Curt Doolittle

Theme: Productivity

  • What Is My Spending in Ukraine per Month?

    Cost of living in Ukraine. My monthly expenses youtube.com -Olga Reznikova, Kiev, Ukraine (curt: my point in sharing this is to illustrate what it is possible for monthly costs to be in a big city.) How much does life in Ukraine cost? How much does life in USA or Germany, hehe? It so much depends on the lifestyle, but today I will explain to you exactly by example. Let me give you input. My expenses consist of my family with kid + my parents (5 people). So how much I am spending?

    1. Rent of apartment in Kiev – 400$ per month. Bills for apartment – around 40$ in warm season and 150$ in heating season.
    2. Bills for my parent’s apartment – 30$ per month + 50$ heating.
    3. Internet – 15$ per month for both apartments
    4. Mobile bills – 10$ per person per month, with 20 GB data plan.
    5. Kindergarten – 15$ per month, but it is governmental. State kindergarten would cost around 400$ per month.
    6. Food – my family spend around 400$ per month for food, and my parents need around 250$ per month.
    7. Car – 250$ per month for loan.
    8. Fuel – 200$ per month, if drive only in city.
    9. 3rd party car insurance – 15$ per year
    10. Full car insurance – @1000USD per year.
    11. Entertainment – around 200$ per month (kid’s playground, festivals etc).

    So in total every month for bills and mandatory payments I need approximately $1,200 USD every month or $14,400/yr for a family of five, or 3k/per person, per year.

  • What Is My Spending in Ukraine per Month?

    Cost of living in Ukraine. My monthly expenses youtube.com -Olga Reznikova, Kiev, Ukraine (curt: my point in sharing this is to illustrate what it is possible for monthly costs to be in a big city.) How much does life in Ukraine cost? How much does life in USA or Germany, hehe? It so much depends on the lifestyle, but today I will explain to you exactly by example. Let me give you input. My expenses consist of my family with kid + my parents (5 people). So how much I am spending?

    1. Rent of apartment in Kiev – 400$ per month. Bills for apartment – around 40$ in warm season and 150$ in heating season.
    2. Bills for my parent’s apartment – 30$ per month + 50$ heating.
    3. Internet – 15$ per month for both apartments
    4. Mobile bills – 10$ per person per month, with 20 GB data plan.
    5. Kindergarten – 15$ per month, but it is governmental. State kindergarten would cost around 400$ per month.
    6. Food – my family spend around 400$ per month for food, and my parents need around 250$ per month.
    7. Car – 250$ per month for loan.
    8. Fuel – 200$ per month, if drive only in city.
    9. 3rd party car insurance – 15$ per year
    10. Full car insurance – @1000USD per year.
    11. Entertainment – around 200$ per month (kid’s playground, festivals etc).

    So in total every month for bills and mandatory payments I need approximately $1,200 USD every month or $14,400/yr for a family of five, or 3k/per person, per year.

  • Jan 1, 2020, 9:19 AM MEANINGFUL NEW YEAR DATA DEBTIFICATION #3 Global stocks hav

    Jan 1, 2020, 9:19 AM MEANINGFUL NEW YEAR DATA DEBTIFICATION #3 Global stocks have increased in value by more than 25 trillion dollars over the past 10 years. #4 In the United States, 84 percent of all stocks are owned by the wealthiest 10 percent of all Americans. #5 The U.S. government is now more than 23 trillion dollars in debt. #12 Total U.S. household debt is about to cross the 14 trillion dollar mark. FINANCIALIZATION #13 A study that was recently released found that 70 percent of all Americans are struggling financially right now. #14 The average family in the United States cannot afford to buy a home in 71 percent of the country. #15 58 million jobs in the United States pay less than $793 a week. #16 According to the Social Security Administration, 50 percent of all Americans make less than $33,000 a year. #17 63 percent of the jobs that have been created in the United States since 1990 have been low wage jobs. #42 Almost one-third of all U.S. Millennials are still living with their parents. DESOCIALIZATION #27 Over the past decade, the suicide rate among young Americans has risen by 56 percent. #28 The suicide rate for the overall population increased by 41 percent between 1999 and 2016. IDIOCRACY #29 One survey has discovered that 15-year-old students in China are almost four full grade levels ahead of 15-year-old students in the United States in mathematics. #30 A different survey discovered that one-third of all American teenagers haven’t read a single book in the past year. FORNICATION #33 23 percent of all U.S. children live with a single parent. That is the highest rate in the entire world by a wide margin. #34 Today, approximately 40 percent of all babies in America are born to unmarried women. #35 The U.S. fertility rate has fallen 15 percent since 2007 and is now at the lowest level ever recorded. CALIFORNICATED #38 Today, almost half of all homeless people in the entire nation live in the state of California. #39 Over half of all California voters have considered leaving the state. DECIVILIZATION #40 According to an American Bar Association survey, only 38 percent of all Americans know that the U.S. Constitution is the highest law in the land. #41 58 percent of American adults under the age of 35 agree that some version of socialism “would be good for the country”. #43 According to the Pew Research Center, only 65 percent of Americans now consider themselves to be Christians. That is the lowest level ever recorded. #49 A survey that was conducted a couple of months ago found that 67 percent of all Americans believe that we are “on the edge of civil war”. RESTORATION #51 A majority of Propertarians believe they can solve these problems by reorganizing society with their new constitution. See what I did there? 😉

    Source: Michael Snyder from The Economic Collapse Blog

  • Jan 1, 2020, 9:19 AM MEANINGFUL NEW YEAR DATA DEBTIFICATION #3 Global stocks hav

    Jan 1, 2020, 9:19 AM MEANINGFUL NEW YEAR DATA DEBTIFICATION #3 Global stocks have increased in value by more than 25 trillion dollars over the past 10 years. #4 In the United States, 84 percent of all stocks are owned by the wealthiest 10 percent of all Americans. #5 The U.S. government is now more than 23 trillion dollars in debt. #12 Total U.S. household debt is about to cross the 14 trillion dollar mark. FINANCIALIZATION #13 A study that was recently released found that 70 percent of all Americans are struggling financially right now. #14 The average family in the United States cannot afford to buy a home in 71 percent of the country. #15 58 million jobs in the United States pay less than $793 a week. #16 According to the Social Security Administration, 50 percent of all Americans make less than $33,000 a year. #17 63 percent of the jobs that have been created in the United States since 1990 have been low wage jobs. #42 Almost one-third of all U.S. Millennials are still living with their parents. DESOCIALIZATION #27 Over the past decade, the suicide rate among young Americans has risen by 56 percent. #28 The suicide rate for the overall population increased by 41 percent between 1999 and 2016. IDIOCRACY #29 One survey has discovered that 15-year-old students in China are almost four full grade levels ahead of 15-year-old students in the United States in mathematics. #30 A different survey discovered that one-third of all American teenagers haven’t read a single book in the past year. FORNICATION #33 23 percent of all U.S. children live with a single parent. That is the highest rate in the entire world by a wide margin. #34 Today, approximately 40 percent of all babies in America are born to unmarried women. #35 The U.S. fertility rate has fallen 15 percent since 2007 and is now at the lowest level ever recorded. CALIFORNICATED #38 Today, almost half of all homeless people in the entire nation live in the state of California. #39 Over half of all California voters have considered leaving the state. DECIVILIZATION #40 According to an American Bar Association survey, only 38 percent of all Americans know that the U.S. Constitution is the highest law in the land. #41 58 percent of American adults under the age of 35 agree that some version of socialism “would be good for the country”. #43 According to the Pew Research Center, only 65 percent of Americans now consider themselves to be Christians. That is the lowest level ever recorded. #49 A survey that was conducted a couple of months ago found that 67 percent of all Americans believe that we are “on the edge of civil war”. RESTORATION #51 A majority of Propertarians believe they can solve these problems by reorganizing society with their new constitution. See what I did there? 😉

    Source: Michael Snyder from The Economic Collapse Blog

  • Hamster Wheel of Urban Economics

    Jan 5, 2020, 5:20 PM Proximity decreases opportunity costs (time). Decreases in opportunity costs increase transactions. Increases in transactions increase monetary velocity. Monetary velocity increases the possibility of consumption. Increases in consumption increase the possibility of taxation. An increase in taxation increases the possibility of commons. Increases in commons produce increases in demand for use (if not consumption) Increase in use of commons creates demand for government An increase in demand for the government creates increases in opportunities for rent. Increase in opportunity for rent increase rents. Increases in rents decrease the opportunity for commons and consumption and… you see where this goes. There is greater incentive and control in accessing rents than in creating or using commons or production. As in all cases rents accumulate until maintenance of commons is impossible Incomes decline. Rents and debt remain. Top margin leaves. Leaving only extractors (financial sector), and rent extractors (dependence and the state). Finally the major industries leave. And that’s it. Urban death follows. The only possibility is external wealth, such as Byzantium could extract as trade moved through the narrow straights. This is why the middle east is a disaster. It evolved to specialize in parasitism not production. When the trade route fell because of the age of sail it was dark ages for them, just as the Muslim destruction of Mediterranean trade caused the economic dark ages in Europe. The Hamster Wheel of economics.

  • Hamster Wheel of Urban Economics

    Jan 5, 2020, 5:20 PM Proximity decreases opportunity costs (time). Decreases in opportunity costs increase transactions. Increases in transactions increase monetary velocity. Monetary velocity increases the possibility of consumption. Increases in consumption increase the possibility of taxation. An increase in taxation increases the possibility of commons. Increases in commons produce increases in demand for use (if not consumption) Increase in use of commons creates demand for government An increase in demand for the government creates increases in opportunities for rent. Increase in opportunity for rent increase rents. Increases in rents decrease the opportunity for commons and consumption and… you see where this goes. There is greater incentive and control in accessing rents than in creating or using commons or production. As in all cases rents accumulate until maintenance of commons is impossible Incomes decline. Rents and debt remain. Top margin leaves. Leaving only extractors (financial sector), and rent extractors (dependence and the state). Finally the major industries leave. And that’s it. Urban death follows. The only possibility is external wealth, such as Byzantium could extract as trade moved through the narrow straights. This is why the middle east is a disaster. It evolved to specialize in parasitism not production. When the trade route fell because of the age of sail it was dark ages for them, just as the Muslim destruction of Mediterranean trade caused the economic dark ages in Europe. The Hamster Wheel of economics.

  • Q: How Can a Person Become a Great Fictional Writer in Just a Short Time?

    Jan 24, 2020, 9:12 PM You can’t. Writing is a craft. Craft is a process of developing skills through trial and error. You can read say, Vonnegut on writing, Campbell on the monomyth, the basics of plot types, archetypes, points of view, how to research on locations, observe and write dialog by people from different social strata, and writing backgrounds for your characters. You can read (real) poetry (particularly Shakespeare) to learn the art of sentence building. But the start-middle-end of composing sentences, paragraphs, scenes, chapters, and stories and weaving them together while maintaining the reader’s interest in what is yet to be revealed by you is just something you have to practice. (Good writers tend to be quite smart, have worldly experience, and have something interesting to say that’s novel at least in some context unfamiliar to the reader.) I can write an argument like no other. An exceptional essay. An adequate screenplay. A less than adequate story. And a weak novel – but it is a matter of interests. To write a novel, or a story you need to have something to say that’s vaguely interesting, adequate interest in the subject, and adequate skill in the craft, and more than adequate art in retaining the reader’s attention.

  • Q: How Can a Person Become a Great Fictional Writer in Just a Short Time?

    Jan 24, 2020, 9:12 PM You can’t. Writing is a craft. Craft is a process of developing skills through trial and error. You can read say, Vonnegut on writing, Campbell on the monomyth, the basics of plot types, archetypes, points of view, how to research on locations, observe and write dialog by people from different social strata, and writing backgrounds for your characters. You can read (real) poetry (particularly Shakespeare) to learn the art of sentence building. But the start-middle-end of composing sentences, paragraphs, scenes, chapters, and stories and weaving them together while maintaining the reader’s interest in what is yet to be revealed by you is just something you have to practice. (Good writers tend to be quite smart, have worldly experience, and have something interesting to say that’s novel at least in some context unfamiliar to the reader.) I can write an argument like no other. An exceptional essay. An adequate screenplay. A less than adequate story. And a weak novel – but it is a matter of interests. To write a novel, or a story you need to have something to say that’s vaguely interesting, adequate interest in the subject, and adequate skill in the craft, and more than adequate art in retaining the reader’s attention.

  • On Farmers in The Division of Labor

    (The flip side of “I, Pencil”.) (probably an important lesson) Military(organization of territory) <> Judiciary (organization of cooperation-contract) <> Finance (organization of money(stored time)) <> Entrepreneurship (Organization of opportunity, capital, people) <> Professionals (organization of production(calculation)) <> Managers (Organization of people) <> Producers (Organization of resources) <> Distributors (organization of distribution) <> Trade (organization of transactions) <> Consumers (organization of consumption) <> Parents (organization of reproduction) <> teachers, priests, public intellectuals politicians ( sedation, facilitation, and amelioration of stress arising from scarcity, individual and familial irrelevance, and alienation in the division of labor upon which they depend.) Given the problem of “I,Pencil” (distribution of knowledge), an individual farmer has to input a lot of diverse knowledge and effort for low return on investment, in no small part because petroleum products, industrialization, fertilizer, feed were fully commoditized. A farmer organizes primary resources (animals, food stuffs) and as such must be a skilled craftsman (organizers of specialized resources) at the very limit of craftsman’s capital (tools – no other craftsman requires so many tools). But the returns on the organization of resources are small – there are few multipliers. As you move up the production hierarchy you are responsible for organizing more and more and more people – where there are multipliers. This is why Marx is wrong. In order to organize people by rational incentives, one must produce marginal competitive differences by which to influence their choices. As such the entire difficulty in organizing production is organizing the human beings in a vast network to engage in it with nothing other than the bribe of doing the work (payment).

  • On Farmers in The Division of Labor

    (The flip side of “I, Pencil”.) (probably an important lesson) Military(organization of territory) <> Judiciary (organization of cooperation-contract) <> Finance (organization of money(stored time)) <> Entrepreneurship (Organization of opportunity, capital, people) <> Professionals (organization of production(calculation)) <> Managers (Organization of people) <> Producers (Organization of resources) <> Distributors (organization of distribution) <> Trade (organization of transactions) <> Consumers (organization of consumption) <> Parents (organization of reproduction) <> teachers, priests, public intellectuals politicians ( sedation, facilitation, and amelioration of stress arising from scarcity, individual and familial irrelevance, and alienation in the division of labor upon which they depend.) Given the problem of “I,Pencil” (distribution of knowledge), an individual farmer has to input a lot of diverse knowledge and effort for low return on investment, in no small part because petroleum products, industrialization, fertilizer, feed were fully commoditized. A farmer organizes primary resources (animals, food stuffs) and as such must be a skilled craftsman (organizers of specialized resources) at the very limit of craftsman’s capital (tools – no other craftsman requires so many tools). But the returns on the organization of resources are small – there are few multipliers. As you move up the production hierarchy you are responsible for organizing more and more and more people – where there are multipliers. This is why Marx is wrong. In order to organize people by rational incentives, one must produce marginal competitive differences by which to influence their choices. As such the entire difficulty in organizing production is organizing the human beings in a vast network to engage in it with nothing other than the bribe of doing the work (payment).