Comments by "" (@downshift4503) on "Richard J Murphy" channel.

  1. It's a good day if you find £1.5 trillion down the back of the sofa.
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  2. George Carlin had a similar take, that the desire is for people to be educated just enough to operate and maintain the machines (of production), but not where they can exercise critical thinking. They want "obedient workers".
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  3. He'll probably get DOGE to fire them all, then he'll change interest rates every other day depending on whim... then he'll blame his enemies when the obvious happens and go after them.
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  4. I have no empathy for him nor his products.
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  5. There is no money hidden there (ie UK sterling). Only hidden ownership details.
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  6.  @UKRO404  sorry but it's more complicated than that. I have a degree in electronic engineering and in earlier life still struggled to get a job. Most graduates do not get jobs in their field of study.
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  7. Similarly WFH arrangements. If a company can operate with its employees being at home, then it leads to employing people overseas on lower salaries.
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  8. It isn't the wealth itself that's the cause. People behave differently depending on the cards they are dealt. If they are lucky in life, they believe they deserve it. If unlucky, they believe the lucky people don't deserve it...... the point is no-one deserves what they have. Also small % of people are psychopaths, "The Psychopath Test" is an interesting book about this. These people are selected in society because they possess the required traits to coerce people. The % of psychopaths in a given group increases as you go up the pyramid (or positions of authority). These people tend to be paid the most and more likely to obtain wealth.
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  9. When people perceive they are struggling some become easily convinced that it is the fault of minorities and foreigners, it appears to be part of human nature. Rising popularity of the far right is a red flag that the authorities (of whatever persuasion) are not (or cannot) deal with the core issues causing people to struggle. I expect it will continue until policies reduce inequality.
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  10. Couldn't agree more, I knocked it on the head at 52 and would rather live very frugally than put up with it anymore. Granted not everyone is in a position to do so, but I encourage many people to consider it. You can't buy the time back no matter how much you accumulate.
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  11. He won't get too far. Americans love their lifestyles and I doubt look forward to becoming a "developing" country. IMO the danger is that it is a polarised heavily armed population and there is a lot of scapegoating yet to come.
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  12. Depends on what the "poor" are compared to. If it's relative to their richer neighbours then they are poor. They are not poor compared to people in developing countries nor their ancestors. Unfortunately this is part of the human condition. People do not like being relatively poorer.
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  13. I would agree, but the reason they are being "sucked" into it is because the rewards are higher. Given the chance to solve real world problems or being a quants, they'll go for quants (obviously there will be exceptions). They are acting out of self interest.
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  14. I don't think much can be done in the very short term because we've allowed the USA to become what it is. Similarly we allowed Germany to become what it was in the 1930s. Right now, people can vote with their wallets. Make different choices. Visit different places. Be vocal when the opportunity arises.
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  15.  @Oligodendrocyte139  Being educated is a good thing. Whether or not the higher education system could be better is something else. It is not ridiculous to expand higher education.
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  16. The entire system is parasitical. If you have a job, you will be producing excess output beyond those of your own needs. That excess output will typically be distributed upwards to others who get a far bigger share of it than you do. Whether you are caring for people or working in the city, the same happens.
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  17. It's just the nature of money itself, the system is a giant board game. We didn't evolve to live like this but we didn't evolve to have full time jobs either.
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  18. The point is that when the government says it using tax payers money for this, that or the other, it isn't, whether people in the government realise it or not. Tax payers money goes in the shredder. The government issues new money and can never run out of it.
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  19. I recall Greenspans comment to Paul Ryan, that the Fed can create as much money as it want to pay pensioners, but the challenge is the creation of goods and services available for purchase when those pensioners want to spend it. We're not growing the economy sufficiently.
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  20. I agree. To break that IMO requires a government to re-enforce its own control and stop pretending that it is at the mercy of financiers. It isn't. It can achieve that via its central bank or it can use existing process of gilts, but lower bases rates and require institutions to hold those gilts at certain ratios.
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  21.  @vvwalker7261  nah, the government creates the money it pays the interest with. It can always "service the debt" (or rather pay interest on saving which is what gilts are). It only tells you it can't do other things because of the interest payments. In reality, government policy is to give people who already have money even more money (for doing absolutely nothing and taking no risks whatsoever), and claiming that by doing so it will improve everything.
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  22.  @Oligodendrocyte139  That's not the capacity limit as you can increase the number of educators in order to retain "small group teaching". The actual capacity limit is how many educators are available and if there aren't sufficient, train more of them. Your definition of "properly" educated assumes your own conclusion, that you already believe only a small minority of people should be educated (in HE), but you haven't demonstrated why that is the case. I would argue that if students can demonstrate a rigorous understanding of the discipline in question, then that is a test of them being "proper" educated (typically via coursework and examination). I have a degree in electrical and electronic engineering from the 1980s and we didn't have particularly small groups in lectures etc.
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  23.  @physiocrat7143  "I am waiting for an explanation that does not conflict with basic physical chemistry" if the simple basics are wrong then you are implying a conspiracy. Science works because other scientists challenge hypothesis. Why isn't the entire body of science challenging this "basic" issue of the theory? it wouldn't have even progressed from hypothesis to theory if there was a basic issue.
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  24.  @tauhidershadKUFNAFLORAN  there you go..... that's one of major problems. Everyone want to live like an American but there's no way they can.
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  25. Do you have evidence to back that up?
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  26. they did
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  27. It's a term deserving a place in George Carlin's "National Press Club" speech. It's a good watch if you've never seen it.
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  28.  @Oligodendrocyte139  What is the capacity limit to " properly educate the numbers of students shoved through the system", and how do you know it? What is "properly educate"?
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  29. It pays the coupon by creating more money which is eventually taxed back.
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  30.  @HueyByrne-ij3ku  nah.... it will be a pointless exercise.
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  31. QE is nothing more than shifting one form of existing money (gilts) into another form of existing money (reserves). It is functionally the same as moving existing money from savings into a current account. There is nothing to stop the government spending new reserves into existence, but it can cause inflation.
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  32. All the more reason to not have a gold standard or borrow in other currencies.
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  33. The State Pension is a already form of that and arguably the wider benefits system. Obviously they have criteria rather than being universal, but if poverty increases then more people qualify. It's not a problem to create tokens (ie that is, pounds sterling), but it is a problem to create the goods and services.
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  34. @ I think the problem is described in Yuval Harari's book "Sapiens". Human advancement has been generally good for the human species in aggregate but at the cost to the individual. We didn't evolve to live this way (working jobs, dense populations etc) and we find ourselves at odds with the modern world.
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  35. its been declining for decades and can just carry on declining.
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  36. No it isn't. Rich people do not have cash in the bank, they have assets. The cash was spent on assets.
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  37.  @foxmoongaze  Well, people earn a lot more than they did 50 years ago. Who in their right mind would have cash stored for 50 years?
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  38. Very good
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  39. I manage my own money so I'm not relying on what a fund manager does. I do think though that it is dangerous for most people to make guesses at what is likely to rise in value due to preconceived ideas of the future (and the timing of when those ideas will bear fruits). For most people, broad index funds are probably better.
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  40.  @HighWealder  Indeed.... and its based on luck not fairness.
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  41.  @Darren-i1w  Tax is not a punishment, tax liability exists in order to make people productive.
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  42. You haven't made a case, only a bold assertion.
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  43. In a fiat system all money is just "printed".
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  44. The limits are the resources as you imply, but the amount of money that the government previously spent and has yet to tax back isn't a measure of that.
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  45.  @UKRO404  I agree with you. It will take some time yet before a machine can provide front line services like care, plumbing etc. IMO though, there will always be a shortage of jobs available OR a lack of jobs that pay sufficiently well to meet basic living costs. People, by their very nature want higher pay for easier work.
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  46. If you believe there is a major flaw in science then go publish your work for peer review.
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  47.  @physiocrat7143  which do you think is more likely? that actual experts don't understand the basics of physics and chemistry, or that you don't understand science? Occam's razor suggests the latter as less assumption are required.
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  48.  @AshenVictor  The amount of rent that can be charged is ultimately a function wages, otherwise the houses would be empty. That's not to say there aren't serious issues (I think housing is the most serious issue at the moment). My point though is that people feel poor RELATIVELY to each other, whether they are poor in any absolute sense. If our ancestors could show up, they'd be astonished at how well almost everyone now lives.
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  49. You can't conclude that Starmer "only" wanted to be PM for any particular reason. That would be an argument from ignorance fallacy.
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  50. The BoE is owned by the government and creates the reserves that the government uses to spend. It keeps track of how much money is being spent. The government ran a fixed interest rate policy, the ERM, during Majors time. That's an artificial constraint on what the government can spend. When it was removed, the pound adjusted accordingly to the situation.
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