Serves you right for joining twitter.
Twitter is hot garbage within a cesspool within a giant dog turd.
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QFTā¦
I thought maybe rational conversation was possible.
Should have realized by now in the day and age of algorithms that only seek to exploit confirmation bias and click bait outrage articles, those kind of discussions are over.
On the internet? Is this your first day?
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This website seems to accomplish it. Have been away from a lot of the internet for awhile. Didnāt realize how absolutely terrible it has gotten.
Not gonna lie ā¦ this website seems to be some sort of anomaly in that respect. Probably because thereās a large, diverse group of us who frequent here who are very aggressive in protecting the ability to have such rational, reasonable conversations even when we disagree. We all seem to enjoy it. Whenever someone arrives who tries to disrupt that we tend to āband togetherā to address the riff raff.
Plus, the group here is somewhat self-selecting in that everyone here is interested in fitness/body building/weight lifting/nutrition in some way
What irritates me is how the same people who will talk about how bad the banks are, are the same people to finance their life.
I am in the market for home furniture. Virtually all of the stores have a ā0% financing for 6moā or similar. But where is the money coming from for the furniture in the mantime while the customer pays it off? A bank. So they inflate the sticker price, then tell you itās ā0%ā. In my experience, itās about 7% interest that is applied. Furthermore, as someone with cash in hand, I now have no leverage. Itās not a furniture store anymore, it a credit/bank owned furniture store and cash is no longer king.
Itās scary for me to imagine a world where everything is ā0% financingā and itās no cheaper to buy it with cash at once. Basically, getting loans shoved down our throat. Home depot does it with their credit card for example, car companies do it when they sell cars, itās now available for phonesā¦I suppose I take my cash and invest it in the meantime, but there isnāt a guaranteed path to earn 7% or more in 6mo.
We feed the banks without knowing it.
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My opinion, a lot of our economic problems stem from the availability of credit; however, a lot of our economic growth stems from the availability of creditā¦ Itās the ultimate catch-22 of modern capitalism.
This has more to do with lack of self control, an inability to defer gratification, and ignorance on money, time and effort.
Which is a problem - itās a house of cards with nothing of worth to back it up except the promise (hope) that future generations will generate sufficient wealth to repay those debtsā¦
I think thatās a big part of it for sure, but itās also like setting up a keg at a AA meeting.
I was thinking more in term of: People can only buy as many goods as they buy because they have credit cards ā higher employment with companies that make what would otherwise be a non-essential good ā more consumers ā higher GDP/more economic activity ā more consumption ā more employment ā etcā¦
Without our high level of consumption built largely on credit, employment would be much lower. Of course, you then could argue goods would cost less since demand would be down; therefore, we could stand lower employment.
Shits complicated, lol.
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When you take that line of thinking all the way: Government fiat currency (debt) and social welfare programs (both domestic and international) have literally funded extra human beings that wouldnāt have existed otherwise without that debt.
It makes me cringe about what happens when the people that believe in MMT get power worldwide. If the worldwide debt house of cards ever fallsā¦ those people supported by debt will have no way to live.
This about sums it up hahaha ā¦
Curious @Basement_Gainz if youāve ever delved into Austrian economics, monetary theory, etc? Iām specifically thinking about Misesās Theory of Money and Credit. There has been some pretty good analysis and refutations of MMT over at mises.org
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Back in college I tried to read a few works by every popular economist. But thatās not saying I truly comprehended or retained most of it. Reading Berkshire Hathawayās letters doesnāt make you Buffet.
I seem to remember Mises premise of sound money as a medium of exchange and there isnāt inflation if the value of the money is tied to something (gold). Canāt remember his stance on credit. Will have to add it to my listening list.
I donāt know if Iād go that far. People are having the same or less kids now, right? Iirc, both birth rates and immigration have remained relatively steady. Something like 1-2% increase for both groups per year for the last 20 years or so. So, I donāt think the availability of credit has essentially funded extra people. What it seems to have done, in conjunction with other factors and happenings, is shifted earnings from one person in a household to at least two and, more than likely, contributed to the stagnation of wages via increase labor supply.
Meh, in that type of scenario a lot of people are going to die regardlessā¦
I would instantly fall asleep, lol. Something about listening to economics just puts me out.
Car dealerships are even worse. High volume dealerships get discount rates from the banks financing the loans. For example, if you get a car loan at 4% interest from the dealer (including loans from the car manufacturerās finance branch), its a good bet that the dealer payed 2% or less for that loan and the other 2% is profit to the dealership, not the bank.
Currently, due to circumstances of surviving college and three large moves (more than >300 miles twice and more than 1000 once) I am paying off way more debt than I would like to. I want to avoid it taking on more like the plague, but had to take on some to get my a/c unit fixed this year (that really sucked).
Wife and I are trying hard to not take on anything new. Realizing we donāt need new furniture and in fact i have gotten quite nice things that need minor repairs that people are just willing to throw away. Not minding a scratch or two saves a lot.
Me being afraid of failure
This is so true.
Also, afraid of other peopleās perceptions of me. Why should I care what most people think of me?
Bitch of this is that itās a self-fulfilling prophecyā¦
Go read Meditations by Marcus Aureliusā¦