this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2024
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[–] [email protected] 75 points 5 months ago (4 children)

I really love how the whole GameStop thing is so derided around a lot of places, because haha, memestock idiots.

They literally turned off the buy button until they could figure out a way of the mess they created - or at least postpone it. This event alone should have brought people into the streets calling for these assholes heads. Instead we got shitty media coverage, shitty politicking around the topic with clueless senators and almost no action taken whatsoever.

GameStop revealed how utterly, utterly rigged the "free and fair" markets truly are. Sure we all realize that those with money and power will always be ahead of everything. But that was a full mask-off moment and - to a degree - still is. They had to show their cards and it's all fake and make belief, fully covered by unregulated entities that will never ever be held responsible. Not for the fucking mess they made in 2008, not for the fucking mess they kept making (rebranding MBS to CMBS and then getting fucked when COVID suddenly makes work from home a clearly solid model, crashing the CMBS nonsense, just like it was in 2008 with MBS nonsense)...

Like, I get it. Haha GameStop idiots got burned. But people really do not see how hard that event ripped off their mask and nearly brought the whole fucking thing down to the point where they had to blatantly intervene to stop the bleeding. And it didn't even stop with the run a few years ago. Once the split was done, all GameStop shares simply fucking disappeared for several days for German holders, because the split was also done in a very, very suspicious manner.

Think what you will of people invested in GameStop. No single stock has ever put how fucked the market structures truly are as much on display as this one has and continues to do.

It's all fake bullshit and it's still the best way to try to get a leg up in a "legal" way. I truly hate all this shit so much.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I saw it happen in real time... yeah we can short any stock, we can't fail with that strategy if we just have the trading apps to turn off the buy button but leave on the sell button, thanks.

It's like a casino where they set the rules, they can determine whether they pay out or not (or if it's just a "computer malfunction"), they can also decide to kick you out if you're winning too much.

If the free market is a race where everyone plays by the same rules, then the rich start already past the finish line, most people in developed countries are at the starting line with shoes glued to the ground and hurdles constantly being thrown onto the track, and the rest of the world aren't even in the stadium yet.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I was so angry for so many months. But it got my head out of my ass about a whole bunch of things. Fuck culture wars. Fuck day to day drivel. Millions aren't a lot of money.

We're in a class extinction war and we're constantly told to look down, always look down, never up. Look at the poor people stealing your taxes with food stamps! Look at the poor immigrants stealing your jobs (you don't want to do anyway)! Look at the other party being terrible about your needs! Look at your neighbor having more/less than you!

Never ever look up. And if you do: Look how much philanthropy. Look at all the genius! Never look behind the curtain.

Fuck them. Fuck every one of them, their media empires directing thought and speech and the politicians they buy.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I agree, class war is coming and has to come, but it probably still got a few years to go. Can't rush things.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago

30 years ago wouldn't have been "rushing things".

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Class war is here, it has been here since the dawn of history. And we’re losing. We’ve been losing. But I do have hope we will win. We are WAY more powerful than we think. We are more than 8 billion. They are a handful of thousands….

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago

In the US system, always direct register your shares otherwise you don't really own them, nor might your broker have even purchased them!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

GameStop should be profitable soon. Quarterly losses have dropped hundreds of millions. CEO Ryan Cohen doesn’t take any compensation and has only purchased more stock. I’ll keep buying until all shares have been DRSd

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

EPS are like -0.01 right? Very close to positive. Lots of money in the bank and probably the best CEO in the world for the job, who doesn't even take any salary.

[–] blanketswithsmallpox 4 points 5 months ago

If people realized the stock was a bullshit magical money generation machine that requires endless growth to fund their retirements because they get paid so little they couldn't live out their twilight years without it... Heads would be rolling every single day.

Just wait until we DO need to rely on net zero growth gdp and everyone realizes you won't get $500,000 out of saving $300 every month. Turns out what you save is what you save...

Meanwhile poor and meager people self select and stop themselves from having kids over shit the rich oligarchs forced on them... It's so secretly dystopian.

[–] [email protected] 65 points 5 months ago (1 children)

And by “inflation,” they really mean unregulated and industry-coordinated price-gouging.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

soft landing is their license to keep gouging

[–] FlyingSquid 48 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Late stage capitalism means everyone is fucked except the 1%. It's worse than feudalism in some ways.

[–] Kyrgizion 22 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You could get together enough serfs to overthrow the local lord.

Much harder to do with a board of directors overseas, unfortunately.

[–] FlyingSquid 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

That said, the Peasant's Revolt didn't do well. The Black Death, however, basically ended serfdom because mobile labor was in high demand.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

the peasant's revolt went really well on places like russia...

[–] FlyingSquid 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I think we're talking about two different revolts.

The one I'm talking about is this one- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peasants%27_Revolt

The one you're talking about is on this list- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_peasant_revolts

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

my dude, the russian revolution was mostly peasants.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Medieval serfs definitely had more free time.

[–] pyromaster55 22 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I am still trying to figure out how I am currently working more than I ever have with less free time than ever, and yet also manage to somehow have less disposable income than ever as well...

[–] agitatedpotato 14 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Record profits dont make themselves, and the ceos arent making anything, selling anything, or providing any services themselves. They simply sit back and direct all the value created by you and others who did make the product, sell the product, or provide services. It's honestly that simple.

The ratio of how much money you get to keep compared to the total monetary value your labor produces has never been lower. Or to put it in economic speak, 'stock prices have never been higher'.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

Especially if you consider the “1%” include doctors, lawyers, engineers etc. Workers, like you and me. The real divide is between the 0.01% and the rest of us. It’s between a couple thousand in each continent, and the rest of us. All 8 billion of us.

[–] AshMan85 32 points 5 months ago

Eat the rich

[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 months ago

Breaking news: Capitalism only works if you have capital. Otherwise you're fucked.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

You can tell we finally hit the soft landing because people switched from "THE 1% IS DRIVING US INTO A RECESSION" to this accusatory "actually avoiding recession is just what the 1% wanted all along!"

The 1% are doing way better than you, regardless. Common people should want low-but-non-zero inflation, positive real income growth, and low unemployment, and people who own stock should want stock market gains. We got all four right now. That's good. Things are allowed to be good even if they are also good for the 1%.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

Every time they print more money it means your money is worth less, and the 1% get to own all the real stuff

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

Fighting the 1% is stupid. Take a random sample of 100 people and pick the richest person. Do you think this person is an uber billionaire? Or just a very highly paid doctor, or tech bro?

Most of the 1%ers ($10M net worth) are closer to you and i than a guy with $100M net worth. The lower end of the 1% is on our side.

Start going after the 0.1%

[–] [email protected] -2 points 5 months ago

The more they print money, the more people buy into that monetarist bullshit while the rich rob us by driving up prices and claiming "inflation".

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

“Indeed, the skew is so large, with the top 1% benefitting the most, the end result is ever-widening wealth inequality. Central banks drive this,” he said.

I see we're still reaching for the wrong boogeyman. That'll keep wealth inequality intact.