Today's Random News

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Originally Posted by Diff-chan

Unless we want to recreate the last days of the Russian Empire and the first days of the Bolshevik Revolution we need to try something different.

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Basic Income doesn't sound as crazy to me as it did 20 years ago.

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Originally Posted by Diff-chan

Yea, that sounds like pie in the sky thinking. Thirty years of voodoo economics, free trade policies, and computerization have decimated the middle class but if we just keep on trucking eventually things will right themselves.

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The example they always used when I was a kid was "Today's tollbooth operator will be tomorrow's tollbooth machine repairman!" I'm no economist and don't claim to be, but I saw through that one even as a child. The adults spouting it sure seemed to buy it, though.

Basic income is a hard sell because you don't really want to give money to people for sitting on their ass and fucking.

The answer would be, ok you're on basic income, don't have kids.

But people would shit over that too.

I guess the question is, how do we not end up like wall e? With fat lazy people zooming around doing nothing?

I know, some people want to counter with "but people will just enjoy life and make art and invent" I say bugger on you, we wouldn't be in this mess if everyone was an artist or inventor. That kind of thinking is part of the problem. A large portion of people just want to fuck, eat, and watch tv. If they didn't have to work for food and fuck money, they wouldnt.

The idea that we can move all the labor to China and Americans will all become skilled labor is horse shit.

The idea that we can just give people money and they will become personally skilled is also horse shit.

Just let people stop immunizing their kids, this will take care of itself in two generations.

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Originally Posted by Fe 26

Basic income is a hard sell because you don't really want to give money to people for sitting on their ass and fucking.

The answer would be, ok you're on basic income, don't have kids.

But people would shit over that too.

I guess the question is, how do we not end up like wall e? With fat lazy people zooming around doing nothing?

I know, some people want to counter with "but people will just enjoy life and make art and invent" I say bugger on you, we wouldn't be in this mess if everyone was an artist or inventor. That kind of thinking is part of the problem. A large portion of people just want to fuck, eat, and watch tv. If they didn't have to work for food and fuck money, they wouldnt.

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I think that this is the sort of thing that we need to move on from. Like I said, if there are no jobs there are no jobs. If we get to the point where computers are destroying more jobs than they create, then the underlying assumptions that have built the economy need to be changed.

So yea, unless the owners of those computers want to get their heads separated from their bodies, they will have to accept that people are going to get paid a full salary to work 10 hours a week Jetsons style or even less.

It all kind of falls apart then.

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Originally Posted by Fe 26

It all kind of falls apart then.

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This is another thing that is always said but never substantiated. Especially considering that historically the "10 hour workweek" has been the case for all but the almost negligible fraction of human existence we occupy, even post- advent of language. Where does the idea come from? Unfortunately, enough people believe it that disastrous attempts by government to force companies to hire people they don't need seems almost inevitable rather than the more sensible "basic income".

You are right about the no-kids thing, but that day is coming one way or another. And the only thing that alleviates that is education and access to contraceptives, not jobs.

I wouldn't work if I didn't need food/fuck money. I would focus on my hobbies and create fartwork/music.

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Originally Posted by Vasteel

The example they always used when I was a kid was "Today's tollbooth operator will be tomorrow's tollbooth machine repairman!" I'm no economist and don't claim to be, but I saw through that one even as a child. The adults spouting it sure seemed to buy it, though.

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That's great for the guy who gets that job, but what about the people working the other 9 lanes? What about the people at the booths on the other side of the bridge?

Exactly my point. The idea is obviously stupid. If replacing 10 (unskilled) jobs with machines required 10 new (skilled) jobs, why replace them?

I even asked the teacher that question in elementary school, and where the other tollbooth people's jobs went. I got no answer.