A couple of weeks ago, I found myself scribbling away in my morning (paper) journal about Bitcoin having crossed the $70,000 mark and the Dow Jones Industrials toying with new record highs... and supposedly the economy here in the US of A is doing reasonably well, world trials and tribulations notwithstanding.
It all has a very surreal feel about it, like it's all driven by "wishes and imagination," rather than reality. I'm sure nobody in the ivory towers inhabited by economists and "experts" took a moment to ask the average person on the street about their reality.
Somehow, it brought to mind that other 21st century phenomenon known as "Reality TV," which always makes me want to ask exactly WHOSE reality we are talking about here... because it certainly isn't mine! Never was, never will be.
For that matter, it isn't anyone else's, either, at least not among any of the people that I know, reasonably well.
Then I went down the rabbit hole of the whole income inequality issue we have in this country.
There was a time when people used to love touting the US of A as "the land of opportunity" but opportunity seems to have taken on more of the nature of professional sports: maybe 1-in-100,000 of all aspirants "make it big" while everyone else is left with disappointment and little more than pocket lint to show for their efforts.
"40,000 Dow" really doesn't mean shit to me. What does mean shit to me is that I work upwards of 60-70 hours a week now because fewer and fewer people actually have the money to spend on anything other than their electric bill, rent and food. And so, I'm not selling anything.
"40,000 Dow" is basically "Reality TV." You might look at it and go "Oh wow, the Dow set a new record today!" but that still has nothing to to with my reality, or your reality. It makes no difference to how the slice of toast I have at breakfast tastes. and it makes no difference to the amount due on my next phone bill.
The interesting thing is that the small "club" of investors who do care about 40,000 Dow still only need to buy one toaster oven, regardless of whether the Dow goes to 100,000. Meanwhile, more and more everybody elses can't afford to buy a toaster oven.
Makes me glad I know how to set fire to a log and make my toast that way!
But is that really what we might call civilization and progress?
I'm not so sure...
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Created at 2024-04-27 01:53 PDT
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Thank you @ewkaw, I appreciate it!