Slashdot Mirror
'World of Warcraft' Game Currency Now Worth More Than Venezuelan Money (theblaze.com)
schwit1 quotes TheBlaze:
Digital gold from Blizzard's massive multiplayer online game "World of Warcraft" is worth more than actual Venezuelan currency, the bolivar, according to new data. Venezuelan resident and Twitter user @KalebPrime first made the discovery July 14 and tweeted at the time that on the Venezuela's black market -- now the most-used method of currency exchange within Venezuela according to NPR -- you can get $1 for 8493.97 bolivars. Meanwhile, a "WoW" token, which can be bought for $20 from the in-game auction house, is worth 8385 gold per dollar. According to sites that track the value of both currencies, KalebPrime's math is outdated, and WoW gold is now worth even more than the bolivar.
That tweet has since gone viral, prompting @KalebPrime to joke that "At this rate when I publish my novel the quotes will read 'FROM THE GUY THAT MADE THE WOW GOLD > VENEZUELAN BOLIVAR TWEET.'"
That tweet has since gone viral, prompting @KalebPrime to joke that "At this rate when I publish my novel the quotes will read 'FROM THE GUY THAT MADE THE WOW GOLD > VENEZUELAN BOLIVAR TWEET.'"
Really? I know the old saying that even a broken clock is right twice a day. But you couldn't come up with a more legit source than glen beck's propaganda rag?
Try:
http://fortune.com/2017/08/01/...
Imagine all the people...
Fair point: I do not think there are many people who would exchange real money for Bolivars.
Real life is overrated.
The individual UNITS are worth more. But the units are arbitrary and a comparison between units has nothing to do with the value of the currency itself. You can say a single WoW gold is worth more than a Peso, or a cent, or a Rupee, or a Yuan, or whatever you want. It means nothing.
Can you define "leftism"? Some of the most successful economies in the world could be defined as "leftists" if you include social Democrat nations like Sweden and Germany.
The Chavista regime certainly can be defined as leftist, but a more accurate description would be a kleptocracy.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Right, the CIA. I am Venezuelan. I know how this came to be. I saw it happen. If it wasn't for your signature I would have accused you of being a communism apologist coming up with another explanation that excuses the Venezuelan people for repeatedly and obstinately choosing an administration hell-bent on turning the the country into a communist utopia.
Are you saying the CIA convinced Venezuela to ditch capitalism and embrace socialism as a means to destabilize itself?
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
How a basically rich country can be driven utterly into the ground by massive mismanagement. Leads me to believe that it all comes down to the people and who they put in charge. As long as people do not start to wise up, we will continue have catastrophes like that. Not that what is going on in the US, the UK or the eastern parts of the EU is any better: Stupid people that believe stupid promises by utterly evil politicians.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
I thought the target was Saudi Arabia. Drive down the price of oil, so that they are forced to dip into their savings and rainy day funds. It might take a few years but eventually they will be living hand-to-mouth in terms of bringing money into the country.
The side effect was that Venezuela also suffered a loss of earnings from the oil industry. There was a national strike, the government punished those oil workers that supported the strike, froze wages and fired experienced workers like geologists. Now with that knowledge lost, the replacements make mistakes when drilling which causes damage to machinery. which causes further loss of productivity. So oil production is in decline.
An international web site called Oil Pro is actually shutting down: www.oilpro.com
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
I didn't say the administration was a good one. But if you think the CIA hasn't played a very active role in this situation (as it has in MANY, MANY other coups and economic crashes in the region), you're being very naive. Regardless of the competence or incompetence of the regime, they can make it almost impossible for a socialist/communist government to survive. Cuba is one of the very rare exceptions, and they were only able to do it because they were so stringently isolated and resilient.
It's a leftover Cold War mentality, but the ultimate goal is still to serve the interests of the U.S. dollar and U.S. corporations.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Germany? "leftist"?
By European standards, Germany is economically conservative. But compared to America, Germany is "leftist". Like most people, Americans use themselves as the reference point. Plenty of Americans believe their own government to be leftist.
An example of "leftism" you forgot to list would be taxing the citizens to bail out failed investments by corporations. Oh wait!
Wonder who is the "kleptocrat".
Leftism is the idea that government can be used to solve practically any problem.
That's not correct, but let's go with this for now. By extension then, "rightism" would be the idea that the free market can be used to solve practically any problem. Let's see how this solves the problems you posted:
Are there people who are hungry and can't get food?
They have to offer something to the free market; otherwise they can't buy food for themselves or their children. If they can't offer something (maybe they're sick, too young, lack skills, or maybe the market isn't in a great state) they starve and the problem solves itself - no more hungry people!
Are there people who can't afford housing?
The free market solves this problem easily: homeless people can either die or, as an alternative be jailed in for-profit prisons for loitering, sleeping under bridges, and so on. Either solution solves the homeless problem in a nice market-driven way.
Do you really think the free-market solutions to your problems are better?
Almost all Leftists are Klepotocrats.
That's... rather silly. You may as well say almost all rightists are oligarchists, and they long to be led by a handful of billionaires - who are obviously their betters, or else they wouldn't be billionaires, now would they?
Not sure what you think "my view" is. But Swedish Americans, Danish Americans, Finnish Americans all have a 50% higher standard of living than respective Swedes, Danes, and Finns living in the Nordic countries.
Selection bias. No poor Swede, Dane or Finn would ever consider emigrating to the US. The US is a great country to be rich and a terrible country to be poor. To be honest, if the only measure of my life was making money I should probably emigrate too. But you know, it's my home. All the taxes I pay means it's a fairly nice place to live, there's not so many violent and desperate people as in the US. And if any American wants to brag about charity, maybe it's a bit de facto charity.
I have a few friends that have worked in the US, they went to lucrative jobs with big international companies. They wouldn't have gone otherwise. If they became unemployed, they never would have stayed. Social democracies don't work magic, the money we spend giving everyone a basic standard of living comes from redistributing wealth not some magic well. The highs don't get so high and the lows don't get so low. You don't go the US unless you're already a winner.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
No mate, this is all conspiracy theory. Venezuela is walking the same worn path that all communisms have walked. First it starts with the idea that you will create a new sort of man: the socialist man, a mythical human that is no longer interested in its own well-being or individual achievement. This is accompanied by mass expropriation of private companies, you know, to give them to the people. Then officials start shouting accusations of economic conspiracy when a large chunk of people with wealth and businesses decide that this project clashes with their values and interests, and leave. Capital controls are subsequently enforced to prevent the remaining wealth from leaving the country. Price controls are put in place for staples and other basic products because the unemployed population has become so impoverished that they can no longer afford them at market prices. Scarcity ensues. People who complain and blame the communist regime for the deteriorating situation are accused of working with the enemy to destabilise the country, prosecuted, imprisoned or killed because they are not walking the Party line. I was there, I saw all of this happen. You blaming the CIA is just regular American conspiracy paranoia, nothing more.