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The general chaos thread


buffalo_bill
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Gentlemen,

I wish to let the world know that a situation like we are facing it now has not been seen ever before during my lifetime. A 20 feet container from China cost abour 10.000 US recently ( now dropping ) against maybe 1500 US under previous circumstances. Door to door from China traditionally took about 6 weeks and is now nothing but a lottery. It is even worse at the USA west coast. They keep the ships waiting in the Channel for weeks because nobody can unload them in Hamburg. The price of a tomato doubled since last year, same goes for almost all grocery. Popular cheese from France is not available and the seller has no idea when it comes again. Even the most ordinary car spareparts are on backorder til nobody knows when. A friend who flies for Lufthanse says they could fly a lot more if they could find people to load/unload the planes. If you want to buy a car you will most likely be sent away with a kick in your ass unless it one of the expensive ones. I ordered a Volkswagen van in December and they do not tell me when we get it. I offered to accept any engine including nuclear power or charcoal carburettor, no chance. All this has been the same before the Ukraine war began, I wonder what we are heading for.

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Interesting read, the UK is facing similar problems and half the nation is screaming “BREXIT” but since it is also happening in Germany, and no doubt other EU nations Brexit isn’t to blame.

Could it be Post-Pandemic reluctance of people to return to work after “Working from Home” for so long, you cannot unload a vessel from your kitchen table. Again in the UK delays in issuing Driving Licnces and Passports, do people really think such can be done from home. The government is so pissed off they are planning on laying off 90,000 /20% of Civil Servants and telling the rest no more WFH.

Or maybe is the the Boomer Generation (i.e. most of us) are retiring and being replaced by millennials who are demanding a $100,000 p.a.  Starting salary for a WFH, 3 day week , 3 months vacation a year position.

Cars is easier to explain, due to Global Chip Shortage

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I saw something that's prescient to me, the other day, made me think.

It was in relation to the average millennial's reaction to lockdowns in Shanghai, and how the populace is getting fed up with not having, all the things/freedoms/wealth/things that advertising, has promised them.

The utterance, from a 28 yr old, in response, to some Covid police, banging on the other side of his door, was "We are the last generation!"

I'm no expert in Demographics, Kong could have a go at this, but the world seems to have a surfeit of Grumpy older people and a shortage of younger people,  who can do anything other, than spend.

The Grumpy older folk, know a bit about hardship, are generally skilled and discarded, and have institutional knowledge, in most all things, and there's a lot of us, compared to times gone by. Mostly as a result of the advances in health care and medicines etc,

The Younger ones, apply the advertising world's description, to life and their approach, is more peace, more wealth, more recreation and less toil.

If you look at evolution, not just from an adaptation point of view (i.e. bigger teeth makes for a better predator, or higher progeny numbers mean more adults survive to breeding effectiveness) but from an overall, perch, some light years away from the action, in space, the human race is still little more, than billions of bacteria in a petri dish.

The simple observation is that, once the bacteria have consumed most of the resources, the waste builds up and the a combination of pollution and scarcity of resources, leads to notably lower bacteria numbers.

An evolutionary observation might be that some of the older strains of bacteria, might be able to hang on, as they're used to hardship and less than optimal circumstances. Whilst the younger, less hardship tolerant, either fail to breed, or do so ineffectually. These older strains could well provide the basis for new generations.

The perceptive amongst us, could point out that the above argument does not take into account the effects, benefits or detriments of conceptual factors, such as society, a construct, if there ever was one.

On this, it is worth remembering the concept of "Meme"  NO! not the thing with a photo of a cat!

Richard Dawkins conceived of memes as the cultural parallel to biological genes and considered them, in a manner similar to “selfish” genes, as being in control of their own reproduction and thus serving their own ends.

Real Memes (not the internet ones), have given us the grab bag, of Millennials and Foofs*. None of these will breed in good numbers.

I worry when I say, the strains of human that will breed in large numbers, are those that will toil, and have limited education. No, not just the stupid folk in the western world, but the global, uneducated and poor, these folk will out-breed, the rich and well educated over time. Subject to Pandemics and Wars, which kill the rich and educated just as effectively. See the last Tsar of Russia and his extended family.

China didn't get big, by providing everyone with a great education and lots of wealth, and now they have started to do so, the folk are going to turn.

This is the corollary of the advertising world, your entire market, cannot all own, a Rolls Royce, twenty Gucci handbags, three private jets and an island. Once the exclusivity is removed, these things become worthless. 

Jeez, time for a coffee.

 

* 'Foof' is a nickname for ineffectual Millennials, or other feckless younger persons. 'Foof', the sound they make when they encounter - pretty much anything

Also -  Foof - Dioxygen difluoride, reacts vigorously (though somewhat safely) with nearly every chemical it encounters – even ordinary ice – leading to its onomatopoeic nickname "FOOF" (a play on its chemical structure and the sound of its explosive tendencies).

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5 hours ago, Coss said:

I'm no expert in Demographics, Kong could have a go at this, but the world seems to have a surfeit of Grumpy older people and a shortage of younger people,  who can do anything other, than spend.

The other  way around

 

CEE22FE4-8207-4320-8548-833AF1DA755B.jpeg

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So my eyes rolled back into my head and there I found, the lever I was looking for...

I pulled the lever and ::

When I said "the world seems to have a surfeit of Grumpy older people and a shortage of younger people", I should have elaborated and advised further, vis "In comparison to when I was a kid, some 50 years ago"

I also note, I am saying more older and fewer younger, in comparison to earlier times, not in comparison to each other, i.e. not older vs younger.

Comparatively.

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12 hours ago, Coss said:

I'm no expert in Demographics, Kong could have a go at this, but the world seems to have a surfeit of Grumpy older people and a shortage of younger people, 

I So “Have a Good Go at” means after trying to work out what you are saying in the first place!

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11 hours ago, Mekong said:

means after trying to work out what you are saying in the first place!

You think you don't understand my missive? How do you think I feel, looking at it from the inside ?

 

tumblr_natpbzJozw1tc258so3_r2_640.png&f=

 

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It's my opinion, that big wealth comes on the backs of the relatively poor (money, education, common sense) folk.

No Millionaire (then), or now-a-days, Billionaire, got rich from an army of workers possessed of great educations and financial well being.

So I beg to differ, when everyone has a university degree, and the rewards of society are so commonplace as to be valueless, the people will want the next thing.

When I was a kid, having a wrist watch was a status symbol, now it's a $2,000 NZD iPhone.

Next it'll be an A.I. bot that lives in the ether and will do all your thinking for you, whilst funnelling your money to whomsoever replaces Bezos and Gates and Musk.

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