Gnome

Fedora for life.

That’s fine, but you really don’t need a wealth tax to fund education and infrastructure. A sovereign currency issuer can create their own money. There’s no reason why the US government couldn’t just create $5 trillion to fund those things you mentioned. And I know you might say that would cause inflation, but I don’t see how $5 trillion being created would cause more inflation than getting the $5 trillion from a wealth tax. Either way, the same amount of money is being spent on education, health and infrastructure. Plus, with the wealth tax, the billionaires would have to liquidate a lot of assets to get that money to pay the wealth tax, and that could cause a crash in asset markets.

No, money is a medium of exchange. Assets are worth what they can be exchanged for, that’s why wealth is measured in money.

But what I’m saying is, if you had that much money you would be wealthy. You would be one of them, you’d be in the top 1% of wealth holders.

But, ok, let’s say wealthy really means everyone who has over $1 billion in wealth. Well, if we forced all the people who have more than $1 billion in wealth to liquidate all of their wealth above $999,999,999.00, and we redistributed that to every household in the US, each household would get about $36,000. And I’m not talking about $36,000 a year, I’m talking about a one time $36,000 check. Now, that’s not nothing, and for some folks that would definitely help a ton, but you also have to consider the inflationary implications. If all of the sudden every household in the US got an extra $36,000, a lot of those folks would want to spend it. And why not, right? Get a car maybe, take a trip, put a down payment on a house. But if everyone were suddenly looking to spend all that money at once, prices would go up, so your money wouldn’t go as far.

But I’m not saying we shouldn’t do it. I think there are a lot of good reasons to have a wealth tax over a certain amount. I’m just not sure it would make that much of a difference.

Of course I want money to live well and get what I need and want.

How much money is that? $1 million? $1 billion? If you want a house that costs $500 thousand, that’s what you’ll need for that. Maybe you feel like you could live well on $100 thousand a year, buy some decent things, take some trips, etc. Well, $100 thousand a year over 50 years, is $5,000,000. That plus your $500,000 house and you’d have enough money to be in the top 1%.

They hold a lot of money in assets like stocks and real estate because they want to be rich. They want a lot of money so they can buy things, and the more money they have the more things and/or nicer things they can buy. I mean, you probably want the same thing, right? Who doesn’t.

Wealth isn’t money, it’s stuff. It’s land, a home, stocks, gold, etc. Money is just the medium of exchange, so we price the stuff using money. There’s no real point in hoarding a fiat currency like the dollar, because the US government can create as much of it as they want. You don’t hoard something that is infinitely reproducible, you hoard the physical stuff that is inherently finite. For the physical stuff, ownership is definitely zero-sum; the more I own of a finite good, the less anyone else can own.

If driverless taxis ever go mainstream (and that’s a big if), it will be from companies like Waymo, not Tesla. Tesla shouldn’t be seen as a serious company. I mean, they do sell legitimate products, but their $1.6 trillion market cap isn’t based on what they sell today, but what their cult member investors think they’re going to bring to market in the future. You know, all the stuff that will usher in the post-human, techno utopia. It’s all nonsense, and someday it will all come crashing down, though that could take a while. People can stay delusional for a long time.

Look, maybe you will be able to get another 30 years out of your car, and if so good for you, but eventually we have to stop using fossil fuels. That’s all I’m saying. The longer we keep using oil, the more impacts on the climate. But also, the more oil we use, the faster it runs out. And once it’s gone, it’s just gone. Forever, no more. Sure, we probably won’t run out in 30 years, but it is a finite resource so we run out eventually. I just don’t know why people are in such a hurry to completely use it all up as quickly as possible, especially knowing what it’s doing to the climate. I just don’t get it.

Good! Whatever people can do to stop using fossil fuels is what needs to happen.

Then get an EV. Or drive less, or just pay the premium for biofuels, if you absolutely MUST have an internal combustion engine.

We have to stop using fossil fuels. We just have to. And it’s not just about the climate, although that should be reason enough. Fossil fuels are non-renewable. Once fossil fuel reserves are depleted, they cannot be replenished on human timescales. And I know, I know, people will swear up and down that we’re not in danger of fossil fuel reserves becoming depleted anytime soon, but it’s inevitable, even if it isn’t imminent.

Plus, we’ve already depleted most of the reserves that were relatively cheap and easy to extract, so what’s left is only going to get more difficult and more expensive to get out of the ground. Oil extraction would have peaked a long time ago if we didn’t start using more expensive extraction methods like hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which comes with its own ecological issues.

I’m ok not having the bubble boat car. Of course, having better, more affordable EV options here in the US would be nice. But a lot of people don’t like EVs. Not sure why, but if you just gotta have your ICE vehicle, run it on biofuels that are at least renewable. Some of y’all are ridiculous: “Electric car? Biofuels? No, I HAVE to have an internal combustion engine, and it HAS to run on FOSSIL FUELS only!” Why?

I always put the lid down. It’s got a lid for a reason, it looks much nicer with it down.

No one who speaks German can be an evil man.

Probably someone who lives in the southern US, where it rarely snows. This wouldn’t be unusual for someone living in many northern states, especially those around the great lakes. But to a southerner, this might as well be a different planet. They will close schools and businesses even for relatively light snow in the South. It frightens and bewilders them.

People want validation not advice, even if that advice could fix their problem.

I wonder if Valve will ever release an official desktop version of SteamOS? I think Linux adoption would really increase fast if there was a gaming focused Linux desktop distribution with the support of an established company. But does Valve want that? A full featured operating system is a lot to maintain and provide support for.

I helped a family member with their Windows PC a few days ago and, omg, I hate using Windows. It’s so bloated and unintuitive. It’s a mess, and it seems to get worse every time I use it.