In any corporation, workers are just another capital expense.
Where on earth do you get such strange perverted ideas? Have you ever worked in a management job? Worked with a team of seasoned professionals? What industry are you in?
Every employer forces you to sign a contract upon hire.
That's because of the lawyers, and people who would prefer to sue... and not do any productive work, leeching off society.
We need a guild, a union, whatever you want to call it
And yet, in every industry where Unions are in control, the Unions get very wealthy, where the workers get less and less, and in many states, are forced to join whether they want to or not.
I hope for your sake you're still in school, or have a very low level job.... No offense, really, but your statements fly in the face of actual reality.
I am a boss and I do none of those things. We hire junior people and invest a lot of time and money training them, and giving them larger and more complex assignments. We hire senior people and treat them like gold, because they are worth it.
Yes HR departments are clueless about hiring I.T. people.
As a hiring manager, I can tell you that the resumes we get are frighteningly bad, the skill sets not even close, the grammar/punctuation on so many of them are horrible beyond belief. I have a theory that because you have to prove you're looking for work to get unemployment some folks apply for random jobs and don't even look until the unemployment checks stop coming - because I have faith in the human race I can't accept that so many applicants are so clueless.
Good developers - are exceedingly hard to find and there is a global shortage of them. The same can be said for Good Employers. This isn't the fault of evil corporations, or evil governments, or the Rethugnicans, or the Demoncrats... It's just life. 99% of everything is crap! So when the 1% comes by, grab it.
Yet another story GUARANTEED to bring out all the cut and pasters of the same old talking points.
Can someone please explain to me... what the point is... on a web site that has no display advertising? Traffic here generates no CPI or CPC there's nothing to fucking click for crissakes. So why bother posting endless stories about global warming/cooling/climate change, gay marriage, the ACA, Obama.vs. Bush... Every single one of these threads READS EXACTLY THE SAME and I'll bet 99% of the posters are THE SAME PEOPLE.
Sure was. But one never brings up the past to folks who thrive in a world with a constant stream of vitriolic hate, a.k.a. "red meat". Watch MSNBC for one whole evening... What's interesting about all this is that they actually do more damage to the environment by being sensationalist, and by making up tall tales... than is probably being done in most developed countries. The biggest polluters, in the third world, aren't swayed by the diatribe, they are just trying to survive.
But suggest that the endless years of dire predictions that never come true are hurting the cause and you are immediately attacked in the most vicious and insulting ways....
In principle, yes. But in reality business buys government to bend the law to benefit the stockholders, thus making the leaders of business and government the ruling class. This is exactly what has been going on in places like Chicago and Detroit for 40, 50 years. And as we elected someone President who grew up in Chicago... big surprise! Income inequality is much, much worse than it was under a Texas Cowboy wanna-be, corruption is at an all time high, there's no attempt at all to disguise outright bribes to party loyalists, and things are getting more fucked up by the day. The majority of the population things we are on the wrong track, while here on the Internet we all shout ideological propaganda at each other that neither side believes, politicians just say that shit because they believe we are all stupid.
I'm NOT disagreeing with you. I am simply truing to make your point in a much more in your face kind of way for the benefit of the readership here.
There's also an implied assumption that the wages/prices ratio is something plotted with straight lines. That is, that there's no "sweet spot" where the two intersect.
Oh there absolutely is. If U.S. Government backed securities pay 2%... then a 100% safe return is 2%. But let's say you want to get ahead in life. The answer is you take on risk. Invest in the stock market, that's risky, you might get as much as 3000% and you might lose it all. That's how the world works, pal, I can't change that. (By "Pal" I am referring to anyone who is too stupid to understand this simple fact of life)
Start a small business. That's what's driving the majority of the growth and creating the majority of the jobs - Not big giant evil corporations, small businesses that anybody can start. You put your money at risk. For the first few years you work insane hours at low pay - or no pay. Minimum wage laws do not apply to business owners. Your return is what you sell your product for, minus what you pay your employees. Odds are, you'll fail - most small businesses do.
It's the same story for each and every one of us. Get a JOB, lower risk, lower return. Start your own business, higher risk, higher return.
So along comes some nameless bureaucrat thousands of miles away who knows nothing about your business, nothing about your products, nothing about the local market you operate in... and he says "Thou shalt pay every employee at least X. If you have employees who are happy making less than X, you must give them a raise to X" Are you with me here? What do you think just happened? You, as the owner, has two choices. If you're paying people MORE than X, you start thinking about paying them X. If you're paying people less, you don't want to reduce YOUR return, you have all the risk, you're going to raise prices. The whole scenario just got all fucked up.
Wages and Price ratios can't be plotted with straight lines because a bunch of well intentioned idiots decided to fuck up the system in order to make it "fair". These same people believe that all people are complete clueless idiots, who are too stupid to place a value on their work - and that all employers are cruel, heartless bastards who would pay everyone a penny an hour if they thought they could get away with it. This is, of course, complete nonsense. Good happy workers create good products and give good service. They are the biggest investment you're little business has, and if you are going to survive, you treat them like gold.
Yet - if you understood the simple example here, you've already proven you are much smarter than that. The fact is, the wage/price "sweet spot" is unique for every business. But no, we can't accept that. Instead we force a "one size fits all" on the universe - When in fact, each and every one of us is unique. And in so doing, we create huge problems we never had before.
So incredibly spot on. I started coding in '79 and that's exactly how it was.
NPR... as usual... is full of crap. What's made computing isolationist is the whole ME generation. The generation who wants a Personal Water Craft (As opposed to a bunch of friends in a boat). The generation who goes on Facebook and proclaims "I am at Costco!". The "Entitlement" generation, The "Society owes ME" (not the other way around). Now we can argue where this all came from... But there's no disputing that it happened. In the 80's. And we're still paying the price.
We have offices in Europe. Over there, programming teams sit at a big table all together - essentially a permanent conference room. Why? Because the most important aspect of programming is COLLABORATION and TEAMWORK. (Not the pseudo teamwork that companies in the U.S. pretend to foster) And big surprise, there are many, many more women coders. And unlike the U.S., where a woman in computer science is stereo typed as not being very good looking, and not being outgoing, and/or being the bookish librarian... the female programmers are completely normal, with some of them being what you'd expect in America to be going out with the sales guys. In other words, really stunning. These are hard core developers we are talking about.
But what did we do? We stuck programmers in little isolationist cubes. We invented project managers, who's job it is to keep all the programmers in line - and force them into short duration collaboration meetings that are lame as it gets - these meetings are anti-collaborative. And as you say we got "Personal Computers".... As for the slow compiler... Yeah, I miss those days too. But they aren't coming back:-)
Women, who are naturally wired to be more social than us men are not going to be attracted to a field that puts them in little cubes with headphones in large numbers. They are more likely to gravitate to fields like marketing, where a bunch of people sit in a room and come up with ideas.
Exactly. Which is why they appointed a political hack, who was responsible for doling out stimulus bribes to the top campaign contributors. He was wildly successful at THAT, as these folks all came back and ponied up huge dollars again in 2012.
He knew nothing about job creation - but he was great at fabricating populist bulls** like "2.5 million jobs created or saved!" When, in fact, no such numbers were ever tracked, the BLS does not track any number like this, and five years later the analysis of the stimulus proves it was a complete and utter failure with respect to job creation, infrastructure projects, shovel ready jobs - all of it. Big surprise, as the template for the Stimulus was Clinton's big payoff for getting elected, er "Stimulus".
Well, he knows nothing about Ebola either. But money will be allocated. And the midterms are looming. And it's extremely important that the Ebola money go to good, loyal party members. So he's the perfect choice in every way.
And please, PEOPLE this has NOTHING to do with anybody's party affiliation.
That we can simply fix all social problems with another law and more imprisonment is going to lead us to our doom.
Well that clearly makes you a right wing ignorant racist hayseed, clinging to guns and religion and needing re-edukashion. Oh crap. I'd better report to the nearest train station with warm clothes and a shovel.
So at least half of slasdot participants, maybe more, behind bars. Seems that our dice overlords will not be pleased with this result!
That's pretty much what our current economy is lacking: People able to buy.
I respectfully disagree. There's PLENTY of money out there. Companies and Individuals are sitting on big piles of cash. The problem is that they aren't spending it, because of a perception of future uncertainty, an administration that is anti-business, anti-success, and pro tax... Confidence in government at all levels is at an all time low. The magnification of every mistake by any company, the 24 hour breathless exaggeration of every crisis by the news media, the new intense polarization brought about by the Internet aren't helping either. Just look at the polls, some 3/4 of the people in America believe we are going to hell in a hand basket. The current leadership CREATED this situation because they are, at heart, community organizers. Their intentions were good, but they didn't take the long term view.
Restore people's faith in the world, and they will spend, and borrow to buy new things. Continue down the road we are on and everybody becomes a prepper, hoarding food, gold, ammunition... and staying as liquid as possible -- in the market with aggressive sell stops, cash in the bank and stuffed under the mattress, afraid of too much debt, cutting back on luxuries and staying at home.
I would add that the most important - and yet rarely heard - aspect of this argument (Which cannot be disputed it's black and white numbers) is:
The (progressives, liberal democrats, obots, socialists, whatever name you like) have made this a SIGNATURE issue and have told us that THEY are the ones who are going to solve this horrible inequity in society. But the actual truth is:
Income inequality DECREASED under the horrible Bushitler (and had been for years) under the Obama Administration it has SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED
The same thing happened in all the communist countries that have ever existed as well. A small number of people became extraordinary wealthy by exploiting all the little people who gave them the reins of power in the hopes of a better life.
The moral of the story is that "Income Inequality" is a bunch of populist malarky for gullible people who need something to hate. What leftists really do, once in power, is prove to be just as greedy, just as corporatist, and even more corrupt than the people they CLAIM they are there to protect us from.
Please understand I am all for the CONCEPT of reducing income inequality, I am not a RIGHT WING LOON, I agree with the intentions, I am not anti-government. I am against liars, thieves, and people who practice "Do as I Say and not as I do". So don't be hoodwinked by slick salesmen dressed up as leaders who care about you. Abandon the ideology cloak and look for the truth.
Absolutely, and while very sad, it's very true: Death brings out the worst in people
My mother died fairly young, my father remarried. The family he married into had a fair amount of money. For the last five years I have watched from the sidelines in abject horror as that family tears itself apart fighting over grandma's estate - She had a trust. She had a will. It didn't matter. Now they all without exception hate each other, and will probably never speak to each other ever again. It is so... just incredible. They seemed like such nice people. The worst and greediest offender is a pastor no less....
Correct it's called "co-mingling of funds" but in practical reality it's the rare couple who has completely separate bank accounts plus a joint account where the shared expenses go, so unless the inheritance goes into a separate account POD to the other (.vs. JTROS) its co-mingled.
Imagine the spouse's response when that inheritance comes in and you say "Well we might get divorced someday so to protect me and my selfish interests I'm putting it in a separate account and only spending it on me"
I hear you, I really do. I am not one of those people who is against alternative energy at all!
The problem is the same as with climate change. Well intentioned people who see the future want to force a change to take place, and they have been trying to force this change for years and years. The trouble is, humans don't respond well to being told they have to do something. In other words, as long as gas is under $4.00 a gallon very few people are going to switch to a car that needs to be recharged. As long as one's heating bill is reasonable, most folks aren't going to switch to geo-thermal, or solar hot water - because they don't want to spend money on infrastructure, they want a new TV.
And if you say "Well, we should pass a LAW that results in electricity prices skyrocketing in order to force people to change their behavior" yeah it sounds great, doesn't it? But the cold harsh reality is that you're going to make a lot of people very, very angry and they are going to vote you out of office. Didn't you ever tell anyone in life "fuck you nobody tells ME what to do"...
But don't be discouraged. When presented with a large, seemingly insurmountable problem - humans have proven time and time again for thousands of years that they are very adept at finding solutions in short order, and implementing them to save themselves. But if one has the opinion that the majority of people are clueless idiots that need to be told what to do... You're going to end up sad and depressed. On the whole, people are actually very bright. Complete idiots are actually in the minority.
If you run around making ridiculous claims like "Peak oil was in 1974!" or "By the year 2005 all life in the oceans will be dead" - because you so passionately believe in your cause... You are branded a loonie, and people don't take you seriously, and your good intentions end up moving things backwards. This is exactly what's happened with climate science, it's a crime of staggering proportions that we will all be paying for. What's even more ironic is that the people who committed this crime actually believed in their hearts they were advancing the cause.
Had energy efficiency, insulation, conservation been pursued as relentlessly as the chase after more horsepower or cheap electronics
Here I completely disagree. Once companies realized that efficiency sells, and that people would pay a premium for it, things have gotten incredibly more efficient. My first car with a V8 engine got 3-4 MPG now the same engine gets 20+. We recently upgrade our HVAC system in our house, running the thermostat at the same temperature as before our electric bill is HALF what it was.
Yes I know this could all happen much faster. And as a species we'd be better off for it. And we should preserve our oil, not squander it. And people should be nice to each other, and treat each other with respect, and not call each other names. But you're wanting human nature to be radically altered, and I'm telling you, it ain't gonna happen.
When gas is $7 a gallon - and it's not $7 by ARTIFICIAL MEANS you'll see more people driving smaller efficient cars. When it's $14 you'll see electrics. In the meantime... The last tank I bought was $2.81 a gallon, a large portion of the other people on the road are driving giant SUV's, I am not wanting to be driving something really small that guarantees I'll die when the Suburban, or Expedition, or Club Cab 1 ton pickup hits me... Do you understand my point?
What you want will happen. Just not as fast as you want. Trying to legislate it into existence, and making exaggerated claims about it's performance, is actually slowing it down. I realize this is counter-intuitive and completely heretical but it's true. People... act in their own self interest. It's just what they do. It's not because they are stupid, or selfish - it's in their DNA. You can wish for it to be better - and I applaud anyone who does - but it's going to take a few thousand years or more...
Consider... if the whole smoking thing had transpired in our new Web 2.0 world. Would the government role be less relevant? I think it would. But of course the there needs to be a law people are in complete denial of this.
Today, the pressure that social media brings on organizations - especially since the new way of looking at the world is that large groups of humans working in corporations are pure evil (but large groups of people working in government are magically exempt) - means that the smallest product defect is magnified a thousand times over. If only people would put that kind of magnifying glass to government and politicians so many problems would be solved. It's happening now, slowly, because the Obama Administration has set new lows for cluelessness, but people haven't quite made the connection yet that the real problem is that large organizations are hopelessly unable to respond in a tactical manner to anything.
I don't have statistics. But I believe that what we've created is a large number of closet smokers, and that the percentage of smokers hasn't dropped that drastically. But that's just me, I gave up the habit when I got older and started getting short of breath... When I started working as a programmer in 1979 all programmers smoked like crazy, we had giant ashtrays on our desks and the terminal keyboards were filled with ashes. The assembly language guys chain smoked 2-3 packs a day... I know that's irrelevant but it goes to show how much things have changed in a very short time frame.
Thanks for the correction. Left wingers claim anything one degree to the right of Karl Marx is "far right of center" and right wingers claim anything one degree to the left of fundamentalist Baptists is communist so I really have no idea where they stand. I'm pretty middle of the road in my own mind, I have friends who declare me to be a far right wing nut case - and other friends who think I am too far left.
I read the article. It didn't surprise me, as any endeavor that has to be subsidized to survive, makes wild claims about how fantastic it is, and uses cause based emotional rhetoric as part of its marketing campaign is immediately suspect as just more snake oil to me. Now if somebody built a wind farm without Daddy's generous money (which did not come FREE, nothing is free) and made money... I'd be singing their entrepreneurial praise to anyone who would listen.
Most of the folks in Western Europe live in flats, not houses. Having a house is something rich people have. Rich people, on the whole, are better at saving money than poor people so no surprise that they see the value of insulation. Companies that build flats build them efficiently so they can compete on the rents. Not because they care about the planet. And that's the real solution - alternative energy has to make economic sense, and then you won't need mandates and free money. It will naturally happen unless we so screw with the natural market forces and human tendencies that we prevent it from happening.
And yes, I've spent a fair amount of actual time in Europe working, not as a tourist. There's a lot to like about it. And a large number of them want exactly what Americans have too:-) But seriously putting Germany up as proof that alternative energy is economically viable for everyone is really foolish in my opinion. If it were economically feasible for everyone every company in America would be spending fortunes on it. It's happening, but at it's own pace.
Your missing the point. Smoking hasn't stopped because of taxation or government intervention. It's stopped because it has been socially unacceptable. Liquor is taxed at exorbitant rates (this goes back to the post prohibition era) doesn't work. Electric car sales are stagnant, the best selling vehicle in America is the full sized pickup... There's been a government war on fat for years, it's a miserable failure. The government getting involved in Climate Research has done more damage to science than all the idiots put together.
If you think you can legislate, or tax behavior and actually get the expected result, I'm sorry to say this, but you're living in a fantasy world. The minute you do this, people prove to be exceptionally smart about finding ways to get around it, and a whole set of unintended consequences happen that you never planned for. And then there are the special interests, and lobbyists, and campaign contributors who will be harmed or helped by the tax, who add on amendments, and riders, in return for support, and attendance at those 35,000 a plate dinners. And what you end up with this misguided thinking is thousands and thousands of pages of convoluted tax code.
Yes, because manipulating markets through the tax code has worked SO FANTASTICALLY WELL... and it hasn't been corrupted in the least by greedy politicians and corporations. Because using the tax code as a way to regulate behavior has stopped everyone from smoking, eliminated hard liquor consumption, gotten everybody to drive small, economical hybrid vehicles, eliminated all obesity, ensured fair and balanced climate research, and so many other amazing successes...
Slashdot Mirror
In any corporation, workers are just another capital expense.
Where on earth do you get such strange perverted ideas? Have you ever worked in a management job? Worked with a team of seasoned professionals? What industry are you in?
Every employer forces you to sign a contract upon hire.
That's because of the lawyers, and people who would prefer to sue... and not do any productive work, leeching off society.
We need a guild, a union, whatever you want to call it
And yet, in every industry where Unions are in control, the Unions get very wealthy, where the workers get less and less, and in many states, are forced to join whether they want to or not.
I hope for your sake you're still in school, or have a very low level job.... No offense, really, but your statements fly in the face of actual reality.
I am a boss and I do none of those things. We hire junior people and invest a lot of time and money training them, and giving them larger and more complex assignments. We hire senior people and treat them like gold, because they are worth it.
You're working for the wrong company.
Yes HR departments are clueless about hiring I.T. people.
As a hiring manager, I can tell you that the resumes we get are frighteningly bad, the skill sets not even close, the grammar/punctuation on so many of them are horrible beyond belief. I have a theory that because you have to prove you're looking for work to get unemployment some folks apply for random jobs and don't even look until the unemployment checks stop coming - because I have faith in the human race I can't accept that so many applicants are so clueless.
Good developers - are exceedingly hard to find and there is a global shortage of them. The same can be said for Good Employers. This isn't the fault of evil corporations, or evil governments, or the Rethugnicans, or the Demoncrats... It's just life. 99% of everything is crap! So when the 1% comes by, grab it.
Yet another story GUARANTEED to bring out all the cut and pasters of the same old talking points.
.vs. Bush... Every single one of these threads READS EXACTLY THE SAME and I'll bet 99% of the posters are THE SAME PEOPLE.
Can someone please explain to me... what the point is... on a web site that has no display advertising? Traffic here generates no CPI or CPC there's nothing to fucking click for crissakes. So why bother posting endless stories about global warming/cooling/climate change, gay marriage, the ACA, Obama
So let me save us all a lot of time.
for(i=0, i >infinity, i++) {
You Suck!
Reply: You Suck More!
}
Sure was. But one never brings up the past to folks who thrive in a world with a constant stream of vitriolic hate, a.k.a. "red meat". Watch MSNBC for one whole evening... What's interesting about all this is that they actually do more damage to the environment by being sensationalist, and by making up tall tales... than is probably being done in most developed countries. The biggest polluters, in the third world, aren't swayed by the diatribe, they are just trying to survive.
But suggest that the endless years of dire predictions that never come true are hurting the cause and you are immediately attacked in the most vicious and insulting ways....
A little less arrogance and a little less absolute certainty and you'll help your cause considerably.
In principle, yes. But in reality business buys government to bend the law to benefit the stockholders, thus making the leaders of business and government the ruling class. This is exactly what has been going on in places like Chicago and Detroit for 40, 50 years. And as we elected someone President who grew up in Chicago... big surprise! Income inequality is much, much worse than it was under a Texas Cowboy wanna-be, corruption is at an all time high, there's no attempt at all to disguise outright bribes to party loyalists, and things are getting more fucked up by the day. The majority of the population things we are on the wrong track, while here on the Internet we all shout ideological propaganda at each other that neither side believes, politicians just say that shit because they believe we are all stupid.
I'm NOT disagreeing with you. I am simply truing to make your point in a much more in your face kind of way for the benefit of the readership here.
There's also an implied assumption that the wages/prices ratio is something plotted with straight lines. That is, that there's no "sweet spot" where the two intersect.
Oh there absolutely is. If U.S. Government backed securities pay 2%... then a 100% safe return is 2%. But let's say you want to get ahead in life. The answer is you take on risk. Invest in the stock market, that's risky, you might get as much as 3000% and you might lose it all. That's how the world works, pal, I can't change that. (By "Pal" I am referring to anyone who is too stupid to understand this simple fact of life)
Start a small business. That's what's driving the majority of the growth and creating the majority of the jobs - Not big giant evil corporations, small businesses that anybody can start. You put your money at risk. For the first few years you work insane hours at low pay - or no pay. Minimum wage laws do not apply to business owners. Your return is what you sell your product for, minus what you pay your employees. Odds are, you'll fail - most small businesses do.
It's the same story for each and every one of us. Get a JOB, lower risk, lower return. Start your own business, higher risk, higher return.
So along comes some nameless bureaucrat thousands of miles away who knows nothing about your business, nothing about your products, nothing about the local market you operate in... and he says "Thou shalt pay every employee at least X. If you have employees who are happy making less than X, you must give them a raise to X" Are you with me here? What do you think just happened? You, as the owner, has two choices. If you're paying people MORE than X, you start thinking about paying them X. If you're paying people less, you don't want to reduce YOUR return, you have all the risk, you're going to raise prices. The whole scenario just got all fucked up.
Wages and Price ratios can't be plotted with straight lines because a bunch of well intentioned idiots decided to fuck up the system in order to make it "fair". These same people believe that all people are complete clueless idiots, who are too stupid to place a value on their work - and that all employers are cruel, heartless bastards who would pay everyone a penny an hour if they thought they could get away with it. This is, of course, complete nonsense. Good happy workers create good products and give good service. They are the biggest investment you're little business has, and if you are going to survive, you treat them like gold.
Yet - if you understood the simple example here, you've already proven you are much smarter than that. The fact is, the wage/price "sweet spot" is unique for every business. But no, we can't accept that. Instead we force a "one size fits all" on the universe - When in fact, each and every one of us is unique. And in so doing, we create huge problems we never had before.
So incredibly spot on. I started coding in '79 and that's exactly how it was.
... the female programmers are completely normal, with some of them being what you'd expect in America to be going out with the sales guys. In other words, really stunning. These are hard core developers we are talking about.
:-)
NPR... as usual... is full of crap. What's made computing isolationist is the whole ME generation. The generation who wants a Personal Water Craft (As opposed to a bunch of friends in a boat). The generation who goes on Facebook and proclaims "I am at Costco!". The "Entitlement" generation, The "Society owes ME" (not the other way around). Now we can argue where this all came from... But there's no disputing that it happened. In the 80's. And we're still paying the price.
We have offices in Europe. Over there, programming teams sit at a big table all together - essentially a permanent conference room. Why? Because the most important aspect of programming is COLLABORATION and TEAMWORK. (Not the pseudo teamwork that companies in the U.S. pretend to foster) And big surprise, there are many, many more women coders. And unlike the U.S., where a woman in computer science is stereo typed as not being very good looking, and not being outgoing, and/or being the bookish librarian
But what did we do? We stuck programmers in little isolationist cubes. We invented project managers, who's job it is to keep all the programmers in line - and force them into short duration collaboration meetings that are lame as it gets - these meetings are anti-collaborative. And as you say we got "Personal Computers".... As for the slow compiler... Yeah, I miss those days too. But they aren't coming back
Women, who are naturally wired to be more social than us men are not going to be attracted to a field that puts them in little cubes with headphones in large numbers. They are more likely to gravitate to fields like marketing, where a bunch of people sit in a room and come up with ideas.
Except the facts say year after year that the places with the most restrictive gun laws... have the highest rates of gun crime.
Exactly. Which is why they appointed a political hack, who was responsible for doling out stimulus bribes to the top campaign contributors. He was wildly successful at THAT, as these folks all came back and ponied up huge dollars again in 2012.
He knew nothing about job creation - but he was great at fabricating populist bulls** like "2.5 million jobs created or saved!" When, in fact, no such numbers were ever tracked, the BLS does not track any number like this, and five years later the analysis of the stimulus proves it was a complete and utter failure with respect to job creation, infrastructure projects, shovel ready jobs - all of it. Big surprise, as the template for the Stimulus was Clinton's big payoff for getting elected, er "Stimulus".
Well, he knows nothing about Ebola either. But money will be allocated. And the midterms are looming. And it's extremely important that the Ebola money go to good, loyal party members. So he's the perfect choice in every way.
And please, PEOPLE this has NOTHING to do with anybody's party affiliation.
That we can simply fix all social problems with another law and more imprisonment is going to lead us to our doom.
Well that clearly makes you a right wing ignorant racist hayseed, clinging to guns and religion and needing re-edukashion. Oh crap. I'd better report to the nearest train station with warm clothes and a shovel.
So at least half of slasdot participants, maybe more, behind bars. Seems that our dice overlords will not be pleased with this result!
That's pretty much what our current economy is lacking: People able to buy.
I respectfully disagree. There's PLENTY of money out there. Companies and Individuals are sitting on big piles of cash. The problem is that they aren't spending it, because of a perception of future uncertainty, an administration that is anti-business, anti-success, and pro tax... Confidence in government at all levels is at an all time low. The magnification of every mistake by any company, the 24 hour breathless exaggeration of every crisis by the news media, the new intense polarization brought about by the Internet aren't helping either. Just look at the polls, some 3/4 of the people in America believe we are going to hell in a hand basket. The current leadership CREATED this situation because they are, at heart, community organizers. Their intentions were good, but they didn't take the long term view.
Restore people's faith in the world, and they will spend, and borrow to buy new things. Continue down the road we are on and everybody becomes a prepper, hoarding food, gold, ammunition... and staying as liquid as possible -- in the market with aggressive sell stops, cash in the bank and stuffed under the mattress, afraid of too much debt, cutting back on luxuries and staying at home.
If I could mod this up a thousand points I would.
I would add that the most important - and yet rarely heard - aspect of this argument (Which cannot be disputed it's black and white numbers) is:
The (progressives, liberal democrats, obots, socialists, whatever name you like) have made this a SIGNATURE issue and have told us that THEY are the ones who are going to solve this horrible inequity in society. But the actual truth is:
Income inequality DECREASED under the horrible Bushitler (and had been for years) under the Obama Administration it has SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED
The same thing happened in all the communist countries that have ever existed as well. A small number of people became extraordinary wealthy by exploiting all the little people who gave them the reins of power in the hopes of a better life.
The moral of the story is that "Income Inequality" is a bunch of populist malarky for gullible people who need something to hate. What leftists really do, once in power, is prove to be just as greedy, just as corporatist, and even more corrupt than the people they CLAIM they are there to protect us from.
Please understand I am all for the CONCEPT of reducing income inequality, I am not a RIGHT WING LOON, I agree with the intentions, I am not anti-government. I am against liars, thieves, and people who practice "Do as I Say and not as I do". So don't be hoodwinked by slick salesmen dressed up as leaders who care about you. Abandon the ideology cloak and look for the truth.
Absolutely, and while very sad, it's very true: Death brings out the worst in people
My mother died fairly young, my father remarried. The family he married into had a fair amount of money. For the last five years I have watched from the sidelines in abject horror as that family tears itself apart fighting over grandma's estate - She had a trust. She had a will. It didn't matter. Now they all without exception hate each other, and will probably never speak to each other ever again. It is so... just incredible. They seemed like such nice people. The worst and greediest offender is a pastor no less....
If she dies good luck ever getting a dime out of that car. It will be sitting on your property forever.
Correct it's called "co-mingling of funds" but in practical reality it's the rare couple who has completely separate bank accounts plus a joint account where the shared expenses go, so unless the inheritance goes into a separate account POD to the other (.vs. JTROS) its co-mingled.
Imagine the spouse's response when that inheritance comes in and you say "Well we might get divorced someday so to protect me and my selfish interests I'm putting it in a separate account and only spending it on me"
The problem is the same as with climate change. Well intentioned people who see the future want to force a change to take place, and they have been trying to force this change for years and years. The trouble is, humans don't respond well to being told they have to do something. In other words, as long as gas is under $4.00 a gallon very few people are going to switch to a car that needs to be recharged. As long as one's heating bill is reasonable, most folks aren't going to switch to geo-thermal, or solar hot water - because they don't want to spend money on infrastructure, they want a new TV.
And if you say "Well, we should pass a LAW that results in electricity prices skyrocketing in order to force people to change their behavior" yeah it sounds great, doesn't it? But the cold harsh reality is that you're going to make a lot of people very, very angry and they are going to vote you out of office. Didn't you ever tell anyone in life "fuck you nobody tells ME what to do"...
But don't be discouraged. When presented with a large, seemingly insurmountable problem - humans have proven time and time again for thousands of years that they are very adept at finding solutions in short order, and implementing them to save themselves. But if one has the opinion that the majority of people are clueless idiots that need to be told what to do... You're going to end up sad and depressed. On the whole, people are actually very bright. Complete idiots are actually in the minority.
If you run around making ridiculous claims like "Peak oil was in 1974!" or "By the year 2005 all life in the oceans will be dead" - because you so passionately believe in your cause... You are branded a loonie, and people don't take you seriously, and your good intentions end up moving things backwards. This is exactly what's happened with climate science, it's a crime of staggering proportions that we will all be paying for. What's even more ironic is that the people who committed this crime actually believed in their hearts they were advancing the cause.
Had energy efficiency, insulation, conservation been pursued as relentlessly as the chase after more horsepower or cheap electronics
Here I completely disagree. Once companies realized that efficiency sells, and that people would pay a premium for it, things have gotten incredibly more efficient. My first car with a V8 engine got 3-4 MPG now the same engine gets 20+. We recently upgrade our HVAC system in our house, running the thermostat at the same temperature as before our electric bill is HALF what it was.
Yes I know this could all happen much faster. And as a species we'd be better off for it. And we should preserve our oil, not squander it. And people should be nice to each other, and treat each other with respect, and not call each other names. But you're wanting human nature to be radically altered, and I'm telling you, it ain't gonna happen.
When gas is $7 a gallon - and it's not $7 by ARTIFICIAL MEANS you'll see more people driving smaller efficient cars. When it's $14 you'll see electrics. In the meantime... The last tank I bought was $2.81 a gallon, a large portion of the other people on the road are driving giant SUV's, I am not wanting to be driving something really small that guarantees I'll die when the Suburban, or Expedition, or Club Cab 1 ton pickup hits me... Do you understand my point?
What you want will happen. Just not as fast as you want. Trying to legislate it into existence, and making exaggerated claims about it's performance, is actually slowing it down. I realize this is counter-intuitive and completely heretical but it's true. People... act in their own self interest. It's just what they do. It's not because they are stupid, or selfish - it's in their DNA. You can wish for it to be better - and I applaud anyone who does - but it's going to take a few thousand years or more...
On the whole we seem to agree.
Consider... if the whole smoking thing had transpired in our new Web 2.0 world. Would the government role be less relevant? I think it would. But of course the there needs to be a law people are in complete denial of this.
Today, the pressure that social media brings on organizations - especially since the new way of looking at the world is that large groups of humans working in corporations are pure evil (but large groups of people working in government are magically exempt) - means that the smallest product defect is magnified a thousand times over. If only people would put that kind of magnifying glass to government and politicians so many problems would be solved. It's happening now, slowly, because the Obama Administration has set new lows for cluelessness, but people haven't quite made the connection yet that the real problem is that large organizations are hopelessly unable to respond in a tactical manner to anything.
I don't have statistics. But I believe that what we've created is a large number of closet smokers, and that the percentage of smokers hasn't dropped that drastically. But that's just me, I gave up the habit when I got older and started getting short of breath... When I started working as a programmer in 1979 all programmers smoked like crazy, we had giant ashtrays on our desks and the terminal keyboards were filled with ashes. The assembly language guys chain smoked 2-3 packs a day... I know that's irrelevant but it goes to show how much things have changed in a very short time frame.
Thanks for the correction. Left wingers claim anything one degree to the right of Karl Marx is "far right of center" and right wingers claim anything one degree to the left of fundamentalist Baptists is communist so I really have no idea where they stand. I'm pretty middle of the road in my own mind, I have friends who declare me to be a far right wing nut case - and other friends who think I am too far left.
:-) But seriously putting Germany up as proof that alternative energy is economically viable for everyone is really foolish in my opinion. If it were economically feasible for everyone every company in America would be spending fortunes on it. It's happening, but at it's own pace.
I read the article. It didn't surprise me, as any endeavor that has to be subsidized to survive, makes wild claims about how fantastic it is, and uses cause based emotional rhetoric as part of its marketing campaign is immediately suspect as just more snake oil to me. Now if somebody built a wind farm without Daddy's generous money (which did not come FREE, nothing is free) and made money... I'd be singing their entrepreneurial praise to anyone who would listen.
Most of the folks in Western Europe live in flats, not houses. Having a house is something rich people have. Rich people, on the whole, are better at saving money than poor people so no surprise that they see the value of insulation. Companies that build flats build them efficiently so they can compete on the rents. Not because they care about the planet. And that's the real solution - alternative energy has to make economic sense, and then you won't need mandates and free money. It will naturally happen unless we so screw with the natural market forces and human tendencies that we prevent it from happening.
And yes, I've spent a fair amount of actual time in Europe working, not as a tourist. There's a lot to like about it. And a large number of them want exactly what Americans have too
Your missing the point. Smoking hasn't stopped because of taxation or government intervention. It's stopped because it has been socially unacceptable. Liquor is taxed at exorbitant rates (this goes back to the post prohibition era) doesn't work. Electric car sales are stagnant, the best selling vehicle in America is the full sized pickup... There's been a government war on fat for years, it's a miserable failure. The government getting involved in Climate Research has done more damage to science than all the idiots put together.
If you think you can legislate, or tax behavior and actually get the expected result, I'm sorry to say this, but you're living in a fantasy world. The minute you do this, people prove to be exceptionally smart about finding ways to get around it, and a whole set of unintended consequences happen that you never planned for. And then there are the special interests, and lobbyists, and campaign contributors who will be harmed or helped by the tax, who add on amendments, and riders, in return for support, and attendance at those 35,000 a plate dinners. And what you end up with this misguided thinking is thousands and thousands of pages of convoluted tax code.
Das Speigal (Certainly not a right wing loon magazine) put it best:
Germany's green energy policy has turned electricity in a LUXURY GOOD
But don't let the reality of the situation there deter from the slanted press coverage from unicorn land.
Yes, because manipulating markets through the tax code has worked SO FANTASTICALLY WELL... and it hasn't been corrupted in the least by greedy politicians and corporations. Because using the tax code as a way to regulate behavior has stopped everyone from smoking, eliminated hard liquor consumption, gotten everybody to drive small, economical hybrid vehicles, eliminated all obesity, ensured fair and balanced climate research, and so many other amazing successes...
Yeah if TCO is zero. Name one human activity with a zero TCO that produces anything. Even farting costs food.