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/lit/ - Literature

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18876975 No.18876975 [Reply] [Original]

Modern life is a goddamn scam. Compounded with increasing costs of living as well as a government taking a large part of your salary, the countless hours of labor we expend every week looks all the more ridiculous when you consider the low purchasing power of whatever meager amount of wealth we are paid in return for it. Even a respectable $50,000 on paper a year deflates to $30,000 after taxes, which itself further deflates to $20,000 or even less after rent, food, and other various expenses, the end result being that even the most conservative of spenders in this salary range are lucky if they are able to save $1000 a month. But given what we know of the profile of the typical American consumer, we can safely say that whatever disposable income is left of this already meager salary is spent on useless gadgets and products which serve only to further pacify the human being hiding inside of them to their clear exploitation. What can we make of this? That only the ultra wealthy are able to escape this cycle. Who are the ultra wealthy? They are necessarily the owners of that class of aforementioned workers. Here the grim truth is revealed that the American economic system believes only in the freedom and emancipation of those who exploit the misfortune of the social classes below him, who must waste his life working for a low amount of money, buying toys with that money, maybe saving a little bit now and then, so that his life resembles more of a hamster running on a wheel than it does realizing his true nature, discovering and acting upon his innate freedom, his ability to enjoy life for what it is.

>> No.18876980

>>18876975
Yes.

>> No.18876991
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18876991

>>18876975

>> No.18876995

It was always like this

>> No.18877005

>>18876995
no it wasn't

>> No.18877029

>>18877005
You're an optimist, I see

>> No.18877036

>>18876975
>saving money each month
>not investing it
I found your problem, it's that you're retarded. Also this is the literature board.

>> No.18877061

>>18877036
people with 'money sense' always seem to say stuff like this. The average person wants to have low debt, minimized expenses, and high savings. This common sense however is entirely opposite to how you actually gain wealth (maximize leverage, minimal savings - reinvest excess capital, high expenses (writeoffs) and so on).

I think if the average person's common sense fails them so badly it's actually a problem with the monetary system not them.

>> No.18877069

>>18877036
In stocks or crypto, yeah. But not what we’re commonly told, a goddamn mutual fund that returns 8% a year and then you get taxed like fuck when you try to withdraw before 65, and by that age your feeble and decrepit body can’t enjoy the millions you’ve earned. So you’re basically wasting 30+ years saving for a future that is gone by the time you get (if) there

>> No.18877076

Human species was never meant for the happinss of the many. We're equipped with the oh so many tools of manipulation, lies, sedition, seduction, and simple physical intimidation, and not one sense or mental faculty that unifies and leads to the increase in empathy, selflessness, or team work. When we see others suceed we feel jealousy not happiness.
Brave New World presented without irony as good and 'just' as mankind could ever get - a civilization where everyone's lot is decided at birth and those who are destined for meager existence are artificially numbed with gene modification and drug therapies.

>> No.18877082

>>18877029
It wasn’t. That’s just a fact. Even a precursory reading of the history we have available to us shows clearly that we live in the only period of recorded human history dominated by a global ordering oriented towards commerce and “ordinary life” and most importantly, with the distinction that it outright rejects not just the validity, but often the existence of alternative mods of existence. This is the only time in recorded history where that’s been the case and that’s just a fact.

>> No.18877116
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18877116

>>18876975
Learn to finance bro. You should be able to hide all but 15k of 50k from the tax man. Which isn't very much in FICA and you'll get an income tax credit that'll reimburse you for that even. My total expenses, in San Diego with a place in an ok neighborhood, are just under 15k.

Further, peasants (the vast majority) used to pay all the taxes and live right at the edge of survival. In general history has been much worse.

>> No.18877119

>>18877082
Only fags think that past was better. Modernity is good, it gave us the internet where the knowledge of whole world is at our finger tips.

>> No.18877152

OP is right and all the predictable copes and brainlet NPC responses are showing up like clockwork.

>> No.18877207

>>18876975
How long will you "philosophers" keep crying about this? Hypocrisy and corruption is rampant. And this is new? Are you a fucking child?

>> No.18877215

>>18877119
Maybe knowledge shouldn’t be at our fingertips..?

>> No.18877219

>>18876991
Butters, you became infinitely more based once you started shilling this book. Have you read anything about the technical side of civilization and its collapse?

>> No.18877220

>>18877119
>Only fags think that past was better
Yes.
>Modernity is good
No.

>> No.18877237

>>18877219
It's not the original butterfly.

>> No.18877273

>>18877119
>Modernity is good, it gave us the internet where the knowledge of whole world is at our finger tips.
Yet here you are acting like a faggot for (You)s on a Tibetan yak shaving forum.

>> No.18877279

>>18877119
What is the point if this knowledge is not actionable in a technological system? What's the point of all this technology if it nullifies the value of the knowledge we're doing it for in the first place?

>> No.18877310

>>18876975
yes

>> No.18877331

>>18877215
>>18877220
Yeah go leave internet and live in some bumfuck redneck shitehole and discuss Kant with Johnny's bvll everyday

>>18877273
It part of the fun mate. Without internet I would have an hero'd long ago

>>18877279
Yes lad, every other person in the past was a part of Dionysian cult. All members of those cults were philosopher-warrior-hermit-artists.

>> No.18877415

>>18877219
Like Ellul or Ted? I have a couple of their pieces, but I haven’t read them yet. I’m still not a primitivist, but this is my historiography. A subconscious rejection of states, capitalism and all the rest of the shit authoritarians push on us to make us behave.

>> No.18877458

>>18877415
Sort of, I'm more talking about the current Achilles heal of civilization: energy consumption. Limits of Growth by Donella Meadows shows a functional limit to civilization and Bright Green Lies is a good place to show why renewable resources are bunk. Planet of the Humans is a good doc on this subject as well. Civilization can no longer sustain itself and must collapse.

>> No.18877491

You know what would really help to stave off the rising cost of living and resource consumption? Why, having more people inhabit the planet, of course!

>> No.18877508

>>18877491
This. Countries would also be better off of they start open their borders to immigrants as well.

>> No.18877519

>>18877458
It definitely has to scale back and rethink its daily routines. And if there isn’t any fusion energy coming we’re in for a bumpy ride, if we’re lucky.
Planet of the Humans wasn’t very researched for a 20+ year project, but I still get what he’s aiming at. Will look into the others.

>> No.18877525

>>18877508
Based
Imagine all the cultural exchange(see: fucking) between different groups of people.

>> No.18877538

>>18877525
Bro, let me tell you about this Levantine tribe that is going to make all your dreams come true

>> No.18877547

>>18877519
It can't scale back though. The economy is fueled by debt and growth must occur in order to pay it off.

>> No.18877569

>>18877519
Also don't believe the hype about fusion. They are no where near making that a stable energy source that can run uninterrupted for 10 years. Fusion reactors are very unstable, cannot recycle tritium to sustain itself, and they do produce radioactive waste because the walls degrade.

>> No.18877603

>>18876975
Humans are happiest when they live in small groups/ tribes.

>> No.18877849

>>18877331
gee i sure wonder why you would’ve an hero’d in the first place, not like modernity had anything to do with it, no.

>> No.18877949

>>18877569
I thought China was destined to save us from the West with their nuclear energy?

>> No.18878036

>>18877061
I didn't build the financial system but in most of the US except for California it is cheaper per month to own your own home (i.e. be in hundreds of thousands of dollars of mortgage debt and tax obligation) than to rent one. Another less expensive way this works is to pay for everything with a credit card so you get 1-5% cash back in rewards points, something that doesn't happen with cash, venmo, etc. (You need to pay it off by month end to avoid crypto). Debt creates money out of thin air by being a promise to pay more in the future.
>>18877069
8% is respectable for a retirement fund sure. But if you are investing in order to make a larger investment in the future (e.g. buy a house in 5-10 years so you can stop renting) you're going to want to beat 8% and be more aggressive. You could get 8% annual growth with just dividends.

>> No.18878039
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18878039

>>18876975
>What can we make of this?
I don't want to fedpost
>>18876975
>Who are the ultra wealthy?
Jews.

>> No.18878096

>>18878039
You've obviously never read the book and have no thoughts on how rhe world works outside of the jews. Kys

>> No.18878121

>>18876975
reminder that if you haven't read it in french you won't understand the book

>> No.18878165
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18878165

>>18878096
>You've obviously never read the book
yes, and?
>and have no thoughts [...]
projecting
read culture of critique, The Jews and modern capitalism (Sombart) and a couple of books on the juden frage. Oh, and all of this after reading Capital.
(scholium: I don't hate the average jew, only the international one, which dominates, to a large extent, all aspects of a society)
Get a Grip

>> No.18878167

>>18878121
But I don't understand French

>> No.18878173

>>18878167
learn it, obviously

>> No.18878177

>>18878165
Jews just took what white people were doing for centuries and did it better. You want to be the house nig again instead of being free.

>> No.18878198

>>18878036
Just get a 5% mortgage, or even 0% is sometimes possible. 20% down with mortgage rates this low is a bad idea.

>> No.18878584

>>18876975
Boo hoo. Did you even consider for a while the state of living of modern man compared to any point in history before, say, 80 years ago? You know what starvation feels like? Of course not, you have a fridge, and a home to house it, and enough money that even with the most shit job you will afford to fatten your ass like all your american brethren. You cry as if you DESERVE to live a comfortable, safe life. But you dont, and noone ever did. And its not because of rich people, as if they steal from you somehow while providing you with your fastfood, and your television and other useless things that you CHOOSE to buy.

>> No.18878598

>>18876975
Blah blah grow up retard

>> No.18878659

>>18878584
>civilization destroys the natural world, only teaches you how to survive within its confines, and systematically dehumanizes you
>bro just be a cog in the machine lmao

>> No.18878715

>>18878659
> destroys the natural world
It doesnt
> only teaches you how to survive within its confines
The alternative to living in a civilization would be to be a hermit in the desert, which youre free to be by the way
> dehumanizes you
You dehumanize yourself because youre not automatically rich and perfect on birth

> be a cog in the machine
You live in times where working enough to live and thrive requires the least amount of effort in history of mankind.

>> No.18878762

>>18877076
based af this is facts

>> No.18878774

>>18878198
You have to do 20% down in most cases or the lender will make you take out a credit default policy against yourself ("private mortgage insurance"), which is hilariously dystopian because it's a financial institution admitting you are too risky to lend to but they're going to do it anyway (since they will sell your mortgage to a third party and not have to worry about it). Now it may be the case that you could invest what would otherwise be used for a down payment and get enough return on that over the life of your loan to offset the higher monthly payments you'll now need to make because of a low downpayment and the pmi, but idk you'd have to have some really good math. My advice would be to get that monthly payment as low as possible doing 20% and buying interest points because the price of everything will go up in the future. Taxes don't go down. Home insurance does not go down. Only stuff you're fixed on is the mortgage payment itself. And if you aren't planning to live in the house long term don't buy it in the first place. All the cost savings imply you staying put instead of scurrying around like a 20 year-old

>> No.18878857

>>18878715
>It doesnt
Didn't read anything past this. You're fucking retarded if you can't see the environmental destruction of civilization. Humans are causing a mass extinction event. Go be stupid somewhere else

>> No.18878884

>>18876975
>saving
What for? So you can buy some slightly more expensive garbage?

>> No.18878926

>>18877525
And the food! All that delicious exotic food, anon!

>> No.18878937

>>18877082
>precursory
You mean cursory. Anyway take the black market-pill if you want an alternative

>>18877076
Cringe and sophomoric

>> No.18878971

>>18878857
You are a useful idiot for the ideologies you obiedently serve

>> No.18878997

>>18878774
The price of everything going up just helps zero down to be a good plan. Once you have 20% equity in your home, because the value keeps going up, then you can drop the mortgage insurance. They don't always even do an appraisal.

Further having no equity in your home might make the bank less interested in foreclosure, as they'll probably lose money. After the last housing crash there were people in pre-foreclosure for a decade.

>> No.18879003

>>18876975
If you’re serious just stop working. You’re not going to starve to death.

>> No.18879020

>>18878971
Projection. You have an ideology, I don't

>> No.18879041

>>18879020
The great "no u" argument

>> No.18879047

>>18879020
You both have ideologies, shut the fuck up

>> No.18879056

>>18878997
If everything goes up and you've put almost nothing down it means you're already starting at a high monthly cost of living in the house. Even if the house appreciates quickly enough for you to have 20% equity relative to the size of the mortgage and no longer need pmo you're still stuck with the highest principal balance possible at the time the loan was originated, the interest on it, and rising property taxes, insurance, and other costs of living. The lower you can get your costs from the beginning the longer you can afford to live in the home without substantially increasing your income over time.

>> No.18879621

>>18876991
How do I know this isn't a Jewish trick to fragment the native population of Europe, thus making them easier to control?

>> No.18879910

>>18877116
elaborate

>> No.18879924

>>18876975
Well who do you think is paying for all those nigger programs? Ultra rich? Hehe, no, it is you who is paying for niggers.

>> No.18880231

>>18876975
The spectacle goes beyond the rat race.
It is all frivolous drivel pumped into our heads.
Our ancestors talked to trees without speaking.
I could watch flowers all day and I do.

>> No.18880269
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18880269

>>18879056
But once you drop the mortgage insurance that's a some hundred per month less you aren't paying. If you can manage the monthly payments at the start, you can manage then later. That's without even considering the property tax increase protections that half of states have.

Try thinkingabout the investment. The less you put down the more highly leveraged is your investment. Normally that's rather risky, but there are lots of protections for home owners, so the most you can lose is your tiny down payment. Further, loan rates right now are below the historic average for inflation. Maybe it's free money forever from the Fed, but if it isn't inflation is going to go back above your loan rate... Which would be fun. You'd be making money by not paying it off.

>>18879910
About what? The easiest way to hide that much is from working for the government with a 457 and a 403b. You can contribute $20k to each of those pretax. The 457 doesn't even have an age limit. Or if you run your own business it should be easy to have lots of "expenses", legal ones but they feel questionable. Or my friend just works for cash, but you still want to contribute a little to get some of the SS benefits plus the EITC tax credit. There are more, churches, war tax resisters, trusts, do some research. The main point is tax avoidance is now a moral obligation.

>> No.18880382

>>18880269
>But once you drop the mortgage insurance that's a some hundred per month less you aren't paying. If you can manage the monthly payments at the start
But you're also borrowing more to begin with if you're doing a low downpayment. It's on that basis you get the monthly cost. You pay more up front to lower it... pays for itself in x number of years. You'd have to put the money somewhere else and earn enough to offset the difference from having the higher monthly expense. It's do-able but if you can afford 20% as a general rule you should do it rather than pursue a higher risk strategy.

>> No.18880444

>>18880382
Under different conditions maybe. But currently loan rates are under 3%. That's the same as average inflation. You can beat that with almost any investment. Just put your down payment in the vanguard S&P and forget about it. The x in your number of years is 'infinity'. Plus the other reasons I already gave.

>> No.18880973

>>18877547
>economy
>debt
>growth
All nonsense we must dispense with before we face the hard scale back of mass extinction.

>>18879621
It shows the already existing division for what it is. Some people want to go free, others have gotten terribly greedy and made slaves of us all.

>> No.18881052

>>18880444
You also need to beat the additional expenses incurred for having no down payment and having pmi, easily thousands of dollars a year. How much depends on the opportunity cost of the downpayment vs the monthly bill.

>> No.18881673

>>18881052
Yeah thousands a year. And it might be close until the pmi drops off. But at the moment it seems to work.

>> No.18881702
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18881702

Must suck being American. Life is pretty good for us NEETocrats.

>> No.18881983
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18881983

>>18876975
You're just unhappy and trying to shift the blame onto some other entity (modern society in this case). The only thing that can decide your own happiness is (You), anon. If you're letting the meaningless bread and circus that goes on today get you down then you'd probably be the one part-time hunter-gatherer in the idyllic anarcho-primitive-futurist village getting depressed over the season's suboptimal rainfall. Just choose to be happy. Even actual peasants still had the choice.

>> No.18882012

>>18881702
Based EU welfare chadocrat dabbing on us plebs

>> No.18882065

Yeah that's why I'm a NEET and call people the nigger online, true liberation.