Castanza

Ukrainian Men Abroad Avoid War, and Are Racked by Guilt https://www.wsj.com/world/ukrainian-men-abroad-avoid-war-and-are-wracked-by-guilt-1e7fe3fd?st=303fflght5pa2iy&reflink=article_copyURL_share It’s one thing to do this in silence…or to avoid a war you don’t think there is any business being fought. But going to the press and having a sympathy piece written about you and your “guilt” for not joining up while your country is getting invaded is a whole new level of Fortunate Son. I can look back and understand to a degree those who fled to Canada during Vietnam, or those who chose not to join the military during the GWOT due to no real objective post 2011…after all GWOT was a voluntary war….but your literal home is being invaded, your friends went off to fight for it and you flee to Canada for “school”.

What income class and demographic are they from if you don’t mind sharing.

Why is everyone assuming all these obese people will want to take GLP-1s for weight loss? There is a lot of “fat and happy” people out there who simply couldn’t be bothered and enjoy their daily fast food/soda. This also ignores the psychological aspect of fast food (addiction and comfort/coping). The demographics and class structure doesn’t exactly line up with who is likely to buy or pursue these drugs imo. But I guess that could change based on accessibility and affordability. 92% of cosmetic surgeries (breast, nose, lipo, tummy) in the US are for women. 89% of liposuction patients are women 80% of gastric band surgeries are performed on women ~70% of the above are white women ~15% African American Overwhelming majority of cosmetic surgeries are done by upper middle and upper class people. Trends heavily up as income rises. 35% of women eat fast food daily 38% of men eat fast food daily 42% of African-Americans eat fast food daily 37% of Whites eat fast food daily 35% of Hispanics eat fast food daily 30% of Asians eat fast food daily The middle class eats the most fast food followed by low income and then the wealthy.

Start following Gen McCrystal routine. 1hr of jogging in the morning and 1 big meal a day.

I thought there were a bunch of side effects with Ozempic? Loss of bone mass, cartilage, tissue etc. There was also a UK report about thyroid issues etc. Something tells me this is going to be too good to be true. Plus if you’re a guy why tf would you take Ozempic when you could just get TRT online shipped to your house lose weight and get shredded? Side effects are generally manageable if you don’t go nuts and you can still pretty much eat whatever you want.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/odd-lots/id1056200096?i=1000628747870 Very good episode

Pretty much consumer spending looks good (sales up yoy). Retail inflation coming down (COST CEO). Housing looks better, consumer debt not really that bad etc. Dont want to speak for you @wabuffo but just highlighting the data you highlight on twitter vs the sentiments we see blasted across the media.

Good exercise is to look at retail stocks…then go look at Wabuffo’s Twitter account.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/odd-lots/id1056200096?i=1000628671006 Thought this was an interesting perspective that highlights some of the current mindset people have with markets. Helps me flesh out the difference in sentiment vs metrics. Is anyone else noticing (maybe just the algos for me) on fintwit the divvy portfolio push? Seeing a lot of people pushing dividend income over longterm share appreciation. It’s like a “rent your income” type of thing… Seems like a byproduct of people’s obsession with the “coming market crash”, economic outlook, housing market, etc. and as a result reaching for income security in the short term.

Something tells me you might enjoy this Twitter account https://x.com/trudeaus_ego/status/1706453975061475605?s=46 Sad to see Canada and the US in the state they are in. Politicians are so out of touch with what the people want or what’s best for both countries it’s starting to look like France just before the chateaus started burning.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Been following Canadian housing loosely for a few years now ever since my BIL built a beach cottage for ~200k all in then sold it to some guy from Toronto for ~600k barely 3 years later…. A LOT of people up there bemoaning how easy it is to flip houses. When your barber starts talking about real estate flips it’s time to pay attention. https://x.com/jonflynnrestats/status/1697757207574503482?s=46 Follow a few Canadian Relators on Twitter. Any you would suggest?

Buddy has it at a remote cabin in West Virginia and it works great.

Same

Like I said idc so much about the wages. If Ford and GM can afford to pay it and come to an agreement great! Earn as much as you can! It’s more so the tactics (“let’s drag this out for months”)and approach/being out of touch with reality or the broader market of jobs. 82k is what 20k above the National average? Throw in the benefits and pension and who tf are you to demand this? Let’s hold all these other companies hostage or hurt their bottom lines because you have unreasonable demands. Plus most of these jobs are in the Midwest where 70k a year is very good pay to support a family. I just get more upset that people are generally unreasonable. It’s always extremes on both ends. Now public pensions…they really boil my blood but that’s a discussion for a different forum as it’s political in nature.

Typically contracts are every 5 years. This whole current strike is because in 2018 the union agreed to tiered wages where one group earns about half of the other. Likely to avoid losing their jobs. Agree with what Unions have become. At the end of the day idc all that much. It’s a private company. But I’m going to laugh my ass off when these same UAW workers bitch and loan about their now 75k mini vans rolling off lines due to increased capex. Or frankly when the big 3 ship the rest of the jobs abroad. There is never enough in the pot for unions and it’s usually a top down problem. @Spekulatius @stahleyp I like the CEO thing and frankly I think most CEOs should have wages tied to performance. I also think it’s a strawman to say Walmart CEO makes 20m or whatever so we should be making blah blah blah. @Santayana Idk is it skilled labor? Maybe somewhere in between skilled and unskilled. Go watch some videos and most people stand in place for 8 hours screwing together the same door panel one after the other. It’s pattern following at best. Also I don’t believe the engineers are union. They are likely in a separate class similar to management. Typically only the bottom tier are Union. So it’s likely they don’t get the same benefits. But I’m not 100% on this. Also should be noted that many of these local union reps make well north of 150k a year. Bump up the level of representation (regional, national etc.) and you’re talking hundreds of thousands. Curry was making almost 300k….Incentives are bad all around….and this doesn’t account for all the under the table criminal stuff that goes on. I always remember a driver at UPS who ran and win for our local. Well it came with a LOT of perks and the guy changed completely. All of a sudden he was wearing Rolex watches and driving brand new Escalades…expensing lunches and gas etc. these guys are just proxy politicians at the end of the day. Unions are simply about plundering companies nowadays.

+1 at this point what has changed?

Imagine paying assembly line workers the same as your engineering staff… https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/General-Motors-GM-Engineer-Salaries-E279_D_KO18,26.htm @CassiusKing1 I think it’s highly probable. Union is simply out of touch…I’m all for wage growth and better working conditions. But when your arguing for unskilled labor wages higher than most starting engineering positions, nurses, teachers, etc. you’re simple asking too much. Private company do what you want! But I don’t see how it’s sustainable long term. You’re simply pricing yourself out of jobs by asking for top 5% pay for what exactly in return? Welcome to the global economy…US should move on from these bottom barrel manufacturing jobs and get with the times. You want manufacturing here? We’ll move to the skilled market (cough cough TSMC AZ plant)… Different environments call for different solutions.

Not happy with base pay of 82k/yr with best in class benefits and a pension proposal. Unions want 94k/yr with pension and benefits all in a 32hr work week. Sounds like they UAW wants to drag this out for months….could be conjecture and grandstanding. Could these companies even afford to pay this? https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/uaw-poised-to-expand-strike-to-more-auto-factories-98f0a9af?st=06mohmzo2ibvx6e&reflink=article_copyURL_share

Yup I own a small amount of this as well. Payed attention when Kuppy started pounding the table on uranium. At some point the world will wake up and realize it needs nuclear.

AIV, FRPH, PCYO

Yup the ability to take your net worth (or some worth) with you by simply memorizing a 24 word seed phrase is priceless. Anyone who’s lived through a Warzone or major crisis should understand this. Imagine if this existed during WWII and nations stored their wealth in BTC instead of Gold. Hitler would have had a MUCH tougher time finding the war. Those gold reserves and wealth he stole from Europes banks, citizens, Jews etc. would not have been there.

Ratio when I was there was 6 to 1 insiders vs off street hire. 4 years till you hit top pay rate. Worked out well for me and paid for the rest of education. Def wouldn’t want to do it as a career. Every guy there had back surgery, elbow, shoulder, knee you name it. Divorce rate was through the roof.

As someone who’s done it I’d find something else. Hours suck and you don’t start till 8:30-9 so that 10-12hr shift hits worse with the home life. Pay and benefits were great for a normal job. Stress is relative and subjective. During 08-09 every banker and financial advisor from here to Timbuktu was shaking like a dog crapping a peach seed. But those Union drivers say pretty. So stress is different pending the macro environment for sure. But I do get @Gregmal point. I think we share pretty similar frameworks but I’m maybe a bit more risk averse since I paid off my house early. I think Greg is also a bit older than me so probably at different stops on the route; and frankly probably better off/more financially savvy. Now that my monthly cash flow is less intensive I’ve definitely dialed back the savings requirements, intending to make that money work more for me etc. Whatever let’s you sleep at night

Dropping the gold standard also happened in 1971 fwiw