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GameStop, Bitcoin and the Commoditization of Populist Rage

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Re: GameStop, Bitcoin and the Commoditization of Populist Rage

#51

Post by BrianOnHN »

seibelj wrote: post #34
hintymad wrote: post #28

> Let’s state the uncomfortable truth. The future for many Americans is bleak and their lives are going to be nasty, brutish and short. Everyday I see a world where many in my generation have simply given up all hope for opportunity of a family, a house, a stable career and forced to confront an uncertain future in a world that is slowly boiling itself to death. But why? Why can't more kids get into STEM fields? Why…

If you have enough money you can move to a good public school district or pay for private school. If you are poor you must accept the monopoly school in your district - that is the rule. I myself enjoy having choices for myself and my children but that is a consequence of money. This is why I support school vouchers - let parents determine how to spend their money, and let schools compete for students.

Vouchers only tilt things in favor of private schools.

The problem (US) is we've been steadily decreasing the relative cap on public school spending.

If the spending wasn't so little, you'd probably be a lot more adamant about that voucher.

Re: GameStop, Bitcoin and the Commoditization of Populist Rage

#52

Post by yongjik »

1-6 wrote: post #25
Clewza313 wrote: post #14

> Everyday I see a world where many in my generation have simply given up all hope for opportunity of a family, a house, a stable career and forced to confront an uncertain future in a world that is slowly boiling itself to death. South Korea and Japan are 10-20 years ahead of the same curve here. However, the result has been resignation and stagnation, not revolution. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampo_generation h…

On the Sampo generation wiki, 53.5% state that there's no money to save. Although I'm not an expert on these matters, what happened to packing your bags and moving out of Seoul or Gyeonggi-do to save some money? I think the motivation may not be there for some or social pressures keep people where they are in life. In Korea, you can easily raise kids if you're outside of Seoul/Gyeonggi. The teacher to student ratio i…

Not enough jobs. People do settle in smaller cities if there are jobs - the city of Ulsan has higher GDP per capita than Seoul, thanks to Hyundai Motors and other big plants, but it's not exactly easy to get one of these jobs.

In the end, most people flock to the greater Seoul area because that's where most jobs are.

Re: GameStop, Bitcoin and the Commoditization of Populist Rage

#53

Post by hshshs2 »

seaourfreed wrote: post #22

The US Congress sells out all citizens, via lobbyists. Populist rage comes a rigged economy, where they are losing money. Rigged pharma. Unethical medical billing. Out of control healthcare costs. 2008 mortgage crisis. High Frequency trading firms front running trades. Panama Papers. Libor. And a million more. Citizens won't have it any more. Fixing congress (so they don't sell us out), and congress CAN would WOULD f…

Citizens definitely will have it more; we elected a snake oil salesman for president just 4 years ago and probably would have again if not for the pandemic.

There’s no revolution happening right now in anything... supposed revolutionary ideas like cryptocurrency are just hijacked into the same old system and make things worse.

Not even a poorly handled pandemic resulting in half a million deaths resulted in significant social change, and in many ways it further entrenched or economic issues (so far 9/11 was more impactful, for the worse of course).

Universal healthcare is still a fringe issue among the vast majority of our elected officials (many of whom were recently reelected), including a president who ran for office saying “americans love their health insurance”

What exactly is changing? It’s been a slow decline since I can remember (which is back to the regan days).

Re: GameStop, Bitcoin and the Commoditization of Populist Rage

#54

Post by missedthecue »

nonameiguess wrote: post #32
seibelj wrote: post #4

I find bitcoin to be the greatest innovation in finance in the 21st century, a watershed moment in economic development. For the first time any person can own a financial asset completely decoupled from any government. That’s the value proposition for me. It’s not nihilism - it’s optimism in the individual to succeed over the corrupt state.

You could already own land, houses, cattle, ownership shares in companies that produce useful goods other humans want, all things the government doesn't control. If the concern is the government could potentially seize control of those things, sure, but a sufficiently malicious government can seize control of you and no amount of magic numbers on a USB stick is going to stop them.

I predict his reply will be that your property rights to land, cattle, homes, and common equity are protected by governments.

Re: GameStop, Bitcoin and the Commoditization of Populist Rage

#55

Post by seibelj »

BrianOnHN wrote: post #51
seibelj wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have enough money you can move to a good public school district or pay for private school. If you are poor you must accept the monopoly school in your district - that is the rule. I myself enjoy having choices for myself and my children but that is a consequence of money. This is why I support school vouchers - let parents determine how to spend their money, and let schools compete for students.

Vouchers only tilt things in favor of private schools. The problem (US) is we've been steadily decreasing the relative cap on public school spending. If the spending wasn't so little, you'd probably be a lot more adamant about that voucher.

I disagree with you 100%. The problem is we spend more money on schooling than nearly every other country, especially in our inner cities that have very poor outcomes. We don’t need to spend more - another $10k per student with the same teachers and administration isn’t going to magically make every school better. We need to inject competition into the system and stop allowing mediocre / bad schools to muddle along. I’m not sure if you are aware of how bad public schools in the USA can be, but I have witnessed a few and it’s very depressing.

Re: GameStop, Bitcoin and the Commoditization of Populist Rage

#56

Post by hintymad »

sudosysgen wrote: post #47
hintymad wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm fine with the norm. The norm is better than losing all hopes or a bleak future. The norm is a job that pays ordinary salary but gives me hope that I sharpen my skills and get rewarded accordingly (no guarantee, of course, but there's hope). I'm grateful that STEM pays so well nowadays, but I don't mind if my pay goes back to norm in exchange for many people having a better future. I don't see the current K12 syst…

The norm is falling through time. Right now, the norm is fine, but in a few decades, the norm will be to barely be able to afford rent. The way things are going, the norm is trending towards pretty bleak, yeah.

I guess STEM here really means the fields that pay decently and require hard skills. I hope we will always have such fields, be they STEM or not.

Re: GameStop, Bitcoin and the Commoditization of Populist Rage

#57

Post by missedthecue »

seibelj wrote: post #7
skulk wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a financial asset completely decoupled from any government is gold not one of these?

I neglected to explain it in my original post but bitcoin has all of the good properties of gold and none of the bad - primarily in terms of how easy it is to settle (especially over long distances) and the guaranteed fixed supply and emission rate.

Gold has real industrial and consumer uses (and therefore reliable demand). I don't see why anyone buys Bitcoin for any reason other than that another speculator will pay him more for it later.

Re: GameStop, Bitcoin and the Commoditization of Populist Rage

#58

Post by BrianOnHN »

seibelj wrote: post #55
BrianOnHN wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vouchers only tilt things in favor of private schools. The problem (US) is we've been steadily decreasing the relative cap on public school spending. If the spending wasn't so little, you'd probably be a lot more adamant about that voucher.

I disagree with you 100%. The problem is we spend more money on schooling than nearly every other country, especially in our inner cities that have very poor outcomes. We don’t need to spend more - another $10k per student with the same teachers and administration isn’t going to magically make every school better. We need to inject competition into the system and stop allowing mediocre / bad schools to muddle along.…

> We need to inject competition into the system

That 10K doesn't fix it overnight, but it does raise salaries which would increase competition in the talent pool.

Re: GameStop, Bitcoin and the Commoditization of Populist Rage

#59

Post by Geee »

seibelj wrote: post #4

I find bitcoin to be the greatest innovation in finance in the 21st century, a watershed moment in economic development. For the first time any person can own a financial asset completely decoupled from any government. That’s the value proposition for me. It’s not nihilism - it’s optimism in the individual to succeed over the corrupt state.

Fully agree. I feel sorry for those who don't understand this.

Re: GameStop, Bitcoin and the Commoditization of Populist Rage

#60

Post by Huwyt_Nashi021 »

hintymad wrote: post #28

> Let’s state the uncomfortable truth. The future for many Americans is bleak and their lives are going to be nasty, brutish and short. Everyday I see a world where many in my generation have simply given up all hope for opportunity of a family, a house, a stable career and forced to confront an uncertain future in a world that is slowly boiling itself to death. But why? Why can't more kids get into STEM fields? Why…

Because we can't even earnestly respond to questions like these without being called racists, bigots, xenophobes, etc. Even this indirect response will probably have me flagged.

Because we forfeited the West. We gave up everything our ancestors built because we don't like being called names. We stand back as everything they built is looted and desecrated, while we are displaced and demonised, while our children are perverted and humiliated, just so that people who hate us don't call us names.

Because we choose the false religion of progressivism over blood and soil. Because we are weak and vain and selfish.

Because intelligent people like you refuse to look beyond the bloody maths curriculum because you would prefer not to be a pariah over your great grandchildren having a homeland.

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