Considering the percentage of californians that have emigrated to TX the past few years, I’m actually really curious to see whether that radical red strategy actually holds or not. Would be pretty hilarious if the californians flip them blu anyway, ngl
Genuinely I can’t even remember because growing up, my dad was that type of guy who took us kids to obligatorily “fun” things and without fail did or said something that would make it feel completely miserable, then get angry at us for not having enjoyed ourselves at the fun thing.
A couple of instances I remember in particular was when he took us to Hawaii (he wasn’t rich, just wanted to look rich and was very good at avoiding debt collectors) and kept being an entitled shitbag to the poor staff which made me super uncomfortable the whole time, and the time he took us to a magic show in vegas and spent the whole time explaining the tricks when I didn’t even fucking ask.
I now find it very difficult to find any “fun” things actually fun.
Nearly three in five Americans wrongly believe the US is in an economic recession, and the majority blame the Biden administration, according to a Harris poll conducted exclusively for the Guardian. The survey found persistent pessimism about the economy as election day draws closer....
While I’m not going to blame Biden for the economic situation right now since his policies look more like they’ve cushioned us against a much worse economic situation by pumping money into state-side manufacturing, I absolutely fucking HATE how out of touch economists are these days. They look at productivity (the value of which barely gets to workers), the stock market, or at spending that’s driven by debt and rich people, and say “everything looks fine. Oh, most of you can’t afford to eat, or get a job? Sounds like a personal problem.”
If the conclusions that economists come to are so consistently out of touch with the experience of the average person, maybe they should fix their fucking outlook criteria!!
I think it was another post on here that had a bunch of [good] economists write a paper stating that if the inflation formula had accounted for borrowing costs like they USED TO, the inflation numbers would match much more closely with public sentiment, after having topped out at 18 fucking percent at the height in 21/22.
And of course there’s how, at the height of the pandemic, they blantantly changed the criteria for what counts as a recession at all to say “no worries guys, everythings fine” when we were absolutely in a recession based on the old criteria.
I mentioned it in a different comment, but there was a paper written by some economists that compared the current inflation formula with the one they used to use (in use in the 80’s, iirc) which takes borrowing costs such as mortgage into account, and that 9.1 peak pandemic inflation number doubled to 18 something %, with our current 3.4% becoming something north of 9%. So yeah, not great.
So in the whole anti-natalism/pro-natalism conversation (which I’m mostly agnostic/undecided on, currently), my friend who is a pro-natalist, argued that the success/stability of our world economy is dependent on procreating more children each year than the previous year, so that we not only replace the numbers of the people...
I’ve always wondered why the consensus seems to be that it’s 100% necessary for an economy to continue growing for society to function, but maybe somebody smarter than me can explain it in terms I understand.
Because for real, if (IF) we could set things up so that everybody has access to food, pottable water, and shelter, then does it really matter if google took losses this quarter? Back when automation was still in its infancy, there was a hope that the human labor requirements would decrease without affecting survivability, so it’s not like what I’m saying is anything new. IF we were able to sustainably grow enough food, sanitize enough water, and build enough houses for everybody, make enough (NON-MONOPOLIZED) medicine for everybody, and just made it available for cheaply or for free, then you’ve successfully decoupled the economy from human survival.
Of course, the question becomes who would do all this with no profit to be had, which I know is the real crux of the issue, and is realistically not going to happen easily. But, as an idealist view, imagine this: A number of physically strong men and women and a number of scientists, who already have their own needs guaranteed, volunteer their time and expertise to spread the access to food, water, shelter, and healthcare to people in need because they actually just enjoy doing physical labor/ innovating technologies that will help humanity and aren’t just doing what a few suits who’ve never worked in that manner a day in their lives think is necessary to squeeze more money out of investors and poor people in exchange for a paycheck. After those needs are guaranteed, it should be possible to implement a form of capitalism for unnecessary expenditures without getting to the awful state we’re currently in (optional).
So to answer your question, no, I personally don’t think infinite growth is necessary perse, but our current setup does assume that it will somehow continue growing. As for the societal collapse issue, while our society is FAR larger and more interconnected than anything so far in history, it collapsing wouldn’t be the end of humanity (though on that note I would 100% rather society collapse from lack of labor FAR before I’d want it to collapse because Earth has completely run out of resources, so I guess I’m against your friend in that regard). Sure, there would be massive chaos (especially in population centers), and a lot of people will absolutely suffer and die (seriously, want to make clear I’m not making light of a collapse) but ultimately it still holds that anyone who can maintain access to food, shelter, and potable water (barring any health issues) will survive and eventually create a new society. Hopefully one that isn’t setup stupidly.
Weeks after winning a school board seat in her deeply red Texas county, Courtney Gore immersed herself in the district’s curriculum, spending her nights and weekends poring over hundreds of pages of lesson plans that she had fanned out on the coffee table in her living room and even across her bed. She was searching for...
Instead, Gore found the materials taught children “how to be a good friend, a good human.”
Honestly, I can respect this. It’d be much easier to pull a Trump and claim that you fixed something that was never an issue by doing absolutely nothing, but she actually went through with it and admitted that she couldn’t find the issues she was looking for.
It kinda goes to show that there are actually sincere people (albeit ones that still tend to have disagreeable stances) on the right that just keep getting tricked by the grifters and conmen that won’t just bury their heads in the sand when something doesn’t fit their narrative.
The optimist wants to believe that makes up a lot of them, but the realist in me isn’t so sure.
I’ll now incorporate into my world view that anybody who shares these physical characteristics is a war criminal. I took a statistics class once and I’m pretty sure that’s how it works.
Okay while I get what you’re saying, and you are right that it is unfairly different for govt. officials than for citizens looking for a job, I really have to correct that it’s not "any amount of debt" that will keep you from getting a clearance, or else they’d never get fresh college graduates. They specifically care about whether you seem to be in a financially precarious situation or are financially irresponsible. Student loans, mortgage, or credit card balances that haven’t gotten out of control will likely get a pass whereas loan shark loans, balances sent to collections, or gambling debt will very much flag red. Again I do agree that it’s ridiculous that politicians aren’t held to the same standard.
MAGA Republicans say that America is in crisis: The economy is collapsing while the nation is being overrun by hordes of violent immigrants. Not true....
Oh I’m sure he did notice, the question is probably more of “why did you keep sending them aid” to which the answer is probably something like trying to keep a stable power balance in the middle east since Israel is like, our only consistant ally out there, but considering both the abuses of power Israel has committed and the general poor record of US middle eastern interventions, I don’t think very many people will be happy with that explanation.
I was going to say something about “cost of living in an area” because 10M in WV is gonna go a lot further than 10M in NYC, but then I started wondering what kind of knock-on effects setting that hard cap would have? Would cost of living in NYC decrease because now the rich people can’t be rich enough to comfortably afford it, or will it cause them to keep contributing to society for a paycheck because they don’t want to move? Feel like this might be a good speculative essay subject for a financial policy class.
I do not advocate for violence and would never celebrate somebody’s tragedy. Having said that, if Kristi Noem literally jumped in front of a train I may decide to get an ice cream cake that day.
The reason behind the husband’s death is equally uncertain, except to say that he died in prison in East Turkestan (Xinjiang) when serving a sentence for the “crime” of accessing overseas websites, one of six men from the same village to leave this world in similar circumstances....
Okay valid but at that point it’s not even like, specifically targeting latinos if the workforce being affected is no longer predominantly immigrant labor…
Florida men are taking over the GOP (www.politico.com)
The nation’s third-largest state has shed its swing-state profile and is now the home base of Donald Trump’s Republican Party
Damn no integrated advanced AI-driven solution that analyzes patterns and just predicts the errors? 🤨 (lemmy.sdf.org)
What was the worst time you had at a fun event (party, vacation, etc.)?
Majority of Americans wrongly believe US is in recession – and most blame Biden (www.theguardian.com)
Nearly three in five Americans wrongly believe the US is in an economic recession, and the majority blame the Biden administration, according to a Harris poll conducted exclusively for the Guardian. The survey found persistent pessimism about the economy as election day draws closer....
Do we need to create increasingly more children for a stable economy?
So in the whole anti-natalism/pro-natalism conversation (which I’m mostly agnostic/undecided on, currently), my friend who is a pro-natalist, argued that the success/stability of our world economy is dependent on procreating more children each year than the previous year, so that we not only replace the numbers of the people...
A GOP Texas school board member campaigned against schools indoctrinating kids. Then she read the curriculum. (www.texastribune.org)
Weeks after winning a school board seat in her deeply red Texas county, Courtney Gore immersed herself in the district’s curriculum, spending her nights and weekends poring over hundreds of pages of lesson plans that she had fanned out on the coffee table in her living room and even across her bed. She was searching for...
CIA Chief officer ready to share Intel of Hamas top leaders to mossad (www.arktrek.shop)
Gov. Jim Justice Faces Heavy Business Debts as He Seeks Senate Seat (www.nytimes.com)
This kind of debt likely means that he’s for sale, which is not great when it comes to public officials
Moms for Liberty accuses schools of antisemitism. The irony is rich. (www.motherjones.com)
Give Me Laundry Liberty or Give Me Death! (www.nytimes.com)
MAGA Republicans say that America is in crisis: The economy is collapsing while the nation is being overrun by hordes of violent immigrants. Not true....
A high-stakes report looms from the Biden administration on whether Israel violated international law (www.cnn.com)
The easiest problem (discuss.tchncs.de)
mastodon.social/
Israel seizes 'operational control' of Rafah crossing in Gaza (www.middleeasteye.net)
Any Volunteers (programming.dev)
Abortion bans drive away up to half of young talent, new CNBC/Generation Lab youth survey finds (www.cnbc.com)
How rich is too rich? (www.nature.com)
BOOK REVIEW...
Kristi Noem’s Team Told Her to Nix the Dog Story Two Years Ago (www.politico.com)
In China, where authoritarianism is justified by redefining the term, a woman has reportedly been beaten to death during interrogation after accusing police of murdering her husband (dominotheory.com)
The reason behind the husband’s death is equally uncertain, except to say that he died in prison in East Turkestan (Xinjiang) when serving a sentence for the “crime” of accessing overseas websites, one of six men from the same village to leave this world in similar circumstances....
Florida workers brace for summer with no protections: ‘My body would tremble’ | Effects of heat are expected to worsen with law prohibiting municipalities from enacting shade and water protection (www.theguardian.com)
Trump VP hopeful Kristi Noem suggests Biden's dog Commander should also be put down (www.cnbc.com)
KEY POINTS...