literally meaningless to me. i couldn’t care less. money is fake and nobody is ever going to do shit about the debt. who? tell me who is going to do what and without any devastating worldwide consequence?
we can owe $6 quintillion and it won’t mean shit we will print and print and borrow and borrow and so will every other country.
It’s a modern day religion … it’s a faith based system
It works and functions and is all powerful because enough people believe in it and hold all their faith in it … it’s faith and belief that make it work
But it’s also the Achilles heel of the whole system … if enough people in the whole system stop believing in it … it all collapses in on itself and it is destroyed and evaporates instantly.
This analogy is very apt. I stopped giving money (and wealth in general) power over my emotional state. I only care about making rent and many of my recent luxuries are buying independent art like games and music as well as local shops.
Turns out, if you stop wanting all the time, you also stop consuming.
I had to consciously do this as well. It’s one of those journeys that makes me want to annoy people by talking in circular little one-liners like a monk or Yoda. It also revealed to me just how much my more conservative family members obsess over the money or the stuff that other people have.
It also turns out, similar to what you said, is that the way to get enough “stuff” in your life is not to acquire all the stuff. That will never work. The way to get enough stuff in your life is to simply stop caring about getting more stuff.
And make no mistake, I DO like my stuff! I have actually spent a considerable amount of money on material possessions in the past month. I have also been daydreaming about what kind of car I’ll get next. (disclaimer for my c/fuckcars friends, I live in low density suburban USA bordering rural areas; I’m gonna have a car forever)
But, they aren’t mindless consumption. The purchases are to support my hobbies that make my life/brain/health better. I have been building my collection of high quality tools because one major hobby of mine that required some construction has inspired an offshoot hobby of woodworking. The dopamine hit from buying something new and shiny is still there, but with my learning and planning coupled with the positive effect of having something to look forward to, not to mention it gets me outside and moving heavy stuff around, I have had no regrets and am getting the desired benefit.
I mentioned the car because, like the tools, it is a catalyst to enhance something I enjoy. It is not a status symbol or collectible. In my case, I have always enjoyed the dynamics of driving and I had manual transmissions in my first three cars which I do not have now. And my drive to work is a couple miles of twisty semi-rural road. I think I want a roadster.
But it’s also the Achilles heel of the whole system … if enough people in the whole system stop believing in it … it all collapses in on itself and it is destroyed and evaporates instantly.
Having large debt matters for how expensive access to cash is. No matter how “fake” it is, the financial system puts a premium on how long it takes to get their lent money back. The longer it’s stuck, the worse the reputation of getting it back, or simply the higher the demand — the higher the premium.
And as you need cash to make payments for goods and services (as opposed to tax rebates) that has the effect that US tax dollars and investments have lower rate of return as sufficient cash gets more expensive.
Another part is that the debt will be taken out in some form, e.g. foreign currency, making that currency more available for cash transactions (while at the same time making yours’ less available due to being locked into what you needed it for). This shifts trade away from USD, which makes it much harder to influence/control what it’s used for, how much it’s worth, and harder to make people care how much of it there is.
As the world trades in something besides USD and/or avoids investing in the US due to high costs/volatility, the US gets less relevant/influential in global policy, diplomacy, business, investments and even domestic policy.
It’s possible that other countries might start calling us on the debt, if we borrow faster than we lend, or faster than inflation.
Countries don’t have credit ratings in the same way Americans do, but they still have ratings on their bonds. If those ratings get downgraded, people stop lending us money, and then everything crashes and burns.
i mean “it’s possible” and likely are two separate things. we all owe each other money. who is collecting from whom that doesn’t owe some other nation?
literally meaningless to me. i couldn’t care less. money is fake and nobody is ever going to do shit about the debt. who? tell me who is going to do what and without any devastating worldwide consequence?
we can owe $6 quintillion and it won’t mean shit we will print and print and borrow and borrow and so will every other country.
It’s a modern day religion … it’s a faith based system
It works and functions and is all powerful because enough people believe in it and hold all their faith in it … it’s faith and belief that make it work
But it’s also the Achilles heel of the whole system … if enough people in the whole system stop believing in it … it all collapses in on itself and it is destroyed and evaporates instantly.
This analogy is very apt. I stopped giving money (and wealth in general) power over my emotional state. I only care about making rent and many of my recent luxuries are buying independent art like games and music as well as local shops.
Turns out, if you stop wanting all the time, you also stop consuming.
Calm down there Siddhartha… /s
It was my introduction to Taoism that helped.
I had to consciously do this as well. It’s one of those journeys that makes me want to annoy people by talking in circular little one-liners like a monk or Yoda. It also revealed to me just how much my more conservative family members obsess over the money or the stuff that other people have.
It also turns out, similar to what you said, is that the way to get enough “stuff” in your life is not to acquire all the stuff. That will never work. The way to get enough stuff in your life is to simply stop caring about getting more stuff.
And make no mistake, I DO like my stuff! I have actually spent a considerable amount of money on material possessions in the past month. I have also been daydreaming about what kind of car I’ll get next. (disclaimer for my c/fuckcars friends, I live in low density suburban USA bordering rural areas; I’m gonna have a car forever)
But, they aren’t mindless consumption. The purchases are to support my hobbies that make my life/brain/health better. I have been building my collection of high quality tools because one major hobby of mine that required some construction has inspired an offshoot hobby of woodworking. The dopamine hit from buying something new and shiny is still there, but with my learning and planning coupled with the positive effect of having something to look forward to, not to mention it gets me outside and moving heavy stuff around, I have had no regrets and am getting the desired benefit.
I mentioned the car because, like the tools, it is a catalyst to enhance something I enjoy. It is not a status symbol or collectible. In my case, I have always enjoyed the dynamics of driving and I had manual transmissions in my first three cars which I do not have now. And my drive to work is a couple miles of twisty semi-rural road. I think I want a roadster.
Just like the US Constitution.
So is the rest of our consensus reality…
Having large debt matters for how expensive access to cash is. No matter how “fake” it is, the financial system puts a premium on how long it takes to get their lent money back. The longer it’s stuck, the worse the reputation of getting it back, or simply the higher the demand — the higher the premium.
And as you need cash to make payments for goods and services (as opposed to tax rebates) that has the effect that US tax dollars and investments have lower rate of return as sufficient cash gets more expensive.
Another part is that the debt will be taken out in some form, e.g. foreign currency, making that currency more available for cash transactions (while at the same time making yours’ less available due to being locked into what you needed it for). This shifts trade away from USD, which makes it much harder to influence/control what it’s used for, how much it’s worth, and harder to make people care how much of it there is.
As the world trades in something besides USD and/or avoids investing in the US due to high costs/volatility, the US gets less relevant/influential in global policy, diplomacy, business, investments and even domestic policy.
It’s possible that other countries might start calling us on the debt, if we borrow faster than we lend, or faster than inflation.
Countries don’t have credit ratings in the same way Americans do, but they still have ratings on their bonds. If those ratings get downgraded, people stop lending us money, and then everything crashes and burns.
Our ratings HAVE been downgraded, and it’s only going to get worse
Most of our debt is domestically owned, though.
The same process still applies, though. Domestic lenders can also drive the rates up by refusing to lend.
i mean “it’s possible” and likely are two separate things. we all owe each other money. who is collecting from whom that doesn’t owe some other nation?