Section Zero: Background
Hello all, happy hoildays! I stumbled upon this subreddit not long ago and have enjoyed the commentary and experiences everyone's shared. Wanted to add another perspective from a mid-30s first-gen American. I've had some missteps regarding careers and finances, but I feel like I'm in a slightly better place now. I tried YNAB in the past but I wasn't consistent enough with it. These days I use Mint to monitor my finances and have a "Finance Friday" each month to review all my accounts and spending. I currently live with my partner TJ and his dog RR. We do not combine finances, but he has been unemployed since March. I have helped him with some bills and basic necessities here and there until he finds his next job or career.
My current financial goals are to just maintain a status quo and not get any debt until pandemic times are over. Then I will focus on a house remodeling fund and savings for taking care of my parents.
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent/guardian(s) educate you about finances? My parents taught us about money from a frugal perspective. They are immigrants who worked in food service/factories. There was always this “save save save” mentality. Even when they started their own small business, we saved like there was no tomorrow. In high school, my calculus teacher bought us all “The Millionaire Next Door” book and had us read it as an assignment - that was my first structured introduction to finances.
Did you worry about money growing up? No, there was always food on the table and a roof over our heads. I knew that our extended family would support us if needed.
Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it? Yes. My dad didn’t finish the high school-equivalent in their country, while my mom did finish high school, but no college. My older and younger siblings took a different path in life after high school. I am the first and only in my family to graduate from college. My parents covered all tuition for my two bachelor degrees with the agreement that I support them fully during their retirement and send them gifts/extra money whenever I can. I feel very lucky and privileged that they were able to provide that education for me.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net? 24 when I went on a work holiday abroad. My family was always available to help when needed, but the experience abroad helped me stand on my own feet. As an adult, I also inherited that “save” mentality and put a lot of my earnings towards savings. I didn’t date until my 30s, lived frugally, didn’t go out to eat/hangout with people, shopped thrift stores, and had very few hobbies. I am starting to “live a little” now though.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? Aside from the tuition, my parents have helped with a down payment for my first house and living costs during periods of unemployment.
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Section One: Assets and Debt
Retirement Balance
If the place I was working at offered a 401k, I would always contribute up to the company match. I started my IRA in my mid-20s and would try to contribute the yearly max. I've stopped that the past 2-3 years though. My Other Brokerage is some play money, but I got tired of staring it and switched to index funds. I haven't contributed anything to it in a few years.

• 401k: $34,127 (5% company match on contributions)
• Brokerage: $22,421 ESPP
• Roth IRA: $40,615 VTIVX
• Rollover IRA: $15,760 VTTHX
• Other Brokerage: $7,235 VTI
• Coinbase: $1,286 ETH (mostly just playing around with it)

Equity if you're a homeowner
Purchased my first home for $382,000 with 20% down, right before lockdown earlier this year. Perfect timing, right?? I plan to live here until my retirement. My parents contributed $15k while I used most of my savings for the rest.

• Current Equity: $80,371

Savings account balance: $3,073
Checking account balance: $7,800
Credit card debt: I charge everything on my credit card for the points, then pay it off each month using my checking account balance.
Student loan debt: Traditionally no student loan debt as mentioned in Section Zero.
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Section Two: Income
Income Progression (listed as gross income with cost of living area):
High School

• $11/hour MCOL - Helped with small family business.

College and first “career” job

• $12-19/hour MCOL - I did events/banquet serving after classes and had an internship doing software administration.
• $22/hour MCOL - Junior web developer. I realized after a year that programming was not my calling.

Mental health break

• $12/hour LCOL - Work holiday abroad. I got a steady banquet server job for that whole time. It was enough to live minimally in a hostel, do weekend trips, WOOF and figure my life out.

College (again) and second “career” job

• $12-15/hour LCOL - Decided to go back to school for a different bachelor's degree. While pursuing that degree, I worked at hotels and events as a banquet server again. I also did “search engine evaluation” whenever there were tasks available.
• $36,000/year salary LCOL - Software administrator at a casino after graduation.
• $39,000/year salary LCOL - Systems analyst at same casino. I left after 2 years, feeling disillusioned with the casino industry. I moved back home with my parents until I could get back on my feet again.

Third “career” jobs

• $20/hour HCOL - Entry level advertising role. I was applying to all types of office jobs and that was my only bite.
• $45/hour MCOL - Cold-called from a global company who needed someone with my software administrator experience from the casino job. It was an 8 month contract. Although I was starting to love my advertising job, the increase in pay was no question.
• $65,000/year salary MCOL - After the contract ended and a few months of unemployment, I landed my current job at the same company. It is an “early career” role according to their job levels.
• $66,900/year salary MCOL - Cost of living and merit increases after 2 years on the job. Pre-COVID we got a $5000 bonus each year. They have now stopped bonuses as well as all COL and merit increases.

​
Main Job Monthly Take Home:
Monthly Net (paid bi-weekly): $2,758
Deductions:

• Taxes: $1214
• (Pre-Tax) Insurance (Medical, Dental, Vision, Life) + HSA: $822
• (5% Pre-Tax) 401k: $256
• (10% Post-Tax) ESPP: $514

Side Gig Monthly Take Home:
No side gigs at the moment, but I am thinking of signing up on Upwork.com and doing Excel/data entry projects to help pay the mortgage.
Other Income: TJ’s friend will be staying with us for a month in January, who will pay rent of $800 including utilities. Depending on how that goes, we may take on a roommate in the spare bedroom long-term.
​
Section Three: Expenses
Mortgage - when I bought the house, the plan was that I would charge TJ a portion of the mortgage costs as “rent”, but since his unemployment I am now covering it all myself.
Regular Monthly Payment: $1677.57

• Principal: $501.31
• Interest: $849.74
• Taxes & Home Insurance: $326.52

HOA: $30/year
Retirement contribution: Nothing additional than what's been mentioned.
Savings contribution: I used to do $50-100/month, but since COVID I’ve stopped contributing to my savings account.
Investment contribution: None at this time.
Debt payments: $100/month towards TJ's credit card balance of $2,307.
Donations: $10-20/month, usually towards Omaze or Planned Parenthood.
Utilities:

• Electric: $45-65/month
• Water: $60-90/month
• Sewer: $30/month
• Garbage: $26/month
• Natural Gas: $30-80/month
• Xfinity internet: $60/month

Cellphone: On my parents plan.
Subscriptions:

• LinkedIn: $29.99/month for TJ’s job search - he’s found it very useful.
• Amazon/Netflix/Hulu: We piggyback off family and friends’ accounts.
• Nintendo Switch Online: 19.99/year
• Costco: $60/year

Gym membership: Pre-COVID I did Orangetheory for a year. I started to pick up free exercise equipment from Craigslist this year, so we have a small garage gym now and utilize YouTube exercise videos instead.
Pet expenses: $10/month. TJ has stockpiled some Costco canned dog food before unemployment, but once that runs out I will likely cover the costs. We also started to make homemade dog food to help supplement.
Car insurance: $460 every 6 months. Car is paid off.
Regular therapy: I will start in the new year. Not sure what the costs are yet, but I will use my HSA to pay.
Vitamins/Medications: $20/month
Groceries & household items: $75/month
Miscellaneous (eating out, house purchases, gifts, etc): $100/month
​
Section Four: Money Diary
Monday
6:30am Neighbor starts up their truck. We joke that it's our natural alarm clock. They idle for about 15 minutes before heading off. I go back to bed.
9am My real alarm goes off. I put the electric kettle on for some morning tea. While it's boiling, I do my morning routine: drink glass of water, take synthroid, use bathroom, brush teeth, quick shower. I then make tea - Jasmine Pearl English Breakfast with dark forest mix. I started ordering loose leaf tea in large amounts back in March instead of small bags or single serving packets. Seems more economical since I drink it daily. I let the dog out into the backyard so he can do his morning routine.
9:30am I go through my daily tasks for work. They entail checking processes and reports to make sure they ran successfully overnight. I then answer some emails and catch-up on Slack channels.
12pm Lunch is leftover roast chicken and quinoa from Saturday. I heat it up in the instant pot. Love that thing! Almost every meal of ours involves the instant pot. We hardly use the stovetop. We then walk the dog to the business park across from our neighborhood. There's a very short trail that runs along a drainage creek by the business park. It's quite muddy, but has a nice woodsy feeling. Over the summer, we saw sumac trees there as well. Free sumac spice!
1:30pm Department meeting on Zoom. Our director announces his resignation on the call. Everyone is shocked! Layoffs were announced for next year but this was not a part of it. I think it's a good move for him and he doesn't have to have this worry of layoffs over his head.
3pm I meet with an engineer from another team and talk about a data source they are in charge of. He helps me out in understanding it and we identify most of the fields that I need for a project I’m starting.
5:30pm I check in with my partner. He's been watching LinkedIn tutorials on internal recruiting, job coaching and general computeoffice skills. It's a career change that he wants to make - something where he can talk to and help people. He doesn't have a bachelor's, only an associates, and hopes these tutorials will get him a leg up in the job search. I sent him some entry level HR admin roles the other day and remind him to apply. I then heat up leftovers: homemade chana masala and rice. I add some butter and coconut milk to thin it out, so there's enough for both of us.
10:30pm I take some magnesium, vitamin D and Airborne. I say goodnight to the dog who sleeps in the office. Then I say goodnight to TJ. He sleeps in the spare bedroom on weeknights due to his snoring keeping me up. I'm a light sleeper while he is a pretty deep sleeper.
Daily total: $0
Tuesday
9am I check Reddit Secret Santa. My match seems like a really good person. Not sure what to get, but most likely will purchase something off their wishlist. I wish I was more creative with my gift giving.
11am Meeting with business stakeholder. She submitted a few changes to an existing data process about a month ago. I make the change while on the call and have her test. Success! Marking it off the todo list. I love when we can finish things directly on a call.
12:30pm I come out of my office to make lunch. I notice my partner is not home. I check my messages and see that he's stepped out to pick up a few things. I ask for celery, carrots, and kombucha. $17. I make a quick charcuterie board for lunch: Costco salami, cheese, homemade hummus and Triscuits. It's a simple, fast meal that’s always in our rotation.
2pm My partner is back and we take the dog out for a walk and quick round of disc golf at a nearby park. We mask up and play only a few holes. Disc golf is a pretty frugal activity, you only need 2-3 discs to get started. TJ remarks that my throws are getting better, but then again they weren't great to start with. We talk about Christmas/Birthday gifts on the way back home since he was born on New Years Day. He mentioned snowshoeing but asked to not spend that much. I'll do some research!
5pm I think about personal career projects. Should I put up a portfolio of projects somewhere? I decide to try and pull some Yelp data. There’s not a lot of data points that I was interested in. Regardless, I tinker with it for an hour. TJ asks if I'm hungry. I said not so much, but felt thirsty. Maybe some ginger soup tonight?
7:30pm Dinner is served - ginger carrot soup made in the instant pot. We eat some rice crackers with it. Lately I feel like we've been eating more vegetarian dinners. It definitely helps stretch our food budget. We end the evening by finishing Fargo season 3 on Hulu.
Daily total: $17
Wednesday
1:30am I'm woken up by the dog. He's been sneezing a lot and wheezes at random intervals. TJ doesn't have the money for a vet visit but I've offered to pay as long as he calls to make the appointment. I give the dog some coconut oil, rub his belly until he seems better and go back to bed.
7am Garbage day. We usually put it out the night before but I forgot. I get up to go, but TJ handles it. I think, at least. I'm too sleepy to pay attention and go back to bed.
9am I wake up and rinse some dishes that have piled up and put them into the dishwasher. We both grew up in households that had a home dishwasher, but forbade from using it. It was drilled into us that hand washing saves more water, unless you had a restaurant/industrial dishwasher. I think with modern home dishwashers, that's changed, so I wanted to try it out with our dishwasher and monitor the water bill. Don't have any dishwashing pods or powder, so I put some OxiClean in it.
12:30pm I overhear TJ on a call with a recruiting agency. It seems to be going well, lots of laughing. I heat up some taco lasagna that I freezer meal-prepped last month.
2pm Collaborate on a project at work with an engineer. My manager put me on this project since I was asking for an assignment on a more technical team. I'm learning tidbits here and there, but I don't feel like it's structured enough.
5pm I do an Orangetheory-At-Home workout and try to break a sweat. It's not the same as going to their studio.
6pm Charcuterie for dinner. Our fridge is full of store-bought and homemade pickles that go super well on a charcuterie board.
Daily total: $0
Thursday
7am I wake up tired. The house has been feeling more cold, which woke me up a few times. We keep the temp at 72F during the day, at night around 68F since we thought the bedrooms keep the heat in pretty well. My mistake!
9am I do my usual morning routine and login to work. My team mostly spends the morning sending each other emojis.
11:30am Lunch today is mini quiche, frozen chicken and veggie entree, and hot dogs. Not the most cohesive meal, but it fills the belly.
12:30pm TJ heads out to his mailbox that's 30 minutes away. He is still waiting on his tax return and a 401k withdrawal. His taxes had to be filed by mail for some reason, then the IRS office shut down due to COVID. So he wanted to see if it arrived yet at the mailbox. He also takes the dog to the vet's urgent care on his way. They didn't have any regular openings available until the end of the year, and the dog seemed to be getting worse. I give TJ $40 to mail a gift package to a friend in France and also reiterate that I'll cover the vet bill when he gets it.
4:30pm I pay some bills, my favorite activity (not)! Sewer bill: $59.44 (billed every 2 months). Geico bill: $459.60 billed every 6 months. Then I follow up with my mortgage officer over email. I had sent her some documents for a refinance quote last week, but haven't heard back. Rates keep dropping, so I'm told, but what does that really mean? I do some research on realestate.
5pm TJ messages me and says he'll be back for dinner. I ask him to pick up some Popeyes via drive thru since we both don't feel like cooking today. Popeyes is currently our fancy “going out to eat” food. $24.17 for a 4pc dinner meal and a 2pc dinner meal.
Daily total: $583.21
Friday
8:30am Busy morning at work. My phone is buzzing with emails and Slack messages. I try to answer them while I make tea.
10am Zoom Department happy hour. We reminisce about our director and then play those Jackbox party games. Some of them are hard!
11am TJ asks if he can make me anything for lunch. He suggests savory oatmeal, quick and easy. I tell him that I really appreciate him making meals/doing chores/etc without me prompting. We've been having conversations about "house project management" and mental load because I did most of the chores or I had to continually remind/tell him to do it. I'm really happy to see us progress on this front. I decide to work through my lunch break so I can end the day early. I don't often do that, but I'm ready to get the weekend started.
2pm I check on TJ in the spare bedroom and ask if the dog has been fed yet, since he was nipping at my feet. I notice something off about TJ and ask how he is doing. TJ is depressed about his personal life, career, finances. He doesn't know what to do, spends half the day meditating and reflecting on past trauma. I've been prodding him to get a therapist but he is confused about his insurance. He makes an appointment with a primary care doctor first. I feed the dog some homemade dog-friendly beef stew.
4pm My mom swings by the house (but doesn't enter). She currently works at a school who distributes free USDA food boxes since March. There's often many boxes leftover that would go to waste, so she will grab a box for us. Onions, potatoes, beets, turnips, eggs, cheese, butter, frozen veggies and frozen chicken. She also brought her vintage pasta maker. I asked last week if she ever used it these days and her reply was “no, feel free to have it”. I love pasta and noodles and figure it would be great to make it ourselves as a frugal hobby.
8pm We catch up on Mandalorian and watch silly Youtube videos before heading off to bed.
Daily total: $0
Saturday
9am I open up my web browser and look at Craigslist and NextDoor for free stuff. I've been scouring for free landscape rocks, pegboards, and wood for house projects. I had this grand ambition to redesign our backyard. It faces our neighbor and currently the fence is pretty low. They can see into our kitchen and bedroom and we can see them. But y'know, COVID and going from dual income house to single income means it all has to be put on hold. So I've been looking for free items in the meantime. Over the past months, I've gotten planter pots, plant cuttings, a raised bed, stepping stones, all from free listings. I don't see anything worthwhile so I go and make some tea.
11am I look at Amazon and make some purchases for Reddit Secret Santa. A foodie kit, DVD of their favorite movie, and some cute pens for their writing hobby. $54. I hope they like it!
12pm TJ heats up leftover stir-fry for lunch for us. I put on some Binging with Babish and we watch how to make pasta. We have a plan - TJ makes the pasta, I make the sauce. Perfect date night activity at home. We watch some more videos on pasta and noodles to educate ourselves.
4pm I start prepping veggies. Big batch of onions, canned tomatoes, ground beef and butter in the instant pot. Meanwhile, TJ works on the pasta by following Babish's instructions.
7pm We gorge on fresh made pasta and bolognese sauce. It's so good! We end up watching Fargo.
11pm Usually I'll be in bed by now, but it's a Saturday and not tired yet (probably because of all that pasta). We play some Kirby's Dream Course on the Switch.
Daily total: $54
Sunday
10am Quick walk around the neighborhood with the dog. He's on a new routine now with the medicine he's taking. It seems to be helping his breathing issues.
11am The pasta maker and flour is still out since we didn't clean up yesterday. There's some old pie crust in the fridge so I roll it out with the pasta machine for mini quiches. (Sally's Baking Addiction blog is my go-to place for her all-butter crust and quiche recipes btw). TJ helps by mixing up the eggs.
3pm I play some Genshin Impact (GI) on my phone while TJ plays Starcraft in the office. I don't usually play gacha games, but the Zelda BotW-style of GI appealed to me. A gacha game is a game with randomized characteitem boxes that you use real-money to purchase a “pull” or to spin the wheel. I know the gacha parts of the game can be a real money sink if you get addicted to them, it’s almost like gambling. My main team is Fischl, Bennett, Barbara and Noelle. I level up to AR 22 and look up free-to-play tutorials for the game.
6pm There's some leftover pasta from yesterday, enough for both of us. I throw in some roasted beets to round out the meal. We watch more Fargo while eating. Almost done with Season 3!
10pm I find a tour operator who offers a small, socially-distant snowshoeing tour up on the mountain. I reserve for two people - this will be TJ's Christmas/birthday gift. $75. Off to bed for another workday.
Daily total: $75
Weekly Total: $689.79

• Food + Drink: $41.17
• Fun / Entertainment: $75
• Home + Health: $59.44
• Clothes + Beauty: $0
• Transport: $459.60
• Other: $54.00

Section Five: Reflections
Aside from the car insurance bill, this was a typical week for me, COVID or not. We make the majority of our meals at home and usually splurge on drive-thru/delivery once every other week. I may have overspent on the Secret Santa gift, but I don't often give gifts out to friends. It's not something our family does either. For TJ’s Christmas/birthday gift, we usually talk upfront about costs. I’ve gifted him fancy restaurant experiences the past 2 years, since we can share that experience, but obviously can’t do that now. Snowshoeing is a nice change of pace.
The conversations with TJ this week have given me thought on how to approach him differently about finances and working together in a relationship. I’m still unsure about the future financially, particularly as my parents near retirement age and that TJ has pulled out his 401k to pay his debts. I don't know if I can support both my parents and TJ together, so I am finding ways to upskill and/or side hustles without becoming a workaholic or bogged down by stress.
Writing this money diary was also the first time where I really paid attention to my past income and current income. I might be contributing too much into ESPP that could go towards the 401k or mortgage instead? I also seem to have been underpaid for what I did in past jobs, even in a LCOL area.

Dude is like a real life bond villain. He escaped multiple jails in various countries, stole cars in france, conned entire casinos, ran an illegal car smuggling ring in india, and robbed jewelery stores in multiple countries like he was getting groceries. He also killed atleast 12 people on the "hippie trail" by drugging tourists and convincing them they had dysentery. At one point he drew his own blood with a syringe, drank it, and faked an ulcer to escape an afghani prison.

PLEASE NOTE: This article may be updated periodically with new information and links as they become available. All referenced information and a whole lot more is indexed and linked in the related appendix posts. Please feel free to crosspost, share, and take from my ideas to build your own. Namaste.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Appendix A | Appendix B
​
Hello. My name is Chris. I am nobody, really. An average citizen. I am an overweight 42 year old white male from the Midwestern suburbs of the US who has been fortunate enough to live a pretty comfortable life. I used to be a freelance graphic designer with a focus on small businesses, but I'm coming to terms with the fact that that career and part of my life is more than likely over in light of current events. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
I've always been concerned about social injustice and tried to stay politically informed, even dabbling in some activism here and there. At times I've stepped away from paying attention for my own mental health, or due to laziness, defeatism, whatever. But I've never stopped caring, or trying, to fight the good fight and do the right thing.
The news recently has of course swept us all up, and touched all our lives in some way or another. The world has never seen anything like the "Coronavirus Pandemic," and it's clear that our society will be changed forever when we finally come out the other end of this mess. But I've had the luxury of time recently, and in reading the news about things that were going on, I couldn't help but notice the patterns, and that a lot of stuff didn't exactly make sense.
So, here we go, with the "conspiracy theory."
I hate that term, because although it's technically accurate, it's been demonized and weaponized by the media and society at large to take on a bad connotation. Tinfoil hats, alien abductions, crazy people muttering to themselves, etc. You've no doubt got a lot of images in your mind of a conspiracy theorist.
And make no mistake, what I'm going to tell you here is all currently very popular conspiracy theory. However, I think that by removing opinions and conjecture from it, and focusing on facts and things that have already happened, I can present this huge amount of overwhelming, disparate information in a way that makes it less a "theory" and more a "research project." And so that is how I have approached this.
I have spent the last week doing little else besides reading every news and opinion article I could find, saving and organizing hundreds of links, and assembling a coherent, logical outline to organize and present these theories, and more importantly, facts. There are a lot of less-than-reputable sites and publications out there, and I have tried when at all possible to provide sources from verifiable news sites, with a wide range of slants and focuses, to illustrate that what is happening is not part of any one particular political agenda.
I hope that you take the time to check the links, really look into the information presented here, and form your own opinions. Please do not just take my word for it. To that end, there are also a few links mixed in that are labeled as having come from conspiracy. These are well-written and well-reasoned posts from other concerned citizens that I think are worth reading, and relevant to the discussion here.
One last thing - If you are new to most of these ideas, the information presented here is more than likely going to seem overwhelming at first. I encourage you now, and always, to take mental health breaks for yourself, and put down your phone or turn off your computer. The information will be here when you come back. And as you'll soon understand, what is happening is an unstoppable tide, truly a force of nature at this point, and there is nothing you can do to fight it, so try your hardest to relax, put on some chill music, hug your dog, and most of all...
BREATHE.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
If you start researching conspiracy theory, you're going to find a lot of information. Some much better or worse presented than others, and some much more plausible or unbelievable than others. Despite the seeming ridiculousness of some things you might read, I encourage you to always approach new information with an open mind.
That said though, I have one main principle that guides all my beliefs about conspiracy theories, and that is the "Filter of Likelihood." Essentially, you have to ask yourself how possible, how likely, and how feasible a piece of information is. Furthermore, you need to ask yourself what the motivation would be. In many cases, it's quite easy to see how something makes a lot of sense based on other known info, whereas some theories seem rather implausible no matter how you look at it.
I am interested only in the plausible, and where possible, the already actualized. Additionally, there's a lot to be said, and a lot that has already been written on many of these topics, so I will focus on current events and simple concepts.
I will also ask you to open your mind to possibility. Please consider this as you evaluate new information:

1. Do you believe there are things going on in the world that you don't know about yet?
2. Do you believe that there is technology and science you've never heard of?
3. Do you believe that society is progressing at an increasing rate?
4. Do you believe that as populations grow, we require new societal strategies?
5. Do you believe that those with power and money want to retain their power and money?

Of course you believe all these things, and none of these are wild or unusual concepts. Rather, these are very basic concepts that apply to everyone, and always have. They are all part of our shared human experience, and undeniable facts of life. Populations grow, societies evolve, technology advances, and the world changes. And most important to our discussion here, people, families, and empires constantly jockey for power and control, while fighting for resources, power, fame, and...
MONEY.
We all hate TicketMaster, right? Who do they think they are, what the hell is this bullshit "service fee," etc. It's something everyone can get behind. But did you know that TicketMaster willingly cultivates that image? That venues, teams, and artists, in their pursuit of more money, raise fees and then let TicketMaster be the bad guy and take the heat so their reputations remain intact?
There are many more people, organizations, and other entities in the world playing that same role for those who really have the money, who really call the shots. And those who call the shots work very hard and spend absolutely unfathomable amounts of money, time, and blood, to make sure that you don't ever realize who's actually taking your money.
They do this in the simplest, easiest way. If you simply control information from the top down, and disseminate it when and where you see fit, you can effect great societal change without lifting a finger.
Please imagine... really, try to imagine... You just read an article, saw a video, whatever, from a very, very reputable source. And it just informed you that an asteroid was 83% likely to impact the Earth next month. What would you do? What would happen in the world?
Hopefully an asteroid will not hit next month, but it's important to really imagine what would happen and why, and how. Because a huge amount of information would be generated and published, people would panic, society would crumble, and the world as you know it would change forever in an instant, the moment you read that headline.
Control of information is one of the most powerful tools known to mankind today. A person living in 2020 can easily encounter as much information in a day as someone in Medieval times might have encountered in a lifetime. And it comes at you from all angles, in all forms, non-stop, 24/7. Much like the water in the pipe, the information is always there, and one needs but turn it on.
Disseminating the information then becomes a practice all its own, and to be sure, information processing accounts for more than half of the US GDP. And the rate at which it's spread, and way it is handled makes a huge difference in the societal repercussions. So a few different techniques are used:

• The "Slow Walk" - If a large, unexpected piece of information is given suddenly, people tend to react poorly and irrationally. Also known as "letting them down easily," this technique restricts the flow of information to prevent the audience from balking or being overwhelmed
• The "Steady Drip" - This technique involves keeping your audience subjected to a constant stream of the desired information, so that they become accustomed to it and it becomes "normalized"
• The "Firehose" - A deluge of information flying out at full blast, designed to overwhelm the audience so that they cannot focus on anything else

It might be the greatest understatement of all time to say that there has been a lot of information passed around about COVID-19, the "Coronavirus," recently. In fact, there has never been anything like what we are currently experiencing in all of human history, and not by a long shot. And this unprecedented turn of events has caused a lot of people to react in a lot of ways, and say and do a lot of things, for better or for worse.
Full disclosure: In particular, if you look up conspiracy theory, you'll see a lot of stuff suggesting that the "Coronavirus is a hoax." (You'll also find a lot of poorly-written rambling) I want to be clear that I DO NOT believe that. I am 100% sure that there is a Coronavirus, that it is making people sick, that a lot of people are dying, and that our medical professionals and many other undervalued workers are overwhelmed, and breaking their backs every day to do their best to keep their friends, families, and loved ones safe. I am extraordinarily grateful for them and admire the resolve and bravery that so many have shown in the face of this disaster. I do not think it is a hoax at all.
However, I think that literally everything else that is happening surrounding the "pandemic" is.
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The Pandemic
In the first week of January this year, I got sick. Really sick. I know when I got it and who I got it from, and honestly the exact moment I got it (I only was in proximity of the dude for a few minutes). He had warned me that he was really sick, and I blew it off. I started feeling sick a day or two later, and a day or two after that I felt like I was dying. Fever, chills, aches, extraordinary fatigue. And literal, nonstop, 24/7 coughing. I had every single symptom of what we now know as COVID-19. I commented to anyone who would listen that I didn't recall ever feeling that sick before in my entire life. The most memorable part of it though was that after a couple days, I completely lost my sense of smell and taste. Joked a lot about how you could feed me onions and soap cause I'd have no idea. I try to have a good attitude about being sick.
I spent a week sleeping on the couch before I finally went to the doctor. She gave me a Prednisolone steroid pack (which has worked well for me in the past), some Trazodone to knock me out, and Benzonatotate for my cough. As soon as I took the first dose of steroids I started to feel pretty fucking great, and it was more or less a non-issue after that.
I spoke to a lot of people about it then and after, and man, I can't tell you how many stories I personally heard from people I know that said the exact same thing. Then I started reading the same story over and over again on Reddit:

• Please leave your experience from November-January if you were Extremely Ill
• An Illness swept through Utah back in DecembeEarly January, was it Covid-19? Did this happen elsewhere?
• How long do you really think covid19 has been in the US?

We didn't start really hearing about the Coronavirus in the media until the beginning of March, and we didn't hear about the "Pandemic" until just a couple weeks ago. And what a couple weeks it's been since then. But I am quite certain that it's been around for a lot longer and that I, and a lot of other people I know, had it - and DID NOT DIE FROM IT - way back in January.
We now know that the first documented case in the US was on January 19th, but that word "documented" is so, so important here. That means that we had identified the virus, developed a test, and tested a person with the symptoms that day. It does NOT mean that was when the virus reached the United States. How sick do you have to be before you take a day off work? Before you go to the doctor? With America's healthcare system or lack thereof, it's almost certain that many people had this virus before we determined what it was, and how infectious it really was.
There is also the matter of the statistics of severity vs the regular flu. This is a highly contentious topic and I am no medical expert, and do not wish to make any assertions. However, what I can tell you from my personal experience is this: I had a horrible "flu" in January, got basic medicine, got better. So, either I had the flu, or perhaps I did indeed have the Coronavirus.
We will never know because I was never tested. But the important thing is that it doesn't matter. Either I (and many others) had the Coronavirus and it did not kill us (calling into question the severity of the infection) or we just had a bad cold or flu, but it had the exact same symptoms as COVID-19 (calling into question the extent of Coronavirus diagnoses). But logically, one of those two statements is true.
Furthermore, the data keeps changing, and I don't mean increasing on a daily basis. I mean up and down, back and forth, it is deadly or maybe it isn't, etc. On January 14 the WHO told you it couldn't spread from human to human. But then on Jan 19 we saw the first case of Coronavirus in the United States. Then it turns out that the Wuhan market outbreak began earlier in December. And then it's an "epidemic," but most people will only get mild symptoms. What are you supposed to believe? And it sure does seem to come at you as a firehose, and it's hard to even think about anything because OHMYGODTHECORONAVIRUS!
But let's stop and look a couple basic facts. As a matter of fact, I'm going to let Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi explain this one to you. This is a very informative 10 minute video, watch it:
Sucharit Bhakdi - Very clear math showing that the COVID statistics are being manipulated
So 80% of people only experience mild symptoms, and we're crashing the economy for this? The statistics aren't any more extreme than many other illnesses we've had over time, and we're crashing the economy for this? It doesn't make sense until you consider that there are other factors besides just the virus at play.
Wolfgang Wodard - Explaining how the statistics are being manipulated to cause panic
The media, and society at large is inundating you with terrifying information about the Coronavirus. But if it's not as bad as we originally thought, then why? We don't freak out about every illness that comes along, and we've certainly never in the history of civilization had over 1/3 of the global population locked down under mandatory quarantine.
And then there's the debate about where the virus came from. We believe it came from a meat market in China, under unsanitary conditions. The science behind a coronavirus making the leap from one species to another is well-established and researched, and it is a very likely scenario. There are also conspiracy theories that state that China released it on its people intentionally, or even that the US military released it in China. Again, we will never know exactly where this Coronavirus came from. It may be natural, it may be man made, and there are very plausible paths for both. I don't know what to believe myself. So here I ask you to make your own judgement based on likelihood.
What we do know though is that the state of the world this virus has been unleashed on has played a major factor in its spread. In 1950 the global population was 2.5 billion, and that has exploded to almost 8 billion people in 2020. As a matter of fact, population growth has been exponential since about the time of the Industrial Revolution.
With all these people on the planet there are sure to be many disagreements and conflicts, and there indeed have been. As a matter of fact, 2019 saw global protests on an unprecedented scale, in Hong Kong, France, Syria, and many other countries. Citizens have literally been fighting police and military with rocks, clubs, arrows, and molotov cocktails.
Did you know that? Despite my seeing headlines and pictures every day of the riots in Hong Kong, I have been shocked to learn that multiple of my close friends, intelligent and aware people, had no knowledge whatsoever of the protests even existing. But that is far from a coincidence; rather, it is quite by design.
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Billionaires and Coincidences
Another major talking point over the last 5 to 10 years has been the "1%" - the handful of super-rich individuals who posess and control the vast majority of the Earth's wealth and resources. Where it used to just be a numerical term, "Billionaire" is now a dirty word, and one of the nastiest. We all hate billionaires. They are evil, and profit off the exploitation of the rest of the world.
The "Illuminati" we call them, in pursuit of a "New World Order." Crazy stuff, right? Mysterious symbols and people in black robes doing nefarious things in secret meetings, and running the world from behind the scenes. We love the Illuminati, it's a huge pop culture thing now. The subject of endless speculation, they are made fun of in the media, movies, and now Taco Bell commercials. It's so far fetched it could never really be true. And the fact that you think that is by design as well.
So, we don't know where the Coronavirus came from, but it's certainly here, and there are lot of other things unfolding in the world around it. Many different current events from all different places and fields of study. Some of it seems a little too coincidental. It is certainly very coincidental that this economically destructive Coronavirus entered the world right as there were global uprisings, protests in the street, and a growing public hatred for billionaires.
Well, here are a few other coincidences: Hundreds of CEOs of major companies stepped down from their positions in recent months. Multiple US Senators sold stock right before the market crashed. Even the boss of the New York Stock Exchange sold his own stock right before the crash. Did they know something they weren't telling us?
Here's another coincidence. In 2010, The Rockefeller Foundation published a selection of future-predicting scenarios in the name of "exploring the ways that technology and development could co-evolve." One of these four scenarios, entitled "Lock Step," eerily predicts a global viral pandemic and the resulting hypothetical consequences, which almost exactly mirrors the COVID-19 pandemic we are in the midst of today.
Also coincidental: The first case of COVID-19 was diagnosed in China on November 17th, 2019. Literally one month earlier, The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in partnership with the World Economic Forum and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation hosted Event 201, a high-level pandemic exercise on October 18, 2019, in New York, NY. In this exercise, they discuss the potential implications and consequences of a novel Coronavirus, including an economic crash, martial law, and of particular interest, the control of information. (You can view some published highlights here)
The World Economic Forum is comprised of the richest of the rich. The 1%. The Billionaires. CEO's, politicians, business owners, and many other powerful and influential figures. They meet regularly to discuss topics of global concern, and strongly control the dissemination of information. And of primary concern to many of them is maintaining their wealth and power in a rapidly-changing world.
And finally, here's one more coincidence: At the exact same time as the Event 201 exercise, The World Military Games was held in Wuhan, China, Oct 18-27, 2019. It was the largest military sports event ever to be held in China, with nearly 10,000 athletes from over 100 countries competing in 27 sports. Wuhan China was, as we now believe, the source of our current global COVID-19 outbreak.
Whether you think it is a "conspiracy" or not, that is all certainly coincidental, to say the least.
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"Why didn't I hear about any of this?"
That's an excellent question, and one that likely has multiple answers. For starters, how much do you really pay attention? Where do you get your news from? Do you research things you hear or just accept them on hearsay? Critical thinking skills are paramount in making sense of the chaos unfolding all around us.
As I mentioned before, I can tell you that I personally know multiple people who had no clue whatsoever about the riots in Hong Kong last year. As you read this, you may be one of them. And it may seem like something that is happening far away, and "could never happen here." Or you may have been aware of it but just that it was happening. But please, consider for a moment: millions of average citizens risked their lives and safety in the streets of Hong Kong for months on end, fighting police and military, and transforming the city they lived in into a warzone. WHY? Why would people do something like that? Regardless of their motivations, that many people were banding together to fight for something they believed in. And that is worth considering.
It's not really your fault though that you may not catch wind of all this news. The "mainstream media" that you hear about all the time deliberately controls information - downplaying threats and overreacting to silly things - in order to make sure that you hear the version of the news that they want you to hear.
Did you know that only 6 corporations control 90% of the media In America? That number is reduced from 50 companies in the 80's. And literally all the news you see on TV, at the very least, is 100% owned and controlled by these companies. Lately, distrust is growing for cable news networks, and many people turn to their local hometown station for trusted news. The problem with that though is that your hometown station is probably owned by Sinclair Media, one of the most powerful broadcast networks in the country that you've never heard of.
Please watch this very brief video, illustrating the chokehold that Sinclair Media maintains over your nightly local news broadcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWLjYJ4BzvI
Of course, not every piece of news is pre-programmed but a lot is. The real news is out there, but sometimes you have to look a little deeper than the infographics on TV news. Even if information is being directed from the top down, the boots on the ground tend to be passionate people with a variety of interests and agendas, and they are still doing their best to do real journalism despite corporate oversight.
Think of those who are directing the information as steering an impossibly massive ship with a rudder. You can slowly adjust the course of direction, however it is slow to react. If you want to stop, you have to start thinking about stopping wayyy ahead of time. And similarly, once it gets underway, it is then influenced by an inertia all its own. Micro controls and adjustments aren't really possible.
Our society is this giant ship. There are 8 billion people on this earth - that is 8000 million. An incomprehensible number that grows rapidly every day. As civilization grows and advances, so does our medicine, our technology, our cultural norms. These are all natural processes that are necessary to manage an increasing number of societies all around the globe. And many of the advances we're making have exciting potential benefits for humanity, although as with all tools, they also inherently possess the potential for abuse.
Here are some other things happening in society right now, some you may be aware of and many you may not:

• RealID - The Real ID law requires people to show security-enhanced IDs to pass through airport security checkpoints or to enter certain federal facilities.
• Traffic Cameras - Most people know that there are traffic cameras in an increasing number of areas, some of which can assess your speed and issue you a ticket automatically.
• Automation Everywhere - Beyond assembly lines, robots are continually performing more types of tasks from ever more companies, replacing human employees at an increasing rate.
• Automated Trucks - Autonomous trucks are coming soon that can see forward over a half mile, farther than any other autonomous system in the world, and run during the day, the night and even in the rain.
• Global Satellite Internet - Elon Musk's SpaceX recently launched its fourth batch of internet-beaming satellites, as the company builds a broadband internet business by deploying thousands of satellites into orbit
• Digital Rights Management - Technologies for restricting the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works, DRM technologies affect copyrighted works, digital media, and even John Deere Tractors
• Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency - As digital payments become more and more prevalent, digital currency uses cryptography to secure and verify transactions as well as to control the creation of new units of a particular cryptocurrency.
• Voluntary Nanochipping - People are having microchips implanted into their bodies so that they don't need to carry key cards, IDs, and even train tickets.
• Programmable Viruses - As antibiotic-resistant bacteria becomes a greater problem, viruses are being engineered to fight the bacteria in targeted ways
• Facial Recognition Technology - Airports are using facial-recognition cameras to confirm passenger identity. Mobile phone makers are using face recognition for biometric security. Retailers are using it to prevent violence and crime, and for advertising.
• Thermal Scanners - Airports, casinos, and grocery stores are screening passengers for sickness. In China, this data is being used to control traffic.
• ID2020 - Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is developing human-implantable capsules that have ‘digital certificates’ which can contain financial data, medical records, tracking tech, and more.

There is an interesting chicken or egg relationship between science fiction and real world science. Sci-fi writers are inspired by the real science of the day, then they apply their creativity to imagine what might be in the future. Young scientists encounter these fantastical ideas and think they are worth pursuing, and then set about to make them a reality, and the cycle continues.
Futuristic concepts are then preempted and introduced through the media to the conscious mind, as we include them in books, movies, TV, video games, and more. Eventually we start seeing headlines of these new technologies and developments happening in other places, usually Japan and China first due to their prevalence in the industrial and technological sectors of our global economy.
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Continue to Part 2

PLEASE NOTE: This article may be updated periodically with new information and links as they become available. All referenced information and a whole lot more is indexed and linked in the related appendix posts. Please feel free to crosspost, share, and take from my ideas to build your own. Namaste.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Appendix A | Appendix B
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Hello. My name is Chris. I am nobody, really. An average citizen. I am an overweight 42 year old white male from the Midwestern suburbs of the US who has been fortunate enough to live a pretty comfortable life. I used to be a freelance graphic designer with a focus on small businesses, but I'm coming to terms with the fact that that career and part of my life is more than likely over in light of current events. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
I've always been concerned about social injustice and tried to stay politically informed, even dabbling in some activism here and there. At times I've stepped away from paying attention for my own mental health, or due to laziness, defeatism, whatever. But I've never stopped caring, or trying, to fight the good fight and do the right thing.
The news recently has of course swept us all up, and touched all our lives in some way or another. The world has never seen anything like the "Coronavirus Pandemic," and it's clear that our society will be changed forever when we finally come out the other end of this mess. But I've had the luxury of time recently, and in reading the news about things that were going on, I couldn't help but notice the patterns, and that a lot of stuff didn't exactly make sense.
So, here we go, with the "conspiracy theory."
I hate that term, because although it's technically accurate, it's been demonized and weaponized by the media and society at large to take on a bad connotation. Tinfoil hats, alien abductions, crazy people muttering to themselves, etc. You've no doubt got a lot of images in your mind of a conspiracy theorist.
And make no mistake, what I'm going to tell you here is all currently very popular conspiracy theory. However, I think that by removing opinions and conjecture from it, and focusing on facts and things that have already happened, I can present this huge amount of overwhelming, disparate information in a way that makes it less a "theory" and more a "research project." And so that is how I have approached this.
I have spent the last week doing little else besides reading every news and opinion article I could find, saving and organizing hundreds of links, and assembling a coherent, logical outline to organize and present these theories, and more importantly, facts. There are a lot of less-than-reputable sites and publications out there, and I have tried when at all possible to provide sources from verifiable news sites, with a wide range of slants and focuses, to illustrate that what is happening is not part of any one particular political agenda.
I hope that you take the time to check the links, really look into the information presented here, and form your own opinions. Please do not just take my word for it. To that end, there are also a few links mixed in that are labeled as having come from conspiracy. These are well-written and well-reasoned posts from other concerned citizens that I think are worth reading, and relevant to the discussion here.
One last thing - If you are new to most of these ideas, the information presented here is more than likely going to seem overwhelming at first. I encourage you now, and always, to take mental health breaks for yourself, and put down your phone or turn off your computer. The information will be here when you come back. And as you'll soon understand, what is happening is an unstoppable tide, truly a force of nature at this point, and there is nothing you can do to fight it, so try your hardest to relax, put on some chill music, hug your dog, and most of all...
BREATHE.
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If you start researching conspiracy theory, you're going to find a lot of information. Some much better or worse presented than others, and some much more plausible or unbelievable than others. Despite the seeming ridiculousness of some things you might read, I encourage you to always approach new information with an open mind.
That said though, I have one main principle that guides all my beliefs about conspiracy theories, and that is the "Filter of Likelihood." Essentially, you have to ask yourself how possible, how likely, and how feasible a piece of information is. Furthermore, you need to ask yourself what the motivation would be. In many cases, it's quite easy to see how something makes a lot of sense based on other known info, whereas some theories seem rather implausible no matter how you look at it.
I am interested only in the plausible, and where possible, the already actualized. Additionally, there's a lot to be said, and a lot that has already been written on many of these topics, so I will focus on current events and simple concepts.
I will also ask you to open your mind to possibility. Please consider this as you evaluate new information:

1. Do you believe there are things going on in the world that you don't know about yet?
2. Do you believe that there is technology and science you've never heard of?
3. Do you believe that society is progressing at an increasing rate?
4. Do you believe that as populations grow, we require new societal strategies?
5. Do you believe that those with power and money want to retain their power and money?

Of course you believe all these things, and none of these are wild or unusual concepts. Rather, these are very basic concepts that apply to everyone, and always have. They are all part of our shared human experience, and undeniable facts of life. Populations grow, societies evolve, technology advances, and the world changes. And most important to our discussion here, people, families, and empires constantly jockey for power and control, while fighting for resources, power, fame, and...
MONEY.
We all hate TicketMaster, right? Who do they think they are, what the hell is this bullshit "service fee," etc. It's something everyone can get behind. But did you know that TicketMaster willingly cultivates that image? That venues, teams, and artists, in their pursuit of more money, raise fees and then let TicketMaster be the bad guy and take the heat so their reputations remain intact?
There are many more people, organizations, and other entities in the world playing that same role for those who really have the money, who really call the shots. And those who call the shots work very hard and spend absolutely unfathomable amounts of money, time, and blood, to make sure that you don't ever realize who's actually taking your money.
They do this in the simplest, easiest way. If you simply control information from the top down, and disseminate it when and where you see fit, you can effect great societal change without lifting a finger.
Please imagine... really, try to imagine... You just read an article, saw a video, whatever, from a very, very reputable source. And it just informed you that an asteroid was 83% likely to impact the Earth next month. What would you do? What would happen in the world?
Hopefully an asteroid will not hit next month, but it's important to really imagine what would happen and why, and how. Because a huge amount of information would be generated and published, people would panic, society would crumble, and the world as you know it would change forever in an instant, the moment you read that headline.
Control of information is one of the most powerful tools known to mankind today. A person living in 2020 can easily encounter as much information in a day as someone in Medieval times might have encountered in a lifetime. And it comes at you from all angles, in all forms, non-stop, 24/7. Much like the water in the pipe, the information is always there, and one needs but turn it on.
Disseminating the information then becomes a practice all its own, and to be sure, information processing accounts for more than half of the US GDP. And the rate at which it's spread, and way it is handled makes a huge difference in the societal repercussions. So a few different techniques are used:

• The "Slow Walk" - If a large, unexpected piece of information is given suddenly, people tend to react poorly and irrationally. Also known as "letting them down easily," this technique restricts the flow of information to prevent the audience from balking or being overwhelmed
• The "Steady Drip" - This technique involves keeping your audience subjected to a constant stream of the desired information, so that they become accustomed to it and it becomes "normalized"
• The "Firehose" - A deluge of information flying out at full blast, designed to overwhelm the audience so that they cannot focus on anything else

It might be the greatest understatement of all time to say that there has been a lot of information passed around about COVID-19, the "Coronavirus," recently. In fact, there has never been anything like what we are currently experiencing in all of human history, and not by a long shot. And this unprecedented turn of events has caused a lot of people to react in a lot of ways, and say and do a lot of things, for better or for worse.
Full disclosure: In particular, if you look up conspiracy theory, you'll see a lot of stuff suggesting that the "Coronavirus is a hoax." (You'll also find a lot of poorly-written rambling) I want to be clear that I DO NOT believe that. I am 100% sure that there is a Coronavirus, that it is making people sick, that a lot of people are dying, and that our medical professionals and many other undervalued workers are overwhelmed, and breaking their backs every day to do their best to keep their friends, families, and loved ones safe. I am extraordinarily grateful for them and admire the resolve and bravery that so many have shown in the face of this disaster. I do not think it is a hoax at all.
However, I think that literally everything else that is happening surrounding the "pandemic" is.
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The Pandemic
In the first week of January this year, I got sick. Really sick. I know when I got it and who I got it from, and honestly the exact moment I got it (I only was in proximity of the dude for a few minues). He had warned me that he was really sick, and I blew it off. I started feeling sick a day or two later, and a day or two after that I felt like I was dying. Fever, chills, aches, extraordinary fatigue. And literal, nonstop, 24/7 coughing. I had every single symptom of what we now know as COVID-19. I commented to anyone who would listen that I didn't recall ever feeling that sick before in my entire life. The most memorable part of it though was that after a couple days, I completely lost my sense of smell and taste. Joked a lot about how you could feed me onions and soap cause I'd have no idea. I try to have a good attitude about being sick.
I spent a week sleeping on the couch before I finally went to the doctor. She gave me a Prednisolone steroid pack (which has worked well for me in the past), some Trazodone to knock me out, and Benzonatotate for my cough. As soon as I took the first dose of steroids I started to feel pretty fucking great, and it was more or less a non-issue after that.
I spoke to a lot of people about it then and after, and man, I can't tell you how many stories I personally heard from people I know that said the exact same thing. Then I started reading the same story over and over again on Reddit:

• Please leave your experience from November-January if you were Extremely Ill
• An Illness swept through Utah back in DecembeEarly January, was it Covid-19? Did this happen elsewhere?
• How long do you really think covid19 has been in the US?

We didn't start really hearing about the Coronavirus in the media until the beginning of March, and we didn't hear about the "Pandemic" until just a couple weeks ago. And what a couple weeks it's been since then. But I am quite certain that it's been around for a lot longer and that I, and a lot of other people I know, had it - and DID NOT DIE FROM IT - way back in January.
We now know that the first documented case in the US was on January 19th, but that word "documented" is so, so important here. That means that we had identified the virus, developed a test, and tested a person with the symptoms that day. It does NOT mean that was when the virus reached the United States. How sick do you have to be before you take a day off work? Before you go to the doctor? With America's healthcare system or lack thereof, it's almost certain that many people had this virus before we determined what it was, and how infectious it really was.
There is also the matter of the statistics of severity vs the regular flu. This is a highly contentious topic and I am no medical expert, and do not wish to make any assertions. However, what I can tell you from my personal experience is this: I had a horrible "flu" in January, got basic medicine, got better. So, either I had the flu, or perhaps I did indeed have the Coronavirus.
We will never know because I was never tested. But the important thing is that it doesn't matter. Either I (and many others) had the Coronavirus and it did not kill us (calling into question the severity of the infection) or we just had a bad cold or flu, but it had the exact same symptoms as COVID-19 (calling into question the extent of Coronavirus diagnoses). But logically, one of those two statements is true.
Furthermore, the data keeps changing, and I don't mean increasing on a daily basis. I mean up and down, back and forth, it is deadly or maybe it isn't, etc. On January 14 the WHO told you it couldn't spread from human to human. But then on Jan 19 we saw the first case of Coronavirus in the United States. Then it turns out that the Wuhan market outbreak began earlier in December. And then it's an "epidemic," but most people will only get mild symptoms. What are you supposed to believe? And it sure does seem to come at you as a firehose, and it's hard to even think about anything because OHMYGODTHECORONAVIRUS!
But let's stop and look a couple basic facts. As a matter of fact, I'm going to let Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi explain this one to you. This is a very informative 10 minute video, watch it:
Sucharit Bhakdi - Very clear math showing that the COVID statistics are being manipulated
So 80% of people only experience mild symptoms, and we're crashing the economy for this? The statistics aren't any more extreme than many other illnesses we've had over time, and we're crashing the economy for this? It doesn't make sense until you consider that there are other factors besides just the virus at play.
Wolfgang Wodard - Explaining how the statistics are being manipulated to cause panic
The media, and society at large is inundating you with terrifying information about the Coronavirus. But if it's not as bad as we originally thought, then why? We don't freak out about every illness that comes along, and we've certainly never in the history of civilization had over 1/3 of the global population locked down under mandatory quarantine.
And then there's the debate about where the virus came from. We believe it came from a meat market in China, under unsanitary conditions. The science behind a coronavirus making the leap from one species to another is well-established and researched, and it is a very likely scenario. There are also conspiracy theories that state that China released it on its people intentionally, or even that the US military released it in China. Again, we will never know exactly where this Coronavirus came from. It may be natural, it may be man made, and there are very plausible paths for both. I don't know what to believe myself. So here I ask you to make your own judgement based on likelihood.
What we do know though is that the state of the world this virus has been unleashed on has played a major factor in its spread. In 1950 the global population was 2.5 billion, and that has exploded to almost 8 billion people in 2020. As a matter of fact, population growth has been exponential since about the time of the Industrial Revolution.
With all these people on the planet there are sure to be many disagreements and conflicts, and there indeed have been. As a matter of fact, 2019 saw global protests on an unprecedented scale, in Hong Kong, France, Syria, and many other countries. Citizens have literally been fighting police and military with rocks, clubs, arrows, and molotov cocktails.
Did you know that? Despite my seeing headlines and pictures every day of the riots in Hong Kong, I have been shocked to learn that multiple of my close friends, intelligent and aware people, had no knowledge whatsoever of the protests even existing. But that is far from a coincidence; rather, it is quite by design.
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Billionaires and Coincidences
Another major talking point over the last 5 to 10 years has been the "1%" - the handful of super-rich individuals who posess and control the vast majority of the Earth's wealth and resources. Where it used to just be a numerical term, "Billionaire" is now a dirty word, and one of the nastiest. We all hate billionaires. They are evil, and profit off the exploitation of the rest of the world.
The "Illuminati" we call them, in pursuit of a "New World Order." Crazy stuff, right? Mysterious symbols and people in black robes doing nefarious things in secret meetings, and running the world from behind the scenes. We love the Illuminati, it's a huge pop culture thing now. The subject of endless speculation, they are made fun of in the media, movies, and now Taco Bell commercials. It's so far fetched it could never really be true. And the fact that you think that is by design as well.
So, we don't know where the Coronavirus came from, but it's certainly here, and there are lot of other things unfolding in the world around it. Many different current events from all different places and fields of study. Some of it seems a little too coincidental. It is certainly very coincidental that this economically destructive Coronavirus entered the world right as there were global uprisings, protests in the street, and a growing public hatred for billionaires.
Well, here are a few other coincidences: Hundreds of CEOs of major companies stepped down from their positions in recent months. Multiple US Senators sold stock right before the market crashed. Even the boss of the New York Stock Exchange sold his own stock right before the crash. Did they know something they weren't telling us?
Here's another coincidence. In 2010, The Rockefeller Foundation published a selection of future-predicting scenarios in the name of "exploring the ways that technology and development could co-evolve." One of these four scenarios, entitled "Lock Step," eerily predicts a global viral pandemic and the resulting hypothetical consequences, which almost exactly mirrors the COVID-19 pandemic we are in the midst of today.
Also coincidental: The first case of COVID-19 was diagnosed in China on November 17th, 2019. Literally one month earlier, The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in partnership with the World Economic Forum and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation hosted Event 201, a high-level pandemic exercise on October 18, 2019, in New York, NY. In this exercise, they discuss the potential implications and consequences of a novel Coronavirus, including an economic crash, martial law, and of particular interest, the control of information. (You can view some published highlights here)
The World Economic Forum is comprised of the richest of the rich. The 1%. The Billionaires. CEO's, politicians, business owners, and many other powerful and influential figures. They meet regularly to discuss topics of global concern, and strongly control the dissemination of information. And of primary concern to many of them is maintaining their wealth and power in a rapidly-changing world.
And finally, here's one more coincidence: At the exact same time as the Event 201 exercise, The World Military Games was held in Wuhan, China, Oct 18-27, 2019. It was the largest military sports event ever to be held in China, with nearly 10,000 athletes from over 100 countries competing in 27 sports. Wuhan China was, as we now believe, the source of our current global COVID-19 outbreak.
Whether you think it is a "conspiracy" or not, that is all certainly coincidental, to say the least.
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"Why didn't I hear about any of this?"
That's an excellent question, and one that likely has multiple answers. For starters, how much do you really pay attention? Where do you get your news from? Do you research things you hear or just accept them on hearsay? Critical thinking skills are paramount in making sense of the chaos unfolding all around us.
As I mentioned before, I can tell you that I personally know multiple people who had no clue whatsoever about the riots in Hong Kong last year. As you read this, you may be one of them. And it may seem like something that is happening far away, and "could never happen here." Or you may have been aware of it but just that it was happening. But please, consider for a moment: millions of average citizens risked their lives and safety in the streets of Hong Kong for months on end, fighting police and military, and transforming the city they lived in into a warzone. WHY? Why would people do something like that? Regardless of their motivations, that many people were banding together to fight for something they believed in. And that is worth considering.
It's not really your fault though that you may not catch wind of all this news. The "mainstream media" that you hear about all the time deliberately controls information - downplaying threats and overreacting to silly things - in order to make sure that you hear the version of the news that they want you to hear.
Did you know that only 6 corporations control 90% of the media In America? That number is reduced from 50 companies in the 80's. And literally all the news you see on TV, at the very least, is 100% owned and controlled by these companies. Lately, distrust is growing for cable news networks, and many people turn to their local hometown station for trusted news. The problem with that though is that your hometown station is probably owned by Sinclair Media, one of the most powerful broadcast networks in the country that you've never heard of.
Please watch this very brief video, illustrating the chokehold that Sinclair Media maintains over your nightly local news broadcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWLjYJ4BzvI
Of course, not every piece of news is pre-programmed but a lot is. The real news is out there, but sometimes you have to look a little deeper than the infographics on TV news. Even if information is being directed from the top down, the boots on the ground tend to be passionate people with a variety of interests and agendas, and they are still doing their best to do real journalism despite corporate oversight.
Think of those who are directing the information as steering an impossibly massive ship with a rudder. You can slowly adjust the course of direction, however it is slow to react. If you want to stop, you have to start thinking about stopping wayyy ahead of time. And similarly, once it gets underway, it is then influenced by an inertia all its own. Micro controls and adjustments aren't really possible.
Our society is this giant ship. There are 8 billion people on this earth - that is 8000 million. An incomprehensible number that grows rapidly every day. As civilization grows and advances, so does our medicine, our technology, our cultural norms. These are all natural processes that are necessary to manage an increasing number of societies all around the globe. And many of the advances we're making have exciting potential benefits for humanity, although as with all tools, they also inherently possess the potential for abuse.
Here are some other things happening in society right now, some you may be aware of and many you may not:

• RealID - The Real ID law requires people to show security-enhanced IDs to pass through airport security checkpoints or to enter certain federal facilities.
• Traffic Cameras - Most people know that there are traffic cameras in an increasing number of areas, some of which can assess your speed and issue you a ticket automatically.
• Automation Everywhere - Beyond assembly lines, robots are continually performing more types of tasks from ever more companies, replacing human employees at an increasing rate.
• Automated Trucks - Autonomous trucks are coming soon that can see forward over a half mile, farther than any other autonomous system in the world, and run during the day, the night and even in the rain.
• Global Satellite Internet - Elon Musk's SpaceX recently launched its fourth batch of internet-beaming satellites, as the company builds a broadband internet business by deploying thousands of satellites into orbit
• Digital Rights Management - Technologies for restricting the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works, DRM technologies affect copyrighted works, digital media, and even John Deere Tractors
• Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency - As digital payments become more and more prevalent, digital currency uses cryptography to secure and verify transactions as well as to control the creation of new units of a particular cryptocurrency.
• Voluntary Nanochipping - People are having microchips implanted into their bodies so that they don't need to carry key cards, IDs, and even train tickets.
• Programmable Viruses - As antibiotic-resistant bacteria becomes a greater problem, viruses are being engineered to fight the bacteria in targeted ways
• Facial Recognition Technology - Airports are using facial-recognition cameras to confirm passenger identity. Mobile phone makers are using face recognition for biometric security. Retailers are using it to prevent violence and crime, and for advertising.
• Thermal Scanners - Airports, casinos, and grocery stores are screening passengers for sickness. In China, this data is being used to control traffic.
• ID2020 - Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is developing human-implantable capsules that have ‘digital certificates’ which can contain financial data, medical records, tracking tech, and more.

There is an interesting chicken or egg relationship between science fiction and real world science. Sci-fi writers are inspired by the real science of the day, then they apply their creativity to imagine what might be in the future. Young scientists encounter these fantastical ideas and think they are worth pursuing, and then set about to make them a reality, and the cycle continues.
Futuristic concepts are then preempted and introduced through the media to the conscious mind, as we include them in books, movies, TV, video games, and more. Eventually we start seeing headlines of these new technologies and developments happening in other places, usually Japan and China first due to their prevalence in the industrial and technological sectors of our global economy.

Continue to Part 2 >>

Don't rent a car in Europe because it's expensive, slow and a pain-in-the-ass compared to public transport. Yeah, I get it "you don't mind long drives". I grew up road-tripping as a kid and once drove from Toronto to Ottawa for lunch so I know the feeling. However, you need to approach the trip differently when you take increased fuel costs/tolls/parking and the availability of public transport.
As a general rule, driving is not a very good way to get from point A to point B in most of the itineraries that we see on travel; in France, most people will think you're insane if you say "I'm going to rent a car in Paris to go to Nice for a weekend". That's at least nine hours behind the wheel, 77 EUR in tolls and about 80 EUR in fuel instead of a direct TGV in six hours (there's a train today for 70 EUR and you can find them for as low as 20 EUR). You also don't need to rent or park the TGV upon arrival ;).
All that said, buying a car in France was one of the best decisions that I made while living in Grenoble. Road trips to/in San Sebastian/Pamplona/Bordeaux, the Algarve, Barcelona, Corsica, Lake Como, Cassis/Les Calanques/Gorge du Verdun, Belgium/Luxembourg and Slovenia/Croatia were unforgettable and having a car was an amazing way to get off the (super-well-)beaten-trail. So I would highly recommend renting a car in Europe when the trip calls for it.
Anyway, here are some things that I think people should think about while deciding to rent or not in Europe. Keep in mind that most of my driving experience was in France and Northern Italy. In countries without tolls the costs will obviously go down.
Fuel * Right now in France you're looking at about 1.40 EUR per litre (2.20 CAD per litre, or 6 USD per gallon). At that price, it would have cost me 120 CAD to fill up my car! * Highways will have the most expensive fuel, followed by brand-name gas stations. I bought almost all my fuel at the big grocery stores (Carrefour, Casino, Leclerc and the like).
Tolls * The French highway system is great, I miss the hell out of it every time I get back on a 400-series highway in Ontario * But you pay for it. Over the two years I had my car, I spent almost as much on tolls as I did on diesel. * One really rough example is Grenoble to Turin. It's under three hours but you'll rack up 16 EUR to get to the Italian border + 45 EUR for the Fréjus Tunnel + 14 EUR to get the rest of the way to Turin. Flixbus would cost 15-20 EUR. * Italy takes this a step further with ZTLs. Did you miss this sign? Now you've got a fine coming! * Some countries require you to have a sticker in order to use their highways. In Switzerland this is 40 CHF whether you use the highway for a day or a year. * Note: you can use ViaMichelin to get an idea of tolls and fuel costs
Parking * If you're used to parking in wide-open lots for free then this is the stuff of nightmares. If you're parallel parking on-street in a French city then there's a very good chance that you'll be making bumper contact with the cars in front and behind you. * unless you're in the countryside you'll probably be paying (maybe out the nose) for parking. I paid 50 EUR to park for two nights in Barcelona. * Theft of belongings is a huge problem. An unscientific poll of my friends shows like 90% of them having had a window smashed and something stolen at least once
Sometimes a rental is a great idea, sometimes it's an unbelievably poor one. The important thing to do is to actually evaluate your options and figure out what works best for you.

• Ask yourself if you really need it? You may only need a rental for a few days in the middle of the trip, especially if doing so can help you avoid one-way drop-off fees. You certainly don't need the car because you want to be flexible during your week in Venice-Rome-Florence!
• Use ViaMichelin (website or app) to get an idea of tolls. Occasionally choosing one highway over another can save you a fair amount.
• Use online aggregates to find the best deal
• Keep the parking situation in mind when you're planning something. AirBnB's are notorious for saying "free parking" when really they mean "you can park somewhere in the neighbourhood" that may-or-may-not be free.
• Learn how to drive a manual. Even if you reserve an automatic, it's not a 100% guarantee that they'll have one when you get to the desk.

What have your experiences with rental cars been like?
Have you rented a car and wished you didn't need to find parking in Amsterdam and Brussels? Or have you tried to visit a chain of far-flung villages before wishing you'd taken a rental?

Amazon expands partnership with retail company Casino Group in France Casino Group and Amazon announced that they're expanding their partnership in France. In particular, there will be Amazon lockers in 1,000 supermarkets and smaller grocery stores across France. Casino Group partnered with Amazon last year to launch Monoprix on Amazon Prime Now. Prime members in Paris can order groceries and other products you'd regularly find … Continue reading Amazon expands partnership with retail company Casino Group in France → April 23, 2019 at 07:51PM
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Amazon expands partnership with retail company Casino Group in France Casino Group and Amazon announced that they're expanding their partnership in France. In particular, there will be Amazon lockers in 1,000 supermarkets and smaller grocery stores across France. Casino Group partnered with Amazon last year to launch Monoprix on Amazon Prime Now. Prime members in Paris can order groceries and other products you'd regularly find … Continue reading Amazon expands partnership with retail company Casino Group in France → April 23, 2019 at 07:54PM
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The season is finally here and u/Exells took the initiative to start a guide for people who aren't as familiar with Ligue 1 as they are with other leagues. Over the next week or so, we will continue to post team previews in no specific order and I might start doing more than one per day. If you have volunteered to write a review, but haven't sent it in yet, please do, otherwise I might be doing a hatchet job via wikipedia on some of the lesser known teams if i have time.
On a side note: You can't believe how long it took me to find out that I hadn't submitted this one!

AS Saint-Étienne

Write up by: ptexy
Logo
General
ASSE, or L’Association Sportive de Saint Étienne Loire, was founded in 1919 and has since then become the most successful club in the history of French football, with ten Ligue 1 titles, six French cup titles, one League Cup, and five Trophées des Champions. Their trophy cabinet dwarves even that of Paris or Marseille, as ‘Les Verts’ dominated the French football scene throughout the 60s and 70s.
The City
‘Sainté’ play in the Stade Geoffrey-Guichard, and boast one of the most impressive atmospheres in Ligue 1, as the city of Saint-Étienne is truly football-crazy. The team is the crown jewel and pride of their city, the capital of the Loire region, located in eastern France, only 50 kilometres away from their fierce rivals, Lyon. It is the 14th most populous city in France, and it is a beautiful town either to visit or live in.
History
ASSE was founded in 1919 by a group of grocery-story workers, yes, grocery-store workers, who worked for the Supermarket chain ‘Groupe Casino’, hence, the green colour of the club, as it was the colour of the Groupe Casino grocery store. Eight years later, Pierre Guichard took over the club to merge it with a local club, Stade Forézien Universitaire, and renamed the team ‘Association Sportive Stéphanoise’, as ‘Stéphanois(e)’ is the adjective for something from Saint-Étienne. It was only in the early 30’s that the club turned professional and changed its name to its current form. The Stéphanois club comfortably installed itself in the elite of French and European football throughout the 20th Century, even getting to the final of the European Cup in 1976, only to lose against Bayern Munich. Although Sainté dominated the match, they hit the crossbar continually. These infamous crossbars are now exposed in the ASSE museum for all fans to see, curse and cry at. Saint Étienne have produced and developed many notable players, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Kurt Zouma, Michel Platini, Laurent Blanc, Blaise Matuidi, Dimitri Payet, Kevin Mirallas, all once wore proudly the green of Saint-Étienne.
Last Season
Last season, Saint-Étienne did neither disappoint nor enthrall their loyal fanbase, finishing in sixth place just below LOSC Lille at 58 points. Manager Christophe Galtier brought the possibility of another Europa League campaign to Les Verts after their knockout last season in the group stage. This season, though the summer transfer window is not over yet, Saint Étienne have lost a couple of key players. Maupay, Tabanou, Cohade, Clerc, Bahebeck, Diomandé, Assou-Ekotto, and Brison have left the club; that’s eight important players. So far, only Cheick Mbengue from Toulouse and Bryan Dabo from Montpellier have joined the club, which is not very reassuring so far. I expect Saint-Étienne to have a season much like the last with a few late arrivals towards the end of transfer window to strengthen their roster, along with Beric and Tannane coming back from injury and Paul Baysse coming back from loan. Now, it’s up to Galtier and the boys in green to prove me wrong.
Expected XI
Sainté could line up as follows next season in a 4-3-3:

 Ruffier Théophile-Catherine, Perrin, Pogba (Paul’s brother!), Polomat– Pajot, Dabo, Lemoine Tannane, Beric, Hamouma 

Their bench could look like this:
Soderlund, Roux, Cohade, Moulin, Baysse, Monnet-Paquet, Clément.
Player to watch
Stéphane Ruffier
Ruffier arrived from Monaco in 2011 and has become one of the best keepers in the league, even being called up to the France squad several times since 2010 and being nominated three times in a row for best keeper of Ligue 1. Now that his worst enemy and serial humiliator, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, has left the league, Ruffier should have an even better season in 16/17.
Why you should follow ASSE
If you love teams with a lot of history and an explosive fanbase and you enjoy a crazy atmosphere at your home games, Saint-Étienne is the club for you. If you’re a Liverpool fan, I could see you liking Les Verts, both very successful clubs historically, but not so much recently. Plus, Pogba’s brother plays for them, so they must have something going for them, right? Also, if you really hate Lyon, or know a Lyon fan that gets on your nerves, Saint-Étienne, is definitely the club for you. I hope green brings out your eyes! (Also their jerseys are designed by Le Coq Sportif, and are always really sweet).
Why should Messi go to ASSE
Why should Messi go to Saint-Étienne? Because his favourite colour is red, which is the complimentary colour to green, which is Saint-Étienne’s colour. I’ve already contacted the Sun, they’re running this on their front page next week as ‘Messi to Saint-Étienne: done deal”. You’re welcome.
Why would ASSE be relegated?
Why would the club be relegated to Domino’s™ Ligue 2? Well, realistically, they won’t, unless there is some kind of major disaster á la 15/16 Marseille. The team sheet isn’t Champions League worthy but it still have the potential to be at the foot of the French podium with the right play style and management. With Christophe Galtier as their manager, the club is in good hands.

There is a proverb in the world of economics and it goes as such: "There are gains from trade" The example I'll chose is as follows. Two individuals, on two different islands, rely on eggs and bananas for sustenance. Both individuals need eggs AND bananas to survive. All other nutrients the two individuals need are satisfied by the wildlife and plants on each island. Island A happens to grow plenty of bananas while island B has plenty of chickens that produce eggs. The two individuals are visited by a merchant who happens to trade bananas for eggs 1:1. The individual on island A trades extra bananas for eggs to the merchant. The individual on island B trades extra eggs for bananas. Both people survive this way by trading. lucky enough for these people they trade their extra bananas and eggs for the other and come out ahead. Without trade the two individuals would die from malnourishment. The gain from trade, in this example, is survival. The merchant, too, gained because he was exchanging 1 egg for 10 bananas to island A and 1 banana for 10 eggs to island B. This is actually what many merchants do on a regular basis. This is also what stock exchangers do to survive. Money exchangers do the same.
The example I used involved bananas and eggs. What many people forget, when exchanging anything, is that their "money" is good for many other things than just goods and services and other "money" it is also good for saving. People tend to forget this, especially if they're not used to keeping money in large quantities in places they won't use it.
I believe Bitcoin is going to stay and I'll explain why. Bitcoin is not a stock, and does not have as many barriers to entry as stocks do. When people think of "investing" they think of stocks and bonds. When people think of saving, however, they generally think of currency or cash (a piggy bank with coins in them). I believe the founder exchangers have taken on the idea of currency savings. This idea usually doesn't take hold of a person or people unless they see good reason to.
There is a mentality to new exchangers and a mentality to old exchangers. I'm going to explain why old exchangers behave differently than new ones.
If you own any amount of bitcoin you are an exchanger (unlike a trader). Exchangers undergo arbitrage when they sell or buy. They have to set the price of their currency against another currency and hope other buyers or sellers will agree to that price. They buy for one price, and sell for another (typically higher than they bought for). The initial exchangers to hit the money market probably didn't expect much and probably didn't invest much, but over time saw their new money become more "valuable". The value of the coins didn't change, the value of all goods and services against that coin did. Everything else became less valuable compared to bitcoins. This is different than stocks. Stocks become more valuable, or less valuable (independently) compared to everything else. Why is this the case, you might ask? because you cannot exchange corn for every good or service. In some places of the world, corn is so plentiful you can't give it away, you might have to pay someone to take it from you! Currencies, however, can be exchanged for every good and service (worldwide). You can, however expect money currency to hold across distances but there is a caveat. Money of different types and denominations is worth different amounts than their numbers denote. For example, some places don't accept 100 dollar bills. Does this make the bill less valuable? well somewhat yes, but somewhat no (I'll let you think of the many reasons why). Currencies, just like stocks, can have nominal prices. If, say, I decide to sell my single ear of corn for 10 USD (or 100 pesos MEXICO) I'm likely to wait a very long time before someone buys. If, however, I sell my ear of corn for ten cents (1 peso MEX) I'm very likely to sell within the day. What if, however, I decide to sell just the peso or the dollar and forget about the corn altogether? Say I sell 1 dollar for 11 pesos to people heading south for vacations. I'll probably sell it quickly. Say I sell 9 pesos for 1 dollar to Mexicans heading north for work. I could even do this to the same exact person every year twice a year who happens to have dual citizenship (many families with relatives abroad already do this because guess what? they're still selling for a better asking price than the exchangers at banks and seaports and airports). So the rule that money is good everywhere isn't actually true, it needs to be amended. Money within one region is more valuable than to people in a distant region (provided that money needs to be exchanged in regions further away).
The same holds true for currency. If you have ever exchanged money at an airport (some of you likely have) you likely took a decent hit. People will take your 10 dollars USD for 90 pesos, or even 60, or maybe 50. People who are learning a new currency may make mistakes and lose a lot of it because people set their currency "price" as however they like. "My Deutschmark is worth 40 bags or rice or 300 bananas," is one way someone might market their currency. This doesn't usually work, however, as people find the nearest human being with a Deutschmark and learn what that currency is really worth (or just use their closes google-ready device to check the exchange rate). Deutschmarks have been eliminated since 1999, but traded for about 2.08 DM at the time. The last time the predecessor to DM, Rentenmark (RM), were generally accepted you could probably buy no more than 25 bananas for one RM.
It becomes even more complex the further go dive into how currencies behave. Dying people pay entire grandchild college funds or firstborns retirement packages to save their own lives sometimes. In other lands dying people pay the actual grandchild or firstborn to those they owe debt!
In another example, very young children will do the unthinkable and say "I'm sorry," "thank you," and even go so far as to wipe their own behinds for just 4 USD a month, if you're lucky you can make them empty a trash bin too. Most wealthy elites on this planet would never think of doing those things for 4 USD a month. Different people pay different things in different ways but one thing holds true, a currency that is more liquid than another will always win. Sometimes sex, or commodities become like currencies, but they dwindle or are competed against by better providers with a "better" or more "Refined" version.
Think about currencies as chips in a casino. Every casino has their own chip. Sometimes you will bring a chip home from Los Vegas or Reno. The chip, you may find, have very little value outside the casino. Likewise, carrying Euros in the USA becomes less useful than carrying USD. Most people won't accept your Casino chip or Euro at the grocery store or restaurant in Pico, California. In fact most people in Pico, California may have a hard time knowing what either of these currencies are. To them you become a currency salesperson instead of a buyer of goods and services. To make that chip worth something you need someone willing to exchange for a price that either matches or comes close to what everyone else is exchanging for. There are always costs to maintaining a casino. Making chips isn't cheap for casinos, the chips can't be duplicated easily or the house will be flooded with fakes and bust. Nations have the same problem and spend lots of goods and services to keep their currencies from busting. Provided, however, they keep things going without problems the house will win regardless of who bets on what.
If you are skeptical of this "value" of bitcoin consider the following sociology proverb. An idea, if held by people such that behavior of those people has an actual physical on others or things that idea has effectively become a reality. This is called the "Thomas theorem" in sociology.
In Economic theory you can consider money a "tangible reference." It refers to things that are real. IOUs are kind of like money because if "I owe you one apple" is written down by you, and handed to me, I'll be able to claim a real goddamned apple from you at some point. I could even take you to court if you decide to default on your IOU and get it that way. Money is a more open-ended IOU. It refers not to an apple owed by one person to me, but by everyone willing to sell apples to me. Someone with massive stashes of money knows well that society, in a way, "owes" him or her almost anything imaginable that can be sold. That person, however, knows he will pay different amounts of "IOUs" back to people for a good that is very very difficult to come by. ((I'm going to reference Shawshank Redemption here, please forgive me if you haven't seen/read it.)) Take Red from Shawshank redemption charging all those valuable cigarettes for the small tool that Andy needed. It wasn't cheap, but in that small world of prison, getting a tool to tunnel out of prison costs a life savings. Take Brooks, the old man who only wanted to be with his crow and give books to the other prisoners. I bet brooks would have traded anything he owned to get back INTO prison. Different people have different desires, needs, and taste. This is why Stocks are volatile at times. Corn today, apples tomorrow, and then apple tomorrow (apple computer stock). The same holds true with currencies. Some people will pay a lot of money for a coin struck by ancient rome or egypt. Perhapts that coin was worth only a pint of wine, but today its worth a thousand bottles of fine red from France's best vineyards.
Money doesn't degrade quickly, and online money never degrades. I'm talking about the physical failure of money, when a coin breaks, or becomes so worn down it can't be distinguished from copper or nickel ore stone. Many of ancient coins were lost to degradation. I bet, however, if you check your diablo II account on that old computer you still have all the money you had when you left it.
This is the true value of satoshis. While corn, if left in savings, will rot, satoshis and bitcoins will not. Saving bitcoin isn't a joke or a lofty "gamble" its a huge investment into tomorrow and it has already begun to pay off.
Say, for example, George crafts and delivers a pizza and is paid in 20 USD on dec 2011. George goes home and puts that 20 dollars away. In 2013 George decides to buy a pizza. Fortunately for George, the pizza only costs 20 USD. What happened? something very special. George may have given and received one pizza, but when he put that money he received away he placed it into Savings. His savings account was the bitcoin currency. George could have chosen many many other currencies but he decided on bitcoin. Now George can buy pizzas all year without even touching his income he makes now. The best part about George's new fortune is that he won't have to deal with a bank taking their share every month, he won't even have to spend gas or energy to get to the bank, he only has to use his home pc.
This is precisely what the initial exchangers of bitcoin (provided they didn't sell immediately) experienced and that experience will not likely be forgotten. Their friends, family, and acquaintances will have heard of their own type of "pizza trading" tales. When they consider dumping all their bitcoins they may reconsider, and save a few. This, in spite of any bubbles of crashes is why bitcoin will hold strong. It may even hold strong at 20 or 40 or 100 USD/btc, but it won't die because old school investors will not sell below a prices that surpases what they paid. Bitcoin is the only money to increase in relative value as quickly as it has in history to date! It has done so in one special way, it is accepted worldwide by any merchant abroad willing to trade with you. They are very much like the banans AND eggs on those islands in my first example. Bitcoins are the fish, oil, cars, and donuts found around the world, they need only nominated (as a nominal currency) as such.
Bitcoin is an idea, but also a reality.

Subreddit	Title	Brand
gaming	Just bought an Xbox 360; brand brand new to console gaming. What games should I buy?	Xbox
sports	Will Adam Schefter be employed by ESPN post draft?	ESPN
news	New McDonald's uniforms mocked for stark, modern look	McDonald's
gaming	So my friend asked me to make a life size Lego tank rifle from Battlefield 1, guess I did it 😉	Lego
Showerthoughts	Remember when a 4 door truck or Jeep looked goofy? Now a 2 door truck and Jeep look odd.	Jeep
UpliftingNews	The magic of Twitter in Dubai	Twitter
worldnews	Iran-linked hackers used Microsoft Word flaw against Israeli targets, security firm says	Microsoft
worldnews	Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles has told the BBC that early general elections are the only way to put an end to the country's crisis. Mr Capriles accused President Nicolas Maduro of inflicting "savage repression" on the Venezuelan people.	BBC
AskReddit	How many gigs of ram would you need for a work/school computer I don't use any crazy programs just mainly Microsoft Word, excel, access etc?	Microsoft
funny	Is it funny thatUC Berkeley protesters are armed with Pepsi tonight?	Pepsi
news	Philippines police 'keep people hidden in secret cell' - BBC News	BBC
AskReddit	All of the United States Presidents are Alive and Running for Ultimate President... in 1800. Who Wins?	United
pics	Email from United Airlines regarding recent incidents	United
todayilearned	TIL Mr. Rogers was in favor of VCR recording, in contrast to most others in the TV industry at the time.	Rogers
videos	Harvey's Casino Bomb circa 1980.. bonus parents at 2:26. My dad camera left with the amazing 'stache and bow tie. Mom in the green pants bending to pick something up.	Casino
mildlyinteresting	This Sprite can came empty straight from the box	Sprite
Music	Father John Misty - Total Entertainment ForeverIndie Rock	Total
pics	open letter from United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz just arrived into my inbox who email blasts at 8pm? probably so they make as least news as possible	United
Futurology	A.I. will replace half of all jobs in the next DECADE, says one of China's top technologists former Google China head, current VC	Google
mildlyinteresting	I opened my Instagram feed at 9:11 to see a video of the Porsche 911	Porsche
videos	Can We Show This Guy Some Reddit Love Cause Youtube Won't	Youtube
worldnews	Brazilians fight back against corruption– with the help of a purple plug-in: Colour of Corruption, a plug-in that works with Google Chrome, details criminal allegations against Brazil’s top politicians, who have long been accused of greasing the wheels	Google
gaming	Anybody down to play Battlefield 1 on Xbox one later?	Xbox
listentothis	Luke Bell -- Where Ya Been country 2017	Bell
videos	Tom Cruise test drives Red Bull Racing F1 car	Red Bull
funny	I can't believe these trending survey posts on Facebook still exist	Facebook
worldnews	Russia opposition leader Alexei Navalny attacked with "brilliant green" dye - BBC News	BBC
personalfinance	Offered $1000 for My Twitter Account for a Startup Business, Need Some Help!	Twitter
listentothis	Michael Daves ft Wax Lion - June Apple Rock	Apple
AskReddit	How much do you think the Dr. that was pulled off the United flight settled for?	United
funny	Amazing conversation with a Facebook spam bot named Ruth Thomsen.	Facebook
worldnews	Buffalo beauty contest held in Pakistan - BBC News	BBC
pics	My Jeep wouldn't start. Found this bird nest on the battery.	Jeep
gaming	Gamestop Preowned Xbox One Controller "Gunk" =	Xbox
sports	Is there a consolidated list of all the ESPN employees laid off so far?	ESPN
AskReddit	Lawyers of reddit, how much do you think United settled for? How much would he have won had it gone to trial?	United
Showerthoughts	I feel like it takes less effort to type out my Google search with slightly different wording than it is to click the NEXT PAGE link.	Google
funny	Dude flipping the bird on ESPN live during the NFL draft	ESPN
mildlyinteresting	I found McDonald's evil twin	McDonald's
mildlyinteresting	This rock I found looks like an old Xbox controller.	Xbox
videos	When you drop your drugs... in court - BBC News	BBC
Showerthoughts	The reason I never go on the second page of Google is because I always find what I want on the first few links or try a different search term if I dont.	Google
worldnews	Mugwump mania and memes take over Twitter - BBC News	BBC
worldnews	Mugwump mania and memes take over Twitter - BBC News	Twitter
funny	A typical Audi driver	Audi
IAmA	AMA REQUEST McDonald's kitchen middle management.	McDonald's
pics	Mark Zuckerberg working on a Ford F-150 at the Dearborn plant.	Ford
AskReddit	Americans, what do you think about United States' patriotism/nationalism?	United
videos	Ghost In Shell Review Teaser IN 4K!	Shell
movies	The American West of John Ford - Some great stuff in here about The Master!	Ford
science	Economic mobility in the United States has nearly halved since 1940: The fraction of children earning more than their parents fell from 92% for children born in 1940 to 50% for children born in 1984.	United
explainlikeimfive	ELI5: Why does McDonald's Coca-Cola taste better than any other Coca-Cola?	McDonald's
explainlikeimfive	ELI5: Why does McDonald's Coca-Cola taste better than any other Coca-Cola?	Coca-Cola
funny	The United Airlines "eat crow" email	United
AskReddit	What would your job title and occupation be if you were a member of the United Federation of Planets?	United
funny	When Google goes full retard	Google
pics	My fiends Microsoft Paint artwork	Microsoft
worldnews	German parliament moves to partially ban the burka - BBC News	BBC
AskReddit	Who are some lesser known yet still important historical figures of the United States of America and what should people know about them?	United
funny	According to Google Maps, this elementary school near me is just an unfriendly man.	Google
Jokes	Borat recently visited United States. As he walked out of the airport the news reported asked him what he thought about President Trump, to which Borat replied "he is the best president ever"	United
nottheonion	Former Coles employee wins $1 million after falling off stool at work	Coles
todayilearned	TIL: Several of the members of the team that created Paypal built bombs when they were still in High School	Paypal
pics	This is Darius, world's largest rabbit and father to the late Simon, who died while in United custody. Undoctored picture	United
AskReddit	serious Now that America is asleep, what's your personal, non-circlejerk opinion of the United States?	United
Showerthoughts	Remembering urls and e-mail-addresses instead of using Google is the modern day equivalent of remembering phone numbers instead of using a phone book.	Google
videos	Twitch Streamer Ice Poseidon Just Swatted off an American Airlines Flight From Prank Call.	American Airlines
mildlyinteresting	The KFC guy was printed on the napkin without a nose	KFC
AskReddit	Now that most of America is asleep, what's your personal, non-circlejerk opinion of the United States?	United
funny	New Nike Ad	Nike
AskReddit	What is your favorite "best kept secret" on how to travel like the rich and famous while on a beer budget within the USA? Do you have invaluable information that cannot be found via a simple Google search?	Google
videos	Guy tries to sell his '96 Suzuki Vitara	Suzuki
AskReddit	Why have you stopped visiting Yahoo pages?	Yahoo
aww	This new freight plane from Airbus looks super cute :3	Airbus
pics	Greenpeace just hijacked the General Assembly of Credit Suisse to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline	Credit Suisse
AskReddit	What search engine will you use now that Google is being censored?	Google
videos	Quitting Youtube And Looking For A Real Job.......Youtube Ad Revenue Is Dead	Youtube
worldnews	Thai court seeks Red Bull heir arrest after five years	Red Bull
videos	Man removed from Delta flight for using the restroom before takeoff	Delta
WritingPrompts	WP A group of Nazi time travelers go forward in time to attempt to convince Bob Ross to stay in the air force in Alaska, as he is meant to be usher in a dystopiac United States but keeps getting distracted by how pretty the landscape is.	United
Jokes	I order eggs through United Airlines when making omelets.	United
videos	An American Airlines flight to Phoenix was just boarded by police because someone swatted a popular twitch streamer	American Airlines
videos	Heineken's Antidote to That Pepsi Kendall Jenner Ad	Pepsi
videos	The Wild Report-Learn about the awesome reptiles of Hilton Head Island!	Hilton
news	Google and Facebook have confirmed that they fell victim to an alleged $100m £77m scam.	Facebook
worldnews	Google and Facebook have confirmed that they fell victim to an alleged $100m £77m scam.	Facebook
pics	"An MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter from the 'Blue Hawks' of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron HSM 78 fires chaff flares during a training exercise" in April 2017 in the Philippine Sea. Photographer: United States Navy Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Sean M. Castellano	United
philosophy	3 tenured Phil PhDs had some trouble describing the similarities/differences between the Continental and Analytic traditions. I've decided to consult 11+million 25 year olds.	Continental
news	A terror suspect arrested near the Houses of Parliament is Mohammed Khalid Omar Ali, the BBC understands.	BBC
worldnews	A terror suspect arrested near the Houses of Parliament is Mohammed Khalid Omar Ali, the BBC understands.	BBC
Futurology	Goodbye Search, Google Is Becoming "A.I. First"	Google
television	How much does ESPN receive per cable subscriber?	ESPN
gaming	Can I use a wired PS4 controller on my Xbox console?	Xbox
mildlyinteresting	A can of Keiko Root Beer I bought in 1994 at the Newport Aquarium in Oregon. Free Willy!	Newport
worldnews	Hungary: In midst of govt. crackdown, a group of 80 leaders of philanthropic organizations in the United States and Europe issue statement in support of civil society	United
funny	From a Facebook convo: "That was a harsh segway." "No, THIS is a harsh Segway."	Facebook
gaming	Austin ABC station put together a list of easy to learn games for Tabletop Day	ABC
news	'Overly obese' body sparks Ohio funeral home fire - BBC News Article	BBC
todayilearned	TIL Walt Disney can be considered the inventor of surround sound. The first documented use of surround sound was in 1940, for the Disney studio's animated film Fantasia.	Walt Disney
AskReddit	Who is the greatest president of the United States of America?	United
news	McDonald's is phasing out Hi-C Orange Drink	Orange
todayilearned	TIL in SC you can get pulled over if your passenger isn't wearing a seatbelt. They will be ticketed if they have any kind of BP or DL even if they are 17 and younger. You will get to leave on your merry way as the driver, without any trouble if you had your seatbelt on.	BP
explainlikeimfive	ELI5: What are the differences between Delta Force and Seal Team 6 and why do they exist separately?	Delta
mildlyinteresting	So I noticed Subway started using stickers!	Subway
AskReddit	Redditors who have been to other countries, what is something you like about the United States?	United
Showerthoughts	I feel like someone's on to me every time I see my location at the bottom of my Google Search results, but it's probably just to improve my results.	Google
worldnews	Thai police obtain arrest warrant for Red Bull heir	Red Bull
worldnews	Explosion reported at McDonald's in Grenoble, France	McDonald's
Showerthoughts	Nintendo is the Apple of the gaming industry.	Apple
pics	Google Earth Photo looks like lava in the Ocean. I don't know what this is, but this is the Cay Sal Bank, south of Florida on Google Earth. What is it?	Google
gadgets	Google teams up with Huawei for high-end Raspberry Pi rival that runs Android	Huawei
mildlyinteresting	When you Google "askew" the results page is askew.	Google
funny	Mark Zuckerberg Helps Construct Ford F-150s At Dearborn Plant	Ford
Showerthoughts	After my phone restarts, Apple thinks a 6 digit passcode is more secure than my fingerprint	Apple
AskReddit	Reddit, how powerful is the United States military?	United
mildlyinteresting	You can see the Apple logo through my computer via the morning sunlight shining on in on it.	Apple
AskReddit	I think McDonald's is a force for good. What other companies is it fashionable to hate who are actually ok?	McDonald's
AskReddit	Reddit, in the spirit of United Airlines, have you ever been in a situation where someone has been forcibly removed from a plane?	United
AskReddit	Current and former Uber drivers: what do you want us passengers to know?	Uber
movies	Putting the making of a cyborg song from Ghost in the Shell with the creation of Walter in Alien: Covenant makes it even better.	Shell
gaming	Please help me find this old Xbox game!	Xbox
movies	The Circle review: a toothless, bland satire of a Google fantasy dystopia	Google
news	Facebook and Google were conned out of $100m in phishing scheme	Google
photoshopbattles	PsBattle: This guy holding a Tim Hortons cup	Tim Hortons
worldnews	Montenegro to ratify joining Nato as Russia bans wine imports - BBC News	BBC
EarthPorn	The suburbs of Yorba Linda, Orange County, CA. You don't need to travel for beauty. Learn to refresh your soul to see the beauty all around you. 1440x2560	Orange
funny	This advertisement found in the Starbucks drive thru.	Starbucks
funny	OC United Airlines PR re-enactment	United
mildlyinteresting	This Jurassic Jeep at my school	Jeep
personalfinance	As of 04/27/2017, the expense ratio on your Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Admiral Shares has changed from 0.05% to 0.04%.	Total
videos	[How To Active Microsoft Office 2016	MS Office 2016 Activator Free Download
sports	This child is why ESPN will continue to lose viewers	ESPN
videos	Heineken Succeeds where Pepsi failed.	Pepsi
mildlyinteresting	This Apple Store bathroom has toilet paper for both types of people.	Apple
Showerthoughts	Nothing is more depressing yet appetizing as a Costco food court.	Costco
news	An Uber engineer killed himself. His widow says the workplace is to blame.	Uber
funny	Just came across this review on an organic grocery store's Facebook page	Facebook
explainlikeimfive	ELI5: How could social media websites such as Facebook realistically deal with fake news?	Facebook
news	Merriam-Webster Adds 'Sheeple' to Dictionary and Lists Apple Users as Example	Apple
OldSchoolCool	OG #Vanlife - Me & My Sister W The Orange VW Somewhere in MT 1977	Orange
television	Twenty years ago, Ellen DeGeneres came out on her ABC sitcom, a move that nearly cost her career. On the anniversary of ‘The Puppy Episode,’ its writers remember scripting history.	ABC
worldnews	Brazil hit by first general strike in two decades - BBC News	BBC
sports	Scott Van Pelt Shares Emotional Message To His Laid-off ESPN Colleagues	ESPN
worldnews	German airlines drop safety rule prompted by Germanwings crash - BBC News	BBC
videos	America's heroin trail: A new generation of addicts - BBC News	BBC
videos	Steam locomotive Union Pacific 844 pushes a stalled 11,620 ton freight train	Union Pacific
gaming	Here's Xbox Boss Phil Spencer Playing a Noob in Sea of Thieves	Xbox
pics	I don't know if someone else has shared theirs, but my friend got an email from United today.	United
worldnews	Earthquake probability maps show nearly all of Japan at risk：The Asahi Shimbun	Asahi
worldnews	Google and Facebook duped in huge 'scam'	Facebook
mildlyinteresting	This 7-Eleven is in an apartment	7-Eleven
mildlyinteresting	My Taco Bell hot sauce was blank	Bell
videos	Sean Parker tells David Choe to paint "whatever he wants" at Facebook HQ, awkwardly regrets it 2005	Facebook
AskReddit	If Mr. Rogers were around and had become President, what would happen during his first 100 days?	Rogers
mildlyinteresting	This Phantom Menace Pepsi machine is still operational	Pepsi
Showerthoughts	I frequently get Ubers but I've never seen a female Uber driver.	Uber
worldnews	Montenegro approves Nato membership as Russia protests - BBC News	BBC
OldSchoolCool	My father with his Fiat 500 Verona,Italy 1972	Fiat
personalfinance	Help understanding Capital One credit card.	Capital One
WritingPrompts	WP Tell me a story involving a 2017 Ford Focus RS, a massive shipment of Girl Scout cookies and a very drunk pyrotechnics expert.	Ford
AskReddit	What is a good name for our new Red Ford that we just bought?	Ford
AskReddit	How do you teach someone to use Google efficiently?	Google
mildlyinteresting	Accurate Lego for the win. They made sure to include Harrison Ford's chin scar on Han Solo.	Lego
mildlyinteresting	The grocery store I work at has a display that says "we appreciate teachers" with a couple of apple-related products, including cases of Redds Apple Ale	Apple
funny	Not the pillow spokesperson I expected when I searched "Children's Bedding" at Costco Canada	Costco
Showerthoughts	The smartest thing Apple ever did was put their logo on the back of their iPhones because when my GF sends nudes I also see the logo so I now associate Apple with boobs.	Apple
AskReddit	If Youtube falls apart, what would you guys do in your free time instead of watching Youtube?	Youtube
news	Isle of Wight MP steps down after 'gay danger remark' - BBC news	BBC
personalfinance	Wife and I are trying to reduce/eliminate our car debt. We have a lease from college that ends in 6 months, and a 2016 Mazda CX-5 That we owe 16k still. 3rd car is a truck we received for free. Options?	Mazda
pics	Guys... Donald Trump is still the president of the United States. It hasn't stopped.	United
AskReddit	If you were made CEO of United Airlines today, what would be your first move?	United
aww	Reddit, meet Wally. We rescued him from the back of a Walmart freight trailer.	Walmart
news	21,000 AT&T wireless employees could strike Monday.	AT&T
videos	Everything Wrong With United Airlines	United
AskReddit	Why doesn't Xbox have a baseball game?	Xbox
Jokes	Was working at AT&T selling sim cards	AT&T
personalfinance	Can someone shed more insight on the rotating categories of the Chase Freedom card?	Chase
mildlyinteresting	My local Walmart has an inflatable owl in the rafters to keep birds away from the produce	Walmart
AskReddit	SERIOUS How is Apple better than Android, and vice versa?	Apple
explainlikeimfive	ELI5: Why do GIFs take longer to load than Youtube videos?	Youtube
Futurology	This is How Futuristic Apple iCar Might Look Like	Apple
videos	Everything Wrong With United Airlines	United
AskReddit	What are your favorite gaming Youtube channels and whynot only let's plays,anything related to gaming?	Youtube
news	Bombardier rejects Boeing claim CSeries was dumped into the U.S. at below cost	Boeing
sports	Stephen A. Smith fires back at criticism that he should have been among ESPN layoffs	ESPN