I can’t remember how I came to the conclusion you were a Stalinist. Maybe something you said previously.
I did not jump any queue. It would be 2 years before I would even consider it.
People where I am seem to be suffering from lockdown fatigue. Yesterday I took a stroll in a park I had not ventured into in almost 40 years when I was a boy (funny how I still remembered where the short cuts were). There were many people sitting on benches huddled together (which is not allowed) and hardly anyone wearing a mask. Smiling faces.
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I for one think we should just permanently lock down. Imagine how many lives we can save from road accidents, flu etc
People are reacting to news of vaccines becoming available by slacking off too soon. So people are suffering from lockdown fatigue? I’m sure if they mention this to the virus it will respond sympathetically.
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And the corporatist Guardian puts this out:
They want lockdowns forever.
If the Guardian were corporatists, wouldn’t they be downplaying Climate Change? Lockdowns costs corporatists money, remember?
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No discussion of the facts of the matter, I notice.
P.S.- ten years =/= forever.
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And look up the meaning of the word “equivalent”.
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Lockdowns have made them tons of money. Amazon record profits. The huge supermarkets making a killing. They were not closed but your independent store on the street - tough shit. The corporatists are well on board with build back better, wokism, climate change, pro EU… The Guardian is well on board. It likes to appear like it is the ‘resistance’. That left the rag years ago. Could you imagine the likes of John Pilger having his work in the Guardian now? Not a chance.
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And your corporatist hero Trump slashed their taxes to Zero!
LMAO please show me data on supermarket profitability.
Yet your heroes on the right want to slash stimulus payments to individuals. Because, you know, you’re anti corporatist and care about the little guy.
It amazes me anyone over 5 years old doesn’t understand that Trump is the golden calf idol of corporatists. Where is the disconnect here?
Do RW do anything except whine about newspapers and scary imaginary agendas and stuff? Why do you think they get their clock cleaned every election?
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One of Trump’s issues was giving the vermin corporates a pass.
Did the current admin promise the banksters something else to what the public will get a la that Clinton speech in 2015? I would hedge a bet they did.
Money for the supermarkets.
Billionaires for Beijing Biden.
Cannot seem to remember Silicon Valley backing Trump unless you call banning him as backing.
Who are my ‘heroes on the right’? Most Trump voters I come across never supported shutting down businesses unlike the pro corporatist lefties.
All the agendas are there to split the public and have everyone fighting each other as they control and shaft us. Climate lockdowns are planned. We’ll get taxed as the CCP gets to make a killing. Meanwhile non whites cannot be racist.
Whatever happened to ‘soil has 60 years left, we won’t be able to grow food unless we do something’ nonsense?
A good breakdown on the two companies - Blackrock and Vanguard with the most influence on the planet.
I wonder which individuals are actually at the helm? Ones you don’t see on the TV news no doubt.
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Somewhat OT, but it looks to me as if that’s what’s happening to China in the other thread. It’s not nonsense: I work with damaged soils and I’ve seen places that look like the surface of Mars because people don’t know how soil works. It’s fairly easy to fix, though. Takes about ten years to go from total disaster to economically productive. Takes maybe another ten to achieve breakeven on initial investment. Thereafter, it’s easy profits.
For soils that are merely marginal (as opposed to completely ruined) it’s more like 5+5 years.
The long timescale is why we’re losing farmland real fast; nobody really wants to put in the effort and investment.
I was being a little flippant.
It stems from this article:
I tell ya, it’s the Lizard People.
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We’re also becoming less fertile. Thus, as long as we have Children of Men before Interstellar, the only ones who need to worry are the feeble lonely old people left when the lights go out. Won’t be us, but don’t have kids!
The psychopath is back with Cyber Polygon.
I wonder who was really behind those ‘ransomware’ attacks recently?
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On a serious note (not to throw shade at the doomsday comedy), I think we’re going to see a huge shift in real estate and communal living beginning in the next decade.
Housing prices in cities are ridiculous. And I’m not so sure these bubbles will pop easily, or without provocation, especially because of the amount of foreign (often Chinese) ownership that tends to be…sticky.
Covid has accelerated us more to the transition to more work at home, of course.
I can see lots of relatively cheap land purchased outside existing cities and suburbs. On that land, self-sustainable communities living in relatively affordable, mass produced ‘tiny homes’, using solar for energy, being able to use satellite for internet.
Should be plenty of demand to move there, enough to not create these communities by pieces, but as actual entire projects complete with shopping malls and other typical city amenities.
Opportunity for cheap but quality housing is there, work and communication tools will be there shortly, a huge opportunity is there to leave big city/established big city suburb living rendered as very unattractive going forward.
If city pricing doesn’t give, the means and demand to build new city areas will be there. Technology will also be improved in terms of minimizing transport costs to more ‘out of the way’ communities.
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While I agree with the sentiment - it is technically doable - I think we can be absolutely confident that the plebs will be allowed to do no such thing. The declared aim of the WEF and their ilk is that the ordinary man in the street should own nothing.
IMO this will be a race between those who wish to do what you’re suggesting, and those who want to make sure that they can’t. The problem is that most of the proles are falling over themselves to comply with everything they’re told to do, and cheering their Dear Leaders as they deal out the next round of punishment. There are very few people with the capital, the connections, and the skills to make good things happen on anything other than a tiny scale.
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I dunno, I just see it as a matter of opportunity. Demand is there, and profit will be there for those who want to commit to these kinds of projects.
I think how we understand the world in terms of how it’s operated since the industrial revolution is going to begin to be turned on its head, starting now. Cities, work, factories, city living, suburbs, also sea ports, they all exist where they are because of limited technology/cost concerns.
The combination of covid and real estate prices are going to be major catalysts in pushing ‘new cities’ forward, in my opinion. We’ve seen a lot of it beginning on a smaller scale with the concept of ‘tiny homes’ and their appeal of living affordably, off grids. But there’s nothing getting in the way of it happening on a much, much larger scale.
There are very few people with the capital, the connections, and the skills to make good things happen on anything other than a tiny scale.
I don’t think this is accurate.
Here’s a preview:
“Neighborhood solar installations across all housing types will reshape how people live,” said Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla . “Brookfield and Dacra’s commitment to stay at the vanguard of that evolution is what makes them the right collaborator for Tesla Energy. The feedback we get from the solar and battery products used in this community will impact how we develop and launch new products.”
“This initiative brings together multiple parts of our organization with innovative and forward-thinking partners that share a commitment to advance the development of sustainable communities,” said Brian Kingston, CEO of Brookfield’s Real Estate business . “As consumers increasingly seek out energy security alongside sustainable places to live, combining Tesla’s solar technology together with Brookfield’s real estate and renewables development capabilities will help us meet demand for environmentally responsible communities of the future.”
“Our goal is to establish that fully-sustainable neighborhoods are not only viable, but the best practical and economical choice,” said Craig Robins, CEO of Dacra . “Together with Brookfield and Tesla, we are trying to change the world by creating technology-driven, energy independent communities that make the world a better place.”
If you want an example of a company beginning to mass produce ‘tiny homes’, look up boxabl. Technology is going to render traditional ways of building obsolete. Traditional housing costs are going to pale in comparison to this new model, and I imagine this growth could be a major driver of the housing bubble finally popping.
This is just the beginning now, I think it will be a bit shocking just how quickly it comes though.
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The only thing potentially getting in the way is a raft of existing and new legislation which is explicitly designed to make it difficult, if not impossible, for ordinary people to live simply and cheaply, and to disconnect themselves from dependence on the State and big business. People who don’t stress over their bills and their mortgage are people who will not comply, and compliance is the name of the game in our new COVID world.
It occurs to me that the likes of Klaus Schwab might be well-intentioned (somewhere beneath their desire to make shitloads of money) but perhaps don’t really understand what their dream is likely to lead to. Ultimately people need to be able to make choices.
The Tesla Energy thing is interesting. About 15 years ago, Richard Branson did a PR exercise that he called the “Virgin Earth Challenge”, and I put forward a proposal very similar to this. Unfortunately it became quickly apparent that the VEC was in fact nothing more than a PR exercise and Branson had absolutely no intention of following up on any of it; the whole thing just disappeared without trace. What a massive opportunity beardy missed out on; it seems like Elon has a bit more business savvy.
I’m not entirely convinced by concepts like boxabl. It’s clever stuff, but it’s far too complicated for countries where there’s a surplus of labour and a shortage of skills, materials and money. IMO you can do similar things for about one-tenth of the cost-of-ownership (with the same product lifespan, or better) using more traditional techniques. Personally I believe The West has hit the end of a cultural cul-de-sac and the biggest opportunities are in the “third world”, precisely because they have achieved so little and are not locked into sprawling, obsolete infrastructure such as cars-and-roads or 19th-century paradigms for power generation and distribution.
Still, it’s encouraging that these things are happening. If it changes the way people think about their life options, that’s a good thing.
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