Stink strike 2025

Credits to ColdFusion on YouTube for covering this topic.

I'm still a high school junior, so excuse my lack of knowledge about the economy and how the world works. How did our economy end up the way it is nowadays? Inflation seems to be worsening, so despite people's wages growing, things are becoming increasingly unaffordable. Another problem may be that the rich are simply getting richer, and corporations also constantly take advantage of the working class, firing them whenever they want without any pension.

I want to pursue economics, so I'd like to learn more by hearing what everyone else thinks about this situation and what you think could be done to salvage it.

You realize, regions like Africa were de facto denied access to the markets of the West for decades ?

The Europeans or the EU used countless tricks to deny African countries access to their markets.

So, if the Global South now denies the West access to its gigantic markets, it is only applying the principle of reciprocity.

Quote:

We Worked Hard For This; Global South Is Proud To Be Successors Of The Collapsing West; We Now Write The Rules To Best Suit Our Interests

.

With power comes responsibility.

Being themselves masters of the universe from ca. 1500 - 2000 European calendar, Westerners very well understand in what privileged position the Global South now find themselves.

The Global South is now offered never before seen opportunities, and is busy building fantastic empires.

Really, the Global South countries are now saying, "we have the resources, the markets, the knowhow and everything else we need".

Consider that, Western countries are now disappearing from the list of

===> the top trade partners of most countries,

and also from the list of

===> the biggest countries and economies:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3PEbDtXEAAXBer?format=jpg&name=large

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F00TdrQWAAIqT-g?format=jpg&name=large

Edit: I think people are misunderstanding me here...

I don't dislike social security. It's an important structure to support people and as I say further below some people will absolutely need it.

I just have zero faith in our current government to maintain it and fully anticipate millenials and Gen Z are paying in money they will never see because of that government

I pay more to social security than I do to the state of California. Which is supposedly such a terrible tax state but I pay significantly more to the feds and get significantly less out of it.

But social security?

I have zero confidence that program will continue to exist by the time I retire. And I don't think I'll ever see that money again. They're gonna strip it and then go "tough shit". I would significantly rather take that and put it toward my 401k. But nope. And I know it's going to be worse for a lot of people who will truly need that social security when they retire. If they ever get to retire...

As a result...Elon musk and every other super wealthy person liquidates all their personal stock overnight to avoid the new yearly tax. What happens to everyones 401k as a result??

It is said that the top %10 of the population owns most of the wealth.

What are the immediate effects on the avg joe and janes retirement accounts after the top %10 cash out most of their stocks to avoid wealth tax??

If there's one crisis that was already bad but has now gotten worse, it's the demographic crisis.

The war in Europe and other events around the world have made many of the few people who wanted to have a family give up on that goal.

Although I myself am childfree, I recognize that the consequences of this will be enormous, not because of population reduction but because of aging.

It's the curse of the developed world that will never be solved.

There will be many consequences, especially due to the lack of labor and the pensions of retired people.

Does anyone know of any consequences of this or ways of solving this?

I don’t work in corporate anymore but I wonder how easy it will be to off shore these jobs in the future.

It seems like we are already seeing issues with many of these jobs being offered nationally. For everyone who thinks they can get a high paying WFH job and move somewhere with a lower cost of living there’s a 100 people that already live in those places that will take a lower salary.

At least before they would make you train your replacements before they shipped the job overseas, but with all of the digital monitoring that happens it seems like they wouldn’t even need to do that.

Has the general (middle class) population been economically gaslit into believing that we don’t deserve more? For context, I was in a sub that talks about optimism. This specific post was about how “technically” only 30% of people actually live paycheck to paycheck. I was basically saying we should want a higher standard of living that our parents and grandparents had, only to get downvoted and suggested that I want free stuff and vacation. With the way that this economy is going and the direction we may be headed in, am I wrong?

I’m not saying I agree with Claude’s analysis, just asking: what do you think?

I asked Claude: Assume that all that survives Musk’s federal cuts is Medicare, Medicaid, the military, and paying the federal debt. Now estimate the number of people affected.

Answer Calculation based on preserving only Medicare, Medicaid, military, and federal debt payments:

Workers Directly Eliminated:

• Federal civilian employees: ~2.2 million
• Federal contractors: ~4 million
• Grant-funded researchers: ~500,000

Indirect Employment Impact:

• Government-supported program workers: ~3-4 million
• State/local government positions dependent on federal funding: ~1-2 million

Estimated Total Affected: 8-9 million workers

Severe economic disruption scenarios would likely emerge, with potential unemployment spike of 5-6% and significant regional economic devastation in areas with high federal employment or dependency.

Question: what assets would be a good investment, in that scenario?

Answer

In such a severe economic contraction scenario, consider:

Defensive Assets:

• Gold
• Short-term Treasury bonds
• Cash reserves
• Healthcare sector stocks
• Essential consumer goods stocks

High-Risk, Potential High-Reward:

• Distressed real estate
• Bankruptcy-resistant technology companies
• Defense industry stocks
• Private utility companies
• Agricultural commodities

Key Investment Principles:

• Prioritize liquidity
• Minimize debt exposure
• Focus on sectors providing essential services
• Maintain significant cash position
• Prepare for rapid market repositioning

Recommendation: Consult professional financial advisor for personalized strategy.

Question: is gold considered one of those liquid assets?

Answer

No, gold is not highly liquid. While valuable, gold:

Liquidity Challenges:

• Requires physical sale or broker transaction
• Transaction costs are relatively high
• Not easily convertible to cash quickly
• Potential authentication/verification requirements
• Market pricing fluctuations

More Liquid Alternatives:

• Gold ETFs
• Money market funds
• Short-term Treasury bonds
• Cash equivalents

Gold is better considered a store of value rather than a liquid asset.

Question: If this cut happened, how long do you estimate it would take for the economy to return to pre-COVID conditions?

Answer

Economic recovery timeline estimate: 5-7 years

Key factors influencing recovery:

• Massive employment disruption
• Significant reduction in government spending
• Potential cascading economic contraction
• Reduced consumer spending
• Geopolitical uncertainty

Recovery Phases:

1. Initial shock/contraction: 1-2 years
2. Structural economic reorganization: 2-3 years
3. Gradual stabilization: 2-4 years

Comparison to historical precedents:

• Great Depression recovery: ~10 years
• 2008 Financial Crisis recovery: ~4-5 years

This scenario represents a more severe economic restructuring than recent recessions, requiring substantial economic adaptation.

Based on everything Elon has said about the economy going to shit on purpose for a few years and then everything being great I highly suspect the plan is to force a recession and cause deflation of the dollar.

Massive cuts to federal spending will force the economy to contract. The private sector can't absorb the number of people who will become unemployed.

Raising Tariffs will increase the cost of goods which will cause a decrease in demand. Again shrinking the economy.

Anyone who has cash will see a massive benefit from all of this.

Anyone with debt will be FUKKKKED.

Saw this stat the other day. I know the wealth gap is insane, but this stat if true is just mins boggling. I feel like it's likely not true though?

Like it's probably adding up debt as negative wealth which i feel could be seen as questionable in this context .

Has anyone looked into this/seen the numbers?

While Social Security appears to simply be a generic pension plan, I suspect that the consistent cash flow to senior consumers provides mitigation against possible recessions. That consistent cash flow during periods of sudden job loss, helps stabilize the situation, limiting the initial damage for the recession. During the Covid pandemic, many chose early retirement, helping slow the impact of the pandemic.

Look at Social Security as a recession fighting tool, we should actively work to strengthen it, so that it continues to this important aspect.

Michael Saylor on Warren Buffett holding $325B in cash: "They are destroying $3B a month in shareholder capital. They are generating a 3% after-tax yield at best and the cost of capital is 15%. Take 12% negative real yield, $325B times 12% is what the shareholders are paying for that."

Sadly, there is nothing the country could do about it.

What a tragedy, it is really not a pleasant experience to have new superpowers every few decades, it is very very dangerous.

Yet another short-lived white empire going down, the 8th superpower in the last 500 years.

USA must blame itself, as it didn't deliver what it promised 80 years ago. Actually, the country provided the opposite of what it promised, when it created its world order in 1944/45 European calendar.

USA's world order = UNO + IMF, World Bank, WTO

The country promised to provide,

1. security and

2. trade

Our evaluations showed that the funny country provided,

1. insecurity and

2. exploitation

Few funny things about the USA world order, that Global South peoples are no longer willing to tolerate:

• That so-called "rules based liberal order" is anti-Global South and Eurocentric

• Three permanent members of the UNO security council, namely USA, France & UK, were involved in the assassination of dozens of Global South leaders, still, the three western powers were allowed to keep their seats in that most powerful organ of the USA world order till this day.

• That world order gave the Global South among the biggest national security threats, in the form of CIA bases covered as USA embassies and consulates, from where the USA and its Western allies spied on host countries and coordinated many hostile operations.

• That world order made large part of the Global South exporters of dirt cheap unprocessed raw materials. Imagine, Global South countries were FORCED by components of the USA world order, such as IMF, to export unprocessed and dirt cheap raw materials.

I hear about gas prices day in and day out. I drive an old Prius (45mpg) and an old Scion (35mpg) and if gas hits $6/gallon, I’m really not gonna feel it very much. Like my title says, I’m so f-ing tired of hearing about gas prices…make better decisions. Roast me if you want, I really don’t care. But if you’re complaining OR EVER COMPLAINED about the price of gas, YOU BOUGHT the WRONG CAR. Period.

I used to buy deodorant from target (not antiperspirant) and it was about $6 for 1. Literally since I last bought a few stocks of the stuff, the price has doubled. I checked Walmart, Amazon, etc.. it's the same everywhere. Why is deodorant suddenly so expensive?

When Trump takes over what will happen to those that get ssi medicaid? Like for kids and those disabled. Will that be left untouched or is there something else

I keep seeing post of people losing their jobs cause AI can now do it the same/better and cheaper. I assume this will only continue get worse. My son is in 5th grade and I’m wondering what direction to help guide him in for what will still be around or what people think. They don’t even talk about gtp or how to use it.

This is a real concern of mine.

Thanks!