The bailout will be sold as protecting retirement funds, even though the median 401k balance is far lower than the average and even though people nearing retirement should have a higher mix of bonds instead of stocks anyway.
The predictable result of a "kingdom" ruled by an overgrown baby, who got put into power because it benefits other countries who need the oil to keep flowing. All the consulting and contracting dollars made along the way are a huge plus for those other countries duping the baby king. They've been duped by consultants for decades on idiotic projects like crop circles which suck up huge amounts of water to produce food at a higher price than they could get it imported using the very limited water which will not be replenished. They were sold on the idea of food independence, but it's idiotic to tap into those reserves when you can import the food for cheaper. Keep the reserve in case food imports jump up in price! Now they've used up much of those reserves and won't have it available for such an emergency, but the king of the time trusted the American consultants and enjoyed fluff pieces printed in American newspapers talking about how he's such a visionary (sound familiar?) for pursuing this.
When the oil money runs out, they'll be back to fighting over dunes of sand. It's a damn shame because that money could've done so much good, but instead it went into feeding the egos of a bunch of "princes".
I've heard a major cost of glass is the comparative weight causing more cost for fuel in transport. Perhaps as electric vehicles become more practical for hauling goods, we could see a return to more glass use in the near future as the difference in fuel cost could be negligible then.
Isn't the microplastic problem increased with biodegradability since that's what they typically degrade into? If replicators can do the recycling effectively, there doesn't seem to be a need for something to be biodegradable.
I wonder what wonder material they replace plastics with in the future. Sometimes I think of how much plastic is in everything and how entire things (like takeout) would be impractical or at least a lot more difficult without the cheap durability of plastic.
Unpopular opinion but I agree. Maybe I don't hang around enough stinky people, but I've encountered far more instances of punch-in-the-face perfume/cologne than body odor.
Advancing tech was sold as a way to make all our lives better. Here is an instance of tech making our lives better, but instead companies dismiss it because the real purpose of tech for the capital class is control.
You're so right, support for genocide was just a minor mark against perfection. Keep compromising, soon you'll be agreeing that democrats shouldn't fight for marriage equality because some other issue is on the table and we shouldn't let perfect be the enemy of slightly better than rabid nazis.
The idea that spending on coffee or avocado toast or whatever single food/drink item is causing a widespread drop in home ownership is idiotic enough, but this absolute moron managed to pick something with hard evidence of declining sales.
That's because the democrats are not much of an opposition and when they've been given votes, they don't do much with them, which is one reason why they have trouble getting those votes in the first place. They insist on catering to republican-lites (i.e. moderate fascists) and insist that when in power they should "work with" (i.e. bend over for) republicans.
Vice President Kamala Harris was asked by the co-hosts of The View on Tuesday whether she would have done anything differently than President Biden, responding "not a thing comes to mind," before coming back to the question and adding that she plans to appoint a Republican to her Cabinet if she is elected in November.
So she was fine with all the support for genocide, but thought we needed more republican influence in government. Even when democrats spell this out clearly, you insist that the problem is we're just not voting hard enough.
The non-corrupt ones are a tiny minority and get drowned out by well-funded opposition. If the tide even hints at turning then the billionaires turn to straight-up fascism, as we're seeing now.
We don't have a democracy, we have a system where you can only choose which representative for billionaires you dislike the least. They're all corrupt, any that aren't are quickly drowned out by well-funded opposition.
hark @ hark @lemmy.world Posts 5Comments 2,979Joined 2 yr. ago 
After so many years of financial education being "save early, save often" and "put your money in index funds to diversify" and "historically the US stock market has only gone up over long enough periods of time" there is a sizeable amount of retirement funds riding on this bubble. In the year 2000, the average 401k balance was a little under $60k (https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-aug-14-fi-33836-story.html) and that has now ballooned to $326k (https://www.empower.com/the-currency/life/average-401k-balance-age).
The bailout will be sold as protecting retirement funds, even though the median 401k balance is far lower than the average and even though people nearing retirement should have a higher mix of bonds instead of stocks anyway.