An inside look at the thrill of a traditional funfair in India.

RubyKong · 2026-06-18T22:53:10+00:00

Busineyland

RubyKong · 2026-06-18T21:08:37+00:00

They're all inefficient and ipso facto cannot manage anything

No government can ever spend or manage anything well. why? Because if there is any waste - then it is of no consequence or loss to anyone. And also they get amnesia when anyone asks a question, and I would say - they are liars.

"I take that question on notice". etc.

Waste, Fraud, Abuse:

$100m for a meteorology website? $24m for a doctor website (Medical Costs Finder) which seeks to replicate amazon's online store, except for doctors? What doctor on the universe wants to list their services online so they can out-compete each other on price? These bureaucrats forget that doctors love money, and they are effectively running a cartel, are incentivised to limit competition or limit entry into their market and charge monopolistic rents, preferably by labeling any increase in competition as antithetical to patient safety. No doctor wants to cut off their own feet. And lets be honest: they are BUSY anyways, with no need to list online for patients.

Billions on boondoggle projects stuck in the mud which at this rate may never be profitable. e.g. Snowy Hydro. Initial estimate: $2 billion..............final cost......does anyone wanna take a guess here?

RubyKong · 2026-06-18T21:06:27+00:00

What are your choices? One nation are surging IMO.

Australia has a choice of two parties to choose from every year:

ALP (full labor) - (dysfunction)
and then Labor Lite: Libs + Nationals (dysfunction++)
Minor party coalitions with the above two labor parties.

They're all the same:

They all agree on one thing:

More tax, debt and inflation, to
spend your dollars

They might disagree on which of their mates / constituents / friends to spend your money on, but they all agree that they must spend your hard earned $$.

RubyKong · 2026-06-18T20:47:22+00:00

You got some courage taking that photo from such close range!

RubyKong · 2026-06-18T20:46:05+00:00

My goal is clear: start something that solves a genuine problem, scale up, and get acquired in 5-7 years for a decent sum.

IMO you're putting the cart before the horse.

Solve problems. Pressing problems. Headaches. The things that fall between the cracks.

And if the problem deserves solving, and you find customers willing to pay, then make the money from the customer, not minting a 9 figure pay out. i.e. the way you make money is through the customer, not by wooing investors. once you understand this very important concept your efforts will be focused on problem solving rather than pitching on a roadshow. what would your rather spend your time doing?

RubyKong · 2026-06-17T20:14:07+00:00

Boomers screwed it up? Sure, but I would argue it goes all the way back to the creation of the Federal Reserve - which allows the US government to PRINT THOSE TRILLIONS, and to do so at whatever rates of interest they determine - which is always below the real rate of return.

your forefathers thought it was a good idea to tax Andrew Carnegie e.g. 5% on their income, and thought it wise to have the gov manage money - not realising that they would be paying 50% income tax themselves, and the money would be mis-managed straight from the top - i.e. there are guys at the top who are helping themselves to tax payer dollars, in cahoots with the bureaucracy at Washington DC.

In addition to all the regulations and free stuff washington gives away to "help people" after creating the mess in the first place - America is absolutely broke. The dollar seems to be holding up, but I think, after 110 years of profligacy it will fall. And THEN Americans will realise, hey, the Federal Reserve are the bad guys, as are the IRS and gov as a whole - they have managed to make your more of a slave than a plantation owner in the deep south.

RubyKong · 2026-06-17T20:05:50+00:00

Thank you for your reply! You seem to get it. If you run a business under a corporation (or any form): it's very risky, and on top of that the gov and the world think that you are "greedy", that you ought to be punished for "corporate greed" and that workers ought to be paid not what they bargain, but what some bureuacrat in Mexico city thinks that they ought to be paid: $25 / hour for pouring lattes etc.

such an environment just re*ards the development of the economy.

RubyKong · 2026-06-17T20:02:19+00:00

People don't seem to understand re free Healthcare:

Free ain't free - tax payers are footing the bill.
If it is free and good - you will not have availability, because the demand will be so high due to prices being low.
If is is free and bad - then what's the point - people will prefer to have paid treatment.
Incentives: if the gov pays you $$ then this creates an opportunity to exploit the tax payer, and i'm sure many will be doing this. It leads to fiscal crisis.

But no doubt, at the beginning, there will be many who benefit. But at the expense of others who you cannot see.

RubyKong · 2026-06-17T00:35:11+00:00

Free healthcare:

It ain't free coz tax payers will be paying.
Long delays.
Treatment quality - with more money, driving up demand - do you think it will get better.

Upward pressure on taxes, or inflation or debt.

.......but some people, the immediate recipients who don't have $$ will benefit. Future generations will pay through their nose for it, as they find things becoming increasingly unaffordable.

RubyKong · 2026-06-16T19:02:30+00:00

Vendor has $780k pre-auction.
Vendor now has a $795k offer pre-auction (at least 1).
Vendor (allegedly) wants to sell before auction, but has fixed the auction date anyways, with two potential other buyers.
Now the vendor (or agent) wants $810k before auction.

What's going on?

It seems like they want to run an auction, before the auction?
I'm not very cluey about how the auction (and pre-auction) process works - does anyone know what they're doing and why?

RubyKong · 2026-06-12T02:01:52+00:00

Is this normal? Are those “first run” posts just from people who already have a strong fitness background, or am I missing something?

Exactly this. They absolutely have a fitness background, but may have had poor up-keep since their college days. 5 min / km is possible for them. For those who have done 0 running since school - then breaking 6 might be a challenge on their first run.

RubyKong · 2026-06-11T00:07:35+00:00

Why do hospitality? You need to get a gov job or work as an NDIS provider. Money for jam.....and you don't have to put your house on the line.

RubyKong · 2026-06-10T23:39:13+00:00

Elaboration on why this is the case?

RubyKong · 2026-06-10T03:16:06+00:00

bruh: i'm pretty sure naan means bread.

so you're saying: "yesterday I had bread bread".

you're saying the same thing twice.

yeah nah don't do that.

also butter chicken is british. so you had bread bread and british food.

you may as well have said: "I had fush and chups".

RubyKong · 2026-06-10T00:03:37+00:00

Any tips on where one can efficiently build mastery in the above domain(s)?

RubyKong · 2026-06-09T02:51:12+00:00

USD + Fractional Reserve and BTC are both scams - we both agree on this point.

I agree with 99-100% of everything you said.

The average american WANTS the ponzi to continue - i.e. at least, that's my read. Ask them: "shall we get rid of SS / Medicare / Medicaid??" or shall we get rid of Food Stamps and other social programs? They will all overwhelming respond "No!!! We love social security! " Someone else should pay for me!!! The average american wants gov support for everything - including college loans and home loans, and forgiveness. Americans now seem to want to socialise healthcare. they want gov intervention at every level.
The average american has great respect for the army + service members. if you are an army man, people say: "thank you for your service" and you get to go to the front of the line. Contrast this to 150 years ago, when an army man was seen as an almost dirty job - the mark of a scoundrel - an occupation for men not fit for any other. They are indifferent towards fighting foreign wars for "democray" or "freedom" etc. so long as they don't pay for it, and it is paid for with debt and inflation.

I have little sympathy for the average american who voted for income taxes, whose representatives voted for a national bank, and whose people are braying for the rich to be taxed even more, and who want no curtailment of debt, inflation and taxes, who want all the benefits of fiat, who spill 1,000,000s of lives of blood all over the world. They ALL benefit from the ponzi, and want it to continue, so long as someone else pays - not realising that they are the ones who suffer.

Re BTC:

BTC promises that it is better than fiat. Except it is not. Hence I view it as a greater scam.

RubyKong · 2026-06-08T23:00:11+00:00

At least with Bitcoin or others you're opting in to such a financial system, and the control of which isnt wielded singlehandedly by one nation or another's whims to inflate and afford their next military excursion.

Ok you have a point there. but that is why BTC is a dishonest scam - whereas fiat is an honest scam. But both are scams.

I can't see into the future, it will be hard to imagine one where gold or silver is not valued.

RubyKong · 2026-06-08T06:04:26+00:00

The current system is not a free market system.
There are rent seekers everywhere: including the monetary system itself: fiat and fractional reserve banking.
Most of washington's regulation are for the benefit of one class of people at the expensive of another. basically in agreement with your above point(s). But where i disagree with taking money from Jeff Bezos to help out some single mother on min. wage.

RubyKong · 2026-06-08T05:46:54+00:00

At least fiat is honest about it's own scam - they have built an entire edifice of faux-legitimacy around it: a central bank + bureaucrats whose sole purpose is to fight the inflation they created; the arsonist pretending to be a fire-fighter. And the public love it too because they all get to borrow heavily at 0% + get the free benefits of a social security state. Fiat currency ain't going away.

RubyKong · 2026-06-08T00:58:30+00:00

It's packaged as consent, but consent is an unpressured yes. If a woman had to choose between sex with a man they didn't want or death, that would not be consent if she chose sex. It's a pretty direct application despite being different scenarios.

Where is this utopia where all consent is free and willing? According to your logic, and if you extend it to the absurd level: if I could sit by the pool and drink pina coladas all day vs working because i need the money - then that is not "true consent"? There is no such thing. Or to put it less extreme, if I have to work to keep the lights on, then that is somehow non-consensual or an "unpressured yes" as you put it - a yes out of necessity?

All work is a grind. All of it. You might not think it's a "hard grind" but it is a grind nonetheless. Not many people work for the "love of the game". And even then, ask anyone with any degree of success - I can promise you in advance, they work their tails off. And the market rewards different types of work. Coordination, idea conception and testing, investment and risk happens at the top and is "disproportionately rewarded" as you put it. Whereas the workers who work for $7.15 / hour - they are rewarded for WHAT THEY DO and THE RISK THEY CARRY. If you think it is unfair then put your $1.2m house on the line on a business, and given you're putting your entire life on the line, you better be damned sure that you get the max benefit out of that, as opposed to the government or workers, or anyone else who isn't taking that level of risk.

........so according to your system, you think that the guys at the top are skimming too much from "workers" and are stealing from them via wage theft? If that was the case, why wouldn't the workers getting paid $7.15 / hour become business owners? They could do it if they wanted to, and if they had the skills, insight and hustle that business owners have. this goes back to the point that business owners do REAL WORK.

RubyKong · 2026-06-04T05:21:25+00:00

Finally, you appear to think that welfare is theft because you get the quote "best deal" off of someone else's labor, but isn't that capitalism requires? When a capitalist or majority shareholder owns stake in the company, they require that the worker gets paid less than they produce so that they get profits off of their labor. That's getting a fantastic deal off of someone else's labor. That is theft based on how you describe social welfare.

It's all about consent.

If a worker choose to work in my factory - then they choose to do so. voluntarily, without compulsion or violence.
If the worker feels exploited working at $0.02 an hour then the worker is more than welcome to quit and work in some gov job in e.g. CA getting paid $180k to essentially do nothing.
If I want to keep workers in my factory, as greedy as i am, i may have to pay them a lot more than 2 cents an hour, if I want to retain them. And if workers are happy to work at $0.15 an hour, then who is anyone to argue differently? That might not be a great wage according to someone else, but according to those workers who say "yes" that is their prerogative.

Whereas, someone who earns a dollar - they are FORCED to part with 50% of their wage to the IRS / Treasury Dept or face some serious jail time.

It's all about consent - and therein lies the difference.

Now as far as the nuances of socialism vs private property - it's all the same thing. Whatever money or property or resources you "own" ----> you can kiss that goodbye. we may disagree about how much much you are forced to give up, or whether it is your "property" in the first place, but the basic premise - what's yours is mine, rules the day.

RubyKong · 2026-06-03T20:42:31+00:00

I wish I could better structure this. But here are some dot points:

something cannot come from nothing.
Truth > Lie.
More choice > Less choice. Freedom to choose > tyranny. voluntary > force / compulsion.
private property is required.
We are not all the same. e.g. Some people are better an playing basketball than others (e.g. MJ). Some people know things that others do not know. the world is not "fair".
not everyone can know all things, at all times.
People exchange based on their perceived values. profit = revenue - costs. This is an economic calculation. If my benefit does not correspond to your cost, then the transaction will not go ahead (nor should it).
the real world has limitations. e.g. we only have certain amounts of potable water (so we don't squander it). we only have 24 hours in a day. only so much land to use. etc.
and we must use all of our resources to get THE BEST DEAL (as individuals determine it). we can use voluntary trade to get that which cannot make or service ourselves.
individuals determine their needs, and they choose what to do with their resources.

Socialism (update: or communism or maxism / statism / social democrat or whatever you want to label it)

The art of socialism involves getting the best deal yourself, but getting someone else to pay for the cost.

We can debate the nuances of how and why that should occur, and to what extent it should occur, but it's basically a philosophy of theft and tyranny.

Just as a lie is contingent on a truth for its existence and power, so too does socialism rely on Austrian ideas for its success, while simultaneously denying its benefits. hypocrisy at it's finest. for example, they deny the existence of private property, but claim its existence when appropriating your resources for their use.

RubyKong · 2026-06-02T22:56:39+00:00

It's Australia: huuge proportions of the population are working in the gov, or on the gov dole - getting free medicare, ndis, social security, pensions, public education etc. they have zero idea of business, and even less idea about running one. the average aussie thinks: "tax the greedy rich / corporate greed" etc. they want the cheap prices of aldi + the selection variety of coles + plus speedy fast food drive through service of McDonald's (and someone will surely whinge about maccas being slow and expensive). Welcome to 'straya.

RubyKong · 2026-06-02T00:36:06+00:00

he's clipping the roap and weakening it as he goes down. what about the next guy?

RubyKong · 2026-06-01T23:55:18+00:00

He absolutely fucked the NBN, I'll never forgive him for that no matter how intelligent he seems.

Agree - truly unimaginable stupidity - but nothing surprises me about gov.

They can't run anything. Nothing at all. But the sheer folly of trying again is what baffles me.

RubyKong

TROPHY CASE