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Today, the world is filled with conflict. Part of the problem is oil limits, but there are many other issues as well:
- Resources such as coal, lithium, and copper are also becoming more expensive to extract.
- Fresh water is often inadequate for the world’s rising population.
- Debt levels are very high.
- Complexity is very high.
- An adequate standard of living is becoming unaffordable for many people.
- The increasing world population leads to a need for more food and more paved roads.
These symptoms strongly suggest that the world economy is headed for a slow-motion collapse.
The system causing the problem is physics-based. Without enough affordable energy of the right types, the economy tends to collapse. This is the predicament we are facing today.
What should ordinary citizens do? I am not certain that there is one correct answer, or that I know it. In this post, I would like to offer some suggestions for discussion.
[1] Every day, give thanks for the many things you do have.
We are at the peak of resources per capita. This means that, as a group, we have as many goods and services as any population that has ever lived. We also have lots of natural resources remaining. We have a huge amount of complexity, with many young people receiving university degrees.
It is easy to lose sight of how much we do have. Most readers of this blog eat a variety of food in the quantities desired. We live in homes that are heated in winter. Even today, many people around the world are not as fortunate as we are.
[2] To the extent possible, stay away from conflict yourself.
The physics of the system will create conflict because the system must change if there is no longer enough oil to ship huge amounts of goods and services across the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans. Perhaps a few highly valued goods and services can be shipped long distance, but patterns must change to put the production of goods and services closer to the consumption of goods and services. This is a major reason why countries are quarreling now.
There is no point in individuals strongly objecting to cutbacks in trade because today’s lack of oil supply is demanding these cuts. The only way one country can lessen the impact of the reduced oil supply is to push the reduction in indirect oil consumption onto another country, using quotas or tariffs on its imports of goods and services. Needless to say, pushing other countries down to benefit one’s own country is likely to create conflict.
Another issue is that with reduced oil and other energy supplies, governments cannot continue to provide as many services as they have in the recent past. They need to reduce the number of government workers in many departments. This is the reason for the many cutbacks by the US Department of Government Efficiency and similar cuts in other countries. It also means that benefit programs, such as those aimed at seniors, the disabled, or hurricane relief, will need to be reduced or eliminated in the future.
We can argue about which programs should be cut back first, but ultimately, all government programs will need to be cut back substantially. Just printing money to try to solve the problem will likely lead to inflation; money doesn’t solve the physics problem we are facing. Energy products of the right kinds are needed for every part of GDP; not having sufficient oil is likely to cut back the supply of goods produced using oil products, including food.
If you get involved in protests, or even in war, you will be putting yourself in harm’s way. And, in the long run, you are unlikely to gain significant benefits personally.
[3] Expect declining complexity in the future.
There are many aspects to complexity:
- Much international trade
- Much debt
- Businesses with multiple layers
- Governments providing a wide range of services, including pension plans and health care
- Energy efficient vehicles
- Appliances that are designed to save energy
- Healthcare with many specialized physicians and high-cost drugs
- Agriculture with many hybrid seeds, herbicides, insecticides, and soil amendments
All these types of complexity will need to be scaled back in the future, but we don’t know precisely to what extent or how rapidly. We cannot go back to old solutions because these won’t necessarily be available. For example, we know from the past that if an economy no longer operates with horses and carriages, it will no longer make buggy whips.
We need to expect a rapidly changing world. Complex appliances we own will fail, and we will not be able to obtain replacement parts. Many drugs imported from Asia will no longer be available. Homes purchased with debt will be affordable by fewer and fewer people. We need to be aware of these issues and change our expectations accordingly.
[4] Expect fewer goods and services to be available in the future, and money to have less value.
We are no longer moving to an ever-better world; we are moving (at least for a few years, perhaps much longer) to a shrinking world economy. Do not be surprised if home values drop and stock market values fall.
Saving money for the future makes less and less sense because fewer goods and services will be available to buy in the future. Even saving gold will not necessarily work around the problem of there being fewer goods to buy. For example, farmers and others involved in producing food will likely get food before others, to assure the continued production of food. This will leave less food for others to buy.
Electricity is likely to become intermittent in the years ahead. It would seem wise to stay away from purchasing condominiums that can only be accessed by elevators.
[5] Focus on the present, not the past or the future.
In our current world, great stress is placed on planning for the future. For example, workers are encouraged to save for retirement, and young people are encouraged to take courses that will allow them to work in a well-paying occupation for the long term. This plan assumes that that the upward trend we have seen in the past will continue. We also expect that governments will be able to make good on their promises.
But we really cannot expect this pattern to continue for the long term. The best we can hope for is that what we have right now will continue. If a family member is lost, the remaining members will need to pick themselves as quickly as possible and continue as best they can. This is one reason an extended family is helpful in Africa. Such an approach will increasingly be helpful elsewhere.
Fossil fuels have made retirement possible. As fossil fuel availability declines, retirement is less likely to be available. Everyone will need to work as long as they are physically available. Thus, saving for retirement becomes a less useful goal.
[6] Living in groups, particularly family groups, will increasingly make sense.
When things were going well, and wages of most educated people were high, it made sense for many people to live by themselves. If they had an argument with their spouse, picking up and leaving might sound like a sensible idea. The job of each spouse would be sufficient to pay for housing for each separately.
As the economy goes downhill, people will need to live in more compact housing in order to save on heating and transportation expenses. Multiple generations will increasingly need to live together. In the case of singles, they will increasingly need to band together. Government programs will likely not be sufficient to provide separate living arrangements for a mother with children or for elderly individuals in care homes.
[7] Young people should not go into debt for higher education.
At this point, the US has educated far too many people with college degrees (and beyond) relative to the number the economy can afford to hire. With declining complexity, adding more college-educated workers to the pool makes little sense.
A better choice for most young people is a short course or certificate program leading to a useful skill, such as appliance repair or becoming a licensed practical nurse. Apprentice programs may also make sense.
If families are wealthy enough to pay for their children’s education, a few people with advanced degrees will probably be needed. There may be some solutions to today’s problems that can be tackled by these individuals.
[8] People will need to be more flexible in their career choices.
As the economy changes, job availability will change. Demand for workers in many of today’s high-paying careers will likely decline. For example, fewer specialty physicians will be needed. There will also be a need for fewer college professors, fewer stock market analysts, and fewer computer programmers.
The most immediate new jobs will involve the demolition of infrastructure that is no longer needed, such as movie theaters, shopping malls, office buildings, and many homes. Some materials will likely be saved for reuse elsewhere. This may involve heavy labor. Smaller, more local stores or open-air markets may open. Jobs previously held by immigrants picking vegetables and fruit will also be available.
How does a person step down from a high-paid desk job to a low-paid manual labor job? I don’t know. But, somehow, we need to be thinking through this issue.
[9] People should focus on taking care of their own health through healthy eating and adequate exercise.
I expect the healthcare industry will be forced to change. One part of the problem will be fewer imported drugs and medical devices; another will be that most people will be less wealthy. They will not be able to afford the enormous costs of today’s bloated US healthcare system. Somehow, the system will need to shrink back.
Fortunately, there is a way that people can become healthier, despite lower spending. People can cook their own food, instead of buying over-processed food available from grocery stores and restaurants. They can eat less meat than the average American eats, and they can stay away from sugary soft drinks. They can exercise more. Part of this exercise can take place by walking to more local markets.
[10] Planting a modest garden, as far as this is possible, is probably a good idea.
Most people do not have sufficient land to plant very much in the way of food crops. In fact, a large share of my readers probably lives in apartment buildings. And most young people, attempting to live on their own, will not have space to grow food crops. The cost of buying land is likely to be high, and property taxes will need to be paid.
If space is available on property that is already owned, fruit trees that grow and bear fruit without the need for pesticide spraying are a good choice. These trees will likely take several years to get started. Potatoes are another reasonable choice, as are vegetables in general.
It is not clear to me that people who set out to operate a self-sufficient farm will have much success. They require a complex infrastructure to support them. Such farms are very vulnerable to robbers and generally don’t have good backup plans if something goes wrong, such as the farmer becoming injured. I wish these individuals success in their endeavors, but I am not optimistic that these farms will succeed beyond their first major setback. We need a bridge to sustainable agriculture, but it is hard for me to see one right now.
[11] Concluding Observation: Why standing back from conflict is a suitable approach.
Most people have a completely mistaken idea regarding what oil limits will look like. They assume that oil limits will lead to very high prices or long lines at gasoline stations. They fail to appreciate that oil limits will arrive at the same time as many other limits, including affordability limits. They also fail to understand that prices that are too low for producers will bring down oil production quickly. In fact, too low oil prices, rather than too high, are the issue the world is facing today.
What oil limits really lead to is lots of conflict: among nations, among political parties, among people who feel that it is unfair that they have spent a lot of money on an advanced education but cannot find a job that pays well enough to repay their education-related debt with interest. As limits of many kinds mentioned in the beginning of this post are hit, today’s economy will need to greatly shrink back in size. Many governmental structures that we expect today, including the EU, the World Bank, and the UN, may disappear.
We don’t know precisely what is ahead over the longer term. Some people believe a religious ending is likely. Other people think that some of the research that is currently underway may eventually lead to a solution. Still others are concerned that some parts of the world will need to shrink back to a very low level, perhaps similar to hunter-gathering, before these economies can grow again.
Regardless of how things play out, it is the physics of the self-organizing system that determines what happens next. No matter how offended we as individuals may feel regarding what some political party or politician has done or has not done, individuals are not able to fix the system, except to the extent that available inexpensive energy supply allows such a fix. This is why standing back from whatever conflict is taking place seems to me to be a suitable strategy.
https://youtu.be/hf5kF-wBx8Q?si=cJKvT4d3kEsmjjcX
This is why stock markets are going up. He says the dollar is going to be stronger in the downturn.
Brent Johnson doesn’t realize that the world economy at some point seems likely to stop growing and start shrinking. The asset growth pattern he has seen in the past (and he is counting on in the future) is likely to disappear. The asset growth pattern reflects the growth pattern of the world economy. High tech goods producers have done especially well.
But I agree. Investing in dollars isn’t a great idea, either. Even though people tend to flock to the US dollar when the US is busy bailing out its economy, this isn’t something to count on for the long run.
Somehow, we need to be able to grow food and store it until you need it. We need to be able to cook the food. Refrigeration would be nice, but we can’t count on this. How to do this is not obvious. Having some tradable skill would be good, however.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/30/zoo-keeper-injected-elephants-with-ozempic
“There are lots of people in this country who can barely afford to eat. I did right to fat-shame the elephants. They’ll cost less to feed now”, the dismissed keeper argued.
The elephants are more important than the zookeeper
The list of stable hands who were executed for failing the royal stable ready are legion
Despite of the claims of a certain former dentist, human lives are not that important. In a lesser advanced country the zookeeper would have been shot, since he would have been less valuable than the animals in charge.
In the WW3 theater it is important to know the difference between fission bombs and fusion bombs. Fission is small 0.1 megaton, fusion is big 10 megaton. Iran does not even have a fission bomb yet. To design a successful fusion bomb one needs to do testing that can not be hidden. No testing to date.
Interesting!
“ the Israelis have been conspiring against the United States
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from day one we are not their friends we’re their number one intelligence target ask the CIA ask the FBI their
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counter intelligence will tell you the people that carry out more espionage against the United States is Israel jonathan Pard wasn’t an exception he was
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the ruler he just got caught and Americans don’t understand the damage he did he took he stole the crown jewels
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you know if we have an intelligence budget of billions of dollars uh to build special technical tools let’s call
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them satellites um and and we put them overhead if that’s what we do with
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satellites and they collect information if that’s what they do um
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that it’s very I’ll give you an example from the media um Osama bin Laden before
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911 was apparently speaking on a satellite phone and we had identified
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that phone and the specific number we built a satellite
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for that phone so that we could monitor that phone and track that man so we
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could kill that man we built a satellite it cost us a lot of money and we put the
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satellite up into space and when the satellite was launched there was a magazine called uh aviation space and
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weak techn aviation space and
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aviation weak and space technology it’s not like that but um they wrote an article that said and rumor has it that
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this satellite is to track the satellite phone of Osama bin Laden the day that
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article came out that satellite phone went dead it never came back up and we
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have a purpose-built satellite orbiting the Earth doing nothing
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nothing so you know that’s what a crown jewel is
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pard gave away the entire book everything every satellite every system
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everything we did in the world everything we did in the world at great
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cost i’m here to tell you I’ve done operations where guys have spent a year and a half picking apart the the
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frequencies of you know the frequency bands and what each frequency does in the city and if they got caught they get
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killed that’s the kind of stuff lots of money lots of you know guys risking
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their lives guys and gals the crown jewels polar gave it to the Israelis
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and you know what the Israelis did our best friends they sold it to the Soviets
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to release immigrants to come to Israel “?
What is £113bn in the grand scheme of things? I’m not sure if that’s serious money or not…
This is an FT article from 2 weeks ago…
https://www.ft.com/content/a073eff2-e0dc-4934-8515-48fe833b37a1
“Chancellor Rachel Reeves will next week give more details of a £113bn capital spending spree with a 10-year infrastructure plan intended to boost growth in Labour’s heartlands, as ministers geared up for a fight with the party’s backbenchers over welfare cuts.
The chancellor’s allies say her spending review this week — which combined a squeeze on day-to-day spending with a big increase in capital investments — aimed to create a political platform for Labour at the next election.
Reeves has told Labour MPs to “go out and sell” the extra cash going to projects in regions including the north and midlands, as Labour’s high command attempts to halt the rise of Reform UK in working class areas.”
…
Is this:
a) a way of stimulating a flagging economy?
b) a way of generating more debt to stop the system falling over?
c) a political move to appease backbenchers over welfare cuts?
d) a political move to slow the rise of Reform UK?
e) all of the above?
I suppose the saving grace is that it isn’t being spent on weapon systems. Not yet anyway… I saw the laughable commitment to 5% GDP on defence from the recent NATO summit.
It is labeled a “spending spree,” so perhaps people will think of it that way.
Project Nemesis
The project is a legacy UFO program that studies crashed UFOs according to a leaked document (no I don’t know if the document is real).
The document says that the US has 6 crashed and 6 intact objects. The tech is alive. People who come close to the objects lose orientation, are contaminated and forced into quarantine as their psyche and dreams are affected for two weeks. Civilian witnesses at crash sites get the needle.
They have no idea how the objects operate. There is maybe an engine, no fuel, no intake and no exhaust. Maybe gravity something something. There is no cooperation with Russia.
There is sometimes biotech with the crashes. A live small gray “alien” will affect the psyche.
Contact with a real live ET is described as overwhelming. A telepathic voice repeats in the in the head: You are not ready.
“… (no I don’t know if the document is real).”
it’s not real.
I hope that helps!!
The document is in line with what intelligence officer David Grusch said when he testified in front of the Congress: Yes the US has secret legacy UFO programs. Yes they have recovered crashed and intact UFOs and sometimes there have been biological material with the crashes.
The document could be fake anyway.
President Raygun talked at the UN about bringing humanity together with a fake alien invasion. The wheels are coming off of our economic system and they need to prepare the public to be receptive to the alien fakery, which is planned so as to keep the public compliant.
Perhaps the narratives the public are told get farther and farther from the truth.
Former US President Eisenhower ‘met aliens thrice’?
https://www.deccanherald.com/content/227382/former-us-president-eisenhower-met.html
Who’s “they” then Ivan? Got any names for us?
Welcome to the club! 😀 Next comes the Hand.
My best guess is that “they” is Pentagon, intel agencies, and old money banking dynasties that oversee it all.
That would be my best guess also. Globally networked black-ops with the global MICs as the public conduits (fronts) through which they clandestinely operate for the purpose of supranationally managing a supranational civilization. Metaphorically there are the Hand.
I find it odd that aliens drive like drunk teenagers.
Only 12?
“at least one
35:24 or two extraterrestrial vehicles are Target with that weapon and knocked down every year our crash retrieval section you’ll see there’s something like 130 plus crash retrieval”?
They have a very good idea as to the technology because they have repurposed it, which makes project nemesis a limited hangout. Surprise surprise. As I’ve said before the UFO powerplant certainly appears to be a positron electron annihilation engine — gammavoltaic technology — and because of the witness accounts, the earth atmosphere transmission is obviously an anti- gravity forcefield using projected gravitons as powered again by the electric engine. Remember that time slows down the closer you get to the speed of light so sci-fi cryogenic (or whatever) chambers to put you into dormancy are not necessary – or possible.
Over the years, I have often wondered why UFOs and aliens (whether in fiction or in purported “facts”) have a particular affinity to the land mass lying between latitudes 25.84N and 49.38N and longitudes 66.95W and 124.67W that makes up less than 5% of the total land area of the earth! It’s a statistical anomaly, surely 😉
🤣🤣🤣
I am so much looking forward to NYC owning the means of production of food. The farm land, the farm equipment, the grain storage, the milling, the transport companies, the slaughterhouses, … Will they use local labor or ship in labor from the hood?
city owned medical care! city owned pot production and distribution, city owned alcohol production and distribution, city owned Broadway theaters, city owned TV and radio and movies. City owned AI training of MRI reading AGI. The avenues of amusement are endless.
don’t sweat it Ed. NY is going down the drain regardless.
All essential services all across the country will have to be nationalized for the purposes of rationing. That’s just common sense after a terminal financial collapse of capitalism. 2+2=4. Non-market national -scale rationing is socialism. National fascism/capitalism cannot exist during economic collapse because of the growth imperative.
However, because nationalizing the small stuff is like herding cats which is only possible during periods of extended growth, it is also common sense (in accordance with the MPP) that market-based economic activity because allowed to supplement the nationalized system. Which eliminates Marxism from future politics, and leaves only national socialism. And since Hitler rightly insisted that national socialism is the True Left — because it is anti- imperialist and anti-zionist, the young Left in America are going to make excellent national socialists – unbeknownst to themselves of course.
All hail the Hand that doesn’t exist because it pulled off a divine disappearing act.
“since AH rightly insisted that NS is the True Left — because it is anti- imperialist and anti-z-ist”
I’d never heard that before. He regarded his party as neither or left nor right. However, if he thought he was anti- imperialist, he was kidding himself. His German nationalism was foremost as he made an empire of sorts out of his European conquests.
NSDAP’s German nationalism was not based on the industrial nation state definition of nationalism but on the Prussian definition of… Prussia the Second Reich which the Third Reich sought to restore. Allied propaganda regarding Hitler’s ‘imperialism’ was, naturally, based on the former definition and then made mythological by extension and to the absurd point to which Philip K Dick can write a ludicrous novel about so-called ‘nazis’ ruling America if the ‘nazis’ won WW2 and everyone believes it. But that’s the power of holocaust propaganda for you.
Here’s a link to the True Left thing:
https://aryanism.net/politics/foundations-of-the-true-left/
“Spies For Empire: Beware UN-Affiliated Organisations”
A very interesting article about how spies work inside UN affiliated organisation.
The example of AIEA is just the last one.
There is also the story of OCSE obervers who worked for Nato, anticipated by drb (thanks).
They should be closed and so this farce at last can come to an end.
https://www.kitklarenberg.com/p/spies-of-empire-beware-un-affiliated
The documents that Iran now possess have the potential to destroy all of institutions and NGOs that do western bidding(that’s all of them). I’ve wondered from the first attack on Iran, if the real target was the documents.
Now we wait to see how Iran goes about making the knowledge public, or if the documents were destroyed.
Let us not overestimate it Fitz. Destroy them where? in Geneva and NY? They are a bunch of puppets. There may be a slight decrease in access in parts of the Third World, but obviously there will be political assassinations if access is really important (covid style). The BRICS are scoring modest and inconsequential debate points.
“Let us not overestimate it Fitz”
You know I have a huge bias in Iran’s favour, so destroy was probably not the best choice of words.
These organisations live or die by perception.
Once enough people’s perception aligns with the real world, all these organisations fail to be able to spread their lies.
There are now far more people all over the world that will pay attention when Iran speaks.
I think Iran’s show of hard power has enhanced their soft power hugely. I expect to see them using that new power wisely for maximum effect.
Had dinner with my daughter yesterday and her Iranian friend was over during TP2. Big family meet up as the grandfather’s time was almost up. They considered cancelling, but all agreed that if they were going to risk dying, being together one last time was worth it.
I’m still trying to convince her to move there and I might just have an ally in her friend, as she’s been invited. Hope she goes, as I believe it will be too her liking.
Ivan, you describe how it’s been and how we’re taught to believe it will always be. As you know, that’s not really the case, although change is hard to predict, it always happens and there appears to be enough pointers to believe we could be getting a big one(or multiples of).
Again, my bias has always placed big change coming from the region and I don’t have any special knowledge. It just feels like it has been building for the last decade or so, but I won’t predict any timiy(squatters gone by 2027😁).
Yes drb, many people have been deliberately killed during Covid because they were helping to understand the inner scheme of social and psychological manipulation (the one made of a bioweapon but treatable painted as a natural virus. Medical treatments banned. Experimental genetic therapy called vaccination. Digital passports etc.).
In Italy (or with great presence in Italy), I would like to remember Luc Momtagnier, Giuletto Chiesa, Fabio Trinca and also others less known.
But many people were also severly bad treated in hospitals after nurses realized that they had been not vaxed.
Many reports by friends who said about experience soffered by relatives in hospitals.
But that was a consequence of a sort of collaboration made by the victims (vaxed peple) who had been instructed to think that not vaxed people were subnormal and dangerous persons.
A perfect social experiment which showed how normal people can kill with no problems.
And sorry to forget for a second Dr. Giuseppe De Donno, whose Covid blood therapy made of blood tranfusions from recovered people to affected ones has been then succesfully used in Israel (I followed Israeli newspapers during vaccination campaign and it was full of article asking recovered people to go to hospital to donate blood to be given to people with bad health or old age in order to get out from Covid).
Dr. Giuseppe De Donno suffered such a terrible treatment by politicians, journalists and police itself, which entered his clinical lab in hospital for possible criminal actions that he was pushed to suicide.
i am no longer amazed by the sheer complexity and weirdness of conspiracy theories
Those, plus the political leaders (prime ministers or presidents) of cote d’ yvoire, Haiti, swalizilini, tanzania, burundi, and another african state I do not remember. in regard to Iran’s predicament, those are the people forming opinions. It is worth having an african passport if they want to play this game again.
Nothing ever happens, no one ever does anything, no one makes a stand, no one wants to be effective. That’s the lesson I’ve learned over the years.
Thanks everyone for your comments.
I feel like we’re hitting a tipping point where I need to make a decision now because if I wait, the window of possibilities will close rapidly.
The elites will try to control the collapse using every tool at their disposal: war, financial repression (like Europe digging into citizens’ bank accounts), authoritarian measures, and maybe even another manufactured crisis to keep the population afraid. I’ve completely lost trust in governments it’s become a never-ending circus.
And let’s be honest if we were the elite, what would we do?
We’d be discussing geopolitics, economics, and anything that could threaten our power and influence. Just look at the recent Bilderberg meeting their topics say it all:
Transatlantic Relations
Ukraine
US Economy
Europe
Middle East
Authoritarian Axis
Defence Innovation and Resilience
AI, Deterrence, and National Security
Proliferation
Geopolitics of Energy and Critical Minerals
Depopulation and Migration
They’re clearly planning how to stay on top as the world destabilizes. The rest of us need to decide now how to stay free or risk being trapped in whatever system they build next.
As for me, I’m not even sure if Uruguay or Patagonia would really be safer than France.
Personally, I haven’t seen any breakthrough technology that creates more usable energy than it consumes nothing that actually reduces entropy or allows us to extract more from fewer resources. We’re just optimizing within the limits.
I think we’re all on the same ship maybe like the Titanic. Some decks or parts of the ship might sink later than others, but in the end, the whole thing is going down. The key is to figure out where the “stern” is the part that stays afloat the longestand try to be there when it happens.
What is the economy like in Europe when I do a google search it says low unemployment but I’m not sure how it’s really going. I don’t know about the periphery countries. I believe like David says main country with energy will last longer
Europe isn’t doing that well right now. A lot of companies are shutting down for example, some major automotive suppliers like Valeo and Michelin are closing big sites in France (2024). Construction companies are also struggling. I guess we don’t have the same Google search engine 😉. Even Germany is seeing many industrial closures.
Old Europe is basically on life support not just for energy, but also for raw materials and even critical components from Asia in some industries. It’s all deeply interconnected.
Everyone is kind of holding each other by the beard for example, Saudi Arabia may have the world’s largest oil reserves, but they still rely heavily on food imports, mining resources, and tech they can’t produce themselves. If key partner nations collapse, they won’t be able to sustain their high-tech dreams like NEOM.
Same goes for the U.S.
they have a lot of energy, yes, but their infrastructure is highly oil-dependent, and shale oil has a 30% annual decline rate. That’s not sustainable in the long run.
https://www.bfmtv.com/economie/economie-social/union-europeenne/les-defaillances-d-entreprises-au-plus-haut-depuis-10-ans-en-allemagne-les-economistes-craignent-maintenant-des-reactions-en-chaine_AV-202506260415.html
Thanks! yes I am finding strange results from my searches . I thought that was the case but every once in a while I hear how great they are doing in comparison to the U.S . I can’t figure why I am being fed that meme??? It’s nice to hear from people on the ground. I have learned a lot from people on here that I wouldn’t have known otherwise
>> If key partner nations collapse, they won’t be able to sustain their high-tech dreams like NEOM.
A few thoughts:
— Loss of a fantasy isn’t really a loss.
— Some here believe NEOM is just a smokescreen to justify selling US Treasurys, they don’t really plan to build it
— Whatever goods/materials/resources/technologies Saudi needs, they can get just as much, if not better, from Asia, Russia, Africa.
Entropie if I were you, my decision would first rest on how close I am to my family and friends. Because I’m not drawn to survivalism at all costs. If there’s no real, deep loyalty there, with family and friends, then I would broaden my horizons but not necessarily beyond France and just because I don’t like the French politics. Politics is politics wherever you go. The best reason to leave Europe is that you are surrounded by the most dense concentration of nuclear power plants on the planet, and I say that even quasi-believing that a non-public Degrowth Agenda exists for the express purpose of safely decommissioning the industry. The best reason not to leave France is that you’re French, and that counts for an awful lot, especially at this late hour.
As an American I chose this part of the Pacific Northwest because it’s a good balance between loyalty to family and staying clear of the worst of nuclear fallout. Sucks for year round grazing though. The 45th parallel and four month summer droughts do not mix, yet here they do.
My two cents.
I agree with the above comment if you’re gonna die best to die with your own people and go down swinging
👍
I’m sorry to complicate things further, this is just FWIW. I agree that if you are close to family it is best to stay with family because no one will support one another like a close family, especially if they are aligned and see what’s happening and coming.
It is possible for whole families to move.
My wife and I also explored Ecuador. Also a lovely people, and extremely family-oriented. We ruled it out because the disparity in wealth there makes it more risky if things get really bad. Even living on social security you will be perceived as “rich.” However, while there, we stayed at a hacienda near Cotacachi in the Andes that was temporarily being run by a young Swiss man and his wife. He had training in hotel administration in Switzerland, but no job prospects in Switzerland and in any event the cost of living and starting a business was far too high there so he moved to Ecuador, where he met and married his Ecuadorian wife. He and his wife were working on establishing their own business using some investment funds provided by his Swiss parents. He told us that his Swiss parents were looking into to moving to Ecuador because they did not like the way that things were going in Switzerland and in Europe in particular. This is 7 years ago, by the way. They also wanted to be near their son and their eventual grandchildren. People in Latin America still believe in having babies, where it is still financially possible.
I talked with an immigration attorney in Uruguay when I was considering moving there. He told me that a large portion of his inquiries were coming from Western Europe, at least as many as from Canada and the United States. This is 6 years ago.
Whatever you decide, good luck to you, Entropie!
really useful social info there Tagio
thanks
Myself I would caution anyone who has money against basing their collapse decisions, to any degree, in the ‘merits’ of currency arbitrage. That meets the definition of grift, and perceived grifters will not fare well during Collapse. Consider how the illegal economic migrants of in the West are now being perceived, and they are (technically) grifters who are putting themselves at the very bottom of the totem pole. Now consider grifters coming in at the top of the totem pole, from an imperial nation. And moving to the countryside where grift is the opposite of what culture is predicated upon. Respect in country culture is universally predicated upon how hard you work, and with the type of work you do falling within a spectrum of estimation. The more manual labor is involved in the work that you yourself personally do, the higher is the estimation of that work. It’s the opposite of urban culture. And that’s perfect for collapse because if one don’t know how to bust one’s ass pretty much every day and drag oneself back in the house when it gets dark — whether one’s young or whether one’s old — then one had better learn.
The meek shall inherit the earth. That’s a farming axiom btw.
“We now spend $5 on seniors for every $1 on children,” Galloway wrote. “Enough already. Seniors who need Social Security should get it, but it shouldn’t mean an upgrade from Carnival to Crystal Cruises for NaNa and PopPop.”
“At current rates, within a decade, we’ll spend half our federal budget on programs for seniors,” Galloway added.
https://www.thestreet.com/retirement/scott-galloway-reveals-real-social-security-problem-and-the-fix
I wonder how long before the younger generations decide that the problem is not a shortage of oil, but a longage of Boomers.
A longage of non-workers is a big part of the problem, together with an inadequate amount of fossil fuels is the problem.
I expect that healthcare for seniors will be reduced, even before social security.
If we lose fossil fuels, I am afraid an awfully lot will have to change. I am a boomer myself. I have been concerned about this issue for a long time. Keep yourself in good health, so you are not dependent on government programs.
Hmm, that could impact negatively on Rochester, MN real estate.
Dennis L.
From this article a series of posts or rather a repetitive “lecture series” have been posted by this reader “Sound of the Suburbs.” He has a -9000 score, meaning he is downvoted on everything he posts:
But he does have some points although he does not link energy to his discussions and seems to overlook the enabler of wealth disparity is that of the creation of Central Banking, fractional reserve banking, and the Cantillon Effect. In a hunter-gatherer existence, there is no ownership. There is no specialization, thus there is no need for barter or money. Only with specialization, i.e, the inconvenience of trading chickens for horseshoes, does money become required to facilitate trade, and once gold was decided as the best form of money, the Venetian Merchants discovered they could make more money by issuing unbacked printed receipts instead of being paid to store customer’s gold in their vaults and issuing a receipt for only the gold held in their possession. This is where the emergence of the parasite rentiers, the financial gurus, and all the stock brokers came into existence. They just skim wealth off the productive people, and the system created by the Js is a great enabler. We are supporting a huge parasitic load. Useless people from Warren Buffet to Kyle Bass to Peter Schiff to downright fraudulent people like Robert Kiyosaki author of ” Rich Dad Poor Dad” and now the You Tube crowd hawking their expertise. Just pay me 2 and 20 and I’ll make you rich.
he posted early@9 hrs ago as of 5:00 EST on 6-29-2025:
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/chinas-economy-spirals-no-end-sight-says-kyle-bass
Sound of the Suburbs
“The truth has always been the problem.
The inconvenient truth of capitalism.
The classical economists looked at the world around them.
There was no benefits system in those days and the only people that didn’t do anything economically productive existed at the top of society.
“The labour and time of the poor is in civilised countries sacrificed to the maintaining of the rich in ease and luxury. The Landlord is maintained in idleness and luxury by the labour of his tenants. The moneyed man is supported by his extractions from the industrious merchant and the needy who are obliged to support him in ease by a return for the use of his money. But every savage has the full fruits of his own labours; there are no landlords, no usurers and no tax gatherers.” Adam Smith
The classical economists identified the constructive “earned” income and the parasitic “unearned” income.
Most of the people at the top lived off the parasitic “unearned” income and they now had a big problem.
This problem was solved with neoclassical economics, which hides this distinction.
Any serious attempt to study the capitalist system reveals many at the top don’t create any wealth; they just extract money from the system.
They confused making money with creating wealth.
Neoclassical economics was born.
Rentiers make money, they don’t create wealth.
Rentier activity in the economy has been hidden by confusing making money with creating wealth.
Banks create money, not wealth.
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/quarterly-bulletin/2014/money-creation-in-the-modern-economy.pdf
You always get into trouble with banking with neoclassical economics.
Banks create money and they should use that money to create real wealth, not pump up asset prices.
You need to know what wealth really is to use the banking system effectively.
Policymakers trained in neoclassical economics don’t.
Capital – a spurious concept developed by economists who don’t know what wealth really is.
It sounds right, but that’s as far as it goes.”
Well, the word ‘capital’ stems from ‘capi’, or ‘heads’ of livestock, which have an innate generative power, at least to some degree. A problem does arise when the word gets applied to non-regenerating resources, like buildings.
Interesting point. Except when there is a lot of inflation, buildings seem to be worth more, even if physically they are deteriorating.
What would happen in Europe with their health care? It seems like they are more vulnerable than the U.S . Although probably not as much waste.
An awfully lot of medicines come from China/India. That, by itself, is likely a big problem.
There are diminishing returns to health care expenditures. At a minimum, they need to be cut way back.
The sstock markets is just about to crash so expect a major reduction in benefits to all.
socia benefits to everyone after entireley dependent on cheap surplus enegy—as that falls away, our expected ”befits” will vanish….
we will then return to our normal standard of living…
which was never very pleasant
Nble” orman, you gave us all a reality check. Without surplus fuels, mainly so called fossil, most do not realize how incredibly hard life will be day to day.
For us privilege commenters here we will have a reality 2 by 4 across the noggin..Kulmie included, no matter what “Noble”birth right status
Most posters here are older and they wpuld rather maintain the current arrangement
Some people talk about Anti-Gravity Propulsion, which enables interstellar travel; Zero Point Energy and Wireless Energy; Regenerative Treatment; Magnetic transportation ; etc.
I am not going to argue whether they are feasible or not. But let’s say humanity had these.
I have said a few times that Type I Civ and biology cannot go together.
Humankind has to shed their biology and abandon all emotions.
If the current humans had such tech they would mess everything up even further.
Matt Savinar, who was a famous peak oiler in around 2006, compared it to this – if some loser has $10,000 he would just blow it on himself, but if he has $1 billion he will destroy himself nevertheless but will take everyone around him as well.
No more bullshit like ‘doing the duty’ is tolerable. One’s family, country, or whatnot is less important than Type I Civ, but humans are too emotional to understand that.
Someone still insists upon throwing away the waste at Jupiter. Whether that is feasible or not is not important for him – he thinks with the added tech humans can continue their animalistic tendency and not get punished.
I personally think it is time for humans to be punished for not abandoing their animalistic tendency in time.
The real problem of humanity is the following: We have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions and godlike technology. – Edward O. Wilson
Common sense may be a little lacking, as well.
Last sentence is secondary to biology and sentience. It is that way because God wanted it that way. That is not a good battle to fight.
Dennis L.
once the crash comes humanities true colours will shine through I can see Unityand no longer division there will be pain and suffering on a grand scale but before long organisation will occur as food and shelter become our number one preoccupation nothing will be wasted in this new world and life expectancy will shrink
I hear Israel is seeking 17B worth of Patriots and other AD weapons from US taxpayers. Gail has warned for a long time that 17B can be always printed, but there may not be 17B worth of those goods.
Also I am surprised that they are going that way. The next wave is going to be all hypersonics, and the Patriots do not work against those. The radar waves specifically (which I assume are in the few cm range) get absorbed by the plasma surrounding a speeding hypersonic. And there are sufficient videos to show that they could not stop subsonic salvos anyway. At what point does Tel Aviv become unlivable?
See this doomy piece about the Iran-Israel conflict:
https://www.theburningplatform.com/2025/06/29/heres-proof-that-israel-lost-the-war/#more-370698
The article says the real reason why Israel wanted a cease fire is because Israel was clearly losing badly. A cease-fire would stop the pain. True found a diplomatic off-ramp for Israel.
Israel forbids posting pictures showing the real destruction in Israel. This hides the problem from others.
I find this view easy to believe. This is the most likely reason any country would voluntarily agree to stop.
I am puzzled that youtube allows posting of Tel Aviv and Haifa destruction. I did not expect that. There are some real cracks within the elite.
Because the elites are pushing for no misinformation to stamp out lies they are in love with transmission of “honest information” in order to further their agenda which is almost certainly another attempt at tthe depopulation of the human race . Yes the elites have an ulterior motive for this transparency.
Here a very interesting interview about this subject.
Wowser, this is fun to watch. I doubt Morning Joe was expecting this answer to his question.
https://x.com/JeanJacquesDes7/status/1938632067778318522?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1938632067778318522%7Ctwgr%5E33be3fa9bc49c675016909036aa70ae0943cdd7c%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nakedcapitalism.com%2F2025%2F06%2Flinks-6-29-2025.html
This fellow is arguing that higher tax rates affecting the wealthy (capital gains etc. will solve the wage/wealth disparity problem. In fact, he thinks that all of the complexity of the tax code has acted to benefit of the wealthy.
Maybe so, but the underlying problem is the need for all of the complexity because of an inadequate amount of cheap energy per capita being available. It was the cheap energy that temporarily allowed the growth of a middle class. Now that we are losing this cheap energy, as I see it, we are losing our middle class.
And now for something completely different, from the land that brought us Monty Python. Putin is keeping the Earth from meeting aliens. I kid you not. When you need a laugh, this is the best article of the day. How awesome is it that we can now read the minds of space aliens whom we never communicated with, and know what they are thinking?
https://x.com/JeanJacquesDes7/status/1938632067778318522?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1938632067778318522%7Ctwgr%5E33be3fa9bc49c675016909036aa70ae0943cdd7c%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nakedcapitalism.com%2F2025%2F06%2Flinks-6-29-2025.html
Sorry, here’s the correct link to the Putin / space alien article
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-news/vladimir-putins-war-threats-aliens-26017787
The job market in 2025 is rough, and many people are finding it harder than ever to get hired. Companies are cutting back on new positions, and when jobs do open up, there are so many people applying that it’s tough to stand out. Even experienced workers are struggling to find opportunities, and new graduates are having an especially hard time getting their foot in the door. Entry-level jobs often ask for more experience than young people have, and it leaves them feeling stuck. A lot of workers are being forced to take part-time or temporary jobs just to get by. It’s a frustrating and uncertain time for anyone trying to build a stable career.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vukl9fVP0LA&t=113s
It must be really depressing to be out there looking for employment, never mind meaningful employment especially for young people just starting out. I remember just graduating college into a full blown recession…just bad timing and had to stoop down to get any job. WSJ wrote that generation never recovers by in large to the set back.
Now, with AI and trade tariff wars and all the other issues talked about here, don’t know how the young people will cope, especially with expectations running so high.
Good luck…there will be lots of stressed out people
too bad but this is the future.
the surplus energy flowing through IC is just about to turn to decline from its few centuries of gradual increase.
the degrowth process will mean a gradually lower productivity and prosperity for at least the next few decades.
the average person MUST get poorer, probably gradually and slowly, and the degrowth process MUST affect people in negative ways.
it is guaranteed that the average job will have lower pay and benefits.
perhaps wages will appear to be growing but real inflation will outpace that and mean a declining affordability for the average person.
the degrowth process will not be pleasant.
I hope you are right about gradual decline but what about pensions that must have healthy growth to continue to pay out? Will they have to offer less? Will we see a repeat of 2008? Mass layoffs seem to be on the horizon. Every time we have one of these episodes it seems to move us quickly to the cliff. I want to believe….
any gov related pensions should remain during the decades of degrowth.
but it’s all about affordability.
no matter what pension a person might retain, there probably will be many years ahead of moderate inflation especially in essentials which will erode the value of the pensions.
the average person MUST see a decline in their affordability of essentials year after year, including people with pensions.
Federal government or state governments?
states can’t “print” money but no big deal.
USA systems seem to be the federal government “prints” what is needed and some of that is handed to states (I’m no expert on this).
states then distribute some of their money to cities and towns.
with systems like that, it is very possible that state and local (cities and towns) pensions will have a source of money to keep things rolling along.
of course again that will be pensions devalued by many years of moderate inflation until younger pensioners begin to collect, and stuff may not be available to buy, but that’s another subtopic.
David , most of the time we are on the same page but on the degrowth debate I have a different POV . There is ” growth ” or there is ” collapse ” . There is nothing as a ” little bit pregnant ” . Basically I think we are in different camps of the speed of collapse . I feel we we will have a Seneca cliff if we are lucky and a shark fin collapse if unlucky . You believe it will be a bell shaped collapse . Heck , we dodged the bullet by a single missile in the 12 day war .
the pregnant metaphor is a poor one, in my opinion.
to be as clear as possible, after 300+ years of growth, IC will probably have 30 ish years down, which of course is no bell curve.
it’s mere opinion whether or not 30 years is somewhat slow or fast.
to me, 30 years looks like a good fit for Seneca Cliff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKDJnJleYWc
Here you can see the coming degrowth process.
As soon as there is no more growth, interconnectivity will show this result.
A falling house of cards!
Its complexity, stupitd.
Saludos
el mar
Like an avalanche, today’s economy goes down.
“Here you can see the coming degrowth process.”
now imagine that video is IC for the next 50 years.
IC looks okay until the 2nd half of this century.
degrowth is not an organic process that happens anywhere in the universe. It’s the equivalent (and the inverse) of referring to growth as decollapsing – it’s a non-existent paradox, as are all paradoxes; mental constructs only, and in the case of degrowth it is euphemistic and, therefore, biased. Opinions are no longer even opinions if they are merely the product of willful bias. They become propaganda.
But that’s just my considered opinion.
Degrowth is, however, a legitimate political term — given the sociological field of degrowth politics — for a managed politics of industrial collapse. And of course that politics must be necessarily hidden from public policy or else the degrowth politics becomes self-defeating.
“degrowth is not an organic process that happens anywhere in the universe.”
degrowth is just an invented word which in my opinion is appropriate for the next few decades of IC, though others will have their opinions.
many humans thrive for 70 ish years then get gradually weaker and sickly until they die at 77 ish.
90% thriving and 10% down.
Ok understood. In that case you are aware that, as an invented word, degrowth is a planned political management/governance plan for the purpose of mitigating the catastrophic effects of structural industrial collapse.There is no other invented definition of degrowth, except perhaps that which has been invented by yourself.
Degrowth is not something that is “appropriate” and just happens often its own accord. Degrowth is implemented.
The aging analogy you used is a false analogy. People at 70 years old don’t get gradually weaker and sickly due to a lack of affordable fuel. If they did, then it would be an appropriate analogy. I challenge you to think of a true analogy to degrowth because as I previously said, I don’t see one anywhere.
Cheers.
of course I don’t read all that you read and vice versa.
I learned the term “degrowth” at Dr. Tim Morgan’s Surplus Energy Economics site. I don’t remember if he coined it or someone else but it is widely used there.
I think it’s very fitting, since the term implies that there had to be some sort of growth previously and that of course is economic growth.
interesting that only you seem to use the term here as something political.
here I’m sure I’ll continue to use “degrowth” in the sense of the turn from 300+ years of general economic growth to a decline.
it seems to me that it is easily understood by readers here in that context.
ps: an analogy is just an analogy, it’s only your opinion that it doesn’t work well.
but it was good enough that you wrote “Ok understood”.
leaving the analogy out:
300 years up and 30 years down is reasonable, in my opinion.
“interesting that only you seem to use the term here as something political.”
That is false, friend. Degrowth economic theory has been around for decades as an academic field and is the only reason that any of us ever use the word degrowth. Degrowth is not an economic term/metric. It is an economic policy theory – making it a branch of political theory. That Tim Morgan’s place, according to you, colloquially misuses the word to mean a theoretical economic state of moderate, terminal economic contraction does not make that usage correct. It makes it colloquial and under the guise of theory ie propaganda.
Fast collapseniks relying on disciplined systems theory naturally take exception to slow collapsniks using bastardized language and propaganda to argue for their opinions.
Cheers.
Oh btw, David, I agree that 30 years down is reasonable but I see your starting point, which is about now, as off the mark. The starting point should be the GFC because that was the end of organic growth. Right about now just marks peak financial debasement as the system can’t withstand anymore, and deflation of the petrodollar is now the adaptive choice in accordance with the MPP.
“Fast collapseniks relying on disciplined systems theory naturally take exception to slow collapsniks using bastarddized language and propaganda to argue for their opinions.”
I’m surprised that you don’t realize that the meanings of words are continually changing, the gayword is an obvious one in recent decades.
“degrowth” is now used two ways, and you can have your opinion about it, but can’t do anything about the use of the new legitimate meaning of “degrowth” as the imminent decline of the 300+ years of former growth in IC.
“Oh btw, David, I agree that 30 years down is reasonable but I see your starting point, which is about now, as off the mark. The starting point should be the GFC because that was the end of organic growth.”
okay 2038-2039 is very reasonable.
but again it’s merely your opinion of the better starting point.
from the peak of oil supply in 2018 might be a better estimate than your opinion.
2038-2048 anytime in there for the end of IC is possible.
though the 2nd half of this century is much more probable, in my opinion.
How sad is the end of growth with its relentless and remorseless decline.
They can blame Covid, then the war in Ukraine, now Trump, but the reality is that global auto production peaked in 2018 and has been in decline ever since.
https://oilprice.com/Finance/the-Economy/UK-Car-Output-Hits-76-Year-Low.html
“UK car production plunged to its lowest level since 1949 last month, as Aston Martin and other British carmakers halted exports to the United States amid president Donald Trump’s escalating trade war.
Data released on Friday by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) found that UK factories turned out just 49,810 cars and vans in the month of May, down 33 per cent on the year and the worst monthly performance in 76 years, outside the COVID-19 shutdowns of 2020.”
Fewer new cars will eventually mean fewer and fewer vehicles on the road. Road upkeep is also difficult, with diminished oil supply. It will be difficult to keep up society, as it is today.
Amish may well continue to move. Not a sarcastic comment, always looking for what may be solutions.
Dennis L.
not after the horse has been eaten
I appreciate your ideology of trying to find solutions but this Amish trope is a bit off don’t you think? It has been well established that the economy must grow exponentially and the population must increase young people to add to the current system or pensions will not be able to be paid out. It is a simple as that. This all means we need tons more oil, coal, etc…..
I was talking to a young person the other day. He was lamenting that he never will be able to retire..and there will be no social security etc.. for him. This is where I should have thrown out the old tired lines that the Boomers love to give “They have been saying that social security will run out for years!” “If you invest in the stock market it will grow your money.” These were truths of the past but lies of the future. I do not want people to totally dispair but is ok to keep lying to them?
Saying that the Amish may be able to continue getting on with their lives at the local level is not a trope as it relates to the non-Amish because it is a comment about the Amish only and doesn’t contradict a systems theory of industrial collapse. It is self-evident that the greater a cultural separatism from industrialism that a community nurtures, the better it will adapt to industrialism collapsing.
The ex dentist thinks the Amish are special but they are a hopelessly inbred (all of them are descended from a few hundred people in Alsace around 1700 – no outsider marriages) group who won’t last till 2100.
I see them Kul, I treated them. They are aware of inbreeding and seek mates outside the local group. I also watch them work while I drive by; they move right along.
Of course it is not perfect, but their horses move along faster than a walk.
So here is something for you to rant about. I find the Hassidic Orthodox comforting; it is a group. How many times to you think a dollar changes hands before it leaves the neighborhood?
We all pass, but it is possible to be useful as the years pass. Personal experience, naps help so learn to think while you dream. A joke kul, a joke.
Dennis L.
I do not know whether there are formet Amish who married out of the group but the main branches do not accept people not descended from the original group.
Hope they develop thick callouses on their feet like the majority of the world’s poor who’s only means is the shuffling….
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Io4fxdBEApc&pp=ygUOU2h1ZmZsaW5nIHNvbmc%3D
It’s difficult to calculate the exact percentage of the world’s poor who go barefoot, as there isn’t one definitive global statistic. However, data related to the lack of access to footwear can be connected to poverty:
Nearly 1 billion people worldwide lack shoes or have inadequate footwear.
Hundreds of millions of children are unable to go to school because they don’t have shoes.
An estimated 300 million children globally cannot afford shoes and are at risk of infection from soil-transmitted diseases.
Poverty can make it difficult for children to attend school if they are barefoot.
These numbers indicate a significant lack of proper footwear among the poor, but they don’t provide a precise percentage of the world’s poor population that is barefoot. Lacking footwear is a major barrier to education and health for those living in poverty.
AI generated..😃
https://youtu.be/zEbHf6JKTbM?si=f9j8guxYPUQhx__8
Siem Reap (Angkor Wat), about 1930
No locals wear shirts and the only shoes are made from weeds or wood
A state where 80% of humans should have never been allowed to improve from
That’s easy you to chime off about being excluded from that 80% by chance…you are a trip Kulmie
That’s OK, maybe someday we’ll meet and we can have a walk barefooted without weed shoes.
PS, watch out for the grub worms that will dig in your soles of your feet
CONSEQUENCES OF DIRE POVERTY:
FLESH EATING JIGGERS:
The Hidden Epidemic
This document relates to the UN SDG #1: Poverty, and SDG #3 Health and Well-Being. This commentary focuses
on tungiasis in Sub-Saharan Africa, but it is present in the Caribbean, Central and South America, and India, but
not in Europe or North America.
————————-
(Images: health.com right; Journals.plos.org; middle: dailystar.co.uk)
JIGGER INFESTATIONS AMONG THE POOREST HUMANS: In large geographic
swaths on our planet, people are prey to the pestilence of Tungasiasis. This disease is caused
by the fleas known as Tunga Penetrans (aka jiggers, chigoe or sand fly), that burrow into
human flesh, lay eggs and then the larvae live on the blood of the host. Exposed skin on the bare
feet of people are the most vulnerable areas on the body, but infections are seen elsewhere such
as the hands knees and ankles. Prolonged infection results in gangrene and death. People who
lack basic protections such as footwear or flip flops, present easy targets for burrowing fleas.
Jiggers impact marginalized communities of low socio-economic status—mostly those who live
on less than $1 a day, in rural locales, with no access to medical care. Jigger infestations occur in
poor populations and can be as high as 60% with older adults, the disabled, and children 5-14
years being the most impacted. Tungiasis is often associated with social stigmatization.
The affliction is found primarily in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The jiggers have migrated there
from Central and South America.1 Despite the known epidemic of jiggers,
they are a largely unexplored affliction and very little governmental and
private sector partnerships exist to provide relief. Most of the treatment is
given free by non-profit groups. Removing jiggers outside medical facilities
is a primitive process—using small scalpels, and without pain medication.
I see many customers at Sam’s, riding a cart, perhaps 400 pounds plus. Personally walk for some groceries, but alas I do wear shoes. Amish walk along side of the road in the summer, barefoot. They own nice farms. They are not living in poverty, very low light bills don’t you know.
Dennis L.
“How sad is the end of growth with its relentless and remorseless decline.”
it is sad and it is relentless.
in my opinion, the best case scenario would be a gradual and prolonged and slow decline for the rest of this century until the end of IC.
not certain at all, but with surplus energy having a good chance of declining gradually and slowly, that would equate with a similar decline for productivity and prosperity.
the primary surplus energy economy dictates the state of the secondary financial economy.
as FF resources decline, wood will become a major energy resource, and almost certainly wood will provide the most energy by the end of this century.
it is very doubtful that wood would provide enough energy to keep IC going until 2100.
“The word derives from lunaticus meaning “of the moon” or “moonstruck”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunatic
Elon is the greatest man of the century.
He’s sending us to the Moon.
Peter Thiel’s team screwed Elon big time:
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1939051424995786839
A lot of Zionist Chews run the administration, many related to Thiel either via Palantir (which he funded) or VP Vance and my suspicion is that Thiel hates Elon for being richer and more famous and will f*** him however possible. Also Elon made no friends while at DOGE and beefed with other admin officials.
“Elon is the greatest man of the century.”
Putin is and no one is close.
“He’s sending us to the Moon.”
oh yawn, humans have already walked there.
the “greatest” achievement of humanity, never to be surpassed.
and really not much of an achievement.
I.G.
Tell us you are joking… please?
I have a concern for my fellow man, (and woman_)—even the most deluded….
I’ll let you in on a little secret. The next hot market for real estate is the moon.
Every serious investor has moon property as part of their portfolio now. I ‘m certain that a lot of people on the One Finite World comments section have cut back their posting activity because there’s increased activity on their moon properties to manage; new construction, tenents, etc.
Personally, I’m looking forward to dancing with old lady on the moon. I hear that the moon’s gravity is easier on old joints!
Sure, sign me up before I’m laid off
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tRKsc7doM68
In 2025, layoffs at IBM and across the tech industry have made job security feel like a thing of the past. IBM alone slashed around 8,000 positions—many in HR—as part of its shift to automate routine tasks with AI tools. Meanwhile, companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and others have collectively cut more than 61,000 jobs this year, targeting roles from engineering and devices to cloud, support, and administrative teams . Even experienced workers have found themselves suddenly unemployed, as companies restructure and prioritize AI-driven operations. With fewer openings and more competition, many tech professionals are trying to pivot fast—learning new skills, exploring freelance or contract options, or shifting career paths altogether. It’s a stressful time that’s redefining what job stability and success look like in the tech world.
Good thing retail and restaurants are still offering employment and not cutting back
No kidding. This is especially the case for Java programmers (no longer the “hot” language). First there were layoff from sending programs to low wage countries; now there are layoffs from the use of AI. And of course, programmers over 40 are expected to be managers. People who are psychologically not good managers find themselves out of jobs.
Is this possibly a explanation for the social structure of the Amish and Orthodox? Both societies on the surface do with relatively few material items.
AI for programming is good. I am going back to taking courses in programming so as to better understand what AI is doing and have a general idea of what I wish it to do.
Think the future of farming is in autonomous machines, much smaller in size. Would/do have concern for the state of the GPS system. If not mechanical, then Amish, horses seem to have a rough GPS built in.
Always biology. If we humans do more physical work, will have a shorter lifespan, sort of solves the retirement problem.
Dennis L.
I heard that the prices are sky high.
holy cow! I am going to do some deep front running and get a big chunk of the Jupiter market.
I tried Venus twice and it almost got me broke.
There you go, there is big money in waste disposal.
Dennis L.
Debt & BTC.
‘Stable coins’
A camel once told me: when you see a fata morgana, sell it asap.
lol IG
I’m glad you don’t handle my investment portfolio…
Have you thought of working for Elon??
It’s guys, like me, who manage your investment portfolio, Norman.
You’re welcome.
Oh, so you don’t actually do anything real. You work in the fake economy. Got it.
My investment managers are not elonuts—i ass ure you…..
you clearly have not the slightest idea of where market growth comes from, or why…
Blind. I woke up with a steering wheel in my right hand telling me to go long oil.
LOL!
The economy is doing just fine.
Don’t let anyone make you think it’s doing so badly that it’s about to collapse.
https://wolfstreet.com/2025/06/27/that-drop-in-consumer-income-in-may-was-a-false-recession-alarm/
If you sold everything and went to live out in the woods, you were tricked.
Really, oh you are part of the ownership society…think that’s what it was called way back. Good foy YOU…it must be hunky dory
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ebDClc7fjOU&t=431s
“I’m Working Full-Time… and I Still Can’t Afford a Place to Live.”
Across the United States, rent prices have reached record-breaking highs — and average Americans are hitting a breaking point. In 2025, families are being priced out, young people are giving up on independence, and entire communities are being displaced.
In this urgent and emotional report, we reveal how millions are:
• Sleeping in cars, garages, and motels
• Working multiple jobs just to barely afford shelter
• Getting evicted for minor rent increases
• Abandoning cities and relocating to cheaper, rural areas or even abroad
• Giving up on the American Dream completely
I know. I know, these young folks just need to apply themselves better
Sorry, Mr. Jones. A lot of the people claiming to be struggling in Mr. Jay Reed’s video seem to have mental issues or are the kind of people who struggle to get a GED. Everyone who has a marketable degree is doing well and are building their wealth.
If income was going down, then rents and real estate prices would also go down in tandem. It was a very convincing piece of propaganda if someone wasn’t aware of the extraordinary gains the market has been making.
you really are blind to reality….
or more likely you just dont care
your nick says it all investor guy
The market always goes up.
Until it goes down. Look at the Great Depression.
It’s interesting that you mention the Great Depression.
The U.S. stock market share prices have more than quadrupled their value since the crash.
The lesson: Don’t panic.
No ‘BAU’?
‘Most’ ‘economic thinking’ is ‘short run’ and ‘redundant’? ‘It’ ignores the ‘supply side’?
‘Growth’ {and ‘civilisation’} depends upon ‘cheap’ F.F. – those so called ‘halcyon days’ are ‘over’. ?
https://consciousnessofsheep.co.uk/2022/07/01/bigger-than-you-can-imagine/
in case you missed it….
it was a certain A.Hitler who ended the 1930s depression.
Buy at the top in 1929 before crash, diversify, what would that be worth today.
“Even buying at the worst possible time in 1929, you’d still have turned $10K into over $1.1 million—and with dividends, over $14 million. That’s the power of time, patience, and staying invested through history’s darkest hours.”
Gold: “So gold slightly outpaced the Dow on price alone—but remember, the Dow doesn’t include dividends, which historically add ~3–4% annually. With reinvested dividends, the Dow would have crushed gold over this horizon.”
Farmland: “Farmland quietly outpaced both gold and the Dow (price-only) over nearly a century—without the volatility. And unlike gold, it yields rent, tax advantages, and operational leverage.”
Above copilot, didn’t do inflation injusted but with a $10K start, should have allowed one to purchase a home.
The optimists won as long as they didn’t leverage and lived within their means.
Dennis L.
When we compare the Dow of one year with the Dow of an earlier year, we are usually not comparing like with like, since the constituent members change.
If you bought the Dow in 1999, you bought Enron and WorldCom.
That’s interesting.. so does that mean going forward the same holds true? Exponentially growing the economy? I know the boomers love saying this about investing as if they are geniuses but…..
Efficiency gains have come through the use of fossil fuels. As fossil fuel availability goes down, we are likely to see breaks in the current system. Supply lines are especially vulnerable. The way down always seems a lot faster than the way up.
Yes, there is the old saying in investment circles, “It’s the escalator on the way up and the elevator on the way down.”
Good way of putting the problem!
https://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2025/06/the-economy-and-its-future-in-four.html
CHS says: The Economy–and its Future–in Four Charts
Substituting debt for earnings while enriching the rich will bear bitter fruit.
Assuming Starship works, Optimus works, gains in productivity are off the wall and source of natural resources are basically infinite.
Dennis L.
always good to have your fantasies to rely on Dennis
my comment on this article at his site:
looks true about all the issues involving inequality.
I want to highlight this:
“1. The gains from rising productivity–the only durable source of prosperity–were shifted from wages to owners of capital.”
true, it indeed is rising productivity that brings rising prosperity.
the clear source of rising productivity since WW2 has been the huge rise in surplus energy flowing through IC.
this surplus energy allows us essentially to each have 100 “energy slaves” (so said Buckminster Fuller) to leverage human labor perhaps 100X and that is clearly the main source of the high productivity and high prosperity which we now have.
too bad surplus energy is no longer rising but is right about at the point of declining.
this surplus energy decline means that productivity MUST decline also.
it is an irreversible decline in productivity which will mean an irreversible decline in prosperity for the average person for the next few decades.
this productivity decline will not be pleasant.
https://ctxt.es/es/20250601/Politica/49540/Irene-Calve-Antonio-Turiel-Juan-Bordera-EEUU-Trump-fracking-Nord-Stream-Iran.htm
Partial translation:
From Nord Stream to Iran: The Geopolitics of a Declining Empire
American fracking can only survive if the price of a barrel of oil rises sharply. And that depends, to a large extent, on the decisions Tehran makes.
I have a hard time seeing how a shortfall in oil supply will lead to the sustained high prices that the US needs. There is no way to get “demand” for oil high enough. There are too many poor people in the world who cannot afford the goods and services made with oil. Nothing fixes this problem. But it is possible (even likely) that some people think this way.
I agree that it would be much easier to simply print money / make loans, even if not repaid, to the fracking companies. The devaluation is spread across all US-dollar asset holders worldwide and the benefits would accrue largely to the US if there were a ban on its export.
If we were smarter we would have pumped others’ oil first before our own.
I mean I agree that disrupting supply is a bad way of getting prices up long-term. Loans is a better way to go.
At this point, short-term. There is no long-term anymore. Disrupting supply is a bad (but effective) short-term way of getting prices up in order to offset/forestall/cushion the deflation — the economic undertow — that won’t be denied this time. The Fed is pushing on a string.
The worst option is always the last option.
But, at best, you get only a short spike upward in oil prices. Investors in new oil wells need assurance that prices will stay high during the lifetimes of the wells that they drill. Shortages are too temporary to be helpful in getting prices up, unless the problem of wage disparity can be solved.
Yeah and then there’s the issue of well shut-ins leading to hard supply ceilings at lower levels due to restarting costs like Foss would talk about.
Yep. And I see the fracking boom not as “energy supremacy” but as a massive supra political environmental sacrifice that the US made for the rest of the world in order to extend civilization 15 years. Ditto tarsands . Doing so was Elite self-interest to be sure, but it was also a hell of an ecological sacrifice. It was nothing less than the reshoring of disaster capitalism on a massive, running scale. A return to down and dirty petrostatehood. It’s almost unimaginable in an era of 21st century post industrial gentrification. MPP at all costs, and it couldn’t have been done anywhere else. And only the Hand imo could realistically give the industry carte blanche with the Halliburton Exemption to the Safe Drinking Water Act , and have the EPA completely look the other way as if absolutely nothing was going on. At least back in the 70s when the FDA hijacked the food pyramid there was plausible deniability around low-fat food politics, but there is zero deniability on fracking. And then there was the Dallas Fed’s 2011 suspension of mark to market of all industry assets that made it technically feasible.
The US paid its dues to the DA just like everybody else. Ain’t nobody getting a free ride on this train to hell. If Iran did in fact hold out on playing ball with the Hand for all these years such that the Hand couldn’t afford to upset the applecart by bringing Iran to heel like all the other little bad apples, then you can be damn sure that Iran is going to get what’s coming to it at exactly the moment that globalization is past the point of no return but at least she can find solace in knowing that Israel went down with her.
again
as the energy stiches that hold the USA togeher, unravel,…..
sp the USA as a cohesive nation will come apart….
and wars of denial and ”jesus will intervene”…..will make things infinitely worse.
“as the energy stiches that hold the USA togeher, unravel,…..”
We disagree, it is family and an exit at an appropriate time. That is biology which is under all economics as without biology, there is no economics. After that we make a narrative which gets us through the day. The alternative? Nothingness, the Gods do not like nothingness.
Dennis L.
sorry Dennis
Its surplus energy that built the USA…
It will be lack of it that makes it come apart no matter what family bonds you have
We haven’t even seen the real economic downturn yet that will leave more oil, wells, untapped, and equipment sitting by the side, rusting. The reason oil prices are Low is because demand is low.
There are a huge number of people who cannot afford new cars and new homes, or going out to restaurants or going on international vocations. It is wage disparity that is keeping oil prices low. This is the reason for low demand.
“as the energy stiches that hold the USA together, unravel,…..
so the USA as a cohesive nation will come apart….”
true!
and you know it’s the same for the UK.
I dare you, and I mean I literally dare you, to write the same thing about the UK.
lol
you have a very weird notion about this uk censorship thing….
barring actual slander and libel (which has always been part of UK law) and racist slurs, or underage stuff, which is illegal anyway….there really isn’t any.
Yeah David, we in the UK are free to say anything we like and we do not censor truth(unless it disagrees with the corporate narrative, so pretty much all the time).
In free Britian even music festivals are censored for doing no more than stating facts and agreeing with the UN, ICJ & ICC.
https://www.normalisland.co.uk/p/glastonbury-to-be-banned-after-kneecap
If you ever visit, a quick warning. Saying anything about human rights of Palestinian people in public will almost certainly get you a police beating and for quite a few, a prison sentence. The freedom is truly overwhelming.
‘Tore Says US-NATO may put Turkey in a world of hurt for allowing China to co-opt a NATO member’s infrastructure from orbit and from the ground. Turkey allowed China to have eyes on everything NATO is doing, when they allowed Chinese military-linked rail and satellite freight management tracking software to fuse with NATO technology, sending all the telemetry, cargo data, and route analytics back to Chinese military cloud infrastructure. . . .
Tore says, “Turkey and China share low-earth orbit LEO satellites with dual-use capabilities via China’s Long March rockets…You’re not going to hear it from anyone else, because they’re either, 1) too big of a pvssy to say it when they know it and don’t want to be targeted. F@ck, we’re all targets now! 2) the rest of them are just dumb.”
Tore continues, “Satellites, they don’t just fly over. They beam down. Chinese systems in Turkish territory mean PLA link signal intelligence…So basically, there’s orbital war readiness…The low orbit, the LEO satellites, they can carry multiband ISR, which is Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance payloads. If China has relay nodes inside of a NATO state, it can pre-calibrate targeting data for future orbital strikes or jamming. So this is literally a backdoor on NATO SATCOM. So if Chinese tech is used in Turkey’s own comm satellites like Turksat, encrypted NATO military communications passing through Turkish bandwidth, passively [are] monitored and degraded remotely.’?
https://forbiddennews.substack.com/p/toresays-5gw-ww3
I suppose that if regular ammunition is in short supply, combat could be done more through disruption of internet activities and GPS software. It is possible that Turkey could be a player in this, but there are others who would be involved, as well.
Well, maybe, perhaps a well sharpened sword swung by a strong young man with a beautiful woman waiting.
Read somewhere where Roman women of breeding sought out gladiators even those without noses. Yup, even then the jocks got the babes.
Dennis L.
General Wesley Clark said that Pentagon had a plan to take down 7 nations in 5 years and then finish it off with Iran. America is now coming for Iran after they destroyed all Iranian allies in the region. Iran gained some valuable time by defending Syria together with Russia. Russia had to be be tied down in Ukraine. It is hard to see how Iran will survive when Russia is fighting all of NATO.
The US would then own the Persian Gulf and could cut off oil supplies to China when the US war breaks out against China.
‘Looks like Iran’s secret quid-pro-quo is out of the bag. Lifting of sanctions for allowing US to carry out a fake strike to give Trump a much-needed “victory” for domestic audiences. “In a CNBC interview, Trump’s personal envoy Steve Witkoff confirmed that the Trump administration lifted some of the sanctions on Iran on June 24, 2025, enabling the Iranian regime to ship oil to China. ‘?
https://x.com/simpatico771/status/1938107594440081655
>> Witkoff confirmed that the Trump administration lifted some of the sanctions on Iran on June 24, 2025, enabling the Iranian regime to ship oil to China.
Iran was shipping oil to China anyways. The narrative that our sanctions can stop them is a lie meant to reinforce the belief in American power. That’s if they’re smart, at least. If they’re very very stupid, they actually believe that sanctions could stop the flow, but I doubt it.
Perhaps that is the way of life, it does not fit the narratives we would like. Life will ignore many things when the rice bowl is empty, after all, no rice and narratives are locally meaningless.
Think of a narrative. Man comes home to woman, no rice, states he felt so badly for a fellow man that he gave away the family rice portion. Guess, woman leaves teepee.
Dennis L.
All correct, which is why, if China does not intervene, they deserve what is coming for them.
Not sure China will intervene. They believe everyone should stand on their own 2 feet. Once you show that capability(which Iran just did in spades) they are more than willing to help with the best fully integrated defence systems available, including full training in China and unlike Russian equipment, you get to use it against the genocidal maniacs.
As for Witkoff’s statement that the US dropped some sanctions, I call BS, as they quickly realised that they couldn’t stop it if they wanted, so tried to save face. His own statements straight after the ghost bombing confirm that they had no intention of easing up(lots of threats, no concessions). Not sure what those two Chinese warships were doing, but the US seems very scared of China all of a sudden. Maybe the B2s got the same treatment that the earlier F35s received.
China won’t be passive, but I think direct involvement would be a last resort.
I think they need to intervene as far as internet warfare and aviation to interdict the Iraq airspace. It is crazy that generals should be killed because they use Whatsapp when Wechat can be made available to Iran (right now it is not as you need someone in China to vouch for you). and generally internet infrastructure, servers, things like that.
It is also clear that Iran needs to interdict airspace about 1000 kms out. When it comes to F-35, that means satellite-AD sensor fusion, since the infrared signature is so strong. It also means SU-35 or J-10. Apparently this is both being done. I think Iran does have long wave radars, the question is if they can get over the horizon.
Today is Tashua and Ashura in Iran. about 60 funerals were also celebrated in iran. Honor to the martyrs.
Sensible points and I hear that Iran has dumped GPS and now operates Bei Dou. The talk of fighter jets has been denied, but that might change once the pilots return from China fully trained. I believe that they are concentrating on the most important flaws to begin with and so a robust fully integrated system will be the first step. Then the full array of the best of the Chinese coupled with a smattering of Russian tech, all backing up the most impressive missile system on the planet.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/iran-preparing-buy-new-air-force-from-china-bw
There is a new mouvement in france wich is “It’s always Nicolas who pays…
Because i’m identify as a Nicolas I write what I think about of our France collapse.
I also think that the uncontrolled mass migration unqualified and sometimes very bad immigration worked when a system are plenty of cheap energy.
But the politics continue because if we taxe more Nicolas and give artificialy Help to no active New consummers it’s work make the PIB higher for a time ..
I’m what they call a “young dynamic professional”. The infamous Nicolas.
The one they praise for doing well in school, the one they rely on to keep the economy running — but who gets crushed by taxes and never thanked.
Today, I give away over 60% of what I earn in taxes, charges, and contributions. And in return, what do I get?
Public services are disappearing. Schools are falling apart. Hospitals are overwhelmed. There’s no safety, and public transport is a mess.
Last week, someone got fined because their train ticket was 10 cents off — they took an earlier train than scheduled.
Meanwhile, the State buys €40,000 armchairs for MPs without blinking an eye.
– One-way sacrifices
We’re told to “make an effort” — for the planet, for solidarity, for the future.
But who is making an effort for us? Who protects those who work, contribute, follow the rules?
Public money is wasted on useless infrastructure, which ends up vandalized months later (looks the recent event in paris ).
We live with daily insecurity, with unchecked violence, and a justice system that lets criminals walk, while politicians apologize on their behalf.
– I didn’t sign up for this
I’m French. I believe in the values of the Republic: merit, fairness, responsibility.
But today, it feels like the State is punishing me for being honest, hardworking, and standing on my own feet.
I’m not asking for handouts. I’m asking for respect, consistency, and a minimum return for everything I give.
– Enough contempt
I’m not “privileged”. I’m squeezed dry.
I’m not “left” or “right”. I’m exhausted.
And I’m not just “Nicolas” — I’m millions of young working French citizens who are asked to give everything and get nothing back.
Maybe it’s time things changed. Maybe it’s time Nicolas stopped paying. May be it’s time to Nicolas to leave the country but where ? I think every country will meet the collapse even big oil producers…
Sadly, all European nations are now more or less in the same situation as France.
Mass immigration has not brought, in most cases, sharp minds or future Nobel prizes, but simple consumers. GDP grows only like this, by increasing consumption. The financial elites, seeing that the birth rate of European societies was declining (and still is) year after year, pushed for immigration. But literally overnight! From where I write, Italy, was a nation that until the end of the 90s was against wild and unregulated immigration. Even the left-wing government allowed a naval blockade of Albanians, even ramming the boats. Now that same left is shouting about welcoming more and more immigrants. A naval blockade now would be science fiction. And yet only 25 years have passed, not 250. But I repeat, it is not a coincidence, it was “planned”. Because it was the only way to increase GDP, motivate more debt and give another kick to the can. And with each passing month, there is some of our government, or some statistical institute, lecturing us Italians that we need more migrants because “they” will pay us pensions, “they” will keep the system afloat and so on.
But they are lies. I’ve personally modeled the demographics of Italy. In 10 years’ time we will be short of around 3 million workers, in 2040 around 5.5 and in 2045 around 8 million workers. You tell me how a nation can survive this mess. Short answer: it can’t. They can try to increase the pension age limit, and they surely will, but the grand scheme of things will not change much. France is better positioned…but not by that much.
I really think that now the race is really over. Like Italy, France’s GDP has been on a rolling plateau since 2008. The astonishing growth it experienced from 2001 to 2008, thanks to wild globalization, is gone. Individuals will have to accept a world in which they will have less and less with each passing year. And adding to the demographic problem there is the energy one. But the depletion of cheap fossil energy is not something that can be voted on in parliament.
I finally think that a massive control of the masses of the European nations will be needed to deal with the millions of poor people that will materialize in the not too distant future…
Future Nobel Prizes? Like Trump? Or Paul Krugman? Or the dozen Physics Nobels that visited Epstein’s island? Yes, we did not bring in outstanding people but perhaps the Nobel is not what it once was.
Bring in 10 million Chinese workers.
I don’t think it’s a good idea. It’s recent news that some Chinese exploited Italians who worked for them with pitiful wages. Ironic, isn’t it? The Chinese have gone from the “century of humiliation”…to humiliating others.
https://www.italpress.com/caporali-cinesi-sfruttavano-lavoratori-italiani-6-denunciati-a-palermo/
By the way, even if it would possible, I don’t think the Empire will allow one of its colonies to be “invaded” by the main enemy 😉
There are always Mexicans.
Entropie, If you are serious about considering emigration, check out Uruguay. Deep aquifers, eastern and southern coasts on the ocean or bay, navigable waterway for transport on its West boundary with Argentina, lots of hydroelectric power 12 million cows, 3.4M people. The people are warm and friendly. They’ve been harming their land recently because there’s a switch from grazing dairy and beef cattle to soybean production for foreign markets, which is not good especially long term. No place is immune but it is better positioned than many places you could go.
Do you really want to be a stranger in a strange land when the shit hits the fan?
It’s a nice assumption that being a stranger in a strange land will be worse than being a “citizen” with “rights” in one’s native land but western “democracies” are increasingly lawless and there is no assurance staying put will be better. Germany just beat some green politician and likely destroyed one of her eyes for partcipating in a protest against israeli genocide. And is arresting people for expressing opinions on the internet. Western internal repression is just getting going. In the meantime there is the question of quality of life for the decade or two before Mad Max and the zombie apocalypse. It’s not as simple as stranger in a strange land.
Yes but where would you go? You would not want to have a language barrier… best to build friendships. I say this as I am sitting in the U.S which I think is the best horse in t the glue factory in my opinion but who knows? 10 more good years maybe… as David says. I hear a lot of talk of Americans wanting to leave and go live in Europe so they can use their healthcare. And because of Trump… which I just see as a puppet as a sign of the times. I think … as things slowly slide down it won’t be available for everyone especially a “non-citizen “ we are seeing that already.
I agree that Europe is a bad choice. I also believe that Asia is not a great choice because the cultures are so different. I am not emigrating, but I did look into and visited Uruguay, which at least as of a few years ago, had very favorable immigration programs esp. for Americans and Europeans. It is a first world country, an agricultural powerhouse, has progressive social policies (so far), the people are of Italian and Spanish descent, and are very friendly. It is also known for being relaxed, “chill,” as compared, e.g. to its neighbor Argentina. The tax burden will be much lower than anywhere in France, Germany, England, Italy. My wife and I met a young American couple there from Montana (wife) and Canada (husband) who had opened a small bistro a few years earlier. They had two young children attending school and seemed very happy. When they noticed Americans in their bistro (my wife and I), they both stopped what they were doing to come talk to us. There’s no one size fits all, people have to figure it out for themselves. The risk / reward calculus and heart’s desire are different for old and young.
It is a sad situation you are facing. It seems to be repeated over and over. Too many people for resources, and too much debt. Also, too many government promises for things like pensions. Without a growing supply of fossil fuels, and a growing population (through immigrants, unfortunately), it is hard to repay debt with interest and meet all of the obligations.
Entropie, as a temporary solution, have you considered staging a revolution?
Guillotines can come in very handy, or so I’m told.
I have heard a lot of stories about Americans moving to Europe because they have better benefits. I think it’s a mistake.
Cher Entropie,
votre message de désespoir me touche.
j’ai des enfants de votre âge, deux Nicolas… Études, parcours sans fautes,
et intégration sociale… pas de PV, respectueux des lois et bosseurs…
En tant que maman, je suis fière d’eux.
Mais en tant que Maman, il faut aussi que je leur dise ou plutôt, je leur dis:
“Protègez-vous !
Les grands idéaux ne sont plus à la mode…
Contribuer à une société plus juste est d’un autre temps…
Mais il faut y croire…
Il reviendra le temps des hommes forts.
Il revient toujours!
Ne soyez pas le mouton qui s’isole, vous serez manger par le loup.
Ne soyez pas au milieu du troupeau, vous terminerez à l’abattoir.
Soyez à l’arrière mais pas trop.
Observez!
Économisez vos forces!
Ne nagez pas contre le courant!
Mais saisissez la moindre opportunité…
C’est, maintenant, une question de survie intellectuelle et de survie physique.
Si vous ne faites pas de mal intentionnellement, faites taire vos scrupules! Pendant les crises, les opportunités apparaissent…
Mais nous avons aussi une arme… la déconsommation.
Pour une multitude de raisons:
pour la planète, c’est à la mode…
pour désencombrer sa vie… c’est, aussi, à la mode…
Mais, aussi, parce que chaque objet acheté, chaque service
utilisé enrichit une entité que ne redistribue pas et qui
s’accapare l’énergie que vous dépensez à travailler.
Moins consommer… c’est la plus grande des phobies de
ces entités!
La preuve, l’épargne est un scandale.
On parle de nous la prendre…
Limiter dans le temps l’utilisation de nos deniers chèrement
gagnés.
Il ne s’agit pas de vivre en ascète, en gourou de la sobriété.
Il faut juste se poser la question pourquoi ?
Pourquoi j’achète?
Pourquoi, je fais ce voyage?
Pourquoi je vais dans ce restaurant?
Pourquoi?
Qu’est ce que cela m’apporte.
Quelle amélioration vais-je apporter aux gens que j’aime?
Voilà ce que je dit à mes fils.
En ces temps difficiles, construisez-vous une cuirasse,
un réseau, un lieu protégé pour reprendre des forces. ”
Voilà ce que je leur dit quand ils doutent.
Je vis en France mais ne suis pas française.
J’y vis depuis 28 ans.
J’ai une entreprise qui va rentrer dans le cyclone.
Partir n’est pas une option!
Me battre en portant l’étendard? Je n’en n’ai plus la force.
Mon seul souhait: limiter la casse.
Et préparer à ce qui vient mon dernier enfant…
Bel été à tous
Translation from French:
Dear Entropy,
Your message of despair touches me.
I have children your age, two Nicolases… They have a clean education, a flawless career path, and are socially integrated… no parking tickets, they respect the law and work hard…
As a mother, I am proud of them. But as a mother, I also have to tell them, or rather, I tell them:
“Protect yourselves!
Great ideals are no longer fashionable…
Contributing to a more just society is from another era…
But you have to believe in it…
The time of strong men will return.
It always comes!
Don’t be the sheep who isolates yourself, you will be eaten by the wolf.
Don’t be in the middle of the flock, you will end up in the slaughterhouse.
Be at the back, but not too far.
Observe!
Save your strength!
Don’t swim against the current!
But seize the slightest opportunity…
It is, now, a question of intellectual and physical survival.
If you don’t intentionally do harm, silence your scruples! During crises, opportunities appear…
But we also have a weapon… deconsumption.
For a multitude of reasons:
for the planet, it’s fashionable…
for Decluttering your life… that’s also fashionable…
But also because every item purchased, every service used, enriches an entity that doesn’t redistribute and that monopolizes the energy you spend working.
Consuming less… that’s the greatest phobia of these entities!
The proof is that saving is a scandal.
They talk about taking it from us…
Limiting the use of our hard-earned money over time.
It’s not about living like an ascetic, like a guru of sobriety.
We just have to ask ourselves why?
Why am I buying?
Why am I taking this trip?
Why am I going to this restaurant?
Why?
What does it bring me?
What improvement will I bring to the people I love?
That’s what I tell my sons.
In these difficult times, build yourself a shield, a network, a safe place for “Get your strength back.”
That’s what I tell them when they have doubts.
I live in France but I’m not French.
I’ve lived here for 28 years.
I have a business that’s going to be hit by the hurricane.
Leaving is not an option!
Fighting while carrying the flag? I no longer have the strength.
My only wish: to limit the damage.
And prepare my last child for what’s coming…
Have a great summer, everyone.
FUBAR ,
AOC: The Next Pelosi? The Next President?
In Full Service of the US Oligarchy
https://rogerboyd.substack.com/p/aoc-the-next-pelosi-the-next-president?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=571129&post_id=166817547&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=26quge&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
An excerpt from the article:
If a person wants to get ahead, they need to please the current leaders of the Democratic Party.
AOC is incompetent and a certified phony. Just what this country needs more.of. I say she and Gavin Newsom can team up for a run at the WH in 2028.
Just listened to an interesting assessment by India’s most respected news journalist on the Mamdani election . He says Mamdani has created turmoil and faces 4 very big forces :-
1. Trump who has lots of real estate interests in NY plus Republicans .
2. Israeli lobby because of his comments on Netanyahu .
3 . RSS hindu lobby based in USA because of his comments on Modi .
4 . Most important the sleeper Republican cells within the Democratic party . The Dems are now divided between the Bernie Sanders group which supports Mamdani and the old guard and deal makers like Schumer, Cuomo , Newsom ,Pelosi etc . The problem with the old guard is that the young Dems have shown great enthusiasm for Mamdani and turned up in large number at his rallies . The old guard backs AOC but she has been in Congress for 8 years and nothing to show .
In the meanwhile Matt Taibbi writes .
” Cuomo was a better candidate for the middle-ground, don’t-rock-the-boat national play… Democrats in Montana weren’t going to have to worry about potential red-state voters seeing negative Fox News segments about the liberal excesses of Mayor Andrew M. Cuomo. Elect a Muslim immigrant socialist with an unusual name? Fox would have a field day. If younger voters didn’t remember the era when the right accused Obama of all of those things, Democratic Party leaders sure did.
Only in America could a pundit look back on the example of Barack Obama and think, “We’d better not try that immigrant-with-a-funny-name thing again!”
Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York’s Democratic mayoral primary is fascinating on many levels, including the one involving consternation he inspires among ostensible supporters of his party. The same people whose epic misreads of Donald Trump twice helped elect him have been taking turns working through Stages of Grief over an intramural challenge. For sheer humor value, worth noting, at least in brief.
He further says ” The victory of Zohran Mamdani in the New York mayoral primary swiftly moved Democrats to Denial, Anger, Bargaining, and Depression, but not Acceptance.” .
https://medium.com/policy-panorama/he-made-the-earth-shake-zohran-mamdani-and-the-future-of-socialism-38ae2ae39742
The question of how to lower food cost in NYC is an ideal OFW question.
The cost of food in NYC groceries is constrained physically and socially. One hundred miles north of NYC there are six lane highways with 24/7 trailer traffic. The roads are endless array of warehouses. Added a six lane highway in NYC is either impossible or astronomically expensive. The same issue exist for electric, water, garbage all costs to grocery stores. Then there is the social side, NYC is highly unionized, it is the socialism that Mamdani wants and the reason people stay in NYC. Not to mention organized crime which after 100 years is so deeply codified as to no longer be crime.
I think the cheapest solution is to pay the 20% extra and get on with life.
Prices for necessities always seem to be higher in the city because of the many overhead costs.
What happens during the drought?
Carbon stops to accumulate, as water is indispensable for the life of the plants.
The dry countries suffer more thant the humid cold countries.
Even bigger problem is when drought is combined with cold, as such place becomes completely unsuitable for the humans.
What do I remember about my childhood? The clmt was colder, with more rains. Now all seems like drying out. It was milder, now there is a lot of extremes, a lot of depletion. The people lost their ability to grow food, as they lost the ability to accumulate carbon. They succumbed to fast consumerism combined with the heat of the clmt chng. The world has changed, the plant varieties had to be adapted to new clmt reality.
The majority stopped to adapt.
The catch is that the climate is always changing. The Garden of Eden is set near the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Iraq. We think of that area now as hot and dry; it was clearly wet and growing things well at the time the story was composed. North Africa also was much warmer and wetter at one point.
And humans have lived through ice ages.
Somehow, we need to work with whatever nature serves up.
MG, when you were younger, you lived under a tightly controlled Communist climate. But now you are living under a laissez faire Capitalist climate. Obviously there are going to be changes.
Another way of looking at this is to consider that distant and especially childhood memories are not always accurate representations of the past. They are filtered through our current emotional lens and the limitations of our memory system.
Distant memories are often shaped by the way we remember them, which may not accurately reflect the actual events or their emotional impact. We tend to selectively remember impressive events and particularly positive experiences, and the way we recall events can be influenced by our current emotional state and understanding of the world.
We remember all those perfect days when the weather was just right, but we forget all the rotten weather we had to go through between those perfect days. Also, when we were young, our metabolism functioned at a higher rate and kept us feeling more comfortable, so we felt the extremes of cold and also of heat less keenly than we do now that we are old and crinkly and with one foot in the grave.
If you are anything like me, then what you remember about your childhood is probably largely fiction, albeit a seemingly accurate version of what actually happened.
For instance, I vividly remember the winter of 1962/63 being severely cold and snowy, which records show that it was, all over the northern hemisphere. But I don’t remember any of the other winters, and my memories of 62/63 stand in as a representative of what winters used to be like when I was a child, even though most of my childhood winters were not like that.
Similarly, I vividly remember the summer of 1967 when the asphalt melted on the roads in London due to the heat, and the summers of 1975 when snow fell in June as far south as London, and 1976 when it was as hot and dry in the UK as it usually is in the Mediterranean. But I can’t remember the weather in all those mediocre years when things were less extreme. But I’m sure we had weather every day even back then.
There were no such prologned droughts in my part of Europe several decades ago. Now you have to watch your water consumption, as the wells are drying out easily.
That’s because climate changes over the decades.
I put “Drought in central Europe historical” into a Google search.
The AI Overview came out as:
===
Central Europe has experienced multiple significant droughts throughout history. One notable period was the “drought of 1540,” which affected a vast area from western France to Poland and beyond, with widespread impacts on agriculture and water resources. Another period of extended drought occurred in the mid-15th century, coinciding with the Spörer Minimum, a period of low solar activity. More recently, the region has seen droughts in 2003, 2015, 2018, and 2019, with 2018 and 2019 being consecutive years of significant drought.
Specific Historical Droughts:
1540 Drought:
This event is well-documented, with numerous contemporary accounts from across Europe describing its severity. The drought impacted a wide range of countries, including England, France, Germany, Poland, and Italy. Contemporary records detail the frequency and intensity of rainfall, as well as the consequences of the drought.
Mid-15th Century Megadrought:
This drought, lasting roughly from 1400 to 1480, coincided with a period of low solar activity and volcanic eruptions.
1921 Drought:
The summer of 1921 saw a severe drought across western and central Europe, with a significant reduction in rainfall compared to the 1981-2010 average.
Recent Droughts (2003, 2015, 2018, 2019):
These droughts are characterized by high temperatures, low precipitation, and significant impacts on vegetation health and water resources. The drought of 2018 and 2019 was particularly severe, with two consecutive years of widespread drought conditions across Central Europe.
===
MG, you are doubtless too young to remember the 1921 drought. Perhaps we should ask Norman if his parents or grandparents told him about it?
Just be happy with the weather you’ve got, folks! Because this is as good as it is going to get. And be grateful you don’t have to live through an 80-year-long megadrought with no access to air conditioning or bottled water from Evian, San Pellegrino, Perrier, Volvic, or Gerolsteiner.
If you do not have money to buy water, it is bad. The problem is that water is not the only expenditure.
Its really too late to.stop now, moot point to address. COPOUT 31 in Brazil is all smoke and mirrors and will continue the illusion of doing something
As retired Prof. Guy McPherson has observed, humankind is in Hospice mode.
Best deal with it…Gail addressed one aspect of it all in her latest writeup
Financial fraud continues with the Central Bankers . Tweaking the rules to add USD 5.5 trillion liquidity .
https://archive.md/tnksu
does this mean the US debt is now well north of 40T?
I thought that this article was simply saying that banks will be able to buy more US Treasuries now. This should make it easier to sell more US Treasuries.
Why US treasuries and not stocks or commodities ? Does the FED anticipate some problems in the bond market ? Make’s me go hmmmm .
Necessary as foreign buyers buy less. Or as Powell said in the article, it builds “resiliency” into the system, especially if fewer want to buy our debt. Creates a partial closed loop for monetizing debt. Treasury borrows money from banks to operate the government (despite the fact that it has Constitutional authority to simply issue currency into existence) and then its promises to repay (Treasuries) are purchased by other banks, who can be commanded to buy them. Totally legit and not a scheme destined to hide financial failure.
This may be a bit of a niggle but FTR if Congress has passed the Federal Reserve Act then the Treasury can’t simultaneously have authority to issue currency.
I imagine that soonish we are going to hear a lot of debate around the Necessary and Proper Clause in the Constitution that is used by neolibs and neocons justify the privatized dollar.
I think you have hit on the reason for the change: To get the banks to buy more debt. That will allow the sale of more Treasuries, without the interest rates going up.
My husband and I will be driving up to North Carolina, leaving later this morning, for the funeral of one of my brothers-in law. We will be driving back home on Monday. I will have my computer along, but I may not be able to check comments very often. My brother-in-law was 74; he died of a heart attack.
Sorry for your family’s loss and 🙏. I was just in Charlotte and the surrounding metro area., traffic is crazy and be careful while driving
This is Hendersonville, which is up in the mountains. Some relatives are flying into Charlotte and driving from there. Hendersonville was one of the places with the hurricane damage last year.
I remember way back Hendersonville was where the Mother Earth News founder John Shuttleworth and his wife set up shop
. In 1973 the Shettleworths moved themselves and Mother Earth News to Hendersonville, in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina. There they established the 600-acre Mother Earth News Research Center, aka “Eco-Village”,
“a kind of ecological experimentation center and living example of Mother’s “working with nature, doing more with less” theme. We needed an area of the United States where the southern and northern types of flora overlapped and where the climate was right for farming and the altitude, etc. suitable for solar and wind power tests. The Research Center will also be involved with alternative housing, alternative transportation, and things like that.” (interview with Ken Hodges, editorial head of editorial at Mother Earth News, in Sipapu, vol. 6 no. 1 (Jan. 1975), pp. 6-7)
The Village seems for a time to have been a huge success, with “vast experimental gardens, houses, and energy projects” and thousands of visitors passing through for “seminars on everything from beekeeping to cordwood construction.” (Pacher) However, the Reagan era was unkind to Mother Earth News, and in the face of declining subscriptions and increasing costs the Eco-Village was closed in 1984.
Later, the publication was sold and moved to Colorado
Sorry for your loss, be safe.
Dennis L.
We arrived as planned at our hotel in Hendersonville. Now will be going out to eat with relatives.
Mamdani running for mayor of NYC is great. He says he will arrest Bibi and Modi if they show up in NYC. I love this guy. He is a Columbia University graduate and his father is a professor at Columbia. If only we can come up for a way fr him to run for president in 2028.
My take on Mamdani . He has a good chance . As I had posted earlier the Democratic cupboard is empty . His opponents for DNC nomination are going to be Newsom and AOC . Newsom will not be well received by the base as he will be portrayed as ” too white ” and a carrier for the ”rich ” . AOC is nothing but Kamala with a Spanish accent . What has Mamdani going for him ?
1. He is male , young , camera friendly , well educated .
2. Articulate . See video below –his response to Trump calling him a communist and lunatic .
3. He has a certain category of voters already in his base
a . Indian- Pakis who are the richest group of minorities in the USA add to this the Muslims and other small minorities . I don’t know about the Hispanic vote .
b . Better social media access than the republicans as most of the social media is run by the techie Indians .
c. In 3 years time as the economy slides the anti Trump / republican vote will increase and shift to the Dems .
d. Hopefully he will be able to shed the baggage of the corrupt Clinton-Obama – Biden trio . People do forget .
e . He can tout his Bachelor’s degree in African studies to draw in the black votes .
f . If we combine the MSM minus Fox news and the social media advantage as cited above he has a bigger megaphone .
The Republicans are going to field JD Vance who will carry the baggage of the Trump administration and will be portrayed as a ” white supremacist ” by the media .
Disclaimer ; I am not a US citizen but do take a keen interest in US politics .
so this is great. He will be the one leading the war in Taiwan.
Wow! The perfect Dem candidate. Young, educated at a liberal University. Degree in African studies for the black vote. All he needs now is a family member that is transgendered and to know a little bit of Spanish. A guy “of color”. The Dems must be wetting their pants at the idea of him running for Pres.
The problem he is no native born. He is not eligible to be president.
Thanks Ed . He was born in Uganda so like Arnold Schwinger born in Austria not eligible to be the President of USA . Maximum is Governor of New York , Merci .
If Gaza is a logistical dry run for the large-scale provision of bare-minimum non-market third-world rationing during phase 2 of the DA, then Mamdani’s city-run supermarkets are, at the very least, predictive programming for national socialist first-world nationalized-market rationing, if not the beginning of a dry-run which we may not have time for.
Left and Right are coming together. Trump is now on the wrong side of history. He’s lost Brand, Rogan, Carlson, Candace Owens, Megyn Kelly, Bannon, and the Evangelicals are getting generationally split. The childish Where’s Waldo? uranium Iran situation is now perfectly set up for a wave of the Hand false flag of one kind or another. The stage crew has finished rearranging the furniture for the Big Nuclear Scare set piece.
At my local supermarket, they are still rationing goods by price.
Japan enjoyed a period of about 30 years when there was little or no inflation, with the price of some things, such as beer, actually going down. The media called this period “the Lost Decades” but for most ordinary people it was peak affluence with enough to go around.
All that came to an end around 2020 with the COVID Pantomime, featuring lots of cosplay with masks, hand sanitizers, perspex dividers, social distancing, and footmarks on the supermarket floors. Do you know they even sprayed disinfectant on the “used” shopping baskets before putting them back into circulation?
One way or another, the Bank of Japan managed to finally ignite 2% annual consumer price inflation, a long-sought goal, and prices of many retail goods have risen by much more than this over the past three or four years. Butter and eggs are up 25%, coffee and chocolate are up 50% (thank the depreciation of the yen for that), and this year rice has doubled in price due to collusion between agricultural cooperatives and wholesalers.
The government has responded by releasing its stores of old rice, which have calmed the market and stabilized the price at the current high level, but much of this old rice is actually too old and would normally be fed to pigs and chickens. So now the newspapers are reporting that people are complaining about buying expensive rice that is inedible. Private importation of rice from the US for personal consumption is booming, and even with the shipping cost and the tariff, this is still cheaper than buying domestic rice at the local supermarket.
I now see a golden opportunity ahead for US rice producers to open the floodgates into the Japanese rice market. The people operating this protected market have mess things up good and proper, and failed to do the one thing they are obligated to do—deliver an adequate supply of high-quality rice at a reasonable price to the consumer.
Boy, Tim. I hope that Japanese small-farm system isn’t getting shock doctrined right ahead of Collapse.
I think the Japanese system actually prevented the corporations, property developers, or massive debts from running small farmers off their farms. The rice market was protected against foreign competition, and a whole industry grew up around supplying small farmers with small (or tiny by US standards) farm equipment. Perhaps Kubota is the most well known maker of tractors, combine harvesters, rice planters, bush-cutters, and lawnmowers in Japan, and they operate worldwide these days.
What has defeated Japan’s small farmers is the simple fact that working in the city in the corporate world or for the government brings people in much more stable income for a lot less hours of work. So, even though farming (including rice farming) is a lot less laborious than it used to be, today’s Japanese have a lot of easier choices, and so they have abandoned farming in droves, and most of the remaining farmers are getting on in years, so generally they don’t have the physical or mental stamina to take on the burdens of expanding their operations.
Also, Japan cannot possibly emulate a country such as the US or Canada where fields can be astronomical in size because the topography of Japan is far too crinkly. A one-hectare (100, x 100m) paddy in Japan is a biggy. Most of them are much smaller than that, which means the equipment is smaller and so the cost of growing and harvesting a given amount of crop will be higher.
I expect that with the right marketing Japanese rice will eventually become something like Japanese beef—Wagyu—a luxury product that will support a niche market on the basis that it of high quality and delicious, but it will be out of the price range of most consumers as an everyday staple.
Yeah the small farm system is nice. I had read that the annual average income from rice was about $4500. Not a lot. I imagine that farmers are aging out all over the developed world.
Apply Optimus.
Amazing treasure Grove resource link.for those taking heed of Tails advice
https://wholeearth.info/
The Whole of the Whole Earth Catalog Is Now Online
The seminal DIY catalogs, journals, and magazines printed by the techno-hippie publishing house are finally available online in digital form, all for free.
I still.habe saved some of these publications in a storage unit.
Countless hours of reading now available
“I wish we could have done it years ago,” Stewart Brand says. “So when the option seemed to appear to put certain things online and not ask anybody’s permission other than us, who wanted it to be free out there all along, we all said to each other, ‘Yeah go for it.’ And then they made it happen. It’s a huge body of work to finally have out there. We’re just delighted.”
These were published between 1968 and 2002. They are not useful for ordering now, however.
True, but even understanding today won’t really alter the outcome we are facing. Actually, there are gems of wisdom in those publications and it might provide someone the piece that will enable for them to survive the bottleneck transition.
Hard to come by nowadays and can be downloaded.
I remember all well…Co Evolutionary Quarterly was one of my favorites…too bad this was a cultural fringe segment.
BTW, Nate Hagen posted a video on YouTube that lays it out
The 10 Core Myths Still Taught in Business Schools | Frankly 99 Nate Hagens
In this week’s Frankly, Nate identifies 10 myths being taught in business schools today, and the massive implications these misconceptions hold for society. From the way we define value and the boundaries of success to the idolization of self-interest and human ingenuity, these so-called laws of economics were developed in a different world than the one we inhabit now. By exposing the unquestioned myths that are perpetuated in MBA education, Nate aims to sow the seeds of an economic system rooted in the real world – which may one day become a reality.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GkIedVEkQZU&t=1366s
Doubt this will get much penetration in the CORE
Nate got an MBA at the University of Chicago. He would know what the business schools are teaching.
He sure does, bright man and does well in pointing out the untruths we live by.
Oh, BTW, the link to those publications have also an Index also, so one can skim through it without any burden
EE.UU es el que va tener que hacer recortes e inevitablemente colapsará, también una parte de Europa. El resto del mundo estaremos bien porque consumimos en menor cantidad que ustedes, estamos acostumbrados a eso, y sabemos hacemos más con menos.
Espero que Occidente colapse pronto, porque eso liberará parte de los recursos hacia Asia y el resto del sur global.
¡Saludos a todos!
Translation from Spanish:
The US is the one that will have to make cuts and will inevitably collapse, as will parts of Europe. The rest of the world will be fine because we consume less than you; we’re used to it, and we know how to do more with less.
I hope the West collapses soon, because that will free up some of the resources for Asia and the rest of the global south.
Greetings to all!
the bigger stronger countries with big energy resources will be the last ones standing, so USA and Canada and Russia etc.
Europe has very low energy resources so it will probably collapse a decade or two before those strong countries.
the UK looks so weak that it might collapse first.
divertido!
Completamiente delusional.
Todas las personas del planeta van a sofrir y morrir en el collapso, con excesion de los cazadores-colectores como los indigenas y povos africanos. Tambien, menonitas o amish talvez.
Todos los aspectos de su vida dependien de una sociedad industrial extremamienten compleja y fragil.
Translation:
Completely delusional.
All people on the planet will suffer and die in the collapse, with an excess of hunter-gatherers like the indigenous and African peoples. Mennonites or Amish, perhaps.
Every aspect of their lives depends on an extremely complex and fragile industrial society.
——
I don’t things are this bad. There are quite a few people who are close to hunter gatherers themselves. There are a wide range of aptitudes and abilities. Humans have made it through quite a few “tight squeezes” before. T
he Maximum Power Principle suggests that some humans will continue to use fossil fuels at least to some extent. While a lot of species have gone extinct (99.99%), it is not clear that it is the end of humans at this point.
But I let everyone express their view.
the MPP suggests that massive amounts of trees will be burned as the primary energy source when FF resources get low by mid-century or so.
Lots of new pasture for ruminants!
“Todas las personas del planeta van a sofrir y morrir en el collapso, con excesion de los cazadores-colectores como los indigenas y povos africanos. Tambien, menonitas o amish talvez.”
no, most people 50 years old and older will be gone before there is any collapse.
and that collapse is not a sure thing.
surplus energy looks like it will decline gradually and slowly, and surplus energy is the main part of prosperity.
so prosperity will probably decline gradually and slowly, especially in the bigger stronger countries.
in the 2nd half of this century is when collapse is much more probable.
but there is a lot of wood in the world, and the energy from burning trees will probably delay the end of Industrial Civilization.
it’s nothing to worry about.
The elders have a plan expect a staircase collapse which is like a staggered Seneca cliff population will probably be under 1 billion so something big is in the pipeline as for the financial system negative interest rates are coming an interesting article on the imf blog explaining how it will be done involving paper currencies and e money so the elders are guiding our collective ship away from the rocks and towards a safe port.
I do expect a staircase degrowth of sorts, with many flat years and many other years of significant decline.
but I also expect the degrowth to be mismanaged for the next few decades.
surplus energy is being mismanaged now, so that mismanagement should continue.
the average person will have less affordability of non-essentials and later of essentials as degrowth proceeds for the next few decades.
it’s nothing to worry about.
Of course not as long as you can beat or avoid the next round of medical treatments you should be able to spend the next 20 years in relative comfort. As long as food and shelter is guaranteed all the other luxuries can happen less frequently.
We are governed by Liebig’s law of the minimum . Tim Watkins on the application during the truckers strike in 2000 in UK .
” In the end, a compromise was reached between the protesters and a government which had already activated emergency powers to bring the protest to a halt. But behind the scenes, government officials had been shocked by the speed with which the UK economy had unravelled. Not least because, when the dust settled, it turned out that more than 90 percent of deliveries had got through. But the loss of less than 10 percent of deliveries in a complex and just-in-time system was all it took to initiate a “cascading collapse.”
https://consciousnessofsheep.co.uk/2025/06/20/liebigs-law-applies/
Liebig’s law boils down to affordability again.
the least available resources/parts/items will have more energy and money thrown their way, which will lower overall affordability.
it will accelerate the degrowth of IC.
indeed this law will become severely problematic in the 2040s, perhaps the 2030s.
There is a heat wave going on in the US East coast. Gail and others , hope you all stay cool.
I think the heat wave is pretty much over here. The heat wave was pretty much north of us.
We had a thunderstorm last evening, and there is one going on now. I think we had a total of five days over 90 degrees so far this year. That is low, for close to the end of June. The forecast going forward is for a thunderstorm nearly every day. This keeps the temperatures lower.
thanks k…
about 95 99 99 95 which will probably be the hottest 4 days of the year here.
May was unseasonably cool, and June began below average and now has had an above average stretch.
nothing unusual, some weeks below average and some above average and some just about average.
the wisdom on this site says we can’t do anything about climmatechange, even if this weather is due to it.
Two weeks of none stop AC in New York State. Unpleasantly hot but not unusual for summer.
If BYD is cutting production, it has to be a bad indication for the world’s ability to buy vehicles.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/byd-slumps-after-scaling-back-production-rising-inventories-slower-sales-growth
pardon my ignorance, are these electrical or regular autos?
Electric . 100 percent .
A 2022 article says:
https://insideevs.com/news/578205/byd-discontinued-gas-only-cars/
BYD Discontinued Production Of Gas-Only Cars In March
Moving forward, only rechargeable vehicles will be offered.
A switch toward electric vehicles is not going as fast as many would like.
RFK Jr’s bonkers plan to fit every American with a tracking device as he hunts for causes of cancer, autism
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-14846031/rfk-jr-tracking-device-causes-cancer-autism.html
Anti-vax? More like Anti-Christ. mark of the beast.
I’m an atheist, but even I can spot the actual Anti-Christ when it’s this obvious! 🙂
I know reading, as opposed to quickly scanning something in the service of one’s own confirmation bias, demands a little more time, but it does often repay the effort:
“In an effort to get a smartwatch, ring or monitor on every American, RFK Jr said he is planning to launch ‘one of the biggest’ advertising campaigns in history to encourage more people to wear the devices — which range from $99 to nearly $800.
The health secretary said officials were ‘exploring’ how the government could pay for the devices for some Americans.”
So, essentially what he wants to organise is an extremely large study, in which people can ‘volunteer’ to take part.
Seems ok to me.
If it were mandatory, as you – and the Daily Mail – appear to be trying to superficially insinuate – then I could see the case for alarm.
– but it isn’t.
The alarm is rightly to be found in those who make large amounts of moolah by ‘treating’ such diseases, and in those who perhaps contribute to the emergence of same.
it won’t be mandatory at the start – but later on.
Just like the mask.
Remember?
lol
Most everyone has a phone attached to them these days, it’s pretty much a requirement to navigate the modern world.
It is hard to imagine the people in jail with these, and the drug addicts out on the street with these. Homeless people in general will be a problem. Autistic people will be at risk for homelessness, especially as their parents die and there are no safety nets for them.
a rare trains planes and automobiles comment. funny and poignant.
Goebbels made sure every German family had a free or very cheap radio too…
And a signed picture of Addie Hitter too with his pamphlet about His Cause…which no one obviously took the time to read…maybe Stalin should have grabbed a copy..
Allison McDowell has biometric “wearables” on her short list of invasive technologies (well-sourced) rolling out after the pandemic to support the 4th Industrial Revolution along with impact bonds and pandemic indexes.
https://wrenchinthegears.com/2020/10/13/technocrats-great-barrington-and-bermuda-grass-why-settle-for-reform-when-a-radical-solution-is-needed/?
Ed you still haven’t realized that all the Sunni Arab monarchies are part of the cabal and have been collaborating with the US against Iran for the last 40 years , they first financed Saddam’s invasion and only abandoned him when he after failing in his purpose and trying to recoup his losses tried to annex Kuwait .
Then all these feudal sheikhs called their colonial masters to help them and the gulf war came . After the false flag attack of 11s and the creation of the ” mythical ” al Qaeda and other Wahabi groups they have been dedicated to eliminate the few Arab states not controlled by the United States such as Libya and Syria and to create sectarian hatred with all these so-called jihadist groups (they are all mercenaries of the intelligence services) against the Shiites to divide and conquer.
And in the last twenty years they have been joined by Erdogan’s Turkey, which at the time of the cold war was more concerned with its internal problems and its northern border with the Soviet Union than with the Arab world to the south.
Syria was the last missing piece , with its fall they have given Israel an air highway against Iran and they have cut off the supply route to Hezbollah , in all this has actively collaborated Erdogan , the same who cried crocodile tears over Gaza in a performance worthy of Oscar while filling Israel with Azerbaijani oil. Its all bussines .
The entire Arab Middle East is an American military colony , Iraq does not even control its central bank , the United States controls its accounts and its airspace . The last day before the truce Israel bombed a lot of Iraqi army radars , what has the government said about this and the violation of its airspace by Israel ? Nothing.
The lie that the Bedouins of the Persian Gulf were going to abandon the petrodollar was just smoke from people who do not know the geopolitical reality of the region and who have been sold a false Muslim unity. At the level of blocs there is only one acting together militarily , NATO , Israel and its vassals .
Russia did not sell modern fighters jets to Iran to defend its airspace and China seems to prefer to arm Pakistan ….
Mostly correct, specially the part about the monarchies. They are all hidden jews. but Putin stated very clearly that Iran insisted on having a purely economic treaty, despite repeated offers of military protection by the russians. It tallies with Pezheskian being elected because he wanted a deal with the West. Compare the predicament of Iran and that of North Korea.
The counterargument is that tribesmen help each other and so that deal was not on the table. The Russians let Israel bomb at will in Syria. They sold jets to the iranians and then withheld them for 7 years I think. Iran has plenty of reasons to mistrust Russia. I do believe Russia and Iran jointly abandoned the Syrian project as Iran is suffering economically.
On the other hand if Iran falls they not only lose the transport corridor, the entire SCO collapses, and Russia southern flank and China’s western flank go up in flames. I find it hard to believe neither Russia nor China will do anything.
>> Russia did not sell modern fighters jets to Iran
Articles state that Russia delivered a few SU-35 to Iran in the last year. I think they’ve been delivered and it’s not a saga like the S-300 from 2007 to 2016.
This is a map of Sunni and Shia majority countries in the Middle East.
https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2016/01/05/16/middle-east-divide-map.jpg
This is a broader map.
https://www.whyislam.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Muslim_Distribution_map.jpg
Worldwide, there seem to be a whole lot more Sunnis than Shias. Shias are concentrated in Iran. Israel and Persia/Iran have been at odds for a long time.
https://www.blacksitemedia.co.uk/blog/iran-and-israel-a-complex-history-of-hatred-and-hostility
In my view when we look at things from this perspective (Sunni/Shia), we are out of a real comprhension of the geopolitical situation in that area.
Differences in that area, in my view, come more from historical heritages, cultural aspects, type of language, being of indoiranic or of semitic ethnicity, kind of economic interests (type of trade and resources) and so on and so forth.
If one makes the same consideration in Europe about types of Christianity, one actually can see that there are Catholics, Protestants, Anglicans, Orthodox, but differences, vicinities and alliances come more from other aspects, than from branch of Christianity.
While researching about Camilla Bowles, herself descended from Edward VII and his mistress Alice Keppel (everyone knew her second child, Sonia Cubitt, the mother of Camilla was Edward’s daughter), I learned that Charles FitzClarence, whose fuckup basically eliminated the elite class of Europe and led to Asians corrupting science and tech irrevocably, was descended from King William IV’s dallainces.
William IV and an actress, Dorothea Jordan had 10 children, and they were given the name FitzClarence because he was the Duke of FitzClarence. Chucky was descended from the oldest son, the 1st earl of Munster.
No history books describe the fact that Chucky was descended from the illegitimate line of William IV. I am sure the 200/400 Worcestershires, the scums of the earth, did not know that either.
The Earls of Munster became extinct in 2000, and I am very sure that Chucky contributed significantly to the extinction of his own family line.
A lot of the so-called elites of UK are produced from the Kings and lowly women, who were given fancy titles and lands by the King in rieu of them not being eligible for the throne.
Learning this aspect of Chucky gives a big insight – he was another who was not happy with having limited opportunities and just wanted to blow it up, different reason from Gabby Princip or Joe Gallieni (an Italian whose ancestors followed Murat and emigrated to France after Murat’s fall)
In any case, the creme of cream of the so-called British elites has become quite brownish (because of the infiltration of genes from the Subcontinent), for which Chucky played a very significant role.
All of us who’ve read your previous postings know that Chucky was a rogue and a scoundrel, but now, thanks to your genealogical investigations, it turns out that he was also what the English call a right royal bastard.
Earlier you referred to Reante as a “young buck.” I thought Reante was Denise?
It never occurred to me that Reante could be anything but a hot-blooded male, brimming of self-confidence and overflowing with what my old karate sensei described as fighting spirit.
After watching Mission Impossible – the Final Reckoning twice in the past two weeks (Mrs Tim couldn’t follow the plot completely and demanded I take her back to the cinema for a second viewing), I am currently visualizing Reante as a younger version of Tom Cruise, perhaps back in his Nicole Kidman period.
Now, you’ve given me pause for thought, I do hope I haven’t been guilty of misgendering anybody.
Incidentally, it’s amazing how we can build up an imaginary picture of how someone looks and sounds simply on the basis of their writing and without ever having seen or heard them.
“I am currently visualizing Reante as a younger version of Tom Cruise”
What in Reante’s writing makes you see him as a midget?
My own made up picture is at least 5′ 11″ and well built, with zero pairs of shoes to make him look taller.
6ft 175lbs still lean and mean. 49 years old now, and though I still act like one I’m far from being a young buck but farm grunt work keeps me from having to resort to cheating by pumping iron in order to maintain my condition. Nothing like real, functional, non-recreational strength. Maybe at 6ft, similar to Tom Cruise’s couch-jumping scientology fervor, I have the college basketball player’s version of a Napoleon complex. Fine line between a Napoleon complex and leadership ability if you ain’t got nobody following. Woody Harrelson is who I’ve always gotten compared to looks-wise, and not just because of the basketball connection. Wasn’t no pretty boy or what’s more a pretty boy into playing the pretty boy thank god, which I might’ve been liable to do being hot-blooded as Tim said. That shit right there is a long road to nowhere cause that might stick with a man til he’s like 65, at least. Ask Anthony Keidis. But I think part of that is also an American generation X thing. Despite all his metaphysical rewilding even reante is still at least 5 percent FUBARed for life by MTV or whatever. Life sux and then you die.
Wow, not being a fan of Hollywood gossip, I didn’t realize Tom Cruise was as short as Sylvester Stallone or Dustin Hoffman!
But then, I’ve only ever seen him on the big screen, where he comes across as about 5′ 10″.
Still, being petite must help with the acrobatics he gets up to.
I thought someone here, who followed this person from other blogs, referred to Reante’s reappearance as Denise. That’s all, just trying to remember. No issues at all about misgendering.
There’s a Mrs. Tim been mentioned now. Has Tim cloned himself to make a wife? From his own rib, perhaps? Do we have the technology? Is this a first?
No, I haven’t cloned myself yet, as far as I know.
I have often beclowned myself, but that’s another story.
I am waiting for the installment about Chucky’s private life.
Actuallty not much is known about that.
Because of the incalculable harm he caused, he was litetally buried in the memory hole till John Keegan dug it out by mentioning it in a book.
was he participating in the rituals, um, favored by the current british elite? The Rothschild were already dominant and so some of these things were already happening.
Correction
Duke of Fitzclarence – Duke of Clarence
Mother of Camila – Grandmother of Camila
Still the gist is clear.
I am sure you know William Dalrymple’s book ‘White Mughals’.
All before the arrival of the Mem Sahibs to spoil the fun.
Anglo-Indians should not have been allowed back to Europe.
Like the Criollo elites in Latin America, they should have been stuck in India to make it more British.
Latin America permanently uses Spanish. If the Anglo Indians stayed in India there would be a huge chunk of regions only using English, and the local language snuffed out.
If you’ll listen, I’d like to tell you all about my life
At barely sixteen, I left my homeland
Crossed the seas for Dover’s chalky cliffs
Strathnaver docked in cascading rain
With tearful eyes, my mind went back to India
National Railways employed my father
Mother ran the house
The job moved bases almost yearly
She found friends, and an ayah for the babe
I lived nine months of the year at school
My second family, that’s how it was in India
We were known as Anglo-Indians
European Asian blood
Dark or light skinned, and our language
A panchpuran of Hindi / English words
Independence forced us all to leave
Farewell to loved ones left behind in India
In New Brighton we lodged with family
Sleeping in one room
Mum had never boiled a kettle
Never cleaned a floor or cooked our food
It was months before dad found a job
Experience counts for nothing from India
I hated England and missed Darjeeling
I cried every day
My little sister lost all her Hindi
She became our family’s foreign child
And the rations here were strict and small
I pined for burfi and the taste of India
Well fifty years how fast they travel
Yet our culture remains
Friends from home live here in London
We meet often, call them every day
But the young ones they are English now
Shaped by your green hills and motorways
Still we share with them our roots in India
While doing research found out I’m 99% related to King Kong as we all are and that makes me feel very powerful indeed…they still make movies about him
The often-mentioned fact that humans and chimpanzees are 99.9 percent identical in their DNA is hard to accept for some people, who can’t comprehend how we …
https://www.pbs.org
Evolution: Library: The Common Genetic Code – PBS
The theory that humans and Neanderthals interbred really caught fire when a 2010 study determined that Neanderthal DNA is 99.7 percent identical to modern …
https://sanogenetics.com
Are We Genetically Similar To Bananas And Why Is This Important …
Oh my, there are skeletons in our closet indeed
Would you drink a glass of water with 0.1% arsenic?
I’m not familiar with those statistics, but what jumps out at me from what you listed is that we are 99.9% chimpanzee vs 99.7% neanderthal … I know which one I would rather be, and it’s not the chimp. Seems suspect.
All for amusement….as Kulmie said he don’t like it
“I know which one I would rather be, and it’s not the chimp”
We are the third chimpanzee, no matter how much we delude ourselves otherwise(self gratifying names change nothing) and to be honest, we’re an embarrassment to our cousins.
When a chimpanzee leader gets too greedy, they all get together and rip the greedy git limb from limb and as the ultimate sign of defiance against selfish greed, proceed to devour the flesh of the self-centred git.
We could learn so much(apart from the devouring bit. Who would want to eat Trump?), if we just had the ability. That’s unfortunately been trained out of us, so instead we rip innocent children limb from limb by the millions and feed everything to the lazy greedy gits.
🙈🙉 🙊
There’s more to life than DNA, it would seem. This from Google’s often irritating but useful AI search summary.
Humans and chimpanzees, despite sharing a close evolutionary relationship, exhibit significant differences in their lifespans and aging processes. While humans can live well beyond 80 years, with some reaching 100 or more, chimpanzees rarely live past their 50s, with 60 years being a notable exception. This difference is reflected in the rates of age-related changes in their bodies, with chimpanzees showing faster rates of change in DNA methylation compared to humans.
Human biological clocks and chimpanzee neoteny are related through the concept of developmental timing and its impact on brain development. Neoteny, the retention of juvenile traits into adulthood, is more pronounced in humans than in chimpanzees, and this slower development, particularly in the brain, is linked to the extended plasticity and learning capacity that characterize humans. While both species have biological clocks regulating circadian rhythms, the timing and duration of various developmental processes, including brain maturation, differ significantly due to neoteny.
Here’s a more detailed explanation:
1. Neoteny and Human Brain Development:
Neoteny:
Neoteny refers to the retention of juvenile characteristics into adulthood. In humans, this is evident in our relatively long period of brain development, extended childhood dependency, and the retention of certain juvenile features in our adult anatomy.
Brain Development:
Human brain development is characterized by a slower pace compared to chimpanzees, particularly in the prefrontal cortex. This prolonged development allows for greater plasticity and learning opportunities.
Cognitive Abilities:
The extended period of brain development in humans, driven by neoteny, is believed to contribute to our advanced cognitive abilities, including language, abstract thought, and complex social behavior.
I remember the WSJ had an investment contest years ago and placed a chimp as a panel contestant and won. So, they did it again an the chimp won again with his selections….
Meet Raven Thorogood III. Formerly a Hollywood star, in 1999 Raven ranked among the top 22 brokers in Wall Street. His stock index, MonkeyDex, soared with an impressive 213% gain, outperforming most seasoned brokers in the game.
Raven invested in 10 internet companies and outsmarted the majority of experienced brokers in the room.
Raven was a chimpanzee.
…. He beat all 10,000 mutual funds. Raven the chimp is now Raven the Champ!” wrote MarketWatch in December 1999.
“His Monkeydex Index beat the best-of-the-best of all mutual funds run by America’s top managers.”
Although he didn’t have any prior (or present) knowledge of internet companies, Raven’s winning streak and rising gains soon proved that he was no lame duck.
He was, in fact, the most successful chimpanzee on Wall Street.
Maybe the chimp is hairy but not stupid
I am overjoyed to see a Muslim candidate for mayor of New York City. I would rather be ruled by a Muslin than by a Jew. I have already sent his campaign $50.
Is there anything anyone can do to get housing prices, and other costs, down in NYC?
Rent control works many live in NYC at low rents. This makes it so land lords have no incentive to fix or update anything so most of NYC buildings look like 1930 on the inside. But it does make lots of cheap rentals.
Yes, my Sisters childhood friend has a rent controlled apartment in New York City and wants to move out but can’t and is stuck there because she’s in her 70s and can’t afford to go elsewhere. I was there decades ago and it was very nice and spacious..not sure if it is nice now
Perhaps cut spending on public services and introduce a little more crime, leavened with a dash of social degradation?
Yes it’s called a Great Depression get ready!!
Of course they will call it something else…
Any chance of him prohibiting compound interest and introducing islamic banking?
Yes, Yes, Yes!
Allahu Akbar
Neither the dems nor the repubs can talk about giving the young a fair break money wise. The only way out
Allahu Akbar
It is a physics problem. There are not enough physical goods and services to go around. Taxing the rich doesn’t fix the problem. Wage disparity, and a lack of high paying jobs, is what holds down the quantity of goods and services young people can buy.
I think people invented the dismal science of economics precisely to get around intractable physics problems by providing a series of temporary solutions.
I wonder what the economists will pull out of the magic hat next!
NYC will be the new whipping boy of right wing media.
ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK! (EVERYONE RICH IS LEAVING AND TAKING THEIR $$$)!!
At least it will give LA a much needed break..
When will Russia, China, Germany, France, Egypt, Jordan, and the over 180 UN Charter signators fulfill their obligation to defend Iran from unprovoked attack?
It seems that iran defended itself quite successfully this time. Of course Donald and Bibi will be back soon.
The geopolitical reality described by Hegel is liable to become again more overtly the case as energy supplies contract and the scope for status quo global hegemony or collective action shrinks.
Basically, states are in the state of nature toward each other and they ‘recognise’ each other only in so far as each can defend itself in warfare against all-comers otherwise they are fair game.
States are concerned, as their duty, to secure and to build up their own society, and to enhance the prospects of their members, and that is liable to bring states into conflict with each other for finite territory and resources.
He was basically outlining the status quo, and it is fascinating to read about history when that modus operandi overtly applied – basically all of history – but whether it is going to be much fun to actually live through is liable to be contingent.
In any case, citizens had the duty to sacrifice themselves, when need be, to secure the commonwealth, and societies were viable only in so far as citizens were willing and able to do that. Abstention is not necessarily going to be widely viable.
https://archive.org/details/g-w-f-hegel-lectures-on-natural-right-and-political-science-the-first-philosophy-of-right
> Wars may be condemned by morality, which can say that wars ought not to be; but the state is not merely an “ought.” Rather wars must be regarded as necessary because independent peoples exist alongside one another. Individuals must feel the ethical substance, the spirit of the whole, in relation to which individuals are ephemeral. What is demanded is to sacrifice oneself to this substance willingly…
Since the right of states vis-a-vis one another is based on their relationship as [that] of self-sufficient individuals, [which is] the relationship [that pertains to] a state of nature, it extends only to reciprocal recognition as independent entities – entities, that is, that attest themselves to be free by waging war and exercising power, with whom it is at the same time possible to live in a condition of peace.
What states have to demand of one another is recognition – to be recognized [as] free, independent individual entities. What is free as something naturally free only evinces itself by demonstrating that its life is a matter of indifference to it; and this existence of what is free can be shown only in war. As a natural mode of recognition, this recognition comprises an element of contingency; and as natural attributes, strength, size, level of resources, talent all affect the outcome. – Lectures on Natural Right and Political Science (S 160-1)
“citizens had the duty to sacrifice themselves, when need be, to secure the commonwealth, and societies were viable only in so far as citizens were willing and able to do that.”
After the Vietnam War, US citizens have not been very willing to sacrifice themselves for causes that leaders have chosen. It is hard to believe that that will turn around soon. There are too many different beliefs, not only in the US, but elsewhere.
The place where war will be most popular will be in the countries doing worst. Then, the additional employment provided by the war effort will be helpful. GDP growth will be higher. There will be an excuse for more debt. Countries in poor shape will do better.
Tbf, Hegel was writing when Romantic nationalism was thing albeit Germany was plural in religious beliefs.
But multi-ethnic, plural polities have been able to fight to maintain themselves, and often that included the most powerful polities in Europe and beyond.
Romantic nationalism is a 19th c. thing, and Europe was successfully organised into dynastic and ‘imperial’ multi-ethnic polities, that did not depend on Romantic nationalism for their viability, for most of its recorded history.
Obviously the Roman Empire was the most powerful state in European history, and there were numerous more local dynastic empires that never achieved ‘universal’ status.
I take your point about USA and popular disenchantment, but USA may break up anyway, as energy declines, and warfare will likely be more local.
Britain is probably a more viable prospect as a long-term polity because of its size and island isolation, and I do not see the multi-ethic population or religious pluralism being a problem when it comes to warfare. The UK has long been a multi-ethnic and religiously plural polity anyway.
But time will tell how things develop.
The problems of ‘USA’ are likely to lie in its size in the long-term, and I not ruling out ‘universal’ empire there, but there may well be a violent churn to get there once the USA state falls. England became unified as a single kingdom in that way, and largescale empires have obviously succeeded in lower energetic conditions.
Maybe Britain will get its American colonies back one day – who knows? But doubtful that would be worth the bother.
“States are concerned, as their duty, to secure and to build up their own society, and to enhance the prospects of their members, …”
This contradicts the dictum, of which I don’t recall the provenance:
“A system’s goal is what it does”
Following which, I would rather say:
States are concerned to augment the size, budgets and powers of the governing bureaucracy.
Bollywood meets US politics . Mamdani wins NY mayor elections . His mother is Mira Nair ( Indian origin) film director of ” Monsoon wedding ” — ” Salaam Bombay .” etc . Oscar winner .
He won among other reasons compared to the other candidates because in the debates he said
1. I will not go to Israel if elected . I am the Mayor of NY and not of Tel Aviv .
2 , I will arrest Modi if he comes to NY on a visit sans an address to the UN security council or at an invitation from POTUS .
The BJP ruling party’s knickers are on fire in India . NY is not a borough in UK , a Dorp in BE/NL . It is the financial centre of the world . Watch this space .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WztCMFB8mlM&ab_channel=DemocracyNow%21
Dorp is a village .
His primary victory over Cuomo is a clear sign that the boomer era of politics is coming to an end.
Could it be that feminism is a dead end? We are biology, while women have decided career is everything, competing with a man is always the goal. Now they have found that the best men, the ones they chase don’t own, like cars, they lease with no maintenance; that means no children.
There is no economics without biology.
We are part of the universe, perhaps more deeply entwined than we would like. That brings us back to God. Damn(yes, clever juxtaposition of words), reality could be God and narrative could be a story of wishful thinking.
Perhaps the Gods were bored, took an incredible amount of work to make spaceship earth. Oops, that is starting to sound like the mythology of the Greek gods, or is it mythology?
Laughing quietly, one could imagine two Gods claiming his spaceship was better than the other’s. Thunder rings from stage right.
Dennis L.
Women having children is alive and well in the Hudson Valley with the Christian Bruderhoff and with the Jewish settlements up and down the valley growing by leaps and bounds.
Yes the boomers have taken their obscenely generous government pensions and moved to the south. We are moving past red vs blue. With luck NY becomes Muslim. With Columbia University recognized as one of the worlds leading Muslim center of education.
End of boomer politics – end of boomer delusions like below?
I love the smell of panic and fear with my first coffee of the day .
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/wall-street-panics-socialist-set-take-over-new-york-reits-tumble-idiocy-it-all
When I look at the bare cupboard of the Democratic Party I think this guy will be the Presidential nominee in the next elections . AOC is no competition for him for the nomination .
A Muslim president WOW!
@Ed
We already had one 2009-2017
Ever since the ” deep water horizon ” accident , I have said this will happen . My reasoning was/ is ” The House of Orange and the House of Windsor ” the creme de la creme of the elite will not allow BP ( House of Windsor) to go down .
https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/shell-talks-acquire-bp-blockbuster-80-billion-deal
BP has not been doing very well.
Respectfully,
Perhaps too deterministic, a fancy way of saying anthropocentric.
Dennis L.
The creme de la creme of the elite now smalls like the creme de la merde of the elite.
Moon of Alabama on the increasing lawlessness coming home to America:
“Trump attacked Iran without even an attempt to provide a sound reasoning. There was no false flag incident or any serious argument of weapons of mass destruction. The U.S. attacked Iran simply because it could do so.
[By bombing Iran] “Trump is thereby not only in breach of the U.S. constitution, which requires Congress to declare a war. The U.S. war of aggression against Iran is also a breach of the U.S. Charter. [Tagio note, I think he means the UN Charter] Its attacks on civil nuclear installations is a breach of the Additional Protocols of the Geneva Convention which prohibits these.
We are now in a new world disorder:*
The first major consequence, in broader terms, is that this strike dealt a final, irreparable blow to what little remained of the post-war international legal and institutional framework. That order was already in tatters — shredded by a year and a half of Western-backed genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza. But this latest attack makes it official: Western powers no longer feel the need to cloak their actions in legality, morality or even the façade of diplomatic legitimacy.
Today, even that pretense is gone. In Gaza, and now with the strikes on Iran, the gloves are fully off. What we’re witnessing is a regression to a kind of global lawlessness — a “might makes right” free-for-all where nothing is off limits: not the mass slaughter of civilians, not the bombing of nuclear sites, not even the complete sidelining of international institutions.
That the U.S. is doing this, with open support of its European proxies, is not only a danger for the international system but also for the domestic population of these countries:
This isn’t only a threat to international security. It’s also a profound threat to what little freedoms we still have left within the West itself. Make no mistake: the Western ruling classes’ open embrace of Mafia-style gangsterism abroad also means that they will have no qualms about brushing aside whatever ethical, legal, constitutional and democratic constrains that still stand in the way of their desperate, hallucinatory bid to preserve the crumbling order.
We have already seen this in the illegitimate suppression of protests against the genocide in Gaza. It will proliferate from there. The West is, slowly but accelerating, sliding from a ‘rule of law’ status into the darkness of unbound fascism. It is on us to prevent that.”
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2025/06/some-consequences-of-the-war-on-iran.html
*”new world disorder” the phrase coined in this Article, about the US as a gangster state: https://www.thomasfazi.com/p/gangster-empire-what-the-bombing
This is another article pointing to similar things:
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/escobar-empire-chaos-takes-war-brics-next-level
Escobar: Empire Of Chaos Takes War On BRICS To Next Level
Long term it does not make any difference. The opium wars, the african concentration camps, etc,, were worse. it does not matter how much lipstick you put on this pig. you did it, and eventually you will pay for it. for most of you the punishers are already in your country.
Racial diversity, according to you, is about punishing all white people for the sins of the few. I thought diversity was a strength.
It is more about the very few bringing in the many of the Global South, and use them to weaken, prod, and ultimately destroy you. You will be paying for the sins of a narrow elite, although it is clear that you colluded for short term material gains and just out of ignorance. It seems to me that in life ignorance is no excuse.
Racial diversity is not the problem. It’s merely one of several tools or weapons currently being used in a covert class war as a counter to ethnic nationalism and perhaps to any kind of nationalism, or to any kind of civil society—meaning society considered as a community of citizens linked by common interests and collective activity.
A certain amount of diversity is indeed a strength—as long as everyone is working on the same team towards achieving common objectives. But if large numbers of certain groups are working against the common objectives of the whole community of citizens or against the interests of other groups, or to destroy the foundations of the existing society, then diversity can become a right royal pain in the ass for almost everybody.
In 2008 the high oil prices crashed the economies of the world. The U.S was able to pull out and bring the rest of the world with it. They were able to use China to sell all the debt to. Going forward what is going to happen when the system freezes up again? I don’t see any country buying the debt and the system is surely going to freeze up soon. How can pensions and retirement payments continue? Banks are not going to want to lend…
The Treasury will pay pensions of course.
Naturally, it will be printed on toilet tissue.
Septic tank approved
I think you are correct it would be worthless. I think it might be more inline with food stamps. They can’t print their way out.
Worthless pensions may be the way out.
Hmm, hedge with a large, long term, fixed rate mortgage?
Dennis L.
no, it will be regular dollar bills. no need to agitate the livestock.
FASBY56 allows the US Treasury to make off balance sheet payments out of thin air. In fact, in the earliest days of DOGE, Musk had sort of started exposing the fact that the an agency of the US Government was just paying bills without even disclosing the source of any of the money. In short, there are at least two sets of books. One which shows the US Debt officially at 37 trillion, and another which keeps FASBY56 type payments on another set of secret books, and then of course the third book of unfunded liabilities like Medicare, Social Security and Government pensions.
This debt based fractional reserve FED fiat printing system is the ultimate enabler of all of the corruption, government waste, concentration of wealth, and corporatocracy expressed in terms of debt and hidden books.
“In 2008 the high oil prices crashed the economies of the world.”
not your main topic, but at least “this time” oil prices are low.
oil prices are seen clearly in inflation adjusted terms, and now $70 oil is fairly low priced for this century.
simplistic: 10 years ago a fast food burger maybe $3 and a gallon of gasoline $3 and now gasoline $3 and a burger $6.
for millions of low wage American workers the recent movement to $15 minimum hourly wage means that a gallon of gasoline is much more affordable than say the 2011-2014 oil price plateau when oil was averaging $100 which in today’s money would be $140 ish and so about double today’s price.
the average person will experience the next few decades of degrowth as an affordability crisis, where they will be unable first to afford non-essentials and then later essentials.
but for now, oil is not a factor in this affordability crisis that will grow more severe year after year until IC ends in the 2nd half of this century.
Systems theory (deep patterning) sees that the 6 dollar burger is subsidizing the 3 dollar (4 around here) gallon. So the declining oil affordablility is being masked at all (other) costs. Because peak oil is the elephant in the room.
But that’s just my opinion and Tim loves us both and we love him.
yes Tim is cool.
sure the IC system has kept oil affordability quite low.
but ECoE Energy Cost of Energy cannot be stopped from continuing its gradual rise, it was 2% a handful of decades ago and now is 10 or 11 %, and rising perhaps 0.5% per year.
it is relentless.
to the average person it is overall affordability that matters, and the gradual and slow rise in costs of surplus energy will mean a gradual and slow decline in productivity and therefore prosperity for that “average person”.
the 2040s are going to be brutal.
it’s nothing to worry about.
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/local-chinese-governments-promote-zero-mileage-used-car-exports-inflating-sales-2025-06-23/
BEIJING/SHANGHAI, June 24 (Reuters) – China’s auto industry has inflated car sales for years through a burgeoning government-backed grey market that registers new cars right off the assembly line and then ships them overseas as “used” vehicles.
These so-called “zero-mileage” cars have never been driven but they are being exported as used to markets like Russia, Central Asia and the Middle East, allowing Chinese automakers to show growth and to dispose of cars that it would be difficult to sell domestically, according to a Reuters review of government documents and interviews with five auto dealers and car traders.
“This is the outcome of an almost-four-year price war that has made companies desperate to book any sales possible,” said Tu Le, Michigan-based founder of consultancy Sino Auto Insights.
It seems like we have seen other stories about what China is doing to keep sales up. Subsidies for buyers in China (some of which are close to running out). Subsidies for companies in China. Price war because of over production.
https://insideevs.com/news/716063/china-ev-subsidies-byd-tesla-billions-study/
China Paid Billions In Aid To Local EV Makers, Including Tesla, To Dominate The Market: Study
This is an article from 2022:
https://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202206/17/WS62afca42a310fd2b29e6399b.html
I have mentioned something similar before. Could paying people to build “stuff” even at a loss be cheaper than paying people to do nothing? It does give a sense of purpose which seems essential for our personal lives.
Dennis L.
Roads and bridges to nowhere have been built for a long time. Earlier, cathedrals and pyramids were built. It is even easier to fund “services” paid by tax dollars. For example, I could not believe the number of security steps I needed to go through when I traveled by air in India. It looked very much like a job-making program.
The advantage of building something physical it is possible to borrow to fund the enterprise, since the physical stricture will have some lifetime to amortize the cost over. This additional debt can (hopefully) be used to fund the addition employment.
Wars act like building something: It is possible to borrow, to undertake the endeavor. This is part of the reason why wars are so popular among countries not doing well.
and I do not understand those who value ‘American lives’.
Except in some cases, on average American lives are not that valuable.
Of course the lives of many other peoples are not that valuable either, but there is nothing which separates American lives from the lives of other cultures.
The only merit they have is they speak a-form-of-English-which-will-not-fly-among-intelligent-circles.
The elites will always do well, but I expect a massive ‘readjustment’ of the living standards in English speaking countries. It is wrong for someone with 8th grade education to drive two trucks, and people like Musk are trying to make such people buy their new electronic vehicles, just more wastage of resources for nothing.
Getting resources from the stars is just nothing more than pipe dream; it is much easier to limit resource consumption by those already hear, and it will be forced, since nobody will do it voluntarily.
English speaking peoples basically ruled world and they failed to reach the next dimension because they were too lenient on the lowlives. Now they will face the consequences.
The whole Lebensraum thing is just an imitation of Manifest Destiny.
A lot of Germans who grew up in late 19th century grew up reading the stories of Karl May, who wrote a lot of stories about the American West although he did not visit USA until shortly before he died in 1912. He is barely known in USA but was well known to Germans who lived in the first half of 20th century.
They say Germans do not have rights to have land now owned by a Slav-Tatar mongrel tribe calling themselves Russians. Well, if Germany did not deserve the lands of the Tatars, what did the American rednecks do to deserve a land much larger than Europe?
The rednecks cannot even write their own stories. The best known writer of American lowlives is Charles Bukowski, born Heinrich Karl Bukowski in Andernach, Germany, and was German speaking as a child. When I cited him some people gave some names, but none of them are as well known and well received as Heinrich Bukowski.
They are more like the ‘scum of earth’ deried by the Duke of Wellington. The lowlives of England, while still low, did have some evolutionary pressure so the worse of them did not reproduce or did emigrate to places like Australia; the American rednecks, descendants of the lowlives of Elizabethan and Stuart eras, never had that kind of pressure and prospered.
Out of the 4 major ‘white’ countries, Canada’s livable space is not that big; Australia is occupied by the lowlives described above – Russia is actually an Asiatic state – and a lot of USA is occupied by the lowest the roundeyes could produce, with lots of influence from celtic tribes, who are North African, same stock from the Moors who sneaked into the US southeast and anglicized their names. (Othello, as the Elizabethans saw, was not black; he was said ‘dark’, which means black hair, not black skin)
:Lebensraum for the Germans might be wrong, but if that logic is correct, Manifest Destiny for the Americans are not right either, and the same to the Tatars who occupy most of Eurasia.
Karl May was Hitler’s boyhood hero. Hitler was a bookworm and Karl May was the Louis L’Amour of Germany who, among other genres I believe, wrote well-researched US Westerns that cast the Native Americans in a highly favorable light. So much so that the Reich elite informally regarde the noble savages as honorary Aryans, and only informally in acknowledgment of the fact that they had no direct, first-hand knowledge of them. In the early days of the war Hitler had many thousands of copies of one of May’s books highlighting Indian valor distributed among the military rank and file.
I don’t see Lebensraum as an imitation of manifest destiny. Lebensraum was an attempt to establish an geopolitical critical mass such that deterrence could be achieved with regard to the two rapidly imperializing oil powers that that traditional, anti- industrial German culture was caught between and already being hammered by. It was agrarianism’s last and greatest stand. The Reich elite used to stay up all night talking, like college freshman, about the deepest topics, including civilization itself. Rousseau featured prominently. They came to the consensus that mankind was domesticated now and, and the noble German strains, still well-enough intact, needed protection because they were no longer in a position to protect themselves, and the German war machine was originally conceived of as an industrial umbrella for an agrarian hearted culture based on traditional syndicalist economics. An agrarian protectorate, which is why they had such strong early support among the landed gentry and anti- industrial literati of Europe. The Reich was political Romanticism writ large. A good measure of this perspective is owed to having read Anna Bramwell’s “Blood and Soil: Richard Walther Darren and Hitler’s Green Party,” who was an influential Ivy League professor (and political Libertarian) who got blacklisted for writing it. There’s nothing romantic about manifest destiny – that’s pure psychopathy, a mythology far too removed from reality to compare to the historical, lived underpinnings of Lebensraum.
This essay will be well received..
Thomas Merton on American (white) nationalism
posted in Uncategorized on February 19, 2024 by Mike Shell SHARE
https://emptypath.net/merton-white-nationalism/
But the New-Found-Land was a world without history, therefore without sin, therefore a paradise. To this world came the victims of a Europe grown old in wickedness, with its history of arbitrary authority. To escape from history, that is to say from Europe, to escape from the burden of the past, to return to the source, to begin again a new history, starting from scratch, without original sin.
This was what America offered to the oppressed, the persecuted, the unsuccessful, the disinherited—or the merely discontented. To be “baptized” by emigration, to leave one’s sins and one’s past in the Atlantic, to start out for a new life in the wilderness with one’s hand in the hand of God …!
For four hundred years American horizons kept widening. There were no limits. There was always a frontier beyond which there was still more paradise, even though on this side of the frontier there was now history, there was sin, and paradise had begun to close down. Yet it did not close down altogether, as long as there was a frontier. There was always a new start, over the mountains, over the plains.
Then there was the ocean—a permanent barrier against the “old world” of sin and history. As long as our “history” was self-contained, we could regard it as a series of paradisiacal incidents—or of innocent excesses. It took place in the great unlimited garden where, in some mysterious way it was not judged because it did not have any part in the ancient inscrutable intrigues of the Old World. Europe after all had roots in a past so ancient it could never be remembered: as far back as Egypt and Babylon and Ur.
America was cursed with no past that could not be remembered, explained, justified. Everything was clear. Everything was well meant. Since there were no hidden meanings, no implications dictated by the past, no reservations in view of agreements that might be violated, everything was considered sincere.
Please go to the link and read the whole essay before commenting
Fr. Thomas Merton was son of a New Zealander and borm in France.
So, while well received, he was not a redneck
Klum, lot more to it than that…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Merton#cite_note-15
Thanks Mike , will read the whole essay later but your synopsis gives me a view on the 3 eyes — Australia, NZ and Canada . Where we we were , where we are and where we are going has always intrigued me , Merci Beaucoup .
Yes, it is certainly a different perspective on things
Hay comentarios muy inteligentes aquí y otros muy tontos como este. Sin duda, un sitio muy entretenido.
Same arguments could be made to Argentine, which was given the best land of South America with the worst Europe could produce.
“How solar panels and batteries can now run ‘close to 24/365’ in some cities”?
https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-how-solar-panels-and-batteries-can-now-run-close-to-24-365-in-some-cities/?utm_content=buffer3c5c3&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
There are at least four issues that people should be aware of:
1. This modeling and actual findings are in areas close to the equator: Hawaii, UAE, and Saudi Arabia. The results would not hold away from the equator.
2. There are limits on many things going into an electrical system: materials for making the batteries, materials for making transmission lines, materials for making electric cars.
3. Electricity doesn’t make up very much of today’s energy use. About 20%. We need liquid fuels.
4. A program based on solar panels, batteries, and electricity transmission lines has tremendous front-end costs. This is very hard to fund. Typically, it has to be added to government debt. All of the interest expense gets to be a huge problem. We need a system that solves our energy needs on an annual basis “energy flow basis.” Modeling a system based on front-end expenditures and hoped for long-term results is fraught with peril.
So Meloni and Merz are trying to repatriate their national gold from the USA. Merz is 100% a puppet and knows the score. He shows less alienation than Trump because he was born a puppet and identifies as a puppet.
This is probably what the phone call between Meloni and Musk will be like.
– Honey, they are refusing to send back our gold. can you put in a good word with trump?
– Well, you are a big girl now, it is time to learn some things about life. Your nation is a goy nation, and that is all.
*click*
>> Meloni and Merz are trying to repatriate their national gold from the USA
Good luck with that …
I know…
Merz is pathetical, because I think that he is so brainwashed that probably he does believe what he says.
While Meloni knows that if she wants stay in power (and Italy not fall in a financial crisis), she needs to do some things and express some opinions.
My impression is that in Italy more and more people are understanding that we Italians are like the last wheel of the cart, that is we have to make many compromises and say many yes to survive.
If we went towards Russia/China/Iran in friendly way, they would sink us in 24 hours.
But, at least, my impression is that Meloni is not evil like Draghi who really enjoyed to see its people dying for endless repetition of doses with mRNA therapy…
I cannot say if she loves Italians, but surely she doesn’t hate them.