Brainsploosh

Then perhaps we are starting from different points, my model is basically that an economy is a closed system until either a) resources, innovation or performed work inputs more value or b) these are removed from circulation.

Under that model inflation, services, taxes, are all value neutral for a certain scope of economy. Your private finances are of course going to be affected by taxes and inflation, but total world or even national economy not so much.

To put it in simpler terms, all goods and services exchanged for money don't change the economy as long as that money gets spent again.

It's a simplified model ofc, it doesn't take into account for example moving value between countries/markets (how do we account for stuff sent into space? Or sent to other countries?).

To help with understanding your perspective, could you kindly explain how high net worth individuals come to their situation within your model?

Everything you buy from a company he owns takes a cut to give to him.

Not necessarily, as not all companies give dividents or buybacks. But let's say they all do.

Very few companies run at a loss for long. All profit is on the back of the workers, and if that isn't returned to them, it is parasitism. Regardless if the owner takes dividends, or borrows against the increased value of their stocks, or any other enrichment of them, is at the expense of the laborer.

I'll mention that I'm not necessarily against it, but it is the central tenet of capitalism.

The same argument applies to employees: they get a cut of a companies income? I think a fair deal: as long as they make something I want or need at a price I agree to I'll buy it. Otherwise I won't.

Issue is, the labourer is doing the work, why aren't they entitled to the value of that work? How come someone gets to just grab 20% to pay off those who don't produce the same value?

manipulate both your salary and cost of goods

Not really, I'm self-employed. As to the price of goods, see the above. We manipulate it just as well. Other large manipulators are monetary policy and taxes.

You don't have any economic muscle against the big players in your market. Are you really pricing according to the cost of production? More probably you're pricing close to market value, which you aren't deciding on your own. The bigger fish have more say in that then you do, on both the demand and supply side.

Monetary policy is a tool to affect the distribution of money, it does not itself extract or inject value.

Taxes only extract value with corruption. All taxed money put into the commons, no matter how inefficiently, are for the public good and stimulation of the economy. The extraction comes with parasitism and hoarding which happens when individuals are enriched at the expense of others. This happens through corruption ofc, both in embezzlement, underdelivered value and exploitative cash flows.

Amazon workers not being able to pee at work for a salary they can't really live on seems another example.

How's that related to individual's net worth? Customers will always want goods cheap, even if a company's ownership is diluted to the point that each shareholder isn't a billionair.

Oh, it's not about net worth. It's meant to be an example where the owner class is extracting inhumane amounts of value from the employees. Making Bezos rich at the expense of both the employees and the rest of us having to bear the loss of years of quality life with the following reduced production, increased need of social and medical support, and extracted value.

To summarise: Any money taken away from the people doing the work, directly or indirectly, is exploitation.

I happen to think exploitation is unethical.

Everything you buy from a company he owns takes a cut to give to him. That is value you don't get for your hard earned money.

On top of that, Mr Buffet himself, as well as magnates in general, manipulate both your salary and cost of goods so that you get even less for your hard work.

Amazon workers not being able to pee at work for a salary they can't really live on seems another example.

Getting a student visa is easy and an excellent way to both get valid credentials and a feel for the local culture.

As to where you should go depends on what you're interested in, you'll almost certainly be able to make a home wherever, so pick something that seems interesting and go (you can always use your mandated vacation days to explore the rest of EU).

For language, in almost all the major cities people will be able to speak English, although typically you'll want to learn the local language sooner rather than later for social reasons.

If you know Spanish go Barcelona, beautiful city, vibrant in both culture and industry, and with values not too shockingly different to the US. For more info, either visit the Spanish consulate nearest you or look up their online presence.

If you want to keep to English, consider Ireland, they've also had a booming IT industry for all the giants needing a foot in the EU.

Mostly you can't go wrong anywhere in the EU. Biggest culture shock would probably be the Nordics or Slavic countries, but not necessarily in a bad way.

All of them have tons of info about student visas at each university, the degrees are standardised throughout the EU and most universities are good, and typically outstanding in a couple areas.
For more info you just contact their international coordinator, or their closest consulate.

Most countries also have dedicated Web pages that outline the process, steps, and how you move toward permanent residence and citizenship if you'd want that.

Moving is typically the hard part, but if you start as a student, you'll have a lot prepared for you (student accommodations, stipends, social activities, part-time job offers, recruitment fairs, incubators, etc.)

Although hugely inefficient in both materials and energy.

Exactly like this article you mean?

Also, unwieldy phrasing and word choice.

Interesting perspective, but by the gods is it poorly written. AI written in paragraphs, each point repeats 3-5 times. Painful to read

For that amount of money you could probably travel to another country and get it significantly cheaper.

I really liked How to become the Dark Lord and die trying by Django Wexler.

Fantasy isekai with a female mc and some fresh twists.

Wow you read a lot more into the religious theme than I did. I found it an exploration of the engineering behind almost every SciFi trope rather than playing god.

And as an atheist I found the religious characterisation entirely adequate, it is a minor part of the characters personality, and it's only in the obnoxious ones that it becomes dominating. Which is quite close to how it is in my daily life.

But yes, the whole series is made within and to serve nerd culture, it is a long long stream of references and in-jokes at multiple levels, including the main premise. It just happens to also be intelligently written.

I recently found the Bobiverse to be a light-hearted read in this category.

Engineer becomes von Neumann probe and has to solve quite a lot of interesting issues while bootstrapping and dealing with settling in the galactic neighbourhood

It's easy, you just add -ie to bourgeois.

The -ie ending is from French and is like a hand-wavy ending meaning "that lot".

Happy to help

/s