Consumption is necessary for capitalism, the way you accumulate wealth is by selling goods and services for profit. Many recessions are caused by production overshooting consumption which leads to people being fired to lower production, which lowers consumption... Most of the evaluation of companies and thus the wealth of billionaires is based on consumption increasing. If it were to ever go down in a meaningful way then production would to, and thus the GDP and the billionaires slice of it.
There are other forms of accumulation besides the capitalist mode, eg. Fighting and conquering your neighbors in a feudal system, but I don't think musk and bezos want to bet there fortunes on there military acumen and they probably prefer this current system.
I think the whole avocado toast thing was way overblown. It was maybe one cnbc article and a cable news segment but the memes and media against it far outnumber the articles that supported it.
I've seen far more media supporting consumption of avocado toast, both social media and advertising, then media telling you to stop consuming avocado toast. We have just gotten so used to "tuning" out advertising that we don't notice it, meanwhile an article shaming you for consuming is far more likely to get a reaction and make you remember it.
This requires a cultural change. Even if we fully redistribute the wealth, if everyone uses there new money to buy a huge pickup truck then we aren't helping to make a sustainable system.
Changing the culture is going to require some carrots and sticks.
The carrot is showing how you can enjoy life without consumption. People in the west have been indoctrinated by advertising and other cultural forces to think the path of happiness lies through consumption. Banning advertising and having media show paths to happiness that are less consumptive can help with this. Social media can play a part in this by showing people enjoying life withiut needing to buy anything, eg. Posting a pciture of your friends hanging out in the park. Celebrating a low consumption lifestyle can direct peoples drive for happiness away from consumption towards less destructive pursuits.
The stick, which most people don't want to do, is shame. Christianity was able to channel people's sexual drive into monogamous heterosexual married relationships for centuries using shame. If it's able to control such a fundamental desire as sex, it can stop people from buying useless junk. This will have to wait until the culture gains majority, because a minority shaming a majority just results in the minority being ostracized.
For anyone asking why it's strange, from the article
Traditionally, the dollar would strengthen as tariffs sink demand for foreign products.
If you're looking at the dollar with supply and demand, if international trade to the u.s. decreases with tarriffs, then the amount of dollars leaving the u.s. also decreases and thus the supply of dollars on the international market. Assuming demand remains constant then the strength of the dollar should go up.
For this decrease in strength you have to look to demand which has to decrease enough to counteract the tarriffs plus more. This decrease in demand is coming from both decrease in demand for assets priced in dollars (u.s. companies stocks, treasury bonds, real estate etc.) And retaliatory tarriffs which lower demand for u.s. goods.
Anytime anyone suggests we need to decrease consumption people complain that it's a plot by the rich to get us used to poverty.
we should eat less meat
The elites are trying to make the poor eat bugs
we need to drive less
The rich are taking away our freedom
we need to live in denser housing
The rich are trying to force you into a shoe box
You know what the rich really want?, consumption. They want you buying as much as possible because that's the way we get growth and it also makes it so you have less savings and are more dependent on your job, and less likely to make demands or quit.
I agree we need massive wealth redistribution and consumption by the 1% is magnitudes more harmful then the rest. But the current american lifestyle of heating and cooling an entire house for 1-2 people in a sprawled out suburb where you have to drive everywhere and have meat with every meal is not sustainable either. We need to reprioritize what we value as a society, deemphasizing individuality and private ownership and moving towards community.
Robots don't get drunk, or distracted, or text, or speed...
Anecdotally, I think the Waymos are more courteous than human drivers. Though waymo seems to be the best ones out so far, idk about the other services.
A full day of ... nothing. The senate, and congress as a whole don't really do anything these days. They pass maybe one consequential bill every 2 years and then go back to sitting on there asses because the filibuster prevents them from doing anything besides "bipartisan" shit like sending weapons to Israel.
All the bad shit that's been happening is coming from trumps desk with no approval or input from congress.
triangle of the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas
Hamas triangle? Do you mean the red triangle on the Palestinian flag, the one that predates hamas by half a century?
What hamas slogans were painted? The picture only shows "free gaza", "killers" and "complicity", nothing supporting hamas, unless anything calling for the end of the genocide is supporting hamas.
They used to market them as "flushable" even though every municipality and environmental agency said they aren't. Advertising and capitalism rarely let science get in the way of selling you more stuff though.
The u.s. has a huge presence in South Korea and has repeatedly threatened north Korea, remember trumps "fire and fury" comment.
Gonna need a source on that tunnels claim, I can see them sending experts to help them build them for a fee, because they have no money, but I don't think they're going to finance anything, because again they have no money.
many of israels neighbors would "drive the jews into the sea" if they ever got the chance
Maybe in the 60s and 70s but every one of israels neighbors, except Saudi Arabia, have normalized relations. Saudi Arabia has no intention of attacking Israel and risking there relationship with the west, nukes or no nukes. Syria just got invaded by them and all there new islamist government has given was a light denouncement. If this were the hay day of Israel hate they wouldve called for a jihad to clear out the jews, times change.
The largest actor on their borders seeking their destruction is hezbollah, and they've proven they can't even defend south Lebanon, much less march on tel Aviv.
Also Israel has shown repeatedly that it can defend itself fine against its neighbors without nukes, even if all there neighbors team up to attack them.
This is the same state that brought us dirty soda, i.e. take some soda and add even more syrups and cream. Try and convince me this isn't some grand conspiracy by a shadowy cabal of dentists.
Consumption is necessary for capitalism, the way you accumulate wealth is by selling goods and services for profit. Many recessions are caused by production overshooting consumption which leads to people being fired to lower production, which lowers consumption... Most of the evaluation of companies and thus the wealth of billionaires is based on consumption increasing. If it were to ever go down in a meaningful way then production would to, and thus the GDP and the billionaires slice of it.
There are other forms of accumulation besides the capitalist mode, eg. Fighting and conquering your neighbors in a feudal system, but I don't think musk and bezos want to bet there fortunes on there military acumen and they probably prefer this current system.
I think the whole avocado toast thing was way overblown. It was maybe one cnbc article and a cable news segment but the memes and media against it far outnumber the articles that supported it.
I've seen far more media supporting consumption of avocado toast, both social media and advertising, then media telling you to stop consuming avocado toast. We have just gotten so used to "tuning" out advertising that we don't notice it, meanwhile an article shaming you for consuming is far more likely to get a reaction and make you remember it.