Fascism meshes very easily with “free” market capitalism and hierarchical structure in general (see the Catholic Church) - the financial returns on fascism is everything you see around you today: extractionist imperialism, monopolies, commodification of all things, etc.

Space programs?

Fake space programs are a better investment

Let's do this! Im thinking it some kind of crypto mining expedition where we are headed out to Mars for processing power.

Moore's law.

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BASEBALL HATS I PROMISE YOU

It's the people not wearing hats we need to watch

Invest in hat monitors

We need to read people's hats in order to protect them.

THESE HATS ARE LIKE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL HATS I KNOW HOW TO DO THIS

nonsense like 50 different people are suing you over how bad these hats are

JUST BUY THE HATS I PROMISE YOU WILL FEEL GREAT WHEN YOU SEE THE HATLESS HEADS ROLLING IN BLOOD AND STARING IN SHOCK, TONGUES EXTENDED UPWARDS, POINTING AT US IN OUR HATS.

Fascinating. Bleak. truly people have been brainwashed by the media and now vote with their wallets. Far more regulation required at the top end, we cant stop the progress, and in many ways it serves us well. Democracy can still win the day, and we can unite for the good of all people. Education is the key, and a few good humans can change the world. It cant be allowed that rampant free market capitalism destroys us. Roll on technical singularity, according to Moores law would be around 2042 but i believe the theory is faultering (Moores law) so might take a bit longer. Technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in unforeseeable changes to human civilization. We have just leisure time so we study philosophy and all becone enlightened beings living in a tech utopia. Peace

Moore's law is doing fine once you abstract it to include progress besides chip density. Computation overall is on track when you include advances in software and a.i.

I think there has always been feudalism in one form or another. There is always a class that ultimately owns everything because they can confiscate it, grant it a "title" or tax it. This premise always leads to same outcome it's just a matter of how greedy or insane the current landlord is.

To answer the original question, it's a son of a whore.

Unless you want to go through a lot of ball ache you're basically chipped if you own a smart phone. This is at present an unregulated free for all and tech companies are making hay. But slowly I should imagine a thirst for privacy will emerge and that more people will begin cutting google and facebook out of their lives. I know my next phone is definitely going to be a degoogled android, and I'm already fb free

tbh i am not worried at all. for a normal human being in this world, who does no harm or break any dumbass rules, i think nobody would bother using any personal info against me. what would they achieve? fuckall thats what. dont bother get into some conspiracy shit, as at the end of the day life ends up too short to realize whats good. sry if im not making sense, having some lovely gummies from radarbreeder which hit like a hailstorm

Privacy isn't about your data its about the rights of those that keep society in check. Just like freedom of speech; its unlikely that any of us are going to say anything that a government will censor but we need others to be able to do this.

With privacy a whislteblower or someone collecting data against the powerful needs that protection or we are all really fucked.

that's perfectly alright pompom. I don't think you've taken the time to look into this and see what facebook and google are really doing, because if you do I'm confident you'll change your tune. I can assure you it is far worse and far further reaching than you imagine. Tbh the nothing to hide argument is very flimsy. For example. The guy next door has a moustache that makes him look like a paedo and he behaves in erratic ways, so presumably an anonymous tip off to inform the busies of his noncing habit will only be a problem for him if he has something to hide? Crude example I know but the point stands. Back to the price of bread, I advise you to research how fb operates as a worthy starting point

no i admit i haven`t researched anything of what you guys discussing, but at the end of the day im on the same opinion. i think as a free person (or believe i do, despite working for the rich) and my mind feels higher then the people who surround me and hurts me to see the way they see things. how miserable their lives are because of their shitty job(mine is the same tho) and stuff like that. i know facebook for example were sued last year or so for selling customers data to a 3rd party or some shit like that and watched the video where zuckerberg was trying to reply not looking like a slow thinker infront of the senate. however, stay safe all and take the tin foil hats sometimes, because thats what will really save us at the end when things go to hell. peace

Swap some of your bitcoin into chainlink and ethereum and wait for the boom, cash out and take yourself off to thailand where you can live like a king, my exit strategy lol

As long as an authority is collecting taxes you are always going to wind up in the same place. Power will be used to obtain the money and money will be used to obtain power to get more money. These are rules of nature.

exit strategy

Wishful thinking, the leading VR platform is Facebook. You think you are surrounded with web surveillance? These are the good old days.

How can the rest of the world let this happen? They've rejected Facebook's crypto coin pretty easily.

It hasn't happened yet. The VR story is yet to be told

People are just people.

Cheers BB

Not for long bigga

I really like this.

All comments more or less are about the idea of reparation, and mostly I agree.

But its not about reparation despite the title, its about where to best direct a stimulus package. My Everyman understanding of the Covid downturn is that the UK exchequer has licensed uk banks to loan to pretty much anyone with a business no questions asked, money that is created in the moment of granting the loan.

Equally you could hand it out in the street or mail cheques to people whether they need it or not. Give it to the living heirs of slaves or give it to banks to hand out in executive bonuses? Who's gonna make the most stimulus with it?

At some point every country on this earth has been exploited for another’s gain. Far too many variables to start even debating or commenting. Slavery still exists today, wouldn’t it be better to start sorting that first. Don’t buy anything from Ikea. Put down your smart phone built by a 9 year old. You are clothed in exploitation.

We best start asking for reparations from the Romans for the slave labour that they used. Damn you can even have pyramid reparations for the slave labour used there and that was over several dynasties.

No malace here, and there’s a hell of a lot of things that are terrible historically. We can’t just throw money at them all. Also Hyperinflation, banks aren’t technically printing money to prop each other up, it’s just another IOU in the safe of inter bank lending.

However the pyramid builders kids have recovered financially (not so shabbily I might add :) )The African descendants in the Americas live in a society that still short changes them so its a different premise.

Have you been to Egypt recently?

Society as a whole is irreparable in its morals of treating people, it’s not just an ‘Americas’ issue. Short changing happens on a basic level in every place around the world.

My point is slavery still exists why do we act like it’s a dirty secret that happened many moons ago.

Bit deep for school night!!

The pyramids were very likely built with paid labor.

Thanks for the depth though biggaz if I read another hype post I'll puke.

Good point made there! I went there years ago and it was just awesome. Not only the pyramids, the country and the people.

Learnt more in a few weeks than years in education. It was just a vast contrast to the usual. Had a balloon ride to watch the sunrise over the Nile in the South of the country.

Thanks for the info!

The uk was paying off compensation to slave traders till maybe 2018.

till definitely 2018 !

mostly tories’, lords’ & royals’ descendants ( or, “c nts” )

Only took 182 years to pay. Who the duck is collecting that money as well especially up until 2018. Probably Liz, Phil, Charles and the lads.

Ahh I’m off for a j before I end up spinning out about how everything is screwed.

UCL have a public database of the families and business that profited from it, David Cameron being one

Thank you for this.. very much appreciated! Just been on the UCL website and they work they’ve done is phenomenal. Will definitely be reading more about this.

The amount of compensation being asked for is just ludicrous for the time. Some perspective that first £1 million pound cheque was signed in 1904 which is many years later.

No, it would absolutely not stimulate the economy. You're sort of just blasting a random talking point without much thought to it.

The US also has no obligation to the present generation just because of the abuse of their black ancestors - such an assertion is just ridiculous.

If you think handing out free-money like that "stimulates the economy" then you are totally wrong. In fact, you are hurting the economy and society by making light of racial issues where they already have no place.

If your grandparents had personally enslaved people and you had a chance to do something for their grandchildren would you?

It's paying back a debt that financed the country for generations. If you can't see that I think maybe glasses.

But why is the US Federal Gov the plaintiff? They fought against slavery with everything they had, 100 years later they peacefully fought the South against segregation. I think something is owed but the feds are the good guys on this one.

Cool, where do I pick up my check?

Well I guess you're allowed to talk about this

have you heard of the paradise papers...... a portfolio of business that will do very well when people are forced into debt! investers(rich f@#kers) include people like the queen, prince charles(soon to be king, which is why the family have been trimming all the fat so he can start a fresh!), tony blair, gordon brown, you see where this is going.
Heres a thought.....the last person to try to take down the federal reserve...JFK and we all know what happened there
#richpoorgapexpansion

These all seem like good explanations but I have a question:

Has this situation happened before and what was the aftermath?

Has there been a global pandemic before? Yes. What was the aftermath? Depending on what point in history you wish to reference, would always yield a different answer. What strikes me is not the situation, but the environment in which it happens. A situation may have happened before but the environment may permit a much different outcome. Is this a health crisis or an economic one? Historically, how do we approach them individually? And more importantly, what are the risks in mistaking one for the other?

Because all of this is made up and capitalism constantly needs justifications for its own existence, which is why stock market information appears to matter on mainstream news outlets.

Nice summary of this here

Boom! There it is

A lot of those unemployed people are day trading stocks and this contributes directly to the effect you see.

The Unemployment rate has absolutely 0 correlation with the global stock market . Some stocks prices are extremely low, and some are rallying beyond historical data (as it does). Overall, yes the S&p 500 and FTSE 100 are doing very well under the circumstances, and this is due to big banks providing liquidity to brokerage houses for retail and institutional traders to open positions, and by the looks of it traders are doing well (hence a good outlook for the stock market). Back to your point, the unemployment rate strictly affects currency growth in the country it relates to e.g if UK's unemployment rate dropped by 2% yoy then we would see a decline in the GBP/USD etc etc...hope that makes sense to you.

The stock market is not the economy. The equity market is being supported from all angles, be it historically low Interest rates, meagre bond yields, central bank intervention like wells said, Even just a disconnect from fundamentals. Also worth bearing in mind that 5 big tech names make up nearly 20% of the SP500, which have performed incredibly during the pandemic.

Well put jarjar and where there is a disconnect there is an arbitrage. I think we are looking at the biggest short in history. The markets can't stay disconnected from reality forever.

I share this belief, but they can stay disconnected for longer than we think. The perfect trade if improperly timed can lead to ruin, even if all the other stars align. But truthfully, irrational exuberance and over speculation lead to one thing, and this pack is nearly out of aces ?

What is the best way to short this market?

Short specific stocks, fx, commodities based on fundamental and technical analysis.

Trump and dump.

It's the same as any market, if there is enough buying prices go up. In this case most of the buying is from government central banks. They can print money and buy stocks to keep stock prices up. This buys some time for an economy on hold.

This is a reminder of what a primitive concept mercantilism is.

yes but govs cant let go of it since its basically a customs racket in its essence

I was shocked how the world originally laughed at European products, they really were bumpkins.

Also surprising how big slavery was in Europe even without Africa

The Mings did it a lot more peacefully right before that

cory doctrow has an interesting perspective on this, saying that all the displacement from global warming and increased healthcare needs will keep humans busy for a very long time.

I doubt a computer could do my job ;)
I work in safety/security

Can this do a dynamic risk assessment on the spot when someone's life is at risk? ;)

If there is work for humans it has to be something A.I. can't do. We are all teaching it to do everything, even (especially) right here.

I think its like retirement age is on the horizon and humans need to decide what they are going to do with all the free time.

I'm looking forward to the futher development of AI, especially General AI. I just think it would be so cool to have an amazon alexa sytle AI that you could take round with you and chat to and have a proper engaging conversation with because sometimes I really can't stand to talk to anymore humans aha

AI is well past any notion or idea we can fathom. AI dosent follow ANY rule we stand by.
We as humans will never quite grasp the entire picture, while AI has already found the end of the road. there are things in basic sciences kept from most people, like gravity drives, the TIME axis (think twister/tornado), scalar waves, over unity devices, etc... AI wont follow the bounds because its supressed by money or greed...
we as humans can TRY to think what will happen, but in all reality, were already in the losing seat without any hope for a "comeback kid story"
Stop thinking in a 3rd dimension mindset, and learn quantum physics a little. (want to be totaly mindblown?? look up QUANTUM radar- and how its actualy In use RIGHT NOW!)
--note-- the united states has 3 confirmed quantum computers in use! (i accidently came across one when i traveled for work, but most people wouldnt know to look at the cryogentics involved)
Machine-in-a box- experiment has already proven even the smartest among us, would lose.
me,myself ,personaly, am clueless what outcomes will unfold, but without any doubt , humans are not top priority when AI is really awake. current neuro-nets are mind boggling and google themselves admits they cant explain how its AI created child AI even works. (yes, AI created its own second AI) want to me mind blown again,years ago it was used, look up the AI that was tested in new yorks hospital system. the smartest doctors from the world STILL dont understand what that AI did , and how it was so correct/right 97%.)
i wont lie and say its all terminator 2JD, but that is one possible outcome. we as fellow fleshy companions should enjoy life now and every moment. we wont have many opertunities when AI is out of the box.
Note: its not IF , but WHEN, and WHEN happens?? ---will humans stand a chance or will an outaide force be required? (aliens, god, let your mind wander)

in my opinion, there are some "things" machines/AI will never be able to do. inspiration for instance.

fear of AI dominance, as i think, comes mainly from our knowledge-without-understanding of the fact that we are not doing some things that we are supposed to do.

The inspiration process is largely about open mindedness, computers are inherently better at this. If you look at some of the early entrees into the arts like painting and even screen writing they are off to a helluva start.

Music isn't so hard

Isn't inspiration a fairly consistent pattern? New inputted data connects to stored data in a way that re-organizes it.

AI are and will be good for work and a suitable replacement for humans, but even when that happens AI will always need us in case something goes wrong. I mean humans created AI, so in the end we’re always gonna have the more important jobs. AI is just there to do jobs in a more efficient way.

AI will come about one day with baby steps at first to "aid humanity" then all of a sudden the rich wont need people to make the food, cars and entertainment.
we will have an outbreak or a massive global reaching catastrophe while they are all hiding in the bunkers lowering the population to around 10% of what it is now and for a while whats left of humanity and the AI that serves them will live in a new golden ages of peace and prosperity ..........




i might of grew up reading a lof of scifi and fantasy


might just be high

im not so sure, anything a human does to recover the system seems doable with a very separate AI

Yes but conflict between AI's might be the most dangerous thing we are looking at here. We are incidental casualties from that perspective. By we I mean humans :)

Yes all the Scifi is about humans vs AI but AI on AI is such a real possibility especially when you consider the fact that governments are mega funding military robots to fight each other.

A.I. will be the boss and the lowliest worker, humans fit inbetween.

I totally disagree. AI is the continuation of the same pyramid model of which history has proven that it's bound to fail. The resources needed are of a scale that requires heavy (and never ending) financial investments. The food eaten by AI is data. The provider: humanity.

The larger the scale of data one can feed, the better the AI (and it's owners) can fingerprint, the more refined it's targeting.

Let's take an example of "AI" that we all know:

Software Antivirus:

Supposed to be the guardian that protects an operating system against 'threats' and 'threat actors using a variety of techniques to identify them. Pattern based detection, behavioural analysis and heuristics (an expensive word for: 'guesstimating' or an 'educated' guess). Your antivirus is part of a swarm that provides the antivirus vendor with data on new threats and their geographic impact.

However:

The data you provide is 'free', there is no reward or any form of renumeration for the infrastructure that you provided. A computer is not free, internet is not free, the power needed is also not free and although there are free AV solutions, most demand a subscription fee.

In return you get a product and service which does not provide any guarantees that it will adequately protect you against 'threats'.

In reality AV is becoming a relic.

Human intelligence has outsmarted AV and found ways to circumvent it using the 'Trojan horse' approach or by simple social engineering.

As there was no incentive to find or report security vulnerabilities, the data needed to feed pattern/behavioural dried up.

Heuristics is gambling with historical data, if that data is worthless so are heuristics.

And so is any form of AI hence all media and marketing efforts to portray it as the next best evolution. The driver: more profit less people.

The touted theories about a minimal wage without having to work for it are a continuation of AI Utopia. It would make people dependent on their nations through a socialist measure.

That spells national socialism and fascism.

Think twice before you give out data for free in exchange for a freemium service.

data,the new oil. put it in an old ford and it leak evertwhere.

If you just think as an individual what would it be like if you had a bot to do all of your work that sounds great. You'd fuck around a lot but eventually wind up doing something that meant something to you. Now imagine everyone doing that.

Acquiring knowledge is different to acquiring skills.

You're not going to learn how to deal with patients, or good bedside manner, if you're a nurse, from a YouTube video.

Nor dealing with livestock if you're a farmer. These things come with time on the job.

I do agree though that your average degree, certainly in humanities, can be done from your sofa.

The Internet is a wonderful thing. I think sometimes we forget how lucky we are to have this amount of knowledge at our fingertips.

Just my 2p.

Cheers BB

yeah you need zoom for that

I get what your saying but the person carrying out the skilled job more often than not needs proper training and certification if not just for the client but more importantly for insurance purposes!

Insurance would work a lot better if there were public records of outcomes on a blockchain rather than a certification authority that inevitably becomes a racket.

I've seen shops in the states with 5 different business permits.

Anyone can acquire the skills that they want, it just depends upon how dedicated they are. I mean there's a shit ton of skills that i want to master and learn, but usually i'm busy with other things. The internet is a wonderful thing. But also, it takes a lot of time to learn certain skills and most people like my self are quite lazy and can't be asked to learn new things, unless they really want to.

This is true from the perspective of individuals, but what about societies. Societies like governments take most f our resources under the auspices of producing better outcomes.

If society says yeah anyone can do anything if they play the game right that's a fail. It should be a matter of course that an honest and motivated person is going to do well but that's not what we have. The only sure thing in our society is access to power.

True but I'm not sure about "anymore". It's always been possible for motivated people to acquire skills, it's easier now but I don't think that is going to change the dynamic. People are afraid and or lazy when it comes to pursuing things that aren't right up in their face.

So then it becomes a kind of responsibility to put it up in their face.

It's yo mommas responsibility.

Reduced to
DOES SOCIETY GET POWERS OVER INDIVIDUALS?
If so responsibilities come with these powers.

There are 2 ways for a society to get power over a person, agreement or force. If it's truly agreement then there aren't any great philosophical dilemmas over what it does because it's implicit to any action.

If it's force the society will operate in the interest of those that control that force.

I thought we just discovered all money, is in fact, cake.

Banks literally print money and we are expected to accept it has value when in actual fact there is nothing backing fiat currencies anymore. Used to be that dollar was backed by gold reserves then oil but now its backed by the promise... Basically the whole world is in a debt/credit spiral that will unravial at some point...

One word. Credit.

They don't, they make up fiat currency (£, $, € ect ect) just a bar code number to give it a vaule. Money is only something that can be equally treaded fairly ie gold.

good thread :)

not individual banks! but they do make money lol dont make much sense does it

little ben

When a bank makes a loan it is creating fiat currency

yes, individual banks, check out the werner stuff in this thread. basically it's just accounting that makes them book things twice. if it's on a bank's books it is money.

In the fiat monetary system that capitalism operates money is simply printed or keyed into existence, in the form of debt. When banks lend money, like for a mortgage or a loan, they don't lend the money that is located in their physical or virtual vaults/customer's accounts, they simply key a few buttons on their keyboard and say here's £10,000, now you owe us £10,000, oh and by the way you'll have to pay us interest on that £10,000. So now there's £10,000 more money in existence but, importantly, not the interest that you'll have to pay on that £10,000. In this way there is more money owed than actually exists. All outstanding debts can never be repaid because there isn't enough money in existence. It's called debt slavery, designed to keep us indebted to the masters, who get to create it out of thin air. The measures that the government have taken to provide financial assistance to industry, £350bn and counting courtesy of the chancellor, and workers and the self employed, guaranteeing 80% of salaries, is money that is simply being printed into existence, but it is money that is loaned by the central bank, who created it out of nothing, to the government, and is added to the national debt. The masters create money out of nothing, then lend it to the taxpayer at interest to the tune of billions of pounds each year, and that's just the interest :)

Please see James Corbett of www.corbettreport.com
and one of his many excellent documentaries;
"Century of Enslavement: The History of the Federal Reserve"
https://www.corbettreport.com/episode-292-century-of-enslavement-the-history-of-the-federal-reserve/

YouTube link;
https://youtu.be/5IJeemTQ7Vk

and especially his website for more depth into how this works and how it all started, as well as reasoned and referenced information about what's currently happening in the world, and what has previously happened, and where this all might be leading if we allow it.

Please check out Spiro Skouras' YouTube channel also;
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCkKOQNYoZjaa_8V0uPOueeQ/videos

Being high at the time will only heighten the experience :)

Kind regards:)

Great post! Corbett is a champion!

Quantitative Easing.

The ECB have been doing it for years, with no federal reserve at all.

All countries do it to a greater or lesser extent.

The reason the (US) dollar is so popular is they have a federal reserve (gold).

The reason the Euro is failing is it's based upon the German banks and their megalomaniacal desire to control Europe.

There is no EU federal reserve. Only German banks.

When the EU (and Euro) collapses, Germany will be fine, the other 26 member states will fail.

Invest as you will.

Cheers. BB

Money is just an I Owe U ... it says so on your GBP £ notes ! something like ... ''I promise to pay the bearer the sum of twenty pounds'' .... hmmm? but you are handing over a physical £20 note made out of paper or plastic. BUT it still is an I OWE YOU, because the actual note is a ''promise TO pay'' .. the note is not backed up by gold anymore...back in the day... money was real... now it is just digital numbers on screens, according to my limited knowledge about it. I will keep up with this thread tho, as I would like to hear what others on LB think :)

Banks also "Trade Client" funds in a range of assets from , bonds, to stocks hence why you will receive interest each month or annually on your account; that is miniscule compared to what they generate from trading your funds (which is also why your funds are insured). but there are many aspects to this and variables as i've read below each of which is pretty much true.

Spot on smokey!

"since banks work as the accountants of record – while the rest of the economy assumes they are honest accountants – it is possible for the banks to increase the money in the accounts of some of us (those who receive a loan), by simply altering the figures. Nobody else will notice, because agents cannot distinguish between money that had actually been saved and deposited and money that has been created ‘out of nothing’ by the bank” - Richard Werner

Yes if they say its "in the bank" that's all it takes to do what they want with it - regardless of whether it exists.

When banks create a new loan they must also create an equal and opposite liability, in the form of a new demand deposit. Meaning when banks loan they create money out of thin air. They simply make it exist.

There is a really good series on YouTube that goes in to great depth about how it all works.

https://www.youtube.com/user/whygoldandsilver

nice man, thanks for sharing will 100% be putting this on later

I binged watched the series in one night. No regrets haha. Really gets the brain matter flowing. That link is to his main channel, it seems he has a lot of new content. Even some videos on crypto.

This is the link to his main series I was talking about, that goes in to great depth on banking, the federal reserve, fiat currency and economics as a whole. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyV0OfU3-FU&list=PLE88E9ICdipidHkTehs1VbFzgwrq1jkUJ

thanks muchly, think you might like richard werner

I do indeed. Interesting solutions. Mike's series (if I remember correctly, it's been a few years) doesn't really go in to any solutions to the many economical issues we have, if at all. So this was a nice listen. Ty!

Fraud protection is wha keeps the system going. Would you rather get fucked about a little by a doctor or totally fucked by a con man posing as one?

Neither, I don't need a monopolist to protect me from fraud, reputation systems do this without cost. It's kind of amazing a little biggy user can not see this.