I was in a bluegrass band called Cyberpunk Chihuahuas. We offended many cultural sensibilities.

Maybe their spelling is what they need help with 🤔

That’s the episode title, yes. Well remembered!

I’m actually surprised it’s not closer to 100%

These are probably the official figures arrived at AFTER a bunch of schemes to avoid being fairly taxed, as are those of the other companies listed.

In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if 36% is close to the REAL profit margin of the ones on the bottom of this chart and those of the top 5 or so are all 80%+.

“Where are the goddamn Ethiopian, Sami and Kurd dancers?!"

As the excellently named @[email protected] pointed out, it’s the Bag of Nails

Good point, crossposted it there 😁

…and that’s why you’re not allowed on the playground anymore.

Who made you in charge or arbitrarily defining the properties of a sauce.

I did. Sorry about that. I’ll choose more carefully next time

There may be some rose tinted glasses there bud

More like picking a year almost at random and then seeing how much better than recent years it sounds, but you’re right about the rest 😁

Maybe 2009:

Dubya was out of the White House and Obama still hadn’t evolved into his final Centrist form, making it theoretically still possible to influence him towards governing more like the 2008 campaign Obama

Facebook was still barely bigger than MySpace, Twitter was still pretty good rather than a fascist safe space, Google had yet to ruin YouTube, and enshittification was generally the exception rather than the rule

An Inconvenient Truth was still relevant and most countries at least did a halfway decent job of PRETENDING to care about the future livability of the planet

Still early enough to pump and dump Bitcoin to death, preventing cryptocurrency from becoming the go-to money laundering tool of rich crooks everywhere including the current president

Windows 7, the best ever and last good Windows is released

The first international Trans Day of Visibility is celebrated with few if any fascists trying to murder anybody present

Plus a bunch of bad things, but next to nothing compared to every single subsequent year.

10? Could be as many as 613, depending on who you ask

You mean the oncoming train about to run over everyone who’s not a rich white Christian fascist man?

Not familiar with the last two, but all the rest are amongst the most frequent collaborators with the fascists, usually COMPLETELY contrary to the wishes and needs of their constituencies.

They must all be primaried as soon as possible, if not recalled where that’s available!

I’m STILL trying to find out what to do with ten thousand spoons!

I like eating yoghurt and dislike doing dishes as much as the next guy, but this is fucking ridiculous!

I was about to make the same point, but you beat me here by an hour 😁🤜

But what non-dysfunctional government that doesn’t behave like it is a subscription service shuts down regularly?

A well-functioning government never shuts down, let alone regularly.

That doesn’t mean that the people should forgo their contribution to shared civilization, though.

The current kakistocracy misappropriating funds doesn’t mean that the parts of the government they haven’t ruined doesn’t need tax revenue.

The value of metal isn’t arbitrary,bits valuable because the metal is actually valuable. You can use copper for electronics, silver for medical instruments, gold for all kinds of things from semiconductors to low impedance buses

Yeah, because necessary computer chips, medical instruments, and other electronics won’t become extremely expensive or scarce from being MADE OF MONEY!

There’s a finite amount of metal in the world and an ever-increasing demand for both things made of metal and currency. Combining the two would inevitably lead to a point in the far too near future where only very rich people can afford to use money and/or only rich people can afford to build anything out of the money metals.

There is no deflation of metal currencies or inflation

Except when there’s not enough of it in existence for both making the things of it AND for being all the money. Which is already the case.

This is a common lie of corporate sellsmen trying to sell everyone into their pyramid scheme

Maybe not the BEST thing to mention pyramid schemes while trying to convince people that inherently finite resources can cover several exponentially increasing needs in perpetuity…

The value slowly drifts over time

Until it’s suddenly currency again AND still needed for making important stuff with.

the discovery of new sources or technology which makes extracting easier

Which will STILL be much more expensive and require extra security once extraction equipment contains wiring and circuits made of literal money.

The point is though that compared to fiat currencies, it’s extremely stable and over generations

Which it has been because it’s been considered raw materials for production of goods for generations. That flies out the window the moment its value becomes intertwined with all levels and types of commerce

something people can save and give to their grandkids

If they’re EXTREMELY rich compared to most of the world’s population.

it will be roughly the same value.

No.

People can retire for example without ever needing to put their money at mercy to the rich in speculation markets.

Very few people, sure. Probably significantly fewer than now.

The is what you call deflation, but it’s what I would call economic appreciation

It’s what I call becoming richer by already being rich, which is basically the stock market but with less effort.

this is an honest economy

Overly simplified to the detriment of most people ≠ honest.

Simply put prices have to meet workers halfway.

Would be lovely, but the reality is that most workers would no longer be able to afford anything made of the money metals and would probably be underpaid even more than they already are since there’s actual scarcity added onto the artificial scarcity.

The only real downside compared to fiat currency, and this is really the only one in actuality

Nope. I’ve mentioned a few already at I bet you’re going to say something else in a bit

that money is harder to obtain without producing something of real value

Not if you already have it and it appreciates. Like the current system, but even moreso, it’ll be up to the ones who hoard the most riches to determine what has “real value”.

This means that governments can not spend money to stimulate the economy, and the economy cannot carry massive amounts of debts

Which would be awful. Without tools such as deficit spending and government debt, every recession could take years or decades, if not be permanently insurmountable since you can’t just create emergency metal.

Interest rates would be high because interests would have to cover the people who default.

Which would mean that only rich people would be able to afford to borrow money, further enhancing the “get richer by already being rich” effect

This is not a bad thing

As long as you are one of the lucky few already in possession of a lot of wealth in metals.

I could go on responding to all the rest of your fallacious arguments in turn, but if you haven’t gotten the point yet, let me just summarize it for you:

TL;DR: Going back to economies based on physical metal would be absolute weapons grade idiocy.

It’s a reference to an episode of a 90s sitcom about nothing.

Specifically the episode of Seinfeld where Elaine finds out that the perfect birth control for her (the sponge) is being discontinued so her new criteria for a sexual partner is to determine whether they’re attractive enough to use one of her limited supply, which she calls being “spongeworthy”.