olofscience

But to Brent, that was practically yesterday!

Yeah well with base698 mostly gone, brent gone, and @dogyks reduced to adding clichéd comments trying to make himself sound wise (having blocked almost everyone to avoid actually having a discussion), there's not really much to say except we see the news and agree that it sucks? They can't really defend their positions so they basically just left.

This is disappointing coming from you. It's like you're saying that all container manufacturers should change to a 3-canopy system because you knew someone who died from a double mal. Ignoring that most fatalities are due to low turns...

Dorm bed. If I was the policy maker then I'd have a budget for the food too and try to find ways to get it as low cost as possible. Robot-flipped burgers, robot harvested crops. But the specifics can distract from the big picture - did you not see the other side of the equation I proposed, eradicating minimum wage? Lots of people will be able to start their own companies and innovate because they're not stuck in a minimum wage job to survive anymore. Lots of companies would finally be able to hire at the correct rates, like pay $2 per hour for a job that's worth $2 per hour and not have to worry that their employees will starve or go homeless. But companies won't be able to force government policies by holding people's livelihoods hostage anymore. The economy would skyrocket. Of course, you'd have to tax properly to be able to pay for it. But it'll never happen. Too many egos, too much focusing on what "basics" people deserve. Because we think all we've achieved is ONLY because of our hard work, not luck. I have it too - I've worked *so* hard, we can't have other people getting something for nothing, right? We'll be riding this capitalist ship down with Trump and all the others.

This is where opinions will start to vary. In mine it's just basic food, shelter (a bed), and physical safety for adults. For children, education will have to be added to that. That's it.

In the Philippines in August 23, 1971, President Ferdinand Marcos suspended habeas corpus. On September 23, 1972, he declared Martial Law and ruled as dictator for the next 21 years Trump's already trying to suspend habeas corpus...so give it a year after that? Perfect for the midterms.

Do they really need to be threatened by homelessness and hunger to do that though?

A life on a universal basic income will be pretty crap. It's just that - the basics. Do you really think most people will have no more ambition or passion than that? And you've had a LOT of programming. Everyone has. Me too, but I've realised I've been mostly taught rubbish. My own mother thinks that if she wasn't cruel to me I'd just be a lazy slob with no ambition...when what she really wanted was an excuse to be cruel.

Why just tax supermarkets? Microsoft, who destroyed thousands and thousands of jobs of secretaries, typists gets away with paying little tax. Amazon, who destroyed thousands of jobs in small shops, gets away with paying relatively little tax too. I love technology and automation. I've destroyed a few jobs too with the stuff I've automated - but I'm going to get away with it paying relatively little tax too, because the tax system has more and more loopholes the more money you have. We need to disconnect money from the need to work. The concept of a minimum wage needs to go - it distorts the market. Minimum wage needs to be removed, and replaced by a universal basic income, or a really, really good social security safety net. This means that people like your older brother CAN do those jobs they *want* to do, but it's not tied to keeping them alive, but rather something fulfilling for them. Because of technology, the actual *monetary* value of those jobs is very little, but their value to people's self-worth is more (and still worth having even if the monetary value is less). How do we pay for it? We need to tax the rich more - AI is going to destroy a lot of jobs (or make them pay less) and that money will go straight to billionaires.

Yeah, so I expect 90% of us are already blocked on this account. It will just be another "old man yells at cloud" website for him. Racist, sexist, arrogant (shit like "I've been on a boat once...") statements just going out to the void.

He's a carbon copy of Winsor - repeated assertions that Harris is worse, is an idiot, but never saying why or offering any proof. Maybe he IS winsor, just with a different username.

Trump supporters' reactions to this will be so predictable.

You're just making shit up and assuming you know everyone's views. It's not. You're just trying to make yourself feel special for being an American.

Well, China is certainly celebrating the end of Voice of America...so much winning, right?

And some more buy into it hesitantly, but justify their decision with mental backflips as "maybe at least they'll balance the budget" or "at least Elon has a chance of being competent" or "if they can't do anything we were fucked anyway".

Give evidence on where this happened. I can give one - Trump's degree.

They said this about Brexit too - "teething issues" they called them. It's now been 5 years. So let's check back on this in a few years, you'll probably be blaming someone else by then.

I'm actually at PIA in Florida now, are you there? What's hilarious here is that at the registration area, they have signs "sorry the shirts and goody bags aren't here yet, they're stuck at customs. We hope they will arrive soon". There's going to be so much winning...

Yeah, they said that about Boris Johnson too during the Brexit negotiations - "he's just pretending to be crazy and unpredictable, but he's really playing 4D chess! Those EU negotiators will be thrown off-balance and we'll gain leverage!" Then Boris pretty much rolled over and gave the EU everything they asked for. Then complained that he was "forced" to take the deal and tried to back out of it almost immediately... Those people saying this probably haven't negotiated anything significant in their lives.

I'm going to take a wild guess... that you've taken 0 economics courses before. 1, tops.

You still have my respect, voting 3rd party is much better than some here (like @dogyks) who DID vote for Trump and are now desperately trying to justify to themselves the shitshow that's now happening. Keep on!

I'd rather die free than live under Putin's boot. Looks like your capitulation is complete.

No he won't. He thinks the US sent 500 billion and is "trying to get it back". He's just trying to shake down Ukraine for far more than the US actually sent, and stopping all aid is already a given. He's fully a Russian asset. ...but at least DOGE might balance the budget right? (no, they won't do that either)

I've heard the "but we need to pay the national debt" refrain so much now that I think it's a Russian narrative... Winsor was parroting it, now every russian bot I see online is parroting it. I don't have an economics background so I don't know exactly how the national debt works, especially with a country whose currency is considered a reserve currency like the USA. The UK only paid some war bonds from WW1 (yes, that's world war ONE, not two) in 2015, so when your side keeps saying "we're going to get fucked SOON" you really need to qualify when "soon" is.

In the UK the government applied austerity after the 2008 financial crisis, and the effects were brutal: And not only the economic cost: source: https://www.ippr.org/articles/austerity-there-is-an-alternative-and-the-uk-can-afford-to-deliver-it The genius thing is, instead of blaming the issues on austerity or the banks who caused the financial crisis in 2008, the right wing in the UK successfully turned the blame around to immigrants, hence the Brexit vote. Hey, why don't you ask us how's that going too? Hint: they're still blaming the immigrants, even though brexit was supposed to solve everything.