"Let them eat cake". (B/M)illionare CEOs reactions to inflation

[ceecee]

I am assuming you don't mean that in violent terms.

How much of your ire would go away if housing became affordable again? How much of it comes from other things?

I can think of two places where basic human rights get supplanted by status seeking: Housing and higher education. I feel like if housing became ever more affordable then people may no longer need (or rather feel they need) higher education, bringing prices down there too.

I think for DC (and myself) it really depends on the day. The entire quote makes more sense - "When the people shall have nothing more to eat, they will eat the rich". - Rousseau
Personally, No War But The Class War is the way I like to frame it best. Or "I'm no pacifist. I'll fight in a war, but I'll fight in the only war that counts, and that's the class war"

 

[ygolo]

Here's a clip of Jon Stewart interviewing Larry Summers (if you can stomach it).

I should say that every time people talk about inflation in the context of inequality and mention gas and eggs, but don't mention rents and mortgages, I break a little bit inside. That's why the permanent housing deflation thread exists.

I realize that rents and mortgages are more "locked in". But that locked-in nature of things in an inflationary environment just creates more inequality on the basis of nothing more than the timing of life events.

People need shelter to live. So many of the things needed just to live are inflating beyond belief. But housing changes are generally rare life events (except for speculators). I think the sheer dumb luck of timing of life events leading to massive disparities in wealth leads to a lot of resentment.

If the environment for necessites to live were permanently deflationary, I think the resentment would disapate. It'd also get rid of speculators and status seekers.

What do you guys think?

 

[ygolo]

I do want to point out a good track record for something so that it is not all doom and gloom.

Now we just need to move on to other aspects of Maslow's hierarchy for similar trends. Shelter is the main one under stress for physiological needs.

 

[ygolo]

For the EA folks(and other supposedly "rational" people) more interested in AGI because of its existential risk, I present an argument for caring about housing affordability.
Like with human cloning, we can put something in place to create governance as AI becomes more general.

But there is an existential risk that even the likes of Elon Musk considers potentially worse than anything he mentioned before and that is population collapse. The root of this is involuntary childlessness. There are many parents who wanted children, but because of economic circumstances decide to delay children, which then leads to involuntarily not moving through that phase of life.

Some people don't want children. That's fine. Some people physically can't have children, but want to, and people are working on solutions for these people. But close to 80% of childless people are that way mainly because economics keep them from moving to the next phase of life.

The affordability crisis in housing (and other inflating things) that sparked over the last three years (unless completely reversed soon) could be the nail in the coffin of humanity. It'd just show up 40 years from now.

edit: Counterpoint to the documentary and my own post:

Elon Musk Is Totally Wrong About Population Collapse

Tesla’s outspoken CEO thinks the biggest threat facing the planet is people not having enough babies. Demographers disagree.

www.wired.com

But even in the places where replacement population birth isn't happening, they really need to open up immigration. I actually find the celebration of smaller older populations naïve.

edit2: I started another thread on population collapse. https://www.typologycentral.com/thr...cline-happening-and-is-it-a-bad-thing.116719/

Here is an analysis on how it affects inflation though: https://www.economy.com/getlocal?q=a7c139c0-2b8c-4abf-9b65-bd8b11392939&app=eccafile

 

[ygolo]

Column: US money supply falling at fastest rate since 1930s

U.S. money supply is falling at its fastest rate since the 1930s, a red flag for the economy and financial markets.

www.reuters.com

I kinda feel like some of this is the reversal of 2008. The 1% ers seems like they are taking it on the chin a lot worse this time than aferage people. If it leads to average people getting hurt eventually, I think something can be done. But I feel like we just need all the real estate speculators deal with the issues.

 

[ygolo]

‘We may be looking at the end of capitalism’: One of the world’s oldest and largest investment banks warns ‘Greedflation’ has gone too far

Albert Edwards, an economist at the 159-year-old investment bank Société Générale, says corporate greed may call for the unthinkable: Price controls.

fortune.com

Apparently, greedflation is a term now.

 

[ygolo]

If you can keep your cool, another good watch.

 

[The Cat]

‘We may be looking at the end of capitalism’: One of the world’s oldest and largest investment banks warns ‘Greedflation’ has gone too far

Albert Edwards, an economist at the 159-year-old investment bank Société Générale, says corporate greed may call for the unthinkable: Price controls.

fortune.com

Apparently, greedflation is a term now.

Albert Edwards...master of the understatement that guy... Well gosh golly gee willikers Mr, do you really think that maybe kinda possibly, there could sorta hypothetically be "something wrong" with the dragon sickness system with which we run our lives...

​

 

[Virtual ghost]

Meanwhile in France ....

 

[ygolo]

Meanwhile in France ....

Also, meanwhile in France, the richest man and richest woman in the world are French.

 

[Virtual ghost]

Also, meanwhile in France, the richest man and richest woman in the world are French.

I know.
After all France is currently ruled by neoliberal libertarian right. What is ideology that is quite likely to "produce" some very rich people.



EU Parliament elections projection

However what is going on there with protests is taking it's tool. The ruling party of France is part of Renew Europe group, that is yellow on this graph. However it is obvious that this is the line that is falling the fastest of all of them. Plus that trend started some 2 months ago when the protests started. Also when you click "change to seat view" for the election results in 2019 it is easy to notice that clearly the biggest pack of yellow is in French delegation. So yeah, there will be changes in France down the road.

 

[ygolo]

I'm pretty omnivorous in my data consumption. This guy called Elon Musk buying Twitter long before the mainstream.

He's been demonetized on YouTube pretty hard so he advertises his thing pretty heavily. I wouldn't take that as a signal.

We'd just need to figure out how bad BlackRock influence in politics really is:

 

[ygolo]

Remember that the people espousing the same views as young people are the likes of Bernie Sanders and Robert Reich.

I'm a retired baby boomer who thinks Gen Z and millennial workers are smart to push back on return-to-office mandates

I shake my head at the toxic work environments that we used to put up with. Gen Z and millennials are right to reject the old corporate culture.

www.businessinsider.com

Working people were like the proverbial slowly boiling frog, except the heat got turned up too quickly recently and the frog noticed.

The generation on whom the heat [measured simply by (money for human needs)/(median income)] was turned up the most was on young people.

It's structural coincidence, not ageism.

Here's a Physicist breaking down academia as Multi-Level Marketing scam:

Almost every job at this point has almost the same structural issues.

 

[The Cat]

Remember that the people espousing the same views as young people are the likes of Bernie Sanders and Robert Reich.

I'm a retired baby boomer who thinks Gen Z and millennial workers are smart to push back on return-to-office mandates

I shake my head at the toxic work environments that we used to put up with. Gen Z and millennials are right to reject the old corporate culture.

www.businessinsider.com

Working people were like the proverbial slowly boiling frog, except the heat got turned up too quickly recently and the frog noticed.

The generation on whom the heat [measured simply by (money for human needs)/(median income)] was turned up the most was on young people.

It's structural coincidence, not ageism.

Here's a Physicist breaking down academia as Multi-Level Marketing scam:

Almost every job at this point has almost the same structural issues.

also a lot of frogs got into to tik toc and that really helped them notice the boil.

 

[ceecee]

also a lot of frogs got into to tik toc and that really helped them notice the boil.

Yep. No mystery behind that - Let's ban TikTok Chinese spyware blablah blah!!

 

[ygolo]

Why your boss is giving in to the siren call of the return to the office–and giving up on the flexible work gold mine | Fortune

Cognitive biases are systematic errors in our thinking that lead us to make irrational choices. Here's how our brains are sabotaging flexible work.

fortune.com

There was a 'miraculous' jump in productivity during the pandemic, and now a slump in productivity as people get pulled back to the office (which ironically, people blame on remote work).

 

[ygolo]

Happiest employees job-hopped or work hybrid-remote: study

In the survey of 1,680 US workers, 62.3% said they were satisfied in their jobs last year, with job-hoppers and hybrid-remote workers the happiest.

www.businessinsider.com

Is this a surprise for anyone?

 

[ygolo]

Interesting takes on the history of neo-classical economics:

 

[ygolo]

Part of my omnivorous data consumption:

It's interesting to see a wide variety of people saying the same things I have been.

 

[ygolo]

Lol. It won't be too long before financial advisors throw up their hands and directly advise young people, "Want to get ahead financially? Fight financial inequality!"

Here's how money works right now for young people (assuming like most young people, you can't rely on the bank of mommy and daddy).