Immigration from the Third World is very bad for most countries. Not racism. Just looking at data.
Political Economy
Cessional Vibe
All the clown-ass economists are like “vibecession” and “everyone is doing amazing, they are just lying and deluded about economic problems!” Meanwhile, a hamburger at a counter-serve restaurant that cost $8 before the pandemic is now $17.
And I’m fucking rich! So if it bothers me, it’s got to be absolutely brutal on those who are barely making it. Because even if they aren’t buying hamburgers in restaurants, they still are getting hit with those high grocery prices.
And that’s why people report bad economic sentiments.
Taxation Without Dispensation
Exactly. Property taxes are lower in California than Texas, but no matter what we pay ~$800 a month just to live here.
And we have no mortgage. Seems a bit crazy at times considering how little we get for those taxes.
Avo
If it had merely kept pace with inflation since 2012, that $187,000 home would be going for $271,000 today.
Instead, it is now going for $514,000 more than that, which is roughly a 189% above-inflation increase. But, yeah, sure the avocado toast is why millennials can’t buy homes.
Witnit
Eh, that is only really true for mature companies. For start-ups and companies without a large revenue base stock sales absolutely do finance investment and capex. In fact, that’s the whole fucking purpose of them in the first place! Why would you write something this transparently wrong and stupid?
I hate this kind of smug but incorrect (but correct in some situations) clowninshness. We’ve allowed nitwits and pseudointellectuals to dominate all.
Targeted Transit
But TRANSITORY!
Those motherfuckers were so utterly wrong. Idiots.
Getting Poorer
I can’t speak for all of Europe, but certainly I feel very rich in the UK in a way I do not feel in the US. A lot of the sceptred isle is obviously shabby and declining. Even London has gone downhill a lot. It felt wealthy indeed (mutatis mutandis my own relative wealth) when I visited in 1989 or 1990. Now it has the atmosphere and sense of disarray befitting a third-tier American city in a lot of ways.
Europe is getting relatively poorer, and in many cases, absolutely poorer. Not all of it, but a whole lot of it. Krugman et al. are just wrong. They want to hold on to the fantasy.
Clowns All Around
Any idiot clown who thinks AI is “fake growth” because companies buy shit from one another does not understand even a little bit how economies work, how large corporations function, how they scale, what is involved in gigantic high-CapEx businesses, why circular buying and entangled supply chains are incredibly common1, nor why certain models not only make sense but are inevitable in certain fairly-predictable situations.
Jesus Christ, you fucking mooks. Read a book. Read anything. But mostly, just shut up.
Teams and Schemes
The “transitory” disphit-ass fucknuggests were wrong at the time, wrong when they declared victory, wrong now, and will continue to be wrong in the future.
Transitory it was not. It was so annoying when Team Transitory was declaring victory when inflation was still 40% above the US historical norm. And it still is. Just shows that to most people, facts and reality do not matter even a little bit. Being on the right team does.
Oner
Assuming 2.5% inflation per year, in 2026 dollars that’s $340,000. Doesn’t seem quite as onerous then.
And if you paid an extra $400 per month on the mortgage reliably, it’d be $285,000 interest in 2026 dollars. People like to “do the math” but don’t actually do the math.
Intent to Steal
Spent 20 hours on a technical test just to be ghosted by a recruiter.
General rule of thumb: Any test relating to a role that takes longer than an hour or so to complete is intended to steal your work and use it somewhere, not to give you a job.
Always push back or outright refuse.
World Whirled
The Third Worldification of the First World.
That is going to be very, very bad.
Good Cancel
That’s what should happen. But it won’t.
Lack Of
It’s AI. My company has canceled at least one hire due to no longer needing the role since AI is doing 100% of the job.
And that’s how it’ll happen. Despite flashy layoffs (Oracle, Microsoft), most of the results of AI will be people who are not hired: junior and even mid-level people in various tech fields just aren’t obligatory to bring on board any longer. And that is only going to get worse.
So, in other words, the problem is not and won’t be firing. It’ll be lack of hiring.
And yes, this will soon happen to other fields1, as it always does. As usual, tech just gets hit first.
Mower
I think there’s something to this. Hell, my dad would’ve probably fixed every lawn mower in a 50 mile radius if someone would’ve paid him enough to do it. He just liked that sort of thing, and was incredibly good at it.
But certainly, a lot less art gets produced of quality now becuase housing prices are too high everywhere to be able to survive on part-time waitress and grocery stocker.