Congrats on y'all's upcoming jab. A corner turned, or turned in about a month.
I'm not really in any risk categories... I was able to qualify for one of the absurd BMI qualifications as, I guess, Dad Bod who eats maybe a little too much sodium... so I'm in that category. I suppose that means May when President Biden promised... My wife who's out and about keeping local in person Catholic education in motion can't seem to get a vaccine appointment owing to the well known technological limitations of scheduling things more than a single day in advance.
This weekend the 6-yo and I will go out into our woods to clear the trails of windfall... maybe do battle against the various invasive species while I can see the forest floor and not get my tractor stuck or destroy the bushhog on hidden rocks/stumps. He likes to chop deadwood with his axe, look for nuts and flowers... and try to identify fauna tracks. Often barefoot.
Sometimes you get to do both... hate the policies and hate the man.
But sure, if you'd like to open up space for the idea that there's a 'momento mori' sort of humor that might have existed in the hey day of Johnny Carson... I'll allow it.
But that's maybe the change you're asking about... when did we shift from reminding our politicians that they are mortal and therefore mockable to comedy being part of the policy arm of the Arc of History? And moving from the Arc of History to simply backing a single party? That's a move that accelerated throughout my lifetime... starting in the 70's and reaching a highpoint(?) today where it is too dangerous to the project to even remind our politicians (of the right party) that they are mortal and therefore mockable.
Understood; my point is that it's a calibration question that I'm not sure is going to be calibrated... that is, if revenues are going down *and* maintenance is going down, then we don't necessarily have a problem. But, if revenues are going down and the goal is to make sure that revenues don't go down... then we'll calibrate for revenues not going down.
But there's also a problem that revenues go down faster than maintenance goes down... so we have to subsidize the non-use.
But of course we don't make fun of Presidents to make fun of Presidents... we make fun of policies of which the Presidents are avatars. So, as Andrew pointed out in the gloss on the quotation... there are a thousand vectors from which you can goof on Biden; if only we could find one thing with which we disagreed. Or, risk that disagreeing with one thing might bring all the other things down. We can't risk it. Comedy was never about risks... it was always about policy.
I have to assume that everyone knows that we're going to live with 'that virulent strain' of flu that has higher mortality than the ordinary strains - which are still lethal (two of my uncles died in 2019 from 'the flu')... but after vaccinations the risk will be acceptable. Still, an unfortunate fact of the human condition... but not something we're going to 'eradicate'. Right? Everyone knows that, yes?
... and, as the kids say, LOL
“when can we have a large group gathering with everyone we know and have it *GUARANTEED* that the only reason someone died is the gender reveal party?”
There are no supply chains in the state of nature.
Slightly more seriously... the thing modern Distributist economics is trying to preserve is the incentive for doing the thing well; it recognizes that most things without proper incentives will be done poorly; let us work on (re-)aligning incentives so that things are done well and the incentives allocate the rewards more broadly such that things will be done even weller... and so forth in a virtuous circle to utopia (alright, I'll stop now).
I applaud the bold leftist thinking; I'd like to see more... but I'm not sure unreconstructed Rousseau is better than unreconstructed 70's Social Democracy.
The ways are fairly simple; the will is very much not there.
Corporate charters are what we grant them in law; we can define and re-define the rules of the game as needed; creating 30% (say) equity stake for Labor and the concomitant rules governing the nature and relationship of that stake to the 70% capital stake is just another step in the evolution of the regulations we already have for corporations and share distribution.
This happens all the time, too... it would be a re-pricing event where new stakeholders are dealt into the structure; a dilution of existing capital... and I don't mean to pooh-pooh the impact or the challenges and concerns we'd need to account for - especially if done all at once (not necessarily what I'd advocate for) in some sort of big bang. But the fundamental idea that dilution and expansion of equity holders take place against the wishes of some factions of shareholders is simply commonplace.
Part of the necessary 'sell-job' would be emphasizing the projected gains of this infusion of 'sweat capital' to productivity and 'shareholder value.' Ultimately it's an expansion of the pie, not a tax/redistribution scheme.
Right... would change all sorts of calculi. Not sure I'd categorize it as 'union control' of the shares... but I wouldn't have a problem with organized factions of labor supporting different (or the same) Board Members and/or policies.
And that's just one structural change that would alter the dynamic while preserving (or even enhancing) many of the strengths of corporations.
Management has moved out of Wage compensation into Equity compensation... Labor has to move as well.
UBI has some possible benefits, but it won't do what people think it will do vis-a-vis Labor's compensation for both increasing productivity and lost compensation owing to automation. My optimistic take is that it opens up some space for other de-coupling events, but my pessimistic take is that UBI quickly becomes Guaranteed Jobs... which softly elides into a sort of wage-slavery. All with the best intentions, of course.
Basically, collective bargaining is too little too late... we need to re-open corporate charters and renegotiate the fundamental compact to both preserve 'capitalism' and rebalance/restructure the distribution of productivity gains.
Further, my meta-critique is that debating minimum wage is *exactly* the debate capital wants to have... we're debating a marginal, fixed, labor tax... that's conceding the game from the start; it could be justified on grounds that it needs updating/indexing... fine... but it isn't a 'win' in terms of fixing the long-term structural issues.
I'll take the hit on, "hey, these are the current pathways open to us" but the absence of updated policy objectives, coupled with a doubling down on 1970's social democracy makes me despair the paucity of thought on the left.
Meh, fighting 19th century problems with 20th century means. Fighting over wages isn't even the right fight. This is one area where the Left is so behind the times as to be functionally useless.
It's easy to reform the past; it costs us nothing. Better, it provokes people we want to provoke so it looks like we're fighting the good fight. Like most of what I've come to realize of 'the discourse' these are performances designed to salve the consciences of the status quo.
I had a similar thought... keeping copyright/ownership to maintain control over *not* publishing seems to run contrary to copyright intent.
Isn't there a use aspect to all these laws? Why wouldn't these be something like abandoned trademarks? Not on Day 1 necessarily... but when (if ever) does the timer start running?
Unless the plan is to make the announcement, put them in storage, then release Mulberry street with an updated properly westernized financier from Hong Kong carrying a fork to make a killing on pent-up Milennial demand?
Burnishing his "lack of standing" and "moot" positions for the difficult cases ahead where he needs an outcome, but has not a reasoned path to get there.
As best I can tell, 'only' $195B is earmarked for States... which at most keeps obligations from lagging further; it can't possibly address the (as of 2018) $1.24T funding gap.
Pre-covid this was a looming national issue... post-covid it is still a looming national issue.
Spending on Operational losses (which is the Covid plan) is likely the right course in the short term... but failing to address (or addressing inadequately by things like min wage) the the fundamental economic distribution and taxation issues (of which public pensions are a symptom) will keep these as looming National issues.
We registered my wife since she's teaching... the interesting thing about the experience was that it was literal translation by techies of all the 'essential' and 'at risk' groups from whatever document they were given. A 'select all that apply list' that strated in 1a... like, Emergency Room Doctor, Surgeon, Nurse, over 80, nursing home resident, nursing home worker... As if there was a theoretical possibility of someone who was all of those things ... which would trigger the immediate dispatch of a helicopter vaccine tech to that hero; then each page got less selective such that you could start to parse, I wonder how camera and sound-boom operators made it into the category with day-care workers... but well below Teachers and Media, mind you. [No politics, just facts].
While we both have 'an ID number' other than telling us we have an ID number, there has not been a single update or email or anything since we 'registered' on Feb 17th. Not even an email to confirm that, yes, you are in sub-section 4 of 1b.3 of the third roll-out of the second wave of vaccine, congratulations.
The rest I'll save for the politics thread on the vaccine roll-out :-)
This is the bureaucratic obverse of Our Phases go to 11.
It's my birthday weekend and we're contemplating going to the same local foodie place where we went for our anniversary 6-months ago... they have cabanas and various other precautions... and it made us realize, since my last birthday we've been out exactly once, 6-months ago on our Anniversary... at this place that has...
History is: nonsense people, then Boomers, then people who don’t understand their parents. I’ve been informed of this by Boomers.
Well, obviously. I learned it as distant parents who didn't understand their Children, Boomers, then distant children who didn't understand their Parents.
And somewhere we grew GenX in a vat and let them fill in some generational cracks.
Heh, live by the generational short-hand die by the generational short-hand.
I take your point of course... boomers were kids once too... but contrary to even the most boomery of boomery takes, they are part of continuum where their parents are part of the formation of Boomers and they are not simply sui generis. So the Seuss books are the books of their generation, approved by their parents, and among the ones they "locked on to" and brought forward. And that's my main point... Seuss is the love, peace, and harmony of the Boomer generation... it's the Manifesto that ends in the Modern Sentiments by which they are denounced. There's something Oedipal in taking on Seuss. It's not really about racisim.
And, ultimately the goal isn't to let kids read them and decide for themselves, it's to manage the cannon of what's acceptable for Parents to give their children to read... Which is what I mean by Children's books are written for adults.
On “Weekend Plans Post: A Year Of Quarantine”
Congrats on y'all's upcoming jab. A corner turned, or turned in about a month.
I'm not really in any risk categories... I was able to qualify for one of the absurd BMI qualifications as, I guess, Dad Bod who eats maybe a little too much sodium... so I'm in that category. I suppose that means May when President Biden promised... My wife who's out and about keeping local in person Catholic education in motion can't seem to get a vaccine appointment owing to the well known technological limitations of scheduling things more than a single day in advance.
This weekend the 6-yo and I will go out into our woods to clear the trails of windfall... maybe do battle against the various invasive species while I can see the forest floor and not get my tractor stuck or destroy the bushhog on hidden rocks/stumps. He likes to chop deadwood with his axe, look for nuts and flowers... and try to identify fauna tracks. Often barefoot.
On “Game of Thrones: The Awesomization of Sam Tarly”
I think I appreciate the inter-textual analysis the most, because at this point I can't even begin to keep book details from TV details straight.
On “Not Talking About My Generation”
Typical.
On “Ordinary World: Ides of March Edition”
I've always said that you can only really satirize something you love... once you stop loving it? The satire falls flat.
We're in the high-point of sarcasm, which is the low-point of satire.
"
Sometimes you get to do both... hate the policies and hate the man.
But sure, if you'd like to open up space for the idea that there's a 'momento mori' sort of humor that might have existed in the hey day of Johnny Carson... I'll allow it.
But that's maybe the change you're asking about... when did we shift from reminding our politicians that they are mortal and therefore mockable to comedy being part of the policy arm of the Arc of History? And moving from the Arc of History to simply backing a single party? That's a move that accelerated throughout my lifetime... starting in the 70's and reaching a highpoint(?) today where it is too dangerous to the project to even remind our politicians (of the right party) that they are mortal and therefore mockable.
On “Vehicle Miles-Traveled (VMT) Tax”
Understood; my point is that it's a calibration question that I'm not sure is going to be calibrated... that is, if revenues are going down *and* maintenance is going down, then we don't necessarily have a problem. But, if revenues are going down and the goal is to make sure that revenues don't go down... then we'll calibrate for revenues not going down.
But there's also a problem that revenues go down faster than maintenance goes down... so we have to subsidize the non-use.
On “Ordinary World: Ides of March Edition”
But of course we don't make fun of Presidents to make fun of Presidents... we make fun of policies of which the Presidents are avatars. So, as Andrew pointed out in the gloss on the quotation... there are a thousand vectors from which you can goof on Biden; if only we could find one thing with which we disagreed. Or, risk that disagreeing with one thing might bring all the other things down. We can't risk it. Comedy was never about risks... it was always about policy.
"
I have to assume that everyone knows that we're going to live with 'that virulent strain' of flu that has higher mortality than the ordinary strains - which are still lethal (two of my uncles died in 2019 from 'the flu')... but after vaccinations the risk will be acceptable. Still, an unfortunate fact of the human condition... but not something we're going to 'eradicate'. Right? Everyone knows that, yes?
... and, as the kids say, LOL
“when can we have a large group gathering with everyone we know and have it *GUARANTEED* that the only reason someone died is the gender reveal party?”
On “Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act of 2021: Read It For Yourself”
There are no supply chains in the state of nature.
Slightly more seriously... the thing modern Distributist economics is trying to preserve is the incentive for doing the thing well; it recognizes that most things without proper incentives will be done poorly; let us work on (re-)aligning incentives so that things are done well and the incentives allocate the rewards more broadly such that things will be done even weller... and so forth in a virtuous circle to utopia (alright, I'll stop now).
I applaud the bold leftist thinking; I'd like to see more... but I'm not sure unreconstructed Rousseau is better than unreconstructed 70's Social Democracy.
"
The ways are fairly simple; the will is very much not there.
Corporate charters are what we grant them in law; we can define and re-define the rules of the game as needed; creating 30% (say) equity stake for Labor and the concomitant rules governing the nature and relationship of that stake to the 70% capital stake is just another step in the evolution of the regulations we already have for corporations and share distribution.
This happens all the time, too... it would be a re-pricing event where new stakeholders are dealt into the structure; a dilution of existing capital... and I don't mean to pooh-pooh the impact or the challenges and concerns we'd need to account for - especially if done all at once (not necessarily what I'd advocate for) in some sort of big bang. But the fundamental idea that dilution and expansion of equity holders take place against the wishes of some factions of shareholders is simply commonplace.
Part of the necessary 'sell-job' would be emphasizing the projected gains of this infusion of 'sweat capital' to productivity and 'shareholder value.' Ultimately it's an expansion of the pie, not a tax/redistribution scheme.
"
Right... would change all sorts of calculi. Not sure I'd categorize it as 'union control' of the shares... but I wouldn't have a problem with organized factions of labor supporting different (or the same) Board Members and/or policies.
And that's just one structural change that would alter the dynamic while preserving (or even enhancing) many of the strengths of corporations.
"
Equity.
Management has moved out of Wage compensation into Equity compensation... Labor has to move as well.
UBI has some possible benefits, but it won't do what people think it will do vis-a-vis Labor's compensation for both increasing productivity and lost compensation owing to automation. My optimistic take is that it opens up some space for other de-coupling events, but my pessimistic take is that UBI quickly becomes Guaranteed Jobs... which softly elides into a sort of wage-slavery. All with the best intentions, of course.
Basically, collective bargaining is too little too late... we need to re-open corporate charters and renegotiate the fundamental compact to both preserve 'capitalism' and rebalance/restructure the distribution of productivity gains.
Further, my meta-critique is that debating minimum wage is *exactly* the debate capital wants to have... we're debating a marginal, fixed, labor tax... that's conceding the game from the start; it could be justified on grounds that it needs updating/indexing... fine... but it isn't a 'win' in terms of fixing the long-term structural issues.
I'll take the hit on, "hey, these are the current pathways open to us" but the absence of updated policy objectives, coupled with a doubling down on 1970's social democracy makes me despair the paucity of thought on the left.
"
Meh, fighting 19th century problems with 20th century means. Fighting over wages isn't even the right fight. This is one area where the Left is so behind the times as to be functionally useless.
On “They are Newton’s Laws of Motion”
It's easy to reform the past; it costs us nothing. Better, it provokes people we want to provoke so it looks like we're fighting the good fight. Like most of what I've come to realize of 'the discourse' these are performances designed to salve the consciences of the status quo.
"
What's all this about biscuits then?
On “Wednesday Writs: Chief Justice Roberts All By Himself”
[L6] Cracks me up. Of course he does.
On “What is the Goal of Vaccine Discourse?”
TBF Kazzy wasn't using the word, he was clinically trying to understand the word and the context. So, he won't be fired... just asked to resign.
And for the record, we don't like the word Hypertension, we prefer Sanguinely Restrained.
On “From Global News.ca: Six Dr. Seuss books will no longer be published due to racist content”
I had a similar thought... keeping copyright/ownership to maintain control over *not* publishing seems to run contrary to copyright intent.
Isn't there a use aspect to all these laws? Why wouldn't these be something like abandoned trademarks? Not on Day 1 necessarily... but when (if ever) does the timer start running?
Unless the plan is to make the announcement, put them in storage, then release Mulberry street with an updated properly westernized financier from Hong Kong carrying a fork to make a killing on pent-up Milennial demand?
On “Gwinnett College Supreme Court Ruling: Read It For Yourself”
Burnishing his "lack of standing" and "moot" positions for the difficult cases ahead where he needs an outcome, but has not a reasoned path to get there.
On “Senate Passes Amended Covid Relief Package, Back to the House”
Public Pension issues long pre-date Covid. In this sense, Covid simply accelerates the gap in funding - which was already widening.
As best I can tell, 'only' $195B is earmarked for States... which at most keeps obligations from lagging further; it can't possibly address the (as of 2018) $1.24T funding gap.
Pre-covid this was a looming national issue... post-covid it is still a looming national issue.
Spending on Operational losses (which is the Covid plan) is likely the right course in the short term... but failing to address (or addressing inadequately by things like min wage) the the fundamental economic distribution and taxation issues (of which public pensions are a symptom) will keep these as looming National issues.
On “Weekend Plans Post: The Home Stretch?”
We registered my wife since she's teaching... the interesting thing about the experience was that it was literal translation by techies of all the 'essential' and 'at risk' groups from whatever document they were given. A 'select all that apply list' that strated in 1a... like, Emergency Room Doctor, Surgeon, Nurse, over 80, nursing home resident, nursing home worker... As if there was a theoretical possibility of someone who was all of those things ... which would trigger the immediate dispatch of a helicopter vaccine tech to that hero; then each page got less selective such that you could start to parse, I wonder how camera and sound-boom operators made it into the category with day-care workers... but well below Teachers and Media, mind you. [No politics, just facts].
While we both have 'an ID number' other than telling us we have an ID number, there has not been a single update or email or anything since we 'registered' on Feb 17th. Not even an email to confirm that, yes, you are in sub-section 4 of 1b.3 of the third roll-out of the second wave of vaccine, congratulations.
The rest I'll save for the politics thread on the vaccine roll-out :-)
"
Phases 1A, Phase 1B.1, Phase 1B.2, Phase 1B.3, Phase 1B.4, and Phase 2.
This is the bureaucratic obverse of Our Phases go to 11.
It's my birthday weekend and we're contemplating going to the same local foodie place where we went for our anniversary 6-months ago... they have cabanas and various other precautions... and it made us realize, since my last birthday we've been out exactly once, 6-months ago on our Anniversary... at this place that has...
On “From Global News.ca: Six Dr. Seuss books will no longer be published due to racist content”
History is: nonsense people, then Boomers, then people who don’t understand their parents. I’ve been informed of this by Boomers.
Well, obviously. I learned it as distant parents who didn't understand their Children, Boomers, then distant children who didn't understand their Parents.
And somewhere we grew GenX in a vat and let them fill in some generational cracks.
"
Heh, live by the generational short-hand die by the generational short-hand.
I take your point of course... boomers were kids once too... but contrary to even the most boomery of boomery takes, they are part of continuum where their parents are part of the formation of Boomers and they are not simply sui generis. So the Seuss books are the books of their generation, approved by their parents, and among the ones they "locked on to" and brought forward. And that's my main point... Seuss is the love, peace, and harmony of the Boomer generation... it's the Manifesto that ends in the Modern Sentiments by which they are denounced. There's something Oedipal in taking on Seuss. It's not really about racisim.
And, ultimately the goal isn't to let kids read them and decide for themselves, it's to manage the cannon of what's acceptable for Parents to give their children to read... Which is what I mean by Children's books are written for adults.
"
Plausible alternate timeline... Titans all the way down.