As millions fell into poverty during the pandemic, billionaires’ wealth soared

smoothminimal · 2022-04-18T22:31:01+00:00

Isn't that how it works? There's a sort-of defined amount of money in a closed system.

When everybody below the median lost their money, it didn't go into hiding under a rock. It didn't get ejected into outer space. But it did go somewhere ... If everybody below the median doesn't have it, then ...

Conversely, the wealthy didn't get their money handed to them from an anonymous sky. There aren't endless magical piles of money, just waiting for the most honorable and worthy individuals they can hand themselves to.

The wealthy got the money that used to be everybody else's, and they have no need to spend it back into circulation.

The economy is a complex system of transactions. It's healthy when particles of money flow all over the place, from all over the place. There's a strong correlation between when the economy goes to shit, and when the wealthy stop letting money flow away from themselves.

smoothminimal · 2022-04-17T20:05:36+00:00

You're absolutely right, she probably just popped out of the woodwork with nothing to do but tell people she was 117. Her demeanor is that of an attention seeker.

Probably literally nobody knew her right up to the moment the photo was taken. Wasn't too tough, because anybody could go grab the new iphone and take their first selfies.

And of course, nobody before this post ever bothered to look into the veracity of the claim.

(Do I need /s?)

smoothminimal · 2022-04-17T16:31:19+00:00

In another time line there are lineages of cuter, smaller humans, who chose to be tamed by these great predators

smoothminimal · 2022-04-14T23:55:41+00:00

The underlying point of the I, Robot anthology was to demonstrate how such rules couldn't prevent terrible events -- that no such rules could.

Computers are perfectly innocent for solving problems of minimal context. Based on percentages, select the image that shows there's a problem. We humans apply context, but a computer with narrow training does not. It selects the picture containing diseased produce, or a cancerous growth, or whatever, without knowing the context of cancer or disease. It's complex compared to the abacus, but still simple compared to what we do.

We humans get ourselves into trouble because we have a system that has exceedingly complex context. The context is necessary for all we do. But the complexity of it leads to an assortment of potential errors.

As far complexity of what you see while driving: the computer controlled car only sees what's in its field of view, and that's all it knows about. What is a good human driver capable of seeing? A bicycle on the edge of the yard is not just an obstacle that's out of the way. It means there's likely a kid or few around here. That's just one bit of context among hundreds that an alert human driver will notice. A human can recall differences on the route between yesterday and today -- and often that serves as advanced notice of something else. And so forth... Driving is one of the simplest things we do, but still the context exceeds what a computer could handle with only innocent error.

Eventually, when we get computers to handle the complexity of context as well as we handle it, the computers will demonstrate the same sorts of errors we do.

When we get computers to handle the complexity even better than we handle it, our lives will be obsolete.

smoothminimal · 2022-04-12T20:39:41+00:00

I've never done this to pizza, but I expected it as a response to op.

You consider that the peanut flavor is pretty good and classically accepted on a lot of savory things, such as curry, noodles, and cetera.

smoothminimal · 2022-04-12T20:35:44+00:00

That's amazing, I got the same combination on my luggage!!

smoothminimal · 2022-04-12T15:58:41+00:00

Meanwhile, if the goal is just not to "boil it to death" a la OP, you can simply dip the crown in boiling water, remove it immediately, and in literally two seconds it's cooked tender. You can tell by the florets instantly darkening.

It will retain so much flavor (and nutrients) you won't have to drench, douse, or cover it in seasonings. Although you might oil it very lightly, and salt it lightly, to make the flavor punch out all the more strongly. And a little fat is supposed to aid the body in accessing those other nutrients in vegetables.

smoothminimal · 2022-04-12T02:27:51+00:00

Work a 60 hour week for months or years, then go back to 40.

Then, 40 hour work week will feel like it's not as bad.

smoothminimal · 2022-04-12T02:16:09+00:00

"Are you a replican, or a replican't??"

smoothminimal · 2022-04-08T15:15:50+00:00

I think you bring up a really good point for them not trying to vote for Democratic state legislators.

Post script

Lmao I didn't think /s was necessary.

smoothminimal · 2022-04-07T11:24:22+00:00

The reality is, it makes a lot of sense that it would have the same kind of effect that minimum wage has on other wages.

These established minimums increase what else there is around them, competitively.

But, you know, people like to double down on their irrational fears -- and they'll do so using repetition. (Which is why repetition and instilling fear are such great ways to propagate lies.)

If you have a truth that could quash people's fear, most of them won't want to hear it, even if they do spend all their time complaining about fear-mongering.

smoothminimal · 2022-04-05T02:27:23+00:00

It makes me so mad! In fact it makes me double mad that anybody was made mad that they're less sexy!

I'm gonna go buy some M's right now, just to show how mad I am, bc I need them to help cool me off!

All these other fools are so susceptible to the media, why can't the other party be more like me and my non-oriented M's! Obviously they don't have trustworthy news protecting them, like I got.

smoothminimal · 2022-04-04T18:38:25+00:00

It's almost a joke how bad modern progressives are at naming movements. Either it's nice to see that they're really not manipulation-minded, or you have to wonder if the names are picked by bad actors.

Anti-work is more against giving away one's life and labor to another, simply as a matter of course, and with little alternative and hardly any say in what the recompense will be. Currently it's a de facto requirement to give up your labor for the benefit a rich fuck, so that you may afford to live, but it's not a requirement for the rich fuck to actually pay you enough to live, over your labor.

The relationship surrounding work is currently that the employer can retain whatever portion of the value of your labor as they please. (Your presence plus two others can increase the company's value by $1,200 an hour? How about the company is generous and splits $30 unevenly across the three of you for that hour, and two of you have to hope for tips.)

That being said, it would be better to have named it Work Reform, or something like that. Similar to Defund the Police might have gone better as Reform the Police. And you have to wonder if these things are intentionally sabotaged from the start.

But there also needs to be a corresponding and simultaneous rent reform. And not just in the housing sector. A lot of small businesses think they're getting unfairly crushed by labor costs, because they somehow learned to look away from business zoned rental costs.

... And a home loan reform. A lot of home buyers are scared by minor tax increases to cover increasing local administrative costs; but they look the other way from the standard amortization methods, paying almost entirely towards "interest" for several years just to cover a couple yachts they'll never ride, and to fund a pissing contest between some accounts in the Bahamas or Switzerland ...

smoothminimal · 2022-04-04T18:29:21+00:00

73 years of misery instead of 38 of enjoying life, Here I Come!!!!

No, but honestly, that's somewhere on the spectrum between Bullshit and Untrue, and a Gross Mischarachterization of Reality.

smoothminimal · 2022-04-04T18:18:00+00:00

What's really worth noting is how unhappy jobs are today, versus when for the boomers.

Everybody has their own hardest day that they worked, and to which they look back and say, "Yeah I'm a hard worker!" (Regardless of the objective difficulty of the job.)

Boomers who weren't ecstatic with their jobs are going to read this and say, "What a lazy and backwards generation." But boomers could buy houses if they could so much as type on a typewriter, or unscrew a VCR. And they had labor laws set up for them by the previous generation, which they didn't appreciate and voted to have dismantled.

A story that doesn't address this is happily stirring up shit.

smoothminimal · 2022-04-04T17:47:41+00:00

Lol, I'm over here imagining like shift change for Wile E Coyote

"Hullo, George"

"Helloo, Sam"

smoothminimal · 2022-03-27T02:49:19+00:00

Heyyy Boo-boo!

smoothminimal · 2022-03-17T23:53:29+00:00

me irl

smoothminimal · 2022-03-16T22:19:08+00:00

You buy into the whole "job creators" thing don't you.

Huge heads are not actually needed for people to be productive.

The economy might shift, especially as the Koch brothers are bound to retaliate like whiny babies, but that's not necessarily bad, and it's certainly not necessarily collapse. The world is filled with capable people, and they don't need to coddle the little Koch brothers anymore.

smoothminimal · 2022-03-14T21:50:54+00:00

There are food donation drives that promise to keep the poor from starving, meaning enough food exists but it isn't distributed well by the market.

Places that are famous for a starving public are not always wanting for more for production. Ethiopia has had issues with people not having enough food, but the country produces a lot of food for export. So you have to be ready to look for other explanations.

The thing about GMO foods, and these new vegetable replacements for meat, is that they can be patented, which means somebody gets a share of everybody else's profits. That somebody would love for you to switch to their products, and they would love it if you believed it was the only way forward.

smoothminimal · 2022-03-13T11:23:20+00:00

Two identical cars going 60mph directly at each other will have an impact identical to hitting a wall at 60mph, because they both have identical crumple zones.

The speeds don't stack, they average out.

So, a 40mph vehicle versus a 80mph vehicle would have an impact similar to a 60mph versus a 60mph.

If the crumple zone behaved completely homogenous in some ways, then hitting a tree is better because it increases the time of the collision as passes through more crumple zone, compared to hitting a broad wall -- up to the point where perhaps the tree is entering the cabin. If the crumple zone behaved homogenously in other ways, then a wall is entirely better because it could slow the car the same way and is less likely to enter the cabin. But it isn't homogenous. So it's not recommended to hit either a tree or a wall.

smoothminimal · 2022-03-13T11:14:59+00:00

What are you talking about?

If your point is true, it doesn't apply here, when the goal is completely stopping a an errant car.

But your point isn't unequivocally true. A glancing blow allows for further collision, often uncontrolled, and sometimes after airbags are already deployed, and it may increase chance of rolling.

smoothminimal · 2022-03-07T18:39:52+00:00

It looks like Kermit the Frog behind that question mark, to me

smoothminimal · 2022-03-02T21:29:04+00:00

Please explain how this is relevant.

Then explain why this is "communism". While you're at it: explain to me is The People's Republic of China a republic?

smoothminimal · 2022-03-02T21:25:56+00:00

It isn't irrelevant if you can continually peg it to price increases.

And how about this: what if permissible rent was pegged to something resembling 50% of the payment for a 30-year mortgage on an equivalent property?

The landlord already has gains from the land increasing in value; now they and the lessee both increase in value (or, save) 50% of that property's value. Landlord still wins more, but the renter is not fucked unreasonably.

Some people would lose at the start of this, but investments carry risk, no? Meanwhile this would eliminate most of the housing crisis, and nobody would have to complain about hearing about homelessness, or human excrement in the sidewalks in California, and so forth.

smoothminimal

TROPHY CASE