ysabetwordsmith (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ysabetwordsmith) wrote2021-01-29 08:58 pm
ysabetwordsmith) wrote2021-01-29 08:58 pm
Clipping the Hedge Fund
Here is a rare story about rich people losing. :D Now for the important points...
1) Hedge funds do a lot of harm. We would be better off without them, because it is a gambling problem that hurts everyone, not just the people with a gambling problem.
2) This backlash happened because a bunch of ordinary people objected to a few rich fucks artificially manipulating the system in ways that hurt companies they cared about. So they did something about it. This touches on the original reason why investment was invented: it allows people to pool resources so they can have things nobody could afford individually. Build a marketplace. Buy shares in a trading ship. That sort of thing. Today it can be used to salvage businesses that sell stuff we want or need. This is related to Community Supported Enterprise, just discontiguous rather than local, which is apt for far-flung businesses.
3) We are many, they are few. The inherent flaw of inequality is that it's unstable and vulnerable to attack. By definition, the lower layers must be much larger than the upper layers. Previously, it was difficult to mobilize this mass of potential outside of, say, a revolution. But now we have social media: that makes it much easier.
Congratulations, r/WallStreetBets. You put a new tool in the box. Now it's up to everyone else to notice this and use it again, to block rich fucks from jerking the economy around like an abused dog, so we can defend the businesses that we use.
The economy is just a thing that some people made up. It is what we make of it. As a construct, it has no life of its own. So if you don't like it, do something about that. You have a shiny new tool to stick in it, and gods know there are struggling businesses everywhere. Go tell your friends. This tool only works if enough people apply it together. Kind of like democracy.
1) Hedge funds do a lot of harm. We would be better off without them, because it is a gambling problem that hurts everyone, not just the people with a gambling problem.
2) This backlash happened because a bunch of ordinary people objected to a few rich fucks artificially manipulating the system in ways that hurt companies they cared about. So they did something about it. This touches on the original reason why investment was invented: it allows people to pool resources so they can have things nobody could afford individually. Build a marketplace. Buy shares in a trading ship. That sort of thing. Today it can be used to salvage businesses that sell stuff we want or need. This is related to Community Supported Enterprise, just discontiguous rather than local, which is apt for far-flung businesses.
3) We are many, they are few. The inherent flaw of inequality is that it's unstable and vulnerable to attack. By definition, the lower layers must be much larger than the upper layers. Previously, it was difficult to mobilize this mass of potential outside of, say, a revolution. But now we have social media: that makes it much easier.
Congratulations, r/WallStreetBets. You put a new tool in the box. Now it's up to everyone else to notice this and use it again, to block rich fucks from jerking the economy around like an abused dog, so we can defend the businesses that we use.
The economy is just a thing that some people made up. It is what we make of it. As a construct, it has no life of its own. So if you don't like it, do something about that. You have a shiny new tool to stick in it, and gods know there are struggling businesses everywhere. Go tell your friends. This tool only works if enough people apply it together. Kind of like democracy.
Re: Thoughts
What you or someone else in your group knows how to use; stock for the people you have. If you expect to need something you don't know yet, learn it.
>> I have wondered why folks never seem to declare the 'master suite' with attatched bathroom 'the infirmary suite'... especially in a large house or with a large family.<<
Because you have to go through the bedroom to get there, which is awkward. The common bathroom, unless tiny, is a better choice. Kitchen is another option. Ideally, you want a smooth floor, a sink, and space to move around.
>> Related, I think stores might have better luck finding out about clogged toilets and other embarrassing restroom mishaps if they put up a fine/needs service sign on the door. (Let's face it, whoever reports it is assumed to have messed it up.) <<
Good idea.
At one point, we were meeting somewhere and someone accused our group of having left the bathroom locked with nobody in it. We dealt with that by fetching an employee every time we left and making them verify the door was open. They got tired of that pretty fast and quit bothering us.
I have a half-formed story idea where a the >>Friendly Local Subculture manages to deal with a huge influx of folks by...throwing a potluck party, and putting people up in their disaster bunker/community center. And the official government doesn't notice until they need to find some of the folks being housed, fed, and entertained.<<
Good idea! You should write that, you'd be good at it.
>>I don't envy the problems of the 1800's, but I do envy the fact that when my grandfather was a little boy, he went to these big family reunions with 50-100 people and everyone knew each other and were happy and glad to see each other, and he could have fun playing with a passel of cousins his own age.<<
Yeah, I miss that too. America has gone from extended families to nuclear families to broken families and singles. The result really is not working well. It turns out that loneliness is as lethal as obesity or cigarettes.
>>And official policy is often to call, rather than say drive someone to the ER, because of liability issues. (Source: first aid classes and that one time I had to call 911 for a diabetic emergency where I was volunteering, which is how I learned that they had a policy for that sort of thing.)<<
Official policies are routinely abusive. The problem is, they work once per victim. Someone burned by a $1000 ambulance bill will almost certainly avoid ambulances in the future and will probably tell the horror story to encourage others to avoid it also.
Another example is fire safety advice which often says to abandon your home if there is even a small fire. What happens then? You become homeless and society wants you to die. Better to fight for what you have. Better training would include how to tell if a fire is small enough to fight, how to do that, and when to retreat. Better support would be victim relief funds, counseling, and help recovering from a fire.
So much advice skips the steps where you decide what to do, it tries to force people to make a predetermined ethical decision. But that way lies "just following orders." If people don't develop their decision-making skills, they don't decide, or they make bad choices, and that snowballs into disaster pretty fast. The more decisions society takes away from people, the less safe everyone becomes. Just look at all the bitching about how useless college students are now. It's not their fault they were abused and imprisoned and forcibly prevented from having a life or learning skills. They are blamed for it, but society pays the price.
Re: Thoughts
(Anonymous) 2021-02-02 06:06 am (UTC)(link)I'm thinking more 'can be converted to a long-term infirmary': Grandma broke her hip, or quarantining kids with chicken pox from kids without, etc. I know that a separate bathroom can be very convenient when caring for someone who has mobility issues, needs a lot of medical equipment, shouldn't be around other people and so on...
I'm pretty sure a sufficiently large family would occasionally have contagious illnesses or long-term injury that might warrant the possibility of a more specialized area...
Brief patchups would usually do better in a kitchen or common bathroom.
>>Good idea! You should write that, you'd be good at it.<<
Thanks! Encouragement is nice!
Further food for thought:
-Why does nobody ever seem to have a heart attack, anxiety episode, or broken bone when being kidnapped by the Evil Overlord?
-Evil conquerors ask about kings and weapons, not about cultural dietary restrictions or what kind of toilet people know how to use...which causes interesting problems. ("Okay, what do we do with 100 pounds of opened canned fish?")
>>Better training would include how to tell if a fire is small enough to fight, how to do that, and when to retreat.<<
My rule of thumb is 'If the fire is bigger than you, run!' Of course, even if it is smaller, you should be yelling for everyone who /isn't/ fighting the fire to GTFO and call 911.
And we need a better way to deal with
'All my stuff [including ID] got burned in a fire.'
Re: Thoughts
That typically is handled with a first-floor master bedroom with ensuite. It used to be a common feature, fell out of fashion for decades, and is now returning. And it has a lot of other uses if you don't need an infirmary.
>> Thanks! Encouragement is nice! <<
I love encouraging other creative people to do more stuff.
>> Further food for thought:
-Why does nobody ever seem to have a heart attack, anxiety episode, or broken bone when being kidnapped by the Evil Overlord? <<
Oh, I have written variations of that.
I have one I'd like to do in Terramagne about a superhero who died of an untreated injury because his kidnappers were just that incompetent.
>> -Evil conquerors ask about kings and weapons, not about cultural dietary restrictions or what kind of toilet people know how to use...which causes interesting problems. ("Okay, what do we do with 100 pounds of opened canned fish?") <<
Yeah, but I find it hilarious when they ignore local advice and get bitten on the ass, sometimes literally.
For years, people in India and Africa had warned scientists about spitting cobras and nobody believed them. Then one day a team ran screaming out of the bush, "The cobra spit at us! The cobra spit at us!" "We told you so."
That's never going to stop being funny.
>> My rule of thumb is 'If the fire is bigger than you, run!' <<
Good rule. Also if it's spreading fast.
>> Of course, even if it is smaller, you should be yelling for everyone who /isn't/ fighting the fire to GTFO and call 911. <<
Get out, yes. Call 911? Well, that depends. Do you even have fire coverage? A surprising number of places do not. If you do, is it free at point of service or do you have to pay; and if it costs, can you afford that? If you can't afford it, then you may be better justified in exerting all possible effort to fight the fire, and only calling help if you determine you cannot put it out. Because once they're called, usually you can't cancel and are out the money whether you wind up needing them or not.
It is not a well-designed system in many areas.
>> And we need a better way to deal with
'All my stuff [including ID] got burned in a fire.' <<
Absolutely.
Humans have devolved to really nonrational levels. They laugh at ants carrying a live ant out of the hill if it smells like it's dead, but modern society is exactly like that. Without the paperwork -- whatever anyone demands of you -- there is no way to participate in society and nobody has to help you. They can just let you die.
This is a severe safety issue because a leading tactic in human trafficking and domestic abuse is to take away a person's papers. They might as well take a selkie's skin. O_O If people really cared about stopping those things, they would instead say, "It doesn't matter if you have papers. Get yourself out and come to us. We will punish whoever stole your papers, and get you new ones if we can't find the old ones." But they don't. They support the abusers instead. So that runs up the rate, which is hard on everyone.