Yeah, I think the 9-5 mentality comes from a time when men would spend most of the day socializing, drinking, and sexually harassing the secretary. Back then the boys would go to lunch whenever and leave the work to the nerds and the women.

I don’t think anybody here is siding with ISPs. We’re just happy to hear that they’re having difficulties policing piracy.

When I say individual rights I mean any and all rights an individual has or should have. In the case of piracy, an individual should have a right to entertainment media at a reasonable cost. The more corporations increase the cost of media access, the more piracy proliferates. In the case of AI, an individual should have the right to earn a living. Corporations are using the works of individuals to ultimately increase their own profits without due compensation to the individual.

I don’t know how you got to pro conservative capitalism from a single anti-corporatist statement, but it likely took you several leaps of logic that I’m not going to even try to follow.

It’s almost as if the people here favor individual rights over corporate profits.

Why does Communism require “true equality amongst its citizens?” What does that even mean, in practical terms?

Do you imagine a communist system that has social classes?

How would a group of people take advantage of this to form a “practical dictatorship?”

Castro, Zedong, Putin

Capitalism does not deploy the most efficient means of product delivery, but the most profitable…

You’re arguing Communism on a philosophical level against capitalism on a practical level.

What of Marx have you read? Or any leftist theorist?

As I said, I’m not well read and unprepared for the higher level argument you are seeking here.

I can make some suggestions for reading material if you wish.

I appreciate your desire to educate, but I’m too busy being exploited by the current system to dive further into social philosophy. When you guys are ready to rise up I’ll be there, but I won’t be a part of the debate on which system we should implement going forward.

The recurring issue with Communism in practice is that it requires true equality amongst its citizens and there’s always some asshole or group of assholes who want power and dominion over others, so it seems to repeatedly fall into a practical dictatorship.

Capitalism at its best requires businesses to find and deploy the most effective and efficient means of product delivery in order to compete with each other, which means that the consumer will always have the best product at the best price allowed by the market. The problem is that greedy assholes either conglomerate competing companies into monopolies, or otherwise collude with one another to maximize their profit margins.

I’m not well read in Marxism so I’m probably not qualified to answer this, but the recurring issue with Communism seems to be the same as capitalism, in that it requires people to not be assholes in order to properly function.

India is one of the last places I’d like to visit. This is based on how India has been portrayed in various travel shows over the years (Amazing Race, Top Gear). It looks crowded, dirty, and the locals often aren’t very friendly, especially towards women.

One of your main exports to the west is scam calls. It’s a huge PR problem and your government refuses to address it. Your other main export right now is Russian oil.

Indians used to have a fairly large online presence in English-speaking spaces with mixed results. There were a lot of helpful tech bros on YouTube, but also a lot of horny dudes on Facebook. I don’t really see much of either of those anymore though.

My wife works in software testing and has regular interactions with Indians. Some are really nice, but others are really not. Misogyny is far too common and when Indians are rude they are boldly rude.

You never know. Someone could make a time travel movie with it one day and then collectors will pay an arm and a leg for the left door.

Psh, goats aren’t real

I’m so sorry

Black Licorice

My mother likes black licorice and so my sister and I grew up eating and enjoying it every Easter. Turns out most people hate the stuff.

I listened to a couple of his seminars on narcissism and thought, “Hey, this guy knows what he’s talking about!” But the more I listened to him, especially his more recent stuff, the more I realized he doesn’t actually know what he’s talking about.

I guess he just had a handle on narcissism from his own personal experience as one.

Getting older means losing mobility, dexterity, and mental acuity. It’s not a question of if you will need assistance, it’s a question of when you will need it. Most retirees go on living independently for as long as possible until an event. Sometimes they set the kitchen on fire, sometimes they get in the car and get lost, and most often they fall and break a hip. Once they hit this event it changes their life dramatically.

The best case scenario is that you will have enough money to afford 24/7 care after your event. Idk what the current rates are, but 10 years ago it was $25/hr for CNAs and $50/hr for RNs. This means that the cost to have a CNA care for you around the clock was over $200,000/yr. This doesn’t include the additional costs of food, shelter, utilities, insurance. I’m sure that things haven’t gotten any cheaper.

The best case scenario is that your $1M nut grows enough to cover all your expenses before you die. Every other scenario means you will run out of money. So it’s really a question of how long you intend to live.

My scenario focuses solely on interest income for simplicity’s sake. There are other investments one can make to increase your gain, but such investments are more volatile. You could end up doing quite well and increasing your nut, or you could invest in the wrong stock and lose a large chunk of it.

I also left out other considerations for simplicity’s sake like the fact that most retirees are couples and past the age of 65 the odds that one of you will require significant medical treatment increases every year. Some elderly couples are getting divorced so as to only bankrupt one of them when this happens.

Life is messy and $1M will only work in the best case scenario. It’s just not realistic. By allowing people to think that $1M is enough, you’re actually leading them into ruin. We need to be aware that retirement is becoming a dicey proposition and we should be taking steps to ensure that the elderly will be provided for in the coming decades, especially since a large number of millennials won’t have children to make sure they are properly cared for.

Source: I worked in the elder care industry in Florida for a decade. I saw what happens when people run out of money.

This isn’t how retirement works.

If you try to retire on $1M you’re going to end up in a medicaid facility. Interest rates are high right now, so $1M in the bank may get you as much as $5,000/mo if you’re lucky. This is $60,000/yr and can be supplemented with social security to allow a person to live well enough at today’s cost of living.

However, inflation is a constant and is ideally restricted to 2-3% per year. This means that every year you live after you retire, your spending power is reduced by at least 2%. So even if interest rates stay high (they won’t) then by the time you hit 85 your $60,000/yr will feel more like $24,000. This will still be supplemented by social security, but you will also find that your needs are increasing by this age and you will likely need to start using your savings to pay a lovely nurse or two to help with, well, everything. In-home care and even nursing facilities are quite costly and will eat away at your savings, so if you only have $1M you better start dying soon after needing them.

This all assumes best-case-scenario. It doesn’t account for runaway inflation rates, pandemics, recessions, catastrophic events (it’s not uncommon for the elderly to accidentally set things on fire), or other possibilities that can take a bite out of your retirement savings.

When your money runs out you won’t be kicked out on the streets, thankfully. But a medicaid facility in the US can be nearly as dangerous for the elderly.

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Back in 2007 I worked in an office that required basic MS Excel / Word competency. The office manager led her to her desk and instructed her to turn on her computer (nothing fancy, a basic workstation with a large round button).

She couldn’t figure out how to turn it on. The office manager sent her home and she never came back.

People in the US are trying to change things. Most new homes in my area have a strong emphasis on green technology including heat pumps and solar panels. There’s a big push for EVs over ICEs and there are more and more EV charging stations all over the country every year. The younger generations are calling for more train transportation and Amtrak in my area is actually making some changes to help promote passenger rail.

Your ‘blame the west’ mentality is some serious PRC propaganda bullshit. 0 of the top 20 most polluted cities in the world are western cities. Most of them are in India, which is actually where these Cheetahs died.

You want to blame someone? Blame the international elite. The 0.1% takes what they want, consequences be damned.