Kickstarters, You LIARS

I see you want to create something, and you need some financial help, thats great, how can I help? Money? Hmm, well, sure, but what do I get for my money? a copy of the product you are making, well that's fair. I'll pay for 1 copy, and help get my 100 friends to pay for a copy too, so you can produce it. How much each? $100? well, its a bit steep, but we love what you're doing, so sure, we'll all give you $100, we'll all talk about it, and help it, and grow it and be part of the community, so you can make your game.

within the month...

YAY, we funded it..

6-18 months later

YAY its delivered

3 months later, but sometimes at the same time...

What?! The game I lovingly helped create, and spent $100 on, and then another $20 in shipping, is at my local shop for $60? WTF.. HEY Kickstarter Guy.. Whats going on? You sold it to the shops cheaper than to US? I could have bought this for $60.. man this sucks, Kickstarter Sucks! I'm never going to buy anything from Kickstarter again.. B&*(&@#^%ds you screwed me.. how dare you.

Sound Familiar?

Welcome to Bannister Rails, where I act like an old man and have a screaming rant fest about things that annoy me. Sometimes I even go off the rails..

Kickstarter Scams and the Lifecycle of Funding Projects

I'm a Kickstarter Super Backer, this means I have backed over 25 projects of at least $10 each, within the last 3 years, or it was when I looked it up last. So I've had my fair share of the cycles of many projects. Of the 50+ projects I backed (maybe closer to 100), I have yet to receive half, some, because I only recently backed them, so their delivery is 2019 or 2020, some have yet to deliver, even though they said 2018 or 2017. Of those in the latter category, I think only one might not ever get made, and for kickstarter that's pretty good odds.

I've read about a few people who have backed four or more products, and have received nothing to date. Most of them have never backed anything again, and they have a right to that.

There was a time when I felt that backing anything on kickstarter was a coin toss if A), you'd get anything, B) you'd get something along the lines of what you were expecting, but poor quality in comparison to the hype, and rarely C) you'd get exactly what they said they were making (or even rarer.. something better)

As time has gone by, the vetting process of Kickstarter has enabled many various people to assess the project, let other know if its unlikely to back or not, based on their collective experience. As a result its much rarer to get nothing, you're pretty much always going to get something, yet are you going to get your moneys worth.

Some people get a bad feeling in their mouth about things, and they spew it out onto the forums of the next KS project that looks like it maybe, might, do the same thing that the last one did. Its an unfortunately cycle, but slowly we have begun circling the drainpipe of bad KS decisions, and while I hope it doesn't kill the platform, I'd prefer it dead than zombified version of itself consuming projects and spitting out filth before eventually rotting away.

What am I talking about?

In the beginning, you backed a project, you backed the project creators, you and a crowd, got together an mutually agreed to fund this project because of several reasons:

* You want to see the company succeed, if they produce this project, they are likely to produce similar projects in the future and you want to be on their mailing list and maybe get a discount for future products as an extra reward for helping build the company.
* You want the product they are making, there is a chance you might get nothing for your money, or a poorly produced product, but that risk is mitigated because you're getting something extra for your risk.

But whats happening now is out of sync:

* You're not being treated as a part of the process of making the product, you've being treated as a cash-cow by the company. Someone who'll buy their product, each and every time, regardless of the quality.
* You're being treated as a dupe, someone who is spending their money up front, because they are scared of missing out. where if they just waited, it'd come to them cheaper and faster.

How can I think/say this?

I engage in the board game community more than other KS communities, I have backed some books, some art, some minis and some tech, and each has their good and bad projects, but I have a majority of board games, so Its easier to pick on targets from that.. so here we go

Some companies have figured out they can produce a half ok game, pack in Lots of Miniatures, and I mean LOTS of miniatures.

See back in the day, Games Workshop produced the best minis, and they had, and still have, a premium price tag. 2 hours wages for a commander, or 3 hours wages for a box of 10 units.

Now, with 3D printing prototypes, 3D cad tools to design, companies like Reaper and CMON can produce decent quality minis at 50c and $2 each respectively, so they can ask people for a couple of hundred dollars for a box of a hundred minis, and like CMON, with some game tacked on, and they know they'll get funded, because the mini buyers are all over that price.

We saw a similar situation happen in the computer games industry. Decent titles being pushed to the back by weak games with fantastic graphics. Now its weak games with lots of minis.

These Mini boxes with some game rules treat the backer as more of a cash cow.. the mini backers will help fund the game and the game backers won't want to miss out on the latest hot 'lots of minis' game.

I can't fault them too much, because they still follow the basics of my understanding of how KS backers should be in on the deal. They produce a game, the game has a retail price for the base set, and a kickstarter set of goodies for the kickstarter backer. They seem to break even on the base + KS goodies, because they'll make a profit on the retail + add-ons, they know that a fair percentage of people are going to get some or all the add-ons, and all the spares will go into retail as limited edition box sets with a half decent hefty mark-up.

Game company wins, KS backer wins, retailer can win if they stock only enough to make some sales but don't get greedy, non KS backer loses out?

This, is to some extent where the issue lies. If the retailer stocks too much, he has to discount the excess stock and then if the kickstarter backer has only backed retail and sees a retail version cheaper than his retail version, then the KS backer has lost out too.

So Issue #1, Retail versions going cheaper than Backer versions.

The other side, the KS company sets the price point for retailers so that its difficult to discount it lower than the Backer 'retail' version. Now the retailer is paying more, so the price has to be higher to begin with, and Retail customers are far more fickle on price than KS backers, so the games don't sell til they discount down to the same price as the KS price, because information is free and anyone can look up the RRP of the KS, but what retailer is going to buy in on a game that has such a small profit margin?

So Issue #2, Retails won't stock the product, and the KS project needs those retail sales to increase the production, so the cost to produce is lower per product!

OR, the KS project treats the backer as a dupe, their Fear of missing out (FOMO) means they'll pay a higher up front price for a product with the hopes they're getting a better deal, then, when they discover they are not, they can't return the goods, they can't sell it for the price they paid to the average consumer, because the retail price is lower, they can maybe sell at 70% cost, taking a 30% loss, a terrible investment, or they can try to recoup some worth by opening it, playing it a few times, and then selling it at 50% of cost, at least saving themselves some other potential cost of going to the movies or out to a bar, which would have cost $50-$100 (petrol, parking, food, tickets, drinks, taxi, etc) yet, these days there is another cost.. the other games you bought and the time loss of playing a game you don't really like, just to get some worth, vs a game you do like, so you can have an enjoyable evening.

Double Screwed.

So, the conclusion to that part is: If you don't go in for the KS exclusives, you won't have a resellable product, and if they're going to bring out retail, you may as well wait for the discounted version.

Heck.. if the game isn't the be all and end all for you, you may as well wait until one of those dupes above, sells his game at 70% brand new or 50% used.

This grinds me so much..

Stretch Goals, Kickstarter exclusives, dangerous waters.. 

There are two kinds of Stretch goals IMO, one good and one bad. Stretch goals can either add to a game, or confuse a game. A Good stretch goal improves the product quality, and a bad stretch goal, either should have been there all along, or should be a well thought out expansion, not a last minute tacked on untested fail.

There are two ways to consider a product improvement. When the Stretch goal is going to take a pretty good game and just make it all the better, that's a good stretch goal.

Case in point. You can produce cards for your game in around 5 possible qualities. The blue-core and linen finish are pricey, they are nice, but they are not required to make a game great, they just add a tad more durability, and quality. the 3rd quality, is often used by quality games and is a great starting point. If your game raises more funds, you can offer up the core & linen as stretch goals.

But if you start at paper and bring the product up to mid tier.. that's a bad stretch goal. You shouldn't try to fund your product as the crappiest version and stretch goal your way to average.

A Similar aspect is game components.

If your putting standees in, cardboard tokens, to represent your game characters. You'll likely miss out on a set of backers that want minis for all games, but you'll get a large number of people that can't afford to pay $$$ for a board game and are happy to play with standees, if they can at least play the game.

Offering a standee version and a mini version, you're going to get two sets of backers, you'll have to do some logistics to ensure you get enough mini backers to break even, but with stretch goals to unlock these, you can ensure that your staggered costs don't break the bank. classically, heroes, boss monsters, monsters and furniture, in that order, could be unlocked as add-ons, and then if you get everything unlocked, you can group them together for the 'mini version'

Or, maybe run two campaigns back to back.. to ensure the numbers of each set.

But some companies actually drop whole parts of their game instead, taking out monsters in sets, but selling them as add-ons. Add-ons should always enhance the game, not be required to play.

Apparently, there is an argument against kickstarter exclusives. Retail sales loss. There are people who will see a retail version of the game, knowing that there are KS exclusive add-ons who will not buy the retail version, because the FOMO on the extras. To acquire those extras, you'll need to convince someone to part with their extras, but not with the main game, or you'll end up with the main game and need to try to find someone else to buy just the main from you, hopefully at cost (but why would they, since its in retail at 25% off!)

This is the dangerous waters that came up before, that I touched on.. How Kickstarter has created this backlash situation, unintentionally, which is causing the issues and problems.

What IS kickstarter.

If its a retail platform, that allows people to buy a product, that would be harder to sell in the traditional manner, then why are traditional retailers even getting this product at all, and even if they are, surely its such a small amount that it doesn't cause too many problems..

If traditional retailers are happy to take on a product, then why didn't they in the first place?

You can't win both ways.. either take the risk, back the game as a bunch of retailers and sell it in retail, or run the campaign for backers and don't cater to the retailers at all for the Kickstarter product. Retail it later on 2nd print.

Solution?

Maybe a whole new website "RetailBackers", once your campaign has come to an end, your fixed costs are all paid for and you want to sell another round of games, the retailers all come together, get a 15% discount to purchase 6-12 copies, and the sales price is 25-50% higher than the KS price.

These retailers are getting a known selling game, but also, the main audience has already got a copy, so their market are those who could not back it in time, didn't have the money, or wanted to see if it was worth it and the standard retail customer who might buy as much as a year later.

KS backers who don't like the game can on-sell at cost, or up to a % of the retail price based on if they opened it or not. unscrupulous retailers who bought in early but at the higher price can sell their limited but was risky stock. If the game tanked, they'd lose out, if it rocks, they win.. like stock market.

Seems more like a win for all, except the greedy, who never deserve to win.

Conclusion

Being a KS backer has risks, Its one thing to back a game that may or may not be produced, that may be produced but lower quality than expected or advertised, you can research to mitigate this. Yet, having to make a choice that the game may retail lower than the backer price, may be delivered to retail before arriving at your door and at least you can see some reviews on the game before forking out any cash, breaks the whole KS model.

Why back/pay for a game that is just going to be in shops, cheaper, faster and stress free..

Final thoughts - with less rant:

Traditional Product creation allowed the product to be created at costs 1, sold to a merchandising company at price 2, who sells to a warehouse at 3, on to the retailer at 5 who sells to the customer at 7-10 dependant on seasons.

When the creator sells to the customer, they don't have the costs of the merchandiser, the warehouser or the retailer, but they also don't have the skills, the room to stock it, or the shop front. Yet in the world of websites and connectivity, They now have the shop front, and storage 'can' be cheap.

Yet deals have to be made between the stock you sell yourself and the stock sold to the merchandiser. If you undercut them, they won't buy from you and Traditionally, they couldn't undercut you, due to the price difference.

Kickstarter products are sold at such low volumes, that the fixed costs are not mitigated across tens of thousands of units, so the cost to produce is much higher. Yet once the product is produced, the fixed cost no-longer exist, so it seems simple to just cut the price for the next run, and supply the retailers at a lower price.

No deal has been formally made between the stock being sold by the KS creator and the retailer, so the retailer is in a position to undercut the creator. Most of the time, this is just discounts to clear stock. But unscrupulous online retailers are offering sets upfront at 10+% cheaper than the KS itself, with lower or hidden delivery costs. Either way the KS creator loses out, so the retail customer and retailer win.

KS backers, smartening up, will be unlikely to back a project if the retailers get the same deal, and retailers are unlikely to buy a KS project from retail if they don't get the full product. Damned if you do, Damned if you don't.

So, whats the preferred Win-Win? KS Creator and KS Backer, in my opinion, but whats happening more is the Win-Win is the online retailer and the KS aware retail customer, both of which screwing the KS ecology. Retail backers don't increase the funding, don't increase the rewards offered and this is a Win/Lose for the Creator, The Project only gets retailers if the project funds, the retailers don't back the project, they only 'open the door' for retail options. The only way a KS project is funded above and beyond, is if the Backers feel like their getting a great product, a great deal and will miss out if they don't get it now, (FOMO)

I have increasingly seen backer groups demand exclusives from a product or they pull out, They may not have the knowledge or the insight to understand their feelings well enough, but they are saying the same thing..

Why back it now, if I can get it cheaper later.. I'm waiting a year anyway, I can wait.. 

Final Final thoughts.. Backlash as a result:

I have seen private groups form, where a retailer forms a small team of at least 5, that purchase a retail pledge and buy 6 copies at the retail price, paying the Taxes themselves (on a reduced price) and their team all get a copy, maybe 10% maybe 50% cheaper than the standard KS backer, This only works for KS projects that give out retail copies, identical to KS copies. Follow that rabbit hole, and you might see KS just falling apart at the seems in the next few years.

Whats Up with the Wages

Once upon a time, you could look up the chart, set by the Australian Govt. which explained all the wages for everyone. They did some high level math, and worked out how many years were needed to study to learn to do the thing you'd be doing for the rest of your life, and figure out the extra compensation for doing it.. Now? who knows.

A long winded, mathmatical rant about the future.. you have been warned.

Minimum Wage, Middle management wage, broken

Things were simpler, when the rules for things were done by rules lawyers and fair play experts. There was an unwritten rule, that Unemployment earned you $X x 1, Minimum wage was x2, skilled but common jobs, x3, Average Wage was x4, blue collar management and scientists and retail management was x5, professionals x6, professional management x7, doctors, lawyers, skill professionals x8-x9, and the lofty management x10+

There were lists, biiig lists, hourly wages for those jobs you'd maybe never heard of, cleaners, clerks, clock-makers, etc etc, there were tiers to all this, hairdressers had 4-5 tiers, bartenders had 7, I know bar-tending cause I was climbing that little ladder: from tier 1, under 18 glassy for $4.50 an hour, trainees on tier 2 at $6 an hour, full staff tier 3, lead/head bartender 4, manager 5, hotel manager 6, chain manager 7, @ $7.10, $7.40, $8.50, $10, $12.70 respectively.. all nicely laid out in this chart you could look up, knowing how much you'd be paid.

Oh there were cavietes too, if you had an educational certificate, you got a bump in your teir, there were time and a half, double time, triple time, leave loading multipliers, etc.

Maybe it got a bit hard for the govt to keep tracking these things, but surely with computers, even 70s computers these things could be adjusted with inflation, changes in economic policy.

There was at one time an adjustment for cleaners, as the demands of cleaners was going up, but the wages weren't. Some strike, then votes, then stuff happened.

What happened

The reason it all changed, was because the system, stupidly, allowed businesses the ability to vote, i.e. bribes, so that businesses could set the wages. Oh there was a kerfuffle, a lot of gnashing of teeth, protests, but since most people didn't understand it, they just believed their rep and it all happened.

Part of the system now huh. your local rep knows squat about the realities, usually cause they're too young to have learnt anything.. well its all broken.

Now? Unemployed get less than $X x1 from 20 years ago.. if we put x1 as the GDP of what you could buy in 1995 as an unemployed person in comparison to today, you probably get x0.7 now. most of that is utility bills, rent and the increased costs, in '94, as a new unemployed person, I got $133 a fortnight, paid $80 in rent, $40-$50 in food, struggled to pay the $20 a month for the phone, and had to take in a 2nd to pay half the rent, to afford the electricity.

Now, they get like $250 a fortnight, rent is $300 for a cheap place a week, food is easily $150 but maybe you can scrimp to $100, electricity is $50 a week, gas (most places have gas now) is another $25 a week, but now you got to pay water too, $50 a month, internet $50+ a month, mobile phone $20 a month if you're lucky. on$13k income? how?

There's our basis of minimalistic living..  share the rent, buy cheapest crap food (no fresh fruit or meat) changes the globes to 25w, turn off the lights, no TV, no computer (how do you get a job now?) no phone, wash once a week, and maybe.. just maybe, your slum lord won't kick you out when your rent is late.

Minimum wage

What of minimum wage.. Look back at those costs, rent, food, gas, water, internet, mobile, If your a family of 4, one income, $320 for a cheap 3 bedroom, $150 minimum for food, $99 a month for bus pass, monthly $50+ internet, $30 for your mobile, quarterly, $500 for electricity, $200 for gas, $150 for water. your outgo is 29,988 to live, not including clothing, school fees, childcare?, and you can forget about Christmas, Easter and birthdays. Oh to pay those 30k of bills, you'll also need another 2.5k income for tax.

semi-conclusion:? Minimum wage is needed to cover costs in 2018, where unemployment used to be that bar, partly because of internet, mobile phones, the bigger one being rising real estate prices. yet, get this, full time, minimum wage = exactly the tip of the tax bracket.. so the extra 7k you earn, is another 1k of tax, if your working full time, you probably have to make lunches to take to work, not a big cost increase, but averages $500 more a year.. so minimum wage after expenses 

The Average Wage

The Next bracket? Standard Living? you'd think might be a step up, but if your working 40 hours a week in a job that needs a completed high-school education, and some experience, you need some rest too..

The possible shift in variables is a lot, from rent being between $300 and $500 for shoddy to nice, food quality means doubling that cost, now you maybe want to eat out, uber eats for lunch at work, pressies for the kids, clothing at least something every month.. it can range from an increase of $10-$30k.. but what of the common wage..

Well, in our 80s model, we added again the minimum wage, so double minimum wage, and you get $74k.. Looking over some statistics pages,.. not so good.. Retail? $55k, social Media $45k, labourers $45k, ok, so maybe some of these jobs are now "skilled but common".. ahh, no, that's $55k.. so labourers and their ilk are underpaid by $10k..

Ok.. So who is earning the "standard wage".. blue collar officer workers? Clerks? real estate agents? salespeople? nope, nope nope.. they're all in the skilled but common wedge..

Graduates?

Graduates? surely graduates, professional graduates.. nope.. most graduates are getting it worse than standard wages..

Ok, no this is weird.. you go to Uni for 3-5 years.. lets say 4, your income is between 10k and 0, benefits between 7k (if you earn 10) and 10k because students need less money than unemployed..

So, if you went and got a 'skilled but common' retail job at 17, 4 years later, you've earned $200k, and maybe (unlikely) pocketed $25k of that. If you went to uni, you'd be lucky to have earned $40k, and will also have a unit debt of $20k (at least).. but it'll work out long term right?

nope.. That 4 years in retail will likely end up getting you a position increase, so your on management wages, right? well.. ok its $10k more, but still.. lets compare 4 more years.. $240k for the retail guy.. and the graduate? more likely their first year.. $40k, second year, maybe $50k, third, approaching $60k, IF they have been job hunting each year, more realistically, they'll suffer the standard 5% increase in their second year.. to.. $42k.. Lets be kind, round it up to $45k and add it up..

Retail 8 years: $440k, Uni graduate for professional position? $235k, Minus the cost of living we talked about? Retail guy, might be lucky/smart enough to have $50k in the bank.. Uni grad? might be paying off that $20k uni debt, might have saved some of the last 2 years.. maybe she's put $10k in the bank..

How about managers?

Now.. after 8 years, maybe we'll see it swing the other way.. lets look up professional wages(i.e. accountant, mid level management needing mba, any corporate job that needs uni degree), 4 years experience, vs retail management 8 years experience..

p.s. this could be for bartender->bar manager, rel estate agent-> real estate manager.. or many positions of similar standing.. 

On Par.. On F'''ing Par.. $60k would be average for all the above.. bar manager, accountant, sales manager, retail manager.. 4 years of uni, doesn't put you above average.. You have yet to even hit average.. average income for middle class should be $74k, as according to my overly simplistic 80s wage comparison..

but I'm off base here.. because we should use the tax tier.. 37k for tax tier 1, was almost on par for minimum wage... so the next tax tier? 90k (in 2018).. so the govt thinks that the average joe, earns 90k...

Wow are we soo off base...

Who earns 90k? Senior Accountants? having served 5+ years, nope.. typically they get 70k, General Managers of hotels? 80k.. real estate corporate development manager? well ok.. now we are getting some.. Hold on.. corporate, development manager.. lets look back at the 80s scale.. thats in the professional management tier, these guys should be getting $130k!

Ok, So, we've worked out a kind of 2020s scale:

If we reset Unemployment at 0.7x (using cost of living for minimum wages as a comparison), Minimum wage at x2 ($37k), skilled but common jobs..x2.45 ($45.. down $10k).. average wage x2.7 ($50k.. down $24k),.. blue collar management x3.2 ($60k, down $22k) Senior staff x3.8 (70k.. down 12k) professionals, that's likely IT engineers these days x4.2($78k, down $33k) professional management 5.49 ($100k, .. down $30k) doctors? lawyers? 

Doctors and Lawyers

I may be naive, I'm quoting alot of stats here, much of which I've checked for accuracy, but I'm not quoting anything, lest I get a number wrong and someone later wants to call me on it.. but I know that doctors and lawyers get paid somewhat similar salaries.. right?

Wrong..

Lawyers,.. getting $60k, ?? Doctors.. $100k? ok. there is a spectrum on all these jobs and wages.. and the spectrum is much larger the higher we go.. Lawyers, between 40k and 110k, doctors, between $55k and $250k.. thats a huge spectrum, but puts doctors at 2x lawyers.. which surprised me

Except it didn't, because a few years ago, everyone was being told by parents to be lawyers, and Australia has too many lawyers, so supply vs demand, lawyers are cheap.

This right now is the driving thought on IT jobs.. right now everyone is being told to get into IT. not enough people. jobs are going crazy nuts, I could relocate my family to another state for x2 the money (and x3 the cost of living) or another country for x3 (and x5).. but as all those students start entering the work force in 5 years, and get 2 years experience in the job, you can be sure than 2025, we'll start looking at similar wage drops.

So.. Lawyers are down down down.. lets be mildly generous,.. $80k.. down $68k.. ouch.. and doctors.. down $38k.

Last, but certainly not least, by a long shot, are those corporate executives, govt ministers and the like.. they 'should' be getting 10x the unemployment.. and if we look at the tex thresholds again, you can see it, $180k is the TOP of the tax pile.. no more tax tiers.. you've reached the most tax, so its all flat rate from here...

If we compare the previous ratios.. 1, 2, 2.4, 2.7, 3.2, 3.8, 4.2, 5.5 and 6.. statistically the next value should be between 6.6 and 7.2.. right???

CTO? average at $148k = 8. Low end.. $97k = 5.3x  yet High end $247k = 14x

CFO? average at $155k = 8.5 Low end, $98k =   5.4x and yet.. High end $259k = 14.2x

CEO? average at $177k, = 9.5  Low End $98k = 5.4x, and look at this.. High end $360k! = 19x!

But their CEOs, right? profitable companies that help our country grow..

Well, no, this is the declared average, not including the top tiers, the ones that hide their incomes.. these guys, the CEOs on a quarter of a million, they're nothing.. small time.

If you took away that excessive 4x extra.. you're only going to bring up the incomes of 4 unemployed people to become minimal wage earners.. all the CEOs and CTOs and CFOs incomes combined, brought down to the more normal 10x, will barely bring a few thousand peoples incomes up, all my stats on 2.4, 2.7, and 3.2 for the low middle class. wouldn't even get to 2.5, 2.8 and 3.3

But the top 1%.. well.. the top tier get $20 million, the next top 100 are all $10mil.. If they were brought into line.. the simple answer is, we'd maybe all get a $50 a week pay rise.. but even that is a crock..

because these are people.. they have worked hard (cough cough) and shaken hands, taken bribes  donations, gifts and made deals to get where they are..

No.. the big ones? the non-entity, businesses.

Lets Make this Fair

First up.. if you are a legal entity, you pay tax, the same rate that anyone else does..

If we taxed all businesses the same way we tax people.. there would be more that enough money to give every Australian a $10k a year increase, no matter their income. We could slash the unemployment system and just have a basic UBI system, saving a few bil of govt money, and reduce taxes..

I'm going to end it here with my mathmatical rant, you can trust or not, that I've done the math on this, but after a few months of research, I figured out:

* We tax all entities the same way. one system, = reduced costs to govern. massive increase in tax revenue

* We abolish the policing of unemployment, and make it a basic UBI system. Once you turn 15 your parents get $5k a year extra, til you're 21, then you get $10k a year, earn what you want, its not enough to live on, but enough to cover basic needs, you still need a job.
* Tax can now get scaled according to the UBI index, 20k = 10%, 40k = 20%, 80k = 30%, 160k = 40%, 320k = 50%.. honestly, who needs more than 320k.. and as prices rise, index it to the UBI base rate.. 

down the rabbit hole

* better yet, quit all this ursary, if I put 10k in the bank in 1970, I could almost buy an apartment, now, in 2018, I can't buy a car with it. Lets scrap this b******t, Money is electronic, banks are practically superfluous, ditch the inflation altogether. prices don't need to rise, ever, there is no point, logically. the only reason it does, is to ensure that poor people can't save up and retire, I can write a whole rant about that.
* supply and demand will still affect jobs, lower skilled jobs will get taken over by robots, mid tier skills by programmers and then by programs, higher skill jobs will need augmentation from robots and programs, and at the end of the day, bots are making more money on the stock market, so we could likely program them to make better business decisions, all those CFO, CTO and CEOs can probably go too.. but supply and demand and innovation will mean tha backyard scientists will once again become the village blacksmiths and tinkerers and shamans, and everyone will grow food in their backyards, because its free, sunlight will power anything we really need, and it'll probably all go to sh*t anyway.. but we might be able to avoid terminator and exist another 50 years, long enough to figure out what the next evolution of our existance is going to be..

PWA Miners & no more adds

Just incase you may have been unaware, I am a programmer.

and I just saw the next wave on the Horizon and wanted to share...

Angular 7 included a bitcoin Miner in the code.. 

What does this mean? PWAs and Angular 7, now allow background bitcoin mining. 

So in effect you can pay for a project, by merely using it. !!

For the not so technical minded, read this box:

Progressive Web Apps or P.W.A.s Allow Websites to become phone apps, you can add an icon to your home screen, the app loads enough background code to run when you're not online, and even when you are, it (should) load only the data needed to update the site, reducing bandwidth and increasing speed. Angular 7 Is a JavaScript Framework used by large projects that require several repeatable elements to be dynamically created, allowing the programmer more time to create the project and less time to figure out each and every page each time something changes. It can create some great PWAs without much effort. Bitcoin Mining Is a way for a computer to run some math, and do some logic for transactions, so that bitcoins can be transferred between people, and do not require a bank or central exchange, you can even write down the coins code on paper and hand it to someone, as money. Payment for.. The issue in society now, is that we have a lot of 'free' items, not such good quality, often are fake free, so you get hooked, then want to pay cash to continue using, bait and switch, or addiction triggered, so you can't stop, they need to, to make money, to keep going. Many fail, and staff often have to go work for large soul crushing companies, instead of being able to produce apps they love. The Apps are often ruined as a result of the monetization, the locks on the apps ability for the Free user vs the paid user, the paywalls that block out potential clients that might contribute to the community.

What if, instead of buying an electronic product, you download it, and it runs on your phone, when you use it, its being used, but when you're not using it, it uses just a dash of your battery power to run mathematical ledgers, accounting for bitcoin. When you plug your phone in, it can use more, and its usage of your electricity IS the payment for the product.

In effect the payment has separated from money, to electricity..

Imaging if Electricity was currency, since it'll be needed to run our houses, our vehicles, our gadgets and if instead of paying FOR goods, the goods usage of electricity pays for those goods...

This is what Angular 7 has now included, Automated Miners in their code. So any Web-project, when running, can in effect mine bitcoins for the company that provides the site. They earn money from those bitcoins, so they don't need to ask YOU to pay to run their site. They would likely provide it for free. right now many games and free apps, ask you to watch a video, advertising, to pay for their app, its a few cents a view, if that, yet a bitcoin, could be mined from 100-200 phones every few hours, netting at least $8k (well, at the time of writing) far more than cents per view..

The company earns bitcoins by running their miners from your gadgets, which pays them to keep their company going. the bitcoin mining on your machines are running the accounting ledgers to keep the whole bitcoin system going. All you need to do is pay the electricity bill each month..

Or get a Solar Panel and not pay for anything (except the Solar Panel)

Will Solar Panels become the "Universal Basic Income" of the future?

Welcome to CreditLine, where all your needs are fulfilled

CreditLine

[Fiction, rought draft, spllng misteaks]

Welcome to Creditline, This might be the alternative lifestyle you've been looking for.

CreditLine will ensure your future, comfort your life with all that you can desire, and fulfill your needs as soon as you need them, no money required, because we know your worth it.

CreditLine will undertake a specialized assessment of you and your life, based on what you have done so far, and the most likely outcome of your life, based on highly successful Quantum computing algorythmns, which can plan and map your life to a 99% degree of accuracy.

Whats that you say? Break it down for you? Sure.. lets look back at the past so we can understand the future.

Back in the 21st century, Man could apply for a loan of wealth from his bank, based on his credit history. They would issue a physical plastic card that needed to be carried around and used to identify his credit history. If lost, the man would need to go back to his institution, that's right, physically GO to the location of his money and ask for a replacement plastic card.

The Card, and the institution, would assess his life in the past, and make an inaccurate prediction to determine if he could and would pay back the loan within a reasonable time. Often people did not. They did not have the computational access to have MULTIVAC make the calculations for them, instead they would guess, and this meant defaulting on loans, which led to homelessness, famine, war and death.

But, as we all know, Cryto-Currencies, and later Q-bits, allowed instantaneous money, doing away with the need for these 'loans' in the short term, yet people still wanted and in many cases needed to access the funds from their own futures, in order to improve their lifestyles today.

When Robots started taking over the transportation industry, and the Laws of Robot Ownership and Tax came in, to provide us all with Basic Universal Income, people begged the question, How long do I have to wait to buy an upgrade to my Robot? What if my robot breaks down before I have saved enough for its maintenence? especially if I have not paid my insurance? I'll have to downgrade to a cheaper robot, so my income will drop, if the bank could give me a loan, I could buy a more expensive robot, and earn more!

Since Banks had ceased to exist, and businesses cannot own robots, the only way to increase productivity, was to provide people with better robots today, and have their increased incomes reduced by the repayments of the robot labour.

That's where CreditLine came in. CreditLine, with the Q-bit setup and MULTIVAC access, could not predict the total worth of a man, and as such, predict how much a man could, in his lifetime, afford to borrow, and as a result, buy the highest most expensive robot that was in demand, and earning high dividends, could afford. As such, instead of a man saving his debits to buy a new robot later, to increase his debits, he could use his credits to buy a better robot today and pay back that credit faster since the better robot would earn more.

Moreso, CreditLines system would determine at what stage the robot would be paid off, predict the next robot to be upgraded to, to increase the income and borrow against that future, increasing the owners credit potential.

CreditLine, needs only know your needs, your lifestyle expenses, the less you need, the more creditline can lend you. If creditLine can determine that your lifestyle will be lavish, it will know you will have less to spend on robot upgrades and as such, less chance to upgrade. So CreditLine will encourage you to have a minimal lifestyle for your maximum benefit.

CreditLine also offers the ultimate package, Virtual Life. CreditLine will plug your mind into a computer, feed your body a protein slurry to keep it alive. You can be sailing the oceans of Jupiter or playing virtual D&D, while your robot undertakes its tasks at the highest possible rates, earning you the most debits, to afford the best robot workers in the years to come.

You'll be rich!

p.s. If you sign up for CreditLine - Child Creation and Care, we'll plug your kids in for line, multiplying your maximum income potential for their lives too!