AKA The Economy Doesn't Exist
Believe it or not, we have run out of things to buy, and now we're coming for you, the consumer.
Let's start with this old blog post by a guy who says Karen is an acknowledgment of the downfall of consumerism:
For decades this prevailing ideology ["the customer is always right"] instilled in millions of consumers around the world an expectation that when it came to the items they bought and services they used, few things beyond the limits of time and space should get in the way of their satisfaction. If something did go wrong, it was the responsibility of the consumer to “speak with the manager” in order to let them know of the flaw in their operation and insist they correct the problem lest the patron not return in the future. ...Such admonishments ["go shopping" by GWB after 9-11] worked due to the fact that no matter how unpredictable one’s life or how dysfunctional the performance of core institutions, the system that delivered consumer bliss would never fail. The problem now, of course, is that the system is now failing and the ability of consumer culture to paper over the contradictions of the contemporary global assemblage of power is waning rapidly. ...Floods and rising ocean levels will destroy favorite beaches and destroy oceanfront vacation property. Droughts and water shortages will shorten ski seasons and prevent the filling of back yard pools. Pandemics will require lockdowns and the closing of large portions of the economy. Supply chains will be disrupted from any number of new problems not contemplated in decades past.
--The Post-Consumer Society, Aug 2021, Eric Fattor's Blog, professor of politics, security and media at Colorado State
Image credit: AI Art - A Magician Performs a Card Trick - 2024
The gaming industry is aiming for subscribers. Will gamers play along?
Jan 2024, BBC News
"As it becomes increasingly difficult for younger generations to own real things, we start to see a push towards temporary ownership, or renting, and that’s going to be the case at a high level, with fewer young families buying homes and cars," he says. "For younger generations ownership is not a necessity, and we’re going to also see that in the games industry."
No it won't. This is what it looks like now, but it's not what will happen. When sectors of industry collapse and re-emerge, and at the same time, regional and national subpopulations revolt against their rapid and absolute loss of agency, this is not what will happen. A disturbance in the force has indeed already happened. The consumer economy is completely out of touch with reality, and the people who control it are unknowingly exposing their entire societal utility as no longer useful but undeniably hostile and extortionist.
The pendulum has already swung, hard. But when your job depends on not accepting something as real, you don't. The media, which in the United States is majority commercial in nature, as opposed to government-funded or fully user-sponsored, cannot see this happening, because if they did, they would lose their funding ecosystem. This article comes from BBC, but it's written for the US population (almost wanted to say "market" but BBC is ostensibly government funded so it's not a "market" per se) and follows the narrative of the majority media there:
Why US economy is powering ahead of Europe's
Feb 2024, BBC News
For the first time in my life, I see the meaning of these words, right there in plain sight:
High inflation has been a painful experience for many Americans and has shaped their view of how the economy is faring. But a strong jobs market has helped disposable income, which is the engine behind consumer spending.
Disposable Income - It's the engine behind consumer spending. Our consumer economy is predicated on the disposable.
Researchers show Reddit users caused the famous GameStop 'short squeeze'
Feb 2024, phys.org
Not sure we needed this but it's good for posterity
Background:
The most notable short squeeze in decades was the GameStop short squeeze of January 2021. Notably, it seemed to originate on social media, especially the r/Wallstreetbets subgroup of Reddit. Users there saw GameStop's stock price receding due in part to the pandemic, and approximately 140% of the public stock was sold short, meaning some who had borrowed the stock had re-lent it.Redditors decided the stock of the company - a brick-and-mortar video game sales company - was undervalued and began buying it up. The buying caused the stock price to rise, panicking short sellers, who bought back their borrowed shares, creating still more panic. In just three and a half weeks the stock price rose 2,702%, making millionaires of some and breaking others.
Study:
When analyzed, the data showed a stronger cross-correlation of trading volume with Reddit activity than with the stock price itself—about three times larger—suggesting that the changes observed in trading volume were more tied to discussions on Reddit than reactions to the increasing stock price.
Conclusion:
The wild swing of GameStop stock price served as an alarm for many investors who were now more aware of the power of social media networks and online communities in influencing financial markets and investment decisions.It has opened the eyes of institutional investors on Wall Street.
via Technical University of Denmark: Antonio Desiderio et al, The causal role of the Reddit collective action on the GameStop short squeeze, arXiv (2024). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2401.14999
More than money, family and community bonds prep teens for college success
Apr 2024, phys.org
No need to make it any clearer, money is the opposite of people; good old financial capital vs social capital; but social capital disperses the power to the many, and power wants to be concentrated into the hands of the few, so it's hard.
Social connectedness had a bigger effect on college enrollment and graduation rates than a family's socioeconomic status, a high school environment or a student's high school grades.
- Build family social capital -
- Bond with teens
- Convey expectations and norms toward schoolwork
- Check homework
- Discuss classes
- Developing connections with others in the community, including with the parents of their kids' friends and with neighbors, coaches or teachers.
- Work policies that encourage family time
- Urban planning for walkable neighborhoods
- School practices that help parents get involved
Their data came from 20,000 students who participated in the 1988 National Educational Longitudinal Study and the 2002 Educational Longitudinal Study, which provided data about family relationships, community connection and educational attainment from students in eighth, 10th and 12th grades, then followed up two and eight years after high school graduation.
via Brigham Young University, North Carolina State University and the National Institute on Aging: Mikaela J. Dufur et al, Is social capital durable?: How family social bonds influence college enrollment and completion, PLOS ONE (2024). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0298344
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