I wear masks on public transport and when flying. Even without reading the latest research on long-term COVID impacts, the amount of people openly sneezing and coughing is enough to convince me to keep doing it.
As of Jun 2023, the "The Urban Surveyed Unemployment Rate of the Population Aged from 16 to 24(%)" was 21.3%.
The "Urban Surveyed Unemployment Rate of the Population Aged from 25 to 59(%)" was 4.1%.
The overall unemployment rate was 5.2%.
The situation isn't really a lack of jobs, it's that younger generations don't want to work the factory jobs (because they all studied for better jobs) and there is pressure to look after parents. Not only is there an imbalance in young vs old people due to the one child policy but China also passed a law that required children to provide mental and financial support to their parents. Some parents are effectively paying their children to look after them, thereby removing them from the workforce count.
Many of the Australian banks are starting to clamp down on crypto transactions due to scams and ransomware. Some of them won't allow transfers to "high risk" exchanges, whereas others are stopping them altogether.
Great article, thanks! The last few sections really make it seem like a dumpster fire.
So, in simple terms, the value proposition is that the retinal scan will generate a unique ID of a person in the system and ensure that a person cannot be registered more than once. This will then allow the system to be used for tasks like authentication or ensuring fair distribution of tokens. Another potential use case mentioned is something like the administration of Universal Basic Income (UBI), whereby the system would verify that people receive UBI and cannot claim duplicate payments. You could also extend that idea to things like government ID.
The privacy concerns would probably prevent a roll-out in most Western markets, so it will be interesting to see if they can generate enough business in other markets.
I'm more interested in learning about who is paying the 25 WLD, how they have funded that, and how they plan to generate a return on the investment. There is already an upfront investment involved in developing the token, the "orb", and the uses of the data, so what is the business model that generates revenue for them?
Greed and envy (the roots of capitalism) are basic human drivers that we all have. It takes a lot of discipline, ethics, and an altruistic moral code or belief system to negate that. Some individuals are capable of that, but there is no societal system that has been able to overcome it.
We would never be able to completely move away from a capitalist system because it's in our nature to want more, to be rewarded for our efforts, and to be jealous of others. It's also why alternative systems never work as intended - the greed turns into corruption and ends up ruining the system.
The best outcome is to establish guardrails that limit the extent of the greed that is allowed in the system.
Agreed. As soon as a web service decides to prioritise revenue growth above the user experience, it's over. This is usually in the form of an IPO, so if you happen to be a fan of a particular service, as soon as they start talking about going public, start looking for a free / open-source alternative.
Aside from the VC funding that others have mentioned, being a publicly listed company means that there is a never-ending pursuit for increasing profits. Investors who buy stocks want to see a positive return. The problem with some tech platforms is that their product / service offering is already ideal, so their choices are to either spend money to innovative and build something new (risky!) or simply raise prices. Subscription pricing is ideal because it provides a consistent revenue base and allows the company to forecast what revenue is likely to be in the future.
Why are those specific metrics more important than 5-year plans?
Because a plan is just an intention or wishful thinking. Inflation data is an actual, measurable result.
Inflation data is one of the most common economic measurements and it can be reasonably expected that every country should be able to not only report on the inflation metric itself, but provide details on the measurement and the methodology used so that every country, globally, knows that the metric reported by each country is transparent and credible. Understanding the methodology then allows analysts to investigate the underlying drivers of the inflation result, confirm its accuracy, and compare it between countries by using similar methodologies.
Simply put, if a country can't provide detailed explanations on how they determine an important metric like inflation, then what does that suggest about other metrics or results that they share?
One topic that has been mentioned in some articles and not others is that the shift to a regional, de-centralised event introduced additional complexity and costs that were not adequately modelled.
Insiders say the initial work by government, Ernst & Young and the Commonwealth Games was inadequate with the uniquely decentralised event not having been properly accounted for.
Things like getting enough police and paramedics to the regions, and having enough staff to man the events weren't factored in.
Not every sector of the economy is questionable, but where data influences overall metrics like GDP, there have been well-documented issues of data integrity. For example, population counts.
It would be so much easier if they just said that the Voice was going to adopt the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) or even just blatantly copy their documents.
Perhaps, but calling them names and hurling insults is never going to change their mind. It may even embolden their position because name-calling usually means that you don't have a good response to their argument.
One thing that aggravates my parents (definite No voters) is that there is no acknowledgement from the Yes campaign of the internal failures of previous bodies like ATSIC. It's fair to state that the government dismantled bodies like ATSIC, but the Yes campaign seem to be deliberately hiding or ignoring the fraud, corruption, ineffectiveness, and nepotism that existed in these organisations.
For No voters like my parents, they question why we should force a similar organisation into the Constitution, particularly when there were so many systemic (and even criminal) problems with ATSIC.
I wear masks on public transport and when flying. Even without reading the latest research on long-term COVID impacts, the amount of people openly sneezing and coughing is enough to convince me to keep doing it.