A point I've read in The Economist, and has really stuck with me, is how one of America's strengths is the somewhat loose federation of the states, which allows for different approaches to any given problem. Each state can try its own approach to the ACA, or education, or taxation laws, et cetera. Eventually the "better" approaches should become clear, and the country as a whole will adopt them.
And that's one of the biggest weaknesses as well. Confederacy was tried twice and both failed.
Look at the struggles of the US building infrastructure like broadband - a loose organization of municipalities and states means thousands of separate jurisdictions to deal with.
Corporations can exploit various differences and form in one state, do business in another - to avoid or partially avoid laws, etc.
Somebody pays for that clearance process and it boils down to the hiring company, granted they may reflect that in their rates and the difference between what they charge the customer and pay the employee (rolled up into their nebulous "overhead"). The process is typically a few months, rarely a year.
The way the catch-22 is resolved is you'll be hired as a short-term contractor (~6 mo) and given minor/lower level work while waiting for the clearance. If it doesn't come, the contract ends and you look for something else.
It is just less risk for them to hire somebody with one already - modern corporate America doesn't want the risk and prefers not to invest in their workforce unless they have to - such a person can start earlier.
People don't care because the actual harm is too ill-defined and nebulous for people to relate to.
A politician that campaigns on fixing this will put 80% of the voters to sleep. A politician that promises to force cable companies to offer ala carte programming will win unanimously.
The bottom line is that the foaming at the mouth rage this induces in... some slashdot users... barely registers as a issue at all to the vast majority.
There's no way to eliminate gerrymandering. There will always be someone who draws the boundaries, and whoever draws them, no matter what rules he follows, will be able to find some way to make some districts lean more than they should.
We had a healthcare system that worked fine for everyone that could afford it.
Your definition of "worked fine" is strange - denied coverage for pre-existing conditions, medical bankruptcies even for those covered....
They have no idea what the unintended consequences are.
This isn't even two weeks old, quit the drama crybaby routine. Universal healthcare works in every other advanced country, and in the U.S. as well (Medicare, VA).
What exactly are you fighting for - the right to be ripped of by insurance?
he'd rather cut spending on things The People find valuable (or are scared into thinking are essential)
Isn't that how it is supposed to work? If he (and by extension, "the gov't") did what he damn well pleased, isn't that... a dictatorship...actual tyranny? As for "what makes sense" - you'd get 435+ different answers as to what that is if you asked, I don't know, the House of Representatives.
Labor is a market, just like any market. The work that unskilled people do in a non-skill-requiring job is worth a certain amount. That dollar amount is the intersection of [whatever a company is willing to pay] and [whatever those people are willing to work for].
You can start a company, pay people whatever you think is fair. That is your right.
What about the unacknowledged subsidy to the employer? They pay unlivable wages and brush off the cost of that (their savings from paying lower wages) onto society when said employees need to get healthcare and food assistance.
Have you already forgotten how the "affordable" healthcare act got voted into law?
Sure, here's a recap since you are a dumbfuck: the bill was passed by a majority in the House, a majority in the Senate, signed into law by the President, and as a super bonus, already been challenged and upheld by the Supreme Court.
In case you are misplaced your copy of the Constitution, that is exactly how it's supposed to be done.
The backroom deals, scheduling, and whatever else are 100% incidental to the process. Sorry you are butthurt but get the fuck over it.
What the GOP is doing is no worse than what the dems had to do to pass it in the first place.
If the GOP had any ethics or integrity, they would have realized after 40+ failed attempts to repeal the law they simply don't have the numbers. Now they are attaching to the normal business of running the country (pass a budget) in a desperate attempt to circumvent the normal means. They are the equivalent of a child pulling a fire alarm at school to avoid a test they didn't study for.
PAYING FEDERAL WORKERS TO STAY AT HOME AND DO NOTHING
This isn't happening, you moron. Federal workers might be given back pay when this is resolved.
USING TAX MONEY COLLECTED VIA THREAT OF FORCE
And that's a perogative of the government, long established throughout history. If you don't like it, then move the fuck away to some place that better suits your needs. One that you have a clear, non-forced ownership of that extends back in time. Basically, an uninhabited island that you purchase from the current owner.
If one trillion dollars to help take care of the citizens of the country is "too much", then Republicans should reexamine their priorities. There was money to start bullshit wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, money to bail out Wall Street (about the same amount as the extra needed for the ACA)... does the GOP give a crap about issues non-billionaires deal with?
This kind of deadlock is a flaw, because literally the only way the people get to weigh in is at an election every two years. In other countries, failing to make a budget to run the government would trigger another election.
Exactly! Without the Federal Government, we wouldn't have a national highway system, NASA and space technology (GPS satellites...), the Internet, nuclear power/energy (and weapons...), etc. not to mention some protection against corporations externalizing all their pollution somewhere else, and considering the occasional mass poisoning a business/PR expense.
Republicans were already posing on day one of the shutdown, at War Memorials in DC, feigning shock that a shutdown actually shut stuff down.
And you have your head fully shoved up some Tea Tard ass.
The ACA was also upheld by the Supreme Court as Constitutional. This is a law, passed by both Houses of Congress, signed by the President, upheld by the Supreme Court, and is quite clearly legit. All the Tea Party/Republitards should be impeached.
The unwillingness to enforce border controls has probably cost more Americans jobs in the last 20 years than any technological advance.
Right, so this is all the fault of the government, and businesses that employ undocumented workers are completely blameless. Asking them to follow the law is just too inconvenient to their profits.
Slashdot Mirror
A point I've read in The Economist, and has really stuck with me, is how one of America's strengths is the somewhat loose federation of the states, which allows for different approaches to any given problem. Each state can try its own approach to the ACA, or education, or taxation laws, et cetera. Eventually the "better" approaches should become clear, and the country as a whole will adopt them.
And that's one of the biggest weaknesses as well. Confederacy was tried twice and both failed.
Look at the struggles of the US building infrastructure like broadband - a loose organization of municipalities and states means thousands of separate jurisdictions to deal with.
Corporations can exploit various differences and form in one state, do business in another - to avoid or partially avoid laws, etc.
The Republicans want government to fail, so it does.
So true! Ideally, it would also fail in a manner to generate business for the 1%.
Given the context of the quote, I think girlintraining meant "MUNICIPAL broadband".
I think the poster meant "MUNICIPAL broadband is banned by law".
There are too many instances of that being true to list.
Why does the White House need a private-sector "tech surge" to repair its wretched Obamacare website failures?
Didn't the private sector build (or fail to build) the website in the first place?
What was debated and what was in the final draft are two different things.
So... it was like every law passed by Congress?
More to the point, who would bet that kind of cash, and their corporate health and/or reputation, on Microsoft?
Heck, Azure itself was down for hours last leap day:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazure/archive/2012/03/09/summary-of-windows-azure-service-disruption-on-feb-29th-2012.aspx
No, that's not how it works now (recently).
Somebody pays for that clearance process and it boils down to the hiring company, granted they may reflect that in their rates and the difference between what they charge the customer and pay the employee (rolled up into their nebulous "overhead"). The process is typically a few months, rarely a year.
The way the catch-22 is resolved is you'll be hired as a short-term contractor (~6 mo) and given minor/lower level work while waiting for the clearance. If it doesn't come, the contract ends and you look for something else.
It is just less risk for them to hire somebody with one already - modern corporate America doesn't want the risk and prefers not to invest in their workforce unless they have to - such a person can start earlier.
People like you are why this site is circling the drain.
Which provides evidence on how overpriced Apple products are, and how many idiots will pay far too much to get nothing extra in return.
All I see in evidence is the free market at work.
People don't care because the actual harm is too ill-defined and nebulous for people to relate to.
A politician that campaigns on fixing this will put 80% of the voters to sleep. A politician that promises to force cable companies to offer ala carte programming will win unanimously.
The bottom line is that the foaming at the mouth rage this induces in... some slashdot users... barely registers as a issue at all to the vast majority.
There's no way to eliminate gerrymandering. There will always be someone who draws the boundaries, and whoever draws them, no matter what rules he follows, will be able to find some way to make some districts lean more than they should.
Use a garden variety splitline algorithm - see http://rangevoting.org/GerryExamples.html
We had a healthcare system that worked fine for everyone that could afford it.
Your definition of "worked fine" is strange - denied coverage for pre-existing conditions, medical bankruptcies even for those covered....
They have no idea what the unintended consequences are.
This isn't even two weeks old, quit the drama crybaby routine. Universal healthcare works in every other advanced country, and in the U.S. as well (Medicare, VA).
What exactly are you fighting for - the right to be ripped of by insurance?
Where did the money go?
Overhead to the various private contractors involved.
I fear my Government more than I fear terrorists.
So move to Afghanistan and you should feel safer?
Sounds like the NRC should be funded solely by fees paid by the companies they regulate.
Or NOT because that kind of system just begs for bribery and corruption.
he'd rather cut spending on things The People find valuable (or are scared into thinking are essential)
Isn't that how it is supposed to work? If he (and by extension, "the gov't") did what he damn well pleased, isn't that... a dictatorship...actual tyranny?
As for "what makes sense" - you'd get 435+ different answers as to what that is if you asked, I don't know, the House of Representatives.
Labor is a market, just like any market. The work that unskilled people do in a non-skill-requiring job is worth a certain amount. That dollar amount is the intersection of [whatever a company is willing to pay] and [whatever those people are willing to work for].
You can start a company, pay people whatever you think is fair. That is your right.
What about the unacknowledged subsidy to the employer? They pay unlivable wages and brush off the cost of that (their savings from paying lower wages) onto society when said employees need to get healthcare and food assistance.
Have you already forgotten how the "affordable" healthcare act got voted into law?
Sure, here's a recap since you are a dumbfuck: the bill was passed by a majority in the House, a majority in the Senate, signed into law by the President, and as a super bonus, already been challenged and upheld by the Supreme Court.
In case you are misplaced your copy of the Constitution, that is exactly how it's supposed to be done.
The backroom deals, scheduling, and whatever else are 100% incidental to the process. Sorry you are butthurt but get the fuck over it.
What the GOP is doing is no worse than what the dems had to do to pass it in the first place.
If the GOP had any ethics or integrity, they would have realized after 40+ failed attempts to repeal the law they simply don't have the numbers. Now they are attaching to the normal business of running the country (pass a budget) in a desperate attempt to circumvent the normal means. They are the equivalent of a child pulling a fire alarm at school to avoid a test they didn't study for.
PAYING FEDERAL WORKERS TO STAY AT HOME AND DO NOTHING
This isn't happening, you moron. Federal workers might be given back pay when this is resolved.
USING TAX MONEY COLLECTED VIA THREAT OF FORCE
And that's a perogative of the government, long established throughout history. If you don't like it, then move the fuck away to some place that better suits your needs. One that you have a clear, non-forced ownership of that extends back in time. Basically, an uninhabited island that you purchase from the current owner.
If one trillion dollars to help take care of the citizens of the country is "too much", then Republicans should reexamine their priorities. There was money to start bullshit wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, money to bail out Wall Street (about the same amount as the extra needed for the ACA)... does the GOP give a crap about issues non-billionaires deal with?
And the Constitution isn't a suicide pact either.
This kind of deadlock is a flaw, because literally the only way the people get to weigh in is at an election every two years. In other countries, failing to make a budget to run the government would trigger another election.
Exactly! Without the Federal Government, we wouldn't have a national highway system, NASA and space technology (GPS satellites...), the Internet, nuclear power/energy (and weapons...), etc. not to mention some protection against corporations externalizing all their pollution somewhere else, and considering the occasional mass poisoning a business/PR expense.
Republicans were already posing on day one of the shutdown, at War Memorials in DC, feigning shock that a shutdown actually shut stuff down.
And you have your head fully shoved up some Tea Tard ass.
The ACA was also upheld by the Supreme Court as Constitutional. This is a law, passed by both Houses of Congress, signed by the President, upheld by the Supreme Court, and is quite clearly legit. All the Tea Party/Republitards should be impeached.
The unwillingness to enforce border controls has probably cost more Americans jobs in the last 20 years than any technological advance.
Right, so this is all the fault of the government, and businesses that employ undocumented workers are completely blameless. Asking them to follow the law is just too inconvenient to their profits.
What bullshit.