From CPI inflation earlier this week to skyrocketing producer inflation yesterday to stark proof today that foreign businesses are NOT compensating one bit for tariffs, YOU are the one getting stung!
He didn't say that. It's a bad habit to view the world in 2-dimensions of "either/or". It quickly becomes "us versus them". That road leads to casual rejection of another (one of the worst sins of humanity), and intentional self blindness. It's an open road to hypocrisy (the other worst sin). It becomes about a "team", rather than merit, and a personalized stake in being on that team.
The world is 3-dimensional, and the critic is the most necessary friend you have. But when the world is viewed as either/or, it's as if someone insulted your grandmother or read your journal and just insulted secret hopes and dreams. The critic is then treated as a bitter enemy, embodying everything you reject. They feel like they must be rejected. They feel like they must be thinking and saying all the things you hate, and we read into an iceberg of our own imagined making.
Meanwhile, the person who says they're on your side becomes your best friend, regardless of their own sins. We'll forgive the unforgivable. We'll invent excuses for why those things are forgivable or just not even real. Nothing matters but the right team colors.
Someone who smiles and says what you can bear to hear can be genuine. I'll grant that. Or they can be a con artist smiling at you while picking your pocket. The metric is not "us versus them". The metric is then actual individual character.
There's no easy-out to that. When we try to pick one, we're making ourselves blind for personal convenience and at our own peril. Our actions are important and reverberate out to others. When we engage in that type of behavior and decision making, and that form of judgement, it also imperils anyone who relies on us.
It's also a bad habit to read our own presumptions into someone's words when they aren't in what they actually said. It's a worse habit to then get mad and yell at the presumptions we created in the first place. It's like making up a ghost story and being afraid your house is suddenly haunted.
Mr. Haggith, I'm going to step out on a limb here and say I think I speak for many people that voted for Trump. He simply campaigned on issues that many feel need addressing such as stopping illegal(not legal) migration, drug imports, cutting spending, etc. These things, among others, must happen. I'm probably being naive but I personally think he cares about this country and, considering his opponent, made him the easy pick. Kamala was a hard no-go. I would have voted for Elmer Fudd before I voted for her. We try to pick the lesser of two evils when we vote. I personally don't care for Trump but there was no viable alternative. It's not so much a "Hail Trump" thing. It's more about "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity..."
I shared the below message with David via email, and he very kindly said sharing my own personal testimonial in the 'hot-air boom / fundementals bust' economy may be be helpful for others, insofar as knowing they're not alone. I'll paste the full text below:
What we're feeling, seeing and experiencing on the ground is being swept under the rug elsewhere. There's a fog of narcissistic optimism in these times. Somehow, everything is fine despite every testimonial on how it is far from fine. And it's as sickening as it is upsetting. We have no voice left to us. And I thank you for being a voice which shows our experience is real. No matter the choreographed make-believe presented elsewhere, no matter the "alternative facts" or face value statistics, you show how what we're feeling is actually what is going on. I cannot stress how much it helps, amid a culture which often says "you just didn't work hard enough", to have someone validate that we are having a rough time right now.
In the real world, we're being squeezed by pressures so petty, reckless and extraordinary that it makes me sick. And we just have to suffer through it for however long it will last. The people we rely on to make it better are those that are making it worse. More than that, they're saying they're making it better and everyone else is the problem.
I was raised to believe if you worked hard you eventually succeeded, and the things you really needed would always be in reach. There will be hard times, but you can be smart, hard working, respectful and responsible and you'll make it in America. That doesn't feel true anymore.
I'm a man fast approaching middle age, and I've lost my hope in it getting better. To be honest, I've also been struggling through a crisis of faith in God, given the world as it is right now. I'm sad to say that. I have a stable middle class job with (what used to be) reasonable pay. I have a savings account with a decent amount I saved, which I am now borrowing from steadily to make it through the year. I have decent insurance. I have a car, which was luckily paid off before this all happened. That was the dream in America. I should be fine, and I'm far from it.
My rent has gone up twice just this year. It's now half of my monthly paycheck. The rest is taken up with groceries, utilities, etc. My pay went up $0.80 per hour while everything else went up far more than that could ever hope to cover. I've cut back and cut out everything I can. We're very much on the edge of being able to afford a normal life. I don't know if we can make it through another price increase, an emergency, an unexpected job loss or accident or bill.
Anything more than that feels like a pipe dream. I used to believe in America, if I worked hard and did the right things, I could get a house for my family, send my kids to a good college, and prosper. The clock is ticking away on that even starting, and precious time feels like it has gone away and it may be too late. Those hopes may just be in the past.
We've held off on getting a house. We can't afford it. We can't risk paying a mortgage, or risk having to move if we lose or have to change jobs. So we're stuck in the renting-cycle trying to save what we can. We've held off on having kids. We were going to try in the next few years but we couldn't afford them either. And honestly, I don't feel morally right bringing a child into the world as it is now. I feel like they'll have a worse life than I did. More shamefully, they'll struggle to regain what we let slip away. I couldn't burden them with that. We can't afford a second car because we couldn't afford the payments. We need one because we both work, but there's not a snowball's chance we can afford one. We've lost the ability to afford not only luxuries, but emergency needs and things we could invest in to grow. So we're stuck here in second gear, working towards nothing but staying in place.
It's like climbing up a mountain while flood water is rising, being settled on dry land for a bit and thinking this is finally over and now we can settle down and grow. And then having to climb up again because the water keeps rising. And at the top you found all the people responsible for the flood in the first place, and there's no standing room for you.
I feel like people are waiting for things to get better, and maybe that's why stocks go up despite economic warning signs, and why we keep following tinfoil messiahs looking for an answer. It's dire, and we all made it dire. We did so by pretending it's not. I know I'm waiting for it to get better.
The world's gotten needlessly uglier, and you - even in being pessimistic - are a light in that by saying the truth. If we have people care that it's bad, maybe someone will care enough to make it better. When people pretend things are ok, people like myself are ignored. But you see us.
I hear that. I'm 52 and have been homeless a couple years now and in poor health and can't find any work I can do. The collapse is certainly not helping, and now have to worry about ice rounding me up if this shelter kicks me out
Why is the price of meat going up 35% in the past 35 days?
Why is insurance so un affordable still?
Why is Palantir been assigned / hired to create a digital idea and every American?
WTF is Trump sending $2000 checks to everyone this month? What am I missing other than the BS that’s coming out of Washington?
Why have there been no rest of the elites?
Why is there no prosecution of any of the congressman and women?
I hate to say it, but something’s not right
Let's all make sure we vote for Hillary or kamala or newsome in the next election! You firkin idiots!
He didn't say that. It's a bad habit to view the world in 2-dimensions of "either/or". It quickly becomes "us versus them". That road leads to casual rejection of another (one of the worst sins of humanity), and intentional self blindness. It's an open road to hypocrisy (the other worst sin). It becomes about a "team", rather than merit, and a personalized stake in being on that team.
The world is 3-dimensional, and the critic is the most necessary friend you have. But when the world is viewed as either/or, it's as if someone insulted your grandmother or read your journal and just insulted secret hopes and dreams. The critic is then treated as a bitter enemy, embodying everything you reject. They feel like they must be rejected. They feel like they must be thinking and saying all the things you hate, and we read into an iceberg of our own imagined making.
Meanwhile, the person who says they're on your side becomes your best friend, regardless of their own sins. We'll forgive the unforgivable. We'll invent excuses for why those things are forgivable or just not even real. Nothing matters but the right team colors.
Someone who smiles and says what you can bear to hear can be genuine. I'll grant that. Or they can be a con artist smiling at you while picking your pocket. The metric is not "us versus them". The metric is then actual individual character.
There's no easy-out to that. When we try to pick one, we're making ourselves blind for personal convenience and at our own peril. Our actions are important and reverberate out to others. When we engage in that type of behavior and decision making, and that form of judgement, it also imperils anyone who relies on us.
It's also a bad habit to read our own presumptions into someone's words when they aren't in what they actually said. It's a worse habit to then get mad and yell at the presumptions we created in the first place. It's like making up a ghost story and being afraid your house is suddenly haunted.
Mr. Haggith, I'm going to step out on a limb here and say I think I speak for many people that voted for Trump. He simply campaigned on issues that many feel need addressing such as stopping illegal(not legal) migration, drug imports, cutting spending, etc. These things, among others, must happen. I'm probably being naive but I personally think he cares about this country and, considering his opponent, made him the easy pick. Kamala was a hard no-go. I would have voted for Elmer Fudd before I voted for her. We try to pick the lesser of two evils when we vote. I personally don't care for Trump but there was no viable alternative. It's not so much a "Hail Trump" thing. It's more about "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity..."
Keep up the good work.
I am going to pay $7000 less in taxes this year because of Trump’s BBB. I can deal with tariffs on the few products I buy that imported.
Not sure if I would consider it "Doomer Humor". but I like the term!!!!
I shared the below message with David via email, and he very kindly said sharing my own personal testimonial in the 'hot-air boom / fundementals bust' economy may be be helpful for others, insofar as knowing they're not alone. I'll paste the full text below:
What we're feeling, seeing and experiencing on the ground is being swept under the rug elsewhere. There's a fog of narcissistic optimism in these times. Somehow, everything is fine despite every testimonial on how it is far from fine. And it's as sickening as it is upsetting. We have no voice left to us. And I thank you for being a voice which shows our experience is real. No matter the choreographed make-believe presented elsewhere, no matter the "alternative facts" or face value statistics, you show how what we're feeling is actually what is going on. I cannot stress how much it helps, amid a culture which often says "you just didn't work hard enough", to have someone validate that we are having a rough time right now.
In the real world, we're being squeezed by pressures so petty, reckless and extraordinary that it makes me sick. And we just have to suffer through it for however long it will last. The people we rely on to make it better are those that are making it worse. More than that, they're saying they're making it better and everyone else is the problem.
I was raised to believe if you worked hard you eventually succeeded, and the things you really needed would always be in reach. There will be hard times, but you can be smart, hard working, respectful and responsible and you'll make it in America. That doesn't feel true anymore.
I'm a man fast approaching middle age, and I've lost my hope in it getting better. To be honest, I've also been struggling through a crisis of faith in God, given the world as it is right now. I'm sad to say that. I have a stable middle class job with (what used to be) reasonable pay. I have a savings account with a decent amount I saved, which I am now borrowing from steadily to make it through the year. I have decent insurance. I have a car, which was luckily paid off before this all happened. That was the dream in America. I should be fine, and I'm far from it.
My rent has gone up twice just this year. It's now half of my monthly paycheck. The rest is taken up with groceries, utilities, etc. My pay went up $0.80 per hour while everything else went up far more than that could ever hope to cover. I've cut back and cut out everything I can. We're very much on the edge of being able to afford a normal life. I don't know if we can make it through another price increase, an emergency, an unexpected job loss or accident or bill.
Anything more than that feels like a pipe dream. I used to believe in America, if I worked hard and did the right things, I could get a house for my family, send my kids to a good college, and prosper. The clock is ticking away on that even starting, and precious time feels like it has gone away and it may be too late. Those hopes may just be in the past.
We've held off on getting a house. We can't afford it. We can't risk paying a mortgage, or risk having to move if we lose or have to change jobs. So we're stuck in the renting-cycle trying to save what we can. We've held off on having kids. We were going to try in the next few years but we couldn't afford them either. And honestly, I don't feel morally right bringing a child into the world as it is now. I feel like they'll have a worse life than I did. More shamefully, they'll struggle to regain what we let slip away. I couldn't burden them with that. We can't afford a second car because we couldn't afford the payments. We need one because we both work, but there's not a snowball's chance we can afford one. We've lost the ability to afford not only luxuries, but emergency needs and things we could invest in to grow. So we're stuck here in second gear, working towards nothing but staying in place.
It's like climbing up a mountain while flood water is rising, being settled on dry land for a bit and thinking this is finally over and now we can settle down and grow. And then having to climb up again because the water keeps rising. And at the top you found all the people responsible for the flood in the first place, and there's no standing room for you.
I feel like people are waiting for things to get better, and maybe that's why stocks go up despite economic warning signs, and why we keep following tinfoil messiahs looking for an answer. It's dire, and we all made it dire. We did so by pretending it's not. I know I'm waiting for it to get better.
The world's gotten needlessly uglier, and you - even in being pessimistic - are a light in that by saying the truth. If we have people care that it's bad, maybe someone will care enough to make it better. When people pretend things are ok, people like myself are ignored. But you see us.
I hear that. I'm 52 and have been homeless a couple years now and in poor health and can't find any work I can do. The collapse is certainly not helping, and now have to worry about ice rounding me up if this shelter kicks me out
Thank you for sharing your experience. I'm sincerely sorry for everything you are going through. Every part of my heart prays the best for you.
They brought in Bessent'( soros) to kill the dollar, collapse the economy and create the chaos needed to implement the stable coin dystopia
Certainly seems that way.