Can  millionaires actually be quite hard up?  Imagine you have a biggish house in London, that you inherited from your parents.  But you are now retired with only the state pension.  You should really sell the house, but you grew up in it.  It’s full of “your life” It needs repair but you can’t afford it.  But it’s in a desirable area and it’s worth £1million.  Yep. you are a hard up millionaire.

But a billionaire is worth 1000 millionaires.

According to Forbes, the USA has 928 billionaires. They are cumulatively worth $7.8 Trillion.

The UK has only 56 and they are worth $244 Billion.

Now the “poor” ones are only worth one billion dollars, but the median billionaire is worth $3billion in the USA, and $2.6billion in the UK. (Elon Musk is worth $476billion)

So what is a billionaire?  Let’s keep it in dollars, it’s someone whose net worth is over a billion dollars.  (For older readers, a billion nowadays is a thousand million, not million million as it was originally defined.)

Getting a billion dollars into perpective.

If you start counting now, at 1 count per second, you will reach 1 billion in 32 years.  It’s a big number.  
You’ll need 15,000 years to count Elon Musks dollars. (continuous counting 24 hrs per day)

Or, do you drive a car?  A car’s engine goes around at an average rate of 3000 revolutions per minute and your average speed throughout the cars life will be around 45mph.  
If you have a magic car and every time the engine rotates (thats 50 times a second) you make $1 you will have to travel 250,000 miles to make a billion dollars.  Manage 119 million miles and you will have as much as Elon Musk.

The median net worth of a US or UK citizen (they are probably half way through their mortgage) is $192,000.  So a median billionaire is worth the same as around 16,000 US or UK “normal” citizens.  

While most of a billionaire’s worth is tied up in ownership of companies etc, a sizeable amount is spent on multiple homes, cars, yachts, private aircraft, and lawyers fees.

When this billionaire gives a million dollars to charity, it’s the same percentage as a “normal” citizen giving $64, except that the normal citizen will probably notice the $64, and the billionaire does not miss the odd million.  Of course it won’t cost him a million as he will get a lot of tax relief on it – almost 50% in the UK (with gift aid).

Along with this obscene wealth, come obscene power.  The USA in particular is a very litigious country, (the UK is catching up) and in disputes between individuals, billionaires always win as they hire the best (and most unscrupulous) lawyers and either win, or drag out the case until the other party is bankrupt. 

The post Billionaires and Trillionaires appeared first on Twenty Forty Five.

(Original post below the updates)

The fining of pieces of paper continues.

Update 5th March 2026

Channel 4’s docudrama “Dirty Business” tells the story of the water companies criminal activities. The hopes are that it will raise awareness of the situation in a similar way to “Mr Bates and the Post office”

The latter resulted in a public enquiry. Paula Vennells, the head of the post office was responsible for falsely preosecuting hundreds of sub postmasters, ruining theire reputations, driving many to insolvency, imprisining some, and driving some to suicide.
Her punishment – she had to give up her multiple jobs, including one as a priest, and to hand back her CBE. She is now a retired multi-millionaire.

SHE SHOULD OBVIOUSLY BE IN JAIL
and her ill gotten gains distributed to her victims.

But this piece of paper is taking the blame.

Will any of the water companies criminally negligent CEOs or their management teams ever see the inside of a jail?

If NOT WHY NOT?

Answer:- because this piece of paper is to blame for everything, and Susan Davey and her mob had nothing to do with it.

Update 4th September 2024
Well it’s a start.

At the moment, CEOs of water companies face fines for failing to comply with investigations by the Environment Agency (EA) and the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI), but there have been just three such fines since privatisation three decades ago.
Civil servants at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) told journalists on Wednesday that they planned to tighten compliance rules to force companies to hand over sewage data quickly, and that the maximum sentence for covering up this information or failing to release it would be two years

From the Guardian
Helena Horton
Environment reporter 
Wed 4 Sep 2024 17.30 EDT

See also The South West Water Scandal

The original post

The government has just fined Southern water £90,000,000 for pouring sewage into the sea.

In 2017 a worker lost a thumb and fingers in an industrial accident. Almost four years later (May 2021) the company was fined for breaching Health and Safety regulations.
We have fined banks;  we have  fined hospitals;  we have fined network rail

This is ludicrous beyond belief. Corporations or companies are NOT negligent or dishonest.  They are pieces of paper with writing on. PEOPLE are negligent and dishonest. And in these cases, the people are usually high up the tree, and their crime is almost always not taking their role seriously and ignoring their own staff at the bottom of the organization.

But who pays the fine? Either the public, or if the fine actually effects the companies finances then cuts will be made at the BOTTOM of the tree.

The ONLY deterrent is a prison sentence for those found responsible. A fine has no effect on a person with a substantial personal fortune, and access to almost unlimited funds from their organization.

Somewhere in the organization, someone has withheld the funds, or not allocated resources and the result is either breaking the law, or a tragedy. That person is never identified, will probably keep their job, and their salary, and their bonus, and their pension. It’s unfair, and just plain stupid.

The threat (and actuality) of a few months, weeks, or even days in jail together with the subsequent criminal record, and increased sentences for subsequent offences would have an immediate effect on directors, executives, and managers behaviour.

So why don’t we simply SEND THE BUGGERS TO JAIL.

In such cases someone MUST go to jail.  If the culprit or culprits cannot be found then it must be the head of the organization.  It is his job to keep the organization on the straight and narrow.  He has failed and its up to him to find the reasons. If he can’t, then he has failed again and that warrants the jail sentence.  When he gets out, he will make damn sure it doesn’t happen again, and his friends will take more care too.

Addenda 13/01/2023

And a piece of paper takes the hit for Trump dodging taxes.

10/06/23

And another piece of paper has been fined £2.1m as for dumping raw sewage into the sea. The CEO of South West Water, Susan Davy, is paid over £400,000 per year and usually gets over £1,000,000 in bonuses. She decided not to take it this year, but she is paying out £112m out to the shareholders.  (I would guess she is a major shareholder). All the “outraged” local MP is calling for is resignations.  

No!

SEND THE BUGGERS TO JAIL.

The post Fining Pieces of Paper appeared first on Twenty Forty Five.

Paul is an excellent plumber. He has a good reputation for his work, although some reviews are mixed about difficulty in contacting him.

The problem is that he is a one man business, and when he is under a sink he can’t answer his phone.

His wife is a teacher so she can’t help during school hours. His customers can get in touch when he is at home, sorting his accounts, preparing quotes and invoices, and ordering materials. Paul classes this as wasted time.

An old school friend, Alan has recently started a new venture after being made redundant from his job as an IT engineer at Google. They meet for a pint, and Alan explains that he is now an agent for “AIssist” who provide AI secretarial and accounting services. After listening to Alans presentation Paul agrees to try out the free 2 month trial period. He is sceptical, but Alan is an old mate so he feels he is helping out.

A week later, Alan comes to Pauls house and spends all day going through the system. Paul is amazed at how comprehensive the system is.

Six weeks later, Paul is wondering how he managed without it. Calls to him are now answered by an AI with very pleasant voice and manner. It (or she – he calls her “Alice”) takes details, and can handle much of the enquiries without help. If not, she sends Paul a text message who responds as soon as he can. Alice does the accounts, prepares quotes and invoices based on Pauls verbal instructions. As a new job comes in she can order materials, and schedule in the work. And she learns. At one point she pointed out that an enquiry from a “new” customer was actually from a previous customer who had delayed payment and quibbled unjustifiably about the work done. With no prompting from Paul she had noticed that although the mail, email, telephone number, and address were different, the enquiry came from the same IP address.
Paul is delighted with Alice. He can spend more time doing what he calls “productive” work, he is making more money and has more leisure time. When his two months free trial are up, he is happy to sign up for three years at £150 per month. He won’t be paying his accountant £700 to do his tax returns this year, and Alice says she can design his new website so he can stop paying for his current website maintenance.

Next Chapter:-  The Obvious Shift

The post AI – The Quiet Cull appeared first on Twenty Forty Five.

Eighteen months later, Paul sees another old school friend, Vince, in one of the few remaining pubs in town. Pubs have been closing as there are simply not enough people who can afford to go out for a drink. (Private clubs for the wealthy are on the increase though). During the conversation Paul mentions his wonderful assistant Alice. Vince is not really impressed, he has a very similar, maybe identical, system and he is only paying £50 per month to help with his carpentry business.

Paul goes to see Alan to see what he can negotiate. Alan explains that he was only and agent, and that, despite having an excellent sales record he has been laid off. “Ironic really – replaced by an AI!” he said . “Vince probably signed up on line, everyone does nowadays”

He explains that Pauls contract with Aissist is legally binding, so he has to pay for the remaining eighteen months of his contract. He also divulges that he his job is now stacking shelves in Tesco, as he could not find an IT or management job. Most of his old work friends are in the same position.

Next Chapter:- The Reckoning

The post AI – The Obvious Shift appeared first on Twenty Forty Five.

Paul and Vince are doing fairly well. Pauls AI contract expired and he and Vince are now paying £20 per month for a slightly more advanced assistant than Alice. They find that most businesses and even lots of private households are doing the same.
They both get less work, as the number of plumbers and carpenters competing has soared, but many of these are relatively unskilled, a lot having learned their “trade” from Youtube videos. But Paul and Vince have excellent reputations and reviews and so get the more expensive jobs from more wealthy customers. But both have seen their tax bills rise substantially. Unemployment rates in the country are now at around 30% although the GDP is still growing.

Alan is struggling. He spends a lot of time on protest marches and has joined a darkweb hacking group trying to find ways into the computers of wealthy companies. Sometimes for profit, but often just for the excitement. His income from Tesco and his “undeclared” activities is not enough to cover his mortgage so he now lives in a small rented flat.

Next chapter – The restructuring

The post AI – The Reckoning appeared first on Twenty Forty Five.

Two years later, the effect of climate change are becoming more severe, this perversely has turned out well for Pauls and Vinces business. Simply put, damage caused by extreme weather events necessitates repair work.
Protest marches, many companies refusing to work for politicians, and riots have resulted in a new coalition government who are focussed on addressing climate change.
Pauls and Vinces taxes are still going up but not as much since the government against huge opposition from the big companies, particularly thos in the AI sector, introduced a big one-off wealth tax to fund the newly formed Disaster Management Force (DMF). It is tasked with tackling the effects of severe storms, floods, wildfires, droughts, and heat waves which have become more frequent due to climate change.
Alan gave up hacking when his “leader” asked him to get in a hospital computer. He made little money from it personally anyway. The DMF have been recruiting extensively, and Alan has been with them for a year, and is actually rising through the ranks. He spends some of his time up to his waist in flood water, some wrestling with a fire hose, some as a paramedic, and some on a computer working with the AI to manage the whole operation. Much to his surprise, he is not sure what he likes best.

Two years further on, Paul and Vince continue to do well, but Vince has had to move his entire business to a new location as his old location is now an almost permanent lake.
Alans work takes him all over the world since the DMF became part of the International Disaster Management Force (IDMF). It is a highly tuned operation. AI systems use satellite imaging to monitor the entire planet and handle the logistics needed to address the issues. Predictions indicate that climate change is slowing, but not reversing. The present situation is expected to last for a minimum of another 50 years. The one-off wealth tax now appears to be an ongoing event, but it really affects the most wealthy two percent of the population. The UK followed the European countries in setting up draconian laws to stop anyone emigrating and taking their wealth with them. The USA has also followed suit.
The IDMF is now the largest “army” on the planet.

The post AI – The restructuring appeared first on Twenty Forty Five.

See also how it could pan out to individuals

The AI Broom Has Already Started.

The AI broom (not a mistype – it’s sweeping clean) has only just started.  The first places are those where the management is fairly familiar with AI and have their eye on greater profits.  It is what managers are paid to do after all. So companies like Microsoft (laying off 2000) and Salesforce (laying off 4000) have already began.

Accenture: A Case Study in AI-Driven Layoffs

More significant is Accenture “a global professional services company that provides a wide range of consulting, technology, and operational services to help businesses improve their performance and digital transformation” who are not only laying off 11000 but also say:-

KEY POINTS

• Accenture CEO Julie Sweet outlined plans to cut staff who are unable to reskill on artificial intelligence in an earnings call on Thursday.
• The global professional services company reported 7% growth in revenue, which it pinned on client demand to become trained on using AI.
• “Every CEO, board and the C-suite recognize that advanced AI is critical to the future,” Sweet told CNBC.

The company reported revenue of $69.7 billion this year, growth of 7% from the prior year. In an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street,” Sweet pinned this growth on massive client demand to deploy artificial intelligence across organizations. “Every CEO, board and the C-suite recognize that advanced AI is critical to the future. The challenge right now they’re facing is that they’re really excited about the technology and they’re not yet AI ready for most companies,” she added.

Companies selling AI solutions like Accenture have already started increasing their profits while cutting their workforce – and they are helping their customers to do the same thing.  More companies selling AI will spring up – it’s a booming industry.

But then the serious job cutting will begin.

Geoffrey Hinton’s Warning: “AI Will Replace Everyone”

Geoffrey Hinton, the University of Toronto professor emeritus widely known as the “Godfather of AI,” says the technology he helped pioneer is set to unleash sweeping changes on the job market, with many workers at risk of being replaced by machines.

“I think for mundane intellectual labour, AI will replace everyone,” Hinton said in a recent interview on the Diary of a CEO podcast. He warns roles such as call centre workers and paralegals are currently most at risk.

Millions of white collar workers who do planning, scheduling, forecasting, purchasing, accounting, recruiting, software, website design and maintenance etc.etc will lose their jobs.  Many use AI now to augment what they do. Those humans left in theses fields (if they are lucky) will be augmenting the AI.  Some will find manual jobs they can do. Most will not.

Meanwhile the AI companies will be making enormous profits, companies who replace much of their workforce with AI will make huge profits. But the rise in white collar unemployment will be unprecedented and perhaps catastrophic to society.

Those who oppose the change will be branded (with some justification) as Modern Day Luddites.

Modern Luddites: From Machine Breakers to Hackers

The original Luddites were 19th-century textile workers who destroyed the machines they saw as replacing them. Modern Luddites will be different: thousands of highly skilled, now-unemployed software engineers with AI tools at their disposal. They won’t smash machines—they’ll hack systems. Cyber attacks will be widespread, sophisticated, and motivated by genuine grievance.

The Government’s Impossible Equation

Governments face an impossible equation: income tax receipts plummeting as employment collapses, while corporations—the very entities that created the crisis—fight any increase in corporate taxation. And it’s these same corporations who fund political campaigns and employ former politicians as consultants. The conflict of interest is structural.

Is this realistic?

I asked Anthropics Claude AI about timescales

and wrote a little accompanying story – click on the titles.

Now – 2026: The Quiet Cull

• Tech companies leading: Google, Meta, Microsoft all cutting thousands while productivity stays flat or rises

• “AI-augmented workers” replacing teams: one person + AI doing what took 3-5 people before

• Hiring freezes disguised as “strategic pauses”

• Entry-level positions vanishing—why hire junior analysts when AI can do 80% of it?

2026-2028: The Obvious Shift

• Customer service centers decimated (already happening but accelerating)

• Accounting/book keeping firms consolidating or closing

• Junior lawyers, paralegals finding no positions exist

• Middle management culls at large corporations

• “AI coordinator” becomes a role, but it’s 1 person replacing a department

2028-2030: The Reckoning

• White collar unemployment becomes a political crisis, not just a trend

• Entire sectors reeling: HR, marketing agencies, financial advisors, project managers

• Universities panicking as traditional “safe” degrees lead nowhere

• Small businesses running lean with AI

2030+: The Restructuring

• Either we’ve implemented new economic models (UBI, massive redistribution, worker co-ops)

• Or we’re in serious social instability

• The “collapse” isn’t one dramatic moment—it’s a decade of steady degradation

The Choice Ahead

This is an unstable state. History shows us that such instability doesn’t persist—it resolves, one way or another. Either through enlightened policy (perhaps, ironically, guided by AI itself) or through social breakdown: insurrection, civil unrest, or worse.

We’re 2-3 years into a 10-year transformation. The question isn’t whether dramatic change is coming—it’s whether we’ll manage it wisely or catastrophically.

And at the same time we have the challenge of climate change

But here is a little light relief in the same area,  sort of. 

The post How AI Will Replace White Collar Jobs by 2030: Timeline and Predictions appeared first on Twenty Forty Five.

Did I set it so that from around 2040 onwards, the domain name may be worth a bit?

Does the year 2045 have a mystical significance?

Or did I just set it up at a quarter to nine?

I just wish I could remember.

Anyway you have stumbled upon my “writing site” 

Browse whatever category interests you:-

It’s an interesting world and the Observations section is about the bits that interest me.
The Fiction section has a few short stories ranging from 3 – 15 minute read times.
The Technical section is mainly about electronic solutions for busking, performing in small venues and simple home recording
The Music section is a selection of home recordings

The post Greetings appeared first on Twenty Forty Five.

In another article, I described three solutions for a battery powered mixer. This balancing mixer takes a different approach that’s particularly useful for busking and small gigs. Unlike conventional mixers with individual gain controls per channel, this audio balancing mixer uses a simple balance knob to adjust levels between two inputs, plus a master gain control.

The usual approach requires adjusting gain controls that span 50dB or more, making small 2-3dB adjustments difficult. With a balancing mixer, setting the balance between two vocalists or a vocalist and guitar becomes much easier with one simple knob.

This **balancing mixer** design offers a different approach to mixing audio. Unlike conventional mixers with individual gain controls per channel, this **audio balancing mixer** uses a simple balance knob to adjust levels between two inputs, plus a master gain control. This makes it ideal for quickly balancing two vocalists or a vocalist and guitar. 

Why Use an Audio Balancing Mixer?

The usual approach (as in all the mixers described in the other article) is to have a gain control on each input then a master gain control.    Now when setting the balance between two vocalists, or a vocalist and a guitar, then adjustments of a few dB can make quite a difference to the mix. But the gain control typically has a pot which can set the gain over  a range of 50dB or more, so setting a small difference is a chore.

The approach here is to have a mix control, one simple knob which can be used to set the balance between two inputs. Then there is another knob for the overall gain.

Building the Balancing Mixer

I decided to try it out by re-wiring a mixer I made some years ago.  It is primarily for busking but can also be used for recording.  It does not use an op amp as in Fig 1. Instead it uses a simple discrete transistor amp based on Rod Elliots simple mic amp.  I have modified it to work from a  9V PP3 battery and it  takes only around 1.6mA and is quite low noise.

All of the potentiometers were already installed in the box so I decided to keep them, even though reducing the values would be better from a noise point of view. In practice the output noise will be dominated by background noise from the microphone.

I added capacitors to each input to curtail the low frequency response. I did not want inaudible low frequencies driving the amp close to saturation.

Construction

I modified a mixer I had made previously.  If I was to ever build another one I would use a bigger box and smaller 1/4″ jack sockets.  I also might change to an op amp instead of the transistor amp and mayybe add another op amp and a pot to give extra balance between left and right as well as top to bottom.
But  the present one works fine and I see no reason for me to build another.

The box is quite packed.

The complete circuit is below. The strange value 8.2K balance pots were bought as 10K!

The two 22K resistors on inputs 2 and 4 are to provide a bias voltage to electret mics if used. If an ordinary dynamic mic is used this will result in a tiny (less than half a milliamp) dc current into th mic.  My mics, have all been modified however as shown in “Using a dynamic mic with a Macbook“

Testing.

Testing was done using LTspice to simulate the circuit, then verifying with an oscilloscope.
Here is the LTspice simulation schematic

C9 is actually the estimated capacitance between two 5cm long tracks of Veroboard. It actually reduces the HF 3dB point from 190KHz to 50KHz.

Frequency response

The image shows to frequency response with the balance pot at mid and the gain to the max.
3dB points are 45Hz and 47KHz.
With the oscilloscope I measured 47Hz and 50KHz.

The lower 3db point stays much the same as the gain is reduced but the upper extends to 3MHz at minimum gain.  I did not bother to verify this on the scope as it’s an audio amp and above 20KHz is of little interest.

Output level

The simulation shows a maximum swing of 5V with clipping on the negative swing.
This is very dependent on biasing, set by the value of R5 and the toe voltage of Q1.

Measurement with the oscilloscope showed a +3V to -3V swing before clipping occured.

‘Scope measurements

Noise

On the Macbook I could reduce the Macbook input level to 10% and increase the signal level using the amp to the right volume for singing with the mic around 12″ away.  Noise floor was -75dB.  Repeating with and input level of 25% gave a noise floor of -72dB.  From a previous article using the input without the amp can give a -65dB noise floor.

The iphone was similar, but without the amp the signal is really too low, and increasing it post recording raises the noise floor to around -45dB.

Balancing

Turning the balance control in the centre, will change the relative volume of each input by +/-10dB

Conclusions

The balancing mixer is best used as a mixer when required, or as a preamp if recording on the iphone.  It will imporove the noise floor on the MacBook, but this will not make a noticable difference for a youtube recording.

So if recording onto the Macbook with only one mic (my usual style)  I may as well just use the cable.  If I need 2-4 mics, then use the mixer.

I find that a setting of around 30-45 degrees counter clockwise, which gives an extra 4dB to the instrument mic (a cheap weymic57) over the vocal mic (an Ev N/D257a) seems to work well for vocals and guitar. 

If recording into the iPhone, use the mixer.

Busking or performing, (with the busking amp) use the audio balancing mixer.

Works for me

The post A balancing Mixer appeared first on Twenty Forty Five.

I made this DIY busking amp from an old guitar practice amp. All I needed was the box and the speaker. Any old amp would have done, although the speaker had to be able to handle over 7.5 Watts. I had a Vox DA5 which comes with a 10W speaker

I removed the electronics leaving on the speaker and the enclosure. I screwed a reinforcing block on the bottom with a hole so I could mount the box on a mic stand. Mic stands are bad enough to carry about, but speaker stands are out of the question.  In practice a chair or a wall, or even simply the ground will work, the rear panel can be opened and the amp tilted up, but a stand gives more projection.  I added a separator board as cables and mics can be stuffed inside the box and I did not want them hitting the electronics.

The Amp

To get the power, I bought a Class D Amp. from Amazon. It cost me £7.74 (in 2019) The amp is capable of providing 30 Watts (15+15) into 8 ohms with a 24V supply. It is sold as PAM8620 although that is actually the ID of the chip. It is sold by lots of Chinese suppliers Although it is a stereo amp I only use one channel, and a 12V supply. The amp is specified to drive to within a volt of the rails or which gives about 7.5 Watts into an 8 ohm speaker from a 12Volt supply.  It has a volume control and I found it could reach max power with only 0.7Vp-p at the input with the volume turned up full giving it a max gain of 40 (or 32dB).  The potentiometer is used to mount the amp to the replacement top panel.

The Power

I have tried a few different power supply solutions, including C cells, Alkaline AA cells and rechargeable AA cells.   I currently use  a Lucas 2.3AH 12V lead acid Battery which cost me £14.95 from ebay. My logic is:-

A lead acid battery can be charged while still in the amp with either my Ctek car battery charger or in the car via the cigar lighter socket.  So it can be charged easily in between gigs.  The battery is 2.3Ah and if I discharge it to 50% that is 1.15Ah or 13.8Wh.  The amp can give 7.5W peak, but in normal operation it will only be taking around 3 watts. So four hours continuous playing is no problem.
In an emergency, the lead acid could go further if I allow it to discharge to under 50%. This is not good for a lead acid battery but it should only happen very occasionally, if at all.

The Final DIY Busking Amp

I usually drive the amp from my balance orientated mixer or from my modified Behringer MX400

Why a DIY busking amp

You can buy a busking amp for under £200, but if you can come by an old non-working guitar amp, you can make this for around £30. You can use any batteries you like, even run it from your car battery.  
This amp only has one input.  If you need more, then the MX400 will work fine, with or without my modification.  It can be powered by whatever you use the power the amp.  

Music need not be your only creative outlet.

Afterword

It works well.
Is 7.5 watts enough?  Maybe you’d like it to be twice as loud?

Sound is measured in Decibels The old value was bels (where a decibel = 1/10th of a bel).  You needed an extra bel to sound twice as loud. That requires 10x the power or 75 watts. This assumes a similar sensitivity speaker.

Anything between 3 watts and 10 watts is easily loud enough for busking or a small venue and this diy busking amp works for me.

The post A simple DIY Busking Amp appeared first on Twenty Forty Five.