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this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2023
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A Boring Dystopia
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I rememer learning in macroeconomics even wealth distribution was critical and that a disparity like what we see today is on the precipice of civilization collapse. Now some of our capitalists acknowledge this and note we need to let the government regulate markets for sake of the public, but the majority of billionaires are like nah.
This is probably the best example I've seen of "let them think you're an idiot, rather than open your mouth and remove all doubt".
A. Rude
B. Shawn Fain said basically the same thing during an interview about how striking "hurts the economy"
https://youtu.be/e1RUDd3e0kI?si=RyJlcH_b4T9RTlNg
If the economy doesn't work for everyone, then I say fuck it
People tend to scoff and tell me to grow up when I say it, but it's so critical and fundamental... The economy is made up.
All of the "rules" all of the metrics are arbitrary, and usually governments and rich people choose the ones which benefits them most to believe
Food is real. Houses are real. There's enough for everyone. Maybe, just maybe, we can stop running statistics and making bets on mathematical abstractions on top of abstractions on top of an arbitrary system of abstracting value. Trading stock or investing isn't actually work, it doesn't create or change anything, it doesn't actually do anything for humanity. It's basically just gambling. Why is it the most profitable behavior in our system? Why are devoting so much of our resources towards it?
I'm utterly convinced AI is going to expose the fallacy of these systems soon. Once everyone has the world's greatest stock trader in their pocket - once everyone is winning, what's the point anymore?
Monopoly money
That's assuming you have money to put into stock. Most people are either living paycheck to paycheck or save pennies (relatively speaking), they don't have anything to invest. AI won't magically give people money to invest.
Also a great example of people who don't have very good reading comprehension here in the comments.
Is this about me?
Rich generally do pretty fine for themselves when the "economy" tanks.
Just look at how much richer they got during the COVID recession lol
Really depends on the industry.
Ya for the majority it won't make a difference, but the working class will certainly still feel some crunch through job security or cost of living. From this perspective whether the economy is doing well or not is more a top 50% thing than 1% thing.
It will make a difference, though. When the economy is bad, the rate at which our lives get worse accelerates. When the economy improces, we go back to slowly getting more fucked.
When my company stock started to slide during the pandemic, I lost literally hundreds of dollars. I wasn't overly concerned about my loss. Not because I'm rich by any measure, but because with that big a slide, the rich were going to taste it in their ass holes. And that felt pretty good.
Unfortunately, they probably didn't feel it at all.
They could live off their fortunes for 1000 years without ever slipping into "middle class" so a few years of slower profits wouldn't have any real effect on their day to day lives.
Getting upset that their wealth isn't accumulating fast enough is also their natural state of being -- before, during and after COVID. If they weren't throwing tantrums because people weren't willing to die a gasping, terrified death in the name of corporate profits, they would have been throwing a tantrum because they weren't allowed to pay children half the minimum wage to mine national parks.
And of course, they come out the other side with even more leverage. Thousands of cafes and restaurants went out of business, but Starbucks and McDonald's didn't. The shortages and scalping made companies realise they could have been squeezing people even harder, a mistake they seem determined to never make again.
Pandemics aren't the solution, prising neoliberals out of positions of power is.
What really matters is that shelter, food and basic necessities is put into the hands of those who need it and no one is discussing how best to do that.
Nope. Rich people are making more money than ever while our economy is "bad" at the moment.
The best time to invest is when the economy is down, that's how they grow more money off of the misfortune of the commoner
That's why I don't give a shit about the "Economy". It's like Aliens vs Predator, whoever wins I lose.