May the great worker shortage of 2021 never end. The supply shortages are fake news. Here in NJ the shelves are well stocked with items.
- SuperJail Warden
- Gone Forever
- +648|4024
Truckers, port workers vent as supply chain frustration mounts: 'A lot of us are willing to work'
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/tr … ar-AAPYeDU
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/tr … ar-AAPYeDU
- SuperJail Warden
- Gone Forever
- +648|4024
I read the whole article.unnamednewbie13 wrote:
Truckers, port workers vent as supply chain frustration mounts: 'A lot of us are willing to work'
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/tr … ar-AAPYeDU
What do you think of doing this?
On the one hand it would be a better use of the national guard than having them clear building in Baghdad.The Biden administration is also considering calling on the National Guard to help transport some of the cargo. If they’re activated, it would mark the latest in a series of unprecedented deployments for its members.
“Please send the National Guard because that will be a big solution,” Rameriz said.
On the other hand it would be unfair to send these national guard guys to drive cargo while not paying them the fair market value for the work.
Hmm, maybe driving cargo could be good military logistics training and also provide job training?
pretty sure the military have their own HGV and big truck logistics training and service branches. there's certainly plenty of qualified military personnel in the UK for our own supply crisis, anyway. turns out that driving around lots of military hardware, ordnance and killer vehicles takes specialist training.
- SuperJail Warden
- Gone Forever
- +648|4024
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/23/worl … tages.htmlAs the global economy heats up and tries to put the pandemic aside, a battle for the young and able has begun. With fast-track visas and promises of permanent residency, many of the wealthy nations driving the recovery are sending a message to skilled immigrants all over the world: Help wanted. Now.
In Germany, where officials recently warned that the country needs 400,000 new immigrants a year to fill jobs in fields ranging from academia to air-conditioning, a new Immigration Act offers accelerated work visas and six months to visit and find a job.
Canada plans to give residency to 1.2 million new immigrants by 2023. Israel recently finalized a deal to bring health care workers from Nepal. And in Australia, where mines, hospitals and pubs are all short-handed after nearly two years with a closed border, the government intends to roughly double the number of immigrants it allows into the country over the next year.
Disgusting.
Finally, labor has the upper hand but now they want to bring in immigrants.
Thats how the system works.SuperJail Warden wrote:
Finally, labor has the upper hand but now they want to bring in immigrants.
Here they want to bring in 4 million to 'raise productivity', 2m of which will go to Sydney which is already hopelessly overcrowded and inefficient.
Fuck Israel
capitalism has always wanted to enlist migrant labour. they are cheap, plentiful, have barely any legal rights or union representation.
i'm sure you can't wait to pick up a second job in a 'mine, hospital ward or pub' macbeth.
aren't you newly unemployed dilbert? you could always go down a mine or change trachy tubes on a covid ward to spite those brown people and keep them out of a job.
i'm sure you can't wait to pick up a second job in a 'mine, hospital ward or pub' macbeth.
aren't you newly unemployed dilbert? you could always go down a mine or change trachy tubes on a covid ward to spite those brown people and keep them out of a job.
Yes I am, I've redeveloped the garden, cleared my shed, sold some equipment, tidied my shares, applied for a few jobs.
Could get a mine job, dirty and dangerous but great pay, I'd rather work from home.
Could get a mine job, dirty and dangerous but great pay, I'd rather work from home.
Fuck Israel
https://twitter.com/ParSpec/status/1462 … 92648?s=20
there's really not enough talk about just how deeply weird and fanatical the crypto-currency lot is.
imagine taking 2 minutes to pay for a beer in el salvador, which necessitates an incredible volatile (and expensive) currency, an internet connection, and a vast blockchain network that burns up half the planet ... when you can just use .. cash ... you know, that untraceable, anonymous currency that is ideal for simple transactions.
these guys are spending fractions of a $20,000 currency in 2021 to get beer from a tap. i was buying exotic entheogens and having them moped-delivered to my door in a quicker timeframe back in 2009. bAsEd.
there's really not enough talk about just how deeply weird and fanatical the crypto-currency lot is.
imagine taking 2 minutes to pay for a beer in el salvador, which necessitates an incredible volatile (and expensive) currency, an internet connection, and a vast blockchain network that burns up half the planet ... when you can just use .. cash ... you know, that untraceable, anonymous currency that is ideal for simple transactions.
these guys are spending fractions of a $20,000 currency in 2021 to get beer from a tap. i was buying exotic entheogens and having them moped-delivered to my door in a quicker timeframe back in 2009. bAsEd.
The crypto market is a weird one and I wonder how many years it'll last. The underlying technology is fantastic but doesn't need cryptocurrencies attached to it to be of use. It's purely and only a speculation market, and perhaps early investment for projects that aren't mature enough for an actual stock market launch. It's basically like kickstarter in a sense.
25% of young koreans have heavy investment in crypto. in a society where the price of property has inflated to a fantastical degree in 1-2 generations, even a respectable job at a samsung or hyundai won't give a worker an adequate salary to buy in seoul. speculation on stocks, and in particular crypto, is rampant. it's crazy here.
i've met a guy with an amazing city-centre apartment, and in the 2nd room he has 3 aircon units and 25+ nvidia GPUs.
it'll all come down like the hindenburg.
i've met a guy with an amazing city-centre apartment, and in the 2nd room he has 3 aircon units and 25+ nvidia GPUs.
it'll all come down like the hindenburg.
Last edited by uziq (2021-11-24 05:07:18)
It's the same in major cities in the EU. Average appartment prices have been rising spectacularly in the last few years. Last year average prices soared by up to 20% in several cities. You're right that even a good salary can't keep up with that pace.
There has to be a downturn at some point though. When appartments are only affordable to the richest 1-10% in a country, eventually you have to get to a moment when supply outstrips demand. It's impossible for this market to keep rising by 10% each year if average income lags behind significantly.
As for investments, I have some crypto myself but haven't made profits from it tbh. My stocks are doing much better. I also found it necessary to invest esp. as there is no interest on normal savings anymore. I just keep a cash buffer on the side to cover unforeseen expenses and that's about it.
There has to be a downturn at some point though. When appartments are only affordable to the richest 1-10% in a country, eventually you have to get to a moment when supply outstrips demand. It's impossible for this market to keep rising by 10% each year if average income lags behind significantly.
As for investments, I have some crypto myself but haven't made profits from it tbh. My stocks are doing much better. I also found it necessary to invest esp. as there is no interest on normal savings anymore. I just keep a cash buffer on the side to cover unforeseen expenses and that's about it.
"Internet" banks offer better interest on savings accounts than traditional banks these days.
I have a small amount in crypto. It's appreciated by 1000% in the last 12 months, but it's not a life-changing amount.
I have a pretty aggressive investment plan for my 401k because I want to retire within the next 20 years, and I have a TD account that I play around with for fun, but I've already seen 3 stock market crashes in my life and technically have lived through 4, so I am forever pessimistic about the stock market being a good place to build wealth.
I have a small amount in crypto. It's appreciated by 1000% in the last 12 months, but it's not a life-changing amount.
I have a pretty aggressive investment plan for my 401k because I want to retire within the next 20 years, and I have a TD account that I play around with for fun, but I've already seen 3 stock market crashes in my life and technically have lived through 4, so I am forever pessimistic about the stock market being a good place to build wealth.
Not touching crypto, equally I know two people who have made real cash fortunes.
Its a ponzi scheme, so many people are going to lose huge.
Its a ponzi scheme, so many people are going to lose huge.
Fuck Israel
Regulation might be the end of it. There's increasingly serious talk of banning mining in the EU and perhaps even exchanges/ownership at some point.
Does anyone know what mining is yet?
There is no way an encrypted blockchain however complex actually needs 0.1% of that processing power.
There is no way an encrypted blockchain however complex actually needs 0.1% of that processing power.
Fuck Israel
the point of all the processing power is that you mine exponentially more and thus make more.
my grasp of it is admittedly pretty shaky. it all seems like a fad to me (NFTs are the most obvious fucking example).
we had some touring-circuit consultant come into our publishing house two years ago to give us a talk about how we could switch all of our legal contracts/licensing process and even invoicing to blockchain. erm, okay, but ... why? it's not really clear to me why businesses need to switch to decentralized platforms. isn't it ... erm, fine for a business/corporation to have a centralized legal department and record-keeping?
iirc there's only a finite amount of bitcoin which can be mined. or something. so the whole mining/GPU pumping phase will die out. at least i think i read that somewhere. honestly i mostly avoid write-ups on crypto as it seems to inspire fanaticism/revulsion and little level-headed analysis.
my grasp of it is admittedly pretty shaky. it all seems like a fad to me (NFTs are the most obvious fucking example).
we had some touring-circuit consultant come into our publishing house two years ago to give us a talk about how we could switch all of our legal contracts/licensing process and even invoicing to blockchain. erm, okay, but ... why? it's not really clear to me why businesses need to switch to decentralized platforms. isn't it ... erm, fine for a business/corporation to have a centralized legal department and record-keeping?
iirc there's only a finite amount of bitcoin which can be mined. or something. so the whole mining/GPU pumping phase will die out. at least i think i read that somewhere. honestly i mostly avoid write-ups on crypto as it seems to inspire fanaticism/revulsion and little level-headed analysis.
Mine what though? How would there only be a finite amount?
How does a GPU spinning away make free money?
Minecraft makes more tangible goods.
How does a GPU spinning away make free money?
Minecraft makes more tangible goods.
Fuck Israel
erm, i don't know if you're new to capitalism, or in particular high-tech, speculative capitalism, but a great deal of 'value' and money is sloshing around the world system based on intangibles. (try and get your head around NFTs, in which people are seriously exchanging $100,000s of dollars to, erm, have their name in the metadata of a JPG or GIF or whatever ... which can be saved/copied an infinite number of times, by anybody, when the metadata 'ownership' is wholly fucking irrelevant. it's seriously like paying thousands of dollars, not to own a print reproduction of a famous original painting, but to own a fucking JPEG of the painting, which you could CTRL+S from google images whenever you want.)
i don't know how the bitcoin blockchain was set-up, likely the whole thing would be over my head if i did try to read into it, but it makes pretty cogent sense to limit currency supply. you can't mine infinite money forever and still expect it to hold off inflation/devaluation in the long-term.
nobody would speculate on or invest in bitcoin if there was an infinite amount out there, waiting to be mined, would they? you'd be better off investing in the mining farms rather than the end-product. if the gold supply was infinite, i doubt it would be used as a standard of value, either.
i suppose it seems counter-intuitive because 'money doesn't grow on trees', but in this case real-world value really is magically summoned out of the ether. but the GPUs are doing 'work' for which you are being paid in the currency native to that blockchain work.
with regards to 'what is the mining really doing with all that processing?', which sounds as if you suspect some sort of weird conspiracy, my understanding is: as the blockchain ledger gets ever longer – every single transaction ever made with it is hardcoded into it, like a giant till receipt – then it requires more and more computational power to encrypt/decrypt, more and more local copies to be circulated, etc. that's why it's 'decentralized' and apparently 'takes power back' from financial institutions: literally every single bitcoin user can take possession of the entire ledger of transactions. in fact, it's necessary for them to have this entire record, as no transaction can be authenticated unless the two parties' records match. it's one of the ways they keep it 'secure'.
this whole mining thing has its antecedents. don't you remember in the peak hey-day of bf2s, when lots of nerds were voluntarily giving their CPU/GPU power up for 'folding@home' computation? there were a bunch of collectively organised science projects in the 2000s that crowdsourced computational power in order to decode DNA, or look into cancer cell structure, or something. nerds did it back then for social kudos and bragging rights, with those ubiquitous forum signatures. nowadays miners get 'paid' with a small 'token', which happens to have become a great speculative bubble.
i don't know how the bitcoin blockchain was set-up, likely the whole thing would be over my head if i did try to read into it, but it makes pretty cogent sense to limit currency supply. you can't mine infinite money forever and still expect it to hold off inflation/devaluation in the long-term.
nobody would speculate on or invest in bitcoin if there was an infinite amount out there, waiting to be mined, would they? you'd be better off investing in the mining farms rather than the end-product. if the gold supply was infinite, i doubt it would be used as a standard of value, either.
i suppose it seems counter-intuitive because 'money doesn't grow on trees', but in this case real-world value really is magically summoned out of the ether. but the GPUs are doing 'work' for which you are being paid in the currency native to that blockchain work.
with regards to 'what is the mining really doing with all that processing?', which sounds as if you suspect some sort of weird conspiracy, my understanding is: as the blockchain ledger gets ever longer – every single transaction ever made with it is hardcoded into it, like a giant till receipt – then it requires more and more computational power to encrypt/decrypt, more and more local copies to be circulated, etc. that's why it's 'decentralized' and apparently 'takes power back' from financial institutions: literally every single bitcoin user can take possession of the entire ledger of transactions. in fact, it's necessary for them to have this entire record, as no transaction can be authenticated unless the two parties' records match. it's one of the ways they keep it 'secure'.
this whole mining thing has its antecedents. don't you remember in the peak hey-day of bf2s, when lots of nerds were voluntarily giving their CPU/GPU power up for 'folding@home' computation? there were a bunch of collectively organised science projects in the 2000s that crowdsourced computational power in order to decode DNA, or look into cancer cell structure, or something. nerds did it back then for social kudos and bragging rights, with those ubiquitous forum signatures. nowadays miners get 'paid' with a small 'token', which happens to have become a great speculative bubble.
Last edited by uziq (2021-11-24 22:55:04)
Well if you believe any of that then I have some magic beans to sell you.
You can earn beans by tallying the entire number of beans in the world and who has them.
Or you can pay cash, I also take cash.
The beans aren't actually magic and don't even exist, it doesn't matter.
Better get in quick, the supply of beans is fixed by me and finite.
You can earn beans by tallying the entire number of beans in the world and who has them.
Or you can pay cash, I also take cash.
The beans aren't actually magic and don't even exist, it doesn't matter.
Better get in quick, the supply of beans is fixed by me and finite.
Fuck Israel
'value' as a concept is all about mutual belief and trust. what makes a painting worth £3000? or £15,000,000, a few years later with some change in critics/public opinion or career retrospective? it's worth that much because the market's buyers and sellers agree it is. poof! value from nothing.
you're pretending like the world is organized on a medieval barter system, or as if value derives directly from labour, like ricardo outlined in the early 19th century. the whole premise of capitalism, and the whole profit motive, is based on exchange value, a phantasmal 'extra' that's added onto the materially reducible (i.e. to costs, labour, effort) use value.
you should read marx. he wrote literal entire books on this distinction.
and i still can't quite believe you're astonished at this 'but it doesn't really exist!' thing. your own bank balance doesn't really exist. there isn't a room somewhere deep in your bank's vaults where your entire fortune is piled up in actual cash. our finances are now 0's and 1's in the banking system. how are you confused by people paying money for nonexistent things? has the last 20 years passed you by? MP3s don't exist. in-game items and lootboxes don't exist. these things are huge industries now.
the value of cash itself, fiat currency, literally DOES NOT EXIST. what makes this piece of paper worth £50 but that one £5? it's definitely not nicer paper, and it didn't cost more to make. it's literally a token with no inherent value: we mutually agree it is worth something. capEESH?
you're pretending like the world is organized on a medieval barter system, or as if value derives directly from labour, like ricardo outlined in the early 19th century. the whole premise of capitalism, and the whole profit motive, is based on exchange value, a phantasmal 'extra' that's added onto the materially reducible (i.e. to costs, labour, effort) use value.
you should read marx. he wrote literal entire books on this distinction.
and i still can't quite believe you're astonished at this 'but it doesn't really exist!' thing. your own bank balance doesn't really exist. there isn't a room somewhere deep in your bank's vaults where your entire fortune is piled up in actual cash. our finances are now 0's and 1's in the banking system. how are you confused by people paying money for nonexistent things? has the last 20 years passed you by? MP3s don't exist. in-game items and lootboxes don't exist. these things are huge industries now.
the value of cash itself, fiat currency, literally DOES NOT EXIST. what makes this piece of paper worth £50 but that one £5? it's definitely not nicer paper, and it didn't cost more to make. it's literally a token with no inherent value: we mutually agree it is worth something. capEESH?
Last edited by uziq (2021-11-24 23:03:53)
OK so I'll put you down for $100,000 of beans, I guess you'll take out a loan.
I have an NFT JPEG of my dick, shall we say $300,000?
Payment in cash only, no beans or bitcoins.
I have an NFT JPEG of my dick, shall we say $300,000?
Payment in cash only, no beans or bitcoins.
Fuck Israel
NFT's do push my credulity past breaking point, they seem pretty transparently like money-laundering schemes to me, just the latest in a long line of rich-person schemes (the art collecting market in general can be worked by wily agents and unscrupulous auction houses).
but, yes, the idea of vaporous and imaginary currencies, intangibles having real worth, etc, is not exactly new.
the cash system evidently works because we all consent to it. but try paying with an old note, or a scottish note in london, and you'll soon see how much 'intrinsic' value that piece of paper/polymer has. like bitcoins, these are just fungible tokens, promissory notes. 'fiat' currencies literally spell that out, fiat being latin for a promise of something to be done. cash stands in place of real value; it has no value itself. we're all trading in intangible, made-up value all the time, when you actually think about it.
i'm highly skeptical of bitcoin for technical reasons, not to mention the whole apparatus of dodgy libertarian politics that seems to have been pinned on it, with promises of alternative societies and living-off-the-grid, etc, etc. and it's obviously a speculative bubble quite divorced from all reality, but what's new with that? almost every aspect of the stock market is entirely divorced from material reality nowadays. look at the major disruptions during the trump presidency, or even with covid itself: real people were losing their jobs left right and centre and yet the stock market was performing phenomenally well.
forex or currency trading itself seems like a shysters game to me. don't have any interest in it.
but, yes, the idea of vaporous and imaginary currencies, intangibles having real worth, etc, is not exactly new.
the cash system evidently works because we all consent to it. but try paying with an old note, or a scottish note in london, and you'll soon see how much 'intrinsic' value that piece of paper/polymer has. like bitcoins, these are just fungible tokens, promissory notes. 'fiat' currencies literally spell that out, fiat being latin for a promise of something to be done. cash stands in place of real value; it has no value itself. we're all trading in intangible, made-up value all the time, when you actually think about it.
i'm highly skeptical of bitcoin for technical reasons, not to mention the whole apparatus of dodgy libertarian politics that seems to have been pinned on it, with promises of alternative societies and living-off-the-grid, etc, etc. and it's obviously a speculative bubble quite divorced from all reality, but what's new with that? almost every aspect of the stock market is entirely divorced from material reality nowadays. look at the major disruptions during the trump presidency, or even with covid itself: real people were losing their jobs left right and centre and yet the stock market was performing phenomenally well.
forex or currency trading itself seems like a shysters game to me. don't have any interest in it.
My cash is currently tied up in someone's house and various businesses - loaned out by the bank on my behalf.
Your bitcoins are tied up in an overheating graphics card.
Shares, usually, represent the hypothetical value in 6-12 months time.
Currency trading is easy money if you can predict the future which I can't.
Your bitcoins are tied up in an overheating graphics card.
Shares, usually, represent the hypothetical value in 6-12 months time.
Currency trading is easy money if you can predict the future which I can't.
Fuck Israel
bitcoins were used for transactions all the time prior to the speculative bubble. i bought and used many of them.
the technology was invented as a currency and, prior to being pumped up an astronomical cult, it worked that way. it was no different from cash or any other digital currency in its practical, intended use.
bitcoins aren't 'tied up' in a graphics card, either. they're kept in an encrypted wallet on your hard drive. like you could have currency sitting on a digital banking platform (i do, it's how i manage my finances internationally).
the technology was invented as a currency and, prior to being pumped up an astronomical cult, it worked that way. it was no different from cash or any other digital currency in its practical, intended use.
bitcoins aren't 'tied up' in a graphics card, either. they're kept in an encrypted wallet on your hard drive. like you could have currency sitting on a digital banking platform (i do, it's how i manage my finances internationally).