blackshaw
Dear fucking God I will go to my grave complaining about how much I hate this trend.
The real way to measure predictive accuracy is to find _all_ the times they gave something a 25% chance of happening. If the predictions are accurate then roughly 25% of those things should have happened.
Wurs than Inglish? I hav my dowts.
Moronic analogy.
Of course in this case we're now discussing the opposite question and still not discussing the topic at hand.
But the main thing I'd say to anyone considering moving countries is that most countries aren't highly desired immigration destinations like the US or Western Europe, and thus most countries don't have strict and tightly-controlled immigration systems like Western countries do. If you want to go spend a few years in Thailand as a Westerner, it's laughably easy - just buy a flight and you'll probably figure it out once you're there, as your Western dollars/pounds/euros will go a looooong way.
(I apologize to any Thai people reading this; I know that digital nomads and other wealthy foreigners aren't universally appreciated in the countries they park up in. Am just sharing my own experience.)
I wouldn't want to live in that part of the world for the rest of my life, but the time I did spend travelling was the best thing I ever did and I have no regrets. I wrote about it here if anyone's interested:
Alex Jones is being a dick? Disgraceful - we need to censor the internet.
Cloudflare is protecting a Neo-Nazi website from being DDOSed? There's no such thing as neutrality - we need to censor the internet.
Journalists are getting "harassed"? This must be stopped - we need to censor the internet.
Someone I don't like got elected? The problem is "disinformation" - we need to censor the internet.
Some guy in Scotland made an idiotic and tasteless joke involving his dog? We can't allow this kind of content - we need to censor the internet.
Joe Rogan is platforming the wrong people? They mustn't be allowed to spread their bad ideas - we need to censor the internet.
Something, something, Russia? Censor the internet! Censor the internet!!!
But wait: now suicidal people are getting suicide information from a web forum? You'd have never have guessed, but the answer is... to censor the internet!
Idk, I think that maybe the issue isn't the issue, these people just want more power to censor the internet.
* Elderly people who struggle with technology.
* People fleeing coercive situations like domestic abuse where their abuser controls their finances.
* People with mental disabilities, for whom cash might be the only thing they know how to use.
* Homeless people, who might literally rely on cash to survive.
* Poorer people who prefer cash because it helps them budget and limit their spending.
* People so poor or otherwise disadvantaged that they don't even have a bank account.
That last group is much bigger than you think: by one estimate, 6% of American adults don't have a bank account and another 13% are "underbanked".[0] That's tens of millions of people in the US alone who don't have access to the basic financial services that you and I take for granted.
I have no idea how they do it. I'm not sure how it's even possible to navigate modern life without a bank account, but then I'm an educated, affluent professional who has no idea what it's like to be poor. Just because I don't need cash doesn't mean that no-one else does.
So basically, I think that asking "why should a business be forced by law to accept cash?" is like asking "why should a business be forced by law to provide wheelchair ramps and elevators?" If you don't think the answer is obvious, then you need to check your privilege.
[0] Source: https://usafacts.org/articles/who-is-the-least-likely-to-hav...
Here are two recent(ish) posts I was proud of:
https://blackshaw.substack.com/p/desert-island
https://blackshaw.substack.com/p/the-great-reset-is-too-stup...