I guess this seems more palatable to those in EU, where I get the impression, that the good of the many is held in more esteem, than the power and support of the individual, which is traditionally the case in the US.
I can see the arguments folks have for the "basic income', in some cases it makes some sense, however, it just goes straight up my ass, the thought of paying someone for doing nothing more than processing oxygen after being born.
I mean, I don't mind safety nets for the infirmed, or the elderly that cannot work and support themselves, but I just cannot wrap my head around paying people for doing nothing more than existing.
That money has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere would be me...I work for a living, I do decently well. I don't mind giving of my own volition to charity, but I can't stand the thought of being taxed to give money to JimBob or Laqueshia to pay their way, if they are happy to exist on that level of life with no other effort required.
When it comes to infrastructure it's a continuous work since people have a tendency to move around.
It also takes a bit of intelligence and forethought.
I mean, WHOSE bright idea was it, to put critical infrastructure controls on the internet for God's sake? Let's not get into the fact they often put things up very insecurely, but the bigger question is, why are such components ON the fucking internet to begin with?
I wonder if there is a MAX speed you can set the adaptive cruise control?
Is there a governor on that setting? On some road trips I set my manual cruise control to about 85-90mph or a bit higher, depending on conditions on the road.
Shia muslims don't do that stuff. It's an exclusively Sunni muslim thing. Whenever you hear of a mosque that was bombed, it was a Shia mosque, and the bomber was sunni.
You know...in the middle east over there, all the muslims are pretty much well ALL fucked in the head....so, one joke covers them all pretty much.
And how do you know the difference looking at them between the two?
Do they wear different hats or something? Or, do you not know till they blow up?
The reason why is because our culture is so focused on individual identity, we don't like the idea of a central government being too powerful, and we also seem to have a big distaste for socialism (again, actual socialism, not welfare.)
But these traits you describe, are rising more and MORE in the US, accelerating at an alarming rate as viewed by a number of folks.
The Federal Govt IS becoming too powerful and centralized, the Fed is overtaking the power of the states left and right (where constitutionally power is supposed to reside).
The pride and promotion of individualism is being diluted left and right...the "social justice" is a component of that, everyone is equal...everyone gets a trophy for just participating, let's not praise Johnny for excellence, as that it might cause self esteem issues for Julie....it starts off little, but we're seeing the promotion of the individual in not only something not really to be promoted, but in some ways actually shunned.
And we have a full blown, self-proclaimned socialist Bernie Sanders, gaining popularity in the poles, and a recent poll of liberal Democrat voters in Iowa self identifying as socialist, not capitalists.
Frankly, I think Obama leans much more in this direction, which is why many think his motives ARE to fundamentally move the US away from its former ideals and societal fundamentals.
That's true of anything. If you make a special version of software that targets specific hardware it is most likely going to run better than software that targets a whole range of hardware.
But there are distros of Linux, like Gentoo...where you can install it and custom compile your kernel, etc...for the hardware it is running on.
If for nothing else, this is nice for squeezing out the most of your older hardware you might be wanting to run things on rather than toss it in the trash.
Don't you dare say you'd have invested in some great company with 20/20 hindsight
I'd have put into some index funds, mostly..with some on more volatile stocks while younger, becoming more conservative as I got older...much like I've done with 401Ks over the years, but with my SS money, I'd have had more money in there.
If you vote republican and accept Medicare and social security you are a hypocrite.
The trouble is, depending on your age, you almost HAVE to take them when you get to retirement age.
This money was forceably taken from my pay over many decades, rather than giving me a choice on how best to invest it for myself. If given that choice early on in my employment history, I could have e invested it and I'd be more well off by having that money grow more, and I could use it.
But when you get close to retirement age, well....you've thrown so much money into the pot, it makes no sense not to try to draw a little of it back from the well.
If Trump wins the primary, then we're in trouble because that means a Clinton presidency. The only way Trump becomes president is if Sanders runs independent and splits Clinton's vote.
I was thinking along the same lines the other day, however....there may be other factors.
1. I think there is a real possibility that Clinton may get indicted with the recent FBI findings.
2. Looks like Bloomberg is looking to possibly do a 3rd party, that would split the liberal vote.
There's still a lot of factors in play out there...interesting voting season this is...
Out of all the babble does seem to come one gem of an idea.
Let's lower the corporate tax rate...we have "on paper" the highest in the world.
I say on paper, because the big boy corps, have enough tax attorney's and experts on payroll (whole departments in fact) to find every loophole to pay less and less, while the SMALL businesses get stuck paying the high fees and taxes.
So, let's lower it to a much lower rate, one that competes with the rest of the world, but at the same time...cut out all the deductions and loopholes. You pay x% on profits after your expenses, period.
Doing that would encourage businesses to come back to the US.
Rather than penalize, let's make it a business favorable environment to have your business on US soil, AND have US workers doing the work.
I don't think a business or a person should have a tax form longer than 1-2 pages long.
I doubt this will come about, in that it would take too much power away from congress over us all.
I think you need to read up a little more on how the Skytran concept works.
Does it go door-to-door where I am and where I want to go on my schedule?
That's what I don't like about public transportation, even if they did get rid of all the smelly bums, etc.
Also, how am I supposed to do shopping, particularly grocery shopping, say if I want to do a BBQ on the weekend? I have often bags of wood for my smoker, if I want to do a brisket and ribs..well, that's at least a 14b whole untrimmed brisket plus beer, and other goodies I'd have to be somehow schlepping around by hand from home, to transport pickup, to drop off place to store, back to transport pickup and then to drop off and then to actual home. But hell, even on weeks I don't do that...I buy my groceries for the whole week, hitting several grocery stores in the area to pick up the best deals, etc. Public transportation just is not convenient for me, nor practical.
I won't even get into having to travel to/from work on very hot, humid often rainy days where by the time I get to my office I'd be sweat soaked at the very least by the non-door to door travel, and not very professional looking.
China is the top country for poor people moving into the middle class. A lot of that movement is from millions of people setting up mom and pop shops.
It USED to be that way in the US too....but of late, between Federal, State and Local regulations, red tape and taxes, it is damned hard to start up, much less run a small business these days. So many of the rules and all, are easy for a large corporation to handle, they can dedicate whole departments to the regulatory paperwork and tax payment schedules.
But it is a bit cryptic and confusing to the common person, who would be better served spending more of their time grooming and growing their business and business processes.
We've inverted it with the more intelligent having fewer and fewer kids.
We realized it is more fun to have more disposable income and the freedom to use and enjoy it.
It's more fun to have a sports car, nice house and toys and freedom to travel, than to be anchored down with a house full or yard apes/rug rats/curtain climbers.
In the US, ethnic neighborhoods sprang up whenever large numbers of immigrants - the old-fashioned, legal kind - came in from one country. They served as landing zones where new arrivals could be among their countrymen as they adjusted to life in a new society. Over time, all those ethnic neighborhoods faded out as their people spread out into the larger culture.
The difference is, those immigrants WANTED to integrate into the larger US culture. They wanted to become full citizens, they wanted to learn ENGLISH which was the national language.
In EU, we see the muslim population, not only staying isolated, but trying to stay that way. They don't want to integrate into the native culture, they want to change it to fit their idea of what the culture should be, and with them, it is largely motivated by their religion, which does not preach integrating and melting in, but that the infidels should be either converted or killed. Its in their koran. (sp?).
In the US, with the influx of Mexicans...it is not quite that bad, but we do see how they are not wanting to fully integrate and learn English, the language that used to unite us in this country. I would posit to you that you can see this in the fact that more and more we have Spanish speaking radio, TV and print.
I know from taking foreign language classes, that the best way to learn and a high motivator to learn your new language is immersion. I took classes where English for the most part was spoken only the first day of class, after that, you had to learn the class language.
Rather than push this in the US, we are now catering to Spanish speaking. Hell, it is getting hard in some areas to find information printed in English, or anyone that speaks what used to be our (unfortunately) un-official official language.
In the US, we are enabling the isolation.
And with lower birthrates of Caucasians, we're now seeing their decline....and the country is changing, not wholly for the best from what I can see.
This lately seems less an integration into the US culture, but a wholesale change in the fundamental culture, much of which is responsible for what made this country great.
Nothing wrong with keeping your previous culture as pride....but bring it into the country, BLEND in with the US and make it a part of the US,which usually means it changes to fit with the greater culture...not that the previously predominate culture changes to fit the "old country" ways.....not like it seems to be doing today.
I think it means, if this trend keeps up, that EU culture, the Germans, the French, etc....will possibly start to disappear, being replaced with the Muslims that are pouring in, staying isolated and not melting into the EU cultures, and they are reproducing at a greater rate.
I guess this is how the long term "revenge" for the crusades will happen. If the Muslim populations get high enough, they can vote in the changes to the laws and the old world cultures will fade.
You turn the AC on in about mid to end of April, and it usually shuts off about early to mid November.
That's pretty much it. I like to keep the house about 69-70F at night, and about 72-74F during the day.
From mid-Nov I occasionally need a little heater, and that's setting it to keep it same temps during the day, but it rarely clicks on.
So, no real complex thermostat needed here.
I run my computers and a server here in my home office 24/7...so occasionally I need to crank the temps a bit lower or set up a fan to blow cooler air circulating back here, but that's about as complex as it gets.
I used to be one too. Anyone on a campus network could access the PDF of the budget, with everyone's name, position, and salary.
The trouble with posting everyones' salaries is that....it DOES tend to trend towards everyone getting paid the same, which penalizes those folks that work harder, are worth more...and are better negotiators.
It takes the competition out of the equation, and caters to the lowest common denominator....
Where's the incentive to bust your ass and innovate when you can plainly see there is a ceiling you will hit and not be able to circumvent?
This is another example of "everyone gets the same trophy just for participating".
Slashdot Mirror
I can see the arguments folks have for the "basic income', in some cases it makes some sense, however, it just goes straight up my ass, the thought of paying someone for doing nothing more than processing oxygen after being born.
I mean, I don't mind safety nets for the infirmed, or the elderly that cannot work and support themselves, but I just cannot wrap my head around paying people for doing nothing more than existing.
That money has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere would be me...I work for a living, I do decently well. I don't mind giving of my own volition to charity, but I can't stand the thought of being taxed to give money to JimBob or Laqueshia to pay their way, if they are happy to exist on that level of life with no other effort required.
DUCK Season!!!
It also takes a bit of intelligence and forethought.
I mean, WHOSE bright idea was it, to put critical infrastructure controls on the internet for God's sake? Let's not get into the fact they often put things up very insecurely, but the bigger question is, why are such components ON the fucking internet to begin with?
Not everything needs to be connected, you know.
Is there a governor on that setting? On some road trips I set my manual cruise control to about 85-90mph or a bit higher, depending on conditions on the road.
You know...in the middle east over there, all the muslims are pretty much well ALL fucked in the head....so, one joke covers them all pretty much. And how do you know the difference looking at them between the two?
Do they wear different hats or something? Or, do you not know till they blow up?
Well, they might send one of their proxy terrorist buddies, like Hezbollah....
Hmm.....First suicide bomber in space?
But these traits you describe, are rising more and MORE in the US, accelerating at an alarming rate as viewed by a number of folks.
The Federal Govt IS becoming too powerful and centralized, the Fed is overtaking the power of the states left and right (where constitutionally power is supposed to reside).
The pride and promotion of individualism is being diluted left and right...the "social justice" is a component of that, everyone is equal...everyone gets a trophy for just participating, let's not praise Johnny for excellence, as that it might cause self esteem issues for Julie....it starts off little, but we're seeing the promotion of the individual in not only something not really to be promoted, but in some ways actually shunned.
And we have a full blown, self-proclaimned socialist Bernie Sanders, gaining popularity in the poles, and a recent poll of liberal Democrat voters in Iowa self identifying as socialist, not capitalists.
Frankly, I think Obama leans much more in this direction, which is why many think his motives ARE to fundamentally move the US away from its former ideals and societal fundamentals.
But there are distros of Linux, like Gentoo...where you can install it and custom compile your kernel, etc...for the hardware it is running on.
If for nothing else, this is nice for squeezing out the most of your older hardware you might be wanting to run things on rather than toss it in the trash.
I'd have put into some index funds, mostly..with some on more volatile stocks while younger, becoming more conservative as I got older...much like I've done with 401Ks over the years, but with my SS money, I'd have had more money in there.
The trouble is, depending on your age, you almost HAVE to take them when you get to retirement age.
This money was forceably taken from my pay over many decades, rather than giving me a choice on how best to invest it for myself. If given that choice early on in my employment history, I could have e invested it and I'd be more well off by having that money grow more, and I could use it.
But when you get close to retirement age, well....you've thrown so much money into the pot, it makes no sense not to try to draw a little of it back from the well.
I was thinking along the same lines the other day, however....there may be other factors.
1. I think there is a real possibility that Clinton may get indicted with the recent FBI findings.
2. Looks like Bloomberg is looking to possibly do a 3rd party, that would split the liberal vote.
There's still a lot of factors in play out there...interesting voting season this is...
Let's lower the corporate tax rate...we have "on paper" the highest in the world.
I say on paper, because the big boy corps, have enough tax attorney's and experts on payroll (whole departments in fact) to find every loophole to pay less and less, while the SMALL businesses get stuck paying the high fees and taxes.
So, let's lower it to a much lower rate, one that competes with the rest of the world, but at the same time...cut out all the deductions and loopholes. You pay x% on profits after your expenses, period.
Doing that would encourage businesses to come back to the US.
Rather than penalize, let's make it a business favorable environment to have your business on US soil, AND have US workers doing the work.
I don't think a business or a person should have a tax form longer than 1-2 pages long.
I doubt this will come about, in that it would take too much power away from congress over us all.
LOL...yep, need to start reviewing before hitting submit...
That's been proven SAVE for centuries....
Sure it is...I now pay more and MORE each year, to cover assholes that can't or won't hold down a decent job and pay for their own shit.
Not to mention, my choices have been reduced, and there are less doctors to go around.
Does it go door-to-door where I am and where I want to go on my schedule?
That's what I don't like about public transportation, even if they did get rid of all the smelly bums, etc.
Also, how am I supposed to do shopping, particularly grocery shopping, say if I want to do a BBQ on the weekend? I have often bags of wood for my smoker, if I want to do a brisket and ribs..well, that's at least a 14b whole untrimmed brisket plus beer, and other goodies I'd have to be somehow schlepping around by hand from home, to transport pickup, to drop off place to store, back to transport pickup and then to drop off and then to actual home. But hell, even on weeks I don't do that...I buy my groceries for the whole week, hitting several grocery stores in the area to pick up the best deals, etc. Public transportation just is not convenient for me, nor practical.
I won't even get into having to travel to/from work on very hot, humid often rainy days where by the time I get to my office I'd be sweat soaked at the very least by the non-door to door travel, and not very professional looking.
And this should concern me why....?
It will be functional till my days are over...and after that, what do I care?
I'll be dead.
It USED to be that way in the US too....but of late, between Federal, State and Local regulations, red tape and taxes, it is damned hard to start up, much less run a small business these days. So many of the rules and all, are easy for a large corporation to handle, they can dedicate whole departments to the regulatory paperwork and tax payment schedules.
But it is a bit cryptic and confusing to the common person, who would be better served spending more of their time grooming and growing their business and business processes.
We realized it is more fun to have more disposable income and the freedom to use and enjoy it.
It's more fun to have a sports car, nice house and toys and freedom to travel, than to be anchored down with a house full or yard apes/rug rats/curtain climbers.
The difference is, those immigrants WANTED to integrate into the larger US culture. They wanted to become full citizens, they wanted to learn ENGLISH which was the national language.
In EU, we see the muslim population, not only staying isolated, but trying to stay that way. They don't want to integrate into the native culture, they want to change it to fit their idea of what the culture should be, and with them, it is largely motivated by their religion, which does not preach integrating and melting in, but that the infidels should be either converted or killed. Its in their koran. (sp?).
In the US, with the influx of Mexicans...it is not quite that bad, but we do see how they are not wanting to fully integrate and learn English, the language that used to unite us in this country. I would posit to you that you can see this in the fact that more and more we have Spanish speaking radio, TV and print.
I know from taking foreign language classes, that the best way to learn and a high motivator to learn your new language is immersion. I took classes where English for the most part was spoken only the first day of class, after that, you had to learn the class language.
Rather than push this in the US, we are now catering to Spanish speaking. Hell, it is getting hard in some areas to find information printed in English, or anyone that speaks what used to be our (unfortunately) un-official official language.
In the US, we are enabling the isolation.
And with lower birthrates of Caucasians, we're now seeing their decline....and the country is changing, not wholly for the best from what I can see.
This lately seems less an integration into the US culture, but a wholesale change in the fundamental culture, much of which is responsible for what made this country great.
Nothing wrong with keeping your previous culture as pride....but bring it into the country, BLEND in with the US and make it a part of the US,which usually means it changes to fit with the greater culture...not that the previously predominate culture changes to fit the "old country" ways.....not like it seems to be doing today.
I guess this is how the long term "revenge" for the crusades will happen. If the Muslim populations get high enough, they can vote in the changes to the laws and the old world cultures will fade.
You turn the AC on in about mid to end of April, and it usually shuts off about early to mid November.
That's pretty much it. I like to keep the house about 69-70F at night, and about 72-74F during the day.
From mid-Nov I occasionally need a little heater, and that's setting it to keep it same temps during the day, but it rarely clicks on.
So, no real complex thermostat needed here.
I run my computers and a server here in my home office 24/7...so occasionally I need to crank the temps a bit lower or set up a fan to blow cooler air circulating back here, but that's about as complex as it gets.
Pretty much the same reason so many guys seem to have a hard time getting laid.
You just gotta ask and be confident about yourself in SO many facets of life.
So many men are scared of asking a (pretty) girl out or talking to a boss about a raise.
sad
The trouble with posting everyones' salaries is that....it DOES tend to trend towards everyone getting paid the same, which penalizes those folks that work harder, are worth more...and are better negotiators.
It takes the competition out of the equation, and caters to the lowest common denominator....
Where's the incentive to bust your ass and innovate when you can plainly see there is a ceiling you will hit and not be able to circumvent?
This is another example of "everyone gets the same trophy just for participating".