you all best buckle up, because it’s gonna get a lot worse
Hunter Thompson wrote “Hell’s Angels” in 1967.
There’s a passage about the economics of being a biker/hippie/dropout.
In those days, a biker could work six months as a union stevedore and then hit the road for two years. A part time waitress could could support herself and a live-in boy freind
Then Nixon/Reagan came in to save us.
Richest country in the world doesn’t take care of its citizens. Funny how that works
Or it’s not actually the richest.
So you’re right. We are number 11 now
From the point of view of most people total country GDP is meaningless (only certain businesses get a “cut” of the total country GDP and hence it matters to them), and per-capita GDP is what matters and even then how much it matters depends on the level of inequality in a country since when a few get most of the wealth that per-capita value (which is the median) is quite different from what actually most people get (the mode).
2 economist walking in the woods.
Economist 1 says to economists 2: I’ll give you $100 if you let me kick you in the balls.
Economist 2 says “sure”
Then economist 1 kicks economists 2 in the balls and gives him $100.
They continue walking and see a big pile of shit.
Economist 2 says to economist 1: I’ll give you $100 if you eat that pile of shit.
Economist 1 says “sure”, eats the pile of shit and economists 2 gives economists 1 his $100 back.
They continue walking, eventually economist 2 asks “What was the point of what we just did?”
Economist 1 responds “We just increased GDP by $200.”
*Country with the richest persons living in it
Technically GDP is just a measure of cash flow. So how much the government, private business and individuals spend all dumped together with all spending on imports subtracted. High GDP means lots of money changing hands but doesn’t necessarily care who’s hands, just that money is flowing.
Last I heard, China is.
It is almost like we are being scammed.
But you have millionaires who play kids games on tv and billionaire celebrities made famous by their looks or money, that go on to play government in real life in all your major political offices. Multi millionaire actors and starving paramedics. What an advanced society.
Looks like it’s time to eat the rich.
They have too much power and resources now. We aren’t going to get a better quality of life through peaceful means.
There’s a relatively nonviolent solution America can do, but it would be complex to organize. Stop. Anyone that can stop working for even a day, or a week. Just pick a starting point and stop working, buying, consuming. They can’t fire everyone.
I’d love to see it but I think they could outlast us and would love at the chance to buy up failing small businesses and property during that time.
But the whole point of that time is to actually change stuff, so they wouldn’t make nearly as much profit, and maybe not even get to keep it.
It would be like buying a car that’s cheap because it’s on fire. They need us but we don’t need them.
I agree. Only 5% at most would follow through, and most of that 5% are non-vital employees, you don’t even have a union culture to organise this, and the best the democrats have done is stay silent.
Again, I agree, this would work if we organise it.
We need magats to get angry. They’re the reason why this shit show is still going on.
America was a great experiment in maxing out capitalism and rugged individualism. Now all other countries know how it will end and to oust any politician even hinting at doing the same.
America and the UK, together they show the world what not to do. Conservatism and oligarchs are poisons that kill civilizations.
I really think we need a sublemmy dedicated to specifically tracking the high stakes competition between the US and UK to spectacularly faceplant in the stupidest possible fashion.
It is a very close competition so far and there have been a lot of upsets in the sense that it has made us all upset that the world is burning.
“…Stupidity, Phobia, Greed, Wrath, and Traditional Values…from your powers combined, I am Captain Conservative!”
There was a time when I thought the 2016 Brexit referendum was going to be the dumbest political story of the year. Then the US said “hold my watery beer”.
I like your optimism, but sadly I cannot share it…
60% is a majority, right? The article was working really hard to downplay it. “The bottom 60%” that’s more than half the country… social unrest will be the least of their worries
Of course, a true kingdom requires impoverished serfs. Welcome to techno-feudalism.
Serfs
Brah do you even serf?
That’s because we haven’t cut taxes for the rich quiiiite enough yet
Those trickle down economics, I’m still waiting on them since the fucker beat Decocus.
Trump is certainly trickling a golden shower upon humanity. The guy is an ass, and will tell us to thank him for the opportunity to eat the few rancid seeds found in his shit.
Which country has the highest millionaires in the world?
The U.S
IMO gini coefficient is more comprehensive. Some millionaires like doctors actually earned it. But you can’t become a billionaire without being a parasite.
“The middle class has been declining — we just haven’t recognized it fully,” LISEP Chairman Gene Ludwig told CBS MoneyWatch. "It’s really dangerous because it’s the kind of thing that leads to social unrest, and it’s not fair. The American dream is not that it’s given to you — it’s that if you work hard, you have a chance to get ahead and achieve the things in life that you want to achieve. It’s not living in a tent, not having to steal."
The wealthy always forget this, because they’re convinced they’re a special unique snowflake and smarter than everyone else, instead of understanding they were just lucky.
It’s not because of the wealthy that someone else is poor - it’s the system and regulations that allow people to accumulate that level of wealth. Once you reach a certain point, making more money becomes easier and easier. Going from 1 million to 100 million is often much easier than going from zero to 1 million. If the game is rigged, it’s not the fault of the player for playing it well.
It’s not because of the wealthy that someone else is poor - it’s the system and regulations that allow people to accumulate that level of wealth
This is like saying John Wilkes Booth didn’t kill Lincoln, a gun did…
It’s like saying NFL linebackers don’t cause concussions, rather its the rules and protective gear of professional football which cause concussions
Both ways of seeing it are true - the linebacker is the one actually performing the tackle, but he would not be permitted to cause that damage were he not enabled by the inherently dangerous rules and equipment
Same thing here. Clearly the billionaires are the ones directly causing the harm. But they are only able to do so (and only able to become billionaires in the first place) because of the existing system
It’s not like that.
NFL players don’t design and control the rules around equipment.
Billionaires 100% designed the current system that benefits themselves over everyone else.
The currently alive billionaires largely didn’t design it; previously alive billionaires designed it and the currently alive ones have refined it.
Which is the way capitalism is supposed to work; it’s a society ruled by and for capitalists - aka the billionaires who own the largest units of capital
Regardless, it is this system that is to blame. The actors within the system are also contributors, obviously. But individualizing systemic issues is not an effective way at seeing the solution.
The way to solve the problem of a bad king is not to replace him with a good king; it is to abolish monarchy altogether and replace it with a system wherein the people are the ruling class
Not at all.
Credit is doing a lot of heavy lifting. If credit seizes up, then it all falls apart. That’s why interest rates have been held low for so long.
We knew this since the 70s
Yeah, they oaved iver their income inequality fore the past 50 years by just letting everyone take on more debt. Our debt based economy is about to crash in on itself
No shit….
