There is a problem in the world, as while we know that the current economic profile of highly lopsided wealth for a minority doesn't work, many also don't like the idea of redistribution. Essentially, people want a broader spread of economic opportunity, yet protect the system that stops it, one where money attracts money passively, without having to do anything for it. While those that can manage this are "living the dream" so to speak, the majority who are not will keep falling further and further behind, as the system is such that the more one has, the more one will have in the future.
Yet, we want the outcomes that wealth delivers. While some people will argue that a sustainable life is possible where people live like nomads or off the grid, that in itself is a luxury position, because if everyone was to do it, it would become untenable. Organizing ourselves into cities with supply chains and compounding effects allows us to survive as a species and without it, we would quickly devolve into a violent chaos - which we see from time to time on smaller scales.
Like it or not, the overwhelming majority of us do not actually want to live off-grid to the point that we are self-sufficient. After all, self-sufficiency doesn't come with an internet connection... or shoes... or healthcare. We want the benefits of collaboration and the advantages of choice, yet we also want to make sure that the cost to our species isn't total annihilation.
We want to have nice things, we want to keep advancing technologies, we want to have better lives in general, but there is always a trade off of some kind. It is a challenge because we tend to put our own wealth into the things we value personally, and while we want a cure for cancer, do we really want it badly enough to fund it?
Almost, half a billion dollars since 1993 (28 years) with 20 million going out in 2020 - while the US government generated 10 trillion for covid-19 response and are failing miserably at it. Cancer killed about 600,000 people in 2020 and has done every year plus more, well, for a very long time. Stephen Curry in the NBA earns about 45 million dollars a year from playing alone. What is the total market cap of player salaries of the NBA? What about with endorsements added?
I dunno - but it is a lot more than what goes into Cancer research funding - yet we all want a cure... right?
This is the thing with wealth and money in general. It isn't just a tool to buy things. The smartest mathematicians on earth aren't working for NASA or crunching numbers in the development of clean energy resources - they are working at developing financial instruments to create more wealth for the people who can pay them.
The most important trait of money is that it can be used to incentivize behavior.
The problem isn't the money, it is the behavior we incentivize with it. All of us. I would predict that the majority reading this, spend far more on entertainment activities than investment activities, while hoping that one day, the investments they do make significantly improve their lives. Not just money investments, but time as well.
"I am not going to spend an hour writing a decent post for a dollar - but I will spend three hours binge-watching Netflix every night."
We want a better world and improve personal well-being, but we ourselves can't even put in the effort to look after our own little corner - because... we aren't incentivized enough to do so. We want people to pay for our creativity and skills adequately, even though we aren't willing to pay for the creativity and skills of the things we value, at least not to the degree that they are worth in relation to the worth we give our cravings for being entertained.
How much is the creativity and skill to cure cancer worth?
Don't get me wrong, there are many things that require funding that we want to have in our lives other than a cure for cancer, it is just that we often use the "Cancer cure" as a standard for solving a very large problem, or not solving one. Yet, the wealth distribution is what it is because while we love to pay ludicrous amounts to be entertained, we expect "good things" to be done for cheap, or out of the goodness of the heart. We want charity for these things so that it frees up our money to spend on the things that we really want - the fun stuff.
Is there enough wealth in the world to incentivize the behaviors that we want to see? are we overpaying some activities we like, while underpaying others we need? Probably. And I think that this is one of the greatest problems with the economy we have created, as it is working exactly the way it is meant to work - it incentivizes the activities that draw our attention and wealth, while the wealth ends up in the hands of the few to attract more wealth to it. The global economy is our economy - the dumpster fire it is, represents us as consumers.
This is why we can't have nice things.
Well, this is why we are in the position we are in, because all of us pretty much spend more time, energy and money on being entertained, probably to avoid looking at the pile of dung we have incentivized. We all act on incentives - this is why we get paid to do the things others want of us, than what we actually want to do ourselves. Who the hell is going to pay for amateur performances - without it being porn?
We are living the dream.
We are living the dream where we think that we will still get what we want while not having to take responsibility for our behavior. We are living the dream where we can spend our resources as we please on the things that we desire and all the problem-solving that needs to be done, will be paid for by someone else or better yet, done for free. We are living the dream where the end result is an untenable nightmare.
As I have said before, to improve the conditions of the economy takes a paradigm shift where we take responsibility and become owners once again. This isn't limited to money and things - it also means taking possession of our actions and behaviors and realizing that the world is already ours, we just neglect it through our actions.
This world doesn't run on charity, activity is driven by reward. We can see this on Hive in where people focus their content, the places they will get rewarded. We need to do the same thing in the entire economy except, we should be rewarding the creativity and skills that are put into practice that truly make our lives better and perhaps after some of these problems are solved, we can shift more toward being entertained.
Out of curiosity, in the average month, how much of your disposable income (anything outside of need) is spent on investment and how much is spent on wants? What about your time - how much is spent generating value, how much is spent on leisure? It doesn't have to be completely one-sided, but we tend to bias one far more than the other, and then complain about the distribution of wealth.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
You don't have to say it so loudly... Lol
Yeah, he's putting me off my show/s.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Showzzzz
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
When I was at university, I had a lecturer say that reading back the notes in front of a mirror tricks the brain into thinking it is getting the lecture again. Got a mirror? :D
Guilty as charged. Spent 2 hours watching Ozark on Netflix last night. My problem is, I work on my laptop, typing all day. Very hard to sit back down and type some more when I log off for the day.
Money calls Money, that has been since the word MONEY exists.
It is not surprising that we live in an unequal world or that many have little and few have much.
That is everyone's problem, that is also true.
But how horrible to live in such an unequal and selfish world.
But each must know how to carry this out and try to get ahead using whatever means that is within their reach and generates new opportunities.
I usually wonder if this is the perfect balance of life or they just Fucked the stupidest. The truth is I no longer know what to think.
I live in a world where balance does not exist.
Who knows and this will change one day.
While people might not agree with my definition - it is a free market. People do what they please and use what they have at their disposal for their own gains - this includes stacking the deck and tilting the field in their own favor. In a world devoid of faces, everyone just looks after themselves.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
You are very right, what makes it sadder, don't you think?
But this is life or is it what they have made us think, that will be left to the judgment of each one of us.
You're welcome to incentivize behavior by funding software projects you use. I do but not as often as I ought to.
I have a license for pretty much everything I use. Some call me crazy. Though, I don't like all the data that gets collected by them, considering I am paying to use them.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
The same old Bread and Circuses formula works because the masses...will be the masses.
There's a reason it's called the Pyramid of Basic Needs. Oh, wait, there are two reasons:
The level below should be satisfied before you climb to the next one;
There are less people who reach higher levels with more people struggling at the lower ones.
And that self-actualization, "be the best you can be", happens to be the top one.
I am not saying it does not vary with different persons but as far as mass trends go...
Mass trends are enough if you are about to rule the world. I wonder if that's the best some people think they can be.
Do you think that the level below needs to be satisfied before moving on? Sure - the base for survival is important, but does one have to have social esteem in order to reach self-actualization?
I agree that on average - it runs in order.
I reckon most people don't spend much time thinking about what their best may be, especially when it comes to the things that actually affect them.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Yeah, the higher you go, the more quantum state things become. It comes down to what the purpose of life is for that specific person and that cannot be averaged as easily as people need food or people want to love and be loved. Some would say pleasure is the highest purpose in life. Hedonism has pretty sound natural claims behind it. Some would seek enlightenment which could mean all worldly efforts are pointless to them. Achievers want to achieve for achievement's sake... etc.
I was thinking of something and I forgot what it was but it ended in... it is often too late.
Certainly some words to think about.
We really have created an economic system in which incentivization has become misplaced.
If we go back to the "Cure for Cancer" analogy, part of the problem is that if I and my team of researchers in fact DO invest the perfectly effective cure for cancer, we'll end up with a pat on the back and a $100,000 bonus each, while some pharmaceutical conglomerate collects 200 billion for turning it into pill form and selling it. What's more, those pills will likely cost 50 cents a pop to make on a large scale, but will be sold for $500 per dose because... "Do you want to pay $500... or be DEAD?"
The money then ends up not back with the researchers, not back into the general consumer economy, not back with the people working to make the pills safely and successfully, but instead tied up in this entirely passive thing called "investments."
I really like the incentivization of something like Hive/LeoFinance because it's a case of "when I provide something, I get something in return." Which is different from wanting something, but not wanting to give something for that.
=^..^=
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Daily I misplace some amount of my income - but I am getting better slowly. If everyone slowly got better, things would change quickly as it compounds.
Perhaps it is part of the lie of "ask not what your country can do for you", where the "right thing" is expected to be done without reward. It is a losing game.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
This hit hard. We want so much from the world, the government, and everyone else, yet we forget that we in ourselves are governing bodies of our wealth and the community of our entire being that we are so casually neglecting.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
slice by slice, we are killing ourselves en masse.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
@tarazkp, At the end of the day Average Public is stuck in Debt Trap. Stay blessed.
One of the basic principles in economics (comparative advantage) tells us to do what we're best at, then trade with others. In this way, we're both better off and get more of what we want. The great thing is that is is true even between a skilled or wealthy person and an unskilled or poor person. So, you're right, by not trying to be a jack-of-all trades, but through specializing and trade, people are better off.
I'd love to get rich off entertainment I produce XD After fully renovating my house how I like and getting enough to let JJ retire and have a nice big chunk to figure out investments (he's way better at that kind of stuff) to set us up for the rest of forever and give the kids a nice start at least if not set them up too, whatever excess we generate past a comfortable for us lifestyle (which is really not much because we're boring simplistic people) would probably end up funding people trying to do things we need and people finding ways to make better systems rather than trying to work within this broken relic XD
However being me I'm just going to be releasing this thing for free with the option to throw money at me if you want/can afford to do so because I just like it when my stuff entertains someone
We don't really have disposable income. I think JJ is trying to scrounge together enough to start investing again (he was for a bit and then we had to emergency renovate the bathroom so he pretty much sold up all the stocks so we could afford to do that and hasn't had enough money to buy back in since and he still staunchly refuses to even consider the possibility of crypto). He otherwise invests in Magic cards, which doubles as entertainment XD
Me umm I'm boring and what I'm posting about here is pretty much what I do.
One of the hardest MMORPG quests called ~~ LIFE ~~ HIVE
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Speaking of taking responsibility and doing things :
I would like to build a LeoFinance like App for Politics. Do you have anyone in mind who could cooperate with me on that? I have some good ideas like raids with raidable posts that people can downvote. I would need a programmer and one other politcs person to bounce ideas off.
I have tested GUIs for web applications for 6 years and just did a basic Java Developer course so I can maybe provide more than just ideas, I would love to be part of the development and if its just doing the QA. I have 1-2 months before I enter the workforce again might as well make them count :)
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta