We could overturn the Citizen's United ruling with new legislation that ends corporate personhood.
Doing so would not end capitalism, it would not make us socialism, it would bring about healthier business and healthier government.
Unfortunately, I don't believe there is any way to "fix" for-profit corporations because of their charter. The only option is to remove for-profit corporations as a business entity and only leave non-profit corporations. There shouldn't be a need for the protections a corporation offers if the company isn't doing anything illegal.
I believe what people really resent are the "chartered for greed" corporations. Everything they do is to maximize profit which warps even the things they do that "appear" to be from a good motivation. They try and make their company more appealing by donating to charity, claiming some more environmentally friendly product, or enhancing workplace benefits but that generally doesn't make things great for the employees in the long run. That drive for money taints everything the company does and makes it a "soul crushing" environment. No one, not even the CEO, really feels ownership of the company because the charter removes the possibility of "humanizing" the company's decisions.
The government is the only real protection from getting ground-up and spit-out by corporations. Also, as a previous post pointed out, if becomes very expensive to just ignore the problem of people that are unable to work for whatever reason. We would go broke trying to put everyone in prison that was forced to steal because they couldn't work and had no other source of income. No one is more dangerous than someone with nothing to lose. This is why capitalism vs socialism is a ridiculous argument. We need both of them.
When I worked IT years ago it was all about knowledge of the latest technology that counted. As technology moves on, knowledge of older technology (like X.25 or Decnet) just becomes useless so there is little perceived advantage to being older even though the system issues like manageability, reliability, and performance stay somewhat constant. It's the only job I know of where experience works against you! Young people, many times, get to learn the technology before they actually start working which is an enormous advantage. I became frustrated with the greatly increased complexity of technology with little additional benefits and decided it was time to get out before my bad attitude forced me out. It was the best decision I ever made and I would NEVER encourage anyone to get into IT because you WILL "age out" eventually in the private sector.
Duh! Corporations are chartered for greed so it automatically eliminates anyone with compassion from running it. The real problem is that most people don't want to admit that we are all part of the problem. The people that work for the corporations, buy from the corporations or invest in the corporations covers a wide swath of the general public. Where we work and how we spend our money either reinforces or reduces the problem. If people just throw up their hands and say "I don't have a choice" then things will continue in the same direction. Only when more people decide to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem will anything change.
Freedom to Roam doesn't mean you can setup a permanent camp wherever you like. All land is owned by someone and you would have to get permission to stay, which is unlikely.
(sarcastic)Unfortunately, the trickle-down model is correct. The rich let enough money trickle down so people don't get desperate enough to kill the rich.( end sarcastic)
Yes there is. That doesn't mean everyone in the country believes exactly the same thing but this country attracts people who want to live a more materially prosperous life through hard work. In a sense, it engenders a "I got mine now you work hard to get yours" attitude in many people. Public policy is driven by what the majority wants to a great extent so where it differs from the rest of the world it reflects our "American Mentality".
I totally agree. Various food additives cause ADD type symptoms while excess sugar creates a 'brain fog' that makes it hard to concentrate. Unfortunately, crappy food is cheap.
Maybe you could explain your view instead of just being contrarian. What is the meaning of your 100 years, or less, on the planet? Where is the justice in some people being born into wealthy societies while others are born into grinding poverty? I'm willing to drop my religious views if you have a better idea.
Seriously!! Human beings have an incredible power-to-weight ratio, can convert a wide range of hydrocarbons to energy, can self-heal minor damage and you think the fact that air and food go down the same tube is a design flaw?
It's very easy to criticize something we don't really understand. Everyone who thinks humans could be better designed should do so or shut-up.
Here's another thought. Why don't you actually read and take the time to mentally process a post before you reply to it. I didn't say I was intrinsically against porn. Just that it, like any entertainment, shouldn't be confused with reality.
If they did then they would learn that porn is usually geared towards what men want sexual interaction to look like, NOT what women want it to look like.
And why should I care what women want? They don't care what I want either.
Maybe men that don't interact well with women are the result of NOT spending any time learning about women. If they did then they would learn that porn is usually geared towards what men want sexual interaction to look like, NOT what women want it to look like.
Interacting with real people requires social skills that get harder to acquire as we get older because the unconditional love of mom/dad/grandma/.. may not be there to lessen the blow of rejection or realizing we need to change in some area. It is easier to distract ourselves with entertainment (video games, porn, movies, etc.) than to risk having a negative relationship experience. If there is no one we trust to instruct us in the proper way to behave then we will just assume that the rest of the world is the problem. This could lead to some very bad behavior.
I believe there is a downward trend in the ability of men and women to interact in a healthy way. Women may not have issues with video games and porn but they can easily become very self-centered, vain, gossipy, and lacking in social skills. I just think that the cause, which has always been, is poor parenting.
Companies go on and on about the beauty of the "free market system" until it doesn't work for them. The U.S. government rushes in to help companies stay competitive but doesn't do much to help our workforce stay competitive. Helping U.S. companies does not help U.S. workers like it once did. Most companies depend on labor outside the U.S. to some extent. Why can't they put a tax on outsourced labor to make U.S. wage rates competitive?
I've never seen a U.S. congress that cared less about it's people than this one. The message from out government is if you can't figure out how to make a livable wage in this recession then just disappear so we don't have to deal with you. The real "kick in the head" is that if I didn't have to support our bloated local, state and federal government, deal with reams of regulations, and spend large amounts of money on insurance to protect me from a litigious society then I could be competitive with the rest of the world.
The reason that unions are dying off is because of outsourcing. The union has no power if the company can just move the manufacturing to another country with a totalitarian government that won't allow unions. It should scare you that we can NEVER compete against any country with a low standard of living, little infrastructure to support, little or no environmental regulations and few labor laws.
If you think that innovation or green jobs are going to save this economy then you probably believe in the Easter bunny and Santa Claus.
After watching the movie, Total Recall, I realized that Mars is the perfect place for a corporation to setup. You have complete control over your employees including the oxygen they breath. Any problem with an employee can be resolved with an airlock malfunction. It's a sociopathic CEO's dream come true.
They want parent involvement until it steps on the toes of some overpaid PhD who thinks there is some clever way to make math easier to learn so all the test scores will go up. When a parent actually pays attention to what's going on and realizes there's a problem, the school system closes ranks to protect the idiot.
There is plenty of water, just not a lot of fresh water. If you have energy you can turn salt water into fresh water. It just means that water is going to be very expensive and so food will have to be grown using less water. There are hydroponic and aquaponic systems already that use as little as 10% of what is used for dirt farming.
This might be true if an iPhone was a necessity of life. I know people are going to hunt me down and do horrible things to me for saying this but people can live without an iPhone (or substitute whatever smartphone is hot at the moment). If the obscene profit of the wireless carriers upset you then figure out a way to live without it. I pay $20/month for voice/text on a dumb phone and am completely content. Being a "techno-lemming" is like being a heroin addict. You pay whatever the dealer is asking because you HAVE to have it.
It is easy to point the blame at someone else for why the economy is tanking but the reality is that the problem is us. Greed and egocentrism at every level of society made this financial mess possible.
The problem with your counter-example is that there is little motivation for someone to automate their jobs in those cases because they get probably get paid by the hour. If they free up time by automating part of their job then their boss will just find more work for them. Doing boring, repetitive work appeals to some people. It's the company that is interested in being more efficient and they need to hire someone to make it happen.
If Slashdot is any indication, then a government filled with engineers would be really snarky!
I don't believe that any particular group of people will ultimately be better or worse than any other at running government. I would like to point out that the technology, that members of Slashdot have helped develop, will allow governments to micromanage a large population in a way that was previously impossible. The ability to use computers to track and profile people has allowed the government to lockdown society in ways that make the powers of a police state truly terrifying.
I would agree with you except for one thing. Automated production, at the moment, is only viable for mass production and if jobs disappear because of automation then automation becomes less and less viable because the consumer market for its product gets smaller and smaller. If the trend continues where wealth gets concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people then the whole manufacturing paradigm gets turned on its head. We'll be back to building pyramids for the pharaohs where millions of people will be employed building custom projects for the rich. With virtually no middle-class anywhere there will be few options for many people except to take whatever "slave wage" job comes around. All sorts of possibilities open up when you have a large pool of cheap labor and no one who can stop you.
You forgot heartless and greedy. I'm not sure why people find this post funny since I find it generally more true than not.
I guess if people think: "Sure the CEO is a ruthless bastard but we get to do some really cool technology!" then until he stabs YOU in the back it's just fun and games.
Slashdot Mirror
We could overturn the Citizen's United ruling with new legislation that ends corporate personhood.
Doing so would not end capitalism, it would not make us socialism, it would bring about healthier business and healthier government.
Unfortunately, I don't believe there is any way to "fix" for-profit corporations because of their charter. The only option is to remove for-profit corporations as a business entity and only leave non-profit corporations. There shouldn't be a need for the protections a corporation offers if the company isn't doing anything illegal.
I believe what people really resent are the "chartered for greed" corporations. Everything they do is to maximize profit which warps even the things they do that "appear" to be from a good motivation. They try and make their company more appealing by donating to charity, claiming some more environmentally friendly product, or enhancing workplace benefits but that generally doesn't make things great for the employees in the long run. That drive for money taints everything the company does and makes it a "soul crushing" environment. No one, not even the CEO, really feels ownership of the company because the charter removes the possibility of "humanizing" the company's decisions.
The government is the only real protection from getting ground-up and spit-out by corporations. Also, as a previous post pointed out, if becomes very expensive to just ignore the problem of people that are unable to work for whatever reason. We would go broke trying to put everyone in prison that was forced to steal because they couldn't work and had no other source of income. No one is more dangerous than someone with nothing to lose. This is why capitalism vs socialism is a ridiculous argument. We need both of them.
When I worked IT years ago it was all about knowledge of the latest technology that counted. As technology moves on, knowledge of older technology (like X.25 or Decnet) just becomes useless so there is little perceived advantage to being older even though the system issues like manageability, reliability, and performance stay somewhat constant. It's the only job I know of where experience works against you! Young people, many times, get to learn the technology before they actually start working which is an enormous advantage. I became frustrated with the greatly increased complexity of technology with little additional benefits and decided it was time to get out before my bad attitude forced me out. It was the best decision I ever made and I would NEVER encourage anyone to get into IT because you WILL "age out" eventually in the private sector.
Duh! Corporations are chartered for greed so it automatically eliminates anyone with compassion from running it. The real problem is that most people don't want to admit that we are all part of the problem. The people that work for the corporations, buy from the corporations or invest in the corporations covers a wide swath of the general public. Where we work and how we spend our money either reinforces or reduces the problem. If people just throw up their hands and say "I don't have a choice" then things will continue in the same direction. Only when more people decide to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem will anything change.
Freedom to Roam doesn't mean you can setup a permanent camp wherever you like. All land is owned by someone and you would have to get permission to stay, which is unlikely.
(sarcastic)Unfortunately, the trickle-down model is correct. The rich let enough money trickle down so people don't get desperate enough to kill the rich.( end sarcastic)
Yes there is. That doesn't mean everyone in the country believes exactly the same thing but this country attracts people who want to live a more materially prosperous life through hard work. In a sense, it engenders a "I got mine now you work hard to get yours" attitude in many people. Public policy is driven by what the majority wants to a great extent so where it differs from the rest of the world it reflects our "American Mentality".
I totally agree. Various food additives cause ADD type symptoms while excess sugar creates a 'brain fog' that makes it hard to concentrate. Unfortunately, crappy food is cheap.
How would you know that unless you WERE an omnipotent super-being? That's like your pet telling you the way you live your life is stupid.
Maybe you could explain your view instead of just being contrarian. What is the meaning of your 100 years, or less, on the planet? Where is the justice in some people being born into wealthy societies while others are born into grinding poverty? I'm willing to drop my religious views if you have a better idea.
Seriously!! Human beings have an incredible power-to-weight ratio, can convert a wide range of hydrocarbons to energy, can self-heal minor damage and you think the fact that air and food go down the same tube is a design flaw?
It's very easy to criticize something we don't really understand. Everyone who thinks humans could be better designed should do so or shut-up.
Here's another thought. Why don't you actually read and take the time to mentally process a post before you reply to it. I didn't say I was intrinsically against porn. Just that it, like any entertainment, shouldn't be confused with reality.
And why should I care what women want? They don't care what I want either.
How's that working for you so far.
Maybe men that don't interact well with women are the result of NOT spending any time learning about women. If they did then they would learn that porn is usually geared towards what men want sexual interaction to look like, NOT what women want it to look like.
Interacting with real people requires social skills that get harder to acquire as we get older because the unconditional love of mom/dad/grandma/.. may not be there to lessen the blow of rejection or realizing we need to change in some area. It is easier to distract ourselves with entertainment (video games, porn, movies, etc.) than to risk having a negative relationship experience. If there is no one we trust to instruct us in the proper way to behave then we will just assume that the rest of the world is the problem. This could lead to some very bad behavior.
I believe there is a downward trend in the ability of men and women to interact in a healthy way. Women may not have issues with video games and porn but they can easily become very self-centered, vain, gossipy, and lacking in social skills. I just think that the cause, which has always been, is poor parenting.
Companies go on and on about the beauty of the "free market system" until it doesn't work for them. The U.S. government rushes in to help companies stay competitive but doesn't do much to help our workforce stay competitive. Helping U.S. companies does not help U.S. workers like it once did. Most companies depend on labor outside the U.S. to some extent. Why can't they put a tax on outsourced labor to make U.S. wage rates competitive?
I've never seen a U.S. congress that cared less about it's people than this one. The message from out government is if you can't figure out how to make a livable wage in this recession then just disappear so we don't have to deal with you. The real "kick in the head" is that if I didn't have to support our bloated local, state and federal government, deal with reams of regulations, and spend large amounts of money on insurance to protect me from a litigious society then I could be competitive with the rest of the world.
The reason that unions are dying off is because of outsourcing. The union has no power if the company can just move the manufacturing to another country with a totalitarian government that won't allow unions. It should scare you that we can NEVER compete against any country with a low standard of living, little infrastructure to support, little or no environmental regulations and few labor laws.
If you think that innovation or green jobs are going to save this economy then you probably believe in the Easter bunny and Santa Claus.
After watching the movie, Total Recall, I realized that Mars is the perfect place for a corporation to setup. You have complete control over your employees including the oxygen they breath. Any problem with an employee can be resolved with an airlock malfunction. It's a sociopathic CEO's dream come true.
They want parent involvement until it steps on the toes of some overpaid PhD who thinks there is some clever way to make math easier to learn so all the test scores will go up. When a parent actually pays attention to what's going on and realizes there's a problem, the school system closes ranks to protect the idiot.
The solution, if you can do it, is homeschooling.
There is plenty of water, just not a lot of fresh water. If you have energy you can turn salt water into fresh water. It just means that water is going to be very expensive and so food will have to be grown using less water. There are hydroponic and aquaponic systems already that use as little as 10% of what is used for dirt farming.
The real issue is still energy.
This might be true if an iPhone was a necessity of life. I know people are going to hunt me down and do horrible things to me for saying this but people can live without an iPhone (or substitute whatever smartphone is hot at the moment). If the obscene profit of the wireless carriers upset you then figure out a way to live without it. I pay $20/month for voice/text on a dumb phone and am completely content. Being a "techno-lemming" is like being a heroin addict. You pay whatever the dealer is asking because you HAVE to have it.
It is easy to point the blame at someone else for why the economy is tanking but the reality is that the problem is us. Greed and egocentrism at every level of society made this financial mess possible.
The problem with your counter-example is that there is little motivation for someone to automate their jobs in those cases because they get probably get paid by the hour. If they free up time by automating part of their job then their boss will just find more work for them. Doing boring, repetitive work appeals to some people. It's the company that is interested in being more efficient and they need to hire someone to make it happen.
"Mass ejection" propulsion is so last century. Where are the darn warp drives? I say: "Go FTL or go home."
If Slashdot is any indication, then a government filled with engineers would be really snarky!
I don't believe that any particular group of people will ultimately be better or worse than any other at running government. I would like to point out that the technology, that members of Slashdot have helped develop, will allow governments to micromanage a large population in a way that was previously impossible. The ability to use computers to track and profile people has allowed the government to lockdown society in ways that make the powers of a police state truly terrifying.
I would agree with you except for one thing. Automated production, at the moment, is only viable for mass production and if jobs disappear because of automation then automation becomes less and less viable because the consumer market for its product gets smaller and smaller. If the trend continues where wealth gets concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people then the whole manufacturing paradigm gets turned on its head. We'll be back to building pyramids for the pharaohs where millions of people will be employed building custom projects for the rich. With virtually no middle-class anywhere there will be few options for many people except to take whatever "slave wage" job comes around. All sorts of possibilities open up when you have a large pool of cheap labor and no one who can stop you.
You forgot heartless and greedy. I'm not sure why people find this post funny since I find it generally more true than not. I guess if people think: "Sure the CEO is a ruthless bastard but we get to do some really cool technology!" then until he stabs YOU in the back it's just fun and games.