Rants and WTF are you talking about and Coronavirus!

The biggest con is that like quark Pauli exclusion, when a job is eliminated another is instantly created of equal or better pay. Statistically though, even if we could raise IQ by say 20 points thanks a magic wand, and train people to build / service machines or program, there are still way too many bodies versus demand for bodies, and that does not factor whether a "job" has a living paycheck as distinct to precarious hours and income, and of those, the income is not enough. We have arranged our society on the assumption the 1960's employment model and need for labour, a model that is fast disappearing. Result: surplus humans useless for military fodder, have no money to pay tax and vote irrationally against self interest.

All besides the point. The point is a means of storing wealth to give to young women to enjoy their youth, beauty and sex. I agree with Pistons the USD is on borrowed time, and doubt the HKD will be able to or want to keep the peg. If China or Russia (read Syria and Iran) start pricing fossil fuels in a new currency, as they will, it will be game over, and with it the citadel of London and New York finding their loan book smashed. Most people I know in banking keep a major stash of wealth in stuff that has static demand, specific luxury land, artworks, precious metals and highly diversified companies with low correlation with accounting tricks or finance games. These are like unicorns. I very much doubt we will be mining asteroids unless we come across alien technology that has anti-gravity, space-time folding and other magic. So gold and silver should be pretty safe, but only actual physical gold, not bits of paper.

As to the point: fiat cash is a mind game. That's true. Offers gorilla a $100 note for some bananas. But so too is almost all of society and laws, just shared myths and symbols we have see throughout history. But for 2021, my read is that housing is mostly casino chips owned by capital markets via mortgages that depends on working stiff to sell labor in this thing called employment that is fast fading, and vast sections of the economy are linked to. Just look at Flint Michigan, Detroit and many UK cities and ex Soviet cities that went from middle class to rusted hulks in less than 50 years. The stock market is a QE driven gas bubble with very few fundamentals in the immediate or medium term.

Hard choices here. We need portable wealth to get no-obligation hot young women. Ideas?

But.

[QUOTE=Turgid;2520820]In any event if they were educated they would not support Trump. Trump appeals to the ignorant.[/QUOTE]I believe thinking like this is what got us here. You would be surprised how many well educated people "support" Trump. But I guess that also depends on your definition of "support. " Yes, the loud, rally goers are generally the dumb ones. However, a larger majority silently cast their vote, make donations, while declaring "undecided" on election polls. These are the people who vote according to their cultural beliefs. Some call it racism, which I don't fully agree. They support Trump to protect the world order in their eyes. A world where hetero, light skinned, Judeo-Christian cultures set the tone for society. Those people generally don't try to actively suppress the success and well being of racial, cultural, and religious minorities, but they vote for policies that ensure those subcultures do not become the mainstream. In addition, you have Trump Voters who know that he is a detriment to society but believe that the American form of liberalism is even more dangerous. Those are the rational people in which I can most often relate.

[QUOTE=Turgid;2520820]i would suggest that that statement be altered to read: some aspects of manual labor have been devalued by automation. There are not enough people to fill jobs requiring expertise in the fields of technology, computers, medicine, teaching, etc. Also the very nature of the field of automation requires manual workers to construct, maintain and repair machines. [/QUOTE]I do agree with your other point. The automation scare is a little misunderstood and overblown. It's not even a new debate. The Greeks worried about the displacement of human labor since the times of Aristotle.

Unemployment is not the most accurate word to use to describe the eventual outcome, but rather employment displacement. John Keynes popularized the term, "technological unemployment," characterizing it as "only a temporary phase of maladjustment."

Just like all previous technological advancements, the labor force just shifts, although usually coupled with a temporary phase of unemployment due to mindset and training lag. You alluded to job creation for technical yet still manual labor, but more profound is the effect on knowledge and creativity intensive jobs, mainly because innovation in one sector creates opportunities in other sectors.

The easy example is the disruptive effects of digital media to print media industry. The lost print media jobs were replaced by independent bloggers and eventually social media influencers. Not only did the content creators and influencers create new occupations, but their rise developed with the rise of digital marketers, advertisers, and the behind the scenes coders who make the magic happen. Cars displaced carriage drivers but created jobs for mechanics, gas station vendors, and jobs in road construction and civil planning. Farming reduced the need for hunter-gatherers but led to more jobs in harvesting. It led to settlement and eventually to cities and society and the exponential downstream effects in the creation of hundreds of occupations, all because some people put a seed in some dirt and learned to wait with patience in order to reap its rewards.

All this is to say that the sky is falling doom and gloomers are quite short sighted.

The biggest con is that like quark Pauli exclusion, when a job is eliminated another is instantly created of equal or better pay. Statistically though, even if we could raise IQ by say 20 points thanks a magic wand, and train people to build / service machines or program, there are still way too many bodies versus demand for bodies, and that does not factor whether a "job" has a living paycheck as distinct to precarious hours and income, and of those, the income is not enough. We have arranged our society on the assumption the 1960's employment model and need for labour, a model that is fast disappearing. Result: surplus humans useless for military fodder, have no money to pay tax and vote irrationally against self interest.

All besides the point. The point is a means of storing wealth to give to young women to enjoy their youth, beauty and sex. I agree with Pistons the USD is on borrowed time, and doubt the HKD will be able to or want to keep the peg. If China or Russia (read Syria and Iran) start pricing fossil fuels in a new currency, as they will, it will be game over, and with it the citadel of London and New York finding their loan book smashed. Most people I know in banking keep a major stash of wealth in stuff that has static demand, specific luxury land, artworks, precious metals and highly diversified companies with low correlation with accounting tricks or finance games. These are like unicorns. I very much doubt we will be mining asteroids unless we come across alien technology that has anti-gravity, space-time folding and other magic. So gold and silver should be pretty safe, but only actual physical gold, not bits of paper.

As to the point: fiat cash is a mind game. That's true. Offers gorilla a $100 note for some bananas. But so too is almost all of society and laws, just shared myths and symbols we have see throughout history. But for 2021, my read is that housing is mostly casino chips owned by capital markets via mortgages that depends on working stiff to sell labor in this thing called employment that is fast fading, and vast sections of the economy are linked to. Just look at Flint Michigan, Detroit and many UK cities and ex Soviet cities that went from middle class to rusted hulks in less than 50 years. The stock market is a QE driven gas bubble with very few fundamentals in the immediate or medium term.

Hard choices here. We need portable wealth to get no-obligation hot young women. Ideas?

[QUOTE=ExpatLover;2520417]Sorry we don't know if the vaccine is still efficient against the different variants (including the UK one).[/QUOTE]It has been stated several times by the top medical scientists in the UK that they are very confident vaccines will combat the new variant. Fact!

Also in regards to other possible new variants & whether they do mutate, it has again been stressed again by the medical experts that it would only take a few short weeks to tweak the vaccine. Just like they do with the flu vaccine each year. Fact!

I don't understand why so many posters on here post their thoughts and opinions (and duly worry folk) without qualified knowledge. Or indeed repeat unqualified comments from dodgy internet sites.

This virus will become controlled (Not eradicated) and lockdowns will start to ease and life slowly return to normal or a new normal.

The only unknown question is how long it will take for sex establishments to be declared safe and reopen once vaccinations have reduced the high levels of transmissions?

[QUOTE=ExpatLover;2520692]Great to see that you are still very active and doing your best, I didn't had the same energy and positive mindset that it is why I left France several decades back and most of my friends or family members regret not having done the same. Yes the French government is the most generous for the covid support but at the end who will pay? The French tax payers. Just published yesterday the criminal statistics from the gendarmerie, mostly rural areas: +10% in 1 year, you and me we perfectly know who are the people doing illegal acts, where they come from. Obama has solved 0 problem, Trump added more problems, Biden will solve nothing like Macron or Merkel.[/QUOTE]I still have more than 12 years to work, I will have nearly 45 years work to get full retirement, but no problem, with my sports, I'm powerful and full of energy, wishing to go to free ride soon most extreme spots. Since I started, only from my job and house, I think not so far from 1 million € paid for tax, not counting my employers tax for me, nor counting TVA on all what I buy and big tax on a lot of gas I use, but I m happy to work to save my earning and to pay about 4 months earning for tax, if can help French at the moment. But are you French? When I love my country, I love Paris, this is my roots and in my blood. When I say to girls Paris is unfortunately not anymore so romantic nor city of love, what all girls tell me, but I m still happy to live in Paris and in France. Must be a reason for small France and Paris to be number 1 for tourism, more than only my followers here. Of course, I would like to go for a winter in Alaska and Siberia or return to Peter, but I don't want to live elsewhere than in France, land of freedom for a free bird like me who make his life on his own, despite our problems, and Macron is not dangerous for French and I pretty sure Merkel is also not for Germans, when I would be scared about Chinese government like are so many Chinese, or about Trump supporting riots and racism.

[QUOTE=Paulie97;2520263]Trump will continue to be a factor, but is wounded and will never fully recover. The events of this week freaked too many people out. This was most apparent after the mob was removed and the voting resumed, and a number of objections to state electoral votes no longer had senators signing on. The applause that followed was moving. The truth lies somewhere between what McAdonis and TheCane said, though only time will tell.[/QUOTE]Okay so senators in his own party turned on him. Most notably McConnell, Lindsey Graham and Kelly Loeffler. But does that mean the 74 million people will follow their lead? Could Trump (or his successor) create a third political party?

[QUOTE=Sirioja;2520535]Just to add, when you make sports which help in bed and also to be more easy in life, cleaning German autobahns pushing in Germans back, can't compete for sensations with going downhill on a bicycle with narrow tires at 70 km / h, or on skis at 100 . After Adel. Ch la plus belle on this week end, with Lauberhorn. Ch with Michkante will be on next week end where guys take 160 km / h on 2 skis, so, even Germany is so easy.[/QUOTE]I meant wish for Wengen on next week end, for wonderful downhill with Minschkante.

[QUOTE=Sirioja;2520944]I still have more than 12 years to work, I will have nearly 45 years work to get full retirement, but no problem, with my sports, I'm powerful and full of energy, wishing to go to free ride soon most extreme spots. Since I started, only from my job and house, I think not so far from 1 million paid for tax, not counting my employers tax for me, nor counting TVA on all what I buy and big tax on a lot of gas I use, but I m happy to work to save my earning and to pay about 4 months earning for tax, if can help French at the moment. But are you French? When I love my country, I love Paris, this is my roots and in my blood. When I say to girls Paris is unfortunately not anymore so romantic nor city of love, what all girls tell me, but I m still happy to live in Paris and in France. Must be a reason for small France and Paris to be number 1 for tourism, more than only my followers here. Of course, I would like to go for a winter in Alaska and Siberia or return to Peter, but I don't want to live elsewhere than in France, land of freedom for a free bird like me who make his life on his own, despite our problems, and Macron is not dangerous for French and I pretty sure Merkel is also not for Germans, when I would be scared about Chinese government like are so many Chinese, or about Trump supporting riots and racism.[/QUOTE]Are you so sure that Macron and Merkel are not dangerous? Macron by easing even more the "regroupement familial" is attracting every year more more migrants with very poor jobs opportunities which at the end create a lot of tensions in the French society same for Germany. Why there was never a referendum like in Switzerland to ask the people what they want about immigration, have the people not the right to choose with whom they want to live?

[QUOTE=ExpatLover;2521030]Are you so sure that Macron and Merkel are not dangerous? Macron by easing even more the "regroupement familial" is attracting every year more more migrants with very poor jobs opportunities which at the end create a lot of tensions in the French society same for Germany. Why there was never a referendum like in Switzerland to ask the people what they want about immigration, have the people not the right to choose with whom they want to live?[/QUOTE]But we have right to choose our president, not like in China, and our presidents accepted defeat from democracy. France is land of welcome and not so many foreign origins make problems compare to how many in France. For many works, French don t want to, even for some jobs with quite good earning but too hard, too dirty, too lazy, I need foreigners for my job, I worked with so many since I started, 30 years ago with Italians and Portuguese but most don t want anymore and children are not so good at work than were parents, then Africans and now mostly Arabs, Turkish, Kurds and Romanians or Bulgarians or Moldavians and few specialized French, or big US firm OTIS but with Bulgarians building to work and I m happy about beautiful lift. When they have a job, most foreigners just want to have a roof, foods, a wife and children, most are just like us, even different race or religion. Only few integrists are dangerous. I m really not afraid in my country, I used to go with my legendary RS500 Cosworth to Saint Denis, Pierrefitte, Sarcelles where lived and worked one of my so pretty girlfriend for 6 years, or Garges les Gonesse or les Mureaux and Trappes, when I see about Washington and free weapons with so many crazy in US. Some guys asked me to buy legend, when many looked at it, I answered them they would not be able to control it, with one leader, I took him to show him on RN2 , while acceleration with sliding despite visco system to improve grip and when braking, I didn't hear him talking, he and his friends never asked again, not a BMW or Mercedes but a race car. Germany also could not work without Turkish. In Switzerland, Albanians for big drugs business and Romanians to clean behind Swiss, when Switzerland have dark side behind the green curtain.

Gorillas with covid in US. I think tigers also got. Also some cats and dogs, and visons in Europe. UK mutant make panic in Western Europe, London being said out of control for covid spreading. After a French team was infected after match versus Leicester. UK, European rugby cup is stopped. 2 big towns, about 18 millions people isolated in China. Not enough vaccines. Bad start for 2021. Even ski Worldcup keep on and really wish for Wengen Lauberhorn on next Friday and week end, Flachau. At women slalom tonight, but I worry for ski on this Winter when we have snow on this Winter with more cold weather, so snow should be good and more solid, maybe because of less activity in the world, with less pollution and heat made from activity. Covid may save white bears.

[QUOTE=McAdonis;2520951]... Could Trump (or his successor) create a third political party?[/QUOTE]Ross Perot tried and lost and he was way smarter than Trump.

[QUOTE=Turgid;2521156]Ross Perot tried and lost and he was way smarter than Trump.[/QUOTE]How about Theodore Roosevelt for the most consequential third party spoiler ever.

1912 POTUS elections. Teddy Roosevelt, after having already served as a US President, returns to challenge the Republican incumbent Taft, splitting the vote and handing a victory to little know Democrat, Woodrow Wilson. Wilson becomes the first of 2 US World War Presidents to save France's ass and picking up them after being raped by Germany twice in 2 back to back World Wars. Wilson goes on to become the architect of the League of Nations which was the predecessor to the United Nations and in association, the North Atlantic, Euro-American New World Order with America at the helm.

[QUOTE=Turgid;2521156]Ross Perot tried and lost and he was way smarter than Trump.[/QUOTE]Fair point Perot was "smarter" and was unable to create his own party. But did Perot parlay that intelligence to get 47 percent of the popular vote? Did reality TV and Twitter exist in 1992 and was Perot able to move the needle like Trump? Do American voters even value intelligence?

[QUOTE=Turgid;2520820]It would serve the Trump supporters better to educate themselves and seek employment. In any event if they were educated they would not support Trump. Trump appeals to the ignorant.[/QUOTE]Along the lines of what Mursenary said, many conservative educated people support Trump or at least tolerate him, because of the influence he yields. Evangelical Christian leaders may believe Trump is a bad role model for Christian youth, but Trump can put his weight behind things they care about like banning abortion. And of course, GOP senators are extremely educated. They flip-flop and behind closed doors probably do not think highly of him, but they want the votes' of Trump's base. I am not convinced his 74 million voters will abandon him en-masse. Politicians are known to flip flop.

Lindsey Graham has flipped twice already:

[QUOTE]"Hes a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot. You know how you make America great again? Tell Donald Trump to go to hell" - Sen. Lindsey Graham, (R) SC in 2016[/QUOTE]Sen. Marco Rubio, are-Fla in 2016:

[QUOTE]"There is only one presidential candidate who has violence at their events"

"Leadership is not about going to an angry and frustrated people and saying you should be even more angry and more frustrated. You know what that is? It's called demagoguery"

"You mark my words, there will be prominent people in American politics who will spend years explaining to people how they fell into this"

"If were going to be the party of fear, were going to spend some time in the wilderness. If were the party of fear, with a candidate who basically is trying to prey upon peoples fears to get them to vote for them, I think were going to pay a big price in November and beyond. I think hes already an embarrassment. People around the world are watching this debate and this campaign and wondering whats happening here, because the things he says are nonsensical. When youre the most powerful and important nation on earth, youre not always going to be popular. But the question is, are you respected? And I dont think Donald Trump is going to be respected."[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Mursenary;2520920]Unemployment is not the most accurate word to use to describe the eventual outcome, but rather employment displacement. John Keynes popularized the term, "technological unemployment," characterizing it as "only a temporary phase of maladjustment."

Just like all previous technological advancements, the labor force just shifts, although usually coupled with a temporary phase of unemployment due to mindset and training lag. You alluded to job creation for technical yet still manual labor, but more profound is the effect on knowledge and creativity intensive jobs, mainly because innovation in one sector creates opportunities in other sectors.

Cars displaced carriage drivers but created jobs for mechanics, gas station vendors, and jobs in road construction and civil planning. Farming reduced the need for hunter-gatherers but led to more jobs in harvesting. [/QUOTE]The counterarguments are generally that human knowledge accrues, similar to compound interest. And that the pace of innovation is happening at an unprecedented pace. Moving from hunter-gatherer to agriculture was an extremely slow transition and that transition occurred over much of human history. Each subsequent transition has happened over shorter and shorter periods. Human populations are also growing due to longer life expectancies, which places higher demands on job creation.

Previous automations were quite specific, and the machine remained unintelligent. Essentially the automation performed the same exact task just with more "horsepower", and so you still needed a human to operate that new machine. The carriage driver simply became a car driver, but there will be no humans needed if cars can make intelligent decisions based off data. Yes, when the economy transitioned from agricultural to manufacturing, people needed to acquire new skills, but I would argue that going from farmer to factory worker required very little training. You might be able to retrain a highly educated junior lawyer and have them work in the field of nanotechnology, but that won't be a smooth, seamless transition.

I could see working hours being cut in half or even more. So a continuation (or more likely the acceleration) of a trend that started in 1870's: [URL]https://ourworldindata.org/working-hours[/URL].

Maybe we just see more people "working" in creative fields. Maybe everyone is creating YouTube content. IDK.

[QUOTE=Sirioja;2521075]But we have right to choose our president, not like in China, and our presidents accepted defeat from democracy. France is land of welcome and not so many foreign origins make problems compare to how many in France. For many works, French don t want to, even for some jobs with quite good earning but too hard, too dirty, too lazy, I need foreigners for my job, I worked with so many since I started, 30 years ago with Italians and Portuguese but most don t want anymore and children are not so good at work than were parents, then Africans and now mostly Arabs, Turkish, Kurds and Romanians or Bulgarians or Moldavians and few specialized French, or big US firm OTIS but with Bulgarians building to work and I m happy about beautiful lift. When they have a job, most foreigners just want to have a roof, foods, a wife and children, most are just like us, even different race or religion. Only few integrists are dangerous. I m really not afraid in my country, I used to go with my legendary RS500 Cosworth to Saint Denis, Pierrefitte, Sarcelles where lived and worked one of my so pretty girlfriend for 6 years, or Garges les Gonesse or les Mureaux and Trappes, when I see about Washington and free weapons with so many crazy in US. Some guys asked me to buy legend, when many looked at it, I answered them they would not be able to control it, with one leader, I took him to show him on RN2 , while acceleration with sliding despite visco system to improve grip and when braking, I didn't hear him talking, he and his friends never asked again, not a BMW or Mercedes but a race car. Germany also could not work without Turkish. In Switzerland, Albanians for big drugs business and Romanians to clean behind Swiss, when Switzerland have dark side behind the green curtain.[/QUOTE]Please tell me when there was a referendum concerning immigration in France? Are you aware that in the French jails 90% of the people have a migration (mostly Muslim) background, why it is because they are more criminals it is may be just the integration is not working. How many migrants are living in Paris 16 and how many white Christian are living in Saint Denis, if you consider there is no problem, why not for me at least there is a big problem.