The US dollar ultimately has power because that is what it takes to pay taxes in the US. You want to do business in the US? Uncle Sam gets his cut, and he only accepts greenbacks. Same with the EU, UK, China, and every other major currency. If you don’t give Uncle Sam his cut, you’ll go to jail or wake up to 110,000 tons of American “diplomacy” plus fleet escort sitting outside you main port.

Ultimately the economic power of a country is backed by the state’s power to defend it. That’s why the USD stands as the global reserve currency instead of something like the Lebanese Pound or the the Kiribati dollar.

State currencies are backed by the military and police of their respective countries. You can criticize that all you want, but that gives them an actual value everyone can agree on since the punishment for not agreeing is severe.

So then why are the only people ising Bitcoin to move large amounts of money scammers and criminals? It’s a hassel to move large amounts of money from one country to another because the stakes are so high and everyone involved wants to make sure it is done properly. You wouldn’t send the down payment for a house or car via cash in the mail, so why would you do the online equivalent?

State currencies aren’t torching the rain forest for speculation and gambling. There are plenty of criticisms you can make about the Federal Reserve and the ECB, but resources they use facilites trade between over a billion people for food, housing, clothing, and critical infrastructure. Meanwhile Bitcoin uses the same amount of energy as Australia or the Netherlands to accomplish nothing more than scams and market speculation. That’s why even El Salvador’s authoritarian tech bro president abandoned it as a currency this year.

I was 17 and had never even seen $1,000 before, never had an actual job, and had no concept of what it could mean to lose a job. I was paying everything i owed plus extra until 2022, then i could only afford the massive minimum payments, then i lost my job this year and couldn’t afford that anymore. I can either put all my money into payments that ultimately do nothing for me, or i can put what little i have left into rent and food. If you can’t understand that, then you are very fortunate and i hope you never have to face down these sorts of choices because it is a truly terrible way to live.

I cant afford it either way. Before the pandemic there was more student loan debt in the US than credit card debt. It’s the 2008 housing bubble all over again, only this time there aren’t even millions of worthless homes to compensate lenders.

I’m all about show Drummer myself. But i am glad they made her a milf in the later books.

I know, but it’s frustrating when i search “restaurants in Cityville” and the results show restaurants in Cityville Indiana instead of my homestate. Or i search for “T-Mobile stores near me” and they list off ones 3 counties over instead of the ones near me. I understand that it is a privacy thing, but it is very annoying.

Same thing happens when i look up items on the grocery store website to see if they have something i need. Firefox seems to think i live over an hour away in Dearborn Michigan, so i have to adjust my location manually every time. I understand why it happens and i can accept it , but that doesn’t mean it isn’t frustrating.

Maybe it is a firedox issue, but i have serious issues with location based searchs on DDG. Like, results in the next state over sort of bad.

No audit is well intended. The whole ppint of an audit is to find duplicitous and fucked up shit.

Depends on what you mean by “thwart”. Facewatch is clearly calling all false positives a success, so if someone shows up in a facemask and the system says I am shoplifting, thats a successful prevention. Companies that do “prevention” of something like this can just call a success whatever they want.

Right now i am waiting tables, so black slacks/ jeans, black undershirt, and either a black polo or dress shirt depending on the weather

Fashion is always cyclical. There are loads of guys with beards today, but so many look awful, unkempt, and untidy. Kids today will grow up seeing those awful beards and decide it isn’t for them after a couple attempts. A good beard takes just as much effort to maintain as a clean shaven face, which the next generation is going to experience.

Idk, i like Southwest. It’s cheap and you get two free checked bags without having to sacrifice your human dignity flying Spirit. Grantdd i never have to fky for work, only ever for personal trips

That’s essentially what Southwest Airlines does. No assigned seats, just a boarding group and number for “controlled” self-service boarding.

The difference between a million dollars and a billion dollars is about a billion dollars as people say.

For an actual example, one second is a wave of your arm. 100, 000 seconds is 1.25 days. A million seconds is a little over a week. A billion seconds is over 33 years. Being trapped in a box for 4 billion years is essentially cosmic torture that ancient gods would do to punish each other.

Oil jas constant demand and the Saudis have so much of it that it costs them very little to drill for it and store it. And digging a new well doesn’t immediately flood the market with 4x the annual production of oil.

I’m not arguing against asteroid mining. I am saying that it is fundamentally impossible under our current capitalist system. That’s why there has been zero advances in the concept in iver a decade.

Asteroid mining is incompatible with current capitalism. Say you harvest an asteroid with 100,000 of platinum in it. You in theory now have trollions of dollars in platinum for the $40 billion you spent harvesting the asteroid, only you have now quadrupled the amount of platinum in the economy, crayering the price and totally ruining your company. It’s obviously a net good for humanity as a scarce resource is now abundant, but it is bad for capitalism because the ones who finaced the work are the biggest loser.

I’m gonna stick to Ohio with our non-pothole riddled roads, premier walleye fishing, and superior amusement parks, thank you very much.

It’s easy. Just go to events in your community. Hang out at a restaurant or bar and socialize with people, go to the farmers market and ask the stall owners questions about their business. Say hi to people you recognize. Go to your local council meetings, or special festivals that are happening around town. Unfortunately you will find that nowhere is toxic people resistant, but just be friendly and chat with people you meet throughout the day, and you would be blown away at how far it will take you to establishing connections in your community.

Admittedly i live in a small college town in rural Ohio, but i always run into so many people that want to say hi to me, despite just being a college drop out who works a factory job. I even had the mayor’s wife personally invite me to her birthday party because i was her favorite server at the restaurant i work at. If you come across as a friendly person, people will want to be friends with you. I bake way more than i can eat, so i am constantly giving little treats to my favorite bartenders, waiters, friends, and co-workers.