China Pioneering ,,, First Country to Adopt Basic Income

I knew sth was up when China had the extended lockdowns more than any other country.

And maybe THIS is what is up.

China might be the first country to give out a Basic Income to everyone.

In the first part of today's show, we delved into why China might be the pioneering nation to adopt Universal Basic Income, a move that could redefine global economics.

If they roll it out, people don't need to work anymore ... unless it's not enough to survive.

But it could also lead to more govt control since they're handing out your paycheck.

Do you really think that's gonna work in China? You lived in China, right? The same China where countless numbers of people lose their life savings on government tied real estate scams? The same government that mass incarcerated the population in their own homes for years under Covid restrictions? That same central government treasury is just going to keep benevolently issuing everyone a livable salary in perpetuity?

Greed-ridden China can't pull that off. It'll be a socio-economic clusterfuck of epic proportions, I guarantee it.

Is it painfully obvious that you're holding a grudge because you got fucked over in China?

I also got fucked over there, but some of the jobs were better than the crap jobs I'm doing here

I miss the place.

I dunno if it's gonna work. China is also investing heavily into AI, so it might.

Yeah, all of China's deep-rooted social ills stem from my personal grudge against China. You are really brilliant for figuring that out.

Where is Horatius???

Horatius, tell him WHY he doesn't want to go back to China. I've tried, Lord knows I've tried.

The bullshit level is through the roof in China now. I was back in 2018, only gone 3 years, and it was palpable, the suckiness it had become. But Horatius can tell you about Covid. It's not the same as you remember it. You remember how they almost finally revolted over the covid restrictions but then the government lifted them? Foreigners can't stay in regular hotels. I got kicked out of a hotel because the stupid law passed. I had to go to this expensive yet highly shitty knock-off version of a five star hotel for a week. The police had to come check me in, which took two hours. Just to stay in a hotel. I had a bunch of bullshit trying to buy a train ticket. It's obnoxious. The no foreigners in chinese hotels thing is obnoxius. It's turning back into how things were before I got there, with foreigner designated housing and the friendship store and all that bullshit.

Yeah, true.

Covid was the worst there.

I won't be going back.

It's basically a fucked up place.

But they have ample teaching jobs which were better than the jobs I can get here.

If things change in the future, I might go back.

Who knows? Maybe the CCP will come to an end.

You never know.

Make sure they cover airfare upfront.  It's like $3000+ these days.

I won't go back, no point.  I mean, I did go back.  It sucks.  There were burger kings everywhere but I don't see that as an improvement.  Urban and surban sprawl.  Beijing is getting scary huge.  

Where I want to go is India or Vietnam for a long VACATION.  I'll have over two months of vacation this summer.  I might not go, especially if the airfare is still high.  But I want to do fuck all on this vacation.  Just hang around the guesthouse on my laptop doing shit like this, eating local whatever street food, drinking coffee, walking around.  Fuck this bullshit like I can permanently settle there.  You can't.  Or maybe through marriage but what if I don't want to be married to some bitch in order to live there?

I don't want to LIVE there.  I want to enjoy my time there and come back and have a house and money.  I don't want to deal with annual visa crisis, job crisis, housing crisis, financial crisis, bitch crisis, drunk-me crisis.

No interest in whores.  Not there for that.  No drinking either.  

Oh shit I probably better not even go.  I'll hang around the house for two months rather than go through all that expense and hassle just to wake up in a Hanoi drunk tank.

Thats the other bullshit with these jobs here.

You have to work 5 years to get a 1 month vacation.

How the fuck did you get so much time off?

I would even take unpaid time off if they allowed it.

I have 2 weeks this year. That's not enough for much.

I get a fuckton of vacation. Added together, it's less than half the days of the year that we work, like 180 days out of 365, which is less than half.

Except this week because I've already called in sick tomorrow. I have to because of the updated covid measures. We will get "written up" if we try to hide an illness or come in sick.

We also don't get paid, but whatever. I don't care if my pay this month gets deducted a week. I've got serious coursework I could start on. Step one is a research paper on legal papers. Jesus Christ. That means I actually have to sit there for hours reading all those legal papers and understanding all what bullshit they're talking about that I don't care? Fuck. I don't want to do that shit.

How the fuck did you pull that off?

They're not allowed to force you to work 50 weeks a year if you can afford to take unpaid time off.

Fuckin' prison man.

These jobs and office environments are soul-destroying insane asylums.

We should only work half the year to regain our sanity.

They were nice to me today when I called in sick.  I still went in for the covid test and told my boss I needed some binders so I could do some work at home on the data project but she told me to rest.  Then I realized I had hours upon hours of mandatory software training for another bs software system to get done this week.  So that was my sick day today, reading online course material and taking tests for five hours.  

I just passed another exam !!

Man, I was having burn-out. Working all day and I had to study at night and weekends.

I can't study like I used to.

USA might be moving toward a 4 day workweek?

Hellboy Kickass wrote:

USA might be moving toward a 4 day workweek?

Not if people want to cover their bills.

Prices just keep going up.

There's talk of a real estate crash. I hate to say this, but I sort of hope for it to happen so I can get a good deal on some land.

Why do you insist on buying land?

You're going against your own nature and future trends.

You've been nomadic all your life.

And the world is trending toward being more nomadic with more and more remote work.

You are superimposing outdated ideals onto your life.

Very few jobs are remote.  I' ve spent a lot of time applying for work and there ain't much and most of what there is are scams, usually commission based sales for companies that have scores of negative reviews on Glassdoor because they endlessly fuck their customers and employees.

My last job was remote and they shut down.  We had two remote employees at the job prior to that one.  People barely knew who they were.  The boss fired them because they were mostly irrelevant.

Being nomadic is bullshit in a country where startup costs are astronomical and it takes months to find a job.  Rents are through the roof and constantly increasing.  I have coworkers who spend over half their salary on rent and bills.  Minimum wage, like most of the jobs?  Forget it.  You cannot afford to live.  One crisis renders you homeless.

Being "nomadic" is endless crisis.  It's unsustainable.  It's destitution and stress.

Want to retire someday?  Jobs don't pay you for not working. You won't survive off social security if you're burdened with high rent.  Owning a house and lot is smart investment, especially here where I can do it on the cheap and there's civilization and jobs.

Maybe some truth in there.

But maybe you're also overly pessimistic and negative and have a bleak view of everything.

Not sure how much of your ramblings I want to continue to sift through.

Also, a lot of your frustrations come from the "American Dream" expectations.

I am in a small apt and it's good enough for me. I don't give a shit about having a big house.

Sorry, I'm outta here.

I don't see any point to talk to you.

I don't know what I'm doing here.

Before, we were expats in China on a China forum.

Now what?

Disgruntled former China expats?

Fuck this shit.

I don't need to talk to you at all.

I'm not disgruntled.  Like I keep saying, one wouldn't want to be in China these days.  I'm glad I'm NOT there.

You're disgruntled.  You're permanently disgruntled about fkn everything.  

Why don't you try regruntling yourself a little?  It might do you some good.