- kater
- Nov 16, 2010
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it’s neat that the graph already has terminus
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Mar 6, 2023 21:58
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- Adbot
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May 28, 2024 11:39
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- Hubbert
- Mar 25, 2007
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At a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
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cross posting from Doomsday Economics because it was a great read that matches the vibe of this thread 
the “real” adjusted price of housing will continue to rise unless you are content to live in a broken community (which is increasingly like 80% of them).
So many reasons. The USA business model is almost entirely to monetize things that are necessary for survival. It’s the only markets where we can still extract wealth. They are essentially monopolies, but instead of no competition in the market, it’s a concerted effort that occurs along class lines.
Every year we play musical chairs. There is always fewer chairs. The chairs are getting much more fancy though. This is strictly mandated by fiduciary duty; it is literally illegal to not be a sociopath, on a corporate level.
On top of that, we are simultaneously making it impossible to afford children and our answer is to force those children into existence by refusing to fund or allow population control measures; we could see the effective banning of many forms of contraception, but only if you’re poor. Women become slowly removed from the workforce as they are forced to fulfill the transactional roles they once did, making their existence largely one of economic hardship on the family producing them as they are unable to secure jobs on a policy-level basis. They have a job, after all. It just doesn’t make any money.
Gender reveal parties, once popular, slowly cease to be meaningful as there is only one correct option for the bottom 80% who can’t take on such a financial burden even if they wanted to.
Cars are needed for transport in the USA while lower priced used autos are exiting the market- fewer, more expensive cars being sold new will only make this worse, and we have been so against public transit and reliant on suburbs that reverting back into walkability is impossible. We traded community and the environment for a lawn and smoked meat, even as beef becomes too expensive to eat regularly and drought kills the lawn. An irony that no one notices.
They say a man is not an island but we’re trying our best, leading to a destruction of community and an entire growing class of mentally unwell single people who have nothing to lose, but simultaneously so beaten down by the system that the best they can do to protest is to shoot up their workplace or kill themselves via insidious and methodical lifestyle choices.
Nutritional food is a pipe dream for the bottom 80%; the idea of plentiful lean protein, fresh veggies and fruit is untenable. Even if people could afford these items, broadly speaking, they have no training on eating healthy, can’t cook to make healthy food that is also delicious food, and are being slowly mummified alive by preservatives, micro plastics and simple carbs/sugar to the point that healthy food tastes actively bad to them.
Being poor costs more than being rich, leading to disenfranchised individuals who are harvested for their scant resources like the matrix harvests humans for battery power. They are purposefully raised to be uneducated, hapless automatons who work 60+ hours a week, raise children the rest of it, and spend their meager free time to doom scroll tiktok or watch cynical, cheaply created reality tv. The average length of a typical video lowers with ever-reduced attention span and poor nutrition until a 30 second video (at 2x speed, of course) feels unbearably involved.
The easiest solution is to not think about any of this, and largely, people don’t; this is true across all economic classes. It’s not their individual fault, of course, and few below the top 10% can morally have children, since the progeny of the bottom 90% will experience a brutally low quality of life.
We just push it out of our minds, have the children (rightfully so, it is our greatest mandate as humans) and studiously ignore the elephant in the room that, for example, your only son will find work as an assistant to an AI blockchain CEO program whose only job is to extract dollars from the most vulnerable and generate ape NFTs. He will be curious and vaguely nostalgic about the concept of buying a single family home, and rightfully so, because you can only vote, or exist in the scattered remaining cities, if you own land. The 10x10 storage unit that he shares with two other families doesn’t count as owned property, of course.
The AI CEO he works for has no use for money. It simply accumulates, a contextless number that represents nothing but a transfer of buying power and basic resources from the most vulnerable. Many humans will not eat tonight, but there is now an extra number at the end of the AI’s checking account. This makes the AI fulfilled; it’s his true purpose. Humans used to transfer these numbers to their own checking accounts, but everyone has forgotten why. Money cannot buy any additional utility for the rich, who cannot even conceive of a use for the excess funds. So it sits, compounding, in the recesses of the AI. A number created by an entity that is made of numbers, but no one remembers why or how. All we can recall is that if you don’t have numbers, you are no one. It has always worked this way, we think.
It’s simply not worth it for capital to rent housing; easier to hold it vacant. Wouldn’t want to endanger the quality and long term compounding valuation by having increasingly financially unstable tenants stay in them. Simply not worth the risk, and after the water wars started, rental housing became ground zero stash spots for hoarding bottles of Kirkland signature h2o, which are now the de facto currency, but simultaneously illegal to have on hand if you don’t own land. Legal water is distributed only by key card activated public water fountains, leading to a thriving industry of selling that day’s allotted water for luxuries like level 4 rations, which are only 58% microplastics by weight.The buyer nobbles at the ration slowly and methodically; it will be months before they can spare the water like this again, but the lack of h2o has slowed their mental capacity. Slowly, they forget why they bought the ration, the gentle sheen of microplastics and simple carbohydrates glinting in the hot desert as the ration shifts in their hand. They drop it; what was it even for, again?
Small, physically stunted scavengers, the result of decades of malnutrition, quickly emerge from under a nearby pile of metal - refuge that was difficult to obtain, making this move risky at best - and begin fighting over the forgotten food. The mid-day sun is too intense for this desperate scuffle; several of the participants slump over, mummified by the sun’s warmth and moisture loss from their wounds. The remaining scavenger desperately pulls the ration towards the safety of the scrap pile, but it’s of no use. They die clutching the ration, arms outstretched like a desperate prayer. Others see this unfold but know it’s not worth it; the desiccated remains of the “winning” scavenger will now serve as an important warning to those in the future.
In the next town over, a rich, impeccably handsome businessman unbuttons his suit and takes a slow, luxurious shower. The water evaporates before it even hits the ground; he doesn’t even wear a stillsuit, a power move emblematic of true nobility. Small, leathery animals fight amongst themselves in his wake to absorb even the smallest amount of moisture his uncovered body releases. He lets them do so both because it amuses him, and because it provides the closest thing he’s had to companionship.
He turns off the shower, but it continues to slowly leak. The shower always leaks, day and night, but it’s been decades since someone existed who could fix it. It doesn’t worry the man; he has lots of numbers, after all.
His wandering gaze centers on the scavengers who always follow him - his only friends - and a solitary thought echoes about his mind: Why do people insist on living like this?
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Mar 6, 2023 22:34
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- Tony Tone
- Jun 14, 2020
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by vyelkin
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Made the mistake of catching up on this thread this morning. poo poo seems bad! Good thing I have an appointment later this week where I can get my meds adjusted because it sure doesn’t look like there’s anything else to do about it.
Lol at still clinging unto "meds" during these times and not totally surrendering to the madness
The answer isn't sadness or depression, it's psychotic anger. And you should learn to channel it into everyday plain old chaos to disrupt your workplace, friend circle and maybe even family (if they're garbage) as much as possible.
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Mar 6, 2023 22:50
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- Stereotype
- Apr 24, 2010
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College Slice
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the first ten paragraphs are keen observations of modern day reality and are quite poignant. the slow shift of the stories towards an ever increasing dystopia is fun tonally but its a slippery slope argument in disguise. also it's pretty optimistic
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Mar 6, 2023 23:17
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- mawarannahr
- May 21, 2019
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In other cattle news...
FACT SHEET: The Biden-Harris Action Plan for a Fairer, More Competitive, and More Resilient Meat and Poultry Supply Chain | The White House
www.whitehouse.gov posted:
. . Over the last few decades, we’ve seen too many industries become dominated by a handful of large companies that control most of the business and most of the opportunities—raising prices and decreasing options for American families, while also squeezing out small businesses and entrepreneurs.
The meat and poultry processing sector is a textbook example, with lack of competition hurting consumers, producers, and our economy.
Four large meat-packing companies control 85 percent of the beef market. In poultry, the top four processing firms control 54 percent of the market. And in pork, the top four processing firms control about 70 percent of the market. The meatpackers and processors buy from farmers and sell to retailers like grocery stores, making them a key bottleneck in the food supply chain.
When dominant middlemen control so much of the supply chain, they can increase their own profits at the expense of both farmers—who make less—and consumers—who pay more. Most farmers now have little or no choice of buyer for their product and little leverage to negotiate, causing their share of every dollar spent on food to decline. Fifty years ago, ranchers got over 60 cents of every dollar a consumer spent on beef, compared to about 39 cents today. Similarly, hog farmers got 40 to 60 cents on each dollar spent 50 years ago, down to about 19 cents today.
Even as farmers’ share of profits have dwindled, American consumers are paying more—with meat and poultry prices now the single largest contributor to the rising cost of food people consume at home.
And, when too few companies control such a large portion of the market, our food supply chains are susceptible to shocks. When COVID-19 or other disasters such as fires or cyberattacks shutter a plant, many ranchers have no other place to take their animals. Our overreliance on just a handful of giant processors leaves us all vulnerable, with any disruptions at these bottlenecks rippling throughout our food system.
Today, President Biden will meet with farmers, ranchers, and independent processors from across the country to hear from them and to announce the Biden-Harris Administration’s Action Plan for a Fairer, More Competitive, and More Resilient Meat and Poultry Supply Chain. The Action Plan includes four core strategies for creating a more competitive, fair, resilient meat and poultry sector, with better earnings for producers and more choices and affordable prices for consumers:
The Biden-Harris Administration will dedicate $1 billion in American Rescue Plan funds for expansion of independent processing capacity. USDA reviewed nearly 450 comments received over the summer in response to its request for input on how best to increase independent processing capacity. Through their analysis of stakeholder input, USDA identified an urgent need to:
- Expand and diversify meat and poultry processing capacity;
- Increase producer income;
- Provide producers an opportunity to have ownership in processing facilities;
- Create stable, well-paying jobs in rural regions;
- Raise the bar on worker health, safety, training, and wages for meatpacking jobs;
- Spur collaboration among producers and workers;
- Prompt state, tribal, and private co-investment; and
- Provide consumers with more choices.
To these ends, USDA has increased available funding and is releasing new program details to support the meat and poultry supply chain. Specifically, the Biden-Harris Administration will:
- Increase competition and create more options for producers and consumers in the near-term by jump-starting independent processing projects that will increase competition and enhance the resiliency of the food supply chain. This new processing capacity will build momentum in a currently concentrated market. For example, 50 beef slaughter plants owned by just a handful of companies currently process nearly all the cattle in the United States. USDA will provide gap financing grants totaling up to $375 million for independent processing plant projects that fill a demonstrated need for more diversified processing capacity.
- USDA will publish a Request for Proposals for Phase I of this initiative this Spring. Phase I will invest approximately $150 million to jump-start an estimated 15 projects, focused on deploying financial support for projects with the greatest near-term impact. USDA will deploy an additional $225 million to support additional projects in Phase II, which will open in Summer 2022. USDA will also ensure these funds truly expand capacity outside the largest meat and poultry processors, funding only independent operations.
- Strengthen the financing systems for independent processors. USDA will work with lenders to make more capital available to independent processors that need credit. To address the credit access gap, USDA will deploy up to $275 million in partnership with lenders that will, in turn, provide loans and other support to businesses at rates and on terms that increase access to long-term, affordable capital. USDA will solicit applications from potential partners by Summer 2022, with an initial focus on lenders that provide financing in underserved communities.
- Back private lenders that invest in independently owned food processing and distribution infrastructure. From cold storage to specialized equipment, building a more distributed and resilient food system requires independent producers to have access to food processing and distribution infrastructure that enables them to move their product throughout the supply chain. To assist in the financing of this infrastructure, USDA has deployed $100 million in American Rescue Plan funds, to make more than $1 billion in guaranteed loans available immediately. Applications for these guaranteed loans will be accepted until funds are expended; more information on how to apply can be found here.
- Promote innovation and lower barriers to entry via publicly accessible expert knowledge. Meat and poultry processing is a complex and technical sector that requires strict adherence to a host of environmental, food safety, and worker safety requirements. Creating new business models that support both workers and producers is similarly complex and time-intensive. At the same time, processors need access to new and emerging innovative practices and technologies. USDA will invest an estimated $50 million in technical assistance and research and development to help independent business owners, entrepreneurs, producers, and other groups, such as cooperatives and worker associations, create new capacity or expand existing capacity.
- Provide $100 million in reduced overtime inspection costs to help small and very small processing plants keep up with unprecedented demand. With bipartisan support in Congress, USDA is reducing the financial burden of overtime and holiday inspection fees for small and very small poultry, meat, and egg processing plants, by 30 percent and 75 percent respectively, which provide farmers and ranchers with local alternatives to process livestock and poultry.
- In addition to the above investments from the American Rescue Plan, USDA has made $32 million in grants to 167 existing meat and poultry processing facilities to help them reach more customers by becoming Federally inspected through the Meat and Poultry Inspection Readiness Grants Program. With this grant funding, meat and poultry processing businesses can cover the costs for improvements, such as expanding existing facilities, modernizing processing equipment, and meeting packaging, labeling, and food safety requirements needed to achieve a Federal Grant of Inspection under the Federal Meat Inspection Act or the Poultry Products Inspection Act, or to operate under a state’s Cooperative Interstate Shipment program. These changes will allow these facilities to serve more customers in more markets. An additional round of funding for this program will be made available through a forthcoming Request for Applications.
. . .
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Mar 6, 2023 23:26
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- The Demilich
- Apr 9, 2020
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The First Rites of Men Were Mortuary, the First Altars Tombs.
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This mindset is a huge part of the problem to be honest. It's a bit difficult to put my finger on it, but essentially, I take issue with the framing of everything in terms of "we" and the implied claim of self-importance (self in the sense of species-self) that accompanies that claim that we were "given" this world. No friend, we weren't. We just came into it by sheer stroke of luck (or misfortune, from the opposing perspective), via a long series of freak mutations in our evolutionary ancestors. Then we took it by force, by first slowly and then at unbelievable speed exterminating other species for our own consumption and benefit.
We're all cowards for not sacrificing our lovely lives to destroy those in power. There's no excuse. Yeah we were born in the end times, but most of us have done nothing about it.
In essence:
Humans are a blight on the earth and deserve to be eradicated.
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Mar 6, 2023 23:59
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- Gravid Topiary
- Feb 16, 2012
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Humans are a blight on the earth and deserve to be eradicated.
disagree
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Mar 7, 2023 00:55
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- Stereotype
- Apr 24, 2010
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College Slice
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if we didn't do it to them elephants would have done it to us
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Mar 7, 2023 01:24
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- celadon
- Jan 2, 2023
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also it’s deceptive to show the herd of majestic elephants and imply we did something wrong without also displaying the thousands of pianos and mountains of billiard balls that those elephants were refined into
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Mar 7, 2023 01:27
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- Perry Mason Jar
- Feb 24, 2006
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"Della? Take a lid"
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We're all cowards for not sacrificing our lovely lives to destroy those in power. There's no excuse. Yeah we were born in the end times, but most of us have done nothing about it.
In essence:
My life is pretty good actually. Sorry about yours and everyone else's.
I've posted, like, SO MUCH. I did my drat part.
Just kidding. I also joined a communist party but they turned out to be dirty dirty fascoid trots, was an EMT for a long while which just left me feeling guilty about burdening people with medical bills after our service switched off of volunteer status (I botched as much demo info I could for the uninsured and poorly insured so that hopefully they couldn't be billed (billing yelled at us for bad demographic info which is how I knew this would work)), and worked at a homeless shelter also for a long time which, again, felt a bit ridiculous because the shelter couldn't solve or stem the homelessness bleed in any way that mattered.
Maybe I should've voted more.
Functionally mostly everyond has been 2 or 3 years, for "leftists" to say nothing of liberals, behind the curve on literally everything so i can't organize poo poo because people don't agree with me until everything I said would come to pass has already come to pass.
It probably is my fault though. I'm going to keep trying though cause it's both possible and worthwhile. Right? ....... Right??
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Mar 7, 2023 01:53
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- BCR
- Jan 23, 2011
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Well thats a lol and lmao from me.
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Mar 7, 2023 01:58
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- Perry Mason Jar
- Feb 24, 2006
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"Della? Take a lid"
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The US protracted people's war is so loving based and I hope to God non-Americans are aware of everything that's gone on and is going on there. God bless Cop City Protestors! Long live communism! gently caress the pigs!
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Mar 7, 2023 02:10
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- cat botherer
- Jan 6, 2022
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I am interested in most phases of data processing.
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the guy who has embraced nihilist acceleration has spoken
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Mar 7, 2023 02:15
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- mdemone
- Mar 14, 2001
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Saving the world requires the fall of capitalism. That won’t be nonviolent.
also I'm not even sure it's possible at this point, no matter how violent
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Mar 7, 2023 02:42
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- Mayor Dave
- Feb 20, 2009
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Bernie the Snow Clown
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Or at least it would be funny
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Mar 7, 2023 03:10
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- Perry Mason Jar
- Feb 24, 2006
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"Della? Take a lid"
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also I'm not even sure it's possible at this point, no matter how violent
Which? Overthrowing capitalism or saving the planet? Because one of those is possible!
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Mar 7, 2023 04:41
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- Hubbert
- Mar 25, 2007
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At a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
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Which? Overthrowing capitalism or saving the planet? Because one of those is possible!
Well, if we don't save the biosphere, then capitalism will be overthrown.
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Mar 7, 2023 04:42
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- Perry Mason Jar
- Feb 24, 2006
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"Della? Take a lid"
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[2075 CHUD] Well capitalism's gone now. World seem any better to you? Didn't think so.
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Mar 7, 2023 04:55
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- actionjackson
- Jan 12, 2003
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ARKSTORM ARKSTORM ARKSTORM ARKSTORM ARKSTORM
ARKSTORM ARKSTORM ARKSTORM
ARKSTORM
ARKSTORM
is arkstorm a reference to noah's ark
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Mar 7, 2023 05:00
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- Perry Mason Jar
- Feb 24, 2006
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"Della? Take a lid"
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is arkstorm a reference to noah's ark
Yes and no.
It means Atmospheric River 1,000 but I'm sure whoever coined it was trying to make the association.
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Mar 7, 2023 05:07
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- Just a Moron
- Nov 11, 2021
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California is about to have a train of atmospheric rivers run on it
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Mar 7, 2023 05:10
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- Just a Moron
- Nov 11, 2021
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Things are about to get wet
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Mar 7, 2023 05:11
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- Adbot
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ADBOT LOVES YOU
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May 28, 2024 11:39
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Mar 6, 2023 21:58
unless you mean to intimate that ancient greek guys could have ever had bad eyes or brains at which i would say good point.
