https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rd4I739fP9s
I saw one of these where a guy had a multi-monitor setup with all the local interstate traffic cameras pulled up simultaneously. He was gambling on all of them. One of them had a screaming tantrum because he didn’t predict the right number of cars that would pass through before the light changed.
The Illinoisification of the US is such a wild thing to see.
I’m so fucking glad I was inoculated against gambling before it exploded and started to be pushed everywhere, I feel bad for the people who fall victim to it
Me too. Being good at World of Warcraft taught me that I can never touch an addictive drug, gamble, or collect expensive things. The gambling epidemic would have probably ruined my life as a teenager.
For me it was gambling a couple of times with scratchers/slots for the novelty of it and losing every time, that and I find games like blackjack & poker more stressful than fun.
I don’t even gamble in videogames unless I can adjust my luck stat lol
This is like when you are on a job site and everyone starts tossing tiny rocks at a brick or a big rock and everyone cheers if someone hits it
What I’m saying is this is a society that is spinning wheels but making no traction
Bocci ball was invented by frustrated masons. I can’t prove it, I just know it’s true.

:no-more-cars:
you don’t get it, this is an important signal to send to the market, so that, uh, well, you, see, it’s more efficient, this allows things to be more efficient, for stakeholders, um
think of it this way: imagine that it’s not just this kid, it’s an entire ecosystem of traders, such that there’s an efficient market trading on this intersection-passing instrument. and, now, it’s not just this singular intersection-passing instrument, but it’s on an entire portfolio of intersection-instruments, each one with sufficient number of traders who make the trading of each singular instrument, efficient. and so, um, you have, uh, essentially, a mapping of a logistics network, which will provide an accurate estimate of the amount of the time to travel through the network, kinda. and so, if have an equity stake in the logistical network, like you’re UPS, you can hedge against, say, a snow storm, delaying all your shipping. so that’s good. and, uh, this would also create positive incentives, to make travel through the network more efficient, because stakeholders who were, you know, least cost bearers, they could, uh alter their conduct thanks to the financial incentive – townships could reduce wasteful pedestrian crossing times, to allow more cars through; or, even, you know, a parcel carrier could drive more conscientiously, quickly to get through intersections. and, okay, sure there could be some perverse incentives – i guess it’s possible that a parcel carrier could more easily, well, just stop right before the intersection, having a short position on an intersection-passing instrument, but, well, regulators. regulators could step in, and monitor every vehicle that passes through any of these intersections, at every time of crossing. so every vehicle, every person would need to make representations regarding their held intersection-passing instruments, so that way traders could know ahead of time, uh, they could integrate that into their position calculations. (and i hear you, but it wouldn’t even need to be government regulators – imagine, if you will, the set of traders, each of whom would be better off if there were an impartial body – see, what they could do is, they could get together, and well, together they could privately create mechanisms which, well, i digress.)
but really this is a great innovation to help reduce friction, to reduce transaction costs. and sure, but uh, for now, let’s ignore out unaddressed effects of moral hazard from imperfect regulation, and regulation costs. okay, and just, uh, let’s also just bracket out the opportunity costs, for now, let’s just, assume, this kid couldn’t contribute otherwise to the economy. if this kid is a poor trader, he will leave the trading market. so by definition, if he’s trading, this is a pareto optimal for him. and for the traders, who are, well, less lucky or talented, we will still tax these trades, and so, you know, kids who prove unsuccessful, we can still provide social services for them. or, you know, uh, well, that’s a political choice which we don’t need to address right here, but, hypothetically, all that matters is that the economy is more efficient, and we can make determinations as to distribution of resources later. so this is a very good idea, thank you.
If Malort goes national I will die
Malort is delicious and anyone who thinks otherwise is objectively wrong
it’s just herbascious, which apparently is too much for your average drinkers pallette. gimme the malort gimme the fernet gimme the amaro
Yeah, it’s too much for my palette
I’m more of a strong beer or highball kind of drinker
Some Chicago friends tried to play the malort joke on me, and I didn’t even register it as being bad. Now Screech, that’s pure gasoline in a bottle.
I’m betting on the robins in my yard, a cool one grand says there will be FIVE today.
NO MORE NO MORE ROBINS!!!

huge position + remotely activated spike strips
poker boom era magic the gathering players would’ve loved this
Am I off base in thinking that western capitalism is so devoid of productive ways to make money that it’s grasping at straws trying to fill new niches to produce profits?
This is “rate of profit has a tendency to fall” shit and its consequences, right?
wage stagnation is related to it but if minimum wage was $25 and indexed to inflation or a non-scam CPI it would have delayed this
Sure feels to me like a lot of what we’re seeing is the rich increasingly running out of profit faucets, reaching for ever dumber and more harmful shit. Broadly it’s more and more coercive relationships with the consumer in all things, while the products (services, whatevers) themselves just get shittier and/or less safe and/or more exploitative, pick your combo depending by thing sold (may as well say rented or licensed I guess too, lmao).
It feels like thrashing, for sure, I would say panicked thrashing but less sure there, think I’m conflating the suffering that’s here and coming, for the not-rich, with what I’m expecting the rich are feeling.
The many ways to borrow money for trivial and unnecessary small things has always looked like a bad sign to me as well, I haven’t looked at any of them in detail but just on the surface, mathematically, it feels like combining all the delights of payday loans with the short-term attractive but obviously long-term unserviceable debt of the subprime lending crisis.
And huh, looks like we are also doing that mathematically ~guaranteed long-term unserviceable debt move, as a nation, with gigantic internal combustion engine vehicles being sold but not quite bought, all the time.
It’s like in addition to all the rest, the tightening of capitalist “opportunity”, we also figured out how to kind of atomize the disastrous lending that characterized pre-2008.
I’m no eCoNoMiSt (🤡), but, that seems pretty bad.
I found a YouTube link in your post. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:













