Everything posted by Linkey
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Speculations for cryptosceptics
For those who are interested in the topic of the growth of inequality, I can suggest this article: https://kimgriest.medium.com/real-reason-the-american-middle-class-is-disappearing-901cb78ababf The author attributes the growth of inequality to the fact that Reagan lowered taxes for the rich in the 80s. The inequality can be measured as the percentage of the property in the world which belongs to the richest 1% of population. The author also writes that the mainstream Western media is silent about this problem or is lying. This is evident with CNN and Fox News (especially CNN). And this can be explained simply — these 1% of the richest are interested in such a state of affairs, and they control these media.
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Do the countries allocate money for UFO research?
Over last 60 years, various scientific programs have been run for searching for the extraterrestrial life and extraterrestrial civilizations, such as SETI, and large sums of money have been allocated for this. For example, the scientists are now planning to send a satellite to Europa to search for microbes under the ice layer there; recently, dimethyl sulfide was found on the planet K2-18b and this caused a big stir. I have a question: are the ufologists allocated any state money? There is a hypothesis that ships of extraterrestrial civilizations fly above us, this hypothesis can be tested by scientific methods and either confirmed or refuted. Do states allocate money for this researches at all?
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Speculations for cryptosceptics
Do you know anything about the money multiplier? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_multiplier I suggest you to see this video, it explains many things: https://youtu.be/2nBPN-MKefA
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Speculations for cryptosceptics
I had mentioned Hakek above. I haven’t read Hayek’s texts in detail, but I can explain this as I understand. During the last 40 years, in the Western countries the inequality grows: the rich become richer, the poor poorer, the middle class disappears. I have seen a lot of such graphs in the Web: I am not a US resident and it is difficult for me to speculate reliably, but I have a lot of scattered information relating the subjects – some information from bloggers, some posts of the residents in the Western countries about their life – and all this information forms a general picture. Roughly speaking, 40 years ago only one member of a US family worked, now two members work, and at the same time 40 years ago the family could afford a house, now it is much more difficult. One of the reasons of this is the inflation, as I wrote in OP (rich people store their wealth in the form of assets, not money).
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Speculations for cryptosceptics
Here I cite myself: the price of pipyruses will remain constant in the future (in a "normal" currency, which is not constantly emited and thus does not have inflation) So if there was a currency which is constantly emited or "easend" - in the currency the price of pypicoins will remain constant. However all modern money do inflate (during last 300 years, as far as I understand), so in these money the price of absolutely everything, including the pipyruses, is growing. By the way, as I suppose, all nowadays money were firstly created in England by Isaac Newton.
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Stable democracies (split from Speculations for cryptosceptics)
I think, you haven't answered my question. Again: if there is the risk that some extremists can come to power through elections, do you think that these extremists should be not allowed to participate in the elections (instead, only good, non-extremist, liberal candidates would participate)? By the way, the word "stable", as I understand this, implies that such scenarios (extremists coming to power) are impossible; is is an oxymoron to say "Germany is stable now, but it will loose the stability if the Germans elect AfD". The Weimar Republic or Russia in 1990th were not stable.
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Speculations for cryptosceptics
The volatility of the bitcoins is indeed a great problem, but despite this, they continue to grow on average - similarly to gold. Can anybody here write, what is the difference between the gold and the bitcoins from the point of view of the economic theory? By the way, Friedrich Hayek (nobel prize winner) wrote that private money would save the world economy.
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Stable democracies (split from Speculations for cryptosceptics)
Do I understand you correctly, that if there us a risk that extremists can come to power through elections, then the elections must be forbidden?
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Speculations for cryptosceptics
The pipiruses will have a higher prices in dollar after a year, as any other goods, just because of the dollar inflation. And the dollar inflation is always higher than the bank's interest.
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Stable democracies (split from Speculations for cryptosceptics)
Stable democracies? Very interesting... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_for_Germany On 23 February 2025, the AfD won 20.8% of the vote in the German federal election, second to the CDU/CSU. In April 2025, the AfD finishes as the leading party in the first time in opinion polling.[163] In May 2025 the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution classified the party as a "proven right-wing extremist organisation".[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Le_Pen On 31 March 2025, Le Pen, eight other MEPs, and 12 assistants were convicted of embezzlement for misappropriating over €4 million European Parliament funds to fund National Front staff. The sentences for several MEPs included bans from running for political office. Le Pen was sentenced to four years in prison and a five-year ban from running for political office, effectively disqualifying her from the upcoming 2027 French presidential election. She was also fined €100,000.[24][25][26][27][28][29] p.s. I am not a fan of AfD or Le Pen, but I see that they are usual spoilers, as Trump, Haley, DeSantis and others.
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Speculations for cryptosceptics
Currently there are many cryptosceptics (crypto-deniers, "no-coiners") in the world, especially in authoritarian countries, and I like to argue with such people. Below I write two simple speculations, which explain why the cryptosceptics are wrong: The inflation is in fact a hidden taxation, and this "tax" is mostly paid by poor people, not the wealthy (because wealthy people store their riches not in the form of money, but in the form of assets like real property). And this situation makes useful any things which help people to store their savings: 1) Let's assume that there is some completely useless and worthless product on the market, let's call it pipyruses; and everyone knows that the price of pipyruses will remain constant in the future (in a "normal" currency, which is not constantly emited and thus does not have inflation). One pipirus costs ten dollars. Then people will quickly understand that they can use pipiruses as means of accumulation: a worker will buy 300 pipiruses every month, and in ten years, having accumulated thirty thousand pipiruses, he will sell them and buy an apartment with this money. And this option for accumulation is obviously more profitable than dealing with banks, loans and mortgages. 2) Let's say 100 programmers have created a a cryptocurrency pipycoin for themselves and agreed to use it as an alternative money (to exchange it for real money). The price of one pipycoin is 10 dollars. And once a month, each of these programmers sells a part of his salary and buys 300 pipycoins from other programmers. Then, once every 10 years, each programmer sells 30 000 pipycoins to others and buys an apartment with this money. It turns out that for these programmers, the pipycoin is a convenient means of lending money to each other; thus, an ordinary means of exchange, i.e. money, turns into a means of accumulation, which allows these programmers to save money relatively successfully. These programmers loan the money from each other more honestly, than the banks do.
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Democracy and military strength
I mean the percentage of human population who lived in monarchies. As far as I know, 2500 years ago only some cities in Europe were city-states, while all Asia consisted of monarchies, and probably the same with other continents where people were already not hunter-gatherers.
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Democracy and military strength
What is the clan social system? I have heard that the nomads have a "freedom-loving spirit" or something like that. Maybe before the Ghengis Khan, a common mongol had a possibility to move somewhere apart from his current chief if he didn't like this chief. Now Mongolia is one of the most democratic states in Asia.
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Democracy and military strength
3000 years ago. In particular, the Persian empire included 40% if the whole Earth population, if I am not mistaken.
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Democracy and military strength
As far as I understand it, in ancient history, the Eastern despotisms dominated the world because they fought better than democratic city-states. Unfortunately, the one-man ruling is necessary for a war. At the same time, there is an opposite tendency: free countries support new ideas, including military innovations, better than unfree ones. The general weakness of Eastern-type civilization is that the science and technology developed more slowly there, than in Western-type civilizations. As for military innovations and ideas, I can suggest three examples: 1) The Swiss have historically lived very freely, and now the Switzerland is now the country with the highest level of democracy; and in the Middle Ages, the Swiss were a very powerful military force, usually defeating the knights. The secret of the Swiss's success was in the rational tactics of their "phalanx" (pikemen); 2) As I understand it, in the early Middle Ages, the Vikings had a military democracy, while in the late Middle Ages, a regular monarchy reigned in Scandinavia. Is it possible to draw a parallel here with the fact that in the early Middle Ages the Vikings could terrorize Europeans, but after 1064 they lost this advantage? 3) If I am not mistaken, the nomadic Mongols had a lot of what can be called democracy. On the other hand, Genghis Khan united them into a single centralized state, and achieved a huge military success. It seems to me that the following scenario can be natural in history: first, there is democracy in the country and this allows smart people to grow into the elite and implement innovations, and then a dictator appears who turns the whole country into a very effective military machine. In addition to the Mongols, another example was the Nazi Germany. Please comment my thoughts above.
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Can Trump change the worldview of Russians?
During the recent US elections, polls were conducted in different countries to find out whom did people support more among the American presidential candidates; while in Europe the majority was for Harris, in Russia there were 7 times more people who supported Trump than Harris. This is understandable in light of the fact that the Trumpism is ideologically closer to Putinism: for example, in Russia, homophobia is part of the state ideology, and Trump also does not like LGBT. I wonder if Russians can now begin to change their views regarding their attitude to democracy. On TV, Russians have always been told that the excesses associated with LGBT in Europe, such as transgender people in big sports, are a consequence of democracy. This was facilitated by the meme invented by the leftists ruling in Europe - “democracy is not the rule of the majority, but the protection of minorities.” Now, perhaps, Trump will begin to fight with these excesses; and I hope that Russians will experience cognitive dissonance, when they will see that the Americans havedemocratically elected a president who suppresses LGBT. In Argentina, Miley is also trying to implement such a policy - he fired transgender people from the government and cut the "Ministry of Diversity". But Trump rules a much more important country, and maybe he will now stir the Hollywood and Disney, and stop the policy of propaganda of woke and BLM agenda in them. I hope that this will happen sooner; I want to emphasize that I am not a homophobe, the reasons is just that such a policy can change the worldview of Russians, and then perhaps they will stop supporting Putin and his war.
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Question to forum liberals
I don't understand what facts do you need. What I say is absolutely obvious. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation_in_the_Weimar_Republic
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Question to forum liberals
I know, for example, that Russian government prints a lot of money for funding the Putin's war. It is really strange if you deny that the quantitave easing is the cause of inflation. Ok here are the words of Arnold Swarzenegger about the money printing: This was a link with timecode, does this forum supports the timecodes on youtube? If no, the start is at 26:06.
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Question to forum liberals
Because other countries print even more money that the US government. By the way, when the FED emits the dollars, it collects the inflational tax from not only the USA population but from the whole world.
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Question to forum liberals
In the Western world, the global elites are controlling the educational system, that’s why educated people usually vote for Dems. The Dems impose unpleasant things like transgenders in big sport, and Trump is finishing this. This is a single example, not the most important. The main reason why Trump won was the dollar inflation. The inflation is caused by the quantitative easing (dollar printing in fact). An important aspect of the program of Trump was the support of cryptocurrencies, and many people understand (or at least feel unconsciously), that the bitcoins provide a possibility to avoid “paying the inflation tax to the US government”. Supporting the cryptoeconomics is a really good thing Trump does now, as well as e.g. pardoning Ross Ulbricht.
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Question to forum liberals
Recently half of the America hated Biden, now another half hates Trump. And they are indeed the two sides of the same coin: both they were accepted by ruling class (financial aristocracy) to become candidates, because both aren't a threat to the money and power of the middle class. Trump now tries to create an illusion that he is a "revolutionary", but he is rather a spoiler because all good he tries to do is immediately discredited by his terrible features.
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Question to forum liberals
Sorry, I don't understand why you are asking such stupid questions. The prices of smartphones are decreasing because of the growth of technologies, but this does not mean that the people are becoming richer. Since the technologies are unable to produce space, the prices of earth and houses still indicate the real incomes of people.
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Question to forum liberals
I see much information in the Web (posts of bloggers, etc.), that in the USA and in the Western world it becomes more and more difficult for a common person to buy a house. I one film I saw the information, that 40 years ago, in USA, only one member of a family (husband or wife) was working; no both members need to work, and still it is difficult for the to use mortgage.
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Question to forum liberals
Some time ago I wrote here, that Trump and Biden are two sides of the same coin, that the middle class is disappearing in the Western society, and that the inflation is a hidden taxation (for the poor, but not for the wealthy). Do you still deny these statements?
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The arrest of Pavel Durov and the French Constitution
They can use Russian messenger Vkontakte as well. But the Telegram is a still remaining possibility for the Russians to read independent information published by anti-Putin bloggers.