I strongly disagree with Islam and with much of the Quran, but its antiquity, like that of the Old and New Testaments (with which I do agree), is well attested by historical, archaeological and radiological evidence.
It's even worse than that. It's public record that both al Qaeda and Daesh were created, armed, and supported by the U.S., to fight the Russians and Assad respectively. That's not even in serious dispute. The disputed fact is whether those groups later turned against the U.S. (that is of course the official explanation), or whether they continue to do the bidding of the U.S. government albeit of course in a way it can no longer officially admit or condone. I strongly lean toward the latter conclusion.
YMMV, but I went from 3-4 bad colds a year, to maybe one mild one every other year, when I started supplementing with vitamins C (1000mg/day), D (4800IU/day), magnesium, and zinc. I've been horribly insomniac all my life, but I still never get colds, even though I'm around children all the time, a lot of them get sick, blow their nose or puke on me, etc., and I almost *never* get their colds or GI bugs. Our own kids also stopped getting them when we started supplementing, and they're around sick kids even more than I am. I really do believe that vitamins C and D are things our immune systems need but don't usually get enough of, and that if we do get them, then getting a mild viral infection should be an exceptional circumstance, not a normal one. I'm also not discounting the value of sleep. My extreme lack thereof causes or contributes to many other health problems (depression, anxiety, lack of concentration or short-term memory, obesity, hypertension, insulin and leptin resistance, etc.). However, in spite of all this, and what I would consider generally poor health overall, I almost never get colds anymore. The supplements are cheap, and, in the quantities I take them, very unlikely to cause any other health problems. I strongly recommend them.
I would make sure that my family, friends and loved ones were financially taken care of, then donate the rest to missions and relief work, and then I would go very, very far away, someplace no one knows me.
Definitely interesting. I find that 90% or more of the legacy code I work on would fail any reasonable test of software quality, but, then, much of it was written by people whose background consisted largely of Visual Basic, and/or were mostly hardware, not software, specialists. I only wish it were easier to convey to top management why it is so vital to manage, or even to acknowledge, the resulting technical debt. Until a large customer complains, they just never seem to get the message, and, by the time that happens, it may often be too late to do much more than band-aid together a crappy workaround that only worsens the underlying problem instead of addressing it.
I read and completely agree with your article about interfaces. I'd rank that principle a close second to KISS (keep it simple....) in terms of its absolute necessity in terms of managing the complexity inherent in all modern systems. But, sadly, I believe Mr. Poettering fails to grasp either one. I don't doubt that he's a good and talented coder, or even that there are streaks of brilliance in his vision for how things could and should work. However, IMO, he demonstrates very little grasp of maintainable architecture or design. Over the years, I've worked with a lot of people a lot like him. In their proper place, they are great assets. However, they need to work under the direction of someone who can see the bigger picture; in this case, the ecosystem Linux inherits from UN*X and how and why it evolved into what it is today. Otherwise, it is my experience that, 100.00% of the time, their work, no matter how brilliant, ends up having to be scrapped and redone, because it solves a different problem than the one that actually exists, and in the process, often creates brand new problems as well. As far as I can tell, no one is managing Mr. Poettering. He is managing himself, and distro maintainers are accepting the result only because it makes their lives easier in the short term. I could be wrong, and I sincerely hope I am, but 25+ years of development experience tells me that this is going to prove to be an even bigger disaster than most of systemd's detractors currently understand, and you nailed much of the reason why: not understanding the concept of robust interfaces with replaceable implementations, Poettering instead creates poor and non-compatible replacements for their functionality, which work well with the rest of systemd, but little else.
YMMV, but I never encountered that issue. Generally I've only encountered persistent blockers as a result of mixing arch and ~arch, or trying to build GNOME, which I gave up on some time ago (and just as well, given my distrust for systemd, since, for all practical purposes, it requires systemd). Keep in mind that Gentoo is less a distribution than a meta-distribution: it is a set of tools to help you build your *own* distribution, and when upstream folks make questionable design or architectural decisions, it sometimes manifests as pain for distro maintainers, which includes Gentoo users. That's simply a part of the price you pay for the flexibility of being able to build a system to your own specifications, and while I think it is an acceptable price to pay for my particular set of needs, it is definitely not for everyone.
Yes, systemd is included, but my understanding is that as of right now, OpenRC is the only fully supported init system on Gentoo. Many packages will pull in systemd as a dependency, but it will not be forced to run as PID 1. If you do wish to do so, there is documentation that will walk you through the process of switching, but, IIRC, it is not officially supported. Package maintainers are encouraged to write both init scripts and systemd service files, which leads me to believe that there may be a switch to systemd someday, but it hasn't happened yet and I'm not aware that it is being planned anytime soon.
I find it kind of sad when anyone, regardless of sexual orientation, chooses not to procreate, when they could. They miss out on so much. I believe we are hard-wired to live at least in large part for children and for family (and, even more, to live for God, but that's a separate argument). When we give that up, perhaps because we feared the responsibilty or financial commitment or whatever, we also give up so many precious, sweet, beautiful moments, none of which I or most other parents would now trade for all the money in the world.
Actually, some of us do. For instance, those of us who try to follow Christ also, by definition, try to give at least some consideration to how Jesus defined it:
"27 You have heard that it was said to those of old,[c] 'You shall not commit adultery.' 28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
(Matt. 5:27-28, NKJV)
The lesson: Big sins usually start off as small ones. Don't lust after other women, don't think about cheating, don't put yourself in the position where you might, don't neglect your marriage to the point where you feel you need to, and chances are pretty good that you won't.
We also try to remember that if God has forgiven us our sins against Him, then we also ought to be willing to forgive those who sin against us. Most marriages can be saved if both partners are willing to save it, and, sometimes, even if one of them is not.
Rand was an occasionally brilliant thinker, but also a very inconsistent one. Her contributions to libertarian thought were significant, but by no means foundational; its real foundations go back at least to the beginnings of Western classical liberalism, and I would argue much further. Furthermore, many libertarians and voluntaryists, myself included, strongly reject many tenets of Objectivism such as its disdain for altruism, compassion and faith.
I oppose National and all other forms of socialism, except purely voluntary ones, and for the same reason. Their inherently totalitarian nature always has the effect, even if not always the intention, of destroying freedom. I do not oppose voluntary forms of socialism such as employee-owned businesses, so long as they acquired the business lawfully and not through theft or violence.
"Totalitarian" does not imply a state as bad as Hitler's or Mao's. Only that there are few or no meaningful limits on the power of the state. I believe many nations today qualify, as did Tito's (IMO). And I do think that is a bad thing, but it doesn't imply that all totalitarian states are equally bad, or even that all such states are inherently worse than non-totalitarian ones. (DIsclaimer: not Yugoslavian technically, but I do have Slovenian ancestry and my wife is from Skopje in now what is now the Republic of Macedonia.)
AFAICT, certs measure knowledge. Successful real-world experience, IMO, both implies and trumps knowledge alone. Both have their place though. For instance, I'd think that a person who has yet to gain that level experience can at least demonstrate, through a certification, at least the ability to memorize things, and that is a useful skill in any area related to technology. Depending on the quality of the cert, a good one can arguably demonstrate a great deal more, possibly including a certain level of problem-solving ability. I've been able to make a reasonably good living without any certifications whatsoever, but, living in a relatively small city, I've also had my opportunities somewhat limited by this (plus lacking a degree, the bigger problem in general). For me, they were not necessary, strictly speaking, but they might have been useful. I might have been able to use them to advance into a more value-added role such as design, architecture, or lifecycle management, rather than being a coder (albeit a good one, and with some aptitude for those other areas) for most of my career.
Well, I see in all religions, including much of what passes for Christianity, man's attempt to know God, or, at any rate, something outside of, something greater than, ourselves. However, the little bit I understand of Christianity suggests that it is something quite different: not us reaching out for God but Him reaching down to us, meeting us at our place of need, in our brokenness and fallenness. Now, I do believe what Jesus said, whether it is politically correct or not. That He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that no one comes to the Father but by Him (John 14:6). However, I do not see this as an exclusion of other religions, but, rather, an invitation to all, of any religion or multiple religions or no religion at all, to come to the Father, the only way that is possible, through Him. He doesn't exclude anyone. We exclude ourselves, by our choosing to live differently than the way He created us to. And yet there He is, reaching out and calling us anyway, all who will listen. I mean no offense to anyone by saying this, although I know from experience some will find it anyway. I hope that if in any way possible, through these words some might find hope.
I tend to run an emerge --sync and apply most package updates every day or two. In my experience this helps keep things running smoothly. The kernel, however, only gets updated every month or two, or when I become aware of a kernel vulnerability that potentially might affect my system (rare but not unknown). Same basic procedure with my work PC: Windows Updates every few days, or sooner if I learn of a critical (but patched) vulnerability. Obviously on a mission-critical production system my policy would be different, but the Gentoo system is for my own use and would not cripple me if it went down because of an update, although that has never happened. (I've broken X during the modularization project, for not R-ing the F-ing M . . that's the worst that's happened to me yet.) The 'Doze system at work would be a royal pain to rebuild since it has, and needs, multiple versions of various Microsoft and other dev tools. But it would not be crippling either; worst case is I'd borrow a VM and use that while rebuilding mine. I don't keep anything on the HD that isn't also on the network in a Git repo or file share someplace else.
I could not possibly be working from that assumption, because I'm blessed to be married to exactly such a woman, who is beautiful both inside and out. I know one day her outer beauty may fade (though probably not for a while - her mom is beautiful as well). But if it is doing so now, it is doing so imperceptibly, whereas her inner beauty . . her kindness and thoughtfulness and strength and intelligence and many other insanely wonderful qualities . . . continue to impress me more and more, each and every time we manage to spend time together. I am sure that sooner or later she will get sick of me and ditch me for someone better, but there is *zero* chance I would ever want to leave her or to want anyone else. She is that wonderful.
As best I can tell, and I've been studying it all my adult life, there is nothing in the Bible to preclude the possibility of intelligent extraterrestrial life. It is not mentioned as such, but absence of evidence is not evidence of absence and all that. The universe is a big place. I find it unlikely that we would find extraterrestrial life, even if it were reasonably common, for reasons already amply stated by others. However, it would in no way call any part of the Christian faith into question if we did.
I understand the dilemma, but cannot support what the "hackers" are trying to do. See Romans 3:8. It usually is a bad idea to do evil so that good may result. It will not deter those seeking to violate their covenants with their spouses; they will simply find some other way to do so. But it will destroy many homes, and many children's lives, that otherwise perhaps might have been saved. Some people cheat, and then later repent, perhaps after becoming aware of the fact that the grass really isn't "greener" on the other side and that the short-term pleasures associated with infidelity are not worth the long-term disruptions that it tends to wreak upon their marriages and families. When and how (and some might argue whether) to tell the cheated-upon spouse should not be up to some random strangers.
Maybe you hang around the wrong kind of women. Sure, appearance may fade with age, but that is, quite literally, only the surface of that which makes any woman attractive. There is so much more underneath, for those who care enough to look.
I'm choose not to consume animals (actually not entirely by choice - I lack the ability to digest them - but I'd choose not to anyway even if I could). Nonetheless I can still respect Dr. Grandin's work, as it makes a formerly much more cruel and heartless process at least a little bit more humane. Rightly or wrongly we are a carnivorous culture. I hope and pray that over time that will change, but, since it is not going to happen overnight, I am willing to accept small steps in the direction of more respect for our fellow sentient beings, human and otherwise, rather than none at all.
With all respect, I call BS. As an Aspie, sure, I can program and perform a small handful of other tasks far more easily than most others. But I'd GLADLY trade that for being allowed to attend my children's birthday parties and concerts and church functions and other things from which I have to stay away because my inability to read nonverbal cues looks to other people like, at best, monstrously poor judgment, disrespect for boundaries, and general rudeness and selfishness. If there were a magic pill I could take to make it go away - or even 20 years of therapy, if I had another 20 years (I'm too old now for that to be likely) - I'd jump on it in a heartbeat. It is not "cool" to be an Aspie, at least not to the extent of my level of inability to relate properly to others. The isolation hurts not only me, but those around me, not because they particularly miss me, but because it is awkward, embarrassing, and often socially disabling to them to have to "explain" or justify my presence or my behavior, of which I am often unaware.
That is, more or less, what the Earned Income Tax Credit already does. However, most schools of economic thought recognize the observation made by Adam Smith nearly 250 years ago that employment and wages, especially on the margins and especially of the least skilled, depend primarily on economic growth. Shuffling around an ever-dwindling pie tends to benefit only the shufflers. The pie itself needs to be growing, at least as fast as the population and preferably a little faster.
Slashdot Mirror
I strongly disagree with Islam and with much of the Quran, but its antiquity, like that of the Old and New Testaments (with which I do agree), is well attested by historical, archaeological and radiological evidence.
It's even worse than that. It's public record that both al Qaeda and Daesh were created, armed, and supported by the U.S., to fight the Russians and Assad respectively. That's not even in serious dispute. The disputed fact is whether those groups later turned against the U.S. (that is of course the official explanation), or whether they continue to do the bidding of the U.S. government albeit of course in a way it can no longer officially admit or condone. I strongly lean toward the latter conclusion.
YMMV, but I went from 3-4 bad colds a year, to maybe one mild one every other year, when I started supplementing with vitamins C (1000mg/day), D (4800IU/day), magnesium, and zinc. I've been horribly insomniac all my life, but I still never get colds, even though I'm around children all the time, a lot of them get sick, blow their nose or puke on me, etc., and I almost *never* get their colds or GI bugs. Our own kids also stopped getting them when we started supplementing, and they're around sick kids even more than I am. I really do believe that vitamins C and D are things our immune systems need but don't usually get enough of, and that if we do get them, then getting a mild viral infection should be an exceptional circumstance, not a normal one. I'm also not discounting the value of sleep. My extreme lack thereof causes or contributes to many other health problems (depression, anxiety, lack of concentration or short-term memory, obesity, hypertension, insulin and leptin resistance, etc.). However, in spite of all this, and what I would consider generally poor health overall, I almost never get colds anymore. The supplements are cheap, and, in the quantities I take them, very unlikely to cause any other health problems. I strongly recommend them.
I would make sure that my family, friends and loved ones were financially taken care of, then donate the rest to missions and relief work, and then I would go very, very far away, someplace no one knows me.
Definitely interesting. I find that 90% or more of the legacy code I work on would fail any reasonable test of software quality, but, then, much of it was written by people whose background consisted largely of Visual Basic, and/or were mostly hardware, not software, specialists. I only wish it were easier to convey to top management why it is so vital to manage, or even to acknowledge, the resulting technical debt. Until a large customer complains, they just never seem to get the message, and, by the time that happens, it may often be too late to do much more than band-aid together a crappy workaround that only worsens the underlying problem instead of addressing it.
I read and completely agree with your article about interfaces. I'd rank that principle a close second to KISS (keep it simple....) in terms of its absolute necessity in terms of managing the complexity inherent in all modern systems. But, sadly, I believe Mr. Poettering fails to grasp either one. I don't doubt that he's a good and talented coder, or even that there are streaks of brilliance in his vision for how things could and should work. However, IMO, he demonstrates very little grasp of maintainable architecture or design. Over the years, I've worked with a lot of people a lot like him. In their proper place, they are great assets. However, they need to work under the direction of someone who can see the bigger picture; in this case, the ecosystem Linux inherits from UN*X and how and why it evolved into what it is today. Otherwise, it is my experience that, 100.00% of the time, their work, no matter how brilliant, ends up having to be scrapped and redone, because it solves a different problem than the one that actually exists, and in the process, often creates brand new problems as well. As far as I can tell, no one is managing Mr. Poettering. He is managing himself, and distro maintainers are accepting the result only because it makes their lives easier in the short term. I could be wrong, and I sincerely hope I am, but 25+ years of development experience tells me that this is going to prove to be an even bigger disaster than most of systemd's detractors currently understand, and you nailed much of the reason why: not understanding the concept of robust interfaces with replaceable implementations, Poettering instead creates poor and non-compatible replacements for their functionality, which work well with the rest of systemd, but little else.
YMMV, but I never encountered that issue. Generally I've only encountered persistent blockers as a result of mixing arch and ~arch, or trying to build GNOME, which I gave up on some time ago (and just as well, given my distrust for systemd, since, for all practical purposes, it requires systemd). Keep in mind that Gentoo is less a distribution than a meta-distribution: it is a set of tools to help you build your *own* distribution, and when upstream folks make questionable design or architectural decisions, it sometimes manifests as pain for distro maintainers, which includes Gentoo users. That's simply a part of the price you pay for the flexibility of being able to build a system to your own specifications, and while I think it is an acceptable price to pay for my particular set of needs, it is definitely not for everyone.
Yes, systemd is included, but my understanding is that as of right now, OpenRC is the only fully supported init system on Gentoo. Many packages will pull in systemd as a dependency, but it will not be forced to run as PID 1. If you do wish to do so, there is documentation that will walk you through the process of switching, but, IIRC, it is not officially supported. Package maintainers are encouraged to write both init scripts and systemd service files, which leads me to believe that there may be a switch to systemd someday, but it hasn't happened yet and I'm not aware that it is being planned anytime soon.
Rust in pieces.
You helped to delay the arrival of a reasonably free and open Web for longer than many Slashdotters have been alive.
May every proprietary, insecure, single-vendor piece of battery-eating nonsense suffer the same fate or worse.
I find it kind of sad when anyone, regardless of sexual orientation, chooses not to procreate, when they could. They miss out on so much. I believe we are hard-wired to live at least in large part for children and for family (and, even more, to live for God, but that's a separate argument). When we give that up, perhaps because we feared the responsibilty or financial commitment or whatever, we also give up so many precious, sweet, beautiful moments, none of which I or most other parents would now trade for all the money in the world.
Actually, some of us do. For instance, those of us who try to follow Christ also, by definition, try to give at least some consideration to how Jesus defined it:
"27 You have heard that it was said to those of old,[c] 'You shall not commit adultery.' 28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
(Matt. 5:27-28, NKJV)
The lesson: Big sins usually start off as small ones. Don't lust after other women, don't think about cheating, don't put yourself in the position where you might, don't neglect your marriage to the point where you feel you need to, and chances are pretty good that you won't.
We also try to remember that if God has forgiven us our sins against Him, then we also ought to be willing to forgive those who sin against us. Most marriages can be saved if both partners are willing to save it, and, sometimes, even if one of them is not.
Rand was an occasionally brilliant thinker, but also a very inconsistent one. Her contributions to libertarian thought were significant, but by no means foundational; its real foundations go back at least to the beginnings of Western classical liberalism, and I would argue much further. Furthermore, many libertarians and voluntaryists, myself included, strongly reject many tenets of Objectivism such as its disdain for altruism, compassion and faith.
I oppose National and all other forms of socialism, except purely voluntary ones, and for the same reason. Their inherently totalitarian nature always has the effect, even if not always the intention, of destroying freedom. I do not oppose voluntary forms of socialism such as employee-owned businesses, so long as they acquired the business lawfully and not through theft or violence.
"Totalitarian" does not imply a state as bad as Hitler's or Mao's. Only that there are few or no meaningful limits on the power of the state. I believe many nations today qualify, as did Tito's (IMO). And I do think that is a bad thing, but it doesn't imply that all totalitarian states are equally bad, or even that all such states are inherently worse than non-totalitarian ones. (DIsclaimer: not Yugoslavian technically, but I do have Slovenian ancestry and my wife is from Skopje in now what is now the Republic of Macedonia.)
AFAICT, certs measure knowledge. Successful real-world experience, IMO, both implies and trumps knowledge alone. Both have their place though. For instance, I'd think that a person who has yet to gain that level experience can at least demonstrate, through a certification, at least the ability to memorize things, and that is a useful skill in any area related to technology. Depending on the quality of the cert, a good one can arguably demonstrate a great deal more, possibly including a certain level of problem-solving ability. I've been able to make a reasonably good living without any certifications whatsoever, but, living in a relatively small city, I've also had my opportunities somewhat limited by this (plus lacking a degree, the bigger problem in general). For me, they were not necessary, strictly speaking, but they might have been useful. I might have been able to use them to advance into a more value-added role such as design, architecture, or lifecycle management, rather than being a coder (albeit a good one, and with some aptitude for those other areas) for most of my career.
Well, I see in all religions, including much of what passes for Christianity, man's attempt to know God, or, at any rate, something outside of, something greater than, ourselves. However, the little bit I understand of Christianity suggests that it is something quite different: not us reaching out for God but Him reaching down to us, meeting us at our place of need, in our brokenness and fallenness. Now, I do believe what Jesus said, whether it is politically correct or not. That He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that no one comes to the Father but by Him (John 14:6). However, I do not see this as an exclusion of other religions, but, rather, an invitation to all, of any religion or multiple religions or no religion at all, to come to the Father, the only way that is possible, through Him. He doesn't exclude anyone. We exclude ourselves, by our choosing to live differently than the way He created us to. And yet there He is, reaching out and calling us anyway, all who will listen. I mean no offense to anyone by saying this, although I know from experience some will find it anyway. I hope that if in any way possible, through these words some might find hope.
I tend to run an emerge --sync and apply most package updates every day or two. In my experience this helps keep things running smoothly. The kernel, however, only gets updated every month or two, or when I become aware of a kernel vulnerability that potentially might affect my system (rare but not unknown). Same basic procedure with my work PC: Windows Updates every few days, or sooner if I learn of a critical (but patched) vulnerability. Obviously on a mission-critical production system my policy would be different, but the Gentoo system is for my own use and would not cripple me if it went down because of an update, although that has never happened. (I've broken X during the modularization project, for not R-ing the F-ing M . . that's the worst that's happened to me yet.) The 'Doze system at work would be a royal pain to rebuild since it has, and needs, multiple versions of various Microsoft and other dev tools. But it would not be crippling either; worst case is I'd borrow a VM and use that while rebuilding mine. I don't keep anything on the HD that isn't also on the network in a Git repo or file share someplace else.
I could not possibly be working from that assumption, because I'm blessed to be married to exactly such a woman, who is beautiful both inside and out. I know one day her outer beauty may fade (though probably not for a while - her mom is beautiful as well). But if it is doing so now, it is doing so imperceptibly, whereas her inner beauty . . her kindness and thoughtfulness and strength and intelligence and many other insanely wonderful qualities . . . continue to impress me more and more, each and every time we manage to spend time together. I am sure that sooner or later she will get sick of me and ditch me for someone better, but there is *zero* chance I would ever want to leave her or to want anyone else. She is that wonderful.
As best I can tell, and I've been studying it all my adult life, there is nothing in the Bible to preclude the possibility of intelligent extraterrestrial life. It is not mentioned as such, but absence of evidence is not evidence of absence and all that. The universe is a big place. I find it unlikely that we would find extraterrestrial life, even if it were reasonably common, for reasons already amply stated by others. However, it would in no way call any part of the Christian faith into question if we did.
I understand the dilemma, but cannot support what the "hackers" are trying to do. See Romans 3:8. It usually is a bad idea to do evil so that good may result. It will not deter those seeking to violate their covenants with their spouses; they will simply find some other way to do so. But it will destroy many homes, and many children's lives, that otherwise perhaps might have been saved. Some people cheat, and then later repent, perhaps after becoming aware of the fact that the grass really isn't "greener" on the other side and that the short-term pleasures associated with infidelity are not worth the long-term disruptions that it tends to wreak upon their marriages and families. When and how (and some might argue whether) to tell the cheated-upon spouse should not be up to some random strangers.
Maybe you hang around the wrong kind of women. Sure, appearance may fade with age, but that is, quite literally, only the surface of that which makes any woman attractive. There is so much more underneath, for those who care enough to look.
I'll second that!
I'm choose not to consume animals (actually not entirely by choice - I lack the ability to digest them - but I'd choose not to anyway even if I could). Nonetheless I can still respect Dr. Grandin's work, as it makes a formerly much more cruel and heartless process at least a little bit more humane. Rightly or wrongly we are a carnivorous culture. I hope and pray that over time that will change, but, since it is not going to happen overnight, I am willing to accept small steps in the direction of more respect for our fellow sentient beings, human and otherwise, rather than none at all.
With all respect, I call BS. As an Aspie, sure, I can program and perform a small handful of other tasks far more easily than most others. But I'd GLADLY trade that for being allowed to attend my children's birthday parties and concerts and church functions and other things from which I have to stay away because my inability to read nonverbal cues looks to other people like, at best, monstrously poor judgment, disrespect for boundaries, and general rudeness and selfishness. If there were a magic pill I could take to make it go away - or even 20 years of therapy, if I had another 20 years (I'm too old now for that to be likely) - I'd jump on it in a heartbeat. It is not "cool" to be an Aspie, at least not to the extent of my level of inability to relate properly to others. The isolation hurts not only me, but those around me, not because they particularly miss me, but because it is awkward, embarrassing, and often socially disabling to them to have to "explain" or justify my presence or my behavior, of which I am often unaware.
That is, more or less, what the Earned Income Tax Credit already does. However, most schools of economic thought recognize the observation made by Adam Smith nearly 250 years ago that employment and wages, especially on the margins and especially of the least skilled, depend primarily on economic growth. Shuffling around an ever-dwindling pie tends to benefit only the shufflers. The pie itself needs to be growing, at least as fast as the population and preferably a little faster.