Month Eight: Crashing Out Over A Podcaster

[Obsidian]

I feel the same way, but fuck if I’m not seeing it in the numbers. Every day I’m just waiting for the market to finally start tanking. And yeah I get that the market is usually the last thing to dip, but you’d think people smarter than me would already be yanking their money out since everything I’m seeing looks like red flags.

And unless I’m reading the wrong shit, or getting gaslit like a master, Black Friday sales weren’t just up online, they were up in stores too. So when everyone around me is bitching about prices and then I look at the numbers, something isn’t adding up.

The only argument I keep seeing is that yeah sales were higher, but people bought less stuff. So basically people paid more money for fewer things. And to me that means jack shit. Honestly that’s even worse. It means people are still fine spending more than last year while getting less. Unless everyone blew their entire holiday load in one weekend and December is going to be a dead month, I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.

Did you look at how much debt was added during Black Friday? People are BNPLing everything.

[Mertron]

according to the heritage foundation, trump threatened indiana would receive no more federal funding effective immediately if they did not pass their new gerrymandered maps, like texas

anywho, they jist voted on it again and it got voted down again

trump has no juice tbh

[Mertron]

do it donny. pull federal funding from a red state. it’ll be fun

[Mertron]

trump has no juice tbh

republicans and democrats in the house just overturned a trump executive order (limiting or removing labor negotiation rights from federal workers)

it’s the first time a trump executive order has been overturned this term

trump has no juice tbh

[Mertron]

while im piling on, trump’s failson lawyers have also once again failed to secure an indictment against letitia james today

trump has a bandage on his hand because that’s where the juice is leaking from

[Yabby]

Did you look at how much debt was added during Black Friday? People are BNPLing everything.

I've been seeing this same crap for like three years now. Like I said before, I'm seeing all the warning signs too, and the bill should've come due a while ago, but somehow people keep digging up more money to buy more shit. Folks are still using delivery services that turn a ten-dollar burger into twenty and then bitching about how expensive everything is while they keep doing it. I literally told a friend the other day, after they went on a whole rant about how everything costs too damn much, and they got pissed when I asked how many times they used DoorDash last week.

[Tyrath]

I've been seeing this same crap for like three years now. Like I said before, I'm seeing all the warning signs too, and the bill should've come due a while ago, but somehow people keep digging up more money to buy more shit. Folks are still using delivery services that turn a ten-dollar burger into twenty and then bitching about how expensive everything is while they keep doing it. I literally told a friend the other day, after they went on a whole rant about how everything costs too damn much, and they got pissed when I asked how many times they used DoorDash last week.

I am guilty of this.

But I can also afford it lol. Can't imagine doing that shit when you are piling up debt

[Elizara]

No kidding. I told 'Neko to stop using doordash and ask me to go get it (I can go get it for free, as in he only has to pay for the food, not the delivery).

I don't know why people keep doordashing stuff (including my other brother, geez. I found a doordash receipt in the kitchen trash yesterday.) all the time other than the convenience. Double for when you can't afford it. (TBH, I think The Troll (which is what I call that other brother online) got in the habit since has severe social anxiety and other mental problems; Doordash lets him avoid people for the most part. Tho he'd better beware the neighbor's dog..Neighbor doesn't shut the dog up in his yard and it runs though the neighborhood, so there's a chance it might steal the food..)

[synistar]

Chase is trying to get people to spend via BNPL on their credit cards. 0% interest on purchases over $100 on a set monthly repayment plan (6, 12, 18 months)

It's absurd how much spending has frozen for the bottom of the K-economy that isn't food/board/insurance/essentials.

On that note, got car repairs done and fully taking advantage of 0% interest.

[Elizara]

Nice, Synstar. Me, i'm actually saving for some minor repairs to my car; I got a very honest mechanic thank goodness.

[Tymon]

0% interest promotions are basically free money for people with the liquidity and willpower to keep themselves honest with it.

You're telling me I can defer thousands of dollars in expenses I'd pay for in cash for a year and keep that money in the market instead? Thanks I guess.

That's not what 90% of people are doing though, which is why they keep offering it. Those of us that profit from the system are a small enough minority to not matter to the bottom line.

[Xno Kappa]

I have an idiot cousin that used a company called Affirm to BNPL to go to all the Yankee home playoff games this past season. I 100% believe the average personal debt is sky rocketing because of dumb shit like this.

[Tyche]

PayPal was (still is?) offering 20% off one item if you spread the interest free payments over 4 months.

I absolutely BNPL'd a Bambu Labs P2S combo....less than $700 delivered.

[kuronosan]

God damn that's tempting

[Tyrath]

PayPal was (still is?) offering 20% off one item if you spread the interest free payments over 4 months.

I absolutely BNPL'd a Bambu Labs P2S combo....less than $700 delivered.

Damn I don't have any big purchase planned atm or I would totally do that

[Yabby]

My wife does some straight-up magic with our credit card and those random online cash-back sites. I don’t even know what the hell she’s doing half the time, but I’m not allowed to buy anything online unless she’s done her little ritual first. It’s basically modern-day couponing, and she’s a damn pro at it.

She plays the tracking and cookie game like a champ. She’ll go to whatever site is offering cash back, load up her cart, and then just… not buy anything. Give it a few days and the emails start rolling in with even more cash-back offers. One time we needed new running shoes, and she managed to squeeze out something like 35 percent back, so we grabbed two pairs each.

She even decked out our garage with one of those massive two-grand tool cabinets as a holiday gift. She was so proud because, as she put it, it was “free” thanks to all the cash-back money she’d stockpiled over a few months. And sure, I could point out how much she had to spend to rack that up, but it was all stuff we were going to buy anyway.

The deals are out there. You just need a wife who hyper-focuses on this shit and turns it into a superpower.

[kisada]

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/1...miami-00687160

"Eileen Higgins won Miami’s mayoral race on Tuesday with a technocratic, steady-governing pitch to stabilize a city straining under soaring costs. A detail-oriented mechanical engineer who nerds out on city planning, Higgins stood out among her peers for her pragmatism and calm demeanor even during dramatic debates. A few weeks earlier in New York City, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani won on a platform built around universal child care, free buses and a sweeping rent freeze, effectively harnessing his sharp retail-politics skills to get his message across."

a good sign other dems are coming around to the idea that people only care about affordability. we'll see if dcc's ken martin and other dems across the US will fully adopt the strategy over the next year

[Tymon]

I wonder how pissed off at Trump a bunch of his guys are internally. I would assume very. You see the leaky comments left and right these days about how badly they need to focus on affordability and how the Dems are winning the messaging. Even Vance said it.

Then Donnie comes out and melts down and says affordability is a hoax just like Epstein and the Democrats are evil and he won WV like no one has ever seen before and Joe Biden needs to go to jail.

[kisada]

I wonder how pissed off at Trump a bunch of his guys are internally. I would assume very. You see the leaky comments left and right these days about how badly they need to focus on affordability and how the Dems are winning the messaging. Even Vance said it.

Then Donnie comes out and melts down and says affordability is a hoax just like Epstein and the Democrats are evil and he won WV like no one has ever seen before and Joe Biden needs to go to jail.

oh for sure, though i imagine that's been par for course ever since he ran for office the first time.

the difference this time around, though, is that those comments run completely counter to the ONE, unifying message that dems have lacked for years. and it may very well help the majority realize that this is how hey can win now, and from now on.

what's funny also is, how easy is it to create a simple slogan/message revolving around affordability that makes sense to the everyman? there is an incredible opportunity here for dems to take advantage of, and for the first time (ever that i can think of?) i have the slightest bit of optimism they'll put find the two neurons necessary to do so.

[Meresgi]

Oh look even more photos of ol Donnie with way too young girls