What a day. Trying to focus from 8 - 430 straight as either trainer or trainee, without even time to have breakfast, lunch or a coffee break between. I used to do this for weeks on end, but after a day, I am already wrecked - and it is only Tuesday. Thankfully, one of the reasons I didn't get lunch was organizing new sessions for a client who had to cancel for my session on Thursday, as his people are ill. I guess I can take "double breaks" to make up for today.
I actually don't mind the distraction work brings as it means that I am not looking at crypto investment stuff, wondering if it is dead. It isn't dead, but it likely isn't at the market before the upswing comes though. Another 15-20% perhaps?
Worried yet?
The pump up to ATHs for the end of the year doesn't seem likely, but I wouldn't be surprised if there is an action in the lead up to stir some excitement - then another correction that will have everyone calling for the bear - then a large drive up to catch them out to blow past all expectations - other than the wildest.
Though, that might just be one of my pipedreams. After all, I was meant to be looking into retirement villages around about this time of year - I hope I don't have to wait until 2024. That would be terrible. Imagining having to wait until 45 to retire!
The shame of it!
I was thinking a little about this while I was working through lunch today though and how many people see it as "wage slavery". I get that, it is in many ways, but I don't think it is the worst kind of slavery out there. I reckon the worst is where a person is largely irrelevant, sitting at home on a pension doing nothing of value for the money. Some think that is beating the system, I see it as a waste of life potential - sitting there, like a pet fish, but not even pretty enough to be on display. Just existing.
Existence is futile.
It used to be resistance, but that has already been proven - so now the test is more existential in nature, where the battle is on to test the theory of how alone we can be in this world, how disconnected. "I think therefore I am" - but what happens when what I think is a fed narrative and everyone else is thinking the same thing?
Am I still?
The thought of it. I have said to some of my closer friends (and on HIVE too) that I don't seem to belong to the world at the moment. I kind of feel like it has lost a lot of meaning, as people tend no longer to care about intention or generalized outcomes, as long as they get their immediate needs met. Perhaps that has always been the case, but in the past we needed each other to get our needs met. Nowadays, people just seem content to sit in front of a screen and get "satisfied" digitally as consumers, not participants. It is all very voyeuristic and passive these days - yet so many feel that what they are doing is meaningful, even though they are doing nothing.
I am pretty social by nature and I reckon the last couple years have had a profound effect on my habits, forcing me to "go more into my shell" even though it is not where I am at my best. I reckon that if I didn't have writing as an outlet, I might very well have gone insane. I suspect many are in a similar predicament, which is something that I predicted back at the start of 2020 as the first lockdowns were being spoken of.
It isn't natural for people to be controlled in this way and it is going to have wide and long-ranging repercussions that will incur a litany of costs going forward. I am starting to hear mention of "post-pandemic stress disorder" which some people are predicting will lead to a sharp increase in heart conditions, especially among the 30-45 age ranges. This will be further emphasized by the high amount of people who have become more sedentary over the last two years and the impact globally would likely kill more than the virus has itself.
For example in Australia, there have been just over 2000 corona-related deaths (almost all had one or more chronic illnesses) so far, but in 2019 alone - almost 18,000 people died from coronary heart disease. No one cared back then, trillions weren't spent on combating the growing obesity epidemic, overweight people weren't locked into gyms with personal trainers and put on strict diets.
Funny isn't it? Sick. So many issues have been spiraling out of control for decades with nothing done despite the massive impacts on health and society, but there is no end to the amount the governments will spend on this flu.
Why?
That question has many possible answers, but I suspect the root to all of them boils down to greed and the desire for more profit. Healthy people do not generate as much income as unhealthy, they do not consume as much, especially when it comes to things like pharmaceuticals. Sick people are a money spinner, whether physically or mentally. They tend not to generate the most direct income or earn the most, but they do likely generate the most on average for the corporations.
The masses matter
The masses don't matter to the governments and corporations in regards to their well being, but as the driving force of the economy that generates income. The masses don't own much and the don't earn much - everything that comes in, goes out again - the poor are not wealth syncs, they are cows to be constantly milked and manipulated to maximize the gains while minimizing the cost of "profit acquisition".
So many people think that they have "beaten the system" because they are getting free money to live off without working, without recognizing it for what it is, a control mechanism. Once people are reliant and unable to generate a living wage for themselves, the handouts can be scaled back continuously and new bars set for qualification in order to get the next handout.
That is slavery.
Yes, I think part of the solution is going to come through decentralized economies, which is why I believe that the societal war of the future is going to be between the decentralized and centralized approaches. All of what is going on now that are causing these problems are driven from the centralized sides, the governments and corporations hellbent on more control at any cost. However, there is no real way to combat it unless there is a paradigm shift in those who are the most affected, the 99% of us, where we stop taking handouts and start generating our own wealth in an economy, saying, "we don't need you" to those who keep packing us a free lunch. If we can't earn our place in the world, we will be given a chair to sit in, and told not to move.
Slavery today isn't working for a wage - it is not working for a handout.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
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I will slightly disagree here. I agree that unhealthy people generate a lot of income, but the so called healthy one do as well. Just look at how much stuff there is now for all them joggers: you've got smartwatches that will help you monitor your heart rate etc, you've got super fancy shoes and super duper fancy jogging clothes, and then you have a thousand phone apps that will let you keep track of your workouts and share it with others (don't mind the paid plan and occasional ads). Oh, you're tired after the whole day in your job? Here's a premium meditation/mindfulness app for just $79 a year (but only if you buy now and for the entire year!).
Aaaaaaand of course you can't perform a single freaking workout without telling the entire world that you just did! Share it to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or whathever else is hot at this point in time. Don't mind the algorithms.
I'd say that nowadays it is possible to generate income on virtually everything. Slowly and slowly every possible activity is becoming tightly coupled with some sort of economical reward or income generation—either for us (crypto tokenization), or for the croporations (Web 2.0 social media, new technologies). The essential skill is to be able to separate the action and the economical implications of this.
For example, I know many people who are virtually unable to go for a walk without taking pictures and sharing them (at the instant) to some social media of theirs. They are constantly connected to the Matrix. I do sometimes like to take a walk and not take my phone with me—just enjoy the air, the sun, the trees, maybe do some thinking, knowing that it will not generate an instant income for me nor someone else. That it's just this beautiful moment that cannot be taken away from me in any way.
Disconnecting is fantastic, getting out and leaving all the crap behind without our phones. I have gone for some walks lately without my phone and it's nice!
In regards to the unhealthy versus healthy, it's not that clear cut with many. I go for walks and all that and was relatively physically fit in the past but didn't spend that much money on the goodies.
Take someone with type 1 diabetes though, or a serious heart condition. The companies are guaranteed without a doubt that they need to be medicated. They need insurance too. The companies are both connected financially so they win multiple ways from the same person. Make that increase exponentially by restricting people from getting out, eating healthy and doing things that are good for their body and mind and you increase your profits in the end. A sadistic, psychotic game of manipulation.
This is what I am talking about. THey get drained, but have nothing left to invest to generate. Plus, in order to care for them, everything is subsidized by tax payers, so even though they can't cover their medical consumables, everyone else will be forced through tax anyway. They don't want healthy people, that would kill the sickly cow that brings in so many streams and justifies taking from others to cover even more.
Sell them what will make them sick, then sell them what will supposedly help them, but never really heal them.
Oh absolutely. Carrot on a stick analogy 110%. Keep dangling it and you will make untold amounts of money from foolish people.
That reminded me of a moment when I experienced the absolute freedom of spirit. It was in my college years. I had visited a friendly meeting in another town, a beautiful one with historical significance. Then I walked a few of the other visiting friends to the bus station, I bought a ticket for the train at the nearby train station, I went to a bridge over the local river, I looked into my wallet and I threw the last 5 cents I had on me in the water below. My mind or spirit...or my whole self...flew high the instant I realized I was truly penniless and carefree at least until the train I was about to catch would reach my destination.
Now I have too many goals to feel like that. But still, it's pure happiness when they align with my own will and desires.
It's the same with me, a lot on my plate: a job, side projects, investing, a serious relationship, and some time is needed to rest as well. It's hard to find the sweet point between overworking oneself and just being straight lazy. But let's strive for it anyway! :)
I understand where you are coming from with this, but this is just the consumables that they buy and get something for - yes, a massive amount of money - but when yo start to look at what the pharmaceuticals and associated costs of healthcare are, it is enormous and, the people are getting "nothing" for it other than being treated for illness - I am not sure if I am explaining that well, but I hope you understand. The consumables are actually "something" (often useless), but but the money generated from illness is money that largely doesn't need to be spent.
THis is for all sides. Social media is largely a scourge and drives all kinds of poor behavior.
Yes it is. but when it comes to the poor and sickly, they largely can't generate income , they can only consume.
The world we have created does not incentivize health, it encourages degradation.
Perhaps this is like a sci-fi story setting. the controllers trying to find the right people, and the right number for a long isolated, cut-off from everything they know, group of people to send on a very long one way voyage to the second star on the left and straight on til tomorrow. type scenario.
More probable though is it is like you said, just pure unadulterated greed.
It is greed - it is insane. While no fan of government initiatives, I would far rather the trillions spent on increasing general wellbeing, subsidizing exercise, incentivizing health - that corona at this point.
With a small child after buying a house? XD
I wanted to ask: What kind of retirees do you know? o_O
Then I remembered that usually when you write "work" you're meaning "job" and that's probably normal, I tend to use "work" to cover pretty much everything that requires effort. The only retiree I know that sit around doing "nothing of value for the money" is my 96yo grandmother and I think the only reason she doesn't do much is because she has dementia. Everyone else is constantly doing stuff.
Unless the stuff they're doing is also considered "nothing of value for the money" XD
I keep hearing that there's an uptick in heart conditions coinciding with covid vaccines and seeing as the vaccines are absolutely infallible it cannot under any circumstances possibly be even tenuously remotely associated (correlation not being causation and all), but the last explanation that I had was that it was most definitely a covid thing. I guess this also makes sense given how much stress some people are under and also
Yes, but what happens when no one can afford medication? O_O
This has been happening for a while now though right. Just waiting for it to be more of a thing than it already is :)
Ona a tropical "crypto island" :D
workOh, I think I explained this poorly as I think @preparedwombat thought I was talking about retirees too. This was more about the random unemployed person who thinks they are beating the system by getting government handouts. I just edit... but can I be othered? ...too much
I normally use work like you do too - value adding activity of some kind. Playstation and Netflix rarely count.
I put two and two together on this also - but didn't want to bring that into the post. It is pretty obvious to me that this is vaccine related, as there have been plenty of cases already. This makes the heart condition rise a vaccine injury - better to blame stress.
Even now, the healthy people pay. Post that, and I think Soylent Green becomes the norm.
Ahh I getcha now. I knew some kids like that when we were in high school, they were bragging about how they were just going to go on the dole and go surfing and drink beer every day. I haven't seen them since so I don't know how well that worked out for them.
That wasn't the end of that though, there were people I knew at uni who were gleefully "scamming the system" to get as much "free money" as they could (don't know how that worked out for them either long term as I am only still in contact with a handful of people from uni).
Sounds like a great future x_x
They are living it up, surfing Margaret River.
I had some Uni friends doing the same - I always found it interesting that they were generating HECS debts, though never intended to pay them off.
Ergh I have one of those too. I'll be able to pay it off when we're cryptobazillionaires x_x
Early retirement! That would be a dream come true.
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Does sound pretty good - though I will keep working anyway :)
Passively, I guess. Maybe click a few buttons and get a few thousand dollars kinda passive
It seems like I don't belong to this world that is so fake now and it runs only on greed, lies and selfishness.
I feel alone because people all around us got stuck in this citrix system and see nothing wrong with it.
Like you said , before we needed each other and relied on each other, but now this does not exist anymore.
Humanity is being destroyed in front of us, and people are fine with it.Well said @tarazkp.
It's great to hear that you are ready to retire and I hope you will not have to wait until 2024, and my family are also in the same boat, and I also hope we don't have to wait until 2024.
I think we still need each other but just to a lighter degree. There's no need to feel alone when you have people who are like-minded here on Hive. I recently just realized that.
I wonder how many people actually do this. If anything, I seem to be busier now than I was before I retired. There aren’t enough hours in the day.
A lot do already - many more seem to be getting ready to cut back or quit work altogether - I am keeping busy though.
What I find strange is - there are labor shortages - even when the money is good and the company decent
I don't know about Finland but I saw an article somewhere saying that in the U.S. it's at least partially because a higher than usual percentage of the workforce has chosen to retire early since the pandemic started.
I know a couple people who have taken this path - but they have been very able to retire. I don't think there are that many in their position.
I have heard kids are also quitting "toxic jobs" (normal jobs) and posting it on social media for likes.
There aren't enough hours in the day while working LOL good for you though staying very busy!
Formal retirement from a career or job is attractive to some, to me it's boring! I love being engaged and doing things that I'm passionate about. I'm hoping that I can be like the critters in our government and work into my 80's like some of them do, doing not a whole lot besides being there!
I hear the elderly and benefits is going to be the next line of attack, sorry you don't get X if you don't do "Y" and "Z", no exceptions unless you're privileged. It's all about safety and the people though! I swear!
The cash cow is the "aaS" type shit that really annoys me. Software as a Service, Platform as a Service. Health as a Service is what is the current game plan, as we can clearly see. You are completely right, this is an outright attack on healthy people because we keep to ourselves and that's unacceptable to the psychopaths in charge of the world.
For sure - though I would want to do something - all the great artists worked themselves til death!
It is getting very dystopian very fast...
Fucking precisely. keep paying, or you will be ill or die. Keep getting an injection, or you won't be allowed to socialize - it doesn't matter if you aren't at risk, nor is anyone else - gotta have the passport.
You should take good care of yourself. Do not overwork yourself. ''This is not the way'' :)
I should rest more - but holidays are coming! :)
Nowadays, people have got used to stay and consume alone, even for half and one years. In fact, they are happy with this situation. I also felt that it was going to be so in the pre-pandemic times and the pandemic has accelerated it.
You are right. We used to need each other to socialise and to make our needs meet especially in neighbourhood. I admit that I miss the past. Sometimes I think that they are testing a new thing on us, forcing us to stay indoor and let's us be alone most of the time 🤔
This new normal is not normal.
They are. They are digitizing "divide and conquer" - and they are winning.
Indeed, indeed. Who's to say?
I do not think you are insane, my friend, as you grasp that decentralization is the cure to centralization, and overlords are the perpetrators of tyranny, while freedom is the fruit of independent means, the very definition of decentralization of means of production.
Reason is the opposite of unreason, sanity the opposite of insanity.
Stay sane!
It seems so simple... Why so hard?
Let me first say that I'll get to the point of matter but i'll start a bit seemingly off-topic. My ego just needs that intro.
Late after midnight yesterday I was still consuming content on the Tube of You. A historical channel that quite expanded my knowledge about periods we used to have mentioned in school bu in far less...I can't even twist my mind to accept it was any detail at all. Anyway, I consider this as an accelerated form of reading. Audio reading, perhaps? I value that. Since taking the responsibility of helping manage family some business that includes the jobs of quite a few dozens of random people. A Red Ocean (if you're familiar with that theory and hence the term) business. It's a war of attrition. I'm looking at lose-lose situations daily and I'm thinking of how I can turn them into win-wins...And I remember it was @theycallmedan who inspired me to finally get to read Sun Tzu. I did. It was important but also small and I kept looking for more.
Off-topic to the off-topic...wow, I think I just blinked and BTC shot up about 2 k...
Back to that content. It was about the slave revolts in the Roman Empire (ancient globalization at its peak), the two Sicily cases and then the one of Spartacus. If I were to guess what went wrong for the leaders, I'd say none of them had any plans for the end game. And it looked like a zero sum game, each time. You can't just be left alone while the other side gains more than it loses by controlling you. It's also a matter of expendable resources at your disposal vs those of your opponent.
Ultimately, the Roman Empire did die the Death by a Thousand Cuts. About five centuries later. After inventing fiat money.
It is a great book, and I think it is small on purpose. Theey can be used as heuristics, but to be able to apply them, they need far deeper learning - this makes them hooks for behavior and thought. I like that idea - I don't create hooks - other than the odd quotable line or two ;D
All empires die - cities live on. It is about adaptability - an empire solidifies itself to support a particular culture - a city can house any culture.
btw, I like your off-topic topics :)
And you're absolutely not known for no hooks, no...
The problem is with the mindset.
We don't need you is not the thing they are teaching in colleges and universities. They are training the youth on how to get a good job.
In other words, how to be a good slave. Now this slavery circle has become so vast that even if someone tries to do it on their own, they are being looked as abnormal.
Funny isn't it? Entrepreneurs used to be celebrated.
Yeah. And you know what we have a social pressure of getting a Job. Otherwise our own family don't feel comfortable about us.
That's almost like survival mode. Perhaps it's instincts kicking in, especially with the last two years where it's hard to even predict a future.
Time flies by way too fast! You mention 2024 for retirement and I still think that's ages away, but it's only a couple of years now. 2000 only seems like yesterday, it can't be nearly 2024 already!
I wouldn't have thought to put it that way, but it's an accurate assessment. Actually you description of it as being like a pet is even better. Unfortunately, we are being squeezed more and more into a position where we are reliant on the state in some form. Even to get work now there are so many hoops to jump through. Last time hubby had a medical, the drugs test required him to pee in a pot and there was a camera in the cubicle to make sure it was his urine...for women they have someone standing just outside the cubicle, although thankfully no camera, as far as I'm aware. The feel is more prisoner than slave at that point...
Tell me about it! I can't possibly be as old as I am...
It can't be by coincidence. This is the antithesis of what governments would have been aiming for a few decades ago.
That is insane about the drug testing. I haven't ever had to have one, though because I do some work for a military contractor occasionally, I do have background checks done yearly or so. But, no cubicles!
I don't know where we will end up, but I don't think we should make it easy going for the direction we are currently headed.
This is a really important post and I’ll be re-reading this as it had a lot to digest and think through. Thankyou for the clarity in which you write and talking about these issues. I feel like I’m still forming my words to articulate how I also feel about the current state of the world.
Welcome back to comment later then :)