A cynic might even suspect that this particular expansion is a way to take the heat off the NSA by moving its domestic operations to a different agency.
That way they could shut down the NSA program to great fanfare and quieted fears. Brillinant, I love it!
For all the ways that Walmart is evil, this is not one of them. They are extremely frugal when it comes to executive perks. I don't know if this policy has changed, but as recently as a decade ago, traveling businessmen had to share hotel rooms. And we're not talking about 5-star penthouses where each person gets their own room. These were motel rooms with two queen beds.
Considering the profits made by this company, that actually makes them look worse in my eyes.
The company's actual strengths are logistics and marketing.
Logistics yes, marketing no. Logistics is only an advantage in retail if you can lower costs and thus prices as a result. And marketing? Nobody is dazzled by Walmart's marketing. People go there because they sell stuff for cheap prices.
And how do they know that Walmart is the place to go for low prices? How have they solidified themselves in the public mind as the low-cost leader? Marketing!
Most people here understand that the issue of the creeping security state is not left or right, Republican or Democrat. The parties have shown us that they are both interested in increasing surveillance and curtailing our rights. Why have you not grasped this yet?
Maybe. But I have yet to encounter a system that cannot be subverted by determined people. You say checks and balances work, but I see a government out of the control of the people it's supposed to serve, and in the control of wealthy special interests. I see a justice system in which money and skin color matter more than guilt or innocence. I see an executive branch hell bent on spying on everyone and a congress and judiciary that don't seem to mind too much. I see an economic system that concentrates money and power at the top and leaves most of the rest behind.
I guess you could say that our system works. But there are many levels of working. A body riddled with cancer still works, technically speaking. But it is so sub-optimal that we say it is sick. So while our system works, I'd also characterize it as sick and in need of healing.
It looks increasingly like a benevolent dictatorship is the only way to work, with the constant and prevalent threat of assassination for poor-performers.
Maybe that's it. Like George Carlin said, I have the right to do anything I want and you have the right to kill me. I can't think if a fairer deal than that!
Do people sometimes game the system and get things through ways other than mutually beneficial trades? Sure. But that doesn't mean the system's broken.
Good post, you make many good points. The only thing I would counter is that when Wall Street investment houses can blow up the world economy and their own companies, get bailed out, still get their stupid-large bonuses and have no one go to jail, the system is broken. Power does what power wants for the most part. I suppose it has always been thus. But I'd like to see society recognize this as a problem and actually do something about it. I think that would help us move in the right direction.
What about the impending failure of capitalism? The writing's on the wall, and it will fail for the same reason communism failed: Greed.
Get a handful of selfish sociopaths who rise to the top, change the rules, plunder everything, and ruin the system for everyone else. The only thing that keeps power in check is fear that they will be held accountable for their actions. This is why you see an agenda in the media and in government institutions to groom the public for control. The message is very clear:
Don't question authority.
Conform.
Give up your means of defense and do not attempt to defend yourself against anyone, even if your life is at stake.
Look to the State to find out what you are allowed to do and say.
Corporations and profit are more important than the individual. You exist to serve them.
You've hit the nail on the head. The issue is not so much what system we have. The issue is people's greed and lust for power.
The US government is famously set up with checks and balances. The framers were aware of governmental power and tried to set the government against itself, figuring each branch would protect its own power. That may have worked for a while, but we can see now that dynamic breaking down. I don't know if we can design a system that isn't vulnerable to determined actors looking to subvert it. That's why it seems to come back to greed and power to me. We need to keep those types out of government. How to do that? I don't really know. We would need to be better bout selecting and evaluating our candidates, of course. But beyond that it's hard to ensure that public servants are really that.
It's amazing how they "found" these... I would have thought that computers would make it impossible to "lose" such funds - even with the most simplistic of accounting programs. The more I hear, the more it sounds like something else is going on (like the principles of Mt Gox trying to run off with as many BitCoins as they can). It's like watching a soap opera.
That's been more or less my assumption from the start; that this is some sort of inside job at Mt.Gox.
And this speaks directly to my central point, the government of today is lawless and beyond all control, and it uses the power of taxes and of the color of law to tyrannize the people, under the guise of socialism.
Agreed, our government is lawless and out of control. I just don't see how that makes the US not a Capitalist country. By your definition (an economic system in which trade, industry and the means of production are controlled by private owners with the goal of making profits in a market economy.), it still seems to be.
There's a shortage of graduates in all disciplines that have realistic expectations of the workplace and their initial pay grade. An entire generation went to college assuming it would entitle them to big bucks later. They were wrong. If they're now out of work because they don't think companies pay "properly" that's their own problem. Something is only ever worth what people are prepared to pay for it, and if the jobs are there but people don't like the paygrade, then they're unemployed through choice.
Spare us your juvenile politics. You obviously have NO idea what true socialism is. You americans make me sick , sitting between 2 oceans without a clue what its like in the rest of the world, whinging about trivia.
"Yea, this is exactly what our founders fought and died for so many years ago"
Your founders were a bunch of religious extremists. Be thankful your country isn't run by them any longer or you'd be a christian version of Iran.
First of all, please don't lump us all in with this guy. Second, I'm going to need some backup for the idea that the founders of the US were religious extremists. They went out of their way to say that the state could not establish a religion. Is that what religious extremists do?
And the truth comes out. Why is it that every time someone gets up in arms about Socialism, or regulation or taxation it turns out to be about the government taking your money and giving it to those people? You know why the state has to do that, Cletus? Because Capitalism can't seem to provide enough for everyone.
Capitalism is an economic system concerned with bringing goods and services to market at a profit for the capitalist. That's it. It has nothing to say about making sure everyone gets fed. It has nothing to say about whether people in a society have a roof over their heads, or safe roads to drive on, or a fire department, or help when they are sick, or courts to redress their grievances, or are discriminated against. It's an economic system, not a governmental system.
You may not like how the government is run, but the minorities and the poor are not the problem. Sure, the government takes some of your (and my) money to support some of those people. But that's only because Capitalism doesn't do it. Society is more than economics and commerce.
Perhaps your time in whatever state you are from has clouded your view some?
What us capitalist? Wikipedia tells us "Capitalism is an economic system in which trade, industry and the means of production are controlled by private owners with the goal of making profits in a market economy."
We do have private property ownership here in the states, but then you are allowed to own private property in Europe, in Russia, even in China, are you not?
We are taxed here at all levels, income, sales, property, capital gains, death. Local, state and federal. These taxes pay for all manner of social programs from food stamps to SSI (it's a tax), Obamacare (medicare/medicaid), unemployment, I could go on. And this is a progressive tax, that is those who earn more are taxed more, excluding of course those elites who find themselves very powerful and connected to the state decision makers and this get themselves out of these things. These people exist but they are not large in number, basically unless you are very poor, or very rich you are paying anywhere from 60 to 80% of what you earn to government in one form or another.
And for all that we live in a society of regulations from cradle to grave. You cannot buy a light bulb without the permission of the state. You cannot buy a toilet without the permission of the state. You cannot wash your car without the permission of the state. Your food must pass the inspection of some nameless faceless beauracrat. Likewise your medicine. Your clothes. Your home. Your car. Your barber cannot cut your hair without a state license.
This isn't capitalism, not by any stretch of the imagination.
And by the way, I am not trying to attack you in any way, I have no doubt whereever you are from it is also highly socialised. I am just trying to make the point that so many "progressives" and liberals (a terrible word but it's what people here use) constantly accuse us of being "evil capitalists". We haven't seen the free market here for generations, and every year taxes go up, government get's bigger and individual liberties go away.
I don't know about you but I rather liked the whole "freedom" thing we used to have.
You seem to be confusing an economic system with a governmental system. Your definition of Capitalism is an economic system in which trade, industry and the means of production are controlled by private owners with the goal of making profits in a market economy. I don't see how any taxes or regulations negate that. Even with all that stuff, the US still has an economic system in which trade, industry and the means of production are controlled by private owners with the goal of making profits in a market economy.
Or do you mean that the trade and means of production aren't really in control of their owners because those owners must comply with regulations and pay taxes? Many (not all) of those regulation were enacted to solve problems. I actually like that my food is inspected by some faceless bureaucrat; likewise my medicine. In such a complex society we need rules and regulations to maintain a standard of quality, safety and responsibility. You may counter that we do not achieve that, and I might agree. But not everyone is an honest or virtuous actor. There is an old saying that if men were angels, we wouldn't need government. I agree with that. I would love to eliminate government. But men are manifestly not angels, and they act in short-sighted and selfish ways. Capitalism without regulation is the Devil's playground, as has been demonstrated time and again. I don't see how those regulations make it not-capitalism.
When the returns on capital are used to buy representation, extend time limited legal protections and defend monopoly positions you no longer live in a capitalist society, it could even be argued you no long live in a democracy. So pure and simple, the U.S is......
Fascist? Corporatist? An oligarchy? A plutocracy? Ok, I'm out of guesses...
Currently we "rehabilitate" people by putting them in a cage with a whole bunch of other sociopaths for decades and expect them to emerge as productive members of society. In doing so, we already are cruel by removing a substantial part of their lives from them (and probably get them raped, psychologically and physically abused, etc). They can never get that time back, no matter how productive they emerge, no matter how sorry they are, no matter that they'll never do it again, or that they've already been punished by being completely removed from normal society for an extended period of time. That life "time" is gone forever.
US prison is not meant to rehabilitate. That's a fantasy that some still hold, but prison is there to punish you, nothing more. Well, it's supposed to deter you as well, but I'm not sure how well that works.
The Prison Reform Act of 1984 states "imprisonment is not an appropriate means of promoting correction and rehabilitation." And yet, as you refer to, we expect people to come out of prison and rejoin polite society. Well, we say we expect that, but then we put up all kinds of obstacles to becoming gainfully employed as an ex-con. If you're black, you're basically unemployable after being in prison. So we lock people up in a terrible place, expect them to somehow improve themselves while there, make it hard for them to rebuild their lives once they get out, and then wonder why those people can't get their shit together. Must be something about their "culture", eh? It's one of the more fucked up aspects of our criminal justice system (right next to for-profit prisons). Really, it's absurd on an existentialist level.
The deeper problem, of which all this is a direct consequence, is allowing short term economic considerations of a tiny minority to outweigh the mid to long term environmental and health consequences (with associated dollar cost, of course) for society at large.
Your "outdated socio-economic system" is someone else's "reality". While we are rapidly eliminating jobs for people on the left side of whatever IQ test you wish to use, we still have to pay people for food and to build stuff. When we automate THOSE jobs, we'll STILL have to pay for the energy production, energy usage, and maintenance of said automation, energy production and energy distribution.
I dig that. The outdated economic system is my reality too, but I can only speak for my society. I'm not saying that people wouldn't have to work. I'm saying we could all work less. Stuff will still need to be manufactured and energy produced. But I also know that i live in a society who's needs (overall) are overfilled. Businesses create new markets now to sell their products. They are not meeting a need, they are creating one. It seems that we could reduce our production, work less, and still meet our needs. It just wouldn't be as profitable. That's when the powerful people come in with their needs of more and more profit.
"Powerful people" aren't the problem. Energy and materials science is. Until energy production and transmission is zero cost, or close enough to it that it becomes an advertising expense, the leisure society isn't going to happen. I also don't believe that "Powerful people" are hiding the near zero cost energy production silver bullet. To speculate that it is so leads down the dark hole of conspiracy. Near zero cost energy not going to be in my lifetime, and probably not in my child's either. If the NIF (or any of its analogs) produce a self-sustaining fusion reaction, that will be tipping point. The materials science problem is nearly taken care of, but said materials (Iconel, among others) are too expensive and (again) energy intensive to produce in large quantities.
There is speculation that if we actually get to the zero cost for energy society, mankind will inadvertently self-exterminate. I can see this being a very real possibility.
Sure, I agree that we will need new and better power sources. Zero point energy sounds intriguing, but that's about it at this point; it's vaporware. I'm all for conspiracy theories (I believe they happen more than most people think) but that one has a lot of heat and not much light. I also think that powerful people exert more control over society than most people believe. But there is not one reason for the world being the way it is.
We're so productive, but *what* are we producing and for *who*?
Great post. That's the million dollar question, right there. We certainly are propping up an outdated socio-economic system. But powerful people retain their power through this system. That's the obstacle I see. Otherwise we could all be working much less, have full employment and much more time for personal pursuits.
I don't need you to tell me how fucking good my coffee is, okay? I'm the one who buys it. I know how good it is. When Bonnie goes shopping she buys shit! I buy the gourmet expensive stuff because when I drink it I want to taste it. But you know what's on my mind right now? It ain't the coffee in my kitchen...
Slashdot Mirror
A cynic might even suspect that this particular expansion is a way to take the heat off the NSA by moving its domestic operations to a different agency.
That way they could shut down the NSA program to great fanfare and quieted fears. Brillinant, I love it!
For all the ways that Walmart is evil, this is not one of them. They are extremely frugal when it comes to executive perks. I don't know if this policy has changed, but as recently as a decade ago, traveling businessmen had to share hotel rooms. And we're not talking about 5-star penthouses where each person gets their own room. These were motel rooms with two queen beds.
Considering the profits made by this company, that actually makes them look worse in my eyes.
The company's actual strengths are logistics and marketing.
Logistics yes, marketing no. Logistics is only an advantage in retail if you can lower costs and thus prices as a result. And marketing? Nobody is dazzled by Walmart's marketing. People go there because they sell stuff for cheap prices.
And how do they know that Walmart is the place to go for low prices? How have they solidified themselves in the public mind as the low-cost leader? Marketing!
How is that not probable cause for a warrant?
How is it?
But Obummer is keeping you safe!!!
Most people here understand that the issue of the creeping security state is not left or right, Republican or Democrat. The parties have shown us that they are both interested in increasing surveillance and curtailing our rights. Why have you not grasped this yet?
Maybe. But I have yet to encounter a system that cannot be subverted by determined people. You say checks and balances work, but I see a government out of the control of the people it's supposed to serve, and in the control of wealthy special interests. I see a justice system in which money and skin color matter more than guilt or innocence. I see an executive branch hell bent on spying on everyone and a congress and judiciary that don't seem to mind too much. I see an economic system that concentrates money and power at the top and leaves most of the rest behind.
I guess you could say that our system works. But there are many levels of working. A body riddled with cancer still works, technically speaking. But it is so sub-optimal that we say it is sick. So while our system works, I'd also characterize it as sick and in need of healing.
It looks increasingly like a benevolent dictatorship is the only way to work, with the constant and prevalent threat of assassination for poor-performers.
Maybe that's it. Like George Carlin said, I have the right to do anything I want and you have the right to kill me. I can't think if a fairer deal than that!
Do people sometimes game the system and get things through ways other than mutually beneficial trades? Sure. But that doesn't mean the system's broken.
Good post, you make many good points. The only thing I would counter is that when Wall Street investment houses can blow up the world economy and their own companies, get bailed out, still get their stupid-large bonuses and have no one go to jail, the system is broken. Power does what power wants for the most part. I suppose it has always been thus. But I'd like to see society recognize this as a problem and actually do something about it. I think that would help us move in the right direction.
Thank you for exposing some of the ridiculousness of pure Libertarianism.
What about the impending failure of capitalism? The writing's on the wall, and it will fail for the same reason communism failed: Greed.
Get a handful of selfish sociopaths who rise to the top, change the rules, plunder everything, and ruin the system for everyone else. The only thing that keeps power in check is fear that they will be held accountable for their actions. This is why you see an agenda in the media and in government institutions to groom the public for control. The message is very clear:
Don't question authority. Conform. Give up your means of defense and do not attempt to defend yourself against anyone, even if your life is at stake. Look to the State to find out what you are allowed to do and say. Corporations and profit are more important than the individual. You exist to serve them.
You've hit the nail on the head. The issue is not so much what system we have. The issue is people's greed and lust for power.
The US government is famously set up with checks and balances. The framers were aware of governmental power and tried to set the government against itself, figuring each branch would protect its own power. That may have worked for a while, but we can see now that dynamic breaking down. I don't know if we can design a system that isn't vulnerable to determined actors looking to subvert it. That's why it seems to come back to greed and power to me. We need to keep those types out of government. How to do that? I don't really know. We would need to be better bout selecting and evaluating our candidates, of course. But beyond that it's hard to ensure that public servants are really that.
It's amazing how they "found" these... I would have thought that computers would make it impossible to "lose" such funds - even with the most simplistic of accounting programs. The more I hear, the more it sounds like something else is going on (like the principles of Mt Gox trying to run off with as many BitCoins as they can). It's like watching a soap opera.
That's been more or less my assumption from the start; that this is some sort of inside job at Mt.Gox.
And this speaks directly to my central point, the government of today is lawless and beyond all control, and it uses the power of taxes and of the color of law to tyrannize the people, under the guise of socialism.
Agreed, our government is lawless and out of control. I just don't see how that makes the US not a Capitalist country. By your definition (an economic system in which trade, industry and the means of production are controlled by private owners with the goal of making profits in a market economy.), it still seems to be.
There's a shortage of graduates in all disciplines that have realistic expectations of the workplace and their initial pay grade. An entire generation went to college assuming it would entitle them to big bucks later. They were wrong. If they're now out of work because they don't think companies pay "properly" that's their own problem. Something is only ever worth what people are prepared to pay for it, and if the jobs are there but people don't like the paygrade, then they're unemployed through choice.
I can see why you posted AC.
Spare us your juvenile politics. You obviously have NO idea what true socialism is. You americans make me sick , sitting between 2 oceans without a clue what its like in the rest of the world, whinging about trivia.
"Yea, this is exactly what our founders fought and died for so many years ago"
Your founders were a bunch of religious extremists. Be thankful your country isn't run by them any longer or you'd be a christian version of Iran.
First of all, please don't lump us all in with this guy. Second, I'm going to need some backup for the idea that the founders of the US were religious extremists. They went out of their way to say that the state could not establish a religion. Is that what religious extremists do?
Boy you socialists sure are fast with the name calling...
Maybe, but you're faster with the irony.
And the truth comes out. Why is it that every time someone gets up in arms about Socialism, or regulation or taxation it turns out to be about the government taking your money and giving it to those people? You know why the state has to do that, Cletus? Because Capitalism can't seem to provide enough for everyone.
Capitalism is an economic system concerned with bringing goods and services to market at a profit for the capitalist. That's it. It has nothing to say about making sure everyone gets fed. It has nothing to say about whether people in a society have a roof over their heads, or safe roads to drive on, or a fire department, or help when they are sick, or courts to redress their grievances, or are discriminated against. It's an economic system, not a governmental system.
You may not like how the government is run, but the minorities and the poor are not the problem. Sure, the government takes some of your (and my) money to support some of those people. But that's only because Capitalism doesn't do it. Society is more than economics and commerce.
"The U.S. is capitalist."
Perhaps your time in whatever state you are from has clouded your view some?
What us capitalist? Wikipedia tells us "Capitalism is an economic system in which trade, industry and the means of production are controlled by private owners with the goal of making profits in a market economy."
We do have private property ownership here in the states, but then you are allowed to own private property in Europe, in Russia, even in China, are you not?
We are taxed here at all levels, income, sales, property, capital gains, death. Local, state and federal. These taxes pay for all manner of social programs from food stamps to SSI (it's a tax), Obamacare (medicare/medicaid), unemployment, I could go on. And this is a progressive tax, that is those who earn more are taxed more, excluding of course those elites who find themselves very powerful and connected to the state decision makers and this get themselves out of these things. These people exist but they are not large in number, basically unless you are very poor, or very rich you are paying anywhere from 60 to 80% of what you earn to government in one form or another.
And for all that we live in a society of regulations from cradle to grave. You cannot buy a light bulb without the permission of the state. You cannot buy a toilet without the permission of the state. You cannot wash your car without the permission of the state. Your food must pass the inspection of some nameless faceless beauracrat. Likewise your medicine. Your clothes. Your home. Your car. Your barber cannot cut your hair without a state license.
This isn't capitalism, not by any stretch of the imagination.
And by the way, I am not trying to attack you in any way, I have no doubt whereever you are from it is also highly socialised. I am just trying to make the point that so many "progressives" and liberals (a terrible word but it's what people here use) constantly accuse us of being "evil capitalists". We haven't seen the free market here for generations, and every year taxes go up, government get's bigger and individual liberties go away.
I don't know about you but I rather liked the whole "freedom" thing we used to have.
You seem to be confusing an economic system with a governmental system. Your definition of Capitalism is an economic system in which trade, industry and the means of production are controlled by private owners with the goal of making profits in a market economy. I don't see how any taxes or regulations negate that. Even with all that stuff, the US still has an economic system in which trade, industry and the means of production are controlled by private owners with the goal of making profits in a market economy.
Or do you mean that the trade and means of production aren't really in control of their owners because those owners must comply with regulations and pay taxes? Many (not all) of those regulation were enacted to solve problems. I actually like that my food is inspected by some faceless bureaucrat; likewise my medicine. In such a complex society we need rules and regulations to maintain a standard of quality, safety and responsibility. You may counter that we do not achieve that, and I might agree. But not everyone is an honest or virtuous actor. There is an old saying that if men were angels, we wouldn't need government. I agree with that. I would love to eliminate government. But men are manifestly not angels, and they act in short-sighted and selfish ways. Capitalism without regulation is the Devil's playground, as has been demonstrated time and again. I don't see how those regulations make it not-capitalism.
When the returns on capital are used to buy representation, extend time limited legal protections and defend monopoly positions you no longer live in a capitalist society, it could even be argued you no long live in a democracy. So pure and simple, the U.S is ......
Fascist? Corporatist? An oligarchy? A plutocracy? Ok, I'm out of guesses...
There's certainly no shortage of lobbyists in Washington crying to Congress that they need more indentured servitude licenses (aka H-1B visas).
I thought of that too. If there is no shortage, what could all of the H-1B visas be about? Maybe what we've suspected all along?
Currently we "rehabilitate" people by putting them in a cage with a whole bunch of other sociopaths for decades and expect them to emerge as productive members of society. In doing so, we already are cruel by removing a substantial part of their lives from them (and probably get them raped, psychologically and physically abused, etc). They can never get that time back, no matter how productive they emerge, no matter how sorry they are, no matter that they'll never do it again, or that they've already been punished by being completely removed from normal society for an extended period of time. That life "time" is gone forever.
US prison is not meant to rehabilitate. That's a fantasy that some still hold, but prison is there to punish you, nothing more. Well, it's supposed to deter you as well, but I'm not sure how well that works.
The Prison Reform Act of 1984 states "imprisonment is not an appropriate means of promoting correction and rehabilitation." And yet, as you refer to, we expect people to come out of prison and rejoin polite society. Well, we say we expect that, but then we put up all kinds of obstacles to becoming gainfully employed as an ex-con. If you're black, you're basically unemployable after being in prison. So we lock people up in a terrible place, expect them to somehow improve themselves while there, make it hard for them to rebuild their lives once they get out, and then wonder why those people can't get their shit together. Must be something about their "culture", eh? It's one of the more fucked up aspects of our criminal justice system (right next to for-profit prisons). Really, it's absurd on an existentialist level.
The deeper problem, of which all this is a direct consequence, is allowing short term economic considerations of a tiny minority to outweigh the mid to long term environmental and health consequences (with associated dollar cost, of course) for society at large.
Hey, hey! This is America!
Your "outdated socio-economic system" is someone else's "reality". While we are rapidly eliminating jobs for people on the left side of whatever IQ test you wish to use, we still have to pay people for food and to build stuff. When we automate THOSE jobs, we'll STILL have to pay for the energy production, energy usage, and maintenance of said automation, energy production and energy distribution.
I dig that. The outdated economic system is my reality too, but I can only speak for my society. I'm not saying that people wouldn't have to work. I'm saying we could all work less. Stuff will still need to be manufactured and energy produced. But I also know that i live in a society who's needs (overall) are overfilled. Businesses create new markets now to sell their products. They are not meeting a need, they are creating one. It seems that we could reduce our production, work less, and still meet our needs. It just wouldn't be as profitable. That's when the powerful people come in with their needs of more and more profit.
"Powerful people" aren't the problem. Energy and materials science is. Until energy production and transmission is zero cost, or close enough to it that it becomes an advertising expense, the leisure society isn't going to happen. I also don't believe that "Powerful people" are hiding the near zero cost energy production silver bullet. To speculate that it is so leads down the dark hole of conspiracy. Near zero cost energy not going to be in my lifetime, and probably not in my child's either. If the NIF (or any of its analogs) produce a self-sustaining fusion reaction, that will be tipping point. The materials science problem is nearly taken care of, but said materials (Iconel, among others) are too expensive and (again) energy intensive to produce in large quantities.
There is speculation that if we actually get to the zero cost for energy society, mankind will inadvertently self-exterminate. I can see this being a very real possibility.
Sure, I agree that we will need new and better power sources. Zero point energy sounds intriguing, but that's about it at this point; it's vaporware. I'm all for conspiracy theories (I believe they happen more than most people think) but that one has a lot of heat and not much light. I also think that powerful people exert more control over society than most people believe. But there is not one reason for the world being the way it is.
We're so productive, but *what* are we producing and for *who*?
Great post. That's the million dollar question, right there. We certainly are propping up an outdated socio-economic system. But powerful people retain their power through this system. That's the obstacle I see. Otherwise we could all be working much less, have full employment and much more time for personal pursuits.
I don't need you to tell me how fucking good my coffee is, okay? I'm the one who buys it. I know how good it is. When Bonnie goes shopping she buys shit! I buy the gourmet expensive stuff because when I drink it I want to taste it. But you know what's on my mind right now? It ain't the coffee in my kitchen...
There is always the option to give up on substance abuse.
If you think a cup of coffee in the morning is substance abuse, I'd hate to hear what you think of a glass of wine with dinner.