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More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

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Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#121

Post by codr7 »

jdmoreira wrote: post #115
lifestyleguru wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Her motto was "idiots _have_ to be scammed". So all Americans in context of health insurance? All Italians in context of their byzantine bureaucracy and taxation system? All Europeans in context of social and retirement systems? All developed world in context of housing market? It turned into dog eat dog "eat the sucker" attitude. On top of the hierarchy we got really nasty predators, they look at YOU and see an id…

> All Europeans in context of social and retirement systems? Can you please explain? You probably know something I don't

I don't know of a single case where a person actually got the retirement money they were promised along the way.

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#122

Post by jdmoreira »

lifestyleguru wrote: post #116
jdmoreira wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All Europeans in context of social and retirement systems? Can you please explain? You probably know something I don't

First demography of native populations, second the population from last decade's migration crisis don't seem to be contributing into the systems. Employed suckers think that 40% deduction from monthly paycheck is waiting there to help and save them in case of any troubles in the future or in the old age.

Yeah, you probably into something. Very possible the social systems collapse at some point

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#123

Post by Yizahi »

sneak wrote: post #25
User23 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a position commonly referred to as "Social Darwinism." The same logic can get you to "drunk women out by themselves _have_ to be sexually assaulted" and so on. No, it's not OK to victimize people just because they're vulnerable. It's an absolutely odious caricature of moral reasoning.

Not at all. Money represents resources, and it’s objectively better for society for resources to be in the hands of people who are not fools, instead of those who are.

You can get like minded people and go roleplay feudalism with guns somewhere else, please leave people with empathy out of it.

PS: don't forget to document your inevitable failure, just like every libertarian "non-fools" community previously.

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#124

Post by imtringued »

dleary wrote: post #13
throwup238 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> how can it be anything but natural selection doing it's thing? Does it affect their reproductive chances? If not, then natural selection has nothing to do with it.

It’s overly simplistic to say that if a person has reproduced, then they have ‘succeeded’ in the natural selection game. There is a whole (potential) downstream genealogical tree branching off from each individual Certainly, any person who reproduces has done “better” at the game than someone who has not reproduced at all. But that is still not quite enough. If a parent reproduces, but none of their children themselv…

By this logic nobody wins, because humanity will go extinct eventually.

In reality the winners of natural selection are those who were born and are still alive. If life is a game, they are winners in the most literal sense.

We struggle for existence against entropy, not against other humans or animals.

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#125

Post by codr7 »

inopinatus wrote: post #41
jshpool wrote: post #5

Lot of people are becoming more knowledgable and skillful. But purpose is the missing ingredient. Without purpose or a motivator in life people end up getting trapped in mindless rituals. It keeps the reward circuitry in the brain from decaying.

I once asked my wife, "what is my purpose in life?", and she has been cracking dolphin jokes at my expense ever since.

Well, you have a choice there. Ask others, and get dolphins; or follow your heart.

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#126

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

smolder wrote: post #101
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to see real crack addiction in action. It’s not over-hyped at all. It’s just that not everyone gets addicted to it. People get hung up on physical addiction, but the mental obsession is the real destroyer. Most folks aren’t wired for that kind of obsession. They can get physically addicted to opiates, quit, and never go back. I’ve seen exactly that. I’ve also seen folks become so obsessed with pot, that it m…

Well I can't say I've known any crack addicts really, only met a couple people who have tried it. I've known some people who got into cocaine and were never quite the same, though. Also some people who started out fairly respectable, got into opiates, may or may not have robbed people and betrayed friends and family in service of the addiction, and then died to it. But my criticism of the 'crack is scary' meme isn't…

I lived in Downtown Baltimore, from 1980-83.

It was always a fairly gritty, blue-collar town, but crack moved in around ‘83, and that’s when it became The Wire. Before, I could walk through some of the toughest neighborhoods in town, and it would be OK (I was fairly scruffy, back then, but no Billy Badass). Nowadays, even the nice areas are a bit scary.

Crack was focused on, a lot, and there was definitely a racial aspect to law enforcement and hysteria, but the drug is still quite nasty. It’s more like the focus on cocaine was muted, as opposed to the focus on crack being overwrought.

That said, gambling can have extremely similar outcomes. You don’t want to stray too far from The Strip, in Vegas or Atlantic City.

Desperate people can get fairly rapacious; regardless of the source of their desperation.

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#127

Post by jollyllama »

epolanski wrote: post #9

I remember a controversial scamming figure in Italy that made millions by selling lucky numbers for lotteries or exploiting people's stupidity to part them with their life savings. Her motto was "idiots _have_ to be scammed". While this figure was morally and ethically deplorable, it always made me think how her motto essentially implied that there was an element of pure natural selection happening and she saw hersel…

https://www.paulgraham.com/cornpone.html

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#128

Post by keyle »

MrVandemar wrote: post #98
keyle wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've all been there. The house always wins.

Actually, we haven't all been there. Some of us took to heart the lesson from War Games (1983), and apply it liberally: "An interesting game Dr Falkon: The only way to win is not to play."

okay.

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#129

Post by in-pursuit »

spoonfeeder006 wrote: post #94
epolanski wrote: post #9

I remember a controversial scamming figure in Italy that made millions by selling lucky numbers for lotteries or exploiting people's stupidity to part them with their life savings. Her motto was "idiots _have_ to be scammed". While this figure was morally and ethically deplorable, it always made me think how her motto essentially implied that there was an element of pure natural selection happening and she saw hersel…

Whats the difference between "idiots have to be scammed" vs "people who can't fend off a knife fighter while en route to the grocery store have to be stabbed"? Some people are gullible, or trusting. This doesn't mean they don't have other gifts, or most of all good intentions. Applying an evolutionary pressure against people who can't fend off knife attackers is ultimately useless for human wellbeing The real issue i…

There’s obviously a huge difference between a scam and a violent attack. The person being scammed doesn’t ever lose their agency and willingly participates. That’s very different from a knife attack, where the victim would leave at every moment if possible.

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#130

Post by BriggyDwiggs42 »

in-pursuit wrote: post #129
spoonfeeder006 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whats the difference between "idiots have to be scammed" vs "people who can't fend off a knife fighter while en route to the grocery store have to be stabbed"? Some people are gullible, or trusting. This doesn't mean they don't have other gifts, or most of all good intentions. Applying an evolutionary pressure against people who can't fend off knife attackers is ultimately useless for human wellbeing The real issue i…

There’s obviously a huge difference between a scam and a violent attack. The person being scammed doesn’t ever lose their agency and willingly participates. That’s very different from a knife attack, where the victim would leave at every moment if possible.

Scammers target people who can be easily manipulated so that they can mostly remove targets’ agency. The victim doesn’t know that it’s a scam, so why would they run?
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