Joe Biden is now officially the 46th President of the United States of America

[Xzi]

You can't honestly compare New Zealand with the US, can you?

Yes. It's not like their science is decades ahead of ours. All they did was contact tracing and heavily-enforced quarantines early on, while Trump downplayed and politicized the virus for months at the beginning. Hell what am I saying, he downplayed and politicized it his entire time in office, then got secretly vaccinated in January, and only this month finally told his supporters to get the vaccine.

China on the other hand still have to reveal their statistics, which they still conceal to the public.

Americans don't get to vote for Chinese president, so we exercise what power we do have. At least on that front, Biden has sanctioned China for the Uighur genocide, whereas Trump never even mentioned it once.

 

[Silent_Gunner]

Lmao don't play dumb, I'm sure you're aware that a lot of those companies are owned in groups by even larger corporations. Consolidation is the name of the game when you have infinite money from stupid low taxes and corporate welfare to buy out the competition with.

You're never gonna be in the 1%. Stop licking their dicks and pretending nothing in America is their fault, or that they their precious income which they could never spend in a million lifetimes should remain untouchable forever. Capitalism has failed us in so many ways (each generation more than the next), it's okay to critique it. You won't melt.

I know that corporations own a lot of other companies and brands. And I really couldn't give that much of a rat's ass about these companies and especially any time they try to posture anything about morality. If anything, you're the one bringing up this unrelated point and who's changed the topic we were discussing all of a sudden. And lol at not understanding the basic concept of scarcity and thinking that money and resources is infinite.

And fwiw, I don't want to, or have any plans to be in the 1%. I'm sure they contribute to politics in ways I could never approve of myself.

And if you think Capitalism has failed so hard, then why do you have a gif of one of Yu Narukami's victory anims from Persona 4 Arena? Why do you have the games you play listed in your signature? Why do you have a character that was created by companies participating in the philosophy that is capitalism as your profile picture? Was it because capitalism and free market economics failed in your parents' generations, or their parents, and then their parents? Like everything us humans have made in one form or another, it's has its faults, but if you were to put an honest presentation on the economic philosophies of the world and the results they've brought on the societies they've been practiced in, capitalism would be the best thing we got at the moment, and trust me, my skin hasn't melted off from opening the Ark of the Covenant for saying that!

At the end of the day, everything you and I like is a result of the practices of trade associated with capitalism in markets around the world.

Everyone's income and the results of that income is felt each and every day we live our lives. Those of us in the US actually have it the best that us humans have had it however long we've been inhabiting this pale blue dot known as Earth. Take a look at all of the things that support a structure and give it the functions it has and marvel and consider that it was made by someone some time ago, who knew to connect this to that, support this to that, put a cable holder here and there, and make it look all neat and "invisible" to the casual observer.

 

[Xzi]

And lol at not understanding the basic concept of scarcity and thinking that money and resources is infinite.

Lol at believing this is an excuse to continue underpaying workers and providing them minimal/no benefits.

And if you think Capitalism has failed so hard, then why do you have a gif of one of Yu Narukami's victory anims from Persona 4 Arena? Why do you have the games you play listed in your signature? Why do you have a character that was created by companies participating in the philosophy that is capitalism as your profile picture?

Participation in capitalism is not optional for survival in the US. And I hate to break it to you, but private businesses/game developers do not exist solely due to capitalist fairy dust. Art in all its forms, including video games, transcends monetary value and economic restraints. Besides, Persona 5 is in large part a critique of Japanese work culture and capitalism's rat race.

capitalism would be the best thing we got at the moment, and trust me, my skin hasn't melted off from opening the Ark of the Covenant for saying that!

Well you complimented it instead of criticizing it, so that still seems to be taboo for you.

 

[Elvasat]

Yes. It's not like their science is decades ahead of ours. All they did was contact tracing and heavily-enforced quarantines early on, while Trump downplayed and politicized the virus for months at the beginning. Hell what am I saying, he downplayed and politicized it his entire time in office, then got secretly vaccinated in January, and only this month finally told his supporters to get the vaccine.


Americans don't get to vote for Chinese president, so we exercise what power we do have. At least on that front, Biden has sanctioned China for the Uighur genocide, whereas Trump never even mentioned it once.

New Zealand is currently struggling with low birth rates and the so called "Intelectual man drought" because they have a lack of educated men available for their "Strong wahmen" to choose from. This country is, if anything going downhill.

As for Biden, he was the one who took billions in forgivable loans from China for no apperant reason other than introdicing American billionaires to the Chinese.

 

[Xzi]

New Zealand is currently struggling with low birth rates and the so called "Intelectual man drought" because they have a lack of educated men available for their "Strong wahmen" to choose from. This country is, if anything going downhill.

Besides the point at best, completely irrelevant to the topic of COVID-19 at worst. And honestly sounds like a good problem to have, I'd take me an NZ sugar momma. No wonder GabeN has been spending so much time there.

As for Biden, he was the one who took billions in forgivable loans from China for no apperant reason other than introdicing American billionaires to the Chinese.

Sounds like fake news. He wouldn't be willing to criticize or sanction China if it were true.

 

[Elvasat]

Besides the point at best, completely irrelevant to the topic of COVID-19 at worst. And honestly sounds like a good problem to have, I'd take me an NZ sugar momma. No wonder GabeN has been spending so much time there.


Sounds like fake news. He wouldn't be willing to criticize or sanction China if it were true.

True, but NZ's leader Ardern is often praised as a competent leader for dealing with Covid, yet she cant solve simple issues. From what i know, she is a man hating feminist and turned NZ into a gynocentric wasteland at this point. No wonder NZ barely has any high earning, highly educated men, especially younger men when the women there are this nasty. As for the whole sugar momma, forget it, rich women don't settle down for poor guys and sure as hell dont want men beneath them.

Biden critizied China, but its just talk. His actions say otherwise. He and his degenerate son supposedly sold american companies to military contractors in China and helped opening up the American economy for the Chinese. If im not mistaken, both Obama and Biden tolerated China's trade practices and did nothing when they cheated their way out of the agreements.

At least Trump was a strong leader and also one of few who was willing to stop funding pointless wars in the middle east.

 

[Silent_Gunner]

Lol at believing this is an excuse to continue underpaying workers and providing them minimal/no benefits.


Participation in capitalism is not optional for survival in the US. And I hate to break it to you, but private businesses/game developers do not exist solely due to capitalist fairy dust. Art in all its forms, including video games, transcends monetary value and economic restraints. Besides, Persona 5 is in large part a critique of Japanese work culture and capitalism's rat race.


Well you complimented it instead of criticizing it, so that still seems to be taboo for you.

How would you manage the resources at your Walmart store then to pay people better while not cutting hours, laying employees off, reducing benefits, or making changes that have to be made for your store to break even for the larger Walmart company and to not have corporate descend on yours and your employees' asses with no warning?


Survival doesn't mean what you think it means. As long as people have sufficient food and water and access to oxygen, they can survive just fine. Sure, maybe their living arrangements and/or options for moving out aren't as good as their managers or that of the CEO of a company, but their basic needs are met in more ways than you might expect as long as they plan their living arrangements frugally around the meeting of their basic needs. This is basic financial and resource management skills 101.




And art transcends monetary value? You must live in a small world, because guess how much the Mona Lisa sold for according to an article on MSN: https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/ne...na-lisa-just-sold-for-dollar98000/ar-BB1c1fbs

How much does a Chinese artist's take on the classical Last Supper sell for? Millions of dollars: https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-SJB-12444

And a painting by Botticelli sold for $92 million: https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-55839330

Are you aware of what you're saying? Sure, art can be debated as having value that one can't put a price on from a certain perspective, but you are unaware of the world to think no one pays money that would make sellers able to live like kings and queens in the world these days.


And I didn't say that Capitalism was perfect if you go back and read what I said.

 

[Xzi]

How would you manage the resources at your Walmart store then to pay people better while not cutting hours, laying employees off, reducing benefits, or making changes that have to be made for your store to break even for the larger Walmart company and to not have corporate descend on yours and your employees' asses with no warning?

The same way every other first-world nation manages to do it. By regulating it and charging ever-so-slightly more for goods and services.

Survival doesn't mean what you think it means.

No it absolutely means exactly what I think it means. Capitalism kills millions of people per year through both starvation and death by preventable illness. Not even mentioning all the wars it has started just to please the military-industrial complex.

And art transcends monetary value? You must live in a small world, because guess how much the Mona Lisa sold for according to an article on MSN: https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/ne...na-lisa-just-sold-for-dollar98000/ar-BB1c1fbs

Again you're playing the fool, or maybe you really are that dumb. Art transcends monetary value because it's all in the eye of the beholder, and the Mona Lisa will never truly belong to just one person, as everybody has seen it, experienced it in their own way already.

And I didn't say that Capitalism was perfect if you go back and read what I said.

I didn't claim that you said it was perfect, only that you complimented it instead of critiquing it. Which you did.

 

[smf]

Alright smart ass, explain this:
I have many family members and friends living in the US, all of them Cuban refugees that don't have citizenship and some don't even have any sort of ID. They are not LEGALLY allowed to vote under any circumstance under any democracy (they could't vote in the US, or Spain, or anywhere else that has a decent democracy). Yet ALL of them received mail in ballots in THEIR name.
How is that not voter fraud? Please enlighten me, cause in any decent democracy that would be voter fraud, but it seems in the US it's just "a vulnerability in the voting system", so if it's not ILEGAL, then it is (in the best case) ALEGAL.

Didn't cuban immigrants vote for Trump because they associated Biden with the regime they escaped?

Participation in capitalism is not optional for survival in the US.

No? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amish

Quite what would happen if everyone became Amish, or at the opposite end of the spectrum, the US implemented Star Trek.

 

[Xzi]

Didn't cuban immigrants vote for Trump because they associated Biden with the regime they escaped?

Yeah, which is ridiculous because Biden's previous record is about as "Socialist" as Reagan lmao.

No? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amish

Even a lot of Amish communities participate in capitalism to varying degrees. In some you can own cars. If nothing else, there aren't unlimited trees on un-owned land they can cut down, so they have to source their wood and metal materials from somewhere. My bet's on Home Depot.

 

[Silent_Gunner]

The same way every other first-world nation manages to do it. By regulating it and charging ever-so-slightly more for goods and services.


No it absolutely means exactly what I think it means. Capitalism kills millions of people per year through both starvation and death by preventable illness. Not even mentioning all the wars it has started just to please the military-industrial complex.


Again you're playing the fool, or maybe you really are that dumb. Art transcends monetary value because it's all in the eye of the beholder, and the Mona Lisa will never truly belong to just one person, as everybody has seen it, experienced it in their own way already.


I didn't claim that you said it was perfect, only that you complimented it instead of critiquing it. Which you did.

And now you have people shopping for food at the local pop-n'-shop and Meijer, sales are down, and now you have to cut workers or reduce wages and benefits.

OK, now you're just using Saul Alinsky's tactics of accusing the other person of the crime of the ideologies that you're advocating has committed. Or do I need to remind you of the Holomodor? https://www.britannica.com/place/Ukraine/The-famine-of-1932-33

And if by "preventable illness," do I need to remind you about the scandals where hospitals were reporting deaths that had other causes as being by COVID when it had little, if anything to do with it for more government funding? Or how about the PCR tests for COVID positivity being amplified?

And wars? You mean how Trump was trying to get us out of wars, and now Biden has our troops back in Syria again?


For some people, they will pay the prices linked in the articles to gain access to a copy or to the original of that piece of work for as being a part of their own private property! "Eye of the beholder" has nothing to do with the legal right to own an object through the trade of money for a good or service. Just because someone finds beauty in the Starry Night by Van Gogh doesn't mean they have a legal right to the ownership of that property to where they can just take the original from whoever owns it and not expect to be accosted by law enforcement for the theft of that piece of art.


So, you want me to critique it just because you told me to? Who says I have to do that? You? Who made you the authority over what I say or don't say?

 

[Xzi]

And now you have people shopping for food at the local pop-n'-shop and Meijer, sales are down, and now you have to cut workers or reduce wages and benefits.

Sales are down...because people have more disposable income and more to spend on the essentials? Do you hear yourself?

And wars? You mean how Trump was trying to get us out of wars

So, you want me to critique it just because you told me to? Who says I have to do that? You? Who made you the authority over what I say or don't say?

There's no requirement you critique it, but having no slight critiques of capitalism whatsoever is somewhat suspect. It's like you haven't truly lived in this country, or you've always lived from a position of such privilege that you were able to simply block out all the "distasteful" aspects of it.

 

[smf]

Yeah, which is ridiculous because Biden's previous record is about as "Socialist" as Reagan lmao.

I didn't say they were making a sane decision.

Even a lot of Amish communities participate in capitalism to varying degrees

But is that through choice or because they are forced to?

They only need more wood if they want more buildings to grow their community, they could choose not to do that.

 

[Xzi]

But is that through choice or because they are forced to?

A little of column A, a little of column B. They're slowly choosing to embrace capitalism more, while at the same time, capitalism is slowly encroaching more upon their communities from the outside.

 

[smf]

capitalism is slowly encroaching more upon their communities from the outside.

How?

 

[Xzi]

How?

Well they only have so much space assigned to their communities, much like Native American reservations. Corporations will often build right up to that line, and then engage in targeted advertising campaigns like they would with any other group.

 

[Silent_Gunner]

Sales are down...because people have more disposable income and more to spend on the essentials? Do you hear yourself?





There's no requirement you critique it, but having no slight critiques of capitalism whatsoever is somewhat suspect. It's like you haven't truly lived in this country, or you've always lived from a position of such privilege that you were able to simply block out all the "distasteful" aspects of it.

Sales are down from customers because they want to spend less and save more, and if your store is gonna be more expensive, then they will just take their business or buy item X, Y, and/or Z somewhere else.

More like you are naive and only say stuff to elevate yourself and your opinions. And honestly, the white privilege thing is just an excuse at this point. Blacks have never had it better in the US, be it if they support BLM or don't support it, and trust me, there are more of the latter than you'd think.

You laugh, but how about him solving a conflict that the US didn't have to send troops in for? https://nypost.com/2020/08/13/trump-announces-peace-deal-between-israel-united-arab-emirates/

The only distasteful thing is that you have leeches who live in the US, complain about why its not like Scandinavia or *insert European country here*, especially when the person lives in the US itself, is benefitting from the US' infrastructure that he himself didn't have any involvement in making, and just looks at everything that's already built and what's successful as some sort of twisted mess that should be torn down when everyone else is fine with the object being there, paying it no mind, while you and others are going crazy over the object's existence. Kind of like the following video:




And to go back to my original post a few days ago: Reddit. This thread is just Reddit on GBATemp. And it's exactly what I expected: people who aren't aware that the criticisms they dish out to people of whom they share the same qualities with.


You all are the things you criticize, and are doing nothing about other than being slacktivists. You say you support this and that, but you only say that, and criticize people sending thoughts and prayers because they "do nothing." Your only standards are double standards.

If the US is such a shit country, move to Canada. Move to Scotland. Move to Australia. Put your money where your mouth is, and stop crying like the overgrown babies that a lot of you are! If all of those European countries are so great to live in @Xzi, why not move over there yourself? Because your profile says you live in the US, so either you're lying about the benefits, you're stuck here, or you're in the process of moving immigrating over.

You're not nice, or even good people. You're just people who signal one thing to get what you want, and then, when you do get what you want, the thing you asked others to share with you is something you don't share equally with others since you only share it with those you want to do share it with.


I'm done playing around here. Go on. Continue your orgies. I'm a fool...for thinking I could find friends in this hobby.

 

[Xzi]

Sales are down from customers because they want to spend less and save more, and if your store is gonna be more expensive, then they will just take their business or buy item X, Y, and/or Z somewhere else.

We're talking roughly $0.20 more expensive, nothing obscene like I'm sure you're imagining. And nobody has to spend to survive more than the working poor. Millionaires and billionaires are the only ones who can afford to save every bit of economic assistance they receive.

Your only standards are double standards.

Pot, meet kettle. You say you want to improve things, restore wages and benefits to some semblance of what they were in the 50s, but then you fight tooth and nail for the 1%ers when pushed on the subject, and just to put a bow on things, you go on some race-based rant unprompted.

If the US is such a shit country, move to Canada. Move to Scotland. Move to Australia. Put your money where your mouth is, and stop crying like the overgrown babies that a lot of you are! If all of those European countries are so great to live in @Xzi, why not move over there yourself? Because your profile says you live in the US, so either you're lying about the benefits, you're stuck here, or you're in the process of moving immigrating over.

How about you fucking move to somewhere that is sure to never change or improve, like Russia. The rest of us will keep pushing for improvement and progress here and keep on ignoring nihilists telling us we can't because it might hurt corporations' fee-fees. Cool? Cool.

 

[smf]

Well they only have so much space assigned to their communities, much like Native American reservations. Corporations will often build right up to that line, and then engage in targeted advertising campaigns like they would with any other group.

Which they can choose to ignore.

What you're describing is that it's hard to make the choice to live outside capitalism, not that you cannot live outside capitalism if you choose.

Do you see the difference?

 

[Xzi]

Which they can choose to ignore.

What you're describing is that it's hard to make the choice to live outside capitalism, not that you cannot live outside capitalism if you choose.

Do you see the difference?

You've ignored parts of what I've said. They have to source materials from somewhere if nothing else. They also have to buy chickens and livestock from somewhere. It's certainly possible to reduce your consumerism by a significant amount, but it's not possible to survive in America without at least occasionally participating in capitalism. In a number of states you can't even get half decent water out of the tap, you have to pay more for it.