We explore real-life reformation here in this informed, online community.
Seven years ago, Jose's home nation of Venezuela, a wealthy and developed nation, fell apart suddenly. It failed economically, politically, militarily, agriculturally, socially and culturally. Jose had to move into the mountains just outside the border to survive.
He's writing about the experience because most of us in functioning societies don't know how quickly it can happen, and what a collapse is like.
He says: "Today, where the only law is the fear imposed by AK-toting guys, in unidentified vehicles, crime has increased in the countryside and in the cities. Restrictions on importation were lifted and those using foreign currency made huge fortunes importing from abroad."
"It saddened and alarmed me to learn from a farmer in the Los Andes Mountains that people would come from the town, walking kilometers uphill during the night, even when raining, to steal potatoes. Crops that have not yet matured are being dug out of the ground. Farmers have to sleep in their potato fields to avoid being stolen from. Unarmed, roving bands of four or more thieves have caused the farmers to arm themselves with machetes and pikes."
Look at this legal definition of gambling: "Gambling is when a person bets or risks something of value (like money) based on a chance outcome that is OUT OF THEIR CONTROL OR INFLUENCE with the understanding that they will either gain increased value or lose their original value determined by the specific outcome."
Examples of this is are the stock market and a government lottery, advertising "get rich quick" opportunities. This is also called a tax on the stupid.
Kalshi and other betting platforms offer predictions on likely political, geopolitical, cultural and economic events in the real world.
Perceptive cultural analysts look beyond fake media narratives to discern outcomes which become obvious to them for clear evidentiary reasons.
While individual payouts aren't always publicly detailed due to privacy, aggregated reports and interviews highlight several notable six- and seven-figure earnings:
- A professional trader accumulated nearly $1 million in total profits across ...
"Can you see those dark clouds gathering up ahead?
They’re gonna wash this planet clean like the Bible said
Now you can hold on steady, try to be ready
But everybody’s gonna get wet
Don’t think it won’t happen just because it hasn’t happened yet."
Jackson Browne, The Road and the Sky, 1974
Rome lived upon its principal till ruin stared it in the face. Industry is the only true source of wealth, and there was no industry in Rome. By day the Ostia road was crowded with carts and muleteers, carrying to the great city the silks and spices of the East, the marble of Asia Minor, the timber of the Atlas, the grain of Africa and Egypt; and the carts brought out nothing but loads of dung. That was their return cargo.
– The Martyrdom of Man by Winwood Reade (1871)
