The Entertainment Singularity

Dey Took Er Jerbz

I often flirt intellectually with the concept of a fully roboticized economy.  I don't think it will ever happen in totality.  I think worries about robots stealing our jobs is overblown.  And I believe the precipice of AI is merely the latest evolution of the continual technological asymptote humankind as endured since forever. But it's still interesting to ponder because while I believe a fully-automated economy will forever remain theoretical, there are some aspects of it that will become reality, if not have already come to fruition.

Adding further intrigue to the concept of a perfected "AI economy" is that I do not believe it is compatible with human psychology and evolution.  Yes, it is an economist's dream, if not the whole purpose of economics, to have robots do all the work while we humans luxuriate for our ever-increasing life-expectancies.  But as me and some of my fellow digital nomadic explorers have discovered, this "utopian world" of working from your laptop is not all it's cracked up to be.  Matter of fact it's already proving dystopian in some regards.

Yes it is nice to work from your bed all day, having money automatically deposited into your bank account, while Amazon delivers all the world's goods to your front door....until you do it for a month and realize you desperately need to get out of the house.

Yes it is nice to stare into a smart phone for days on end, meeting new people online, perhaps even starting the buds of a romantic relationship online...until you realize an entire generation of kids are mentally stunted, incapable of dating and incredibly depressed in the process.

And yes it's nice to have your car do everything for you, warning you about crossing the median to even driving for you...until you try to pop the hood and fix the damn thing.
 
Every technology and technological advance has had its drawbacks, but as far as my economist eye can see there's another straw to add to the "AI Economy Camel's Back"- The Entertainment Singularity.  And it holds some serious (and dark) ramifications for us.

The Entertainment Singularity

I cannot claim ownership of this very original idea.  That goes to Dick Masterson as I was listening to his podcast one day.  He and his co-host were talking about Nasim Aghdam, the woman who shot up YouTube's corporate headquarters when they canceled her YouTube channel.  The point they were making was that as jobs are increasingly harder and harder to get, requiring more and more education, many people were going to the internet to unleash their creative talents (for better of worse).  And when that creative outlet is eliminated or canceled, in many cases you eliminate the ONLY creative outlet increasing numbers of people have.  Ipso facto, people are going to revolt, sometimes violently as Ms. Aghdam did.  However, Dick went on to further extrapolate that in the future, with more and more jobs being automated, an increasing percentage of the population will be put out of a job.  And not even "put out of a job" as much as never given the chance of having one in the first place. And so the logical conclusion was if you went down the time line far enough, where robots were doing all the labor, the only thing left for people to do would be:

1.  Consume entertainment and
2.  Produce entertainment

At first this sounds great!  All we do is create philosophy, art, music, videos, debate, as the robots make and bring us our food?  There's nothing else we have to do other than entertain ourselves and create our own entertainment as all hobbyists dream of?  It is the solution to the labor/leisure paradox that has plagued humankind since the beginning.  We'd like to maximize leisure, but we need to at least expend some of our efforts of labor.  In a truly, 100%-attained AI economy, wealth would be virtually limitless, making labor unnecessary and leisure free.  And as long as we didn't outbreed the roboticized economy's ability to produce wealth, nobody would have to expend a second of their lives toiling.  But as I said before, a fully-functional and total AI economy is not compatible with the human mind. And using my economic spidey senses, it would become rapidly apparent this utopian dream is a dystopian nightmare.

First, Dick admits that humans need an outlet for their energy and productive talents.  I would argue this applies more to men than women - and let's not forget that government checks have now created 3 generations of parasites who are perfectly happy watching Jerry Springer and majoring in the liberal arts - but for the most part that premise is correct.  Humans (productive ones anyway) need to do SOMETHING otherwise they will have no agency or value in their lives.  Thankfully, if the robots do take over, humanity's point and purpose in life would quite literally be boiled down to "entertain and be entertained."  This seems simplistic and even degrading.  You would say, "well we could work if we wanted to, right?"  But this misses the point of a fully functional AI economy.  You wouldn't have the CHANCE to work.  The jobs wouldn't even exist for you to apply to in the first place.  And besides, I would even argue that you wouldn't want to work a real job anyway when your hobbies would make you just as much money.

Fixing up classical cars.
Painting landscapes.
Doing videos on fishing.
Webcaming for the attention fix theatrical joy.

All of that is preferable to the toil of hauling cement in 1890, even the relative bliss of filing in an airconditioned office in 2018.  Nearly everybody would opt for hobbying than actual laboring. 

But will people whittle wood?  Paint pictures?  Write symphonic scores?

Will people create Victor Borge-esque levels of humor?  Theatrical pieces that rival Casablanca?  Write genius literary works that put Shakespeare to shame?

I'd even settle for people just keeping to their own and producing nothing.  You want to watch Sports Center all day, listen to gansta rap, and drink Fireball all afternoon?  Knock yourselves out, long as you ain't hurting nobody.

But I know humans.  And humans suck. And it is here where humanity will take this wonderful utopian dream and turn it into a dystopian nightmare.  And to understand how this will happen, one needs to understand wealth and value.

The Problem with Unlimited Wealth

In the perfected AI economy, "wealth" would lose all meaning.  Since every material want and desire would be produced by robots, the value of everything would go to zero since it would take no labor or effort on our part to produce them.

What's the value of that Mountain Dew?
$0, I can get another one from the Mountain Dew Robot for free.

What's the value of that backrub?
$0. I can get another one from the Backrub Robot for free.

What's the value of that personal F-16 fighter plane?
$0.  The F-16 Fighter Plane Robots will make me another one for free and the Amazon robot will deliver it to my front door tomorrow.

With unlimited wealth "value" gets turned on its head.  Things are in unlimited supply so they by definition cannot hold value.  Further complicating matters is in an AI economy there wouldn't be money (because everything is free) and thus, without money, there is no unit of measurement by which to calculate value. 

So if things no longer have value, then what DOES have value in an AI economy?  Does anything have value?  Humans cannot live lives in a world where NOTHING has value. What gives them point and purpose in life?  What gives them the incentive to get up in the morning?  What gives them the reason to live?  Simple - things that robots can't produce, and only humans can. And to make matters worse, things only a very few, select number of humans can.

Beauty, Excellence, Stimulation, Insight, and Artisanship

Since material things would no longer have value, the only things that would have value are the non-tangible qualities, traits, and creations of other human beings.  Works of art such as music, paintings, sculptures, movies, comedy, and the aforementioned entertainment would all have entertainment value to those yet to consume it.  Intellectual stimulation in the form of philosophy, insight, speculation and debate (much like Jordan Peterson and Stephan Molynuex of today) would pique and entertain the minds of millions.  Excellence, be it in athleticism, architecture, technology, or any other human endeavor would beget awe and fascination much like the Olympics do today.  And physical beauty.  Just because robots are doing all the work doesn't mean men would abandon their desires for a beautiful woman, nor women abandon their secretive lust to be violated by muscular bad boys.

In short, people will place value on high quality human creations be it the arts, beauty, architecture, literature, philosophy, or any other human endeavor.  There is, however, a problem with this.  Society is only going to value the human creations that are beautiful and excellent, not common and inferior.  And unfortunately things that are beautiful and/or excellent take labor, toil, sacrifice, and effort.  And that runs contrary to human nature.

Laziness and Envy

To reiterate my previous point, most humans are scum.  Human history is basically the story of a lazy species that does whatever it can to get by on the cheap, take short cuts, and live off of others.  You could even further reduce the history of mankind to simply "work avoidance."  Admittedly, it is a noble goal to be more efficient, working less and producing more with advances in technology, but a trip to your local Wal-Mart, college campus, or corporate office will show the vast majority of people would rather sit on their ass, stuff their faces, and expend the least amount of effort possible than give it their all and pursue excellence in their lives.

This leaves a small minority of humans who actually have the capacity and desire to create human works of genuine beauty and excellence.  For example today's modern artists are a laughably worthless group of people.  They are simply too lazy to hone and craft their skills to create genuine works of art.  Instead they create utter crap and hide their lack of talent behind some concocted political or philosophical interpretation of their "art."  Another example, wealthy people.  Wealth is merely excellence in the form of work ethic.  I acknowledge many rich people today inherited their wealth, but they are not the majority.  The majority of wealthy people earned it either by working harder, working smarter, and usually a combination of both.  However, most normies and commoners would rather complain about what others earned than earn wealth themselves.  And finally, actual physical beauty.  To be physically attractive takes work, LOT'S OF WORK.  But a simple walk down the street will show you the majority of Americans prefer to be revolting, puke-inducing sows than hit the gym and eat right.

When you add it all up, it is only a VERY SMALL minority of people who have both the ability and inclination to achieve beauty and excellence.  And these people will command the majority of value in this AI economy of the future.  However, in being the sole providers of anything of value in this neo-economy, they will also be the target of most people's envy and ire.  And whereas in today's modern economy greed, envy, and jealousy can be avenged through progressive taxation, in an AI economy, there is no wealth or income to confiscate.  Additionally, you can't very well "transfer looks" or "transfer talent" much like socialists today "transfer wealth," so how do the jealous normies, conformies, commoners, and inferiors get their pound of flesh?

A Different Road to Serfdom

To revisit the original premise of The Entertainment Singularity everybody will produce and consume entertainment. A small minority of people will produce the highest quality entertainment, commanding the most value in this economy, while the vast majority of people will make inferior entertainment that nobody will value.  From an economics perspective this is moot since wealth is unlimited and everybody's bio-physiological needs are met.  However, from a psychological perspective this discrepancy is very important since only a small few will have a clear calling for agency and purpose, while others simply won't.  And again I needn't remind you about the petty, envious nature of humans that will drive the majority to demand some kind of "agency" and "value" in their own lives.

So where does a lazy person, whose ego is too big to just collect their BGI check and make videos of his dog online, go?  The answer is "religion."

Keep in mind when I say "religion" I don't mean just the traditional religions of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, though it can be that too. I  mean any belief lazy people use as a substitute for actual value, achievement, excellence, and accomplishment in their lives.

Veganism
Vegetarianism
Feminism
Global warming/environmentalist.
Animal Rights
Fair trade coffee
Organic coffee
Free range coffee
Socialism
The children
The whales
Minorities.
Women.
Gun control.
Abortion.
Children's cancer.
Breast cancer.
Helping the poor.
Helping the Africans
Fighting poverty.
Pantranssapiohyposadosexualism

You name it, the vast majority of modern day political/social causes are today's modern religions and about as valid as the old ones.  And so instead of putting forth all the hard toil and effort that anything of real value requires, the majority of people will simply choose a political crusade as their entertainment, thus conferring immediate (and faux) value on their entertainment and thus themselves.

But it will not stop there.

Even though the "inferior" producers will successfully replace (in their minds) actual talent with a worthless religion, they won't go away.  They won't be satisfied.  Because deep down inside they know they're producing nothing of value.  They know they are inferior.  And (petty as this sounds, it is devastatingly true) they know they're ugly.  And their envious, petty minds will simply not be able to abide these facts.  Ergo, even though all their worldly desires are taken care of, and they have a fabricated substitute of worth to feed their ego, they will still try to redefine what is beautiful.  What is excellent.  What is reality.

This is already happening in today's world.  Big is beautiful.  "Acting white."  Redefining art to be minimalist crap.  Plus size models at Target.  The elimination of the honor role and valedictorians.  Tattoos, piercings, gauges, and other body mutilations as a substitute to hit the gym.  And that says nothing of the rapid and pathetic arms race of victim whoring, claiming you're disabled or disadvantaged in today's world.  "White privilege."  "Male privilege."  "Institutional racism."  "31 flavors of gender."  "3 in 1 women are raped on college campuses every 4 seconds."  "The wage gap." "ADHD/Autism/Bi-Polar." Etc. etc.  This is the mental, political, and sociological insanity we normal, producing people are suffering today as the lazy and parasitic in our society try to redefine reality to their liking.  It's just going to be turned up to 13 in the future theoretical roboticized economy.

But maddening as this is, it's still not the worst to come.  Because if you look at society today and the entities that will likely be the vehicles by which entertainment will be deliver to society, an incredibly dangerous storm is brewing.

First, with the K-college education industry you have a purposed, well-financed, and consciously orchestrated attempt to brainwash people into socialism.  You can claim it's conspiracy theory and that Alex Jones and I have been drinking too much Listerine, but it's true.  People are conditioned from 5 years old to be socialists and are inherently biased to the left.

Second, today's gatekeepers of social media are also biased to the left.  Google/YouTube, Twitter, Reddit, etc., are all rank leftist, Silicon Valley organizations, some of which have viral and hate-filled leftist SJW elements and people within them.  They will/have channel, throttle, censor, edit, and control any human-created entertainment both now and into the future.  Perhaps not even consciously, and under a somewhat noble intention to allow for free speech, much like today's MSM, they are inherently biased to the left and cannot do anything to control for it. 

Finally, the majority of people by definition are just rank sheep, followers, conformists, and obeyers.  They do not have the intellectual independence or mental strength to resist the brainwashing they receive.  This is why you have "America's smartest people" (that would be college students) all PAINFULLY thinking the same, voting the same, and spewing the same leftist opinions.  They will not be able to resist the indoctrination they receive from kindergarten through college and they will not be aware that the Thought Police of Social Media will govern what future thoughts and opinions they'll be allowed to have in the future.

You combine these three things together and you have an Orwellian tyranny in under a century.  The majority of people are just not smart enough to resist the brainwashing they currently and will receive in the future.  Most are also just too damn lazy to want to pursue excellence in life.  And when you realize nearly all entertainment (both today and in the future) will be filtered through an entertainment singularity that is controlled and regulated by organizations that have a huge leftist bias, the fact we're a democracy will condemn us down a AI economy road to intellectual serfdom.

The Future is Now!

The sad thing is that much of this is already happening today.  We don't have to wait until the robots take over and produce all our material wants and desires.  Technology has advanced enough to the point we can entertain concepts like "Basic Guaranteed Income" and already have an effective prototype "cradle to grave" government program.  This economic largess (be it in the form of a government check or daddy cutting a check for his "precious little princess") has allowed for many phenomena of an AI economy/Entertainment Singularity to become reality today.

An increasing number of youth actually try (and some succeed) in making their living on social media.  Nearly everybody's social media feed is chock full of politics, religion, crusades and causes to mask their relatively productionless lives.  Most people mock Christianity, but have replaced it with going "organic" or being an "environmentalist" like they were programmed to.  I needn't highlight how the dregs of society are desperately trying to make ugly beautiful, fat thin, poverty success, wealth bad, parasitism moral, etc.  And the Orwellian nightmare is well on its way in western civilization as evidenced by the arrest/convictions of Count Dankula and  Ursula Haverbeck.

The only thing missing is the robots and artificial intelligence that are supposed to produce everything for us humans.  Which was sadly the only silver lining to his dystopian future.  Alas, I guess the productive, creative minority will have to continue to pay the taxes to support the parasitic, jealous majority because those damn robots haven't taken away everybody's jobs just yet.  Oh well, enjoy the decline.
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Sebastian Joe's and Mancini's

Allow me to tell you about Sebastian Joe's.

If you ever come to the Twin Cities, like most sheep you're going to want to go to the Mall of America.  This is fine and I understand this because 1) you've been programmed to and 2) there isn't much else to see in the Twin Cities.  Oh yes, I'm sure they'll tell you to see either a Twins or Vikings game.  Yes, I'm sure the locals will insist you check out our incredibly mediocre downtowns.  And the truly delusional Twin Citians will perhaps fool you into going to the worthless and talentless Walker Art "Museum."  But all in all the Twin Cities suck and I cannot recommend you come here for much of anything.

However, if you still insist on visiting the Twin Cities there are only two places worth visiting before I'd advise you to move along to the Black Hills or catch a flight to Chicago:

Mancini's and Sebastian Joe's.

Mancini's is one of the few remaining classical 60's steakhouse joints in the Twin Cities.  It's worth attending and you can find it in St. Paul.  The Captain has had many o' grand and drunken times at Mancini's and you do not get "drinks" as much as you get "copious vats o' booze" poured for dirt cheap because (unlike the flash in the pan night clubs that come and go) Mr. Mancini paid off his mortgage long ago and those overhead costs no longer exist.

But even more of a staple than that is Sebastian Joe's which is hands down, easily, by a mile, and without a doubt, the world's greatest ice cream parlour ever.

Oh roll your eyes if you must, but I am deadly serious.  In part because there is nothing else to do in the Twin Cities and in part because the ice cream is just that good, Sebastian Joe's is simply the #1 thing people MUST DO when visiting the Twin Cities.  And to show you my intellectual honesty, ask any out of town visitors I've chaperoned where I took them and they will confirm it was Sebastian Joe's.

Now I am fortunate enough to live relatively close to Sebastian Joe's.  And it happens to be near "the lakes" region of Minneapolis which is one of my favorite running haunts.  So while the rest of Twin Citians are at their cubes, stuck in traffic, paying for a masters degree, or doing whatever it is the Fraternal Order of Normie-Conformies of Minnesota do with their day, I'm banging out a run around Lake of the Isles and Lake Calhoun, with a convenient stop off for a treat at Sebastian Joe's.  I walk in, I get my ice cream, maybe a double scoop, get in my car, and high-tail it out of town before the sheep clog the highways again come the afternoon rush hour. 

This has been a weekly past time in the Ole Captain's life for the past decade.  I look forward to running around MY lakes and getting MY Sebastian Joe's ice cream, relatively unhindered and without the morons that normally barf out onto the lakes and clog it up during fair-weather weekends.  But the past three times I went in to claim my Sebastian Joe's ice cream after a long run there was something that should not have been there.

A line.

A line so long, it was enough of a deterrent to make me forego my precious Sebastian Joe's ice cream.  And while "once" is to be expected and "twice" is a coincidence, "thrice" is a trend.  And this "trend" has an evil genesis.

Though slow and sclerotic, the US economy has recovered from the housing crash/financial crisis.  It took a decade, an experiment with a socialist affirmative action president, and a doubling of our national debt, but inevitably we recovered.  And I even hate to use the word "recovered" because economic growth has been so paltry "professional" economists in Washington and New York practically cum their pants if GDP grows above 3%.  But let there be no doubt about it, we've recovered.  Unemployment is now officially below 4% making it a VERY TIGHT labor market.  Even the labor force participation rate has bottomed out, indicating that, yes, even Millennials are starting to look for work.  And if you have Millennials looking for work (and lining up for ice cream), that means, yes, the economic good times are here again.

A Generation of Minimalists

But "good for who?"

We normally assume economic growth is good for everybody, and booming economic times good for everyone.  But the last recession was so harsh and so long that it permanently changed the behaviors of millions of people.  And not that these people would want to deny America a booming economy, but a booming economy is now incredibly inconvenient to these "economic adapters" who changed their lives over the past 10 years.

These people, I contend, are a generation of minimalists that were forged through the nuclear hot economic fires of the Great Recession, some going so far back that their forging started during the Dotcom bubble.  Predominantly Gen Xer's, these people were also lied to by their parents, overpaid for college degrees, were dumped out into a recession, maybe gained some traction in the 00's, only to have the housing crash wipe out any progress.  So taxing and depleting were their decades-long experiences, one could argue that the entire conventional wisdom of how to succeed in America was reversed in this sole, single generation going from:

"Go to college, earn a degree, get a job, and start a family, the future of America is great, everything is awesome!!!"

to

"Trust no one, invest in nothing, STEM or die, independence, entrepreneurship, kids are too expensive, spend as little as possible, prepare for the worst."

Nor is it purely relegated to age.  Gen X'ers may comprise the majority of these neo-minimalists, but Millennials and Baby Boomers aren't blind, nor unscathed either.  Millions of Millennials are finally getting "woke" to the fact there were just completely raped by Big Education for worthless degrees, and Baby Boomers who were either laid off during the Great Recession or are looking at their pensions being underfunded have also abandoned hopes of Viarga-commerial-esque retirement plans replete with Floridian beaches, svelte wives, and sail boats.  So when the decade-long totality of economic pain, suffering, pressure, lies, deceit, and misery is finally lifted from these people, they are not the same people they were 10 years ago.  They have changed, and changed permanently.  They are minimalists and are not only accustomed to bad economics times, but thrive in them.

One would think such a contrarian approach to one's economic life would not be possible, or at least doesn't make sense.  How would minimalists NOT benefit from a booming economy?  How would minimalists NOT benefit from higher wages?  And you are certainly correct especially if you view it through the lens of traditional economics and what was considered "traditional success" in America.  But if you look at it in terms of lifestyle and the enjoyment of life, a booming economy does not necessarily equate to a better life for this new generation of "perma-minimalists."  And while many of these "drawbacks" may be tongue and cheek (the lines at Sebastian Joe's did not send me off a cliff), there are some that certainly lessen the standard of living that minimalists have conditioned themselves to enjoy today.

Minimalist Purchasing Power

Foremost among these is purchasing power.  The primary goal and motivation of a minimalist is freedom from financial dependence.  This is not possible since everybody needs some money to live on, but after watching millions of Americans (or perhaps themselves) enslave themselves to student loans, McMansion mortgages, and Range Rover loans, minimalists make the obvious and easy decision to simply do without.  We don't need fancy cars.  We don't need more bedrooms than heads in our household.  We don't need worthless masters degrees.  And we sure as hell don't need some psychopathic boss ruining our mental lives 8 hours a day in the process.

So we set off to a race, the finish line of which is to be debt free.  For once we are free of debt, with no mortgage, car loan, or student loan to pay for, we answer to no one and effectively maximize our freedom.  We can work some paltry part time job and survive in relatively luxury the rest of our days.  Ideally we are self employed, working from a laptop that doesn't anchor us down anywhere.  But even if we're not, that's still OK, because the second our boss gives us the slightest bit of lip, we quit because we don't need the money.  We aren't living paycheck to paycheck and wifey-poo won't divorce us if we can't make her car payment and Little Suzie's tuition bill at Princelysum Liberal Arts College.  Our expenses are so low a mere $5,000 can last us a year.  Matter of fact, more commonly you'll find minimalists returning to work out of pure boredom because even freedom and frolicking loses its novelty.

However, there is one major drawback to this lifestyle once the economy starts booming - prices go up.

Now keep in mind us minimalists aren't affected by prices anywhere near you debt-addicted-sheep herders.  We have more disposable income than you do, we have effectively no living expenses, and unlike you we have little to no debts.  Plus, you normies can't wait to line up to pay $7 for a mocha or $1,000 for a piece of crap Apple device or $20 for an assigned seat at a movie theater.  You'll just simply borrow the money you don't have to pay for those things.  So not only will you bend over and pay whatever corporations are charging you, you'll enslave yourself further to them by borrowing to pay them, tripling the price you effectively pay and tripling the amount of time you have to spend in a commute and cubicle.   So we are nowhere near as price-sensitive as you.

But still, in being minimalists we don't like spending money we don't have to.  And what little disposable income we have (which, once again is more than you) is incredibly impaired when prices go up.  This cuts deeply into our fun and enjoyment budget, which really starts to get annoying.

For example in the depths of the recession I was able to find a motel for 3 months, during summer, in the Black Hills for $600.  Not for one summer, but three!  Now you can't even find a hotel in the Black Hills during summer for less than $60 a NIGHT.

Closely related is transportation.  I remember the days when you could rent cars for $8 a day, and get upgraded to convertibles or sports cars for $15!  And this was assuming you were renting.  In the depths of the recession I bought a truck with less than 50,000 miles on it for $4,500 and an effectively brand new cruiser bike (repossessed of course) for under $5,000.  You can still get a decent car with low miles for around $5,000 but it isn't going to be as nice or as low mileage today.

Flight anyone?

This hasn't affected me as much because I'm still willing to slum it with the commoners by flying Spirit or Frontier.  But if you're like most normies and "just can't fly Spirit" because it's beneath you, you're definitely paying the price at the non-discount airlines.  In the "Grand Ole Days of the Great Recession" planes were half full and you could bump yourself up to first class for a nickel (well...maybe not a nickel, but cheap).  This was in addition to the $50 you paid round trip to a flight to Denver, assuming you didn't get it cheaper by flying standby.  And even if you didn't bump yourself up to first class, there were so many empty seats on the plane you could just throw your luggage in the seat next to you and stretch your legs out into the aisle.  The recession almost made every seat first class!

And dinner.

Oh dear lord, dinner!

Going out to eat is almost the antithesis of being a minimalist.  It takes time, gas, and money.  Certainly more time and money than if you just made the meal at home.  But not necessarily if there's a major recession going on, and you're whizbanging it up traveling across the country enjoying the dirt cheap prices you're getting everywhere.  Not only did it actually pay to go out and eat most times (anybody remember when $5 footlongs came out?), it essentially allowed you to travel the country ne'er having to store or travel with food.  Admittedly, this wasn't an option for minimalists with families, but if you were one of the many minimalists who realized you could barely take care of yourself, let alone a child from the 1990's on, you were sitting child-free-pretty and the world was your oyster.  You could get drinks for under $3 in small American towns and great meals for under $10 if you just poked around a bit.  Now, $15 cheeseburgers are standard in Las Vegas, a town once known for its borderline-free food.

In short, as economies boom and grow, the price of "fun" goes up.  Be it travel, hospitality, food, even national parks passes, they go up and they go up by a lot.  This cuts directly into the budget, and thus the amount of fun minimalists will allow themselves to have.  But let us be clear about why the price of fun is going up - you normies are borrowing again and driving those prices up.  But don't worry, I assure you it is a temporary phenomenon.  Once the economy hiccups and a mere fraction of you lose your jobs, the borrowing binge will come to an end and prices will drop to their glorious recessionary levels once more.

Lines

You might laugh at this, even scoff at it, but do not take the easy bait and mock me for claiming that lines are a serious problem minimalists face in a post-recession world.  For it should be the world laughing at you while you stand in line waiting...

an hour for a table at Apples
45 minutes for scoop of Sebastian Joe's ice cream
2 hours to see a new release movie (with assigned sheeping seating)
or 2 days for a new iPhone 192083CDX-5

Let us be clear what lines are and who they are for.  Lines are a waste of time.  Lines ARE death.  When you see a line you should see the grim reaper asking you to "make an advance payment" before he comes for you permanently because you are literally "killing time."  Lines are also for people who have such horribly boring and empty lives the best use of their time is literally to stand in a line and do nothing.  The minimalists forged in the past 20 years simply will not abide that.  Our time is too valuable, our lives too precious.  We know that life will end and we need to spend the maximum amount of it with family, friends, and loved ones. 

But the importance of lines goes well beyond what the normie's eye has been trained to see as a line.  For a line is not you schmucks standing there with your vibrating coasters waiting to get a seat at some brunch place.  Nor is it a veritable line cuing up to buy an Apple product.  It is any point in time you are being prevented from achieving your goals, reaching your destinations, or doing what you want to do.

Commutes for example.

I cannot think of a more damaging, destructive, and harmful societal scourge than commuting.  Just like iPhones, Applebee's tables, and Sebastian Joe's ice cream, you guys line up, every day, by the MILLIONS, all so you can inevitably park your asses in front of a computer screen for 8 hours a day.  And if it wasn't bad enough, you guys DO IT AGAIN come 5 o'clock when you all go home at the exact same time.  Never mind going to work early/late and leave early/late would solve this problem.  Never mind pushing for telecommuting policies would end commutes tomorrow.  The average conformie can't even think enough to go to lunch at 11AM or 1PM to save him/herself an hour of their lives each day.  Ergo commutes are going to be with us forever and are only going to get worse as the economy continues to grow.

But what is a commute if not a line?

It may be fun to dismiss this rant as a fool who believes "lines" are a "societal scourge," but you just ask those up and coming tech go getters in Silicon Valley or Seattle as to how much their standard of living is improved with the traffic of those liberal utopias.

Another line?  Try your national parks.  I remember the "Glorious Days of the Great Recession" where you could pull up to Badlands National Park, out in the middle of nowhere South Dakota, be the first in line, pay your fee, and ride freely through the national park.

The last time I visited?

30 minute wait and this is after they jacked up prices.  And sure enough every slowpoke normie from Iowa and New York had to drive super slow, often times stopping in the middle of the road, to hold everybody up in the park.  Beforehand you could zip through the park in about 35 minutes.  Now, expect it to take an hour.

And finally, the restaurant/service industry.

I'll admit, I got accustomed to eating out.  It was fast, convenient, and often the only option when traveling about.  And while I adamantly refuse to wait in line to get a table at a restaurant, the service in the US has been getting noticeably slower since the recovery began.  In the Glorious Days of the Great Recession only the BEST waiters, waitresses and bartenders had jobs.  You could expect your meal to be served in under 10 minutes, accurately, and with a smile.  Now, with you normies breaking out the credit card again, you're flooding the service industry with your orders and swamping the kitchen.  Staff can barely keep up and now it takes around 30 minutes to get a meal with the accuracy of a Jimmy John's sandwich.  Nowhere is this more pronounced in Las Vegas where it is STANDARD to wait about 40 minutes to get your food and you can expect them to goof up at least one thing with your order.  I'd say this is not so much the fault of the service industry, but Vegas is STARVING for competent server staff to keep up with demand, once again due to a good economy.

I could go on, but the point is if every aspect of life - be it traffic, waiting in a line, cuing up for gas, lining up at a national park, waiting for your food - is taking longer and longer to get basic things done, that leaves less and less free time for all of us to enjoy.  And if you tally it up, especially when considering your commute, it takes a DRASTIC toll on your free time and enjoyment of life. The only difference I'd argue is that we minimalists did not sign up for it, while you conformists did.  Unfortunately, your booming economy is spilling over into the enjoyment of our lives.

Suffering the Return of You Arrogant Posers

I remember, and I remember it starkly, right up to the bursting of the housing bubble every (then) mid-50's baby boomer, aged, dudebro wantrapreneur walking into my banking office swinging their gray pubed dicks around acting like they were all "successful businessmen."  I knew they weren't successful businessmen because if you were coming to my bank for a loan you were desperate, not to mention I had their tax returns and balance sheets and SAW they had no positive net worth.

A $2 million McMansion home, with a $2.4 million mortgage.
A $70,000 "Kompressor Mercedes" with a $75,000 car loan.
His wife's Range Rover...which was of course leased.
And a boat they'd transfer between Lake Havasu and Lake Minnetonka, which is why they couldn't make that month's loan payment because they could barely afford the gas.

It was so bad at the peak of the housing bubble I remember one "wealthy" family that had built their dream home in a coveted neighborhood of the Twin Cities.  They invited all the neighbors and local dignitaries for the house warming party, but were in an odd and worried rush to get their new furniture in so the house was furnished in time for the party.  Through a grapevine I shan't mention, the very next day after the party the moving truck was hauling the furniture out of the house.

Why?

Because this "wealthy" family couldn't afford the furniture.  They had merely rented it for one evening and were returning it to the furniture outlet.

This is the burr that sits in my, and every other minimalists' saddle when an economy booms.  You laughably inferior people who are so vain and desperate to make it seem like you're rich, go out of your way to put up the facade, because it's painfully obvious you're simply not capable of actually doing it.  This would be alright, but you posers always insist on acting like superior, better people than those of us who actually have positive networth's, produce things of value, spend within our means, and don't rely on ever-increasing asset prices as a "business model."  And it doesn't even have to be the "egregious" posers such as the "wealthy" family that rented their furniture.  Every time the economy booms here come the:

30 year old dudebro 30,000dollarnaires and their used BMW's.
Douchebags who wear sun glasses indoors.
Get quick real estate investment schemes and seminars.
IPO's, ICO's, and venture capitalists.
"Top 40 Under 40" articles of going nowhere "local business leaders"
Outright scammers and fraudsters who fake being rich 3 months before being caught.
Morons that order bottle service and Vegas night clubs.
Soccer moms who insist they trade in a perfectly good starter homes an overpriced McMansion in a "good school district."
And let's not forget the legions of gold diggers who are so dumb they don't know the difference between debt and equity spending...because they don't have to.

Please, for the love of god stop.  You're not fooling any one.  We knew you were posers from the beginning.  The smart people know you're posers now.  Any moron with a credit score above 500 can get himself a Beemer, wear a suit without a tie, and act like he's King Dick.  Like nightclubs you are cliche and common, please just stop.  And please, don't you dare think you're better or somehow "made it" as a successful businessman just because you formed an LLC with $1 million in assets and $1.5 million debts or bought a used German car.

Because the day is coming, my fine poser, normie conformie friends - oohhhh yes, the day is coming - that the banks will cut off your debt, you won't get that raise your wife already spent, or that contract won't come through and the economy will enter recession once again.  And when that happens the party is over.  You will have to return your toys to the dealership or the bank, sell your boat at a heavy discount, pay some lawyers fees as your spouse files for divorce, wait tables just like all the other law school graduates do, and cancel your weekly ice cream at Sebastian Joe's.  And when you do, me and all my minimalist friends will thank you very much because there won't be lines, there won't be commutes, gas will be cheap, and we can rent convertible Mustangs in Vegas at reasonable prices once again.
_______________________________
Check out Aaron's other awesome sites below!  His Patreon page includes a monthly pinup that is prettier than most economic charts, and his books are pretty awesome too!
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Chipotle's Biggest Corporate Boneheaded Move Ever

I've already insisted on eating at Qdoba over Chipotle because I don't like getting a lecture or a sermon when I just want a freaking burrito.  But if you want even more reason to just shake your head at one of America's dumbest corporations, look no further.

Not only is Chipolte moving it's headquarters from relatively low-taxed Denver Colorado to the worst state to do business in (that would be California for people in Rio Lindo).  They're also shipping some of those lucky employees from Denver to.....Ohio.

Because that's exactly what I'd want if I were a Chipolte employee.  "What?  We're moving from Denver with all the sun and winter sports and kayaking and no state income taxes to that sad crappy, no-mountain state of Ohio!?  Great!  Can't wait to live in Toledo!"

Mock Me All You Want for Sleeping In

but hate to say "I told you so."

New Patreon Pinup

In case you got sick and tired of philosophy and economics and just wanted to see one of our models.

How Revenge Works in the Real World

This Is Not Possible Because Illinois Socialism is Great

The media has been bought off by big rich white men.  Go back to your Chicago homes...please???

The Older Brother Podcast Episode #2

Cappy and his Gen X Pals discuss:

Cobra Kai
The Wisconsin Badgers
30 year old being evicted by his parents.
Failing the bar exam 6 times with $258K in debt.
Podcast Pastor's Failure.
Why the Older Brother channel was formed in under 24 hours.

in THIS EPISODE of The Older Brother Podcast!

Direct MP3 link here.

RSS feed here.

YouTube livestream here.

Why Do People Pick on the Millennials So Much?

I have no idea why.

No freaking clue.

Terror House Magazine

Conformity, normalcy, and being good is boring.  It is unfortunately what gets published, what doesn't get banned, and what doesn't make you lose your channel.  This presents not only independent ideas and thoughts from being passed around the minds of the world, but it also foregoes some good writing.

So I would like to introduce Matt Forney's latest excursion into entrepreneurship and literature - Terror House Magazine.

From their own words:

Terror House Magazine is an independent literary magazine focused on nurturing and promoting the best up-and-coming writers of our generation. Founded on May 14, 2018 in Budapest, Hungary by author and journalist Matt Forney, Terror House’s mission is to publish outsider literary fiction, literary nonfiction, and cultural criticism/analysis. We follow in the tradition established by trailblazers such as Fluland, Loompanics Unlimited, and Feral House, publishing works that are too edgy, unusual, or honest to be released elsewhere.

I know "just another blog" may not be of interest to you, and that's fine, many of us simply don't have the time to read.  However, they do have a competition for the best writers each month which may give you authors enough incentive to perhaps submit some of your finer pieces or create news ones.  It doesn't pay much (just $10), but it might be enough to sweeten the pot that you guys might want to gamble.

New Channel: Older Brother

One of the RARE times I need your help Cappy Cappites.

"The Sensitive 90's Man: RIP"

May he rest in peace.

Peak Oil, Super Spikes, Fracking, Baby Boomers, and Telecommuting

Cappy delves into predicting the future world of oil and oil prices.  With fracking and telecommuting there's hope the world won't run out of oil...at least during Cappy's lifetime, and that's all the really matters.

Even Worthless SJW Journalism Professors Admit There's an Education Bubble

My god, you know it's bad when the LEFT admits there's a bubble.

But of course, not until she first made a baby boomer's worth of a career off of charging you kiddies tuition for said degrees over the decades.  I applaud her for growing the balls and telling the kids the truth.  Just convenient she comes out now about it on the precipice of retirement.

Breaking into the Tech Industry - a Beginner's Guide

A client of mine who works in the tech industry wanted to KINDLY and SELFLESSLY offer a video series on how to break into the tech industry.  He noted that I did not work in the tech industry and, though I was pointing people in the right direction, my audience would benefit immeasurably with a more detailed video series about the industry. 

PLEASE share with any young men or women you know who are looking to get into the industry!

YouTube's Pandora's Box

There were two important life lesson's I've learned in the recent 2-3 years in my life.  One was that people are the number one cause of problems.  I learned this watching a friend try to run a business that was full of moving parts.  Yes, those moving parts did invariably break down, throwing the standard monkey wrench into the works, but it was nowhere near as problematic as the people involved with the firm.  From management to low ranked employees, from contractors to vendors, from sponsors to customers, it was people (and their mistakes) who cost my friend the most in terms of time and money.

The second lesson I learned is that time inevitably becomes more important than money.  This is true the closer you get to the "escape velocity of poverty" or more ideally "The Position of Fuck You."  It rings especially true if you paid attention and learned the value of minimalism and that humans are the most important thing in life.  The irony is I've know many people who've blown past the escape velocity of poverty, some multimillionaires, who keep insisting on pissing away 40-100 hours a week as surgeons, law partners, developers, etc. etc. even though the day of their demise is rapidly approaching.  But the larger point is my time has become INCREDIBLY important to me that I simply do not suffer fools or inefficiency.  There's too little time my sentience and consciousness has left on this planet and (as anybody who's hung out with me will tell you) it is an immediate tackling and aggressive pursuit of the day's duties, followed up by an immediate and equally aggressive pursuit of happiness and fun.  And this is not possible if I'm dumb enough to choose to deal with stupid people in my life.

Though a bit lofty and philosophical, the world's social media giants can learn a thing or two from this.  And it applies specifically to their community standards they've insisted on forcing all their users to conform to.  Because if you think about it, to...

track
observer
record
notify
discipline
and ultimately baby-sit

the speech, actions and behaviors of sometimes up to half a billion users, that's gotta cost more than the East Germany Stasi apparatus.

Now, yes, of course, with today's technology a lot of work can be done by algorithms, programs, and formulae.  And if you look at Facebook's profitability, it's certainly possible to have such a spy network enforce such community standards on your user base.  But whether you're profitable as Facebook, unprofitable as twitter, or "questionably" profitable as YouTube, I have a simple question:

Wouldn't all these companies be better off financially if they just didn't get involved with something as onerous and taxing as regulating speech on their platforms?

Admittedly there is the argument that if they don't clean up their act then the precious, precious advertising dollars would dry up as offensive language, political opinions, and other politically incorrect speech drove advertising dollars away.  This came to fruition with the 2017 "Adpocolypse" wherein several large advertisers with YouTube threatened to cancel their support once they found out their ads were being ran on hate-speech videos.  Certainly a concern, but one would think a somber, sober analysis of the situation would have logically resulted in the FAANG companies making the argument to their advertisers that...

"Look guys, we don't control speech on the internet.  And we think that most people today know that if a Coke ad runs before a hate speech video that doesn't mean Coke endorses hate speech.  Instead of asking us to open up and then jump into this pandora's box, can you first see if sales drop conclusively due to your ads being occasionally paired with politically unpopular videos?"

That would have saved the world's social media giants billions in time, money, and resources, not to mention foregone opportunity costs had they not been baby sitting the world's online speech (I would like to also argue allowing from ALL speech, hate or not, would allow them to help law enforcement track/find terrorists, pedophiles, slave trafficking, etc., much more easily, but, meh, that's just me).  Instead these companies opted to open Pandora's Box and are dealing with a managerial and technical nightmare, not to mention the psychological toll that comes from all the internet drama they stirred up.  The totality of this painassery and cost makes my aforementioned buddy's company seem like a cake-walk and I do NOT envy the complaint departments are YouTube, Twitter, or Facebook. 

But while it may confuse most of us as to why the FAANG companies simply didn't make a plea to advertisers that this was a "new normal" and there wasn't going to be any fallout with having ads being associated with politically incorrect speech, there's an alternative theory that may explain why they capitulated so quickly.  And that is the new, and seemingly only, modern day marketing strategy most companies have today - corporate virtue signaling.

I've delved into this before, but the short version is that over the past 2 1/2 generations trillions has been dumped into K-college education.  Some of that went to actual education, teaching kids reading, writing and arithmetic.  But at least half also went into establishing a nation-wide religion in the form of brainwashing which championed, or at least psychologically predisposed weaker minds into some variant of leftist politics.  Environmentalism, feminism, race relations, or just plain socialism.  The brilliance of this indoctrination was that in merely taking the correct and popular political stances  value would be immediately conferred upon you without requiring you to put forth any actual work, toil, or effort.  And so now everybody is "going green," everybody is "a feminist," everybody is "organic," and everybody "drinks fair trade coffee." But while one can argue whether there was a larger political motivation behind this, there is no argument that it has laid down this incredible psychological, tribalistic infrastructure that makes marketing to most sheep Americans incredibly easy.  You just pander.  You just virtue signal.  You tell those kids your burritos are organic and fair trade, and you also tell them you're opening up your bathrooms to whoever wants to use them.

Dick's sporting goods is the most recent example that comes to memory.  Veritably stepping on the corpses of the high school students unfortunately shot in Florida last month, they decided to ride the anti-gun wave to make some money.  They calculatedly virtuously destroyed all their assault style guns, ne'er letting a crisis or corpse go to waste.  But let us be very clear.  They did NOT do this because they cared about safety, shootings, or murder.  They did it to make money, period.

We can go on about the unlimited number of examples of corporate virtue signaling, the point is nearly ALL of modern day Corporate American marketing is virtue signaling, which inexorably intertwines them with politics.  And since they decided to make this deal with the devil, they can't simply market good quality products at low prices, but now have condemned themselves to dancing around the fragile, fragile eggshell feelings of the most spoiled and easily-offended Americans in the entire history of America.  And since this is the boat American Corporations are anchored to, ANY complaints that call into question the appropriateness and correctness of their political stances has the potential to immediately render the entire efficacy of their marketing strategy moot and ineffective.  Thus, if Coke gets a complaint their ad was seen on some obscure white supremacist's YouTube channel, the ENTIRE INDUSTRY has to react rapidly and drastically.

If we were mature adults, we would appreciate the freedom of speech, and neither corporate America nor the FAANG companies that rely on their advertising dollars would have to deal with monitoring and regulating speech online.  They would not have to set up costly Stasi-like digital apparatuses to see if Bob in Bolivia offended Frank from France.  And they would not have have to employ entire divisions of programmers to create bots that would identify "naughty words."  Even the baby boomers, in the depths of their 60's pot-inured days, understood this with the cliche "I disagree with you, but will defend your right to say it till the death."  Alas, since we don't have this level of nation-wide maturity and prefer corporate virtue signaling over the freedom of speech, Corporate America and the FAANG companies can expect to expend unnecessary resources doing the Eggshell-Easily-Offended-Virtue-Signaling-Waltz for the rest of their marketing days.  I just sincerely hope some people at heads of their marketing departments learned the two lessons I mentioned above.
____________________
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Top 10 Movies Every Man (and Woman) Should See

I failed to included "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."  That would dethrone "Lost in Translation" if I were to re-edit the list.

Also I have been working on a new site: www.olderbrother.com which has been taking the majority of my time this week.  Posts and production will return to normal come Monday.

Minnesotans Just Love Their Socialism

So much so that I guarantee many of them are happy this is going on.

Episode #255 of the Clarey Podcast - Gay Men are Happy Special

Cappy's Guardian Angel "Claude."
No moms were hot in the 80's.
Jordan Peterson "Welcome to the party pal!!!"
Why gay men are so happy.

and MORE!!!

in THIS EPISODE of The Clarey Podcast.

Direct MP3 link here.

RSS feed here.

Sponsored by Invisible Hand Fashion!

 

The Older Brother Podcast #1

Cappy, Florian, Chad Elkins and Ann Sterzinger talk about:

Just how COMPLETELY worthless MBA's are.
Do women love their education/degree above all else?
Teaching in modern day colleges - it's a joke.
Chicago is NOT the place to become an actor/actress.
Crying in biology lab.
Cappy's upcoming dating service for traditional men looking for traditional women.
And answering some SuperChat questions!

MP3 link here.
Sound cloud link here.
RSS feed here.

Visit Asshole Consulting and check out Cappy's books for MORE older brother wisdom!

Why Mathematically It Could Not Have Possibly Been "All About the Oil"

I rank the argument of "it's all about the oil" somewhere around "it's all about the corporations, maaaan" and "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer."  Very simple, easy explanations that explain complex, international economic and political phenomena for thoroughly dumb people who are too lazy to put much thought or effort into things.  However, even though the Iraq war is effectively over and we've nowhere near the military force we had in the Mid East ten years ago, my mind was jarred to do a little math whilst listening to a podcast about Germany's synthetic oil industry during WWII.  With the Allies cutting off Germany's access to the Baku and other oil regions, Germany was forced to produce oil synthetically which begat the question in Cappy's mind...

How much does it cost to create a synthetic barrel of oil?

This is an important question because the Iraq/Afghanistan war was not cheap.  $2.4 trillion as of 2017.  And so I asked "how much synthetic oil could we have produced with that money instead?" If it's all about the oil, synthetic or not, would it have been cheaper to just produce it at home...not to mention avoid all the death and destruction the war has cost both sides?

So the math goes like this:

The US imports 5.1 million barrels per day from the Mid East region.  Not Iraq (that's only .61 million barrels), not OPEC (that's only 3.4) the ENTIRE region is 5.1 million barrels per day.  The reason I took the entire region is you know these Neanderthal "It's All About the Oil" dopes are going to say "you know maaaaannn, it wasn't just about Iraq, but the entire region maaaaan."  

So fine, 5.1 million barrels per day it is.

This translates into 1.9 billion barrels per year, which when you apply the $95 per barrel it is estimated to cost to produce it synthetically, you're looking at an annual price tab for synthetic oil of $177 billion to replace Mid East oil.  This compares to the annual cost of the Iraq/Afghanistan war of $172 billion, so a profit of $5 billion per year, effectively a net wash (though I'd argue a $150 billion loss per year if you assume we were merely going after only Iraqi oil).

When you consider this it is painfully obvious we did not go to war in the Mid East (at any time) because "it was all about the oil maaaan."  There was no profit to be had in it, merely the unnecessarily cost of human lives, the destruction of military property, and the human/collateral damage Iraq and Afghanistan would face.  Additionally, if you believe in Keynesianism, even leftists would have to admit that that money would have been better spent/invested at home, creating jobs and an economic boom derived from a domestic synthetic oil industry.

Admittedly, I know this little back of napkin math exercise will prove largely pointless.  The knuckle-dragging, mouth breathers known as academic and professional activist leftists won't care because they need something to complain about (let alone I doubt they can understand the basic division and multiplication displayed above).  But if/when do run into these people again, just remind them of this the sad fact.  It should cut the argument short and hopefully get them to shut up about "blood for oil" and allow you to move on about your day.

Episode #253 of The Clarey Podcast-"I'm Majoring in Horsies" Special!

Silver Dollar Bikini and Red Pill Posers.
Grandpa Bunny Bunny.
You can Major in Horses.
Rich People Can't Raise Good Children.
Milo Yiannopolous Gives Up the "Position of Fuck You"
Girls Replacing Men with "Fish Sex"
Dating Rich Girls

AND MORE!!!

In THIS EPISODE of The Clarey Podcast!!!

Direct MP3 link here.

RSS feed here.

Sponsored by MTFUNow.com and Invisible Hand Fashion!

American Real Estate: Are Rents or the Printing Presses More Reliable?

I teach two online classes on finance and investing (I would recommend neither because you can get the same much cheaper here and here).  And one of the common questions I get is "How about real estate for investing?  Can I invest in that?  My buddy says it's the way to make money!"

I try not to get angry because I have to remind myself that this is a beginner's course and most of my students' first introduction to investing.

Yes, you can invest in real estate.
Yes, you can make it rich by doing so.
No, you likely don't have the education, experience, tenacity, or capital to do so.

But another problem I face with real estate as a form of investment is the same problem that plaques nearly every asset class around the globe - nearly everything is overvalued.

This overvaluation comes from countries' central banks doing two things.  One, tripling, quadrupling, or quintupling the money supply. And two, keeping interest rates artificially low.  Since money is fungible, it inevitably finds its way into the larger economy, plus corporations have the incentive to borrow at historically low interest rates and repurchase their own shares.  So this money goes the only place it can - asset prices.  I say asset prices and not consumables (which would traditionally be what we'd expect a la 1970's stagflation) because of three reasons.  One, our consumables are primarily imported keeping consumer prices low.  Two, despite our raping of our own currency, other countries have raped their's even worse.  This allows the US dollar to remain the world's reserve currency and us to export our inflation to naive and more corruption nations' economies.  Three, the genesis or pathology of a lot of this new money is borrowing, so items purchased with debt tend to go up.  Thus why housing, cars, health insurance, stocks, and college tuition are experiencing hyperinflation...but you American sheep think this is a good thing.  In short, asset prices, but specifically stocks and real estate, are no longer driven by fundamentals, but an ever-expanding monetary policy, which presents us with an interesting question when it comes to real estate investing;

Are renters or government printing presses more reliable?

The paradox that one faces with real estate (and other asset classes) is that they are no longer actual investments where underlying cash flows (such as dividends, interest, or earnings) inevitably pay back the original investment and continue to provide an adequate monthly or quarterly ROI.  They are now functioning as hedges against inflation as asset prices are decoupled from the cash flows that traditionally and historically gave them value.  And so now people who wish to invest in real estate or perhaps are just facing the prospects of selling their home face a problem - do you invest in an overpriced asset whose cash flow simply doesn't warrant the price being asked to be paid, or do you buy it anyway because you'll be priced out of the market (a sentiment Millennials might be somewhat familiar with, even though they voted this upon themselves).

Though risky and completely against fundamentals (not to mention my conservative nature), I'm wondering if it isn't necessary to own some kind of housing (or stock) as simply a hedge against inflation.  Additionally, I'm finding it infinitely more reliable that governments are going to keep their printing presses than me finding a reliable tenant who pays on time every time and stays in the place for years to come.  And whereas I'd like to say that there's going to be a crash this time, I'm more and more convinced if a crash is going to come at all, it will be in the form of stagnating prices, not an actual crash.  Overvalued as property prices may be, there isn't the massive oversupply of inventory there was in 2007, and the feds are so far up banks' asses their exposure is not what it was 10 years ago.  We can hope and cheer for a serious recession which I do believe would at least temper (hopefully tank) property prices, giving us commoners opportunities to invest in reasonably priced properties (and other asset classes) that do provide adequate ROI, but we must also face the chance that like "perma-bubble" markets such as Australia and Vancouver, external forces are flooding the markets with so much money, you're almost compelled to own at least some REIT's or indexed funds just to match inflation.

So if you're looking to sell your house, remember you have to buy another one.
If you're thinking the S&P 500 is overvalued, it most certainly is...but how much more money is the fed going to print off this year?
And if you think tuition is too high now, just wait till next year.

Thankfully, at least we know college is an increasingly worthless investment you can avoid. Perhaps you Millennials can use the proceeds you save from not attending to put as a down payment on a mini-house.
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The Increasing Chance You'll Never Marry

I had a client that for all points and purposes played his cards right.  A nip and a tuck here might have helped, but no major flaws or errors on his part.  Matter of fact, he's an incredibly good looking man, with no debt, a condo, a career, and several trades and skills that would make him a "most eligible bachelor" type. 

Just one problem.

The country he's from (Scandinavian) has so indoctrinated women into putting their careers and educations above marriage and children, it pretty statistically likely he's just not going to find a marriageable woman. And this is a lesson many men (and women) need to learn.

There's an increasing chance you're never going to marry.  Nothing by your own fault, but by how replacing men with the state, eliminating masculinity from society, and putting careers and educations above people have ruined everyone for everybody else.

The University of Texas Austin Hates Men

The "Mental Health Center" at the University of Texas Austin has decided that they (and by "they" I mean a bunch of soy boys and feminists without an ounce of testosterone in them) know what is "healthy masculinity."

I desperately don't want to link to the source because I don't want to give them the traffic, but PJ Media is not embellishing even in the slightest. All you have to do is read the Orwellian jargon, which when boiled down to English means,

"we are a bunch of lazy academic psychology and sociology majors who aim to make being male a mental disorder which we can then "treat" half the population for because our worthless degrees and faux professions are more important than the mental health of half the population."

I will say it again, even though most of your soy boys out there won't listen.

Do not attend universities that hate you.  They are not your friends, they are your enemies who are fleecing you for worthless degrees and using you as an excuse to get more grant money.

Last Man Standing vs. ABC

Fuck you ABC.

Fuck you very much.

The Death of the Night Club

Remember several years ago when I wrote about the death of the night clubs?

You should listen to your Uncle Cappy!

How Colleges Contribute to Global Warming...No Matter What they Say

It was around 3AM one summer day in 1996.  I was patrolling the Washington Avenue bridge which connected the east and west campuses of the University of Minnesota.  Normally this bridge would have been deserted, with not a soul on it, but there was a local man named "Larry" who by all accounts was mentally ill. Not a threat necessarily, but a delusional man who would hunt down security guards on campus and use them as free late night therapists.  Despite his dishonest intentions, most guards didn't mind his company in that it gave us something to do, especially during summer evenings when the campus itself was abandoned and absolutely no action was going on.  And though most of his ramblings was about his finances, inability to find a job, and his longing to someday find a girl, he said something to me one time that was actually intelligent and insightful.

"You know this internet thing will make these colleges obsolete."

There was nothing on the internet in 1996 and bar e-mail and porn, I couldn't see what else the internet would have to offer.  But I always remembered that fount of insight from Larry because for all his faults, he was 100% correct.

The internet has made colleges obsolete.

Of course, colleges don't know that yet.  They and their administrative bloat staff need physical college campuses to continue on otherwise they would have to get real jobs in the real world.  Reserve Assistant Vice Adjutant Deputy Diversity Officers would have to sling coffee instead of receive their welfare in the form of make-work-unnecessary-government jobs.  Liberal arts professors would have to dirty their hands flipping burgers, abandoning their truly worthless and faux fields, and for once contributing something to GDP.  And this says nothing of the millions of teenage college-bound Gen Z'ers who have been thoroughly brainwashed into thinking they're entitled to the Land of Canaan "College Experience," even though said experience will bankrupt them until they're in their 40's and online colleges would be infinitely cheaper.   Nearly every participant in today's physical colleges - professors, administrators and the students themselves - have a financial and/or psychological interest in keeping this obsolete horse-and-buggy industry around inspite of the "car of the internet" being developed 20 years ago.

I will delve into why colleges need to be eliminated (and the trillions of dollars in benefits that would confer upon the US and the world in general) in a later article.  But for now I want to use the obsolescence of American colleges to highlight a hypocrisy which should make even the most leftist leftists call into question their integrity, veracity, and practicality.

Global warming.

I personally do not believe in global warming.  My IQ is simply too high, plus I have street smarts and know a scam when I see one.  But let's say I did.  And not only that I did, but I was a adamant environmentalist.  So much so I got my doctorate in "Environmental Studies" and now teach...nay...head up the Environmental Studies Department.

Why then do I insist my students commute, drive, park, and commute back to the physical college campus?

Why then do I insist we spew trillions of tons in carbon emissions into our precious atmosphere when we build unnecessary buildings and roads in our college campuses?

Why do I insist we spend billions in electricity, pumping even MORE greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, to heat and power college classrooms, when every single Environmental Studies major can receive this education for a fraction of the carbon emissions (oh yeah, and cost too) if they attended school online ne'er commuting a mile to the college campus?

The hypocrisy doesn't end there because you damn well know it isn't merely the "Environmental Studies" departments at every college campus that touts their environmental and green credentials, but EVERY department, division, head, professor, employee and student at today's college campuses that virtue signals their environmentalism.  Matter of fact behind socialism and feminism, I would argue environmentalism is the #3 virtue espoused by all participants in all colleges, which then behooves the question....

If physical colleges are obsolete, can be replaced with online colleges, and their elimination would (by nearly all measures) eliminate ALL carbon emissions generated by physical college campuses, shouldn't we be doing what's right for the environment and RAPIDLY closing down all physical campuses and replacing them with digital ones?

I'm no environmentalist, but there are roughly 21 million college students in the US today.  Some of these college campuses have over 50,000 students and are veritable large cities.  If the cost of attending an accredited online college is a fraction of what it costs to attend a physical one, and we could eliminate SIGNIFICANT greenhouse gas emissions by eliminating physical college campuses, why on god's green Earth (pun intended) would any global-warming believing student, AND CERTAINLY ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES DEPARTMENTS, insist on attending a physical college?

Of course, the answer isn't because they haven't thought of it.  Professors, college administrators, and students are FULLY aware it would be cheaper and much better for the environment to replace physical colleges with digital ones.  It's once again a glaring exposure of the environmentalist and academic left's true ulterior motivation.  They don't give a damn about the environment.  They only give a damn about their cushy, worthless jobs.  They know that one GOOD professor can teach millions of students for pennies on the dollar online compared to the thousands of professors and the tens of thousands of college admin staff that is needed to run these now-pointless, unnecessary physical institutions.  And if online colleges were ever to establish a beachhead, they would be forced to do what use real world, real adult, hard working Americans do every day - work a real job.

Thankfully...at least for now...the K-12 segment of the Big Education industry has done a spectacular job indoctrinating young boys and girls into swallowing whole the "College Experience."  These kids are simply not going to attend college online, because it is the experience on a physical college campus they value most, even more than their education or the career that might come with it.  Ergo, "Suburbanite SWPL" Suzie will spend $150,000 of her daddy's money on her "International Studies" degree.  Gary "from the Ghetto" Gormanson will spend $50,000 on his African American Studies Degree.  And Tanner "Lacking in Testosterone" Tilbertson will piss away $100,000 on his Masters in Poetry.  And thus Big Education will continue to get their shekels.

But for anybody who has half an eye open and an ounce of intellectual honesty, the hypocrisy coming from America's academic community is painfully clear and blinding.  They are in it NOT for anything as noble as "the environment" (or feminism, or equality, or minorities, or the poor, etc. etc. etc.).  They are in it for the money.  It would be one thing if these academics, professors, and admins actually provided something of value in exchange for 4 years of childrens' youth and $100,000 in tuition.  But most of the products they are offering are completely worthless.

If only there were accredited online colleges that offered worthwhile degrees for a fraction of the cost and greenhouse gas emissions...

Oh wait.
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If you like thinking, being smart, and being challenged intellectually (unlike, say in college), consider checking out Aaron's other books, sites, and consultancies below!
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