Present Value Of Money

It’s pretty safe to say that the targets of internet grift have a poor concept of money management.  And accounting, although if you dig into it the math is really not terribly difficult, has a certain aura of authenticity to it.  It sounds way cooler to call yourself a certified financial analyst than it does to merely be a bookkeeper.  

The key to getting that certification?  One plan is to take on a lot of student loan debt, find a job in an industry that’s in the financial sector, wear a suit and tie every day and complain about every time you hear that some government official talks about the rich being taxed.  The other plan is to go through the arduous process of being born into a wealthy family and then follow all those steps.  You’ve already grown up learning to complain about taxes, you just need some school more interested in Daddy’s donations than you legitimately studying for your certification.

Even the most lowly of the financially ignorant has a basic grasp of the present value of money, even if they don’t understand why.  I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.  WTF?!?  Dude, are you crazy?  I’m supposed to just give you a hamburger now and trust some vague promise of being reimbursed.  Get the fuck outta here.  Future value is basically the same.  I would rather you pay me today.  I’d rather you pay me next Tuesday if that’s the best I can get, it’s better than getting paid a year from now.

Tables like the image above work, if you keep in mind an important piece.  The interest rates are locked in, the standard method of operation being a signed contract.  The annuities for a big lottery payout are based on this.  You won 50 million?  That’s if it’s paid out in yearly installments.  You want it today, it’s a lot less than that, but be damned sure the taxes are coming out of it all up front.

And since people who tend to fall for get rich quick schemes throw common sense out the window when money gets involved they don’t realize that the entire contract process is a sham.  Nothing is in writing.  There’s no guarantee that your involvement with the sovereign citizen claims, sports gematria bets or crypto pump and dump ploys is *definitely* going to net you at least x amount of dollars in the future.  You need to make your decision now, because the grifter understands that it’s more important to get your money now than it is to let you wait awhile and think about it.  You just might let a friend or family member slightly more sane talk you out of it.  Or you might get enticed away by flame wars of competing grifters playing the Shill Game.  Or you might put a pause on your sports parlays and buy some Christmas presents this year.  The immediate transfer of cash from you to them now is the only guaranteed outcome after you sign up for that Patreon.

Personally, I’m hugely skeptical of any solutions to an extraordinarily complex subject like climate change.  Studies get thrown around showing $ invested in renewables, nuclear energy, investment in new tech and whatever else.  And just like the retail employee pocketing stuff from the stockroom and outside “shoppers” lifting goods, the shrinkage issue isn’t addressed.  The present value of the $ in full is presented without the added factor of people being assholes factored in.  Having been aware of how oil companies have stuck their hands into politics and aided where we are at now for many decades - I’ve seen nothing that changes my mind that a sensible solution to minimize the grift shrinkage is even remotely brewing.

Your numbers might be based on a solid 20% return.  But what if a full half of that disappears while waiting for it to play out?  There’s no climate change “contract” in place to make the big polluters actually move forward on genuinely worthwhile actionable solutions.  Social contracts are easy to break.

And there is something the ordinary person can do, instead of just me complaining I offer a stepping stone towards happiness.  Start taking misinformation seriously.  Instead of donating to that politician for a vague promise of enemies being squashed, think about the effect on you today.  Start looking for politicians that realize that misinformation and disinformation are a catch all for a lot of problems.  Grift takes a chunk off of climate change induced disaster relief.  Grift takes a chunk off of vaccination for new pandemics.  Grift takes a chunk off of tax collections, keeping law enforcement and the courts busy with sovereign citizen tactics.  Grift takes a chunk off of food pantries run by the well meaning religious organizations who are competing with end of the world survivalist content creators.

The last place you should ever do research on for a financial issue is social media, until you get to the point where you recognize the internet grifters for what they are.