Melonius [he/him]

My tier list:

Uncritical support

Makes a great point

Gotta hand it to them

Critical support

I thought latest fad was to lock yourself in your tesla and drive in to your ranch lake but maybe its just an amerikkkan thing

Inside you there are two miners

hey this is cool

The middle panel up top has baggage. Maybe it goes without saying, but even people with sizeable investments profit or exist at the whims of capitalism. More than 1 ghoulish landlord lost most of their hoarded wealth during the housing crisis, and plenty of “small business” owners can see themselves muscled out if larger capitalist set their eyes on a market and bribing (buying out) is off the table. Every petite bourgeoisie is always one manufactured capitalist crisis away from losing their artificially granted “class”.

They will probably not come around but it’s worth reminding them to take the wind out of their sails. Maybe they’ll be materially worse off under a Marxist system right now, but there is value in living in a society where you will not be abandoned by society or go hungry, nor have to see others suffer that way.

I went off topic but I think that “no other investments” line is too open to wrong interpretations.

Just buy the corn syrup and iodized salt direct from the manufacturer and skip all these middle men.

Thanks for your informative post!

you think you can just force elected representatives to do what you like.

Imagine having elected officials doing what you like. Instead they do whatever corporate donors pay them to.

Best to let capital sort it out - wouldn’t want to enforce the will of the people or anything.

The game is kinda meh from what I’ve seen? Any positive impressions?

It’s a text based game from early 2000s, but liberal crime squad is one of my favs and made by bay12games (dwarf fortress). It’s operating on several layers of irony but you get to take on cops, soldiers, middle managers, CEOs and kidnap justices and even visit the president. On the highest difficulty you start is a nearly fully fascist America and need to prevent conservative laws being passed via adventurism. Naturally you win when the people the conservatism away

http://lcs.wikidot.com/start

It’s been updated by some passionate fans here http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?PHPSESSID=ec71cafae4a2fde243c3562d9bcb9637&topic=159540.0

And free!

Does anyone unironically share this? Really grasping at straws on the anti China front

and each dollar has the same value

The intrinsic value of fiat currency is 0. Double, halve, quadruple 0 all you want makes no difference. It’s function and value is as a medium of exchange.

Imagine a copper based currency. If supplies of copper increase, the intrinsic value of copper falls, so the total value of the currency falls. The extrinsic value is not affected.

If I buy a widget for $1 and my labor is $2, I can be paid in 2 widgets. The money supply doesn’t change that my labor is 2 widgets. If prices are increased on widgets by a capitalist, then I would expect an increase in my labor price (in dollars), regardless of the money supply, because money has no intrinsic value.

I’ll state again that this difference (capitalists choosing to raise prices vs blaming external factors like “money supply”) is not just pedantic. Capital mentions it few times, the fetishization of money and capital accumulation/hoarding cause this belief that money has a function outside of exchange.

To put it mathematically: the rate of accumulation is the independent, not the dependent variable; the rate of wages is the dependent, not the independent variable. Thus, when the industrial cycle is in its phase of crisis, a general fall in the price of commodities is expressed as a rise in the relative value of money, and, in the phase of prosperity, a general rise in the price of commodities is expressed as a fall in the relative value of money. The so-called Currency School* conclude from this that with high prices too much money is in circulation, with low prices too little. Their ignorance and complete misunderstanding of the facts are worthily paralleled by the economists, who interpret the above phenomena of accumulation by saying that in one case there are too few, and in the other, too many wage-labourers in existence.

A transaction for stock is the same as any other transaction. It terminates once money is exchanged. You do not extrapolate what happens after. When I pay my check at a restaurant does the cook run out the door to spend my money or does it go in the register?

I saw your other posts and wanted to point out a few key points.

1. fiat money has no intrinsic value. Doubling or tripling the supply doesn’t change it’s value. Halving it doesn’t make it suddenly more valuable.
2. commodity based currency, like a gold standard, does have intrinsic value. Finding new supplies of gold will reduce the intrinsic value of all gold, so it would see a change from the money supply changing all else equal.
3. you mention it several times in other posts - it is the circulation of money that can (not necessarily) cause inflation. Imagine I sell $10 of goods at market and go home, vs selling $10 of goods then buying $10 of groceries. Money supply is irrelevant to the inflationary effects, so long as there is sufficient currency to account for all goods that are currently traded.
4. post housing crisis, the US money supply increased tremendously during QE, yet inflation was low. Monetarists shrug, but the simple reason is money supply doesn’t cause inflation.

Have you read Capital? It goes through money and velocity pretty thoroughly early on and I think addresses some pretty big assumptions econ classes tend to present.

Since the financial crisis banks have taken deposits and reinvested them at the Fed or other banks. Purchases of stock do not necessarily raise prices either. Prices can fall on heavy volume and rise in light volume.

That’s a paycut in purchasing power.

Only if prices rise. Consider that this island only sells widgets in this currency. Will they raise prices because the money supply has increased? They were “maximizing” profit before, but now the money supply is different and the employee on the island still makes 20 coins. Will selling widgets at a new price point get them more money?

The rich are spending the money

If a rich person gets money, what evidence do you have that they would spend it or invest it? It is not a factual assumption and depends on many factors, and not just in a pedantic way. If market conditions are sour, a rich person would avoid investing it for fear of losing it.

Capitalists are middle men who sell our labor + a product back to us at a higher price. If they don’t need cash right now, they will raise prices and sell fewer units at a higher rate to maximize the margin (on durable goods). If they do want cash, they will lower prices and trade margins for volume. Take oil as an example - if you can sell a barrel now for X or tomorrow for more, you would price the oil higher as long as opportunity cost < selling it lower now. How does other people having more money affect this?

Consider your labor and pretend you are fairly compensated right now. If the money supply increases, do you demand, or at least deserve, higher wages? If so, why?

Money supply is a specific term and it will not always result in inflation. You’ve acknowledged that several times but still repeat it. It will depend how that increase in money supply is used, if at all.

If I got a trillion dollars printed and did nothing with it, no change in inflation. If I deposit it at banks, there would probably be some knock on effects on interest rates that make their way to the broader system.

If I go on a coordinated buying spree of oranges with the explicit goal of owning every last orange and orange producing land possible, inflation in oranges and substitute goods of oranges will occur. Easy conclusion.

You can argue that: When the capital owners get free money in bailouts, while workers get crumbs, there is an obvious disparity. Capitalists see less value in currency and will want more of it in exchange for their contributions (leeching) to society. So they raise prices because selling an orange for $1 doesn’t feel as good as before.

If workers got more money while capitalists got nothing, that disparity is reversed. Capitalists want to compete for a supply of cash that they didn’t have access to before. Prices will rise in inelastic markets because the opportunity to exploit presents itself, but in competitive markets there is a real drive to entice more purchasing. That’s not to say that prices will go down (they can!) But raising your prices on food because everyone got $1000 could mean missed sales if the price raise isn’t coordinated across the industry.

You saying that inflation is driven by money supply is not the direct reason for prices rising.

I agree, but if we’re on other instances I only mean to correct their bigotry and false statements so others see that they’re wrong.

Ideally they’d be banned already and there’s nothing to respond to.

sick dilapidated drapes

Just to clarify what I meant, I personally don’t mind remaining federated but I’m still new here. I think fascists should absolutely be challenged, argued with, and shut down, but it’s not even something I’m totally comfortable with doing myself yet.

I’m condescending because it’s hard to express, but I feel sad for them because I can’t tell if their admin team has been bullied in to submission by that one community or something else. It’s condescending of me because their instance has a ton of history and I can’t possibly comprehend it in the couple of days we’ve been federated. I think all the admin posts I’ve read have been fairly reasonable but are coming from a passive and overly tolerant lib mindset. I still remember being there (still am really) and it’s a horrible feeling.

Anyways, thanks for everything you all do!

It seems to me that instance has a very evident and festering problem, which is incredibly strange for what is supposed to be a pro-trans instance.

They’re being tone policed down to levels, but they’re still spreading the same hateful talking points that prevents the free expression that the admin team supposedly desires.

This is my first time seeing it first hand but it’s so obvious and transparent that their liberal well intentioned inclusiveness has already backfired horrifically. When hexbear users confront these tone-adjusted fascists and question their hateful anti-left stance (something the mods and admin team should be doing but lack the spine) they cry and demand defed because their views absolutely can not stand up to any sort of serious analysis.

I will say I would not have seen this without federation. It genuinely makes me appreciate the amazing community thats been cultivated here because it’s not easy to challenge, and remove, a polite abuser standing next to you.

If anyone is communicating with their admin team, I think they should be told to wake up because it will only get worse before their community is co-opted and they’re the ones being “tolerated.” I am being constantly reminded of this https://youtu.be/P55t6eryY3g?t=677

The fact that calling it out plays in to the fascists hands is pretty depressing too.