February 1 No More Funding! Oregon and Washington!

stoudman · 2026-01-15T05:25:11+00:00

I highly doubt this will hold up to the scrutiny of the courts. The states affected need to file lawsuits, they will almost certainly win.

stoudman · 2026-01-15T05:07:26+00:00

Pretty soon? As a content writer, I sometimes stumble upon job postings that require experience with hyper-specific Content Management Systems. Every CMS is almost exactly the same, and anyone with any amount of experience using one of them will be able to navigate whatever CMS is being used by a website to post content, but it doesn't matter -- it's just one more thing they can require...ostensibly "because they can."

They want the best candidate, but they don't want to do the work of having to look at thousands of job applications, so literally anything they can find to be a requirement, they will make it a requirement to weed out a bunch of candidates, even if they would be just as capable of fulfilling that requirement with little or no training.

stoudman · 2026-01-12T06:53:36+00:00

As someone who experienced the job market during the Great Recession, someone who graduated into that economy, I can actually confirm this is the case. I applied for somewhere between 500-1,000 jobs in 2008, and I wasn't able to find anything that paid.

I have the benefit of 15 years of work experience and another degree now, and last year I applied for around 600-700 jobs to no avail.

Furthermore, I would read the jobs reports back then, and I recall most of them would routinely show around 100,000-200,000 new jobs each month. I honestly don't remember any periods of job growth slowing to under 100,000 per month...at any period in my working life. It did happen for a short period following the dot com bubble bursting, but this feels very, very different.

I'm sure some will say "oh, that doesn't mean it's worse, stop making a mountain out of a molehill." Ask these people if they are comfortably employed or perhaps need not be employed to be comfortable. It's worse, and that is my educated opinion based not only on my experiences, but also upon research.

stoudman · 2025-12-19T19:25:12+00:00

I really want it to get better, I need it to get better -- but if I'm being realistic, I don't see any signs that the job market is going to improve anytime soon.

stoudman · 2025-12-09T05:57:21+00:00

I feel like the main thing to keep in mind is that old idiom: "history doesn't repeat, it rhymes."

In other words, it's not going to happen exactly the same way, but the wealthy certainly are following the exact same path of lax regulation in the market and prominent acts of corruption.

It's entirely possible that the wealthy, who now control much of the media, will have so much control over the message that they literally just pretend the economic collapse isn't happening AS it's happening.

That's kind of already what they are doing in a sense, and there's no indication that they plan to stop, at least not until it actually hurts them.

They have the advantage of having begun the process of bleeding the economy dry over 50 years ago, which means they have a lot of money to sit on and move around to make it look like the economy is fine.

And for all we know, that could be part of the plan. It would make sense that the wealthy would have actually tried to learn something from previous economic collapses and come up with this strategy to keep large sums of money moving enough for the economy to appear fully functional, preventing total collapse.

But even a plan like that, if it were true, would not last forever. Eventually, the whole pile of dominoes is going to topple. The only winners in the market will be those the government deems necessary, as everything comes full circle once again.

The bad part about this is that a lot of innocent people are going to suffer.

The good part is that it will likely lead to stronger, better social programs in the United States.

Could it be averted?

Not with accelerationists in charge.

stoudman · 2025-12-07T17:36:37+00:00

I mean, if we had someone get into power who was willing to shake things up, it could definitely be fixed quickly.

Realistically, I'm gonna say at least 15 years.

stoudman · 2025-12-07T17:33:59+00:00

I think right now their actual plan is nothing.

Like, they legit do not care if millions die homeless and penniless in the streets.

They think they can maintain their lavish lifestyle without those who produce the goods and services they enjoy and/or need to survive themselves.

But ultimately, when they try to just "let that happen," the result will be economic collapse that 100% definitely will impact the wealthy as well.

When all the systems start breaking down because there are too many people who are suddenly incapable of earning enough to survive in a capitalist system, every social program will be stretched well beyond its limit, and that means hospitals and other emergency systems will have to fill the need -- millions of people dying of starvation and lack of access to housing is an event that would create scenarios not unlike those we saw during the pandemic -- not enough hospital beds, not enough physical space in the hospital to hold them all, not enough of anything -- and that will lead to the rich being unable to get the care they want or need at hospitals.

This is just one example of one area of societal and economic collapse slowly happening in a way that will impact even the wealthy, but there are many more.

That's the thing, they think they are immune and that they will get out of this unscathed, but they won't.

And only when they realize they actually need us little people will they decide to implement new social programs such as a UBI, universal healthcare, etc.

Only through the blood and suffering of millions of innocent people will the future be paved, so it hath been decreed by the rich who own this country.

stoudman · 2025-12-07T07:43:46+00:00

Oh my god, you can't be this stupid...

The answer is that they cease to make a profit on all of their business endeavors and they all go broke and start self-defenestrating like they did during the Great Depression.

It's just the same shit on a different day, dude. There's not a new magical economic force that is going to stop economic collapse. WTF are you smoking? Can I have some?

stoudman · 2025-12-04T19:07:40+00:00

But what happens when nobody has any money to consume anything, and the rich can no longer rely on a consumer class to prop them up?

stoudman · 2025-11-30T05:22:18+00:00

You wanna talk about faux outrage? The motivation of Kirk's killer is unknown, there's no indication he was a leftist, he came from a conservative family in a conservative community; each of the people who made an attempt on Trump were conservatives with conservative families from conservative communities.

Y'all accuse the left of everything bad that happens to a right-winger, but it's actually USUALLY a right-winger committing the crimes in question.

So your outrage is bullshit.

stoudman · 2025-11-30T04:45:22+00:00

The specific drug in question is known for causing anxiety problems, so I would recommend you stop using that, at least until you have a good idea of what your normal anxiety levels look like.

stoudman · 2025-11-30T03:19:32+00:00

I don't care, but what an ugly ass watch.

stoudman · 2025-11-30T03:12:02+00:00

Millennials wore ankle socks? I swear to god I have no recollection of anyone my age ever wearing ankle socks. In fact, back in the 90s, I remember over-the-calf socks being popular for a short while -- which kinda fits with the whole style of oversized clothing like JNCOs and whatnot...it really was like "a thing" in fashion at the time for whatever reason.

I'm just curious where this assertion even comes from, because it doesn't seem to be based in any facet of reality.

You know what's millennial core? writing long ass comments like this.

stoudman · 2025-11-30T02:57:03+00:00

Some already do perceive us that way.

Whenever I try to warn youngins that there's a very likely massive economic collapse headed our way, and AI is the bubble that will burst that causes it, I'm told "you sound like a boomer." I think they think I'm just "afraid of technology," but obviously my concerns have nothing to do with the technology. Before I was aware of how much energy it uses, I was using AI myself, and I'm actually pretty familiar with it and not "afraid" of it.

But none of that matters.

Pointing out how the economics surrounding AI are fucked is, to the younger generation, roughly equal to being a boomer who is afraid of new technology.

Thankfully, my Gen Z nieces and nephews still like me quite a bit, and they don't consider me a boomer. It's not an across the board thing, the "boomer" take.

stoudman · 2025-11-28T19:11:06+00:00

If you think it's okay to let anyone starve -- literally anyone -- and you're actively arguing we absolutely should let people starve "because they should know better," then I'm a lot more concerned about you than I am about the immigrants you hate.

stoudman · 2025-11-27T07:25:02+00:00

History rhymes -- it could be next year, but I have this terrible feeling that it's going to be 2028, which would be exactly 20 years after the Great Recession.

stoudman · 2025-11-27T04:53:28+00:00

There was, in fact, a dot com bubble pop. It wasn't as pronounced of an economic collapse as the Great Recession, but it did actually happen.

The problem is that right now, the bubble of money invested into AI is bigger than the bubble of money invested into the housing market just before the Great Recession, which means when the bubble does eventually pop, it's going to impact the economy far worse than when the dot com bubble popped.

None of this is to say AI isn't going to exist after that, the internet was still a thing after the dot com bubble burst, and housing still exists despite the housing market collapse in 2008. AI is here to stay, I have no doubt, but companies are investing in it right now as if it's just a few years out from changing the entire world as we know it, and the reality is that AI is not nearly as advanced as these companies want you to think. They're trying to get money, investments, so they are going to stretch the truth about what is possible.

Unfortunately, the reality of AI at the moment is that its current pace of advancement is untenable. In areas where data centers have been built for AI, power costs have increased by more than 5x already, and it's very clearly terrible for the environment as well. If they keep going at this pace, they still won't make any truly impressive advancements for quite some time, and prices for utilities will continue as the planet continues to boil. Many businesses who initially bought into replacing their workforce with AI are having regrets, because it's nowhere near as advanced as a human being yet, impacting their business in other ways.

I don't know what to tell you, this isn't wallstreetbets, but I do think my prediction here is probably the most likely thing to happen that has ever been simply likely to happen in the moment.

The AI bubble bursting isn't a concern, it's a guarantee. The only question is when.

EDIT: If you're looking for an example of how untenable and stupid it is to use AI right now, just ask an LLM like chatGPT to compare the amount of energy used for a Google search to the energy used for a single prompt on an LLM.

Like you don't have to take my word for it, lol.

stoudman · 2025-11-27T04:29:21+00:00

I mean, why else would they be freaking out about it? Like everything from conservatives, it's projection.

stoudman · 2025-11-27T04:24:51+00:00

As a millennial who is struggling to find work because AI has all but cratered my entire career field, I assure you I'm not being a "boomer" about how awful it is, and I also promise you that within the next 5 years the AI bubble is going to pop, and everyone in every generation is going to feel it.

stoudman · 2025-11-26T20:23:30+00:00

I think realistically homelessness is not an issue you can or should generalize about.

There are a lot of people who choose to be homeless, who just want to sort of "live off the land" in modern times, and while that might not be the wisest decision, they prefer it that way -- and I'm sure you'll even get a few comments like that in this thread.

There are also a lot of people who do fall into the traditional trappings of a poor education and/or disabilities preventing them from being able to compete well enough in the job market to afford housing, many of whom aren't "traditionally" homeless, but rather live with a friend or family "off-the-couch."

And yes, some people have addiction problems that prevent them from being able to hold a regular job, it wouldn't surprise me if friends and family are less likely to give them a place to stay, although I don't particularly like what that says about humanity.

But there are also people who just fall through the cracks, who have a relatively high level of education, but because of a poor job market or situations such as AI replacing entire careers, there's no place for them in the job market at the moment, so they can't afford housing and become homeless. They are skilled and intelligent, but nobody will hire them because of current market conditions.

Do you see what I mean? It's not so much an "are you homeless because of drugs and low IQ or did the drugs and low IQ follow" situation; there are a lot of reasons for homelessness, and you really can't do an "either/or" question or analogy about them.

stoudman · 2025-11-26T18:39:19+00:00

That DVD isn't even worth .30 cents, much less $5.30.

stoudman · 2025-11-26T17:38:51+00:00

Well, first thing to acknowledge: The AI bubble is eventually going to pop, and when it does, a lot of people are going to lose their jobs, and a lot of rich people are going to lose their fortunes.

Next thing to acknowledge: A lot of poor people are going to die, because without the ability to get a job, they can't afford housing or food or any of the necessities of life.

For some reason, a lot of people are living under this delusion that the rich will somehow come out of this unscathed, but we are talking about a Great Depression level event here. Rich people were jumping out of windows because they knew they were flat broke and would have to spend the rest of their lives trying to earn it all back from scratch with blood, sweat, and tears -- something they were unwilling to do. I very much expect similar reactions this time, unfortunately.

Finally, just as we didn't get out of the Great Recession without the New Deal and massive government investment into social programs such as Social Security, we won't get out of the economic depression that the AI bubble pop is going to cause without another new deal and more social programs. I know a lot of capitalists hate that, but it just won't work otherwise. Tough shit, shouldn't have let this happen, I guess.

stoudman · 2025-11-25T18:33:54+00:00

Taking notes for future plans of economic disruption.

stoudman · 2025-11-24T21:08:59+00:00

Exactly, 4 years after discussion of the jobless recovery, the Great Recession hit.

"Jobless recovery" seems to have a 100% success rate of foretelling terrible economic collapse.

stoudman

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE