Is this a war on cash or a war on privacy? Or both?

[riptides]

Those who use the pen and pencil sre high maintenance.

 

[Einthewoods]

Those who use the pen and pencil sre high maintenance.

I prefer pencil and paper. Having a pen and pencil seems a bit redundant. :laughing:

While I use a computer all day for my job, I am a big pencil and paper user. If in a meeting I will always have a pencil and paper.

When I was younger I can remember an old farmer neighbor of ours telling me that "you can tell when you are dealing with a good man by if he uses a pen or pencil. A man who uses a pencil knows he might well make a mistake and can erase it and correct it. A man who uses a pen is arrogant enough to think he gets everything right the first time."

 

[thepumpguysc]

I like that E..
I can remember that too.. the "old guy" reaching down deep into that center pocket on his overalls.. pulling out a NUB of a pencil.. ahhh the good old days.
NOW you gotta yell 15 times>> put down that GD phone & get to work..

 

[prof fate]

This problem is the reason there is a movement for a 'basic income' - google it.
Overall this country (if not most of the world) had enough wealth we could all be rich, er, well paid, or get a basic income before we go to work.

EIGHT people own HALF the wealth of the entire world (again, feel free to google).

With automation, improved efficiency, those at the top keep getting richer. As more folks get unemployed it's more people for fewer jobs so wages stay low.

Cars cost 10 times what they did 35 years ago, but min wage is not much more than triple. It should be $17-20/hour to have kept pace.

My cousin worked a summer job in a steel mill in the 70s during college and was paid $14/hour THEN. Granted, high wages sorta killed that industry (among other reasons) - but today union jobs don't pay that for full time workers (GM, local gov't transit, teamsters get $15 locally). YOu can't really live on 30k a year - and then pay for health care too.

Decades ago when I was working in the apple orchard they hired someone to help with the pruning. He has grown up with money, but at the time was living in a one room cabin with a hand pump out front. The owner was talking about buying a new mower which could get under the trees. Darryl, the new guy couldn't understand why they would pay $1100 for a machine when people could do it with a scythe?
it just so happened that there was a row of trees with raspberries growing up underneath so that spring they handed him a scythe and told him to have at it. After about two days he allowed how maybe a piee of machinery might be a good thing, after all.

\The question on the table though is, as things get more and more automated and jobs get shipped overseas how do the people make a living who once held those jobs?
Like it or not, it isn't everybody who is cut out to be am IT person or a doctor.

 

[CPTKILLER]

Most banks do that now.

Just move on and don't sweat it.

 

[ultrarunner]

This problem is the reason there is a movement for a 'basic income' - google it.
Overall this country (if not most of the world) had enough wealth we could all be rich, er, well paid, or get a basic income before we go to work.

EIGHT people own HALF the wealth of the entire world (again, feel free to google).

With automation, improved efficiency, those at the top keep getting richer. As more folks get unemployed it's more people for fewer jobs so wages stay low.

Cars cost 10 times what they did 35 years ago, but min wage is not much more than triple. It should be $17-20/hour to have kept pace.

My cousin worked a summer job in a steel mill in the 70s during college and was paid $14/hour THEN. Granted, high wages sorta killed that industry (among other reasons) - but today union jobs don't pay that for full time workers (GM, local gov't transit, teamsters get $15 locally). YOu can't really live on 30k a year - and then pay for health care too.

Minimum here is nearing $15 an hour...

 

[MossRoad]

EIGHT people own HALF the wealth of the entire world (again, feel free to google).

You mis-stated that horribly.

The world's 8 richest people have as much money as the bottom half of people. That does NOT mean they own half the wealth of the entire world. Not even close.

Those 8 people have a combined net worth of $427 billion (with a B).
World’s 8 Richest Have as Much Wealth as Bottom Half, Oxfam Says - The New York Times

The world's net worth is in the quadrillion's....

Here's 427 billion VS 1 quadrillion

427,000,000,000
1,000,000,000,000,000

Note there's 6 more zeros!

So that 427 billion that those 8 richest people own isn't even one half of one millionth of one percent of the total net worth of all the money value in the world.

Someone check my math, but it's still a ridiculously small percentage of the total net worth of the world, not 50%.

It's stories like this that makes me cringe. Once they start, it goes wild without any fact checking.

Here's a graphic to explain some of it.... IT'S HUGE!!!
From here:
Here’s all the money in the world, in one chart - MarketWatch

 

[Industrial Toys]

In a sense, does that really matter? Sure, maybe some people should have more, but what does that have to do with the people that have lots? What is wealth really? So they have more numbers in their bank accounts or more cars.

Under that system, If the person that has lots is expected to share, then the person with little should also be expected to share with those that have nothing.

An investment consultant once told me that there are only two types of people. Those that earn interest and those that pay it. Really, I am neither.

 

[MossRoad]

Think about this the next time you may be tempted to complain about "rich people".

If you make just $32,400 per year in U.S. dollars, you are making more money than 99% of the rest of the people on the planet. You are the 1% that so many people get fixated on.

Are You in the Top One Percent of the World? | Investopedia

 

[Industrial Toys]

I heard that if you only had the change that people typically have on their dressers, you would be amoung the whatever, so many percent, richest people in the world.

But again, does it really matter? These comparisons?

I think we should focus on what we waste.

 

[MossRoad]

I heard that if you only had the change that people typically have on their dressers, you would be amoung the whatever, so many percent, richest people in the world.

But again, does it really matter? These comparisons?

I think we should focus on what we waste.

I just don't like to see people state things as fact when they are horribly, not-even-closely, incorrect.

 

[Einthewoods]

Minimum wage is not supposed to be a comfy living wage. It is a starting spot, usually associated with those of no skills that will be learning skills to then work up fron. Why would someone pay a person with no skills or in a position that requires no special skills $30 an hour. Ridiculous.

You work a minimum wage job to learn and move on and up the pay scale.

Anything else is socialist nonsense.

 

[prof fate]

Wealth is the money you don't spend.
So..your investments, savings, equity in yuor house, etc.

If you're living paycheck to paycheck--or can't make it to the next paycheck, or debt exceeds assets...then you have no wealth.

they say if you make more than 390k a year you're in the top 1%, more than 77k and you're in the top 10%.

In a sense, does that really matter? Sure, maybe some people should have more, but what does that have to do with the people that have lots? What is wealth really? So they have more numbers in their bank accounts or more cars.

Under that system, If the person that has lots is expected to share, then the person with little should also be expected to share with those that have nothing.

An investment consultant once told me that there are only two types of people. Those that earn interest and those that pay it. Really, I am neither.

Think about this the next time you may be tempted to complain about "rich people".

If you make just $32,400 per year in U.S. dollars, you are making more money than 99% of the rest of the people on the planet. You are the 1% that so many people get fixated on.

Living on 32,400 in a third world country would likely make you the richest guy in town, surely in the village.
here, in the US, you can't buy a house or perhaps even a car with that income. Locally rent can be $1200/month, plus utilities. The average car is what, $34k now? A full size 4x4 is north of 50k.

 

[MossRoad]

Wealth is the money you don't spend.
So..your investments, savings, equity in yuor house, etc.

If you're living paycheck to paycheck--or can't make it to the next paycheck, or debt exceeds assets...then you have no wealth.

they say if you make more than 390k a year you're in the top 1%, more than 77k and you're in the top 10%.





Living on 32,400 in a third world country would likely make you the richest guy in town, surely in the village.
here, in the US, you can't buy a house or perhaps even a car with that income. Locally rent can be $1200/month, plus utilities. The average car is what, $34k now? A full size 4x4 is north of 50k.

My daughter is one year out of grad school. She makes $34K per year. She lives in a nice apartment in a large city, just bought a very nice 5 year old Subaru, is putting money in her 401K, and has paid off $4000 of her student loan so far this year. She's on track to pay that off in about 7 years. She eats well and has a social life. And she's taken two nice trips this year to New York and D.C.

She must be doing something wrong.... :confused3:

 

[Diggin It]

It's not so much about what you make as how you spend it. Or don't.

 

[Oldoak]

It's not so much about what you make as how you spend it. Or don't.

You got it!

 

[ultrarunner]

Just left the optometrist office... she is retiring after 47 years and said they have an offer in on a single family home for 65k...

As with most things... affordability is varies.

Starting out... I could not qualify for anything... but it did not stop me.... just meant I could not go conventional with a mortgage...

My Grandfather always called minimum wage the learning wage...

Fast Food here starts at $13.50...

 

[Industrial Toys]

I used to eat out a lot. Since the minimum wage skyrocketed, I hardly do. It's just not cost effective. My (albeit expensive) groceries are a better expenditure.

After posting earlier, I headed out on my days mission. I looked around and notice how much garbage people spend money on. Some stupid ford pickup beside me had some chrome plated plastic lettering on side (rear) of the bed, proclaiming some level of luxury or prosperity, I can't even remember what it said. It's pathetic, what we seem to value!!

 

[/pine]

Is there anything more inane than buying trash bags so you can throw them away?

 

[Diggin It]

Is there anything more inane than buying trash bags so you can throw them away?

Yeah. Trash bags that don't degrade in the landfill, so 40-50 years from now somebody can still go through your trash.