The unholy matrimony of money grows on trees thinking versus woe is me take care of my selfish needs today.
In one corner we have the SNAP benefits government shutdown saga. There’s a lot more to the government shutdown and the other outspoken problems. Air traffic control understaffed and overworked for decades. Lack of effective regulation and investment in infrastructure because CeOs NeEd MoRe PrIvAtE JeTs AnD gOlF aNd A fOuRtH MiLlIoN dOlLaR mAnSiOn instead of running a company with long term sustainability in mind. But gematria to the rescue because we had this the past week:
Over six hours of video, most of it with nothing to do with Zach or gematria, that can be correctly answered, “No” and left at that. Two seconds move on with life. A slightly lengthy answer, the gematria answer, would be either to find a narrative that the SNAP benefits will resume soon and a counter narrative for the government shutdown will continue for a lot longer. Then wait until we see what actually happens and claim you predicted it. The real life social issue version of picking both teams to win in tomorrow’s NFL games.
Within that lengthy video is commentary that is spreading a lot on the pessimistic YouTube arena. Poorer people desperate to feed themselves and their families, a mix of genuinely actual at risk now as well as what you call middle class feeling the pinch and worried about becoming the genuine at risk - that’s an entirely different breed of angry than what the U.S. is used to. The narratives about increased expectation in crimes from shoplifting to make ends meet to full blown food riots are taking root. And it’s worth pointing out that a gematria story about any sort of resolution to when SNAP benefits resume does diddly squat about how it’s going to affect your personal finances.
EXCEPT. Gambling has reached epic proportions. The Robin Hood banking app offers gambling. For now this is worded diplomatically as something like, “Blurring the lines between investment and gambling.” Which is itself Orwellian doublespeak for “It’s fucking absolutely gambling, but it’s sanctioned by the blooming authoritarian leadership so don’t you dare call it anything but investment.”
Coffezilla video on gambling epidemic:
Now in addition to hidden traps on traditional sports betting, things like the endless prop bets and teasing on top of the actual more normal win or lose the game you can bet on all kinds of not sports stuff. Elections including papal enclaves, pop culture like award show winners, and even when the government shutdown will end. If it can be argued about at the bar where you can conflate your subjective opinions with actual facts, you can bet on it and simultaneously be a total bad ass genius, even if you lose. We aren’t going to be surprised if it turns out gematria sports has been secretly funded by sports betting companies. There’s too much easy money for this to go away. Ever.
On the other hand, there’s gambling with retirement savings. Like sports betting any influencer willing to take up sponsorship dollars is going to put up a disclaimer saying you should be careful with gambling, retirement advice is going to warn of investment risk. And retirement scams are reaching epic proportions.
I’m sooooo much smarter than these poor people! Don’t you date mess with my investment rate of return!!!! Yeah, maybe you should hedge that stock portfolio with a Polymarket bet on when a food riot breaks out. I personally find the people in this category more annoying to deal with in my everyday life. The concept of the traditional retirement is evolving. A million dollars goes less far than it used to in retirement than before. But the ads before YouTube videos still hold that out as the magic number. The difference now is WHEN you retire with a million dollars. The job market is totally screwed now, globally. There’s more people than jobs. The number one thing to go for cutting costs is staff. People rioting for food don’t tend to drive healthy investment markets upwards.
Clearly, there’s adults in the room to rationally discuss the issues are absent. And finally there’s enough sustained protest and objection that show the more average of us recognize the core issue. The wealth distribution systems are not working. And the current so called leadership is not working on it. They don’t have any intention of working on it. Humans are pretty resilient and change will happen, but WHEN. And what that will be is waiting for a gematria decode so we can pinpoint what is WRONG and narrow down what is RIGHT.
