look like, prior to just before the world wars, there was no personal income tax in the United States or Canada. What might your life look like if you had that burden lifted from your shoulders? That's the question neoliberalism asks, but that's not a question even within the Overton window today.
Neoliberalism is essentially the idea that we should let people and economies be free to do what they're going to do and then it'll be better for everyone. The policy consequences of this ideology ought to be lower taxes, lower government spending, staying away from government debt, and less regulation overall.
People can blame neoliberalism, but in a lot of ways neoliberalism failed. Neoliberalism has features like lower taxes and less regulation, but we're living in the highest taxed, most regulated times in human history. That's part of the problem. Blue collar folks are paying well over half their income to government, and what do they see around them? Tent cities, crime waves, good people losing their homes working three jobs while people who are snuggly with the government (and for those on the Elon Musk hate train, where do you think his billions came from?) become the richest people in human history. Despite the massive taxation, governments can't keep it in their pants, and so every government out there has massively increased their debts in the recent decades. My own country doubled its national debt, my home province increased its debt by several times, and meanwhile households are at record high debt levels and record low savings levels.
What we've actually seen is an overwhelming state stealing virtually everything from the middle class and handing it to the most powerful people on earth. That isn't neoliberalism by any definition -- it's just corruption.
The United States has an interesting case because one of the taxes is specifically for healthcare, and yet most people need health insurance. This sort of heavy corruption is what I'm talking about -- People pay enough money for a thing once through heavy taxation, then the system is so busy siphoning money to powerful interests that people need to go broke paying for a parallel system to get the thing they need, and sometimes even that parallel system fails individuals. The per capita public money spent on healthcare in the United States is the same as countries with universal healthcare, and that money isn't earmarked for research(a common argument made), it's earmarked for direct care.
Occasionally we see a little bit of deregulation here or there, but that's largely irrelevant next to the whole -- a massive, bloated central authority that tells us every little thing gives a tiny sliver or freedom back, then we blame all the problems in the world on that? It's absurd.
The 2008 financial crisis was blamed on deregulation, but the reality is much more complicated -- the banks that caused the collapse may have been slightly deregulated, but they are one of the most government protected forms of business on the planet, including having the literal money printer at the central reserve created solely to keep them in business. The banks were dealing in loans that were in one form or another insured by the government, paid for with deposits that are insured by the government, following directives by the government, and then when a little slice comes off of that people say it's lack of regulation that caused the problem, when in reality it's all the government money propping up the whole sector that let things get as bad as they did!
For many people in the western world, if they make an extra dollar, the government gets half. In some places it's even higher, closer to 75%. That level of taxation isn't compatible with the concept of neoliberalism. In many places debt/gdp ratios are exceeding 100%, that level of spending isn't compatible with the concept of neoliberalism, which advocates for lower government spending.
To give an idea of what another view of the universe might look like, prior to just before the world wars, there was no personal income tax in the United States or Canada. What might your life look like if you had that burden lifted from your shoulders? That's the question neoliberalism asks, but that's not a question even within the Overton window today.
I was hoping to read the next Hell Mode, but it isn't out until January, but there's a new taking reincarnation one step at a time on Friday I'm hoping to blast through on a flight that day.
It definitely seems to make the most sense to assume that humans have built into our DNA both the capacity for "evil" but also the blueprint for "good".
But both are potential survival strategies, and often you have no choice what the successful strategy will be in a certain situation so you have to have the potential for both or at some point your bloodline ends.
You can see why between assuming everyone is evil and needs to be made good or assuming everyone is good and is only made evil one of the two is more memetically survivable over centuries and millennia.
But both are potential survival strategies, and often you have no choice what the successful strategy will be in a certain situation so you have to have the potential for both or at some point your bloodline ends.
You can see why between assuming everyone is evil and needs to be made good or assuming everyone is good and is only made evil one of the two is more memetically survivable over centuries and millennia.
Crazy protip we discovered:
You know how rufus lets you create a windows to go installation?
If you take your (empty) main drive and connect it to a computer using USB you can create a windows to go installation on a real drive, and then it'll just start up on whatever machine you plug it into -- and I don't mean using USB, I mean plug it into a computer using sata or whatever.
You may or may not have a use for such a thing, but it's a neat tool to have in your back pocket.
You know how rufus lets you create a windows to go installation?
If you take your (empty) main drive and connect it to a computer using USB you can create a windows to go installation on a real drive, and then it'll just start up on whatever machine you plug it into -- and I don't mean using USB, I mean plug it into a computer using sata or whatever.
You may or may not have a use for such a thing, but it's a neat tool to have in your back pocket.
My favorite part of spiking premiums is that during the pandemic everyone was staying at home and nobody was driving their cars so most insurance companies weren't paying anything out, yet premiums spiked because reasons!
With all the children out there who are angry about something, I won't to let you know we've really done something. We find getting angry. That way we can really focus on what matters -- the fact that atrocities are now being committed by people of all race Creed and color.
Facts. Twitter has been a dumpster fire forever. I had an account for a while, I made more sense to delete it -- and this was back in like 2015
bros its over! not the massive multinational megacorps! without them all platform are fully dead!
The tactics remind me of a used car salesman.
Remember, 2°C per century, that's what they predict. So of course every hot day is YOU NEED TO BUY NOW BUY NOW BUY NOW OR THE WORLD WILL LITERALLY END NEXT WEEK.
Remember, 2°C per century, that's what they predict. So of course every hot day is YOU NEED TO BUY NOW BUY NOW BUY NOW OR THE WORLD WILL LITERALLY END NEXT WEEK.
Bank accounts will let you buy 24,000 dollars in drugs, but donate to some truckers asking not to have their jobs taken away and they will find you and they will destroy you.
Sometimes the worst part is when you expect something to be super complicated but it's actually super simple.
I just found lo fi orchestra at diyelectromusic@makertube.net on peertube, it seems really cool. It's famous music reproduced using arduino controllers.
https://video.fbxl.net/w/tyQPtB27q6jtYkEPTrZF7y - Jupiter from Planets
https://video.fbxl.net/w/tyQPtB27q6jtYkEPTrZF7y - Jupiter from Planets
Money is a hygiene factor. It won't make you happy necessarily, but it doesn't hurt and not having it sure does hurt and will make you unhappy...
In the same way, nobody is going to be friends with you because you shower daily, but they'll definitely choose not to be friends with you because you don't shower...
In the same way, nobody is going to be friends with you because you shower daily, but they'll definitely choose not to be friends with you because you don't shower...
I, for one, look forward to the patronising explanations of things to the public that seem to be designed for 4 year olds trapped in adult bodies.
"I'm going to become what's called the President. See, the president is like a boss for all the people in the country! So now I'm going to be the boss of all of you!"
George W. Bush will end up getting the last laugh, since he'll be remembered as only the second most mentally retarded president.
"I'm going to become what's called the President. See, the president is like a boss for all the people in the country! So now I'm going to be the boss of all of you!"
George W. Bush will end up getting the last laugh, since he'll be remembered as only the second most mentally retarded president.
I know, it's frustrating when you're trying to find the truth and some people just say shit, then you look like you're nuts when you're just going with whatever information appears to be accurate as close to the event as possible.
That said, my point is more about the arbitrary nature of political violence so stands regardless of the truth of the news story.
That said, my point is more about the arbitrary nature of political violence so stands regardless of the truth of the news story.