Or is it merely an expression of widely-held social expectation about the duties of an employer to his workers? When/if the millennial generation's expectation of espresso becomes sufficiently commonplace, we'll all benefit from better coffee.
In recent years Democrat partisans and the financialist establishment seem actively enthusiastic about dystopia. What the popular masses rightly fear, they invite and encourage.
That was no small part of the reason for President Trump's victory. Yet now it seems the Democrat party are doubling down on their anti-popular dystopian ideals. With opposition like that, surely the President will win reelection by a landslide.
The Snowden bashers are all hired trolls. All decent red blooded Americans admire national hero Snowden, and demand he be awarded the Medal of Freedom he deserves.
No longer do your friends and family need to watch in anguish as your mind deteriorates. New Donaldizole is proven safe and effective for treatment of Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS).
Ask your doctor about new Donaldizole - and get help today!
As expected, the fifty cent army is out in force for this one! I guess this proposal, coming from a renowned defender of liberty like St Richard, must have Facebook & Google really spooked.
Watch the shills make all sorts of disingenuous arguments. Especially amusing is when they ape libertarian arguments, in defense of actions that trample liberty. And watch the foul mouthed forum disruption trolls as they hurl childish insults, in a flatulent effort to drive down the level of conversation.
St Richard, keep up the good work. The people are with you.
It's just a welfare program. If everyone doesn't get it, and if it's not an unconditional right, it's not "universal".
However I suspect this is what some (not all) proponents of UBI really want. A nice little cash handout for the selected and compliant. A lever of money to influence the behavior of the lumpen masses.
"What old military design can release a lot of CFC and is worth the risk for a nation to try? Someone is cooking and is in a rush for the result."
Sounds plausible. Google search turns up several references to military use accounting for a large fraction of CFC pollution. But very little info about those military applications. Perhaps some manufacturing processes that involve controlling extreme temperatures?
Norks cooking up some chemical weapons, to hold onto as a deterrent after formal denuclearization? Japanese deciding now is the time to finish their 95% complete nukes, 'cuz something made them worry more than usual about China? Both sound like cool movies... But they don't really match the map.
It sure looks like the plume is coming from a Pacific island near Hawaii. Maybe that's an artifact of the monitoring infrastructure locations? Or maybe Uncle Sam is building something out there?
It seems Google really has run out of innovation. I guess they will just have to forget this dull "making products" stuff, and double down on their main plan: Making an evil AI to wipe out mankind.
Yes, that's true, Obamacare did not allow overt catastrophic-only plans. However the bottom level Obamacare plans had such huge deductibles that an ordinary person could visit the doctor without immediate financial ruin. (I say "had" because I haven't looked at Obamacare plans in the past 2 years. Thanks the gods, I've lived abroad where gold-plated medical insurance costs a fraction of Obamacare's cheapest option.)
Certainly Obamacare did help a few people. The provision for pre-existing conditions no doubt helped many people who otherwise would have been left by the medical industry to die in the street. And a notorious hypochondriac friend back in California, who lives on public assistance, finds that Obamacare covers many more of his imagined ailments than before.
However for people who were neither on welfare nor affluent, Obamacare was an unqualified disaster. Huge increases in cost, coupled with huge decreases in access to medical services. A real kick in the face to working people. No surprise coming from a third-culture elitist like Obama.
I hate to think what tortuous definition of "full employment" must be used to generate the official numbers.
In the middle pay has been stagnant for over a decade. At the low end, nominal pay has been declining in many places. All the while real cost of living has skyrocketed.
I don't think depression is quite the right word for it, as production has not collapsed. It's more like a period of widespread upward transfer of wealth, and resulting devitalization of the people. Perhaps more likely to result in social unrest than economic collapse.
I agree with you there are a lot of gloomy responses to this topic, and that's probably not the most useful attitude. However I think you may be overrating life in contemporary America.
"If you are alive now you have better housing, a better car, better global travel, better communications, better access to information, better health care."
Better housing? Not really. Better insulation and climate control, sure. But the quality of building in the past 40 years is shittastic compared to pre-WWII building quality.
Better healthcare? Well, if you have access to healthcare, then yes it's immensely better than it was even thirty years ago. Alas, untold millions still lack real access to healthcare. Remember that the (fiendishly expensive) "cheap" plans under Obamacare do NOT actually provide access to non-emergency medical services.
The other items you listed - yes, absolutely better now.
"The country (even the poor) have more wealth than ever in all of history."
Obviously false. Cheap plastic consumer goods from Walmart are not wealth. Land and productive capital are wealth. The poor have just as little of it today as ever.
"Many rich people from other countries would be upgraded to be poor in the US. Many rich people from the past would be upgraded to be poor today."
I can only assume you've never seen how rich people in poor countries actually live. Living in a giant villa with servants, a driver, etc is WAY nicer than living in a tiny shoebox apartment in a dangerous neighborhood (or lifeless suburb, if that's your thing) of an American city. Even if the nominal price in dollars is higher in the American slums.
There's also the matter of whether clicking an "I agree" button (mandatory or the app doesn't work) constitutes actual agreement.
Agreement with 100 pages of dense legal jibberish. Jibberish that no one, ever, has read in its entirety. Agreement with completely one-sided terms. Terms that can be fairly summarized as "fuck you pleb, you lose, we always win, you have no rights, all your data are belong to us, fuck you pleb".
No responsible court would uphold such a flimsy assertion. But hey - this is Soviet America, and the judge might really *need* a new Tesla. Or perhaps a new yacht.
Or if the judge wants to play hardball.... well, Facebook *is* essentially a blackmail database. I'm sure the judge could be persuaded that even FB's most villainous practices are fully badlawful.
Slashdot Mirror
Isn't that an "entitlement mentality"?
Or is it merely an expression of widely-held social expectation about the duties of an employer to his workers? When/if the millennial generation's expectation of espresso becomes sufficiently commonplace, we'll all benefit from better coffee.
Most great achievements of civilization are not "profitable". Accountants are notoriously myopic.
In recent years Democrat partisans and the financialist establishment seem actively enthusiastic about dystopia. What the popular masses rightly fear, they invite and encourage.
That was no small part of the reason for President Trump's victory. Yet now it seems the Democrat party are doubling down on their anti-popular dystopian ideals. With opposition like that, surely the President will win reelection by a landslide.
The Snowden bashers are all hired trolls. All decent red blooded Americans admire national hero Snowden, and demand he be awarded the Medal of Freedom he deserves.
Creepy Facebook did something creepy.
In other news, fish like to swim.
No longer do your friends and family need to watch in anguish as your mind deteriorates. New Donaldizole is proven safe and effective for treatment of Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS).
Ask your doctor about new Donaldizole - and get help today!
As expected, the fifty cent army is out in force for this one! I guess this proposal, coming from a renowned defender of liberty like St Richard, must have Facebook & Google really spooked.
Watch the shills make all sorts of disingenuous arguments. Especially amusing is when they ape libertarian arguments, in defense of actions that trample liberty. And watch the foul mouthed forum disruption trolls as they hurl childish insults, in a flatulent effort to drive down the level of conversation.
St Richard, keep up the good work. The people are with you.
Get out of your myopic left/right ghetto. It's a false dichotomy.
St Richard is neither a leftist not a rightist. He stands tall for human freedom. No ugly partisan politics involved.
It's just a welfare program. If everyone doesn't get it, and if it's not an unconditional right, it's not "universal".
However I suspect this is what some (not all) proponents of UBI really want. A nice little cash handout for the selected and compliant. A lever of money to influence the behavior of the lumpen masses.
"What old military design can release a lot of CFC and is worth the risk for a nation to try?
Someone is cooking and is in a rush for the result."
Sounds plausible. Google search turns up several references to military use accounting for a large fraction of CFC pollution. But very little info about those military applications. Perhaps some manufacturing processes that involve controlling extreme temperatures?
Norks cooking up some chemical weapons, to hold onto as a deterrent after formal denuclearization? Japanese deciding now is the time to finish their 95% complete nukes, 'cuz something made them worry more than usual about China? Both sound like cool movies... But they don't really match the map.
It sure looks like the plume is coming from a Pacific island near Hawaii. Maybe that's an artifact of the monitoring infrastructure locations? Or maybe Uncle Sam is building something out there?
#FakeNews
From openbsd.org: "The current release is OpenBSD 6.3, released Apr 15, 2018."
Sure doesn't look like it was end-of-lifed last year.
Go cashless now! Yeah!
---
This message brought to you by RCAD - Responsible Citizens for Anarchy & Disorder
Joe: I'm concerned about the military buildup in China. I hope our diplomats and military planners are likewise concerned and will protect our people.
Bob: You peen! Why haven't you installed a fallout shelter and anti-aircraft batteries in your neck yard? You're not REALLY concerned!
It seems Google really has run out of innovation. I guess they will just have to forget this dull "making products" stuff, and double down on their main plan: Making an evil AI to wipe out mankind.
Yup.
For a fascinating read, check out the book Seeing Like a State by James C Scott. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...
Scott argues that identity - e.g. patronymic surnames - is typically imposed on peoples in order to make them legible to central authority.
Yes, that's true, Obamacare did not allow overt catastrophic-only plans. However the bottom level Obamacare plans had such huge deductibles that an ordinary person could visit the doctor without immediate financial ruin. (I say "had" because I haven't looked at Obamacare plans in the past 2 years. Thanks the gods, I've lived abroad where gold-plated medical insurance costs a fraction of Obamacare's cheapest option.)
Certainly Obamacare did help a few people. The provision for pre-existing conditions no doubt helped many people who otherwise would have been left by the medical industry to die in the street. And a notorious hypochondriac friend back in California, who lives on public assistance, finds that Obamacare covers many more of his imagined ailments than before.
However for people who were neither on welfare nor affluent, Obamacare was an unqualified disaster. Huge increases in cost, coupled with huge decreases in access to medical services. A real kick in the face to working people. No surprise coming from a third-culture elitist like Obama.
Coming soon to a police state near you
Google & Facebook are not in the advertising business. They're in the surveillance business.
I hate to think what tortuous definition of "full employment" must be used to generate the official numbers.
In the middle pay has been stagnant for over a decade. At the low end, nominal pay has been declining in many places. All the while real cost of living has skyrocketed.
I don't think depression is quite the right word for it, as production has not collapsed. It's more like a period of widespread upward transfer of wealth, and resulting devitalization of the people. Perhaps more likely to result in social unrest than economic collapse.
That's really optimistic. The official inflation numbers are pretty bogus. They don't match most people's first hand experiences at all.
I agree with you there are a lot of gloomy responses to this topic, and that's probably not the most useful attitude. However I think you may be overrating life in contemporary America.
"If you are alive now you have better housing, a better car, better global travel, better communications, better access to information, better health care."
Better housing? Not really. Better insulation and climate control, sure. But the quality of building in the past 40 years is shittastic compared to pre-WWII building quality.
Better healthcare? Well, if you have access to healthcare, then yes it's immensely better than it was even thirty years ago. Alas, untold millions still lack real access to healthcare. Remember that the (fiendishly expensive) "cheap" plans under Obamacare do NOT actually provide access to non-emergency medical services.
The other items you listed - yes, absolutely better now.
"The country (even the poor) have more wealth than ever in all of history."
Obviously false. Cheap plastic consumer goods from Walmart are not wealth. Land and productive capital are wealth. The poor have just as little of it today as ever.
"Many rich people from other countries would be upgraded to be poor in the US. Many rich people from the past would be upgraded to be poor today."
I can only assume you've never seen how rich people in poor countries actually live. Living in a giant villa with servants, a driver, etc is WAY nicer than living in a tiny shoebox apartment in a dangerous neighborhood (or lifeless suburb, if that's your thing) of an American city. Even if the nominal price in dollars is higher in the American slums.
Do you expect disarming the plebs will decrease or increase the repressiveness of our current police state?
Disarm the commoners!
Yeah. Everyone knows American middle class standard of living has been in decline for at least 40 years.
There's also the matter of whether clicking an "I agree" button (mandatory or the app doesn't work) constitutes actual agreement.
Agreement with 100 pages of dense legal jibberish. Jibberish that no one, ever, has read in its entirety. Agreement with completely one-sided terms. Terms that can be fairly summarized as "fuck you pleb, you lose, we always win, you have no rights, all your data are belong to us, fuck you pleb".
No responsible court would uphold such a flimsy assertion. But hey - this is Soviet America, and the judge might really *need* a new Tesla. Or perhaps a new yacht.
Or if the judge wants to play hardball.... well, Facebook *is* essentially a blackmail database. I'm sure the judge could be persuaded that even FB's most villainous practices are fully badlawful.