#they rich rich

[silver-studios]

A Hypothetical History: Land of Fire

The Land of Fire is one of the largest and most powerful countries in Naruto, and is also the home to our main characters.

Set for Success

The Land of Fire is canonically characterised by its dense forestage, warm weather and bright skies. Most of the country seems to be set in the plains, there’s a pretty solid coastline and plenty of water sources. What this tells me is that they’re set for success pretty much right off the bat. 

Historically, almost every known civilisation got its start from a nearby water source-- a river in most cases. It’s incredibly likely that Land of Fire was home to some of the oldest civilisations in the Continent, and they probably had the time and resources to develop pretty sophisticatedly too.  

My personal vision for Fire’s origins is an amalgamation of the Indus Valley civilisation, the Inca empire, ancient China and ancient Japan.

A Thriving Economy: Agriculture, Trade, Innovation 

The earliest generations to make their homes in these plains were almost certainly farmers. Given the climate and the kind of geography that varies just enough over the massive land mass to give rise to plenty of agricultural variety, the people of Fire could probably cultivate just about anything to trade amongst themselves. 

Exports, however, are easier to guess. Wheat, rice, sesame, cotton and sugar were probably their biggest crop exports. I imagine they also traded silk and iron. Imports are harder to guess but going by older civilisations in similar places, they might have imported bronze, copper, gold and coal.

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that Fire was in no way short of resources, and what usually follows is infrastructural development. I think they were the kind of civilisation that had the room for comfort and growth, and turned to developing road networks, extensive water-carrying channels and city complexes.

Fire’s current capital would have served as their most prolific port and been at the heart of their trade, leading to its emerging as an economic and cultural hub, bringing in new ideas of technology and philosophy along with foreign goods and services.

 Religion & Philosophy: Shintoism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism

Keeping in mind that Fire is supposed to be a nod to Japan, it’s safe to say that Shintoism is probably the first religion that came to be, and it isn’t hard to see why. The Shinto religion, broadly, is all about nature and maintaining an admiration for it by believing that there’s a kami in everything. The earliest human civilisations have almost always maintained a similar trend of worshipping the forces of nature, out of both fear and reverence for what has been given to them and what is often taken away by forces they can not control. The Land of Fire was very likely the same. 

 I think that Daoism and Confucianism were the next to come about. Daoism is roughly about The Way which centers on going along with nature and life takes you, and an important aspect of this is the flow of seeming opposites to create the whole. Meanwhile, Confucianism is a school of thought that is more concerned with ethics and a code of living centered around a pursuit of harmony and order with the world at large.

And, finally, Buddhism which reiterates the ideas of suffering, impermanence of material items, and reincarnation while stressing the idea of reaching salvation beyond.

All four of these coexist in modern-day Japan and in Naruto’s world too. We know for a fact that the Senju were Buddhists, the Uchiha followed Shintoism and the Hyuuga were, traditionally at least, Daoists. The existence of samurai implies that this society did, at some point, adhere to Confuciansim too. 

Contemporary Land of Fire

I’ve mentioned this in my post about the Continent at large, but my personal headcanon is that the countries were in fact united at some point, and this was probably under the banner of an Emperor from Fire who then spread the currency and language across the Continent. 

I do think that the capital of this Empire was situated in the Land of Fire and still serves as the country’s capital now with the Daimyo at the helm. This capital is home to the Continent’s largest civilian university and the center for technological advancements. It remains a hub of economic and artistic activity. 

It’s pretty likely that the Land of Fire boasts a high standard of living with a large educated and working population. They’d maintain a massive income from exporting a wide variety of things: rice, wheat, cotton, textiles, timber, furniture and technology. 

There’s several implications throughout canon that being a shinobi is far from the norm and I wanted to reflect that in my imagining of the countries. The Hidden Villages exist to supply the Daimyo with an army and function in a similar capacity to how a ministry of defense might. There’s major incentive to continue keeping civilian interests at heart because that’s where the money is. 

Ultimately, what makes a country strong isn’t just their armed forces but also a really great economy, and considering how powerful the Land of Fire is canonically supposed to be, I wanted to really reflect that. 

[dopeepidemic]

Inktober #14: Castle

[teffiebell]

[lilithism1848]

[sheepydraws]

The secret Dungeon Meshi sauce that's getting people to eat better is that it's so non-judgmental. Senshi and the rest of the gang never talk about what not to eat besides things that taste bad and literal poison. They don't even talk about "health" that much besides the importance of a balanced diet. It's so much easier to eat well when you think of food simply as something your body needs, and that it's often worth the extra effort to make it taste good, especially when you understand how to connect "things your body needs" with "things that taste good"

[etakeh]

[crabussy]

hey. don’t cry. crush four cloves of garlic into a pot with a dollop of olive oil and stir until golden then add one can of crushed tomatoes a bit of balsamic vinegar half a tablespoon of brown sugar and stir for a few minutes adding a handful of fresh spinach until wilted and mix in half a cup of grated parmesan cheese and pasta of your choice ok?

[politijohn]

Source

Source

[ysabelmystic]

Very excited for this ngl

[goatsorcery]

im so done with seeing articles about kids and screen time that doesnt mention parent behaviors even once. “kids are always on their phones” so are the parents! which the kids look to for how they should behave! ipad babies didn’t chose to only play on their ipads, thats what their parents gave them!

an anecdotal example: when i was a kid, all my parents would do in their minimal free time was watch tv and then they would be surprised when in my sister and i’s minimal free time we would also only watch tv/play video games. they scolded us for not reading books, but they never read books. they scolded us for not going outside but they never went outside.

“kids are always on their damn phones” my mom is in her 60s and opens up candy crush anytime she’s sitting — it isnt just the kids

[nando161mando]

There are now over 15 million empty homes in the US, and 650,000 homeless per the very bias official numbers, or 23 houses per person

[defilerwyrm]

Growth capitalism is a deranged fantasy for lunatics.

Year 1, your business makes a million dollars in profit. Great start!

Year 2, you make another million. Oh no! Your business is failing because you didn't make more than last year!

Okay, say year 2 you make $2 mil. Now you're profitable!

Then year 3 you make $3 mil. Oh no! Your business is failing! But wait, you made more money than last year right? Sure, but you didn't make ENOUGH more than last year so actually your business is actively tanking! Time to sell off shares and dismantle it for parts! You should have made $4 mil in profit to be profitable, you fool!

If you're not making more money every year by an ever-increasing exponent, the business is failing!

Absolute degenerate LUNACY

[farialyton]

Facebook deleted this almost immediately. It's almost like the ultrawealthy don't want us knowing or talking about what's at stake.

[benthesoldiersjeanshorts]

[mckinlily]

Plot armor but it’s Bruce Wayne’s wealth.

Bruce is one of the richest men in the world. Bruce does not want to be one of the richest men in world.

He starts by implementing high starting salaries and full health care coverages for all levels at Wayne Enterprises. This in vastly improves retention and worker productivity, and WE profits soar. He increases PTO, grants generous parental and family leave, funds diversity initiatives, boosts salaries again. WE is ranked “#1 worker-friendly corporation”, and productively and profits soar again.

Ok, so clearly investing his workers isn’t the profit-destroying doomed strategy his peers claim it is. Bruce is going to keep doing it obviously (his next initiative is to ensure all part-time and contractors get the same benefits and pay as full time employees), but he is going to have to find a different way to dump his money.

But you know what else is supposed to be prohibitively expensive? Green and ethical initiatives. Yes, Bruce can do that. He creates and fund a 10 year plan to covert all Wayne facilities to renewable energy. He overhauls all factories to employ the best environmentally friendly practices and technologies. He cuts contracts with all suppliers that engage in unethical employment practices and pays for other to upgrade their equipment and facilities to meet WE’s new environmental and safety requirements. He spares no expense.

Yeah, Wayne Enterprises is so successful that they spin off an entire new business arm focused on helping other companies convert to environmentally friendly and safe practices like they did in an efficient, cost effective, successful way.

Admittedly, investing in his own company was probably never going to be the best way to get rid of his wealth. He slashes his own salary to a pittance (god knows he has more money than he could possibly know what to do with already) and keeps investing the profits back into the workers, and WE keeps responding with nearly terrifying success.

So WE is a no-go, and Bruce now has numerous angry billionaires on his back because they’ve been claiming all these measures he’s implementing are too expensive to justify for decades and they’re finding it a little hard to keep the wool over everyone’s eyes when Idiot Softheart Bruice Wayne has money spilling out his ears. BUT Bruce can invest in Gotham. That’ll go well, right?

Gotham’s infrastructure is the OSHA anti-Christ and even what little is up to code is constantly getting destroyed by Rogue attacks. Surely THAT will be a money sink.

Except the only non-corrupt employer in Gotham city is….Wayne Enterprises. Or contractors or companies or businesses that somehow, in some way or other, feed back to WE. Paying wholesale for improvement to Gotham’s infrastructure somehow increases WE’s profits.

Bruce funds a full system overhaul of Gotham hospital (it’s not his fault the best administrative system software is WE—he looked), he sets up foundations and trusts for shelters, free clinics, schools, meal plans, day care, literally anything he can think of.

Gotham continues to be a shithole. Bruce Wayne continues to be richer than god against his Batman-ingrained will.

Oh, and Bruice Wayne is no longer viewed as solely a spoiled idiot nepo baby. The public responds by investing in WE and anything else he owns, and stop doing this, please.

Bruce sets up a foundation to pay the college tuition of every Gotham citizen who applies. It’s so successful that within 10 years, donations from previous recipients more than cover incoming need, and Bruce can’t even donate to his own charity.

But by this time, Bruce has children. If he can’t get rid of his wealth, he can at least distribute it, right?

Except Dick Grayson absolutely refuses to receive any of his money, won’t touch his trust fund, and in fact has never been so successful and creative with his hacking skills as he is in dumping the money BACK on Bruce. Jason died and won’t legally resurrect to take his trust fund. Tim has his own inherited wealth, refuses to inherit more, and in fact happily joins forces with Dick to hack accounts and return whatever money he tries to give them. Cass has no concept of monetary wealth and gives him panicked, overwhelmed eyes whenever he so much as implies offering more than $100 at once. Damian is showing worrying signs of following in his precious Richard’s footsteps, and Babs barely allows him to fund tech for the Clocktower. At least Steph lets him pay for her tuition and uses his credit card to buy unholy amounts of Batburger. But that is hardly a drop in the ocean of Bruce’s wealth. And she won’t even accept a trust fund of only one million.

Jason wins for best-worst child though because he currently runs a very lucrative crime empire. And although he pours the vast, vast majority of his profits back into Crime Alley, whenever he gets a little too rich for his tastes, he dumps the money on Bruce. At this point, Bruce almost wishes he was being used for money laundering because then he’s at least not have the money.

So children—generous, kindhearted, stubborn till the day they die the little shits, children—are also out.

Bruce was funding the Justice League. But then finances were leaked, and the public had an outcry over one man holding so much sway over the world’s superheroes (nevermind Bruce is one of those superheroes—but the public can’t know that). So Bruce had to do some fancy PR trickery, concede to a policy of not receiving a majority of funds from one individual, and significantly decrease his contributions because no one could match his donations.

At his wits end, Bruce hires a team of accounts to search through every crinkle and crevice of tax law to find what loopholes or shortcuts can be avoided in order to pay his damn taxes to the MAX.

The results are horrifying. According to the strictest definition of the law, the government owes him money.

Bruce burns the report, buries any evidence as deeply as he can, and organizes a foundation to lobby for FAR higher taxation of the upper class.

All this, and Wayne Enterprises is happily chugging along, churning profit, expanding into new markets, growing in the stock market, and trying to force the credit and proportionate compensation on their increasingly horrified CEO.

Bruce Wayne is one of the richest men in the world. Bruce Wayne will never not be one of the richest men in the world.

But by GOD is he trying.

[animentality]