The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
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User ID: 174
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
10hr ago
It almost certainly does, but the "cadillac tax" was a half measure which would have resulted in the worst of both worlds -- everyone would get the mediocre offerings, but pay a very high price for it.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
12hr ago
I'm pretty sure we're not responsible for trans (Sweden) or "Free Palestine" (Arabs)
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
12hr ago
That's not Stallman explaining, that's Stallman pontificating. There are certainly modern problems with surveillance, but I think few of them have anything to do with data collection by companies on the Internet. Constant tracking of my physical location directly by the government (e.g. EZ-Pass, street cameras, license plate cameras, tire RFID readers if they're real, etc) or proxies (cell phone, private CCTV, etc) seems a lot more dangerous.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
13hr ago
· Edited 12hr ago
The best solution to an iterative prisoners dilemma was to alternate Tit-for-tat with cooperation, regardless of what the opponents strategy is.
No. If the opponent's strategy is "Always Cooperate" or "Always Defect", the best strategy is the same for total payoff, and "Always Defect" for their own payoff.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
13hr ago
No.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
18hr ago
Assume your debt is like credit card debt and transferable. You would still have zero loss and be richer in terms of what you can buy.
The assumption is false, though.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
20hr ago
They'd be mad at the team for making the "racist gestures".
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
21hr ago
The point is that the real money I obtain by doing that goes up with the real value of the house. If the house value stays the same, then by pulling 1/4 of the value of the house out I obtain $100,000. If the house value doubles, I obtain $200,000. This is a clear win, and demonstrates I'm made wealthier by real housing values going up.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
21hr ago
How are you getting poorer if you make the same income but we invented some housing tech where housing has a lower asset value? Now you have an existing mortgage. Your job is very secure. You love your job. You love your community an never plan to leave.
That you have to put those conditions on it demonstrates I am getting poorer in fact.
Suppose I just bought a $1M house and have an $800,000 mortgage on it (I'm in a recourse state). Housing value drops to $400,000 thanks to your new magic. Now I want to move to another similar house in another area for some reason. OK, that house is $400,000... but I need to somehow come up with $100,000 just to get out of my current mortgage, as well as the down payment for the new house. Whereas if nothing had changed I'd have just had to sell the old house and buy the new (aside from transaction fees).
Cash flow is not wealth.
And yes, the same is true with TVs. If you buy a TV for $10,000 and the price drops to $2,000 the next day, your wealth has dropped -- not by $8,000, because no one's buying even a one-day-used TV for new TV prices, but by something. We just don't notice because we don't track the asset value of things like TVs, because we don't expect to resell them.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
21hr ago
The engineer isn't paying that much directly but his employer is paying most of it on his behalf; it's part of his compensation. For tax reasons everyone (except the government) is better off this way.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
21hr ago
Correct option to me is to tell old people to get bent for once in their life, tax them more on their property value while lowering income tax and sales tax and stop giving them thousands and thousands of dollars for free each month on top of being the wealthiest generation.
Well, shit, grandpa. We know you've been paying high sales, income, and property taxes your whole life. We know you worked your ass off to get that house. But the fact is, we want a house a lot and because you and your cohort aren't dead yet, and also we've been agitating against "sprawl" our entire lives, supply is low and prices are high, so we'll reduce the taxes on things which affect us (like income) and increase the taxes on property lived in by old people, and we'll just take that house you've been "squatting" in. After all, just because you bought a place doesn't mean you should get to use it, when "needier" people like us want it. Aren't we the best grandkids?
Well, you can try, but the "best" outcome such serpent-toothed grandchildren are going to get is raising property taxes WITHOUT a concomitant reduction in other taxes. And guess who will be better situated to weather that than the grandchildren? Why, that "wealthiest generation". Worst comes to worst they'll reverse-mortgage the house to pay the taxes and when they do die their children and grandchildren will get their just desert -- nothing.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
21hr ago
What are the normies going to believe, that a basketball team was doing a horribly offensive thing in a yearbook picture or that the news is lying to them?
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1d ago
If your house goes up in value, and you are living in it, your imputed rent goes up, and you are using the more valuable house to pay for the more expensive imputed rent, which leaves you with no gain.
What you say is correct if
1) There's no mortgage and either
2a) The increase is entirely inflation or
2b) You can only use housing wealth for housing.
Since 2b isn't true, you can make use of wealth from your primary residence. Suppose housing doubled in value compared to general inflation since I bought my house for $400,000. I move from my house to a house costing 3/4 as much (formerly $300,000, now $600,000). The 1/4 I get out is twice that ($200,000 rather than $100,000) if housing remained the same.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1d ago
It's a toy example, obviously. Nevertheless, median wages and median disposable (after tax) personal income have typically grown faster than inflation. Lately they've dropped to about par, but that's because we're in this almost-recession.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1d ago
But it's ridiculously impractical and requires continual expensive maintenance by chuds (like Musk)
It's a good thing those cell towers erect themselves!
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1d ago
The problem isn't with my logic, it's with your lack of math. If you make $10k per month and have a $3k mortgage, and inflation results in everything going up evenly by 10x, you will be making $100k per month... and still have a $3k mortgage, for a gain of $2700 for other consumption (in old dollars). Inflation straightforwardly helps those with dollar-denominated debt. But that's cash flow, not wealth.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1d ago
Larry Fink
I think you mean Steve Schwarzman. Blackstone, not BlackRock (which is no longer a subsidiary).
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1d ago
Trailer parks are different because the trailer owner is renting the land (unless there's co-op/condo trailer parks, I haven't really looked into it). Also, they're not cheap and generally available in many places where housing prices are expensive.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1d ago
· Edited 1d ago
That was a terrible video; he starts by talking about the moral superiority of midwesterners. And then he goes to silliness, like suggesting that buying half a tanker truck of gas over 15 years is unreasonable. Honestly, I expected it to be a whole tanker truck, so I guess I wasn't off by that much. But that's wrapped within the sillier thing -- he's banging on about how the fuel can only be used once.... but that's true of any energy. He complains that pointing this out is a "gotcha", but it's just a response to his own "gotcha" about fuel being single use. He's on somewhat more solid ground when instead talking about economics, but then the details matter and he just glosses right over the "what about nighttime" issue. He also then goes and compares the price by the palletload of solar panels to the retail price of gasoline (rather than considering the delivered price of electricity, including batteries -- unless he's ONLY going to use his car at night, so he can charge during the day).
"There's a 27 Megawatt solar farm build in DePue, Illinois. Why is that?" Answer: subsidies, in the form of selling indulgences Renewable Energy Certificates.
And then in the rant section, after he's constructed this whole case that solar either already does or soon will make economic sense, he complains about Republicans taking away subsidies. Bitch, please... do you not believe your own case?
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1d ago
Right, but that equity is only useful if you're going to sell it, or you need to borrow money and can afford to make the payments.
It's not very liquid but it is wealth and it is useful. If the 10X increase is straight inflation, you've gained $67,000 in the same currency as you bought the house in.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1d ago
That is not how wealth works.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1d ago
Doesn't work in the US. I don't know if Trump ever built houses, but if he did I'm sure they would be McMansions, not pods.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1d ago
Luckily from my perspective, it seems that space travel hasn't been THAT politicized by the culture war, yet.
You're talking about a mission specifically designed to put a woman on the moon. Although it seems they only have one woman on the 4-person crew, as well as a black man.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1d ago
If your home is "worth" 10x your purchase price, you can only use that by selling it or using it as collateral for debt.
Leverage. Suppose you bought your house for $100,000 and still owe $70,000 on your mortgage. If it's still worth $100,000, you have $30,000 in equity. If it's worth $1,000,000 you don't have $300,000 but rather $970,000 in equity. Even if all the other houses have gone up as much, you've won.
I imagine Tolkein would decide he was entirely correct and immediately set about finding a way to sail West.
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