Another Key To Understanding It All: Family Structure

“Without the ability to defend one’s own viewpoint against other more aggressive ideologies then reasonableness and moderation could quite simply disappear. That is why we’ll always need an army.” – Monty Python, The Meaning of Life

Geology is great, but geography is where it’s at.

The ideology of a group can come from many things, including the propaganda that we are all exposed to from a very young age. Another part of it comes from the family structure that we’re surrounded by. A French dude named Emmanual Todd spent a lot of time thinking about this in the 1970s, and decided that the ideology of a country, in part, could be determined by the family structure that the country. I was introduced to Mr. Todd’s ideas by the WhatIfAltHist YouTube® show. I recommend that show.

First, I was intrigued. A French guy named Todd.

Weird.

And who loses when I post an image of Heather Graham? No one.

Second, it felt right. One of the things that people often don’t rate highly enough in the world is genetics. Genetics are very powerful, and influence far more than just hair, skin and eye color or other merely physical attributes. No, from what I’ve seen, genetics very much impacts the basic way related people think. It’s as if family structure, that which literally gives birth to genetic structure, could be a selection mechanism to create and reinforce ideology as well. That would entirely be in line with my observations of both people that I know, as well as the flow of history.

Third, I was interested. What Todd had to say was based on the cultures that he saw in the world in the 1970s, which, due to unceasing hordes of unchecked illegals has now changed. What tensions might conflicting ideologies based on family structures bring to countries being invaded?

But they’re as close to me as steppe-brothers.

Let’s start with the family structure that was the one that came from England and was predominant in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Normandy:

Absolute Nuclear.

  • It’s what I grew up thinking a normal family was – the term nuclear family was coined in 1924, and has nothing to do with atom bombs.
  • The mother and father met and chose each other for love.
  • They lived in their own house.
  • Their children were expected to become independent, be responsible for themselves, and their lives, after they grew up, was in their own hands.
  • Parents could disinherit kids, and split up the inheritance however.
  • God judges individuals.
  • Societies are mostly stable, but when internal revolts happen, they are horrific.

This is the most successful culture in history, and has been amazing for freedom. Christianity and individual salvation plus independence and individual outcomes lead to structures where people have incentives to produce, and incentives to be moral.

Why can’t you trust an atom? Because they make up everything.

Many other cultures cannot understand this culture – it appears cold and impersonal, and it values freedom over equality. For this system to work, though, high social trust is required.

Absolute Nuclear is a big chunk of my genetics. But the majority of it is:

Authoritarian.

This is just Todd’s name. If I were to name it, I’d call it the Ancient Honor culture, or something like that. It is a very big part of the culture of the United States, especially from the Southern States. Why?

  • This culture is that the Germans, Scandinavians, Czechs, Irish, Scots, Welsh had historically, and it also describes the Koreans, Japanese, and northern Spaniards (where Franco was from).
  • Only the oldest son inherits, so the clan follows the eldest.
  • What do the other sons do? Warriors or warrior monks so they have something to do.
  • The story of the society is one of a lineage that goes back through time. If you worry just a bit too much about your family story (like I might) and care about its honor (like I do) this may describe you.
  • The story of the society is one of the lineage of the family, the sense of history, stubbornness, and that everything thrown in front of you makes you stronger. Only the Irish can destroy the Irish, only the Scots can destroy the Scots. Losing makes them tougher.
  • Women have significant value, unlike in many other cultures.
  • These cultures typically have a large middle class, because if you don’t inherit, you’d best figure something out.
  • There is very little oppression in these societies, because individualism is cultivated – people like each other and will fight for their group.
  • These people are awful at creating empires – it took the British to unite the Irish since these groups are like a bag of cats. That’s why Japan and Germany and Scotland and Ireland were so hard to unify.

This is a very successful culture, historically, and is the other “big” Western culture. If I come across someone who wants to fight because I accidently took his parking space? Tell me you’re Scots-Irish without telling me you’re Scots-Irish. The tensions between the Authoritarians (South) and Absolute Nuclear (North) led to the Civil War.

I met the Godfather of the Scottish mafia. He made me an offer I couldn’t understand.

This is the rest, and possibly the majority of my genetics, and by far the majority of The Mrs.

Don’t make her mad on a point of honor.

The third culture that’s now impacting the United States is the one from (most of) France, (most of) the Italians, South America, Mexico, and Central America.

Egalitarian Nuclear:

  • In this structure, all sons inherit equally. There are several properties I’m aware of where the Spanish father split up the property (five miles by five miles) so his sons could all have access to the river that ran down the middle, so they could water their cattle. Fast forward to today, and there are several properties that are 200 feet wide by five miles long so they can still get access to the river.
  • Marriages aren’t arranged and females have huge influence.
  • Because everything gets split up into weird chunks, rich people end up buying the odd land and the sons end up with nothing to give for inheritance. This leads to massive wealthy inequality.
  • Because the families are equalitarian, they want equity in society, which leads to a series of revolutions because their property always ends up in the hands of the rich.
  • Why have most South American countries had a zillion revolutions, constitutions, communist uprisings, while the United States has had the same Constitution?
  • Since the daughters get nothing, it leads to an “alpha-male” dictator, but they’re comically bad dictators (think Chavez or Mussolini) that don’t get much done because, equality leads to zero discipline.

When this family structure is a significant minority, it ends up running the country. France. Italy. Most South American countries. Mexico. Why are they this mixed bag of equalitarian nonsense? Because of this social structure. Since often a minority population ends up deciding how the country is run, exactly how many Egalatarian Nuclear people can we let in from South America and still have a country that values freedom over equality?

My humor is a lot like food in Venezuela. Most people don’t get it.

We’ve created new family structures that Monsieur Todd never thought about back in the 1970s, since they were just in the process of becoming. What ideology will they create?

I have enough material for another post on this, so I’ll probably skip economics and do one more on Wednesday on family structure and ideology.

Economic Systems, Not Religions

“The Pagans celebrated the solstice by cutting down holly and ivy and dragging it into their homes along with a giant yule log that they’d set fire to.  It sounds rubbish, but with no app store to speak of, killing trees and plants was as good as entertainment got. Even at Christmas.” – Cunk on Earth

Or, as every person forced to live in communism called him at Christmas:  “Hungry Santa”.

One of the things that I have done many times over the years is note that communism (Leftism) is a religion.  It’s why the joke about “Real Communism has never been tried” is funny – the people who say that actually believe it.  Beyond that, they actually believe, deeply, in communism.

It’s their faith.

Just like Christians believe in Christ returning to do stuff and then give us paradise, commies really believe that when Real Communism is finally implemented, the world will be safe for losers like them.

Communism depends on the rank and file believing that they’re not the problem, everyone else is.  If everyone realized what a great talent they are, well, that stupid high school quarterback would be happy to clomp back into the mines and fields and factories humming the tune the loser wrote.  The loser believes that centralized processes are better:  if it works for me, it should work for everyone.

Apparently, the Soviets did one thing right:  they made the best bread in history.  Why, people would wait in line for days just for a single piece.

So what if a few million peasants starved?  That’s a small price to pay for the coming workers’ utopia.  There can be no compromise in our vision of the exact same prosperity for everyone, since our vision is perfection!

Yup, that’s communism in a nutshell.  It has no real empirical evidence that it could ever work, yet it gets trotted out by the losers again and again.  The problem isn’t with the plan, it’s that:

  • The people sabotaged it!
  • Foreign countries sabotaged it!
  • The time wasn’t right!
  • We ran out of people to kill!
  • I swear, the dog ate the economy!

The result is always the same, a priestly class who aims to reeducate (convert) everyone to the religion of materialism.  The end result of this – unless it’s stopped by a Stalin – is the endless Leftist Purity Spiral where there is no Leftism so far Left that it can’t be exaggerated further Left, and anyone to the right of this Left position is a heretic.  As I mentioned, this was happening in the Soviet Union until Stalin just shot all the people on the far Left to stabilize the nonsense.

I was going to tell an awful bowling joke, but I’ll spare you.

One side note:  I was watching the comedy Silicon Valley several years ago, and one of the characters said he followed the “left-hand path” which is a loser way of saying, “Satanist”.  Just noting, Leftist, left-hand path . . . I’ll leave that there for you to draw your own conclusions.

Regardless, a lot if not all, of the problems we face in society today is due to Communism or it’s kid brother, Socialism attempting to put a central control on everything we do and think to conform to their current Narrative.

But I’d like to take a step back, since often libertarians (or Libertarians) make the same error:  they equate magical powers to the market.

I remember my parents telling me, “I’ll give you something to cry about” when I was a kid.  I expected a spanking, but instead they ruined the housing market.

And, yes, I’ll agree.  The free market is so much better than the planned markets put together by commissars in Central People’s Warehouse No. 49, and has historically provided an abundance of “stuff”. Milton Friedman famously said, “In capitalism, goods wait for people; in socialism, people wait for good.”

It’s true.  It’s also true that, just as communism is a poor religion, so is capitalism.  Capitalism isn’t a religion, it isn’t a force, it has no morality, it’s a mechanism for distributing points.

Capitalism doesn’t care what it creates, as long as the points are properly distributed.

Probably the most free-market period in the history of the United States was during the frontier.  Don’t want money, well, you could move out west, fend mostly for yourself, farm, and not worry (too much) about needing money.  If you wanted money, you could get it by mining, trapping, killing buffalo or making railroads.  Nobody stopped you doing almost anything if you were far enough out in front of civilization.  But after towns sprang up?

When I was leaving home today, I had the feeling I’d forgotten something.  Then I remembered.  The Alamo.

Your friends and neighbors had a vote.  Capitalism and free markets were constrained by morality, specifically Christianity.  Was there booze?  Drugs?  Prostitution?  Porn?  Yes, those things were with us and have been with us.

But society was more cohesive at that time, and would shun the immoral, if they didn’t deal with them in extrajudicial ways.  Laws weren’t required to constrain capitalism, the morality of the people constrained capitalism – actual religion took the place of economic religion.

Real capitalism isn’t a religion, and it won’t solve problems.  And, yes real capitalism has been tried and is very successful when practiced by a more-or-less moral people, though the version that we have here in 2024 isn’t real capitalism.  Examples?

  • Regulations
  • Taxation
  • Labor Laws
  • Federal Reserve Interest Rates
  • Federal Reserve Cash Printing
  • Welfare/Transfer Payments
  • Government Spending (Education, infrastructure, defense)
  • Unchecked Immigration

The last one is favored by many Libertarians.  They note that in a market free of all of the other bullet points, well, just let anyone in.  My response is that most people in the world don’t really want to be free people living in freedom:  Most people in the world would just rather have free stuff.

Boeing®, putting the “final” in final approach.

That means creeping centralization and an amoral government bent on taking from one group to give to another, and the same material god that is worshipped by communists everywhere.  But no one can say that the far Left is in a hurry – they keep Stalin.

A Modest Proposal Concerning Haiti

“Don’t worry. It’s good luck. In Haiti.” – Caddyshack

Two cannibals were eating Amy Schumer. One asked the other, “Does anything taste funny to you?” The other cannibal answered: “No.”

Haiti is in trouble. Again. This is not a repeat from (spins wheel) . . . nearly every year in Haiti’s history. If you look back, more Haitian leaders have been killed and eaten (hopefully in that order) than there are grains of sand in a beach.

Okay. That may be an exaggeration, since I made up the statistic. But it’s clear that Haiti is awful. The best part of Haiti is not even close to being as good as the worst part of the United States. I believe it was Michael Yon who described Haitians as “Cannibals Without Borders” which is a phrase I really hate for the sole reason that I didn’t come up with that one on my own.

Dangit.

Look how they’ve kept their plate clean.

Haitians have a history that would make Pol Pot jealous. From the beginning, it was born in blood and slavery, and then managed, somehow, to get worse. I want to make a stand, right here and now, and say that the number of Haitians that should be let into the country is zero.

To be clear, I don’t want most anyone allowed in anymore, but I decided to pick on Haiti because it’s the latest foreign hellhole that will soon be sending in droves of awful people trying to escape the very problems that they created by moving to Nebraska or some place so they can bring the wonders of Voodoo (yes, they still do that) and cannibalism (yes, they still do that) and rape (yes, it’s the national sport) to the Cornhusker state.

As I said, this isn’t entirely a Haitian thing, though they’ve managed the impossible: they make communist Cuba communist Venezuela, and all of the Mad Max® movies look like paradise in comparison to Tuesday in Haiti.

This is what roadside assistance looks like in Haiti.

No, the biggest reason I don’t want Haitians to come to the United States is because I really feel empathy for the Haitians and wouldn’t want to expose them to the horrors of our country. First, it’s a philosophical question: The GloboLeftElite tells me that all cultures are equal. So, if all cultures are equal, I think that depriving Haiti of their best and brightest is selfish. They should stay home and keep their totally equal culture going.

I mean, why shouldn’t they give cannibalism a chance?

Point Two: I’ve been reliably informed that the culture of the United States is filled with systemic racism. Why would we want to bring more People of Color into a situation where they would face that? Why would they want to come here? I realize that Point One says that all cultures are equal, but it’s been pointed out that the culture of the United States is bad, so we cannot in good conscience let anyone else in.

Ever. We’re that bad. We need to keep everyone else from living here.

Why does the expression on Jerry Nadler’s face always say, “Oh, my, that wasn’t a fart.”?

Point Three: I’ve been reliably informed that the United States, while having no culture of its own, steals the culture of various people across the world. Imagine the horror! White teenagers are making tacos, TACOS!, at the local Taco Bell® thus stealing the sacred food that only Hispanics can make and despite the GloboLeftElite© being in favor of diversity.

An aside: I came up with a climate-friendly way to stop the illegal alien problem while fighting Climate Change™ by turning all the illegal aliens into food to stop them from entering the most carbon dioxide creating economy on the planet and killing us all. Sadly, this would be (I am reliably informed by the GloboLeftistElite) cultural appropriation from Haitians. Perhaps we should ship all of the illegal aliens to Haiti to allow them to be consumed, thus feeding Haitians and slowing Global Warming®?

Point Four: The Haitians might feel bad because there are still statues left standing of amazing Americans and Europeans that have achieved things that Haitians didn’t, like killing but not eating lots of Japanese or going to the Moon and not killing or eating anyone up there. We really want to spare their feelings.

How dare the Japanese deny Haitian culture!

Point Five: The vast majority of Black Studies programs in the United States wouldn’t be good for Haitians because they do not, in fact, deal much with black people, but rather with how evil white people (and now those sneaky Asians) have been bad to black people. Since the vast majority of Haitian History (since 1800 or so) has been more-or-less white people free, these college courses would just confuse them.

Point Six: Many Haitians actively say that they hate white people. Good Heavens! The United States is literally filled with white people! I think we should take them (and every other illegal alien that hates white people) and help them by sending them to a country without white people, like Wakanda or the upper part of the Amazon drainage basin.

Point Seven: The United States is one of the most slave-free countries in the world today. In all of the countries of North and South America, Haiti is number two in terms of per capita modern slavery. Why would we want to impose our anti-slavery cultural imperialism on the absolutely equal (according to the GloboLeftElite) slavery practices of Haitians?

In summary, we need to keep Haitians out of the United States because we don’t want to expose them to the toxic United States culture (which also does not exist) which would infect their totally-not-awful-and-not-at-all-a-hellhole-culture-which-is-totally-equivalent-to-the-United-States-except-it’s-better-because-the-Haitians-aren’t-imperialist-colonizers.

Could be worse. Could be raining.

In summary, Haiti is only in trouble because we have tried to help it in the past. We could help by keeping the Haitians in there by sinking their boats and not sending them food except for airdropping them the illegal aliens who are currently suffering oppression and racism by being in the United States.

See? Hard problems have simple Wilder solutions.

Gamer Gate 2.0 Update: Disproportionate Response Edition

“Well, that escalated quickly.” – Anchorman

I’ve been stuck in Ancient Rome all this week.  All of the roads seem to have this one weird design flaw.

All visual content today is as-found, except the bits that I might add a comment to.

This will be a post with exceptions:  normally I like to post “second day” type material, where we’ve had a chance to get through the event and reflect back on what really happened.  On Monday, I posted about the history of Gamer Gate 1.0, and what I thought just might be the start of Gamer Gate 2.0.  Here’s a link if these posts ever get separated (LINK).

I have another post, nearly completely done, that I was going to run today.   Completely different subject.

Then fresh info on Gamer Gate 2.0 hit, and I thought it was important to show just how fast this story is moving, and how critical it is.  The older stuff can wait, and I’ll have an easier week next week polishing it and it will probably even be a better post.  I do promise that, pending significant developments, this won’t be a regular feature.

The hallmark of Gamer Gate 1.0 was that gamers just wanted to play games, and after they saw the journalistic community (allegedly) SIMP out (look it up) for a talentless narcissist, they complained.  The response was coordinated and disproportionate – it’s like you say, “I don’t like this package of McDonald’s® Chicken McNuggets™ and they say . . . “You can never come to any McDonald’s© again for the rest of your life.”

It was weird.  So, Gamer Gate 2.0 started with something simple:  “We’re watching woke Marxists injecting The Narrative into our video games and we don’t like it.”  Simple enough, and in 2024 not particularly controversial.  The response?  “Biden Admin Zeroes In On Gamers In Push To Crush ‘Domestic Violent Extremism’”.

Because Gamers are easer to catch than the unending hordes of illegal aliens that were let into the country.

Gamer Gate 1.0 very, very strange way to treat the people that are your core audience.

Gamer Gate 2.0 is using the full power of the FBI, DHS, and probably NSA to crush people who just want to play video games without a bunch of woke crap.

I know many readers aren’t into gaming, computer or otherwise.  This is not at all about video games.  It is about the attempt to use hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money to create a fully functional propaganda system to fundamentally alter the values of the nation.

This is a big deal.

In this case, the journalists that hate the majority of people in this country are still awful.

And it’s wonderful that they tell you, right out loud, that they are Satanists.

Doesn’t that make it a Satantree?

But they’re only part of the problem.  Dr. Rachel Kowert, who, on her website indicates that she is:

. . . currently working on a two-year project funded by the Department of Homeland Security (in collaboration with with the Middlebury Institute of International Studies and Logically AI) examining the landscape of extremist radicalization and recruitment within digital gaming spaces. This project aims to establish a baseline of understanding for the unique characteristics of extremist activities within video game communities, build capacity within the gaming industry to prevent and counter violent extremism in these spaces, and create collaborative networks across public and private sectors.

I left the “with with” in there.  Yeah, I know I have typos on here, but it’s a bad look Dr. Kowert (and she also talks about her “cahnnell”, which I assume means “channel”.  I guess if you have a Ph.D., you’re not allowed to use spellcheck.

Regardless, this is the point:  the DHS, rather than finding the millions of illegals crossing the border, is instead putting as much money into Rachel’s fat cheeks so she can bury them with her nuts for winter.

Here’s her Tweet on 3/11:

As Anon notes, her response was because ONE GUY made a LIST of games that Sweet Baby®, Inc. might have collaborated on.  ONE GUY.  ONE LIST.

Dr. Kowert apparently locked down her X account.  Huh.

And this is what puts the Kow in Dr. Kowert.

But one thing the GloboLeftElite doesn’t complain about is when they get the game they want.  Since they’re not horribly creative, they end up making games that . . . well, you be the judge:

Gee . . . sounds fun.

And here are the stakes.  Wonder why the full weight of the DHS comes down on ONE GUY making ONE LIST?

It’s because of this.

Gamer Gate 2.0: Woke On Patrol

“Mortal Kombat on Sega Genesis is the best video game ever.” – Billy Madison

Also like a gamer, he spent 73 years living off his mother before he got a job.

I predict this will be the most censored post I ever write, even including the one where I told Joe where he could stick his F-16s.

As I touched on in my last post, there is a process that makes people feel good – have a goal, work, and achieve.  It was important when my great, great, great grandpa Grug was hunting mammoth on the frozen steppes, and is important today.  Since there are few mammoths to hunt, lots of young men get their surrogate achievement from playing video games.

Games are important to them.

That’s why Gamer Gate was a big deal, and Gamer Gate 2.0 might turn out to be bigger.  Many of you might not be familiar with it, so I’ll give a too brief synopsis that skips over a lot of details, because you’re bright and can research more if you want to.

Zoë Quinn.  It starts with Zoë.

Literally who?

I think she was 27 going on 50 in this picture.

Original Picture By Ian Linkletter – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=81658314

Zoë was a lame GloboLefty girl with stupid hair color who moved to Canada, built a crappy GloboLeft video game called Depression Quest, her lame GloboLefty ex-boyfriend wrote a long blog post.

Really?  A long blog post about your ex?  Regardless, in the post, people walked away with the idea that Zoë had slept with almost half a dozen journalists to get good reviews for her crappy game.  For this story, it’s not particularly important whether or not she did sleep with them or not.

The important thing to come out of this was that a bunch of gamers got together to complain about the corruption within the gaming journalism community.  It could have ended there because gaming journalists aren’t serious, and were gaming journalists in 2010s because they couldn’t get better jobs.

That would have ended it.  But no, the gaming journalists tried to cover it up and silence the whole thing, calling the gamers (you know, the audience that reads their crap and buys the games) sexist with dozens of articles all at once with the same theme.  The Narrative fought back, and, sadly Anita Sarkeesian got semi-famous.

Maybe someone could pay for a tattoo of fake kids over her barren womb.  Someone get that woman a wine and cat I.V.  Stat!

It kept growing, and growing, and growing.  Oddly, that was the time The Fappening (leaking of all of the nekkid celebrity women’s iPhone® pictures) happened and lots of nudes of celebrities were leaked, starting at 4Chan to discredit 4Chan.

But what became clear was in 2014, there was a narrative, The Narrative that had to be protected.  And why gaming, and why gamers?

Remember the 1995 movie GoldenEye?  It was an okay Bond™ movie?  It cost $60 million to make, but made $356 million worldwide.  A tidy profit.  The 1997 video game GoldenEye 007 grossed over $250 million.  Not quite as much as the movie, but it also racked up hours and hours and hours of play by, mainly, guys.

In other words, Gamers.

Yup, you have no idea how deep it goes.  Snowden might . . .

What a propaganda tool!  Hours and hours of time and attention of people.  Having it the market dominated by (gasp!) young white men was simply not acceptable.  Why think of all the wrongthink they demanded?  Attractive women!  Strong men!  Violence solving problems!  Bond had to be changed to the less-manly Daniel Craig, and video games had to be changed to serve The Narrative.

But the Gamers still existed.  It was required to change the message, to show via the combined might of the gaming journalist press that Gamers were dead.  Boys need not apply to the future – the future was about putting a chick in it, and making her lame and gay.

Well, Kathleen Kennedy didn’t ruin games, but she ruined Star Wars®.  Lame and gay.

So, places like the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) funded by the GloboLeft and manned by the fire-breathing GloboLeftistElite came for the games.  Their job was to create “scholarly” papers regarding video games.  I’d write more about the connections of DiGRA, including supposed links to DARPA funding, but, oddly, much of that material is now 404’d.  Now, this stuff is nine years old, but I get videos on YouTube™ from fifteen years ago, so the removal had intent.

Remember when the mask started to come off at Hollywood, Twitter®, Wikipedia™, Amazon™ and YouTube©?  When the transnonsense became sacrament?  Why are there raging GloboLeftElite censors trying to shut down people merely questioning The Narrative?

It was GamerGate, the leaderless resistance to the GloboLeft that started it all.  One summary I read said, “A girl slept (allegedly) with some journalists for good reviews, a lot of stuff happened, and then Donald Trump was elected president.”  As I’ve said, there’s a LOT more there if you want to dig into this subject.  I won’t even mention PizzaGate.  Oh, too late:

But that was then.  Now, in 2024, GamerGate2.0 has started.

What this time?

Sweet Baby© Inc. is a “narrative development and consultation studio . . . .”  The idea is that they go into a company that actually makes games and tell them what story they should tell, and how they should stick a chick in it, and make her lame and gay.  In one of their triumphs, they kill off male characters (think Batman™ in the most cringe way possible just so strong, triumphant women can have the story.

Yeah.  That didn’t go over well with the core audience that buys the games.  Think about Left Behind 2 – where the popular male hero of the first Left Behind was reframed to be an evil white man, and the new hero was a trans sack of potatoes.

That’s what Sweet Baby® Inc. does, but I don’t think they were behind Left Behind 2, which shows you how deep the crapfest is.  Well, why would anyone hire a corrosive crapfest of woke to make their games more awful?  Here’s the idea in the CEO’s (Kim Belair) own words:

If you’re a creative working in AAA, which I did for many, many years, put this stuff up to your higher-ups. And if they don’t see the value in what you’re asking for when you ask for consultants, when you ask for research, go have a coffee with your marketing team and just terrify them with the possibility of what’s going to happen if they don’t give you what you want.

And, just in time for journalists to show their true spots haven’t changed since 2014 . . .

These are the journalists we’re dealing with.  Nice that they at least tell you to your face how they hate you.

The best news though is that someone is pushing back.  On Steam®, a service where you can buy and talk about games, a gamer has put together a simple list:  Sweet Baby Detected, which showcases games Sweet Baby has helped ruin.  That’s okay with Kim, she’s gotten rich making the people who buy her games angry while helping companies lose money.  As /pol/ notes, she’s probably a Marxist, so for her, it’s a two-fer.

I’m skipping out on fuzzing the f-bomb.  I agree with Anon on Marxists.

Sweet Baby isn’t alone.  There are hordes of these cancerous “companies” out there, with their sole intent to make stuff worse.

Is there any surprise that the Zoomer males think Pinochet did nothing wrong?

 

Civil War 2.0 Weather Report: It’s All Planned

“Did everything go as planned?” – Pulp Fiction

I had some chips at midnight on Saturday.  It was a snackrifice.

  1. Those who have an opposing ideology are considered evil.
  2. People actively avoid being near those of opposing ideology.  Might move from communities or states just because of ideology.
  3. Common violence. Organized violence is occurring monthly.
  4. Common violence that is generally deemed by governmental authorities as justified based on ideology.
  5. Opposing sides develop governing/war structures. Just in case.
  6. Open War.

Volume V, Issue 10

All memes except for the clock and graphs are “as found”.

This is a moving situation, and things are changing quickly.  The advice remains.  Avoid crowds.  Get out of cities.  Now.  A year too soon is better than one day too late.

I’m keeping the clock at two minutes to midnight, probably will roll back next month.

In this issue:  Front Matter – All Of This Is Planned – Violence and Censorship Update – Biden’s Misery Index – Updated Civil War 2.0 Index – The Border In Five Memes – Links

Front Matter

Welcome to the latest issue of the Civil War II Weather Report.  These posts are different than the other posts at Wilder Wealthy and Wise and consist of smaller segments covering multiple topics around the single focus of Civil War 2.0, on the first or second Monday of every month.  I’ve created a page (LINK) for links to all of the past issues.  Also, subscribe because you’ll join nearly 810 other people and get every single Wilder post delivered to your inbox, M-W-F at 7:30AM Eastern, free of charge.

All Of This Is Planned

When I look at the road we’re on to Civil War 2.0, it has not gone unnoticed that the enemy creating this isn’t outside the United States.  As much as the GloboLeft likes to call out Russia, others see things perhaps a little more clearly.

Nayib Bukele is the president of El Salvador.  What has he done for them?  He’s broken the back of organized crime, by this one crazy tactic:  arresting criminals and putting them in jail and getting gender ideology “contrary to nature, contrary to God” out of El Salvador’s schools.  He has a 90% approval rating from El Salvadorans, so of course the GloboLeft hates him.

What is the response of the GloboLeft?  Isn’t it obvious?  First is the rotting the minds of youth.  The map above should be clear enough – it’s a symptom of a plan coming together.

Although this is from Canada, it’s very, very clear that the agenda is simple:  they want the kids.  It has long been the GloboLeft’s desire to use propaganda to get children at their most vulnerable and split them from their parents.

Things like this idea are created to humiliate people.  None of that can make a “more green” planet since the energy used in the process more than offsets any “benefits”.  No, this is humiliation and dehumanization.

Canada, again, has show the goal.  They want to stop making any new roads outside of cities.  Live in a rural area?  No roads for you.  And, last I checked, Canada has a lot more rural availability than most nations outside of Russia.

Now they’re even giving TED® talks about how literally any sort of degeneracy is a sacrament.

And the lawfare is continual.  The New York  Soros GloboLeft Attorney General, Letitia James, is on a a tear.  Donald Trump is just the most prominent of her use of the law to destroy people.  Another target besides the new one listed above?  VDARE.  VDARE is a fairly prominent anti-immigration website that Ms. James has hit with amazingly broad subpoenas and is costing them tens of thousands of dollars – even though they aren’t in New York.  You can read more about that here (LINK).

She’s also gone against the NRA, suing them.  The important question:  why would anyone want to do business in New York?

So, Nayib Bukele is right.  It’s all being taken apart from the inside.

Violence and Censorship Update

Several readers have reported to me (via email) that they were unsubscribed or that their subscriptions are filtered out as spam.  FYI.  Might it be random?  Sure.  It might.

I’ll (mostly) let the memes speak for themselves.  Foreign stories are included as they often foreshadow attempts in the United States.

I guess this one involves both censorship and violence?

This one is especially fun:  Canada has a bill that punishes hate crimes, which can be reported anonymously, and that do not require evidence with huge fines and up to life imprisonment.

Crabs reading?  Forbidden knowledge.

People reading?  That’s racist!

Looks like the plan is working.

I thought they loved science?

If only they could be sent home to Make Eritrea Great Again.

Yeah, that’s the history of the top Google® executive in charge of A.I.

Looks like the New York Times censors . . . food.

Biden’s Misery Index

Let’s take a look to see how we’ve done this month . . . .

Yup, up again.  Why?  The GloboLeft are economic geniuses, right?

Updated Civil War II Index

The Civil War II graphs are an attempt to measure four factors that might make Civil War II more likely, in real time.  They are broken up into Violence, Political Instability, Economic Outlook, and Illegal Alien Crossings.  As each of these is difficult to measure, I’ve created for three of the four metrics some leading indicators that combine to become the index.  On illegal aliens, I’m just using government figures.

Violence:

Violence is flat.  Winter is in, and riots aren’t as fun in galoshes.

Political Instability:

Up is more unstable, and it is slightly down.

Economic:

Economic numbers did a slight dive.  I wonder if this is the new American Dream?

Illegal Aliens:

Highest January.  Ever.

Also, other people are noticing:

The Border, In Five Memes

LINKS

As usual, links this month are courtesy of Ricky.  Thanks so much, Ricky!!

Bad Guys

https://twitter.com/i/status/1762833481682264080

https://twitter.com/i/status/1762297111381455043

https://twitter.com/i/status/1762568451581681721

https://twitter.com/i/status/1762225168645059071

https://twitter.com/i/status/1610431809334149120

https://twitter.com/i/status/1763481437372567971

https://twitter.com/i/status/1761129463218139238

https://twitter.com/i/status/17636130393229273

https://twitter.com/i/status/1760862306005590149

Good Guys

https://youtube.com/shorts/tQGuha2gpQw?si=kjoLNVF2y0qd7wdE

https://twitter.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1759109053630800211

https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-worker-fired-shoplifters-retail-theft-fight-problems-2024-2

https://www.wtoc.com/2023/07/24/woman-gets-job-back-lowes-after-being-attacked-while-trying-stop-shoplifting/

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article285835356.html

One Guy

https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/2024/02/28/louisiana-expands-gun-rights-for-self-defense-against-criminals-with-concealed-carry-bill/72765215007/

https://www.wowt.com/2024/02/09/nebraska-legislators-consider-bill-alter-self-defense-laws/

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/beltway-confidential/2894180/arizonas-commonsense-self-defense-bill/

https://www.oxygen.com/kill-or-be-killed/crime-news/how-to-watch-kill-or-be-killed-an-oxygen-true-crime-series

Body Count

https://twitter.com/MakisMD/status/1754830517986566210

https://thehighwire.com/editorial/why-are-young-adults-having-more-heart-attacks-the-level-of-denial-is-stunning/

https://newsone.com/playlist/black-men-boys-who-were-killed-by-police/item/5

https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/2024-02-13_11-38-28.png

https://www.prri.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/PRRI-Jan-2024-Gen-Z-Draft.pdf

https://twitter.com/noble_x_x_/status/1758149565251784710

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-68244963

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-81749d7c-d0a0-48d0-bb11-eaab6f1e6556

Vote Count

https://twitter.com/eyeslasho/status/1757461240421449806

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1759305508584882680

https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/nevada/nevada-identifies-voter-history-errors-on-website-fixes-underway-3003358/

https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/02/11/data-specialist-presses-georgia-look-voters-cast-ballots-wrong-jurisdictions/

https://thefederalist.com/2024/02/08/exclusive-see-the-grave-markers-of-long-dead-residents-listed-on-michigans-voter-rolls/

https://www.justfactsdaily.com/elon-musk-is-right-and-the-ny-times-is-wrong-about-illegal-voting-by-non-citizens

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-laws-roundup-2023-review

https://heartland.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Feb-24-2020-Election-Analysis-vWeb_Final.pdf

Civil War

https://uproxx.com/movies/civil-war-alex-garland-details-february-2024-update/

https://www.chathamhouse.org/2024/02/could-united-states-be-headed-national-divorce

https://www.themirror.com/news/politics/cpac-donald-trump-voters-warn-355149

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/texas-is-spoiling-for-a-civil-war/

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/kristi-noem-war-texas-border-standoff-1234960568/

https://www.wired.com/story/russia-disinformation-campaign-civil-war-texas-border/

https://realclearwire.com/articles/2024/01/27/the_geopolitics_of_world_war_iii_1007840.html

https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/comes-thermidor/

Kardashians And The Cult Of Growth

“A future of economic growth, freedom, and happiness.” – Robocop

I had a hen who wanted to study economics.  She was something of a mathemachicken.

“The economy grew at an annualized rate of 4.9% in the third quarter of 2023.”

And my response:  so what?

There is a Cult of Growth in the world.  In the United States, at least, that growth was literally in the DNA of the young country – there was lots of space and it was only filled with some pesky Indians who didn’t have a lot of resistance to smallpox or lead, some buffalo, no zoning, and lots of empty land to build Blockbuster Video® stores.

So, off my ancestors went.  The idea was simple – fill the country from sea to sea with farms and businesses, eventually mines and mills and railroads and factories and highways.  No one really planned it, and there weren’t economists reporting on unemployment figures to Rutherford B. Hayes.

What does the “B” stand for?  Babebandit.

The growth that the United States experienced was amazing, and it was real.  People built those farms and businesses and mines and railroads and factories and highways.  That sort of growth allowed the creation of amazing wealth and prosperity because it was enduring and built upon itself.  In those decades of growth, the United States experienced not diminishing returns but increasing returns as the steel mills fed the oil boom which fed the creation of the automotive industry and interstates.

Add in a few thousand nuclear weapons, and this growth of actual productivity and wealth production allowed the country to achieve tremendous national prosperity during a time of relative safety.  Some would maintain that this prosperity peaked in 1973, but when you look at the relative availability of exceedingly cheap “stuff” – it was probably later than that.  Perhaps a good case could be made for the 1980s when Blockbuster Videos™ roamed the land like a great majestic beast, spewing properly rewound videotapes and Raisinets® to all.

Regardless of when that exact date is, it is likely past.

Your momma is so old she rewinds Netflix® videos before logging off.

What was once achievable on a single income now requires (in many cases) two incomes.  People of the past always thought that new labor-saving devices would accrue benefits to the worker, and we’d see a two- or three-day work week.  Instead, we see people working more hours for less (relative) pay.

Why is that?  I mean, the economy grew, right?

Yes, it did.  But the way the economy grew, fueled by illegal aliens contributed to lower wages.  The argument could be made that that the economic activity, the growth from these added workers helped everyone.  Well, no.  Illegals are certainly a net negative when everything is accounted for – welfare, roads, schools, medical care, voting GloboLeft, and Kardashian body hair.

I think she’s got so much plastic in her that if she swims it’s technically littering.

And the “growth” that we saw in many cases was the productive bit of the economy being hollowed out and shipped off overseas.  Why?  Because regulation increased in the United States (it never goes down) and it was easier to start and run a factory in Malasia than it is in Maine.  And if iMegaCorp® can ship the factory over and increase corporate profits by 2%, they’ll do it.

Why?  They’re owned by the people who make bad growth.

What’s bad growth?  Well, the financial sector.  It should be set up not as a casino or a place where the businesses make money selling money.

Growth is not always good.  And it’s not always desirable.  Let’s take an example:  if I decided I wanted to gain a pound of weight next week, the healthy way to do it would be to put on a pound of muscle through exercise.  But the easy way to put on a pound would be to pound some beers and milk shakes.

I believe her pronouns are HerShey.

The United States could do the same – we could increase the size of the economy by producing more and better cars or computers or flat panel displays, or bulldozers.  Or, we could increase the size of the economy by ChaseCitiFargo™ charging extra fees on overdrafts and GoldmanBlackRock© buying a company, loading it up with debt that it can’t pay, and then selling it piecemeal for a 15% profit.

One of these makes a more productive society.  The other is the equivalent of two people selling a house back and forth for 10% more each time and talking about all the wealth that they created.

So, not all growth is good, and not all increased profit is increased wealth.  One economy can make stuff, the other just makes magical made-up profits.  I’ve made the argument for some time that China’s economy is fine.  It is.  They know how to make stuff, so they are fundamentally more stable than the United States because the growth in China wasn’t in financial shenanigans, it was in productive stuff.

Did you know it’s illegal to water your plants in China?  It causes the microphones to rust.

Does China have all sorts of debt?  Yes, yes they do.  Have they produced a lot of suspect crap in the past, especially for internal consumption?  Yes, yes they have, and probably still do.  Doesn’t matter.

Their economy isn’t based on “growth” that occurs only on paper, and only due to paper even though people smoke in China to get fresh air.

They don’t worship the Cult of Growth.

Do I want to live there?  Nope.

Again, there’s good news – this system can’t last, so it won’t.

The ride, however may be bumpy . . . as we get to rebuild it – on healthy growth this time.

The Funniest Post You’ll Ever Read About Bank Failures And Yachts

“A major one.” – Fight Club

What did Kim call his yacht? His dictator ship.

Last March, Silicon Valley Bank® failed. In a big way. Because the people who deposited money in the bank own things like yachts and senators, well, they escaped with hardly a haircut. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation® (FDIC™) normally ensures deposits for $250,000 per account holder. In this case, they decided, nah, what the heck, we’ll make sure that Roku® and Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry don’t lose a dime.

Ironically, today the Internal Revenue Service sued the FDIC© for $1.45 billion in back taxes they say that Silicon Valley Bank™ owed when the FDIC© took it over. Sure, it sounds like on part of the government is suing another part of the government for play money made up by the (non-federal) Fed™ but the FDIC™ is supposedly independent and gets its money from the member banks.

Which are members of the Fed™. Which prints the cash.

If this sounds as incestuous as a Hapsburg family stump, well, it is. And of course I’m going to go with a fresh meme about the Hapsburgs, because that’s what all of the cool kids are doing today.

A Hapsburg walks into a bar, the bartender says, “Why the long face?” The prince says, “Generations of inbreeding.”

The root cause of the Silicon Valley Bank™ failure is that they lent money for long periods at low interest rates. When interest rates go up, those loans aren’t worth a lot, at least to the bank. Right now, my mortgage has a lower interest rate than I’m getting in checking.

Silicon Valley Bank™ looked at all the crappy loans they had, and did the math, and found out that they were worth less than zero. Even worse, their bigger depositors heard (because depositors who own senators seem to get advance notice) and started to pull their money out.

Since those folks had friends, they told them. Soon enough, everyone wanted one thing – they wanted their money out of Silicon Valley Bank™. Rational people realized that if this was a problem at Silicon Valley Bank©, it was a problem everywhere.

Silicone and silicon – electrical engineers know the difference – no one trusts them around silicone.

In a thought that gives central bankers and senators cold sweats (after the previous night’s booze wears off) is the idea that people lose faith in the banking system. Oddly, this wouldn’t be a problem if we used money made out of gold and silver, but since ours is just as much a fantasy as thinking that diversity enriches us all.

So, there’s a problem that’s impacting literally every bank. Some big ones have failed, but thankfully Duchess Markle still has her cash so she can get enough publicity to hide from commoners like me. What’s the solution?

First, pay off everyone so no one is scared and Oprah doesn’t have to fly commercial with mere mortals. Second, flood the system with money. If a bank needs cash? Wheelbarrows of it?

Give it to them.

Thankfully Congress took a break from sending your tax dollars to Ukraine to bail out Oprah.

Last year, banks were paying 0.10% or so for crappy checking accounts. This summer, rates started shooting up, so I snuggled into some CDs that paid a lot more than my mortgage cost. Then, last month, I got a call from my bank where I set up the CDs.

“Mr. Wilder? You have money in other banks, right? If you deposit (a few thousand) dollars from accounts outside of your accounts with us into savings, I can give you a 4.5% rate on checking and savings.”

What????

If there’s one thing I know about banking, is that bankers are not generous except to themselves, senators, and Oprah.

I check with him, drove to the nearest branch of Major Bank™ in Mt. Pilot, and tossed a few thousand in. Could I take it out later?

Sure!

I am informed this is funny because horses often live in stables, so this would be a violation of California’s work safety laws.

I started wondering about this, but soon enough came up with the answer: when I make a deposit in the bank, I’m making a loan to the bank. And if they’re offering me nearly 5% for just parking cash at their place, that means . . .

I’m their best alternative for a loan. Me. John Wilder. Enough so they paid a dude to call me and ask.

Yup, it’s just that simple. And they called me to ask me to make a loan, and offered to pay me over four times what I was making on my cash to make that loan. Reading a bit further, it turns out the way that the Fed™ shoved money down the collective throats of the banks was through the Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP).

BTFP loaned money to the banks, and the banks deposited the money at the Fed© to make a profit on the difference.

Yes, the Fed© created the BTFP, loaned the money to the banks who then deposited the money . . . at the Fed™. I’m not making this up. As of March 11, 2024, the Fed© will no longer be making more BTFP loans at those sweetheart rates. All new loans would be made at the same rate the bank gets paid by the Fed©. The gravy train, or at least this gravy train, is over.

That’s what the Fed© said in January, 2024.

When did I get the phone call wanting to borrow a few bucks from Major Bank?

January, 2024.

Since when do I believe in coincidences? And it was weird, it wasn’t a lot of money that I needed to deposit, but I think they were looking to get bigger players than tiny John Wilder.

But at least they’re not insufferable idiots . . . oh, too soon.

And that’s the rub. If banks are looking to borrow cash from me, how bad are their balance sheets?

Dang, I’m worried! Will Prince Harry have enough money to travel the world for 45-minute meetings with his father? Will Oprah be able to afford more caviar?

And, maybe I should take up loan sharking. Maybe I can buy my own yacht, bigger than Prince Harry’s and I’ll sail past him, and look down on him, and try to give Harry that condescending look that appears to be his Resting Prince Face.

And I’ll write a rock song about it.

I’ll call it Smirk on the Water.

What Signs Would We See If The Western World Was Going To Be Okay?

“Your work is puerile and under-dramatized.  You lack any sense of structure, character, or the Aristotelian unities.” – Addams Family Values

But the Terminator® drew the line at upgrading to Windows 10®.  He said, “I still love Vista©, baby.”

As I mentioned last Wednesday, I worry that sometimes I talk too much about the downsides of workings of the economy.  Today is about politics and culture.  This stemmed from a friend who asked, “What does it look like when things start to look better?  What does it look like if it’s all going to be fine?”

These are great questions about politics and culture as well as the economy.  Not as good as, “Hey, want another steak, Mr. Wilder?  Is the hot tub the right temperature, Mr. Wilder?  More PEZ®, Mr. Wilder?” but still very good.

The economy is important, but the cultural and political are more importanter.

What will make things “fine” and how will we know when we get there?

First:  The Great Replacement Must Stop.

It’s rather hilarious that the media, when describing the TradRight’s complaining about being replaced in their own country, say that it’s a conspiracy theory.  But when they describe the obvious demographic replacement, celebrate the “end of a white majority”.  This is taking place in the United States, Canada, and in Europe.  Canada and France seem to be the worst of the lot, and I’m hearing of a pushback of the local people to being raped and killed.  But Trudeau seems to be running on the “import rapists and murderers” platform, so we’ll see how that works out for him.

Trudeau’s wife left him (true story).  She caught him screwing all of Canada.

This requires two things, starting with people in the West having incentives to have children.  Incentives determine outcomes – if we have incentives for married couples to have children, they will.  If we want more people, we should start with our own.  The future belongs to those that show up, and if we create a society where women work to the point of infertility making PowerPoints®, well, that’s not a good consequence.

The other step that must be taken is that the throngs of illegals must be stopped and reversed.  If they’re so awesome economically, they should stay home and Make Guatemala Great Again.  Even GloboLeftists in big cities are getting it – the illegals are economic locusts and are a huge net negative because they’re here not to create, but to consume.

The GloboLeftElite, however, are making the economic case that the influx of will lead to a more prosperous America, while a recent economic study shows that just the millions we let in recently will decrease wages for over a decade.

I wonder if my friend with anxiety joined a cartel, if he’d go see a psychiatrist because of Hispanic attacks?

Over a decade.  Moms vote for TradRight, because they have skin in the game.  Single women vote for the GloboLeft because they want to avoid responsibility – all fun, no consequences.  This explains every aspect of the GloboLeft’s plan from no-fault divorce to abortion to welfare.

Second:  Unity Must Return.

We’re at each other’s throats.  The GloboLeftists® like nagging, like inching their goals forward.  When they get a goal, they have to pick a new, more ludicrous goal.  They’ve had their best successes in sex-related issues:  Drag Queen Story Hour?  I mean, if they wanted to donate their time to help the elderly in nursing homes, probably not an issue.  But, no, they have to take it in front of the kids and into girls’ locker rooms.

Maybe drag queens can give Joe the help he needs.

The TradRight is more like Pa Wilder.  Pa Wilder rarely (almost never) participated in punishing my brother John and I (yes, his name is also John, since they figured it would save on monogrammed clothing).  But when Pa Wilder did get up out of the easy chair to intervene?  It was serious.  The chair would stop rocking, and then we knew that we’d gone too far.  I think the chair has stopped rocking – the GloboLeft has gone too far.

It turns out that not only is Diversity not our strength, it’s tearing us apart.  The GloboLeft have been doing everything they can to pick apart the things that made America great and have succeeded in creating a country where Trump inhaling makes GloboLeftists complain that he has destroyed the atmosphere by breathing out carbon dioxide.

I’d love to sit in an ocean of orange carbonated water.  It’s my Fanta®-sea.

This has destroyed society in many ways.  Were Targets™ targets in the 1980s for rioting mobs?  Nope.  Did Carter see mobs of youths destroying convenience stores for free stuff, then complaining when those same stores close down?  Nope.  The rule of law must return – and that will require unity.

The GloboLeft loves diversity, because unity is inherently the place of the TradRight.

Third:  Return of Industriousness.

This isn’t (necessarily) the fault of “people who don’t want to work” which is the meme.  In reality, there are so many rules that simply didn’t exist decades ago.  Kids setting up a lemonade stand?  In many locations, it’s illegal.  It violates health regulations.  They’re not collecting sales tax.  They don’t have a business permit.  They’re operating a business in a residential area.

What lesson, exactly, is that teaching the kids?  That the only economic activity permitted is that sanctioned by the state, in a location allowed by the state, and following state rules that may or may not impact safety or quality but that must be followed, just the same.

The impact is that industry is shipped off to countries that don’t have the same number of rules, or, in many cases any sort of rules at all.  In many cases it’s minimal gain.  I read one article that manufacturing the iPhone® in the United States would cost about $10 more due to labor costs.

$10.  But Apple® decided to keep making it at places where they have to have anti-suicide nets.

What do you call a group of newborn sheep tumbling down a hill?  A lambslide.

Americans have always wanted to make stuff that’s valuable, sell it, and make the world better while they make a few bucks as profit.  As I’ve written about endlessly, the conversion of our economy to one dominated by making paper profits off of fake money doesn’t feed anyone, but sucks profits from people who are trying to actually make stuff.

The GloboLeft loves big corporations, whatever they may be, because it makes individuals helpless.  The GloboLeft hates industriousness because it creates people who are self-sufficient.

I could go on (and I imagine I’ll see plenty of additional adders in the comments) but I see it this way:  the only way to a sane economy, a sane culture, and a sane political environment is through the big discontinuity of pain that’s coming due in the next decade.

But until then?  Bring on the PEZ®, steak, and hot tubs!

What Signs Would We See If The Economy Was Going To Be Okay?

“Martha’s polishing the brass on the Titanic.” – Fight Club

When I met The Mrs. I said, “Titanic.”  She said that was a terrible icebreaker.

I worry that sometimes I talk too much about the downsides of workings of the economy and was asked, “What does it look like when things start to look better?  What does it look like if it’s all going to be fine?”  I know this might seem like rearranging the deck chairs to keep the Titanic from sinking, but, hey, let’s go with it?

These are great questions.  Not as good as, “Would you like another beer?” but still very good.

These are also questions that could be political in nature (I might write more about that for Monday) but in this case I’m going to focus on the economy as much as I can, though it’s certain that political will slip in here and there – it can’t be avoided because we’ve got Joe all over the economy.

What will make things “fine” and how will we know when we get there?

If someone steals your booze, does that mean they’ve lifted your spirits?

First:  Stop the infinite debt spending.

Several years ago I wrote about Modern Monetary Theory.  In a nutshell, Modern Monetary Theory says that if you have a bill, pay it.  If you don’t have the money, make it.  The theory goes that there aren’t a set number of points in a game of football, so why should there be a set number of dollars in the economy.  So, if you have a bill, pay for it.

This is an awesome theory only for a person that has the I.Q. of a Kamala/AOC lovechild.  The worst thing about it is that it actually worked in the short term, which is the worst when it comes to an economic policy, because it gives lots of time for Bad Things to pile up.

What made it work is because the United States can pawn the piles and piles of dollars off to the world since everyone takes them because we have nuclear weapons and aircraft carriers and everyone knows what happened to Saddam and Qaddafi when they decided they’d start taking gold instead.

I asked a friend if he wanted to hear about the Russian victory parade.  He said, “No tanks.”

Eventually either the desire or ability to soak up the dollars goes away.  When that happens, even for a short time, the inflation inherent in the system feeds back.

Can this go on forever?  No.  Should we, you know, maybe consider stopping it before we totally wreck the economy?  If we do that, there will be a hangover and a tough political bill to be paid.

Will we?  Yes.  As Ben Stein’s dad said, “If something can’t go on forever, it won’t.”  That will be a very, very bad day if it’s not one of our choosing.

Also?  Fiat economies have a worse track record than Fiat™ cars for reliability.

Second:  Stop the Wealth Pump®.

I really enjoyed Peter Turchin’s book, End Times.  In it, he convinced me (he also has data to support this) that one of the biggest failures of my lifetime is the priming of what he calls the Wealth Pump™.  The really short version of this is that policies that would support concentration of capital in the billionaire class are enacted (for example:  open borders) while policies that benefit the average worker (for example:  strictly controlled borders) are ignored.

I dropped a piece of ice in the kitchen.  I was upset, but then it melted.  I guess it’s water under the fridge.

Turchin’s models have shown that the Wealth Pump™ everywhere and always leads to tremendous social turmoil.  Even without the economic misery for the common man that the Wealth Pump© implies, the turmoil from the hordes of teeming illegals will create turmoil that will last lifetimes.  But stopping the Wealth Pump™ is imperative.

Will Bezos and Soros owned Senators suddenly ignore the billionaire class they serve?  At this point, not voluntarily.  The bacon-wrapped shrimp and cool stock tips are pretty powerful to keep them in line.

Third:  De-financialize the economy by putting out the FIRE.

Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate is called the FIRE sector of the economy.  In theory, FIRE exists to serve the actual productive sectors of the economy that make actual things that people need like potatoes, beer, steak, PEZ™, shoes, rifles, books, and toilet plungers.

That’s the way it should work.

Instead, it’s a gambling economy filled with people who try to manipulate and tweak and profit without producing anything.  The big oil squeeze of 2008?  Rumor was that was a big investment bank trying to make a bet profitable on a short against a particular company.  The investment bank didn’t produce anything useful except for profits.  By manipulation.

I think FIRE might be more dangerous than fire.

Again, ask the Nancy Pelosi why her stock portfolio is so profitable, and ask why first term Senators do so well in the stock market.  Or don’t.  But it’s FIRE that’s the primary machine in the Wealth Pump™ and these create increasingly horrific schemes.

Examples?  Everything is a subscription because it increases revenue and profits.  Now it’s moving into video games:  design a game once, sell a subscription to it so that people can’t play it again for free, but instead have to pay a monthly fee.  It’s already moving that way for software.

And look into who is buying all the housing.  It’s on FIRE.

Fourth:  Rational housing valuations.

People need a place to live, and a pod won’t cut it, but houses are now big investments.  Why?  Because they need more profits to feed the Wealth Pump®.  Housing prices returning to something a guy with a high school degree working a manufacturing job can afford is crucial, since that’s where families come from.  Is it possible in San Jose?  No.  It’s possible in Modern Mayberry, but that’s because BlackRock© hasn’t started buying here.

Fifth:  Space for humans and A.I.

I know that some are skeptical, but A.I. is already making hundreds of thousands of jobs obsolete.  Running a backhoe?  No.  Writing articles?  Yes.  Things that are easy for humans, are hard for A.I.  Things that are hard for humans (and thus draw a higher salary), are often easy for A.I.

Are expert-level programmers still required?  Absolutely.  But not as many, since an expert-level programmer acting in tandem with A.I. will have a tenfold increase in productivity.

Who loses?  The “not as good” programmers who are now not required.

This has happened before in all sorts of industries.  DJs on the radio began voice tracking decades ago.  The average DJ makes minimum wage (average, some are highly compensated, most are not) but still the radio stations paid $20,000 to eliminate them because making the product cheaper is what they know.

ChatKGB:  it asks the questions.

Automation increases profits, but it doesn’t lead to some sort of techno-utopia where we have three hour work days.  People just lose their jobs.  As profits have gone up, pay has gone down (relative to inflation) and work hours have gone up for salaried folks.

A.I. hasn’t hit in a big way, yet.  It will.  Making space for people is unlikely, but necessary.

That’s a summary of how we can tell if we’re going to pull out from the looming economic catastrophe, what it looks like if things are going to get better.  I’ve started sketching out a few political things to show that things are going to be okay, and (like I wrote above) will likely show up on Monday.

So, like the Titanic, it looks like we might have a change in destination.  But we’re making good time!