Tag Archives: money

Printing Money Is Sexy

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I love the Internet at times like this. Here’s a beautiful answer to a series of pictures that the elite has shamelessly published online. I never really expect empathy from the likes of those that control financial systems, but this way of launching a “money product” is particularly disgusting. Financial honchos have staged a nonchalant photoshoot as if they were fundraising for orphanages. The online response has been hilarious (while in the same time highlighting the sadness of the situation we’re in):

https://www.buzzfeed.com/matthewzeitlin/youll-never-be-as-happy-as-treasury-secretary-steven?utm_term=.gowjv7XXn#.hgopq3aaw^

One of the best comments: “Mnunchin’s wife looks like these bills are part of her master plan to take over Gotham City”

What more there is to comment really? Those that understand will understand. Those that do not, will understand later (hopefully before it is too late). The people happily putting their signatures on those bills are the people that casually wear clothes worth the yearly food budget of countless people crushed over in disadvantaged countries by the industries and mining companies that provide child-labor goodies to the “developed” world. I put “developed” in quotes there because having the biggest guns does not have anything to do with having the wisdom and kindness necessary to advance a species to the next evolutionary step^.

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Petrol Money Poison

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One of the most unfortunate things that can happen to human beings is social disconnection. Depression often causes this. But in today’s article I’ll focus on wealth. A root cause of social disconnection due to wealth is when an unprepared individual attains great wealth. In this situation “unprepared” means not ready to emotionally and rationally adapt to a sudden change of situation. The moral compass of such individuals is vulnerable. In time, many of them end up behaving in ways that would seem unacceptable if they could ask their own younger selves.

Social disconnection also occurs in children born in a situation where vast wealth has already disconnected the entire immediate social group (friends & family) from the way “normal” people live. By “normal people” I mean the statistical average for the standard of living when looking at the entire planet. Children born in socially disconnected families (and this includes royalty) grow and develop using completely different life standards. They don’t even get to opt out of this until much later and sometimes never, something that will in the future probably be considered akin to abuse through deprivation of opportunity (similar to what children in poor, unstable families experience with parents that have a history of substance abuse).

In this post, I’m focusing on a certain social group: petrol-rich citizens from the Middle East. Here’s what that triggered me to write this piece, an article that tells about how Qatar’s billionaires have migrated to the richest areas of the most expensive city (property-wise) in Europe:

https://www.mansionglobal.com/articles/23432-qatari-quarter-emerges-in-london-s-posh-mayfair-neighborhood^

And here’s another interesting article^, which covers the recent Saudi crackdown on (supposedly) corrupt princes and business-men. Of important note here is the fact that the media has focused on arrested prince Al-Waleed bin Talal’s opulent lifestyle. He owns, for example, a yacht worth about $200 million. But here’s the kicker: the prince that is supposedly “draining the swamp” owns a $500 million^ yacht. As is often the case, the rules are oh-so flexible when it comes to what is a justified expense.

The resource curse^, also known as the paradox of plenty, refers to the paradox that countries with an abundance of natural resources (like fossil fuels and certain minerals), tend to have less economic growth, less democracy, and worse development outcomes than countries with fewer natural resources.

Have mercy upon those that have drank the petrol money poison and are wasting away caught in the worst trap of all: the ego trap.

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