Fat, Dumb & Happy

Fat, Dumb & Happy...and, um, sloth.

Work Work Work

If almost everyone is in debt does that mean that wealth has unreasonably consolidated and other value systems should arise? Why should almost everyone always be in debt? To me that indicates a type of nationwide social illness of some sort. We are on the Earth for so little time, and yet we race to accumulate bullshit, and work far too long to enjoy it, ourselves, or our loved ones enough.

So Pure

If I think something sucks I generally am rather blunt, and sometimes that can cause lawsuits, fake comments, hate email, dual challenges, etc. The ugliest parts of humanity are anonymously drawn in to a person who wants to be honest...especially if they are against the grain and gaining influence.

As time passes people try to wear you down and make you fit in their shoes. This comes from the top and the bottom. At one point in time I remember when I thought most everything was overpriced. Looking back, I now appreciate how skewed my worldview was back then, especially in a world full of capitalism when I was valuing my time at nothing, helping out whoever I could in an industry where a 7 figure salary is not uncommon if all you care about is money.

Business is not about who creates the most value. Business is about who creates the most profit while looking as legitimate as needed to continue the model while ignoring the cost of externalities.

Oddly enough after enough time passes you become the standard for others in what not to do. But like a tidal wave the person who knocks you down rises only to later fall, eclipsed by their own ego, both standing in line waiting to wear your shoes.

Ebb and flow in human nature, or envy? Who knows. :)

Life Lesson: Never User Speakerphone

Today I made the mistake of using speakerphone. Even if nobody means harm it is really easy for speakerphone to spiral out of control.

The Hollow American Dream

get a loan go to school
get a job to pay off your debts
get a second job to start saving
get a 30 year mortgage. don't lose that job!

to collect to get don't forget
you are the lucky one with toys abound
95% will fail in one way or another, falling through the cracks
but it is (almost) moral legal, fortunes await your future

the psycho homeless guy asked to live on the street
the uninsured who died should not have got sick. his will was weak
the person who reverse mortgaged their home wanted to leave with and leave nothing
you are responsible for everything that happens to you

Working in a Market Controlled by Private Capital Consolidation & Leverage

Why it sucks to be a laborer in the US

The ascendance and dominance of capital vs. labor. Add a billion or so potential workers to the global labor force, blend in a technology S curve acceleration, combine these with deregulation, lower taxes, and free trade, and you have a recipe for accelerating returns to capital and diminishing returns to labor.

More people competing for the same capital will drive down wages. Yet another reason to go out and work for yourself...after the first year or two, if you have no debt and leave meagerly, you have far greater stability than any employer can provide.

And the capital is getting leveraged far more aggressively:

The abundant liquidity of today’s financial marketplace may be another way of describing the ability of private agents – be they hedge funds, private equity, or simply old-fashioned banks – to create credit on their own given satisfactory reserve levels which are now more than ample. Unwillingness to employ increased margin requirements by the Fed during the NASDAQ bubble, and near 0% margin downpayments accepted by mortgage bankers during the housing bubble, give evidence to the diminishing influence of CBs and the growing influence of private agents in the credit creation process. Obviously the ultimate cost of money as determined by CBs is critical in reining in unlimited credit creation, but if the price to Wall Street is far less onerous than the cost to Main Street, there may be limits as to how far CBs can raise rates and therefore control inflation

Many of those leveraged bets are simply interested in quick flips...which means a willingness to do things like destroying the longterm value of an asset if it gives the perception of greater short term value...which will make labor markets even less stable.

Link via John K.

Cracked Egg Plants

passion without profit
leads to cracks in the market
if you lack confidence
the cracks grow

what you see
is but a reflection
too honest to succeed
until the cracks disappear