Our elected "leaders" sold us out to corporate interests, granting them leverage over you by not outlawing outsourcing and H1B, etc. Same thing goes for other white collar professions, and before that, our manufacturing backbone.
Poor old granddad I laughed at all his words I thought he was a bitter man He spoke of women's ways
They'll trap you, then they use you Before you even know For love is blind and you're far too kind Don't ever let it show
I wish that I knew what I know now When I was younger. I wish that I knew what I know now When I was stronger.
The can can's such a pretty show They'll steal your heart away But backstage, back on earth again The dressing rooms are grey
They come on strong and it ain't too long Before they make you feel a man But love is blind and you soon will find You're just a boy again
When you want her lips, you get a cheek Makes you wonder where you are If you want some more and she's fast asleep Then she's twinkling with the stars.
Poor young grandson, there's nothing I can say You'll have to learn, just like me And that's the hardest way Ooh la la
I wish that I knew what I know now When I was younger. I wish that I knew what I know now When I was stronger.
The author writes: What you need to do is discover what you like. You have to work on stuff you like if you want to be good at what you do.
Why do our lives have to center around friggin' work? I would rather not work at all. And most people feel the same way, if they would just admit it. If we had the adequate resources, wouldn't we choose NOT to work at all, or just work a little bit?
How do you figure they've done anything that they could be convicted of treason for, then? I suppose it depends on the country, but in the US treason is very narrowly defined, and can only come from two actions: committing acts of war against the US, or aiding and abetting those who are.
From wikipedia:
"In law, treason is the crime of disloyalty to one's nation. A person who reneges on an oath of loyalty or a pledge of allegiance, and in some way willfully cooperates with an enemy, is considered to be a traitor. Oran's Dictionary of the Law (1983) defines treason as: "...[a]...citizen's actions to help a foreign government overthrow, make war against, or seriously injure the [parent nation]."
These politicians took an oath to be loyal to America and to protect America from harm and injury. Yet they have sold our jobs overseas and allowed foreigners to come in and take them and drive down wages. THey have cooperated with the corporate enemy and are guilty of treason. I maintain that this is extremely injurious to the nation, and that they should therefore by treason, and if found guilty, be hanged.
The American legal system is flexible and subject to interpretation. Now you know my interpretation....
One of the reasons some people cite for not looking into cryonics is that even if they are revived in the distant future, and are then able to live for billions more years, the haet death of the universe would doom them anyway.
Well, not necessarily We don't really yet understand what the universe is.
So, I just assume that the universe will go on forever, and signed up for cryonics. I plan on living forever. So far, so good...
Social Security Crib Sheet Published on December 21, 2004
1. The system is not going broke. For now, it takes in $180 billion or so each year more than it pays out - even though we have only 3 workers for every retiree (down from 41 when the system was launched).
This is not relevant to my point in my post above. It's correct, but not relevent. BTW, the treasurer of the DNC is not a "leader of the Democratic party". Nor is he a member of the GOP or the mass media, actors which I cited above.
2. Yes, it would be much, much better if we had not decided to blow that annual surplus on a tax cut to rich people. (Imagine taking your daughter's hard-earned college fund and just giving it away to some rich stranger.)
Correct, but irrelevant to my point.
3. And, yes, in a few decades there will be more like 2 workers for every retiree instead of 3. At that point, instead of running surpluses, Social Security could be running deficits (which today's surpluses were meant to fund).
NOW THIS IS RELEVANT TO MY POINT. He assumes that the SS will be running deficits because there are fewer workers. Yes, there will be fewer workers, but the deficit can EASILY be made up by TAKING MORE MONEY FROM THE RICH PEOPLE AND PUTTING IT IN THE SS FUND. Does he consider this solution? NO! And that is what I told you was going on.
5. Here's one example of relatively painless adjustments that would solve the problem without "privatizing" Social Security. (I'll get to that in a minute.)
You would just take a little from column a, column b, and column c:
a. Right now the age at which you can retire with full benefits inches up to 67 by 2027. What if it kept rising one month per year, to age 68 in 2039? You could still take partial benefits as early as age 62; for full benefits, you'd have to wait one more year. But you would have 30 or 40 years (if you started now) to save a little extra to keep this from being a hardship.
Ah, the perfect neoliberal solution--make the people work longer! Same as it was back in the days of slavery and indentured servants. America never really changes...
b. Few advocate raising the already hefty payroll tax RATE, currently 6.2% each from you and your employer (plus a further 1.45% each for Medicare). But what if, instead of having that 6.2% drop to zero on income above $90,000-or-so, as it does now, it dropped to 1% instead? Annoying, but not a killer; and worth paying so that grandma - much as we love her - doesn't have to move in.
This makes my point PERFECTLY! I really hope you see the difference between MY suggested solutions and the one he gives here! My solution is to raise or eliminate the cap on the SS payroll. For those of you who have not been paying attention, the first $87K of income is taxed at about 8%, which he explains above. What he is suggesting is that instead of 0% on income above 87K, it goes to 1%. My suggestion was that all income above 67K be taxed at the same rate as income BELOW 87K, i.e., at about 8%.
c. Once you start receiving benefits, they rise with inflation, as they should. And in calculating your initial benefits, your prior years' contributions are adjusted for inflation as well. If we made those adjustments based on "price inflation" rather than "wage inflation," the system would save a fortune. Indeed, we probably wouldn't need to do (a) and (b) - just (c). But some combination of the three is likely to go down easiest.
Another neoliberal, conservative, investor-oriented, yuppie-oriented solution, which really means "cut back on benfits paid out."
Here are the things I think people should know about privatization:
c. There is no free lunch. The thought is that - even with the cost of administering 150 million new private investment
They ALREADY stole it from us. We are the owners of America. The Constitution sets this country up as a country "FOR THE PEOPLE." We therefore have the right to decide the of theft and the meaning of every OTHER legal concept. You call it theft, but I call it DUES and TAXES and PROPER RESTITUTION.
Guess what? More people agree with me than with you. The problem is that the rich people and corporations have bribed our "public servants" to agree with THEM, and not heed the will of the people. And of course there are always plenty of sheeple who go along with whatever those at the top of the heirarchy want them to do....
Although I agree with the ideas, surely you recognize that this is a standard democrat position.
Excuse me, but that is BULLSHIT! Please, please, show me where the Democratic party leaders (Kerry, Edwards, Dean, MacAuliffe, Daschle, Pelosi, et al.) gave some of the suggestions I spoke of above, and did so on a repeated and consistent basis. PLease show me now, or admit you are wrong. I have been following this for quite some time. You do not know what you are talking about.
The mass media and the GOP and Democrats are setting up a frame of perspective from which we must all view this Social Security (SS) debate.
This is the frame: only YOU can pay for YOUR SS. Meaning that your SS benefits can only be paid for by you. But in reality, others have always paid for the benefits of many others' SS.
When the mass media and the Dems and GOP are trying to steer us away from are ideas like the following:
--raising the cap on the SS payroll tax (currently at $86K) and using the substantial monies from that to pay into a general SS fund.
--taxing the substantial wealth of the plutocrats, and using that to pay for SS, and many other items. Just a small 1% tax on wealth of the rich would pay for SS, universal healthcare and college tuition for all.
I said nothing about who you should adore, and you know damn well people do not read about the top of the hierarchy in order to get good ideas from them. If you want good ideas from Gates, try being born into a rich and well connected family, like he did.
The fact is that you geeks, just all the rest of the human race, idolize the top of hierarchy. And me, being the bombthrower I am, just love to point it out, especially because many of you like to think you are ultrationalists....
This bezos sure is a pro at getting the media to eat out of his hand. He sure has balls! Runs a fucking full blown PR campaign all the while telling the media how hush-hush it all is.
Maybe he just PAYS THE MEDIA MONEY to write whatever he wants? Didja ever think of that?
Anyway, my bet is that this is just a PR stunt to boost brand name value of Amazon....
For example, the idea that humans compute the "expected value" of future events is central to many economic models.
And a rather sad and relevant example of how many humans do NOT compute the expected value of future events is the freemarket-free trade-libertarian computer/engineering geeks, and how they all seem to think THEY will be rich, and so unionizing or similar organizing is not needed for their occupation. This type of personality/age group is typically quite illogical when it comes to calculations of a personal economic nature. I refer you to their historical inclination to be exploited as fodder for the for military-industrial complex profits machine.
The creator of this project, Lehey, is apparently world-renowned in his field. He is an author of an OReilly BSD book, a lecturer at world BSD conventions. ANd yet his top rate for corporate BSD work is 180 bucks an hour as an independent consultant. He charges less for working for edu or private personal projects and less for long term work.
Yet as a fairly green patent agent, I was hired out at about 100/hr. And almost ANY and EVERY lawyer in America charges somewhere between $US125-250/hr. Any schmoe lawyer, green or whatever. Some for even more. Some for much more....
And lehey here seems to have over 20 years experience as a systems level hacker.
You tell me where the money is.....
And why? Because computer hackers have failed to organize, as lawyers have. Social groups compete for dominance, and organized action is the major tool of extending their dominance.
Hackers are the unwitting victims of Darwin's Law.
Now go back to your picayune trolling...and mod me down, too....
wonder what the job stress figures are for Europe?
on
Getting Things Done
·
· Score: 1
Probably a lot less stressful. The people I worked with in France got beaucoup time off.....
Neostalinist==one who doesn't beat off to Rush Lim
on
In the Year 2020
·
· Score: 0, Offtopic
You rightwingers think anyone who doesn't masturbate while listening to Rush is a Neostalinist, or at least a filthy dirty commie.
It's really common knowledge to anyone who has a decent reading range. BTW, I was listening to Rush when you were probably still getting lunch money from yer mama....
yep. That's why I say "hang some politicians now"
on
In the Year 2020
·
· Score: 1
And save the country before it is too late. What they are doing is treason. I say try em for treason and if found guilty, hang 'em.
That will put the quietus to this trade deficit right quick....
CIA == Bunch of murderous lying scum
on
In the Year 2020
·
· Score: -1, Flamebait
How many innocents have they murdered over the years? I say try 'em all for treason and eliminate the agency.
Slashdot Mirror
Our elected "leaders" sold us out to corporate interests, granting them leverage over you by not outlawing outsourcing and H1B, etc. Same thing goes for other white collar professions, and before that, our manufacturing backbone.
As for me, I am out of it....
Tell me what I am trying to say here
obligatory Oh La La Lyrics:
Poor old granddad
I laughed at all his words
I thought he was a bitter man
He spoke of women's ways
They'll trap you, then they use you
Before you even know
For love is blind and you're far too kind
Don't ever let it show
I wish that I knew what I know now
When I was younger.
I wish that I knew what I know now
When I was stronger.
The can can's such a pretty show
They'll steal your heart away
But backstage, back on earth again
The dressing rooms are grey
They come on strong and it ain't too long
Before they make you feel a man
But love is blind and you soon will find
You're just a boy again
When you want her lips, you get a cheek
Makes you wonder where you are
If you want some more and she's fast asleep
Then she's twinkling with the stars.
Poor young grandson, there's nothing I can say
You'll have to learn, just like me
And that's the hardest way
Ooh la la
I wish that I knew what I know now
When I was younger.
I wish that I knew what I know now
When I was stronger.
You are sure well programmed to work hard so you can buy as much store-bought crap as possible. You are a good little mercantilist sheeple!
You wrote:
Doing something constructive is better than sitting on your ass all day.
I disagree! There is NOTHING better than "sitting on your ass all day." Period.
The author writes:
What you need to do is discover what you like. You have to work on stuff you like if you want to be good at what you do.
Why do our lives have to center around friggin' work? I would rather not work at all. And most people feel the same way, if they would just admit it. If we had the adequate resources, wouldn't we choose NOT to work at all, or just work a little bit?
So what is wrong with just admitting the truth?
You wrote:
How do you figure they've done anything that they could be convicted of treason for, then? I suppose it depends on the country, but in the US treason is very narrowly defined, and can only come from two actions: committing acts of war against the US, or aiding and abetting those who are.
From wikipedia:
"In law, treason is the crime of disloyalty to one's nation. A person who reneges on an oath of loyalty or a pledge of allegiance, and in some way willfully cooperates with an enemy, is considered to be a traitor. Oran's Dictionary of the Law (1983) defines treason as: "...[a]...citizen's actions to help a foreign government overthrow, make war against, or seriously injure the [parent nation]."
These politicians took an oath to be loyal to America and to protect America from harm and injury. Yet they have sold our jobs overseas and allowed foreigners to come in and take them and drive down wages. THey have cooperated with the corporate enemy and are guilty of treason.
I maintain that this is extremely injurious to the nation, and that they should therefore by treason, and if found guilty, be hanged.
The American legal system is flexible and subject to interpretation. Now you know my interpretation....
After indicting and trying in a court of law them for treason, of course. I am not advocating any lawlessness.
But I just bet that would do wonders for the IT job market.
Just my opinion!
One of the reasons some people cite for not looking into cryonics is that even if they are revived in the distant future, and are then able to live for billions more years, the haet death of the universe would doom them anyway.
Well, not necessarily We don't really yet understand what the universe is.
So, I just assume that the universe will go on forever, and signed up for cryonics. I plan on living forever. So far, so good...
Jesus was a myth built on earlier godmen myths
If you can beat aging, you wouldn't be old. Did you read even the summary?
From the website you cite:
Social Security Crib Sheet
Published on December 21, 2004
1. The system is not going broke. For now, it takes in $180 billion or so each year more than it pays out - even though we have only 3 workers for every retiree (down from 41 when the system was launched).
This is not relevant to my point in my post above. It's correct, but not relevent. BTW, the treasurer of the DNC is not a "leader of the Democratic party". Nor is he a member of the GOP or the mass media, actors which I cited above.
2. Yes, it would be much, much better if we had not decided to blow that annual surplus on a tax cut to rich people. (Imagine taking your daughter's hard-earned college fund and just giving it away to some rich stranger.)
Correct, but irrelevant to my point.
3. And, yes, in a few decades there will be more like 2 workers for every retiree instead of 3. At that point, instead of running surpluses, Social Security could be running deficits (which today's surpluses were meant to fund).
NOW THIS IS RELEVANT TO MY POINT. He assumes that the SS will be running deficits because there are fewer workers. Yes, there will be fewer workers, but the deficit can EASILY be made up by TAKING MORE MONEY FROM THE RICH PEOPLE AND PUTTING IT IN THE SS FUND. Does he consider this solution? NO! And that is what I told you was going on.
5. Here's one example of relatively painless adjustments that would solve the problem without "privatizing" Social Security. (I'll get to that in a minute.)
You would just take a little from column a, column b, and column c:
a. Right now the age at which you can retire with full benefits inches up to 67 by 2027. What if it kept rising one month per year, to age 68 in 2039? You could still take partial benefits as early as age 62; for full benefits, you'd have to wait one more year. But you would have 30 or 40 years (if you started now) to save a little extra to keep this from being a hardship.
Ah, the perfect neoliberal solution--make the people work longer! Same as it was back in the days of slavery and indentured servants. America never really changes...
b. Few advocate raising the already hefty payroll tax RATE, currently 6.2% each from you and your employer (plus a further 1.45% each for Medicare). But what if, instead of having that 6.2% drop to zero on income above $90,000-or-so, as it does now, it dropped to 1% instead? Annoying, but not a killer; and worth paying so that grandma - much as we love her - doesn't have to move in.
This makes my point PERFECTLY! I really hope you see the difference between MY suggested solutions and the one he gives here! My solution is to raise or eliminate the cap on the SS payroll. For those of you who have not been paying attention, the first $87K of income is taxed at about 8%, which he explains above. What he is suggesting is that instead of 0% on income above 87K, it goes to 1%. My suggestion was that all income above 67K be taxed at the same rate as income BELOW 87K, i.e., at about 8%.
c. Once you start receiving benefits, they rise with inflation, as they should. And in calculating your initial benefits, your prior years' contributions are adjusted for inflation as well. If we made those adjustments based on "price inflation" rather than "wage inflation," the system would save a fortune. Indeed, we probably wouldn't need to do (a) and (b) - just (c). But some combination of the three is likely to go down easiest.
Another neoliberal, conservative, investor-oriented, yuppie-oriented solution, which really means "cut back on benfits paid out."
Here are the things I think people should know about privatization:
c. There is no free lunch. The thought is that - even with the cost of administering 150 million new private investment
They ALREADY stole it from us. We are the owners of America. The Constitution sets this country up as a country "FOR THE PEOPLE." We therefore have the right to decide the of theft and the meaning of every OTHER legal concept. You call it theft, but I call it DUES and TAXES and PROPER RESTITUTION.
Guess what? More people agree with me than with you. The problem is that the rich people and corporations have bribed our "public servants" to agree with THEM, and not heed the will of the people.
And of course there are always plenty of sheeple who go along with whatever those at the top of the heirarchy want them to do....
You wrote:
Although I agree with the ideas, surely you recognize that this is a standard democrat position.
Excuse me, but that is BULLSHIT! Please, please, show me where the Democratic party leaders (Kerry, Edwards, Dean, MacAuliffe, Daschle, Pelosi, et al.) gave some of the suggestions I spoke of above, and did so on a repeated and consistent basis. PLease show me now, or admit you are wrong. I have been following this for quite some time. You do not know what you are talking about.
The mass media and the GOP and Democrats are setting up a frame of perspective from which we must all view this Social Security (SS) debate.
This is the frame: only YOU can pay for YOUR SS. Meaning that your SS benefits can only be paid for by you. But in reality, others have always paid for the benefits of many others' SS.
When the mass media and the Dems and GOP are trying to steer us away from are ideas like the following:
--raising the cap on the SS payroll tax (currently at $86K) and using the substantial monies from that to pay into a general SS fund.
--taxing the substantial wealth of the plutocrats, and using that to pay for SS, and many other items. Just a small 1% tax on wealth of the rich would pay for SS, universal healthcare and college tuition for all.
I said nothing about who you should adore, and you know damn well people do not read about the top of the hierarchy in order to get good ideas from them. If you want good ideas from Gates, try being born into a rich and well connected family, like he did.
The fact is that you geeks, just all the rest of the human race, idolize the top of hierarchy. And me, being the bombthrower I am, just love to point it out, especially because many of you like to think you are ultrationalists....
Adore and idolize those at the top of the social hierarchy!
TigerBeat =~ Slashdot;
I know! Who tha fuck says Haw Haw anymore, outside of old JOhn Wayne movies?!
This bezos sure is a pro at getting the media to eat out of his hand. He sure has balls! Runs a fucking full blown PR campaign all the while telling the media how hush-hush it all is.
Maybe he just PAYS THE MEDIA MONEY to write whatever he wants? Didja ever think of that?
Anyway, my bet is that this is just a PR stunt to boost brand name value of Amazon....
from the article:
For example, the idea that humans compute the "expected value" of future events is central to many economic models.
And a rather sad and relevant example of how many humans do NOT compute the expected value of future events is the freemarket-free trade-libertarian computer/engineering geeks, and how they all seem to think THEY will be rich, and so unionizing or similar organizing is not needed for their occupation. This type of personality/age group is typically quite illogical when it comes to calculations of a personal economic nature. I refer you to their historical inclination to be exploited as fodder for the for military-industrial complex profits machine.
down under,,,
The creator of this project, Lehey, is apparently world-renowned in his field. He is an author of an OReilly BSD book, a lecturer at world BSD conventions. ANd yet his top rate for corporate BSD work is 180 bucks an hour as an independent consultant. He charges less for working for edu or private personal projects and less for long term work.
Yet as a fairly green patent agent, I was hired out at about 100/hr. And almost ANY and EVERY lawyer in America charges somewhere between $US125-250/hr. Any schmoe lawyer, green or whatever. Some for even more. Some for much more....
And lehey here seems to have over 20 years experience as a systems level hacker.
You tell me where the money is.....
And why? Because computer hackers have failed to organize, as lawyers have. Social groups compete for dominance, and organized action is the major tool of extending their dominance.
Hackers are the unwitting victims of Darwin's Law.
Now go back to your picayune trolling...and mod me down, too....
Probably a lot less stressful. The people I worked with in France got beaucoup time off.....
You rightwingers think anyone who doesn't masturbate while listening to Rush is a Neostalinist, or at least a filthy dirty commie.
Here are some links
It's really common knowledge to anyone who has a decent reading range. BTW, I was listening to Rush when you were probably still getting lunch money from yer mama....
And save the country before it is too late. What they are doing is treason. I say try em for treason and if found guilty, hang 'em.
That will put the quietus to this trade deficit right quick....
How many innocents have they murdered over the years?
I say try 'em all for treason and eliminate the agency.