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What's a pleb supposed to do now? Convert every paycheck to BTC, gold, or EUR?

Toilet paper and ammunition.

I assume there are some stocks that would benefit this? Maybe foreign stocks if the dollar declines?

The most-unamerican thing you can do right now is HOLD bitcoin/gold/silver.

If you still want fiat — and they're available — Swiss Francs are deflating least-quickly.

Otherwise, as a fellow pleb, my best advice is to get enough bullets for occassional hunting (and other tax-free methods of living) and protection.

If you're of a draftable age/gender, I'd either get extremely fit or extremely disabled. If you're a lard-ass, I'd get to a state where you can live without medicines.

—fellow blue collar american


You might as well for the next 3 years.

> Too many negative comments here. This is just someone discovering something new and sharing it very excitedly.

Some of the negativity is because many people out there were used to this slower way of living only for capitalist techbros to optimize every waking moment everything and hasten the rat race.

So now the only people who can sit idly at a cafe would be those who've already have a few million in the bank. It's similar to the CEO goes to a yoga retreat in Bali (or Burning Man) trope to rediscover being part of society.


I have 500€ in my bank account, 3k debt and 30 years of work left ahead of me and I take a lot of idle time in cafes or trains or the park. I don't see the issue.

The sooner one realizes that working hard isn't the key to life the sooner one realizes you'll have plenty more time. If you get something out of working hard, like joy, sure go ahead. But dont lie to yourself and think that working hard will actually ever pay off.

I do not earn enough to ever afford a house without going into debt for the rest of my life. As long as I can afford a cheap place, one new book a month and a hot shower in the morning I am content with never owning anything. As thats the world all the "hard working" people shoved us into.


>I take a lot of idle time in cafes or trains or the park. I don't see the issue.

Well, it sounds like you're not american. You have trains to use and clean parks, for one. That's nice.

>The sooner one realizes that working hard isn't the key to life the sooner one realizes you'll have plenty more time.

We're given decreasingly less choices, sadly. Work hard and cheap or be unable to pay rent and be kicked to the streets. The Social network over here is so broken that many have zero safety net, in terms of both government and community. Let alone a new book and a shower (well, maybe you get a gym subscription. I've heard that as a "life hack" for homeless people).


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Fair. But I'll just say that these are issues that have existed for decades. All recent times have done is bring it yo an unignorable fever pitch.

I'll agree on that. Europes facade is crumbling as well but people are too comfortable to do anything about it. Maybe the rough times in the USA actually make people take action.

I'm an American living in the EU for the last 1.5 y due to a work assignment. From what I observe here rough times and hard choices are coming for Europe, and probably relatively soon. I am sorry to say it, but I believe (as the saying goes) it is later than you think.

As for relying on your democratic process: I hope you are right.


You don't see the issue because you're not squeezed yet.

Imagine there are no more cheap places to rent anymore and American work culture invades Europe. Shops are no longer closed on Sunday, you're expected to be on call on weekends, and you have a paltry 14 days of vacation for the year.


This would require a lot of changes in basic human rights and legislatures that would never go through within my lifetime so Ill just not think about this. Nuclear war is far more likely to happen during my lifetime.

> This would require a lot of changes in basic human rights and legislatures that would never go through within my lifetime

I thought the same thing

- US citizen


Compared to the USA my country has actual democratic processes and laws in place to prevent parties from undermining everything.

The US work culture was always insane though

Wait, I live in central Europe, shops are normally open on Sunday and I do have to be on call on weekends (albeit only once a month). Did I miss the part where we became America?

Sitting with your own thoughts is privileged now? Interesting. I'll keep this in mind until there is seven digits in my bank account.

Where do you live? I've travelled quite a bit and cafes and pubs are constantly filled with regular folks enjoying an idle moment. Why would so many cafes exist if only that tiny demographic patronised them?

Capitalist techbros didn't force anyone to do anything. You need to take responsibility for your own life.

Because we're all temporarily embarrassed startup founders who haven't exited yet.


This attitude is what’s beautiful about the United States and is in large part responsible for why it’s so wealthy.

There’s a widespread faith and believe in the idea that there’s opportunity in every corner, regardless of familial status or other shortcomings.

This belief is largely factual, as the vast majority of unicorn founders and billionaires come from an upper middle class uninteresting background.


Couldn’t you also say it’s largely unfactual, since the vast majority of strivers and grinders never escape their economic class?

I guess it depends on what opportunity means to you. Does it mean something that’s “likely” or “less than one in a thousand”? To me, a “one in a thousand” chance to strike it rich is not good enough to justify the immense suffering our economic system causes.


Our economic system is actually the only thing that reduces suffering to this extent. It’s basically eliminated poverty, hunger, and healthcare scarcity.


When I say “our economic system” I am not talking about capitalism generally, I’m talking about the US system specifically, where we are:

51st in percentage of the population that lives in poverty [1]

Decent but worse than social democratic countries like France and Germany in hunger [2]

Ranked below Canada, France, Germany, the UK in healthcare outcomes, which all have more socialized systems than we do [3]

So I stand behind my broader point: the culture of individualism in the US benefits a select few and hurts us as a whole.

1: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/poverty-r... 2: https://journalistsresource.org/home/food-insecurity-health/... 3: https://www.commonwealthfund.org/sites/default/files/2024-09...


Calling it "poverty" is a misnomer - in the United States, even the poorest get food, healthcare, and housing.


Where is this a solved problem? No one likes these things. Seth Rogan reflects the zeitgeist in Platonic.


Los Angeles, including Santa Monica, LA City, West Hollywood others


Los Angeles, including Santa Monica, LA City, West Hollywood others

> A delivery robot collided with a disabled man on L.A. street. The aftermath is getting ugly

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-09-25/viral-vi...

You employ an interesting definition of "solved."


That video is hilarious, the “aftermath” is a funny video and that article, by the way. Thats it

so I’m having this discussion with parts of the country half a decade behind and this is the level of nuance as if it was half a decade ago? Is that what’s happening? Because thats even funnier


So no snow and not much rain?


Aside from yoghurt, you’ve only listed carbs. Sure oatmeal has protein (and fiber), but not as much as eggs.


Yeah, I was surprised stories of Volvo's EX90 lidar damaging camera sensors didn't get more traction: https://www.thedrive.com/news/volvo-ex90s-lidar-sensor-will-...

One would hope there would be more regulation around this.


I'm not surprised at all. This is not new - Jan 2019 https://image-sensors-world.blogspot.com/2019/01/1550nm-lida...

Just look at the comments of article you posted, with sock puppet accounts being actively hostile towards anyone asking questions.


I fear (Apple) will do something that allows the government to do what it wants (with a bit more work) without explicitly installing something.

For example, with the UK encryption debacle, Apple removed Advanced Data Protections (e2e encryption) for iCloud users in the UK. So users' notes, photos, emails are possibly open.


> fear will do something that allows the government to do what it wants (with a bit more work) without explicitly installing something

Why this isn’t being done at the SIM/baseband level is beyond me.


FYI two years ago, the Indian government shut down mobile service in the state of Punjab to catch one person:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35303486


I was there during this, literally text my wife when got notice and said “I do not know when I will be able to text next so keep an eye on your email”.


I don't buy their reasoning.

With all the mobile tracking tech, I would have thought that it would have been easier to catch the person if they had a working phone on them.


I assume that they weren't attempting to track him. They were trying to prevent the communication between the conspirators so that they can't coordinate his escape or organize an uprising to aid his escape. Suffice to say, the telecom networks and the internet service are fair game to them and they don't think twice about interfering with it for any reason.


The parent poster's example was more apt with US Steel.

Palantir on the otherhand is a well known defense contractor and its stock price is arguably propped up by the US Department of Defen -- I mean WAR -- having an infinite budget.

Don't be licking Thiel and Karp's boots.


I’m not. But I don’t have qualms about working at Palantir or any US defense contractor. If the work is legally allowed then I’m not going to second guess my source of income.


FYI if you're a US citizen, you can opt out of the biometric photo review. Of course there's still plenty of CCTV elsewhere.


I don't believe you can opt out when traveling internationally.


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