Today's Random News

[Josh]

Holding their marriage hostage was pretty lame, man.

She didn't want the child, he did. It doesn't matter how she went about it, the outcome would have been the same. They could have talked, cried, hugged, bargained, planned, hoped, prayed and tried, and still ended up divorced. This way at least the guy has righteous indignation on his side.

[Diff-chan]

This way at least the guy has righteous indignation on his side.

It's what fuels the internet.

[A Robot Bit Me]

She didn't want the child, he did. It doesn't matter how she went about it, the outcome would have been the same. They could have talked, cried, hugged, bargained, planned, hoped, prayed and tried, and still ended up divorced. This way at least the guy has righteous indignation on his side.

Had she decided before giving birth that she wanted to give the kid up for adoption, of course that would have been fine. It's the "OH BABY! nvm, this one's a dud" discarding of the kid that (probably irrationally) bothers me.

But then, I'm in a country whose perception of disability is different and whose money and programs for kids with disabilities and their parents are exceptional. Much easier to raise a kid with downs here than there, I'm sure.

So yeah, righteous indignation I guess. Plus classism. With a spritz of xenophobia.

[Doc Holliday]

Er'rybody be like whaaa??

[Drewbacca]

A lot of things happen that we don't want. That we don't want them doesn't absolve us of our responsibility to them. This woman is a monster.

The only thing ever really keeping someone to anything is either money or actually giving a fuck.

[A Robot Bit Me]

The only thing ever really keeping someone to anything is ... actually giving a fuck.

So... "someone cares when he cares?"

[Fe 26]

interesting write ups on income inequality

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2015/...ntent=20150211

http://eml.berkeley.edu/~saez/pikettyqje.pdf

One could indeed argue that what has been happening since the 1970s is just a remake of the previous inverse- U curve: a new industrial revolution has taken place, thereby leading to increasing inequality, and inequality will decline again at some point, as more and more workers benefit from the innovations.

I don't know about that. What exactly are workers suppose to be benefiting from that they are not currently benefiting from? And what of it is currently making the ultra rich more rich? What are we waiting on our turn for?

I would think it is more likely due to the increased focus on returns to shareholders and American CIO's and other top brass paying themselves too much.

[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.

Well, no. That's obviously not how it works. We are at a place in society now where we have enough wealth for everyone but not enough jobs. We consciously traded jobs for cheap electronic junk and all productivity gains flowing to the rich and that is what has happened. Anyone who claims they are surprised at how the economy has gone is lying. This stuff was all predicted.

The thing is that it is not going to change as Google and friends keep replacing humans with computers. People will continue to have more and more cheap shit but less jobs. It's going to get worse. That's not good for a system that explicitly assumes everyone who is able to work has to work full time. If there are no jobs there are no jobs. There's plenty of money though.

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.

[Fe 26]

Yeah, I was scratching my head at that too. People keep assuming the tech revolution will be like the industrial. But the IR needed labor and time from people. The TR doesn't. Tech needs intelligent skilled labor and cheap foreign labor.

Or you know, we can stop making shit in china and start opening factories again. But people don't want to pay 2000 for a smart phone.

[YellerDog]

Funny how we used to pay 2k+ for a humble VHS deck but now almost refuse to spend 1/10th of that on a device that can, on demand, stream every film ever created from space.