The US Economy

Post by **Jonas** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 10:10 pm

Hey the film industry generally did pretty well during the depression, right? Prices were affordable and customers were plenty. I think entertainment industries in general make it through economic recessions (or even depressions) pretty well. At least I hope so, since I'm going into one.

I'm slightly concerned about the whole devaluation thing. I hope the EMU will stay strong because the Danish krone is tied up on it and I own lots and lots of those. It would be a bit of a downer to see 4 years' savings become completely worthless because of some goddamn American bankers.

fox · Post by **fox** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 10:11 pm

EER wrote:
fox wrote:food, sex, gas...
Food won't stay good for long, so it's not suitable as a currency
Sex would be ok, although I'm having a hard time deciding what the price for a cup of coffee would be. And what about the vending machines?
Gas would be ok, although you'd have to sell it for it to be useful. For sex probably.

Fuck the pain away.

But selling heavy drugs means a constant (growing) flow of food etc. It doesn't need to stay good for long. Decisions how much something costs will be made on the fly. That slave-thing I've edited into my last post strikes me as a prosperous idea.

Smike · Post by **Smike** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 10:47 pm

Yes, entertainment $$$ is essentially inverse to how well the rest of the economy is doing. Can't afford rent? Go to a movie. Can't afford a car? Walk to the nearest strip joint and put some paper between G-strings and thighs. Can't buy food? Get a whore.

"Gone With The Wind" and "Snow White" are STILL the two highest grossing films of all time in the US (domestic, adjusted for inflation). And they did it during the most massive economic depression in the history of the US. 2007 was a record year for film, and 2008 is on track to beat even that, especially with "The Dark Knight"'s forecasted $1 BILLION performance (which would make it only the fourth film in history to do that, after Titanic, LotR:RotK and Pirates 2). Hard to imagine 2009 could beat '08, but if things just keep getting worse, it almost certainly will!

Post by **Jonas** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 11:12 pm

Thanks for confirming, Smike. Plus, when there's a depression, luxury goods also tend to drop drastically in price, and that includes high-end PC hardware and games consoles. So I have high hopes for the immediate future.

fox · Post by **fox** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 11:46 pm

Smike wrote:Fox: Nah, wasn't making an analogy either, just observing a cultural trend. Economics and politics are points of discussion for the youth culture of today, and that reminds me of how often we talked about movies in the 90s. Yesterday we were talking about fruit, now it's turnips. Wow, funny that. Get me? Two separate points:
1. I was reminiscing - "Times like these remind me of the mid 90s..."
2. Because I've observed something - "Now everyone's an armchair politician and economist..."

I don't think that's a cultural trend, just people gossiping about what's currently big in the news - same as it ever was. People may sense something big in this one (people love apocalyptic stuff) but one week after the news stop talking about it, it will be forgotten again.

It still remains the fact, that discussions without proper backround knowledge (about economy) are a bit stupid and fruitless while discussions about movies are legitimate. No, just kidding - they are also stupid and fruitless. I think discussions are overrated anyways. Wanna buy some drugs? fox's about to make you his bitch!

I can sort of see how that could be confusing to anyone, though you ARE German, so it's in your blood to be detrimentally concerned with details I suppose.
(Just like it's in my blood to be detrimentally concerned with surfing and carrot juice.)

Huh?! Is that some crude Nazi-stereotype I am unaware of?

chris the cynic · Post by **chris the cynic** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 12:11 am

fox wrote:
I can sort of see how that could be confusing to anyone, though you ARE German, so it's in your blood to be detrimentally concerned with details I suppose.
(Just like it's in my blood to be detrimentally concerned with surfing and carrot juice.)
Huh?! Is that some crude Nazi-stereotype I am unaware of?

Not a Nazi stereotype, just a German stereotype. German attention to detail is legendary here in the United States. It has nothing to do with the Nazi party.

fox · Post by **fox** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 12:18 am

Fascinating. I actually wonder how that became a stereotype about Germans. Is it because of the once famous high production standards ("Made in Germany")?

Smike · Post by **Smike** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 12:19 am

It's a GERMAN stereotype. Like you have no sense of humor and drink vast quantities of beer and like David Hasselhoff. Clearly. Hey at least you HAVE stereotypes - look at Jonas. I couldn't think of an actual Danish stereotype if you put a gun to my head. I've had to completely make them up!

Oh my god, I just wrote that and then noticed that Chris had said EXACTLY THE SAME THING right before me! Hahaha - see? It really is a massive stereotype over here.

fox · Post by **fox** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 12:26 am

I guess you were refering to "Deutsche Gründlichkeit" (=German efficency). I bet that has it's roots in the Third Reich.

Smike · Post by **Smike** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 12:52 am

Yep, German Efficiency's the one. If I had to guess, I'd say it comes from the way Germans speak, their stereotypical body language, the cars, and of course yes, the famous production standards. "German Engineering" is a common selling point over here - it's in ads for all kinds of things.

Rarely heard is "Canadian, uuhhhh, anything?" or "British Pompous Assness" for selling things, or "Chinese Pointless Laboring" for that matter. Oooo! Oooo! More!

"Rhode Island Uptightness", "Texan Violence"
"Inuit Cold Tolerance", "Russian Alcohol Tolerance", or for that matter
"Scottish Alcohol Tolerance", or even more accurately "Scottish Inane Insanity"

"Irish Alcohol Intolerance"
"Jewish..." no that one's WAY too easy
"African Poor-ass Lame and Starvingness" (probably not great for selling too much)
"Dutch...whoa, dude, like, whoa, I'm like so high right now..."
"Italian Total Lack of Self Control"
Or my favorite:
"Spanish Inefficiency"

Oh this is too fun though.

Mr_Cyberpunk · Post by **Mr_Cyberpunk** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 3:35 am

Smike wins the thread

that was just epic win right there.

And nice going leaving Australia out.. very stereotypical

Post by **Jonas** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 9:06 am

Smike wrote:Hey at least you HAVE stereotypes - look at Jonas. I couldn't think of an actual Danish stereotype if you put a gun to my head. I've had to completely make them up!

Danish Military Arrogance

Okay so that may be in the "making shit up" category, but at least it's something. Also highly recommended viewing:

What's the Matter With Denmark? Pt. 1

Mohammed, Mo' Problems
(And you thought the guy who built a moat around the Danish Embassy was just being paranoid.)

Post by **DDL** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 1:21 pm

I thought you all drove around in lego cars and ate nothing but pastries and smorgasbords the whole time?

Surely?

(admittedly smorgasbord A) needs more silly non-ascii O's, and B) is what, basically a table full of everything? So not too restrictive)

Post by **Jonas** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 3:18 pm

We have cutlery made out of Lego*!

* Not actually in any way true, but I wish it were.

fox · Post by **fox** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 3:45 pm

One thing I forgot to mention yesterday was that I deliberately left "politician" out of my rant against Smike's statement:

Times like these remind me of the mid 90s, when everyone was a movie critic. Now everyone's an armchair politician and economist, while no one actually knows a damned thing about any of the subjects..

Yeah, yeah... it was just an observation, not an analogy or comparison with "everyone's a movie critic" - got it - but in the context of your post and this thread it obviously came with the negative connotation that too many people talk about things they don't know shit about - which I can totally agree with (although I do it myself sometimes). Like I said, non-experts seriously (<- personal backdoor) discussing about solutions for a fucked up global economy strike me as either naive, extremely bored or a bit megalomaniacal. Undeniably you have to have tons of knowledge about the current situation before it is possible to make founded arguments, simply because it's a highly complex special subject with fundamental influence and dependencies on the entire planet. Lieke the climate but unlike movies.

Besides that point, which may be based solely on my misunderstanding of this sentence, I think it's also wrong, in almost the same way, to mix up (national/interantional) politics with economy... That's not so different from comparing movie critics with economy (which you didn't...): Most of us live in "democracies" (at least that's what they call it). Within such a system the majority of people theoretically must be armchair/amateur politicians - sadly too few feel responsible for anything in reality. That is why it hardly feels like democracy! Subtly complaining about those who do show interest without being professionals is actually quite counterproductive when you want to live in a democracy. Contrary to special subjects like global economy, many political questions can (and have to) be boiled down to a level of complexity that non-experts can base their decisions on without the need to explicitly understand every single detail of a processes in question. People or their representatives basically decide about end products (in the form of studies etc), created and presented to them by experts. Which renders them to some special kind of critics - to come full circle.

Sorry, I seriously forgot what was diving me to write all this just because of a single sentence I didn't like and that seemed to suggest something that is not true. Somehow I had to think about it and the more I thought about it the more I found it fundamentally flawed. I guess I wanted to prove that (I can be annoying). Please don't take it personal, Smike.