patrick.net

Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time - Patrick Killelea in The Housing Trap, page 29

It's cheaper to rent the house than to rent the money. - Patrick Killelea

The short term gain derived by companies that outsource operations offshore is eclipsed by the long term damage to the U.S. economy. Over time, the loss of jobs and expertise will make innovation in the U.S. difficult, while, at the same time, building the brain trust of other countries. - Angie Mohr

gabbar says

The short term gain derived by companies that outsource operations offshore is eclipsed by the long term damage to the U.S. economy. Over time, the loss of jobs and expertise will make innovation in the U.S. difficult, while, at the same time, building the brain trust of other countries. - Angie Mohr

This is exactly the problem caused by outsourcing to China.

Big short-term profits for US executives who do not care about America at all, and big long-term pain for America.

In the beginning, the outsourcing movement was meant to transfer low-skill jobs out and retain highly-skilled jobs as an important asset for the advancement of the country's economy. However, as emerging economies work hard to build their own intellectual capital, American companies are increasingly contracting accountants, engineers and IT specialists at a rate far lower than it would cost them in the U.S. This "brain drain" has long-term repercussions for American industry. Once a skill has been largely moved offshore, it is difficult to regain. For example, if most publishers outsource book design and layout work to Chinese firms, over time there will be fewer designers in the U.S. who have that skill. It also means that there are fewer students of the craft, due to lack of opportunities. - Angie Mohr

Patrick says

Big short-term profits for US executives who do not care about America at all, and big long-term pain for America.

Unless we go back to nation and people first philosophy in our businesses, we will be in trouble, but we have our bankers and military to bail us out (not).

"We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people." --JFK

As we survey the prospects for the global economy, we see many reasons for concern, including continued challenges from the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, high inflation, and headwinds from central bank rate hikes. Reflecting these factors, the global economy is likely to endure 'rolling' country-level recessions during the coming year. - Citi chief economist Nathan Sheets

I'm not interested if you've stood with the great. I'm interested whether you've sat with the broken.

S. Fitzmaurice

There is nothing is more deceptive than an obvious fact.

Arthur Conan Doyle

"You have been trained to take orders and obey people in authority from your first day of kindergarten. School is only partly about learning. The secondary and unspoken goal of schooling is to teach conformity and obedience, which prepares you to take on a mortgage and obey your boss" - Patrick Killelea in The House Trap

The real estate agent and the seller both have an incentive to fake recent comparable sales data to get the buyer to believe he must pay more. Do not attach any meaning to comps, even if you can confirm them with the county. The only measure of house value that you can rely on is its rental value. - Patrick Killelea, The Housing Trap, Page 66

Buy a house only when a landlord would buy it. - Patrick Killelea, The Housing Trap p81

The MLS is a used house sales tool designed to restrict access to critical market information in order to prevent the free market from working efficiently. - Patrick Killelea, The Housing Trap, p68

gabbar says

Yet Chomsky repeated the lies about the vaxx, apparently without investigating anything for himself.

He simply forgot to add, "Except when you're paid to obfuscate and hide the lies".

Always remember that everyone can express an opinion and that opinions can be paid for.

"It's just a lot of uncertainty right now. But one thing I'm certain of : The housing market is collapsing at a level I haven't seen since 2008. I haven't seen this kind of drop since 2008."- Gary Friedman, CEO, Restoration Hardware, November 9, 2022

“Submission is identified not with cowardliness, but with virtue, rebellion not with heroism, but with evil.

To the Roman slave owners, Spartacus was not the hero and obedient slaves were not cowards. Spartacus was not a hero, and obedient slaves were virtuous. The obedient slaves believed this also. The obedient always think about themselves as virtuous, rather than cowardly.

If authority implies submission, liberation implies equality. Authority exists when one man obeys another, and liberty exists when one man do not obey other men.

Thus, to say that authority exists is to say that class and cast exist, that submission and inequality exist. To say that the liberty exists is to say that classlessness exists, to say that brotherhood and equality exist.

Authority, by dividing men into classes, creates dichotomy, disruption, hostility, fear, disunion. Liberty, by placing men to equal footing, creates association, amalgamation, union, security.”

― Robert Anton Wilson, The Illuminatus! Trilogy

I've always found it ironic that anytime someone cries about "religious freedom", their definition of that term always forces someone else to lose their actual freedom.

You go talk to kindergartners or first-grade kids, you find a class full of science enthusiasts. They ask deep questions. They ask, "What is a dream, why do we have toes, why is the moon round, what is the birthday of the world, why is grass green?" These are profound, important questions. They just bubble right out of them. You go talk to 12th graders and there's none of that. They've become incurious. Something terrible has happened between kindergarten and 12th grade. ~ Carl Sagan in Conversations with Carl Sagan

gabbar says

Something terrible has happened between kindergarten and 12th grade

Smart phones and social media would be a good place to start. Then try conspicuous consumption and "the one with the most toys at the end wins" mentality.

The notion of allowing aliens to vote negates the very idea of the nation and democracy. The participation of everyone in the exercise of power, in making political decisions affecting the whole, is possible only within a human ensemble possessing the same values, memories, and culture. A multi-racial, multi-confessional society can in no case be democratic, since it lacks commonly shared references. Such a society would be endemically oppressive and culminate in a caste system. - Why We Fight, Why We Fight: Manifesto of the European Resistance by Guilllaume Faye

An ethnically heterogeneous population — a kaleidoscope of communities — becomes an anonymous society, without soul, without solidarity, prone to incessant conflicts for domination, to an endemic racism ('every multi-racial society is a multi-racist society') — ungovernable because there's no shared vision of the world. Ethnic chaos is an open door to tyranny. - Why We Fight, Why We Fight: Manifesto of the European Resistance by Guilllaume Faye

Ethnicity is the sole stable basis of human community. - Why We Fight, Why We Fight: Manifesto of the European Resistance by Guilllaume Faye

Worse: Muslim and alien 'minorities' have ceased, in many areas where they live, to be minorities and have turned the tables on Europeans, who are compelled to assimilate the culture and mores of the colonisers! All assimilation is equivalent to cultural genocide, for the assimilator or the assimilated. - Why We Fight, Why We Fight: Manifesto of the European Resistance by Guilllaume Faye

They [Jews] put the Jewish interest above America's interest, and it's about goddamn time that the Jew in America realizes he's an American first and a Jew second. - Richard Nixon. 37th president of the United States

Jews had always thrived in nations and empires with multicultural, pluralistic and tolerant environments, while they fared badly in strong ethnic or nationalistic societies. ... Therefore, by definition, a society where the stranger is welcome is good for the Jews, although they have not always appreciated this link. The future of European Jewry is dependant on our ability to shape a multicultural, pluralistic and diverse society. - Göran Rosenberg. The Future for Jews in Multicultural Europe. December 18, 2008

gabbar says

The notion of allowing aliens to vote negates the very idea of the nation and democracy. The participation of everyone in the exercise of power, in making political decisions affecting the whole, is possible only within a human ensemble possessing the same values, memories, and culture. A multi-racial, multi-confessional society can in no case be democratic, since it lacks commonly shared references. Such a society would be endemically oppressive and culminate in a caste system. - Why We Fight, Why We Fight: Manifesto of the European Resistance by Guilllaume Faye

I don't believe this is the problem.

The problem is what is ON the Internet, what people are brainwashed into using on the Internet. INEXPLICABLY people will still insist on using portals and sites that promote degeneracy and will use censorship to promote it.

IF we were given the ability to see all points of view, this shit would end. IF, for example, people REALLY knew what the US was doing in foreign policy, it would end. IF they actually were allowed to know.

School is just indoctrination now, THAT would end if parents had complete and total control over the curriculum. Would parents make errors? Sure! There would be some town somewhere that would force their children not to learn about evolutionary theory, and instead force them to learn creationism. I think that would be rare, and I think it's an error, but it's THEIR children and it's a lot better than exposing children to LGBTQ crap in elementary school.

People need to be allowed to make mistakes, even at the cost of their children. Nobody makes more "mistakes" than the fucking government does, because they aren't mistakes, they are purposely hobbling children.

gabbar says

An ethnically heterogeneous population — a kaleidoscope of communities — becomes an anonymous society, without soul, without solidarity, prone to incessant conflicts for domination,

I disagree with this as well.

It's cultural diversity that does this, not multi-racial. I'm in the United States, we are all Americans first, race doesn't matter.

richwicks says

People need to be allowed to make mistakes

This course takes a broad look at failure – and what we can all learn when it occurs. Perhaps people will be more comfortable with making mistakes because we all do it even if some will not admit to it, if something like this was introduced widely.

Title of course:

“Failure, and How We Can Learn from It”

What prompted the idea for the course?

When I was a high school teacher, I found plenty of joy and fulfillment in my work. But I also felt the sting of failure: from a student who remained disengaged throughout the semester, or even just from a lesson that went off the rails. Now I prepare aspiring K-12 teachers to navigate that messy reality themselves, and I’m struck by how tough it can be for them to develop the resilience necessary to work so hard and yet inevitably fall short of their goals.

So I began to wonder how other fields and professions might view failure. What resources do they draw upon? What common threads might exist that could help future teachers learn from failure more effectively?

What does the course explore?

We explore the role of failure in a wide range of fields, and how what counts as failure varies as well. A bridge collapsing is pretty clear, and maybe a business that goes bankrupt. But what about a team losing or a patient dying? We also consider what mechanisms and strategies these fields employ in responding to failure, and the ways in which they see failure as part of the learning and achievement process.

What’s a critical lesson from the course?

As the semester unfolds, students begin to recognize that success and failure aren’t neat and simple categories. At its best, this course helps them understand how failure will be an ongoing presence in their lives. That means they need to figure out how to restructure their relationship with failure, rather than anticipate a time when they’ve finally and fully succeeded.

https://www.newspronto.com/news/the-conversation/98437-this-course-takes-a-broad-look-at-failure-%E2%80%93-and-what-we-can-all-learn-when-it-occurs

richwicks says

I'm in the United States, we are all Americans first, race doesn't matter.

It matters to at least 2 communities in the US as per the religions.

"Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it." ~ John Lennon

Your soul is like a compass. It tell you where to go but not how to get there.

Archie Bunker

https://oneusefulthing.substack.com/p/how-to-make-people-happy

Four easy things you can do to make people happier, and why you don't do them.

There is a lot of research advice that, if you take it, should make you healthier, wealthier, or wiser… but not nearly as much that will make everyone around you happier. The exception is an uplifting string of work that suggests that making people happier is easier than we think. In fact you can make people happier right now, from your computer or phone (maybe finish the Substack article first?).

But if it is so easy, why don’t we do it? Because we are systematically wrong about how much of a difference our little gestures can make to other people, and also how hard these gestures are to make. In fact, the papers all find the same thing: we can make the world better, but we don’t because we think doing so will seem dumb or awkward or meaningless. And we are wrong to feel that way.

For example, appropriately enough for Thanksgiving week in the US, this paper shows we undervalue showing gratitude. We think it will be awkward, we think people know we are grateful, we think it won’t matter much. All of that is wrong. People who were asked to write letters of gratitude to other people overestimated the awkwardness of the experience, and underestimated the impact on the recipient’s mood and happiness. It also made the sender feel happier. So, the first way to make people happy: openly express gratitude towards others more. (Look, I know some of you are thinking this is super cheesy, in part because the research predicts you will find it cheesy. It isn’t! Try it!)

Relatedly, we aren’t as complimentary as we should be. Another paper shows that we don’t compliment people we know enough because we worry it will be unappreciated and awkward (are you starting to sense a theme here?). But “giving compliments in relationships makes both expressers and recipients feel more positive than they expect to feel.” In fact, the paper argues that we are not complimenting each other at nearly the optimal level, because we are afraid of it being awkward. So, the second lesson: genuinely compliment people you know more.

A third paper looks at a related topic: helping others. When a person needs help & all someone can do is provide a little assistance, rather than solving the entire problem, the helper is often reluctant to do anything because they think partial help will not be valued. Again, people really appreciate even small amounts of help. And part of the reason why is that the mere action of someone helping makes the person who needs help feel better, even if they can’t solve a problem completely. So the third way to make people happier is: offer to help people, even if you can’t completely solve the problem.

A fourth paper looks at spontaneous contacts, when we reach out to someone in our social circle who we may not have spoken to in a bit - to say “hi” or to catch up. We don’t do it enough, and (I know this will shock you!) the reason is because we think it will be akward and not appreciated. And, of course, as you might suspect, people really appreciate when someone in their social circle spontaneously reaches out to them, even if they aren’t a very close contact. Again, since we underestimate how much people appreciate spontaneous contact and don’t reach out enough.

So, there is no need to belabor the point further. You can make people (including yourself!) happier, and the reason you aren’t doing it is because you are stuck in your own head. So the research suggests a few small things you can do this Thanksgiving (or World Cup) week, to make the world a little bit better:

Express gratitude more

Give more genuine compliments to people you know

Don’t feel awkward about offering to help, even if you can’t solve the problem

Reach out to some old contacts and say “hi”

Science says it is okay, and not nearly as awkward as you think.