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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Formula 1 on Monday at last said it will expand its grid in 2026 to make room for an American team that is partnered with General Motors. “As the pinnacle of motorsports, F1 demands boundary-pushing innovation and excellence. It’s an honor for General Motors and Cadillac to join the world’s premier racing series, and we’re committed to competing with passion and integrity to elevate the sport for race fans around the world," GM President Mark Reuss said. "This is a global stage for us to demonstrate GM’s engineering expertise and technology leadership at an entirely new level.” The approval ends years of wrangling that launched a U.S. Justice Department investigation into why Colorado-based Liberty Media, the commercial rights holder of F1, would not approve the team initially started by Michael Andretti. Andretti in September stepped aside from leading his namesake organization, so the 11th team will be called Cadillac F1 and be run by new Andretti Global majority owners Dan Towriss and Mark Walter. The team will use Ferrari engines its first two years until GM has a Cadillac engine built for competition in time for the 2028 season. Towriss is the the CEO and president of Group 1001 and entered motorsports via Andretti's IndyCar team when he signed on financial savings platform Gainbridge as a sponsor. Towriss is now a major part of the motorsports scene with ownership stakes in both Spire Motorsports' NASCAR team and Wayne Taylor Racing's sports car team. Walter is the chief executive of financial services firm Guggenheim Partners and the controlling owner of both the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers and Premier League club Chelsea. “We’re excited to partner with General Motors in bringing a dynamic presence to Formula 1," Towriss said. "Together, we’re assembling a world-class team that will embody American innovation and deliver unforgettable moments to race fans around the world.’’ Mario Andretti, the 1978 F1 world champion, will have an ambassador role with Cadillac F1. But his son, Michael, will have no official position with the organization now that he has scaled back his involvement with Andretti Global. The approval has been in works for weeks but was held until after last weekend's Las Vegas Grand Prix to not overshadow the showcase event of the Liberty Media portfolio. Max Verstappen won his fourth consecutive championship in Saturday night's race, the third and final stop in the United States for the top motorsports series in the world. Grid expansion in F1 is both infrequent and often unsuccessful. Four teams were granted entries in 2010 that should have pushed the grid to 13 teams and 26 cars for the first time since 1995. One team never made it to the grid and the other three had vanished by 2017. There is only one American team on the current F1 grid — owned by California businessman Gene Haas — but it is not particularly competitive and does not field American drivers. Andretti’s dream was to field a truly American team with American drivers. The fight to add this team has been going on for three-plus years and F1 initially denied the application despite approval from F1 sanctioning body FIA . The existing 10 teams, who have no voice in the matter, also largely opposed expansion because of the dilution in prize money and the billions of dollars they’ve already invested in the series. Andretti in 2020 tried and failed to buy the existing Sauber team. From there, he applied for grid expansion and partnered with GM, the top-selling manufacturer in the United States. The inclusion of GM was championed by the FIA and president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, who said Michael Andretti’s application was the only one of seven applicants to meet all required criteria to expand F1’s current grid. “General Motors is a huge global brand and powerhouse in the OEM world and is working with impressive partners," Ben Sulayem said Monday. "I am fully supportive of the efforts made by the FIA, Formula 1, GM and the team to maintain dialogue and work towards this outcome of an agreement in principle to progress this application." Despite the FIA's acceptance of Andretti and General Motors from the start, F1 wasn't interested in Andretti — but did want GM. At one point, F1 asked GM to find another team to partner with besides Andretti. GM refused and F1 said it would revisit the Andretti application if and when Cadillac had an engine ready to compete. “Formula 1 has maintained a dialogue with General Motors, and its partners at TWG Global, regarding the viability of an entry following the commercial assessment and decision made by Formula 1 in January 2024,” F1 said in a statement. “Over the course of this year, they have achieved operational milestones and made clear their commitment to brand the 11th team GM/Cadillac, and that GM will enter as an engine supplier at a later time. Formula 1 is therefore pleased to move forward with this application process." Yet another major shift in the debate over grid expansion occurred earlier this month with the announced resignation of Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei, who was largely believed to be one of the biggest opponents of the Andretti entry. “With Formula 1’s continued growth plans in the US, we have always believed that welcoming an impressive US brand like GM/Cadillac to the grid and GM as a future power unit supplier could bring additional value and interest to the sport," Maffei said. "We credit the leadership of General Motors and their partners with significant progress in their readiness to enter Formula 1." AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racingThe Role Of Technology On Learning & Teaching Dynamics

EMPOLI, Italy (AP) — Englishman Keinan Davis scored with 14 minutes remaining for Udinese to draw at Empoli 1-1 in Serie A on Monday and snap the visitor's three-game losing streak. The former Watford and Aston Villa striker rose to head home a near-post corner with 76 minutes gone. Pietro Pellegri put Empoli ahead midway through the first half with his third goal in three games. The on-loan Torino striker has endured a lean season but a goal in the 1-0 win over Como was followed by another in the 1-1 draw with Lecce before the international break. The result was the first point in four games for Udinese, after consecutive defeats to Atalanta, Juventus and Venezia, and meant that both sides retained their mid-table positions. Udinese was ninth and Empoli 10th. Story continues below video Later, Venezia missed a chance to move off the foot of the table when it went down at home to Lecce 1-0. Venezia was dominant for most of the game, with Gaetano Oristanio and Jay Idzes hitting the woodwork and Wladimiro Falcone outstanding in the Lecce goal. But the home side paid for its profligacy after 70 minutes. Antonino Gallo’s sublime cross from the left was met by Patrick Dorgu at the far post and he steered the ball into the far corner to give Lecce all three points. Lecce, which started the night only two places above bottom side Venezia, jumped into 15th place. AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

NoneTrekking to the beach only to find the surf full of stinging bluebottles could soon be a thing of the past as scientists investigate how to predict when they are likely to wash ashore. Swell and wind forecasts and machine learning are being used in a bid to build a predictive model for bluebottle movements by researchers at the University of NSW. But it won't be ready this summer as scientists continue testing with plans to make the technology available in late 2025. Bluebottles are biologically closer to coral than jellyfish and cannot swim, placing them at the mercy of ocean currents. Bluebottles deliver a sting which can cause redness and pain but do not generally cause serious harm. They would sink if fitted with the trackers used to keep an eye on sharks and other fish. Scientists instead placed trackers on 3D-printed replica bluebottles placed about five kilometres off the coast of Sydney's Botany Bay in January to get an idea how the stingers could spread. One washed up at Bondi Beach, along with a number of actual bluebottles. Another was picked up by a dog at Palm Beach, at the far end of the city's northern beaches, more than 40km away from the release location. Like bluebottles, the replicas had their sails pointing either left or right, dictating the direction they drifted in the 20km/h winds. But winds over 30km/h overcame those directions, blowing a whole colony of bluebottles the same way. UNSW oceanography researcher Amandine Schaeffer said machine learning and oceanographic models were being used to analyse where bluebottles reached the Australian coast and where they come from. "We're trying to understand how they move with ocean currents, winds and waves, and which conditions bring them to shore," she said. Forecasts for currents, wind and swell could then be used to predict swarms. "The idea is to have a statistical model that is fed with these environmental variables, which will allow us to make predictions about the likelihood of bluebottles being on a particular beach," Dr Schaeffer said. The researchers are working with Surf Life Saving Australia to incorporate the predictions into its Beachsafe app once the predictive model is operational.

The Tema Metropolitan Football Association (TMFA) has made history by launching the maiden edition of the Girls Colts/Juvenile Championship, a groundbreaking initiative aimed at developing grassroots women's football in the Greater Accra Region. The launch took place on Saturday, November 23, 2024, in Tema, and marked the first time such a championship has been organised in the region. Seven clubs are set to participate in this historic tournament, which forms part of the Association's broader Women's Football Strategy under the Ghana Football DNA framework. The initiative is designed to promote and nurture young female talent at the grassroots level, further emphasising the association’s commitment to the growth and development of women's football in Ghana. The Girls Colts/Juvenile Championship is providing a platform for young girls to showcase their talent and develop their skills in a structured and competitive environment. The championship also serves as a critical step in creating a pathway for young players to transition into higher levels of the game, including the national women's teams. The Greater Accra Football Association, under whose jurisdiction the championship falls, expressed its pride in being part of this groundbreaking initiative. They underscored the critical role of grassroots football in building the future of the sport in Ghana, particularly for young girls who aspire to excel in football. The TMFA Girls Colts/Juvenile Championship is expected to inspire and empower the next generation of female footballers in Ghana while solidifying the association's vision of making women's football a key pillar of its development agenda. With this maiden edition, stakeholders are optimistic about the tournament’s potential to transform grassroots women's football in the Tema Metropolis and beyond. GFA COMMUNICATIONS Get all the latest football news sent directly to your inboxIn a fresh scam, fraudsters used a malicious app named 'PM Kisan Yojna,' and targeted UPI users and stole money, Tamil Nadu police said on Saturday and advised people to use only official apps and websites for financial transactions. Assembly Election Results Live Updates Maharashtra Election Results Jharkhand Election Results Bypoll Election Results Investigations into unauthorised debits through PhonePe revealed the use of a malicious app named 'PM Kisan Yojna,' and this app was distributed via multiple channels, including WhatsApp and gained control over user's SMS and device permissions. "The fraudsters intercept SMS traffic and use it to manipulate UPI applications. They use the intercepted data to register devices on UPI platforms, enabling unauthorized transactions. It also collects sensitive personal data, such as name, Aadhaar number, PAN , and date of birth, through a web form," state headquarters of cyber crime wing said here in a statement. "This sophisticated method of attack has caused financial and emotional distress to several individuals, with the scammers exploiting the trust associated with government benefit schemes and urgency." Multiple incidents of unauthorised bank transactions through UPI applications, particularly PhonePe, have been reported recently. In the month of November 2024, around 7 complaints have been registered in Tamil Nadu through National Cyber Crime Reporting portal. "Victims have reported unexpected deductions from their bank accounts without their knowledge or consent via PhonePe. 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View Program Data Science SQL for Data Science along with Data Analytics and Data Visualization By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Discover the stories of your interest Blockchain 5 Stories Cyber-safety 7 Stories Fintech 9 Stories E-comm 9 Stories ML 8 Stories Edtech 6 Stories Upon investigation, it has been discovered that in all reported cases, the deducted amounts were transferred exclusively to Amazon Pay ," the official release added. Assembly Election Results Live Updates Maharashtra Poll Results Highlights 2024 Jharkhand Poll Results Highlights 2024

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A high-speed passenger train collided with a fire engine at a crossing on Saturday in Florida, injuring three firefighters and at least a dozen train passengers, authorities said. The crash happened at 10.45am in crowded downtown Delray Beach, multiple news outlets reported. The Brightline train was stopped on the tracks, its front destroyed, about a block away from the Delray Beach fire rescue truck, its ladder ripped off and strewn in the grass several yards away, The Sun-Sentinel newspaper reported. The Delray Beach Fire Rescue said in a social media post that three Delray Beach firefighters were in stable condition at a hospital. Palm Beach County Fire Rescue took 12 people from the train to the hospital with minor injuries. Emmanuel Amaral rushed to the scene on his golf cart after hearing a loud crash and screeching train brakes from where he was having breakfast a couple of blocks away. He saw firefighters climbing out of the window of their damaged truck and pulling injured colleagues away from the tracks. One of their helmets came to rest several hundred feet away from the crash. “The front of that train is completely smashed, and there was even some of the parts to the fire truck stuck in the front of the train, but it split the car right in half. It split the fire truck right in half, and the debris was everywhere,” Mr Amaral said. Brightline officials did not immediately comment on the crash. A spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board said it was still gathering information about the crash and had not decided yet whether it will investigate. The NTSB is already investigating two crashes involving Brightline’s high-speed trains that killed three people early this year at the same crossing along the railroad’s route between Miami and Orlando. More than 100 people have died after being hit by trains since Brightline began operations in July 2017 – giving the railroad the worst death rate in the United States. But most of those deaths have been either suicides, pedestrians who tried to run across the tracks ahead of a train or drivers who went around crossing gates instead of waiting for a train to pass. Brightline has not been found to be at fault in those previous deaths.No. 22 St. John's, Georgia pack busy schedule with game on SundayAll you need to know about the nasty stuff in Canberra's waterways

Trending News Today Live Updates on December 29, 2024 : Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Christmas decision: Why they opted for a quiet celebration in CaliforniaBEIRUT — Syria’s embassy in Lebanon suspended consular services Saturday, a day after two relatives of deposed Syrian President Bashar Assad were arrested at the Beirut airport with allegedly forged passports. Also Saturday, Lebanese authorities handed over dozens of Syrians — including former officers in the army under Assad — to the new Syrian authorities after they were caught illegally entering Lebanon, a war monitor and Lebanese officials said. The embassy announced on Facebook that consular work was suspended “until further notice” at the order of the Syrian foreign ministry. No reason was given. Two Lebanese security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the suspension was ordered because the passports belonging to Assad’s relatives — the wife and daughter of one of his cousins — were believed to have been forged at the embassy. Assad’s uncle, Rifaat Assad — who was indicted in Switzerland on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity — flew out the day before with his real passport and was not stopped, the officials said. The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Saturday that 70 Syrians, including former army officers, were handed over by a Lebanese security delegation to the security forces of the new Syrian government, led by the former insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS. Three Lebanese judicial officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the report. Regional countries were quick to establish ties with Syria’s new rulers. Delegations of Libyan and Bahraini officials arrived Saturday in Damascus on official visits. HTS leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, largely succeeded in calming fears in and outside of Syria that his group would unleash collective punishment against communities that supported Assad’s rule or impose strict Islamic law on the country’s religious minorities. However, sporadic clashes broke out between the HTS-led security forces and pro-Assad armed groups. The country’s new security forces launched raids targeting officials affiliated with Assad and set up checkpoints in areas with significant populations of the Alawite religious minority to which the former president belongs, to search for weapons. Tensions and clashes are ongoing in northeastern Syria between Kurdish-led forces and armed groups backed by Turkey. Many Kurds viewed the new order in Damascus, which appears to have strengthened Turkey’s hand in Syria, with anxiety. The U.S. State Department said Saturday that Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to “discuss the latest developments in Syria.” “Secretary Blinken emphasized the need to support a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political process that upholds human rights and prioritizes an inclusive and representative government,” the statement said. On Saturday, hundreds of demonstrators convened by Kurdish women’s groups participated in a demonstration in the northeastern city of Hasaka to demand women’s rights in the new Syria. Get local news delivered to your inbox!

Minnesota is focused on one final task before it sets its sights on the Big Ten Conference season. The Golden Gophers (7-5) will look to finish 2024 on a high note when they host Morgan State on Sunday afternoon in Minneapolis. It will be the final nonconference game for Minnesota before it begins conference play in earnest with a home date against No. 21 Purdue on Thursday. Meanwhile, Morgan State (6-9) is hoping to break out of a skid that has included seven losses in its past 10 games. The Bears are coming off a 99-72 loss against No. 3 Iowa State on Dec. 22. The highest scorer on either team is Minnesota's Dawson Garcia, who is averaging 19.2 points to go along with a team-high 7.3 rebounds this season. Garcia is shooting 49.7 percent from the field, 85 percent from the free-throw line and 31.8 percent from 3-point range. Mike Mitchell Jr. ranks second on the Golden Gophers with 11.6 points per game. Lu'Cye Patterson is next with 10 points per contest, and Parker Fox is fourth with 6.8 points per game. "At the end of the day, we're all here for a reason," Mitchell said. "We have to produce when we're out there, but once (Garcia) gets going, it helps us all figure it out together." Minnesota coach Ben Johnson has seen opponents focus on slowing down Garcia as the season has progressed. That strategy could create opportunities for other teammates, he said. "Teams are always going to guard Dawson differently," Johnson said. "Are they not switching ball screens? Can you play through him in the post? ... When you get two on the ball, you can (kick) it out. Now you've got an advantage on the backside." For Morgan State, Wynston Tabbs leads the way with 16.1 points per game on 45.9 percent shooting from the field. Three other players are scoring in double figures: Amahrie Simpkins (12.7 points per game), Will Thomas (12.1) and Kameron Hobbs (10.7). Morgan State coach Kevin Broadus wants his players to be more disciplined on defense. "That's one of the things that we have to change," Broadus said. "We're fouling too much." This is the second meeting between the schools. Minnesota pulled away for a 94-64 win on its home court in the inaugural matchup on Dec. 8, 2009. --Field Level MediaBillionaire Elon Musk, tapped by US President-elect Donald Trump to slash Federal Government spending, lashed out at modern fighter jets on Monday, saying that drones were the future of air combat. “Manned fighter jets are obsolete in the age of drones anyway. Will just get pilots killed,” said the head of SpaceX, Tesla and X, in a post on his social media platform. Musk singled out the F-35 — a next-generation fighter jet manufactured by US-based Lockheed Martin that entered service in 2015 — for criticism. “Meanwhile, some idiots are still building manned fighter jets like the F-35,” he posted, alongside a video of hundreds of drones hovering in formation in the sky. The F-35, the world’s most advanced fighter, is stealth capable and can also be used to gather intelligence. Germany, Poland, Finland and Romania have all recently signed deals for the aircraft. Its development, however, has suffered from issues, notably in the design of its computer programs, and its very high operating costs are regularly criticized by its detractors. Related News NATO chief, Trump hold talks on global security COP29 braces for new deal after poorer nations reject climate offer Nigeria ranks seventh globally for international students in US “The F-35 design was broken at the requirements level, because it was required to be too many things to too many people,” said Musk on Monday, calling it “an expensive (and) complex jack of all trades, master of none.” For Mauro Gilli, a researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, “what makes the F-35... expensive is the software and the electronics, not the pilot per se.” This is significant “because a reusable drone would need to get all that flashy electronics of an F-35,” he said on X. He also pointed out that the existence of the F-35 had forced US rivals to develop their own aircraft and advanced radar to match it. “By simply existing, the F-35 and the B-1 force Russia and China into strategic choices they would not have to make otherwise (i.e. budget allocations),” Gilli said, referring to B-1 heavy bomber aircraft. “Even if Musk were right (and he is not), deleting the programs would relax these constraints on them.” AFP

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog, This is proof-positive we're not just poorer now than we were 40 years ago, we're much, much poorer. Armies of well-paid apologists, apparatchiks and propaganda peddlers--economists, pundits, statisticians, influencers--spend their entire careers pushing a big shining lie; we're more prosperous now than ever before. This is demonstrably false, as the truth--that we're much poorer than we were 40 or 50 years ago--would disrupt the status quo in which the few at the top get to control the narratives and wealth as long as the masses believe the propaganda that we're all better off. This is the reason why the four-decade collapse of the purchasing power of wages must be papered over with propaganda and gamed statistics. If we accept the reality of our declining standard of living and well-being, then a few reforms will be recognized as insufficient; we'll awaken to the necessity of a Reformation , not just a handful of standard-issue policy tweaks. Inflation statistics are easily gamed. So are statistics such as median wages. Official inflation is gamed by various statistical tricks (hedonics and what's in the price basket) to understate the real-world decline in purchasing power. There is only one true measure of prosperity: the purchasing power of an hour's labor / wage. It doesn't matter what the wage or price numbers are, what matters is: how much can you buy with an hour's wage? Fact: in 1977, it took 2.25 days of work (18 hours) to pay the monthly rent on my studio apartment in the most expensive city in the U.S., Honolulu. In virtually any other city or town, the rent would have been less. I was 23 years old, working as a non-union apprentice carpenter for a small contractor. The pay was a bit above average, but by no means fabulous. I wasn't working at Goldman Sachs. The rent was fair market; it wasn't some special deal offered by a relative. Since this was a cheap apartment, let's round that up to 3 days of work to pay the monthly rent. OK, so how many young wage earners today can pay the rent for their own apartment with 3 days' pay? Any hands? OK, the Ivy League MBA working at Goldman Sachs, making mega-six-figures in annual compensation. Any average folks out there paying their rent with 3 days' pay? No? Today, that would require an hourly wage of $60 to $90 an hour. The median annual wage is around $60,000, around $30/hour--half or a third of what it takes to pay the rent on a studio apartment in a high-cost urban area with 3 days of work. It's important to understand that I didn't have the only cheap apartment in the city. Most of my friends had similar cheap housing, because there were more nooks and crannies in the housing market and in the economy: more small landlords and lower costs of doing business. One friend rented a converted WW2-era Quonset hut on the edge of an upscale neighborhood. Another lived in an old apartment next to the freeway. Another rented an in-law cottage in a single-family home neighborhood. I rented a wealthy couple's poolside cabana for a year. (Most of the space was filled with their stuff, but the price was right.) Much of this low-cost housing has been demolished or rehabbed into high-priced rentals. Fact: in 1985, it took about four hours of work to pay my individual healthcare insurance premium for the month ($54). This wasn't phantom insurance with a huge deductible--it was the standard insurance offered by employers large and small. Being self-employed, I paid the premium myself. OK, everyone who can pay a market-rate, non-subsidized, non-giant-deductible monthly healthcare insurance premium (for an individual) with good coverage with 4 hours of work, raise your hand. With an average cost around $350 a month according to reputable sources, that requires a wage of $87 an hour--roughly triple the median wage. Costs were lower across the board: my monthly utility bill: two hours of work. Three full lunches at a working-class cafe--one hour of work. And so on. The key takeaway here is that the cost of doing business was lower across the board, so everything from auto repairs to going to the dentist was much cheaper. Compared to the present, it took very few hours of work to pay for auto repairs, dental work and other services. We're told our vehicles are so much better now, but this too is open to debate. Cars and trucks cost a fortune now, and they're bigger and heavier and dependent on electronics that can't be repaired at home and that are super-costly to repair. And what exactly makes them so much better? Recall that we all managed to get by without rearview cameras and hands-free mobile phone technology for decades. Let's look at vehicles as transport, not rolling entertainment centers. My 1979 Honda Accord (bought used for $2,600 ($7,350 in today's dollars) operated for many years with little more than routine maintenance despite being 8 years old when I bought it. It got about the same mileage (40 MPG) as my current 2016 Civic, which has a bigger engine and is much heavier. Is it a "better" vehicle given that repair estimates of $3,000 or more are now the norm? I could still replace a defective sensor in my 1998 Civic myself. Now--forget it. In terms of repairability, modern vehicles are off-the-scale worse than the highly reliable vehicles of 30 or even 40 years ago. Given the impossibility of doing much more than changing the oil at home and the insane costs of repairs, it's clear that the hedonics aren't worth the stupefying increases in costs. The same can be said of the 4-cylinder pickup trucks of that era, which did the same work as the far larger, far more costly and unrepairable trucks of today that cost $80,000. How many hours of work does it take now to own and operate a vehicle? Far more than in the past. In the 1980s, I paid my annual home insurance with a few days' labor. Is that possible now? Sure, if you make $80/hour. Even at that rate, it takes a couple weeks' earnings to pay home insurance in some areas. And yet we're all more prosperous now? How about the cost of building a new home? In the early 1980s, I built my own 1,400 square foot conventional house with a two-car garage for $26,000, which equates to about $90,000 in today's dollars. It took 2,600 hours of work to pay for my house in full (not counting my carpentry labor). I performed all the labor other than the licensed subcontractors (electrical, plumbing, cesspool excavation, carpet installation, etc.). Can an owner-builder construct the equivalent house today for 2,600 hours of work? At $30/hour, that's $78,000. Good luck building a middle-class house turnkey (all appliances, flooring, etc.) for $78,000, even if you do all the carpentry yourself. That might cover the materials--but maybe not. Around this same time (1983) I built numerous modest starter homes as a fully licensed and insured contractor for under $35,000, which equates to $110,000 in today's dollars. Compare this to today, where you need a construction loan of $400,000 to build a nothing-special middle-class house. Are the houses "better" today? In terms of the quality and durability of materials and appliances, they're worse. The materials today are low quality, as are the appliances. 30 or 40 years ago, you could buy a fridge, washer, stove/oven, etc. and it would last decades. Now, all I hear are accounts of costly appliances failing in a few years--and that's been my experience. Today's lumber is lower quality, too, as is the hardware. Standard (i.e. not fancy-expensive) locksets in 50-year old houses are still untarnished and working fine. Modern hardware is--sorry to be blunt--mostly rubbish. Meanwhile, as the costs in hours needed to pay for essentials have soared, we're told by apologists and propaganda pundits that cheap TVs and clothing have offset the the collapse of our purchasing power. Does anyone else find this ceaseless spew of lies irksomely misleading? The collapse of quality has stripped away the purchasing power of earnings. Two generations ago, you could buy just about anything you needed used for a low cost, and that product would last for years or decades. My Mom bought a "vintage" dining set in 1970 that supposedly came around the Horn. Given the square nails and other indicators, I would estimate it was 100 years old at that time. I still use it today, so it's 150 years old. I've reglued some of the chairs, but other than that, they've been zero-cost for 50 years. Are the chairs being bought today at Ikea going to last 150 years? I've repaired many that fell apart in the first year. The same can be said of almost everything being manufactured today. This collapse of quality has dramatically reduced the purchasing power of wages in fundamental ways. Then there's this chart: wages' share of the economy , which has dropped from 51.6% in 1975 to 43% today. Given that the U.S. GDP is $29 trillion, each point of that decline translates into major money. 8% of $29 trillion is $2.3 trillion. Now there are various ways to measure this, but you get the point: wage earners are receiving a smaller share of the economy's output. How many hours of work does it take to buy essential products and services now, and how long do the products last? By this measure, we're poorer, much poorer. After paying for essentials, we have less disposable income available to save or spend on non-essential stuff. In the mid-1970s, I was having lunch with two older buddies. One was a public school teacher (he taught science) who'd served in West Africa in the Peace Corps, the other was an ex-Marine officer who'd served boots on the ground in Vietnam. Both agreed that if anyone was serious about achieving anything that required money, they had to save 40% to 50% of their net pay. Anything less indicated they weren't actually serious. With even an average measure of frugality, this was entirely possible. It was well within reach. How many wage earners today save 40% - 50% of their net pay? Sure, some do, but how many do so without help from the family, special discounts or subsidies, or earnings in the top 10%? Not many. And this is proof-positive we're not just poorer now than we were 40 years ago, we're much, much poorer. If we refuse to accept reality, what are the chances we'll be able to fix what's broken? Delusion and wishful thinking are not successful survival strategies. * * * Become a $3/month patron of my work via patreon.com . Subscribe to my Substack for free