SteveB

 
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  • in reply to: Debt Rattle October 25 2017 #36675
    SteveB
    Participant

    Vineyards and wine are just as bubbly (sorry) as many other markets. I can see it in my state and in the buying choices and conversations of friends and extended-family members. Crash coming. (In one case, an in-law might be over extended. Puns abound!)

    in reply to: Is Capitalism Dead or Merely Dying? #36644
    SteveB
    Participant

    Capitalism=trees
    Exchange belief=forest

    The game won’t end on its own, merely reset. It can only be ended by a critical mass of people who understand that it is more trouble than it’s worth.

    in reply to: Globalization is Poverty #36561
    SteveB
    Participant

    Chris M,

    Greed and sloth are nothing to do anything about in a post-exchange world. Greedy? Too bad. Slothful? You’ll get over it when you get hungry enough. That’s not to say that people would generally treat others uncaringly if they’re struggling, but no one would be unduly rewarded either. Theft would still be a crime, and people would need to ask for what they want and understand (or not, I suppose) that they might not get it. People are naturally active, creative, productive, cooperative, caring, and many other positives that get overshadowed by profit seeking behaviors and the stresses that come with them (about getting scammed, about not having enough money for an uncertain future, etc.).

    UBI would just temporarily adjust the playing field, but the game would continue, only to once again inevitably march toward inequitable distribution (the condition, not the action) of “wealth”, all the while polluting, extirpating, and despoiling as we stress, distrust, exploit, and kill each other. Starting another round of an unwinnable game must be in that definition of insanity that Einstein (or whoever) spoke about.

    Similarly, I’ve pondered every question that has been presented to me or arose in my own mind over the past six years about ‘what if?’ or ‘how?’ with regard to ending exchange belief as a global society. I’ve yet to come across one that’s not answerable. Not that most people ‘get it’. They (mostly men) mostly don’t. We’re not taught to suspend disbelief in this culture. I wonder why not?

    If you’re on FB you might check out “The Money Choice” page, which proposes ending exchange belief on October 15 of the upcoming year (or the next if it doesn’t happen this time, as it didn’t this year). The choice exists for all humans. Choosing en masse on a specified date (after adequate consideration) is perhaps the only way to go about it. Only a critical mass, not necessarily a majority is needed to get to a tipping point.

    in reply to: Globalization is Poverty #36555
    SteveB
    Participant

    Chris M,

    It’s not an “economy”, at least not in the usual sense that we conceive of that concept. It’s life. Just like all other species. They live their lives. Humans could do similarly without this flawed belief in a concept (that doesn’t ever live up to its definition). Having large brains and other advantages only means that we would do so differently, not with the same limitations that other species have. The thought experiment: Assume that humans HAD TO live without the current belief in the concept of exchange–how would that logically proceed? Set aside preconceived notions and the horror stories about “savages”, “barbarians”, “uncivilized”, “primitive”, etc., and imagine a world that starts tomorrow with all existing technology, knowledge, skills, infrastructure, etc. but without a universally held belief. Don’t assume any other change to beliefs (like about government, private property, religion), just imagine the logical consequences of abandoning that one belief as a species/culture. Helpful hint: the good aspects of the world as it currently exists is possible tomorrow by subtracting the unnecessary layer of transactions and accounting (‘score keeping’) in the name of exchange belief, because all the transfers of surpluses *actually get done*! Meanwhile, the vast majority of the societal dysfunction would no longer be driven by profit seeking. Leverage goes away, as does accumulating (because how many houses can you live in, and how many do you really want when you probably have to maintain them yourself?). That should get you started.

    in reply to: The Curious Case of Missing the Market Boom #36542
    SteveB
    Participant

    anticlimactic,

    “the need for barter”? There is no need for barter, because there is no need for exchange [sic–because it’s a belief that only exists in our minds, it doesn’t exist at all]. Need proof? Just look at all the millions of species other than humans (and their near-global, exchange-based culture) and note that they actually exist! They live! No exchange belief! Never! Not ever, and yet they’re alive.

    If you can get past that fallacious belief, you might be able to see the solution and that money and economy aren’t something to understand better but to abandon as demonstrably failed concepts.

    in reply to: Globalization is Poverty #36541
    SteveB
    Participant

    Chris M,

    If you could get past the belief that it’s “ludicrous”, you might be able to see that the logical conclusion is that “cheapest” is not “free” but exchange-less. Not that anyone you were referring to sees it that way, but let’s not limit our thinking on their account. The way out can be through in that sense, though it doesn’t have to be. Instead, from here, now humans can simply choose to abandon exchange belief. To believe that that’s not true is to believe a lie. Can you overcome the lie?

    in reply to: The Curious Case of Missing the Market Boom #36479
    SteveB
    Participant

    Who’s right?/who’s wrong?=competition=exchange-think.

    The urge for self justification is evidently quite strong at this juncture. Lots of fingers crossed behind the backs and silent “please please please…”s, blinders back in fashion (if they ever went out), etc.

    Cue the blame-placing any day now. Will it be Tesla/Musk? The Fed? (Too easy.) Kobe? Trump? … Weinstein???

    in reply to: Debt Rattle October 13 2017 #36456
    SteveB
    Participant

    Just scrolled down and read the Tesla snip from the Detroit News article after posting that earlier comment. Yeah. So there’s supposedly an “iPhone moment” for electric cars (Tesla’s or otherwise)? Is it insensitive to call that a fantasy, or am I just being accurate?

    in reply to: Debt Rattle October 13 2017 #36455
    SteveB
    Participant

    I’m thinking Tesla will be the one that people will have in mind when they see the emperor’s privates, it being the manufacturing company that does the least actual manufacturing. The others (Apple aside) can easily continue to produce nothing without it being evident, since they never claimed to produce anything of substance in the first place.

    in reply to: Only China Can Restore Stability in The Global Economy #36454
    SteveB
    Participant

    The global economy never has been and never will be stable as long as there’s a profit incentive to make it unstable. Most likely, only widespread asset crashes will bring it down to what appears to be a new “stability”, but that would only be temporary and, as always, illusory.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle October 3 2017 #36294
    SteveB
    Participant

    Diogones Shrugged, it’s true unconditionally. Believing otherwise is just a belief and where the lies come in.

    V. Arnold, my point is the logical extension of Keen’s commentary in the video about humans being belief systems (metaphorically speaking, of course). It also fits with his comment about physicists finding economists frustrating, except that it extends to our entire culture, which is based on exchange belief. Exchange (not even barter, DS) isn’t required. I can’t convince you of that; you’ll have to determine it for yourself if you’re able and care to.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle October 3 2017 #36288
    SteveB
    Participant

    “So we’re actually mistaking the shortage of the easiest thing in the world to create, which is money, for a shortage of the physical resources we’re trying to create, which you need money in the first place to make.”–Steve Keen (~18:35 in the video)

    That’s a lie. Money isn’t *required* to make anything.

    See? Everyone’s lying, V. Arnold.

    in reply to: The Koyaanisqatsi Economy #36243
    SteveB
    Participant

    V. Arnold,

    “nobody’s lying” wins the self delusion award for the day.

    I see that you thought that my comment was directed to Ilargi. It wasn’t, at least not specifically. It was for everyone.

    in reply to: The Koyaanisqatsi Economy #36202
    SteveB
    Participant

    “another way of living”? How about without exchange belief? Convince me that some other way would be better. And while you’re at it, stop lying in order to convince yourself that it’s not possible.

    in reply to: What Doesn’t Janet Yellen Resign? #36173
    SteveB
    Participant

    Yellen’s actions only reflect concentrated exchange belief. All other suggestions (including yours, Ilargi) that doing something different within the belief system would be any better are just as delusional, only different and without direct power to implement the delusional action. So, Ilargi, your suggestion isn’t the only alternative, it’s the only one you believe in. And we know how much belief is worth.

    in reply to: Varoufakis: The Book #35797
    SteveB
    Participant

    I appreciate your take on all this. It could help many people understand some very important matters. And yet, it’s just so many words, on top of YV’s book’s so many words, and so many before those.

    “why not start something new that doesn’t come with the whole deep-state-style burden?”

    Because “new”≠”different”. You’re just talking reset again. I continue to not understand your desire to keep playing the game.

    The only game in town is exchange, and it can’t be ended from the inside, only by stepping outside and inviting the people of the world to come along.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle August 27 2017 #35665
    SteveB
    Participant

    Sales at “Gasoline stations”=gas+junk food+coffee+lottery tickets. I’ll let you be the judge of whether that makes a difference.

    Short Tesla? If I could.

    in reply to: It’s Time To Support Your President, America #35407
    SteveB
    Participant

    Good post. People generally have trouble with two things: logic and accepting reality. Oh, and those boil down to actually thinking.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle August 6 2017 #35353
    SteveB
    Participant

    More “perspective” on that population piece:

    “Demographic growth presents a global challenge: In 13 years (2030) the world population is projected to grow more than one billion people, reaching 8.6 billion people. It will reach 9.8 billion in 2050, and 11.2 billion in 2100.”

    I suspect that’s the author projecting the trend forward with no basis.

    “But they underestimated the human ability to innovate and solve problems.”

    Okay, maybe that’s the basis: an active imagination, ignorance, and ‘hopium’.

    “Written by

    Cristina Casabón, Digital Content Specialist

    The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.”

    Gee, can I get a piece published too?

    in reply to: Debt Rattle August 6 2017 #35352
    SteveB
    Participant

    “And according to the World Population Prospects 2017, a recently updated UN report, the world population will hit a staggering 9.8 billion by 2050.”

    Not likely. I still think it’ll peak closer to 2035 than to 2050 and (obviously) at a lower number.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle August 6 2017 #35351
    SteveB
    Participant

    “Verizon’s market share is about 30%, thus the total spending increase on wireless services is close to $150 billion.”

    Baseless assumption that *every* company increased proportionally. Hey, Ilargi, how about doing a piece on the degradation of quality in the overly ‘productive’ words (cuz is it really anything more than that?) sector of the economy?

    in reply to: Debt Rattle August 5 2017 #35350
    SteveB
    Participant

    @Nassim

    August≠July

    Keep hammering on weather in your climate quest. Someone, somewhere will be susceptible to it, no matter how off topic it is.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle August 2 2017 #35277
    SteveB
    Participant
    in reply to: Central Banks ARE The Crisis #35186
    SteveB
    Participant

    Those things come to mind for me as well, Diogenes. And it’s about energy too.

    Will any alternative currency or economy eliminate the waste (i.e., unproductive time) of accounting? I don’t see such a possibility. So let’s drop the whole thing and just live like other species (just with more intelligence). But then, if we can’t figure that out and act on it, maybe we’re not particularly intelligent after all.

    in reply to: I read the news today, oh boy #35054
    SteveB
    Participant

    “In 1968 Americans paid 7% of their disposable income for a house. Today that’s 23%.”

    Is that actually what it takes to own the house outright or just what people pay on mortgages regardless of whether they ever pay it off fully? I’m reading a very useful book called Little House on a Small Planet in which the author notes that in 1929 (pre-Crash) Better Homes and Gardens magazine warned people to not take on a more than 5-year mortgage. She later notes that even though valuations rose over recent decades, equity didn’t. We’re not in black & white Kansas anymore. It’s the peak complacency (which is your piece in a nutshell) of La La Land.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle July 16 2017 #35029
    SteveB
    Participant

    “Money changes everything.”

    On a deeper level, exchange belief confuses everyone.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle July 13 2017 #34992
    SteveB
    Participant

    “Greece should run a deficit now to boost its economy.”

    What do you really mean by that, Ilargi? Do you really care about their economy, or is it the wellbeing of people?

    in reply to: Debt Rattle July 11 2017 #34979
    SteveB
    Participant

    Our species isn’t tragic, just our belief system.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle July 11 2017 #34978
    SteveB
    Participant

    Economics—period—suits the powerful best. Schools are a distraction from that fact and only shuffle the pieces on the game board. End the game, end economics, end the disproportionate power. It’s that simple (but not necessarily easy).

    in reply to: Debt Rattle July 6 2017 #34910
    SteveB
    Participant

    Why do you keep pining for a reset, Ilargi, when it’s possible to end the game permanently?

    in reply to: Debt Rattle June 27 2017 #34757
    SteveB
    Participant

    “…Money Is Created…”

    That’s how “inequality” is made possible. End money–by choice, en masse–and that will end such inequality.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle June 21 2017 #34676
    SteveB
    Participant

    “Human rights” is a myth. Myths can’t be enforced.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle June 18 2017 #34619
    SteveB
    Participant

    That they even attempt to apply the term “stable” is silly at best.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle April 14 2017 #33695
    SteveB
    Participant

    It’s no wonder we waste and are good at it. The exchange-based belief system of our culture creates inherent (and perverse) incentives to do so. We’ve had generations of practice, and now it’s reaching its peak, along with easy-to-come-by fossil fuel supplies.

    in reply to: Any of this Sound Familiar? #33535
    SteveB
    Participant

    “It’s where the money is.”

    Yes, and that’s not going to change until we choose to change it, specifically, to end it.

    The profit incentive, based on our exchange-based belief system, has resulted in a distrust-based economy, rather than the purported trust-based one. Whether people see and understand that or not doesn’t change the situation relative to our viable options for putting an end to the societal dysfunction. Either we end this belief system or we go down with it.

    Anyone care to dispute that?

    in reply to: Austerity Kills. And Then Some. #33163
    SteveB
    Participant

    @thurstjo63 You mean it wasn’t true in isolated cases for a decade (in the second example)? It’s unclear from the first piece how long Moresnet/Amikejo lasted. A century? I gather you’d conclude that the sun doesn’t set because it was in the sky yesterday. :-/

    in reply to: Austerity Kills. And Then Some. #33160
    SteveB
    Participant

    @thurstjo63 Except that such policies have never existed at enough levels of the economic ‘sphere’ of the time (city-state, nation, region, and now globe) to make such a dream come true, and there’s no reason to believe that the incentives that have always enabled barriers to such policies will go away in the future via wishful thinking or any other mechanism short of mass choice to disable them.

    Virtually everyone doesn’t “totally agree”. That’s because we’ve all been more than adequately indoctrinated into the system (or game, if you prefer) to the point of being incapable of seeing it for what it is at its root. It’s a belief system, and if one believes, one invariably denies/rejects/ignores/dismisses/ridicules/demonizes non-belief or anything that looks like it. The ‘reasonable’ stance is one like yours, inherent flaws overlooked and unrealistic (because they overlook the inherent flaws) outcomes presented as certainty.

    in reply to: Austerity Kills. And Then Some. #33155
    SteveB
    Participant

    *All* economic policies are delusional. No point adding qualifiers like “European” or any other. The inherent incentives fatally flaw the system (which is also why the chances of a successful “PERSONAL” solution are slim, toktomi).

    in reply to: Go Long Chain Makers #32948
    SteveB
    Participant

    Peak energy=peak waste=peak economics=peak belief.

    We don’t see this because we don’t see our belief system (the real one, not the supposed one we talk about ‘for show’). I would reverse the order of that in causality, but we’re so far from understanding that it’s probably more helpful to ‘walk it back’.

    Just a brief note on this relative to the recent series of articles (and followup comments): The focus on “wealth” is misplaced. Our culture is simply confused. Energy facilitates waste. Economics tells us how to go about it (via profit seeking). We rationalize it in “wealth” terms. If humans don’t wrap their heads around this, they’ll likely waste their way to extinction. So, rather than chase wealth, the sane approach is to end waste, starting with economics. The most direct, simplest, least suffering way to do that is to end the cultural belief in the concept of exchange, which is the root cause of our societal dysfunction (including slavery past and present).

    in reply to: Debt Rattle January 19 2017 #32523
    SteveB
    Participant

    “I don’t know how much longer I can witness this. At what point do we set up a private army?”

    Willing to go to war but not rethink the concept of exchange (peacefully)? Not particularly logical.

Viewing 40 posts - 41 through 80 (of 248 total)