hark

After so many years of financial education being "save early, save often" and "put your money in index funds to diversify" and "historically the US stock market has only gone up over long enough periods of time" there is a sizeable amount of retirement funds riding on this bubble. In the year 2000, the average 401k balance was a little under $60k (https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-aug-14-fi-33836-story.html) and that has now ballooned to $326k (https://www.empower.com/the-currency/life/average-401k-balance-age).

The bailout will be sold as protecting retirement funds, even though the median 401k balance is far lower than the average and even though people nearing retirement should have a higher mix of bonds instead of stocks anyway.

If only there were a way to combine the two, then we could keep an even larger bubble going.

The predictable result of a "kingdom" ruled by an overgrown baby, who got put into power because it benefits other countries who need the oil to keep flowing. All the consulting and contracting dollars made along the way are a huge plus for those other countries duping the baby king. They've been duped by consultants for decades on idiotic projects like crop circles which suck up huge amounts of water to produce food at a higher price than they could get it imported using the very limited water which will not be replenished. They were sold on the idea of food independence, but it's idiotic to tap into those reserves when you can import the food for cheaper. Keep the reserve in case food imports jump up in price! Now they've used up much of those reserves and won't have it available for such an emergency, but the king of the time trusted the American consultants and enjoyed fluff pieces printed in American newspapers talking about how he's such a visionary (sound familiar?) for pursuing this.

When the oil money runs out, they'll be back to fighting over dunes of sand. It's a damn shame because that money could've done so much good, but instead it went into feeding the egos of a bunch of "princes".

I've heard a major cost of glass is the comparative weight causing more cost for fuel in transport. Perhaps as electric vehicles become more practical for hauling goods, we could see a return to more glass use in the near future as the difference in fuel cost could be negligible then.

Isn't the microplastic problem increased with biodegradability since that's what they typically degrade into? If replicators can do the recycling effectively, there doesn't seem to be a need for something to be biodegradable.

I wonder what wonder material they replace plastics with in the future. Sometimes I think of how much plastic is in everything and how entire things (like takeout) would be impractical or at least a lot more difficult without the cheap durability of plastic.

If the argument for the ban is that depiction normalizes it, then there should be a ban on violence in all media, right?

A lot of good that halliburton money will do you in hell, eh dick? Rest in piss.

Dr. Oz is a heart surgeon, but that doesn't prevent him from selling bullshit.

Unpopular opinion but I agree. Maybe I don't hang around enough stinky people, but I've encountered far more instances of punch-in-the-face perfume/cologne than body odor.

This is why I always check the ingredients list.

Advancing tech was sold as a way to make all our lives better. Here is an instance of tech making our lives better, but instead companies dismiss it because the real purpose of tech for the capital class is control.