https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du6SqVoxy0o
Go to Taco Bell
Order a big mac
Hand the clerk a pair of hundos, "Look, I don't care how you gotta do it. Just make it happen."
Go to Taco Bell
Order a big mac
Hand the clerk a pair of hundos, "Look, I don't care how you gotta do it. Just make it happen."
I think even Marx recognized that capitalism was a relatively recent invention, seeing it as a descendant of feudalism which he did consider a different economic system. While his view of history still sees the lords and kings as the owner class compared to the working class, it doesn't claim capitalism is something that's always existed or been the dominant economic system.
As I recall, colonialism in some cases was definitely not capitalist -- the Spanish were generally centrally planned mercantile economies, not capitalist in the way we consider it today.
Arguably, one of the reasons that North America thrived more than South America is that the colonists who came over were more capitalist in most of North America and so ended up necessarily being less exploitative (which admittedly is relative) because under capitalism you need to provide something of value for the people you're asking to do things, whereas under strict government central planning you only need provide the threat of violence against people you're asking to do things.
Of course there were African slaves in America and that was a big problem, but under Spanish colonialism it isn't like the commoners in South America weren't slaves, they just weren't chattel slaves such as those bought from Africa.
And it's notable that some of the major problems in the US are ripples through history of chattel slavery, suggesting that things would be even better had they not made use of the unfree system of labor.
Unfortunately, we have a large group of critics of modern society that don't understand what society may have looked like in the past, and so make arguments lacking a firm foundation in reality. "Capitalism is the cause of all the world's problems" or even better "capitalism is the cause of colonialism" are ahistorical statements but quite popular among pop critics.
As I recall, colonialism in some cases was definitely not capitalist -- the Spanish were generally centrally planned mercantile economies, not capitalist in the way we consider it today.
Arguably, one of the reasons that North America thrived more than South America is that the colonists who came over were more capitalist in most of North America and so ended up necessarily being less exploitative (which admittedly is relative) because under capitalism you need to provide something of value for the people you're asking to do things, whereas under strict government central planning you only need provide the threat of violence against people you're asking to do things.
Of course there were African slaves in America and that was a big problem, but under Spanish colonialism it isn't like the commoners in South America weren't slaves, they just weren't chattel slaves such as those bought from Africa.
And it's notable that some of the major problems in the US are ripples through history of chattel slavery, suggesting that things would be even better had they not made use of the unfree system of labor.
Unfortunately, we have a large group of critics of modern society that don't understand what society may have looked like in the past, and so make arguments lacking a firm foundation in reality. "Capitalism is the cause of all the world's problems" or even better "capitalism is the cause of colonialism" are ahistorical statements but quite popular among pop critics.
Unemployment being "at all time lows" is a great example of the cooked books. There's "record low unemployment" but the labor participation rate is also really low and the number of able-bodied people who for example are permanently on disability are high.
Not to mention "a job" isn't necessarily meaningful. When I was in college, we rented our first 2 bedroom place for 325 in Winnipeg, you probably would struggle to find the same place for 1500 now. Meanwhile the minimum wage has only gone up by a few dollars, and proportionally more jobs are low wage jobs.
In Toronto there's 25 strangers sharing a basement, each paying 1000/mo, and according to the numbers that means everything is great, but in reality it's an abomination.
It's also a third rail, but many of those 25 strangers living in a basement are recent migrants. Immigration isn't at all bad, but mindlessly cramming as many people from developing nations as possible into a developed nation is bad for the existing population, and bringing in such people solely for the purpose of exploiting them on an economic ledger is deeply immoral.
And let's talk about "greedflation". It exists, but from who? Well, I'd argue it's from the politicians. The US has increased their federal debt by 10x in 20 years, Canada has doubled its debt in 8 years. These greedy politicians don't intend to pay back the debt, they're just going to run it up until society collapses. In the US, debt maintenance is on track to exceed military spending. In Canada, debt maintenance is on track to exceed universal healthcare. The politicians just can't stop spending other people's money, and the price is mass inflation. Oh man -- the politicians loooooove the 25 strangers living in a basement, it looks so good on their fake little economic ledger!
Some people would blame capitalism, but modern capitalism is a quite recent invention and similar issues have occurred in many different countries throughout history, many of which we would not tend to consider modern capitalist democracies, such as France prior to the french revolution, Spain during the conquest of South America, or the Roman Empire.
You don't need private ownership or control of capital to have corruption and mismanagement, and in fact a corrupt nobility can be made worse by not having a strong merchant class to keep them accountable. Having this separate class that can become more powerful through merit is important because having a strong nobility and no capitalism results in high levels of stability, but also stagnation because there are no mechanisms for meritorious people to be easily elevated by objective means. People could be born a serf and become a noble, but merchants must do it through actually being successful merchants, whereas a serf would have to impress a noble who themselves may not be such a good arbiter of merit.
The fact that the poor can be in trouble under capitalism is true; however it does not suggest that there is a monopoly on such. Feudal Japan is a great example of a distinctly non-capitalist nation that nonetheless had high levels of inequality, with some people barely considered human, and others considered as living embodiments of gods.
The present danger is that the state is so large and so powerful that it distorts capitalism. We can see this where a company like Tesla made Elon Musk briefly the richest man in the history of the earth largely on government largesse -- he got a free factory, he gets huge subsidies, every single one of his vehicles got a huge direct subsidy for the buyer, and because of high inflation due to state money printing (and artificially low interest rates on debt due to government policy) people who want to retire need to save their money in something that grows and so the stock market gets a disproportionate amount of money inside of it because the money needs to go somewhere or it'll disappear.
Banking is a great example of an industry that's completely distorted by government. On one hand, deposits are insured so people don't take their money out of banks. Many loans are backstopped by the government such as mortgages which are insured in favor of the banks. The banks have a unique ability to print money out of thin air that's largely a government construct. If a bank becomes insolvent then there's many different types of insurance to keep the bank going. So often, "deregulation" doesn't touch any of these things and only will seek to reduce the few regulations designed to make sure the benefits don't become a massive moral hazard where banks take huge risks not caring since everything they do is protected.
Not to mention "a job" isn't necessarily meaningful. When I was in college, we rented our first 2 bedroom place for 325 in Winnipeg, you probably would struggle to find the same place for 1500 now. Meanwhile the minimum wage has only gone up by a few dollars, and proportionally more jobs are low wage jobs.
In Toronto there's 25 strangers sharing a basement, each paying 1000/mo, and according to the numbers that means everything is great, but in reality it's an abomination.
It's also a third rail, but many of those 25 strangers living in a basement are recent migrants. Immigration isn't at all bad, but mindlessly cramming as many people from developing nations as possible into a developed nation is bad for the existing population, and bringing in such people solely for the purpose of exploiting them on an economic ledger is deeply immoral.
And let's talk about "greedflation". It exists, but from who? Well, I'd argue it's from the politicians. The US has increased their federal debt by 10x in 20 years, Canada has doubled its debt in 8 years. These greedy politicians don't intend to pay back the debt, they're just going to run it up until society collapses. In the US, debt maintenance is on track to exceed military spending. In Canada, debt maintenance is on track to exceed universal healthcare. The politicians just can't stop spending other people's money, and the price is mass inflation. Oh man -- the politicians loooooove the 25 strangers living in a basement, it looks so good on their fake little economic ledger!
Some people would blame capitalism, but modern capitalism is a quite recent invention and similar issues have occurred in many different countries throughout history, many of which we would not tend to consider modern capitalist democracies, such as France prior to the french revolution, Spain during the conquest of South America, or the Roman Empire.
You don't need private ownership or control of capital to have corruption and mismanagement, and in fact a corrupt nobility can be made worse by not having a strong merchant class to keep them accountable. Having this separate class that can become more powerful through merit is important because having a strong nobility and no capitalism results in high levels of stability, but also stagnation because there are no mechanisms for meritorious people to be easily elevated by objective means. People could be born a serf and become a noble, but merchants must do it through actually being successful merchants, whereas a serf would have to impress a noble who themselves may not be such a good arbiter of merit.
The fact that the poor can be in trouble under capitalism is true; however it does not suggest that there is a monopoly on such. Feudal Japan is a great example of a distinctly non-capitalist nation that nonetheless had high levels of inequality, with some people barely considered human, and others considered as living embodiments of gods.
The present danger is that the state is so large and so powerful that it distorts capitalism. We can see this where a company like Tesla made Elon Musk briefly the richest man in the history of the earth largely on government largesse -- he got a free factory, he gets huge subsidies, every single one of his vehicles got a huge direct subsidy for the buyer, and because of high inflation due to state money printing (and artificially low interest rates on debt due to government policy) people who want to retire need to save their money in something that grows and so the stock market gets a disproportionate amount of money inside of it because the money needs to go somewhere or it'll disappear.
Banking is a great example of an industry that's completely distorted by government. On one hand, deposits are insured so people don't take their money out of banks. Many loans are backstopped by the government such as mortgages which are insured in favor of the banks. The banks have a unique ability to print money out of thin air that's largely a government construct. If a bank becomes insolvent then there's many different types of insurance to keep the bank going. So often, "deregulation" doesn't touch any of these things and only will seek to reduce the few regulations designed to make sure the benefits don't become a massive moral hazard where banks take huge risks not caring since everything they do is protected.
I was looking at the next time they think there'll be a supercontinent. The average surface temperature of most of the earth most of the time will be over 40C, so even just that far in the future things will be pretty rough. All of civilization has existed in a relatively short period of world history, it has been really cold or really hot.
We don't live objectively, we live subjectively.
Objectively, eventually the planet Earth will be swallowed by atomic fire as the yellow dwarf sun transitions into the red giant part of its lifecycle. Great. Does that fact change the feeling of falling in love, or the awe of seeing something amazing, or the pride of accomplishing your own personal goals? When you witness a great work of art or literature, objectively speaking that act is meaningless in the universal scheme, but does that mean it doesn't move you?
We are not objective creatures, we are extremely subjective, and moreover we are not universal creatures, we are very specifically humans.
Objectively, eventually the planet Earth will be swallowed by atomic fire as the yellow dwarf sun transitions into the red giant part of its lifecycle. Great. Does that fact change the feeling of falling in love, or the awe of seeing something amazing, or the pride of accomplishing your own personal goals? When you witness a great work of art or literature, objectively speaking that act is meaningless in the universal scheme, but does that mean it doesn't move you?
We are not objective creatures, we are extremely subjective, and moreover we are not universal creatures, we are very specifically humans.
I started reading "The Brilliant Healer's new life in the shadows", and found myself just chuckling away. It's great. Blasted through the first volume in a few hours.
It's hard to explain, but having an insanely OP main character works here because the fun part is the interaction between characters and the MC who really underplays his own powers.
Sort of reminds me of I only parry in that regard, which is another series I just love.
I feel like I wouldn't like it as much as an anime. Just seems like when I read stuff like this I can get the pacing just right for me, whereas anime moves forward at a rate set by the animator.
It's hard to explain, but having an insanely OP main character works here because the fun part is the interaction between characters and the MC who really underplays his own powers.
Sort of reminds me of I only parry in that regard, which is another series I just love.
I feel like I wouldn't like it as much as an anime. Just seems like when I read stuff like this I can get the pacing just right for me, whereas anime moves forward at a rate set by the animator.
I feel like Crooked Hillary wouldn't drink beer. It'd make her feel like someone who can't have people killed or nations levelled for crossing her, which she would describe in private as "icky".
Ugh... Imagine being on a platform with censorship, where you had to pick what you say carefully because you might offend a global megacorp.
I've come to believe that the meaning of life is having kids and raising those kids to become someone at least as good as you.
There's been no pursuit in my entire life I've derived more meaning from, felt more pride in, than being a father and trying to be a great father. It means being a great provider, a great leader, a great teacher, a great protector, and a great partner to my wife. In that sense if I succeed then it'll be the culmination of many of my roles throughout life and it's easy to screw up and be only good, or fair, or bad.
It's a broken postmodern ideology that says having and raising kids is evil, and it's an ideology that I expect to not exist in 50 years because everyone who has it will be dead with no heirs.
Even if I didn't care for myself, my son is half my wife, and my wife is exactly the sort of person I want the future to be filled with.
There's been no pursuit in my entire life I've derived more meaning from, felt more pride in, than being a father and trying to be a great father. It means being a great provider, a great leader, a great teacher, a great protector, and a great partner to my wife. In that sense if I succeed then it'll be the culmination of many of my roles throughout life and it's easy to screw up and be only good, or fair, or bad.
It's a broken postmodern ideology that says having and raising kids is evil, and it's an ideology that I expect to not exist in 50 years because everyone who has it will be dead with no heirs.
Even if I didn't care for myself, my son is half my wife, and my wife is exactly the sort of person I want the future to be filled with.
The key is to just get out the door. Once you're out the door, then every step you take away from home is another step you have to take to get back home.
Another thing is to set goals. Especially if you have time, find a place you've never walked to before and decide to go there. You want to be trying to push your limits all the time, and it's so surreal when you're walking places you've only ever driven. And then it becomes normal to walk to those places, and your world expands.
Helps too if you have a kid or a dog, they love being outside and it's healthy to go for a walk with them every day. They'll help you want to go out because they'll be so excited about going outside every day.
If you're worried you'll get bored, grab a podcasting app and download some podcasts while you're on wifi. There's more content out there released every day than there area hours in the day, so you can listen to something interesting for hours while you walk, meaning it's a physical as well as mental exercise and you don't even need to use data.
Another thing is to set goals. Especially if you have time, find a place you've never walked to before and decide to go there. You want to be trying to push your limits all the time, and it's so surreal when you're walking places you've only ever driven. And then it becomes normal to walk to those places, and your world expands.
Helps too if you have a kid or a dog, they love being outside and it's healthy to go for a walk with them every day. They'll help you want to go out because they'll be so excited about going outside every day.
If you're worried you'll get bored, grab a podcasting app and download some podcasts while you're on wifi. There's more content out there released every day than there area hours in the day, so you can listen to something interesting for hours while you walk, meaning it's a physical as well as mental exercise and you don't even need to use data.
One thing I still get a kick out of is Millennials attacking the boomers for "stealing from us" while voting for politicians who have quadrupled the federal debt in the US and doubled it in Canada in 8 years up here in Canada.
You don't intend to pay that money back, where do you think it comes from? "Oh, we deserve [social program]!" great, so you stole the money from future generations to get it.
Hah, just imagine the people who took out huge student loans to become part of the educated elite and now are demanding the future generations pay their student loans for them! Likely the same ones who claim boomers stole college from them!
Considering us old millennial fucks are going to keep voting to steal from future generations until we're stopped, it seems likely the biggest threat to democracy is our selfish asses. Why would the kids choose to keep democracy if this is what it looks like, especially when they can just kick our asses when we're old and weak and they're young and virile?
You don't intend to pay that money back, where do you think it comes from? "Oh, we deserve [social program]!" great, so you stole the money from future generations to get it.
Hah, just imagine the people who took out huge student loans to become part of the educated elite and now are demanding the future generations pay their student loans for them! Likely the same ones who claim boomers stole college from them!
Considering us old millennial fucks are going to keep voting to steal from future generations until we're stopped, it seems likely the biggest threat to democracy is our selfish asses. Why would the kids choose to keep democracy if this is what it looks like, especially when they can just kick our asses when we're old and weak and they're young and virile?
Democrats knew or should have known that their court decision was incredibly precarious, especially once they started forcing people to take untested experimental drugs to keep their jobs.
They had decades to set up a federal standard but didn't, because they just wanted the courts to do the hard work for them, and it eventually backfired. One can blame the president for replacing supreme court justices with ones he wanted, but the real blame obviously goes to the congress (who have had supermajorities and so could have passed anything they wanted but chose not to)
They had decades to set up a federal standard but didn't, because they just wanted the courts to do the hard work for them, and it eventually backfired. One can blame the president for replacing supreme court justices with ones he wanted, but the real blame obviously goes to the congress (who have had supermajorities and so could have passed anything they wanted but chose not to)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FixVzxAitDY
It isn't really debatable at this point -- the planet will be losing a lot of its population over the next 100 years. Many people are bragging about how they will be the ones whose bloodlines end. But what can our future look like? How should we prepare for it?
It isn't really debatable at this point -- the planet will be losing a lot of its population over the next 100 years. Many people are bragging about how they will be the ones whose bloodlines end. But what can our future look like? How should we prepare for it?