"You will own nothing and you will be happy" really means the below:
The current changes to interest rates and asset prices will ultimate destroy what is left of the middle class, simply by:
Wage stagnation means you can buy less of everything else, house, car, etc. This means you "own" less things.
For example:
2. A basic income for workers that no longer provide value
Since the cost of living has increased, standard of living is in decline. Automation and other factors (globalization, etc) are making less workers necessary. As standards of living decreases, peoples' mental health decline, and people become desperate, which leads to a lot of the things we see on the news. In order to placate people, it is easier and cheaper for the government to provide a basic income to keep people from rioting and causing trouble.
A basic income for the poor, is simply the government printing money and giving it to the rich in a roundabout way. Since people will just use their basic income either to pay off existing loans (profits to corporations/shareholders and taxes), or use to buy basic services/entertainment (which leads to salaries for workers and profits to corporations/shareholders and taxes). The salaries of workers are then used to buy goods and services (which means to profits to corporations/shareholders, etc).
If the government prints money and gives it to people, this eliminates the problem of inflation for the poor since if the cost of food goes up 10%, the government will just increase basic income by 10%. Of course, this fucks in the ass the middle class and wage workers or anyone that has savings in non capital assets.
The process is ultimately unsustainable in the longer term, but it will probably be good for another 10 years. In late 2019/early 2020 before COVID, the economy was not doing great, but it held on long enough for COVID to come along, and provided the perfect opportunity to take "unprecedented" action. This is called "muddying the waters to hide the fish".
Similarly, oil/gas prices were already high in late 2021/early 2022, but then Russia invaded Ukraine and everyone seems to forgot how high oil/gas prices worldwide are caused by half a decade of ESG bullshit, regulations, and lack of investment in the industry, etc.
I will add this joke about climate change and solar/wind energy: global warming leads to more extreme weather, yes? extreme weather makes it harder for everyone to live, yes? so isn't it really fucking stupid to rip up our existing energy infrastructure to build another one that depends on the weather to work?
Anyways, in the same way, eventually, the house of cards will fall apart due to variety of factors, but when that happens, chances are we will either have a civil war (between the white nationalist/supremacists, and the socialists), or a world war (west vs china, etc).
- A gradual move to a subscription based economy (i.e, you will own nothing and rent everything)
- A basic income for workers that no longer provide value (i.e, you will be happy because you no longer need to work)
- A gradual move from physical consumerism to digital content consumerism, with novelty and dopamine as the opioid for the masses (i.e, you will be happy spending your time consuming digital content, porn, tiktoks, youtube videos, streams, games, music, recreational drugs, etc)
- A decline in free speech through both media censorship and self censorship (i.e, you will be happy, because if you are not happy then there is something wrong with you and you need to be put on something).
- A return to historical norms, where 1% (and really the 1% of the 1%) controls most of the wealth and power of society), aka, a kind of tech based serfdom.
- A gradual move to a subscription based economy:
The current changes to interest rates and asset prices will ultimate destroy what is left of the middle class, simply by:
- Print a lot of money/keep interest rates low and inflate asset prices after 2008. Most of the benefits of these policies are gained by the wealthy who are more financially knowledgeable and held onto their assets.
- Print even more money during COVID, causing the working class to FOMO in with their retirement savings. At the same time, the smart money started selling with the cover the Powell provided, and moved some money into cash.
- Powell does a rug pull, rises interest rates. Asset prices fall and the working people panic out of the market, losing a nice portion of their retirement. A nice recession ensures the working people don't get too "uppity" since they have been making too many demands lately (see antiwork, work from home, etc)
- The smart money buys back in, and after enough time to accumulate, Powell says he is surprised at how the economy has been decimated by the aggressive rise in interest rates, and lowers rates. Asset prices go back up again.
Wage stagnation means you can buy less of everything else, house, car, etc. This means you "own" less things.
For example:
- House -> mortgage -> rent
- Car -> lease -> ride share
- Utilities, internet, etc -> already subscription
- Entertainment/media -> subscription
- Phone/phone plan/internet -> subscription
- Consumables (food, gas, etc) -> consumed and have to buy again.
2. A basic income for workers that no longer provide value
Since the cost of living has increased, standard of living is in decline. Automation and other factors (globalization, etc) are making less workers necessary. As standards of living decreases, peoples' mental health decline, and people become desperate, which leads to a lot of the things we see on the news. In order to placate people, it is easier and cheaper for the government to provide a basic income to keep people from rioting and causing trouble.
A basic income for the poor, is simply the government printing money and giving it to the rich in a roundabout way. Since people will just use their basic income either to pay off existing loans (profits to corporations/shareholders and taxes), or use to buy basic services/entertainment (which leads to salaries for workers and profits to corporations/shareholders and taxes). The salaries of workers are then used to buy goods and services (which means to profits to corporations/shareholders, etc).
If the government prints money and gives it to people, this eliminates the problem of inflation for the poor since if the cost of food goes up 10%, the government will just increase basic income by 10%. Of course, this fucks in the ass the middle class and wage workers or anyone that has savings in non capital assets.
The process is ultimately unsustainable in the longer term, but it will probably be good for another 10 years. In late 2019/early 2020 before COVID, the economy was not doing great, but it held on long enough for COVID to come along, and provided the perfect opportunity to take "unprecedented" action. This is called "muddying the waters to hide the fish".
Similarly, oil/gas prices were already high in late 2021/early 2022, but then Russia invaded Ukraine and everyone seems to forgot how high oil/gas prices worldwide are caused by half a decade of ESG bullshit, regulations, and lack of investment in the industry, etc.
I will add this joke about climate change and solar/wind energy: global warming leads to more extreme weather, yes? extreme weather makes it harder for everyone to live, yes? so isn't it really fucking stupid to rip up our existing energy infrastructure to build another one that depends on the weather to work?
Anyways, in the same way, eventually, the house of cards will fall apart due to variety of factors, but when that happens, chances are we will either have a civil war (between the white nationalist/supremacists, and the socialists), or a world war (west vs china, etc).
