Allowed middle class children to stay on their parent's insurance (Obamacare)
Overall I think the ACA was a poor piece of legislation that will end up hurting the middle class more than helping, but I do grant that individual feature is good.
Student debt interest decreases via. kicking the banks out...
Which raises the cost of college thus ending up in a wash for the most part.
Rescued the auto industry and thus saved about 1m middle class jobs
As crisis management it was the right course of action, failing to break up the organization will have long term negative consequences though. There was some Republican support but I think we can fairly give the Democrats the majority of the credit/blame.
Repealed don't ask don't tell (many was an issue for officers so I'm calling that middle class)
Hmm, not sure if that counts as assisting the middle class.
Credit card reform
For middle class users credit cards were fine. (I think the changes were good, just not aimed at them)
Food safety (a major middle class concern)
Nothing on that during the time period in question.
Kept up the pressure on smoking (both poor and middle class mainly benefit)
Few middle class people smoke so I disagree on that one.
Developed next generation school testing
So far the results on that aren't looking so good.
Gulf Oil spill compensation (many many small businesses)
I don't think the Democrats can claim credit for that.
Huge expansion of broadband to rural America
That's not something the Democrats can claim either.
For that list I give them two half credits and two quarter credits so a score of 1.5, not inspiring to say the least.
I'm not anti-Democrat I'm just saying that their policies are not oriented to the middle.
Actually a lot of environmentalists are in favour of nuclear power.
Those would be conservationists, environmentalists on the other hand insist we ignore incremental improvements and move straight to perfect solutions that don't exist yet.
Very true, so are coal plants which consistently put more radiation into the environment every year than nuclear does. (it's even worse when adjusted on a per kilowatt basis) Both Fukushima and Chernobyl were caused by dreadful mismanaged combined with bad design, there are ways to solve that problem if we choose.
As a side benefit we could produce more satellites than absolutely required and get the DoD to kick in a big portion of the cost. I mean who doesn't want orbiting death rays?
Basically intermittent renewables need to be paired with plants that can ramp their energy production at need, the most likely pairing right now is natural gas. Add a bunch of nuke plants and hydro for solid base load and you've pretty much got things under control.
You could pay 10x as much and it won't magically increase the amount of available talent.
At some point that is certainly true but we're no where near that level. If there was a true talent shortage you'd see rising wages and swelling school admission rates as everyone and their brother tried to get in on the good thing. (see late 1990s for an example)
That would be because Democrats are not seen as being "pro labor". The Republicans are for the rich, the Democrats are for the poor, if you're in the middle there is no party for you.
That's certainly not what what I was saying. Activism and protest create costs and delay, that's the whole point. If you create enough cost and delay then projects can get canceled even when they're an improvement over the status quo. In that scenario, the protestors are directly responsible for the lack of improvement.
Oh I agree, it's very unlikely politically even though it's the right way to solve the problem. There are too many vested interests in the current system. The most likely outcome is that eventually the cost dynamics will shift in favor of different power sources over coal even without the re-internalization of costs. This is already happening to some extent with natural gas.
I agree, it's a well known issue called externalized costs. The known solution is Pigovian taxes. Costs get re-internalized and the market re-optimizes with the new price mix, problem solved. There you go, Libertarian and environment friendly, what's not to like? Unless of course you happen to own a bunch of coal power plants and the senators that go with them.
If it includes eggs and some kind of oil I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. If it doesn't it's not Mayonnaise or Mayo. There is nothing wrong with making substitutes but they need to be clearly labeled.
Slashdot Mirror
Allowed middle class children to stay on their parent's insurance (Obamacare)
Overall I think the ACA was a poor piece of legislation that will end up hurting the middle class more than helping, but I do grant that individual feature is good.
Student debt interest decreases via. kicking the banks out...
Which raises the cost of college thus ending up in a wash for the most part.
Rescued the auto industry and thus saved about 1m middle class jobs
As crisis management it was the right course of action, failing to break up the organization will have long term negative consequences though. There was some Republican support but I think we can fairly give the Democrats the majority of the credit/blame.
Repealed don't ask don't tell (many was an issue for officers so I'm calling that middle class)
Hmm, not sure if that counts as assisting the middle class.
Credit card reform
For middle class users credit cards were fine. (I think the changes were good, just not aimed at them)
Food safety (a major middle class concern)
Nothing on that during the time period in question.
Kept up the pressure on smoking (both poor and middle class mainly benefit)
Few middle class people smoke so I disagree on that one.
Developed next generation school testing
So far the results on that aren't looking so good.
Gulf Oil spill compensation (many many small businesses)
I don't think the Democrats can claim credit for that.
Huge expansion of broadband to rural America
That's not something the Democrats can claim either.
For that list I give them two half credits and two quarter credits so a score of 1.5, not inspiring to say the least.
I'm not anti-Democrat I'm just saying that their policies are not oriented to the middle.
Ok, name three things the Democrats have done for the middle class in last thirty years.
Actually a lot of environmentalists are in favour of nuclear power.
Those would be conservationists, environmentalists on the other hand insist we ignore incremental improvements and move straight to perfect solutions that don't exist yet.
Very true, so are coal plants which consistently put more radiation into the environment every year than nuclear does. (it's even worse when adjusted on a per kilowatt basis) Both Fukushima and Chernobyl were caused by dreadful mismanaged combined with bad design, there are ways to solve that problem if we choose.
Wow, so you're rolling with the whole "forced work is good for proles" thing then?
The energy problem is definitely bigger than billions.
As a side benefit we could produce more satellites than absolutely required and get the DoD to kick in a big portion of the cost. I mean who doesn't want orbiting death rays?
Basically intermittent renewables need to be paired with plants that can ramp their energy production at need, the most likely pairing right now is natural gas. Add a bunch of nuke plants and hydro for solid base load and you've pretty much got things under control.
Right, but this is a political problem not a technical one. Spent fuel reprocessing solves that problem handily.
He said responsibility, so in this case that would mean management not the engineering staff.
I like your optimistic future, I mean at least they didn't liquidate us as being inconvenient.
You could pay 10x as much and it won't magically increase the amount of available talent.
At some point that is certainly true but we're no where near that level. If there was a true talent shortage you'd see rising wages and swelling school admission rates as everyone and their brother tried to get in on the good thing. (see late 1990s for an example)
One cannot be in the highest classes if one sullies one's hands with toil or trade, don't you know?
I'm not sure that attitude ever left, or if it did it seems to be making a comeback.
That would be because Democrats are not seen as being "pro labor". The Republicans are for the rich, the Democrats are for the poor, if you're in the middle there is no party for you.
That's certainly not what what I was saying. Activism and protest create costs and delay, that's the whole point. If you create enough cost and delay then projects can get canceled even when they're an improvement over the status quo. In that scenario, the protestors are directly responsible for the lack of improvement.
Oh I agree, it's very unlikely politically even though it's the right way to solve the problem. There are too many vested interests in the current system. The most likely outcome is that eventually the cost dynamics will shift in favor of different power sources over coal even without the re-internalization of costs. This is already happening to some extent with natural gas.
It does logically follow because we're discussing the misleading labeling of products.
Except, for the same energy input (cost) you can get the most pristine organic peas, vs what it would take to get a chicken to lay an egg.
Fungus is even cheaper, why waste money on fancy schmancy peas?
Yeah, just because it's the right solution doesn't mean it's likely.
You're reading a symptom as a cause.
I agree, it's a well known issue called externalized costs. The known solution is Pigovian taxes. Costs get re-internalized and the market re-optimizes with the new price mix, problem solved. There you go, Libertarian and environment friendly, what's not to like? Unless of course you happen to own a bunch of coal power plants and the senators that go with them.
I completely agree, the problem is that all the alternatives we've tried so far are even worse.
The number I mentioned was already adjusted for that.
Which is why Soy Milk should be labeled Soy Juice.
If it includes eggs and some kind of oil I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. If it doesn't it's not Mayonnaise or Mayo. There is nothing wrong with making substitutes but they need to be clearly labeled.