However, this is a good opportunity to identify the most suggestible., gullible, easily scammable people in our population, and either seek to protect them, or take advantage of them.
Depends on if you like them or not.
And if it's found that this Camping guy profited in any way from all this, prosecute him mercilessly for fraud.
Another thought that just occurred to me.
Will these true believers (in Camping's revelation) be able to cope, knowing that they aren't among "god's favourites", and they are left behind to suffer with the rest of us. Will there be suicides?
You could automate teaching and have a help chat that pops up to help kids that are struggling on a subject. Buddy up older students to help younger students, just like in the old K-8 one room school house.
It could even be a work at your own pace 12 month a year school. You could bring the student to teacher ratio to 1000 to 1 and still give a better experience, more hands on and at the students pace.
So, basically home schooling with off-site support resources?
Except, now all families need a stay-at-home parent to supervise the kids in their learning.
But they still have to pay school taxes.
As I understood the society in the novel, rather than tax anyone, at the end of the year they would calculate the increased value of the society based on some sort of GDP measurement, and then "print" enough new currency so as to keep the value of the "dollar" at the same level - so if the economy increased by 20% you would print 20% more money.
As much as I hate to argue against Heinlein, that makes one huge, wrong, assumption.
It assumes that economies will always grow.
We have recently re-discovered that can't be counted on.
So many perfectly good economic theories seem to underestimate human greed and corruption and their always negative effect on the economy of the society they inhabit.
Apple is evil, Dell is evil, Google is evil, Microsoft is evil....
They're all bastards really...not one of them care one lick outside of keeping their shareholders happy. And all that keeps the shareholders happy is profit & a rising stock price.
Nobody in the business world gives one shit about any of the pleebs...they're just resources to get the job done to make money to keep the shareholders happy.
"You're about to be told one more time that you're America's most valuable
natural resource. Have you seen what they do to valuable natural resources?
Have you seen them strip mine? Have you seen a clear-cut in a forest? Have
you seen a polluted river? Don't ever let them call you a valuable natural
resource! They're gonna strip mine your soul! They're gonna clear-cut your
best thoughts for the sake of profit, unless you learn to resist, cause the
profit system follows the path of least resistance, and following the path of
least resistance is what makes the river crooked! Hmph!"
- Utah Phillips
Is it possible that people are discovering that life isn't all roses and sunshine inside the walled garden?
Perhaps people actually like to be able to have some amount of control over the things that bought and paid for?
I wasn't sure this day would ever come. I think I'll go and celebrate with a nice walk to a neighborhood restaurant.
Seriously, I'm pleased if this is really what is happening.
I've worked in government, and they like to do things by the book.
You've worked for the Malaysian government?
There are a lot of governments that would probably act as you have said, either for the reasons you have stated, or from laziness or incompetence.
But there are a lot of others who already go to great lengths to learn a great deal about their citizens actions and communication.
Those I would not trust to be my e-mail provider.
Now, the trick is to know which sort of government you happen to live under.
So what you're saying is the workers who got sacked now have new jobs without having to re-train significantly. Their managers, OTOH, are SOL.
Don't see the problem there.
Almost.
The workers have new, lower paying jobs doing pretty much the same thing they were doing before. However, in the interim, the cost of living has generally increased.
Does that change the picture?
Meanwhile, their former managers are off to new, higher paying jobs with other soon-to-fail companies.
I know everyone in my company from receptionist to CEO has been required to sign one every few years (due to HR putting some other provisions in it).
Not requested, but required.
How do you "don't get hired at a place that requires that" if you already work there??
and if some smart ass answers for that specific movie, I've got a list of dozens of others that I would buy if it were available from a legitimate source.
(of course, most of them would be public domain by now under the original rules, but that's another debate)
You can be religious and think ID is a bunch of hooey. This isn't an either-or proposition.
True.
But what happens when someone moves from absolutely believing that the Bible is an infallible document that is absolutely the correct un-tainted word of God, to discovering that it's full of errors, omissions, inconsistencies, and has been changed in thousands of places over time. Changes that are both accidental and intentional. Changes made for reasons both innocent and manipulative.
It's a big deal to discover that something you thought was infallible has errors. Then what? If it has one big error , how many more are there?
War is a state to state action. So yes, war is murder, but on a state level, not a personal level.
I'm sure it's quite personal to the soldiers, and anyone else who gets killed in your state-to-state action.
They probably don't see the subtle difference between getting murdered and getting "warred" to death.
Given Clarkson's general dislike of electric vehicles, I thought he was quite generous with the Tesla, at least for the first half of the segment.
He seemed genuinely surprised and impressed with the acceleration in the drag race. And the performance in the head-to-head race around the track. And with The Stig's lap time.
Frankly, he's been a lot more scathing at the offerings from much more established car makers. And they keep sending more cars for Top Gear to play with.
Probably because none of the parties seem to be able to come up with a platform, or slate of candidates that appeals to the majority of voters.
That said, I still want to see continued minority governments, until someone demonstrates that they can co-operate with the other parties for the common good of the nation.
Perhaps a more narrow minority, though. One where any opposition party can hold the balance on any day.
Coalition isn't a dirty word, It implies being able to put aside your differences and play nice with others in a mature pragmatic way.
That's not something I have seen in Canadian politics for a long time. Certainly not in anything that involves Harper. He doesn't seem to even be able to be anything less than dictatorial within his own caucus.
Oh, and you nice wonderful left-wing fucktards who love the "no borders, one world government" movement? Remember, those nice cheapy products come on the backs of slave labor, tiny wages, zero worker safety protection laws, and zero environmental protection laws.
"Free trade" is a tool of the robber barons, nothing more.
I thought the "no borders" was more of a "global free trade" thing (for various definitions of free). Which is part of the corporatist agenda. Y'know, right wingers.
Even if most people don't find anything wrong with the things I do, there is always the chance that someone who's attitude is a lot less relaxed than mine will disapprove of some of the things that I do/have done. And if that person is in a position of authority or influence over my life, or my family's lives (school board, community center organizer, scout parent council...) their opinion can have negative consequences for us.
Not that it should be any of their damn business, but some people seem go out of their way to make trouble for some reason.
I see no reason to make it any easier for them to find out anything about me, no matter how innocuous *I* might find that bit of information.
If they truly wanted more competition they would have changed the law itself to allow any company to come in, something they haven't done. And believe it or not, the big telecoms in Canada are pushing for the same thing Wind wants, more relaxed foreign ownership rules.
The original purpose of those foreign investment rules was to keep the profits and control of communication within Canada. That means that the decisions of the companies actually affect the people who made them.
In theory, it's less desirable for someone to make a "fuck everyone, profits or death" kind of decision if it is going to directly affect your own family, and your neighbors, and the guys you golf with, etc.
Also, keeping the profits within the national borders is better for the local economy.
This kind of regulations is supposed to prevent, or at least limit, the race to the bottom.
Sure, it's too bad that business, particularly for-profit corporations, has too much power. But they at least have an interest in society and its functioning
Seriously?
Corporations only care about how much money they can get from anyone who isn't them.
The only function of society they are interested in is it's ability to supply them with customers with money who can be easily persuaded to part with it.
A well functioning society tends to have better educated people who can manage some amount of critical thinking.
Slashdot Mirror
Lego porn (seriously)
However, this is a good opportunity to identify the most suggestible., gullible, easily scammable people in our population, and either seek to protect them, or take advantage of them.
Depends on if you like them or not.
And if it's found that this Camping guy profited in any way from all this, prosecute him mercilessly for fraud.
Another thought that just occurred to me.
Will these true believers (in Camping's revelation) be able to cope, knowing that they aren't among "god's favourites", and they are left behind to suffer with the rest of us. Will there be suicides?
You could automate teaching and have a help chat that pops up to help kids that are struggling on a subject. Buddy up older students to help younger students, just like in the old K-8 one room school house. It could even be a work at your own pace 12 month a year school. You could bring the student to teacher ratio to 1000 to 1 and still give a better experience, more hands on and at the students pace.
So, basically home schooling with off-site support resources?
Except, now all families need a stay-at-home parent to supervise the kids in their learning.
But they still have to pay school taxes.
As I understood the society in the novel, rather than tax anyone, at the end of the year they would calculate the increased value of the society based on some sort of GDP measurement, and then "print" enough new currency so as to keep the value of the "dollar" at the same level - so if the economy increased by 20% you would print 20% more money.
As much as I hate to argue against Heinlein, that makes one huge, wrong, assumption.
It assumes that economies will always grow.
We have recently re-discovered that can't be counted on.
So many perfectly good economic theories seem to underestimate human greed and corruption and their always negative effect on the economy of the society they inhabit.
Tomorrow's Headline: Computer Suggests Tax on Sex
It sure would make tax auditing a more popular career choice.
Among my set of "daily" tabs is a random wikipedia page, and couple of other random searches.
At least it gives me a chance of seeing something I wouldn't have otherwise seen.
Apple is evil, Dell is evil, Google is evil, Microsoft is evil....
They're all bastards really...not one of them care one lick outside of keeping their shareholders happy. And all that keeps the shareholders happy is profit & a rising stock price.
Nobody in the business world gives one shit about any of the pleebs...they're just resources to get the job done to make money to keep the shareholders happy.
"You're about to be told one more time that you're America's most valuable natural resource. Have you seen what they do to valuable natural resources?
Have you seen them strip mine? Have you seen a clear-cut in a forest? Have you seen a polluted river? Don't ever let them call you a valuable natural resource! They're gonna strip mine your soul! They're gonna clear-cut your best thoughts for the sake of profit, unless you learn to resist, cause the profit system follows the path of least resistance, and following the path of least resistance is what makes the river crooked! Hmph!"
- Utah Phillips
Is it possible that people are discovering that life isn't all roses and sunshine inside the walled garden?
Perhaps people actually like to be able to have some amount of control over the things that bought and paid for?
I wasn't sure this day would ever come. I think I'll go and celebrate with a nice walk to a neighborhood restaurant.
Seriously, I'm pleased if this is really what is happening.
I've worked in government, and they like to do things by the book.
You've worked for the Malaysian government?
There are a lot of governments that would probably act as you have said, either for the reasons you have stated, or from laziness or incompetence.
But there are a lot of others who already go to great lengths to learn a great deal about their citizens actions and communication.
Those I would not trust to be my e-mail provider.
Now, the trick is to know which sort of government you happen to live under.
So what you're saying is the workers who got sacked now have new jobs without having to re-train significantly. Their managers, OTOH, are SOL. Don't see the problem there.
Almost.
The workers have new, lower paying jobs doing pretty much the same thing they were doing before.
However, in the interim, the cost of living has generally increased.
Does that change the picture?
Meanwhile, their former managers are off to new, higher paying jobs with other soon-to-fail companies.
Ummm. I signed this thing that says I can't work for anyone else in the field I'm trained and skilled to work in.
And apparently, I owe my soul to the company store.
I know everyone in my company from receptionist to CEO has been required to sign one every few years (due to HR putting some other provisions in it).
Not requested, but required.
How do you "don't get hired at a place that requires that" if you already work there??
+1 insightful
and if some smart ass answers for that specific movie, I've got a list of dozens of others that I would buy if it were available from a legitimate source.
(of course, most of them would be public domain by now under the original rules, but that's another debate)
You can be religious and think ID is a bunch of hooey. This isn't an either-or proposition.
True.
But what happens when someone moves from absolutely believing that the Bible is an infallible document that is absolutely the correct un-tainted word of God, to discovering that it's full of errors, omissions, inconsistencies, and has been changed in thousands of places over time.
Changes that are both accidental and intentional. Changes made for reasons both innocent and manipulative.
It's a big deal to discover that something you thought was infallible has errors.
Then what? If it has one big error , how many more are there?
When the religious right can repeatibly cause minor miracles to occur then the footing is equal.
Minor miracles are easy. They're required study at West Point in the future
War is a state to state action. So yes, war is murder, but on a state level, not a personal level.
I'm sure it's quite personal to the soldiers, and anyone else who gets killed in your state-to-state action.
They probably don't see the subtle difference between getting murdered and getting "warred" to death.
Given Clarkson's general dislike of electric vehicles, I thought he was quite generous with the Tesla, at least for the first half of the segment. He seemed genuinely surprised and impressed with the acceleration in the drag race. And the performance in the head-to-head race around the track. And with The Stig's lap time.
Frankly, he's been a lot more scathing at the offerings from much more established car makers. And they keep sending more cars for Top Gear to play with.
So wait... I'm confused, who do we hate again?
Marketing people. They'll lie equally about a product we like and one we hate.
Probably because none of the parties seem to be able to come up with a platform, or slate of candidates that appeals to the majority of voters.
That said, I still want to see continued minority governments, until someone demonstrates that they can co-operate with the other parties for the common good of the nation.
Perhaps a more narrow minority, though. One where any opposition party can hold the balance on any day.
Coalition isn't a dirty word, It implies being able to put aside your differences and play nice with others in a mature pragmatic way.
That's not something I have seen in Canadian politics for a long time. Certainly not in anything that involves Harper. He doesn't seem to even be able to be anything less than dictatorial within his own caucus.
Oh, and you nice wonderful left-wing fucktards who love the "no borders, one world government" movement? Remember, those nice cheapy products come on the backs of slave labor, tiny wages, zero worker safety protection laws, and zero environmental protection laws. "Free trade" is a tool of the robber barons, nothing more.
I thought the "no borders" was more of a "global free trade" thing (for various definitions of free).
Which is part of the corporatist agenda.
Y'know, right wingers.
Even if most people don't find anything wrong with the things I do, there is always the chance that someone who's attitude is a lot less relaxed than mine will disapprove of some of the things that I do/have done.
And if that person is in a position of authority or influence over my life, or my family's lives (school board, community center organizer, scout parent council...) their opinion can have negative consequences for us.
Not that it should be any of their damn business, but some people seem go out of their way to make trouble for some reason.
I see no reason to make it any easier for them to find out anything about me, no matter how innocuous *I* might find that bit of information.
If they truly wanted more competition they would have changed the law itself to allow any company to come in, something they haven't done. And believe it or not, the big telecoms in Canada are pushing for the same thing Wind wants, more relaxed foreign ownership rules.
The original purpose of those foreign investment rules was to keep the profits and control of communication within Canada. That means that the decisions of the companies actually affect the people who made them.
In theory, it's less desirable for someone to make a "fuck everyone, profits or death" kind of decision if it is going to directly affect your own family, and your neighbors, and the guys you golf with, etc.
Also, keeping the profits within the national borders is better for the local economy.
This kind of regulations is supposed to prevent, or at least limit, the race to the bottom.
If I had mod points...
I'm glad to see someone can still make this point clearly and concisely.
Sure, it's too bad that business, particularly for-profit corporations, has too much power. But they at least have an interest in society and its functioning
Seriously?
Corporations only care about how much money they can get from anyone who isn't them.
The only function of society they are interested in is it's ability to supply them with customers with money who can be easily persuaded to part with it.
A well functioning society tends to have better educated people who can manage some amount of critical thinking.
Take a quick look at the campaign finances of President Obama and see if you can still make this comment with a straight face
That's easy. The USA doesn't really have a party that is liberal.
There is a party on the political right, and another to the right of them.
Those who scream "left wing" and "socialist" at the Democrats don't seem to know what those words mean.