The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
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User ID: 174
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1d ago
· Edited 1d ago
Sounds like a setup for a common joke.
Schwab's vision comes to pass but
The food is the same, only more expensive, lesser in variety and the "local stores" are merely subsidiaries of WalMart
The waistline is also the same
The sidewalks are barely navigable due to the kiosks trying to sell you something, the crowds, and the homeless beggars
The parks are dilapidated, the trees are dead (having cracked all the sidewalks before giving up the ghost), and the parks are dominated by drug users and/or aggressive panhandlers.
The commute is by bus, but there is no safety.
And when you ask Schwab about the utopian world he promised... "Oh, zat was zhust ze demo."
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1d ago
Communication absolutely works that way. What you're missing is it's quite possible that ChickenOverlord and sarker realized the implicit comparison was being made, felt it was wrong, but couldn't challenge it without it being made explicit -- and the best way to make it explicit was to treat it as if it hadn't been made.
In this case, it's even less reasonable because erwgv3g34 in fact DID make explicit the comparison -- he said one person could produce 1000x the value of a "regular man". Then SubstantialFrivolity denied that it was possible for one person to produce 1000x the value of another, leaving out the "regular man", which is denying the specific (that someone could make 1000x the value of a "regular man") by claiming a general rule (that no one can make 1000x the value of anyone else). Basically your interpretation privileges the "this phenomenon does not exist" side.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1d ago
This is irrelevant; both the worker's and the CEO's quality of life once fired is beyond the control of the company.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
1d ago
People aren't being overly literal. Including that comparison without making it explicit isn't a reasonable thing to do, because it brings it in without leaving it open for challenge.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
3d ago
It never occurs to anyone to learn to do something more valuable. Just that they need to win the fight against the classists. How much unrest is actually caused by failure to reason through 9th grade math regarding your personal conditions?
Perhaps there's a cause and effect here. If you can't reason through the 9th grade math, you can't find anything more valuable you're capable of doing.
But probably not; it's just the politics of envy. You can always point at some fatcat you claim is getting all the value. Or if that fails, blame the customers for not paying enough. After all, if you by law increase the cost of coffee so every employee can afford a house, you've eliminated the problem of direct competitors eating your lunch. The idea that people might say 'fuck it, I'll make my own coffee' can just be dismissed out of hand.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
3d ago
"if".
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
3d ago
I believe Afghanistan is the only choice. The US never occupied North Korea or Vietnam (you could argue the US occupied South Vietnam when it existed, or South Korea, but neither is adjacent to China). Afghanistan has a very narrow and closed border with China, though I imagine there's unofficial traffic across it.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
3d ago
Data work doesn't really count either, of course: it's too close to science, and science as a concept is feminine and obviously not technical.
Especially computer science! Felt really awkward being the only guy in a lecture with 400 people. But it got better when I studied physics, there were typically a few other men in the room.
Meredith is obviously a crazy person, but to give the devil his due, she's not seriously suggesting this; she's claiming this is the attitude of tech people.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
3d ago
We should put Denali (the mountain, currently back to being McKinley) on the $500.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
3d ago
They are cultivating a narrative, but
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They are quite constrained in this. In particular, they cannot cultivate a narrative that will make those who consume mainstream-left media not hate them.
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They are trying to be scary at least some of the time. But not hateable. Consider all this handwringing about the Pokemon soundtrack... does the Pokemon soundtrack make them seem scary and hateable? Hardly. It's whimsical; that part is aimed not at generating fear or hate, but at convincing the convincible that they are doing their job.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
3d ago
The main distinction is that the right-wing witches were driven out by the left-wing witches, while the left-wing witches left because they were unable to continue to keep the right-wing witches out.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
4d ago
Werner von Braun was Prussian, though.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
4d ago
If you're planning on dying, and hate the world and want to extract revenge on it. Why not go to your nearest sporting event/concert and wait for it to let out? Or rent a car, drive to New York, and unload in a PACKED subway station at 8:30am on a Tuesday.
Who says they hate the world equally? Maybe they hate the people nearer to them more? Also, as a more practical matter, shooting up a local Walmart is easy to plan; you've probably been there a bunch of times. And there's no waiting where someone can notice you standing around and possibly question you.
Hitting the NYC subway is even less likely; even if they only care about body count, what do they know about the subway? I mean, I know two stations where that would work well (if you didn't mind getting killed or caught), but I use the subway regularly. Somebody from suburbia or flyoverville has no idea what the subway is like. As with "write what you know", "kill where you know" is probably "good" advice.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
4d ago
I'm tired of hearing about Elon Musk and Jensen Huang. America went to the moon and back before we opened the immigration floodgates
LOL, perhaps you'd like to hear about Werner von Braun instead? America went to the moon largely due to the efforts of 'liberated' Nazi engineers in building the rockets. And one of the planners of US spaceflight and the namer of the Apollo program, as well as the chair of the Saturn Vehicle Evaluation Committee? Wait for it, you're going to love this... Abe Silverstein. So, like the ICBM, the lunar program was a product of a partnership between Nazis and Jews.
Robert Goddard, at least, was a "heritage American" so it wasn't entirely an immigrant endeavor.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
4d ago
Arbitrary and capricious enforcement of paperwork offenses (and illegal immigration is a paperwork offence)
Illegal immigration is not a "paperwork offense", except in the case of those illegal immigrants who could have cured or avoided it by doing the right paperwork. Most of them, no matter what paperwork they would have filed, would not have been lawfully admitted to the US.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
4d ago
It's been a long time since I looked at a price theory textbook, so yes, I got the axes wrong -- it's where the supply curve is vertical, not flat. But other than convention I believe I described it accurately.
I do not know if this is actually the case for the shitty jobs in question. However, it has happened in software and related fields on a number of occasions. It is not absurd.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
4d ago
The enemies -- at least, the specific enemies troops are being sent in against -- are not radical left Democrats, it's the people they're letting in and career criminals (as he says elsewhere). Trump is not sending in the military to arrest the Mayor of Chicago the way Kennedy's troops threatened to do to Wallace. Trump did not call the people of Chicago "domestic enemies".
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
4d ago
It's not really a lack of a market clearing price, but if the supply curve is very flat, behavior that looks like that can happen. Suppose there are 10000 people willing to do a job from any price from $10/hr to $100/hr. And there are 3 employers willing to hire a 3333 people for any price between $10/hour and $50/hour. Market clearing price is $10/hour and one person is unemployed. Now another employer pops up, also willing to hire 3333 people for between $10 and $50. At first they offer $11, and they fill all their positions while the other 3 employers end up understaffed. Those employers offer $12 to fill their positions. The new employer offers $13, and so on -- the market clearing price eventually reaches $50 and a bunch of positions go unfilled. And if any of those employers decide they can pay more than $50 (but less than $100), all they do is move the people around and end up at a higher equilibrium price.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
4d ago
· Edited 4d ago
Bummer. I think you're being a little bit of a negative Nancy and you are able to meaningfully participate in the political process more than you believe
If nothing else, the country (and the state and even my town of ~50,000) is simply too big for all but a small percentage to meaningfully participate in the political process. And that small percentage is made up mostly of those who make a living of it.
That's chill. Just don't shoot the cop that pulls you over for speeding and if you lose the court case pay your fine.
All depends on how high those penalties are. At some point, it will be worth shooting over.
ETA: You would think that in a first world country it never would be. But some years ago in New York City, a cop stepped into the road front of my bicycle, forcing me to go onto the sidewalk to avoid hitting him. He then arrested me and charged me with riding my bike on the sidewalk. When I went to court, the judge in the Midtown court -- who was not the regular judge -- told me I was lucky the regular judge wasn't there or I'd be going to Rikers Island. Rikers Island is the rather notorious NYC jail; the chance of a middle-aged white collar guy getting out of there alive, with his ass intact, and without any bones broken isn't very good. It's not an original observation with me that if the penalty for speeding is death, no one stops for the flashing lights. So be it. Anyway, I don't ride a bike in NYC any more.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
4d ago
And I don't accept that you're a Free Man and that following laws you disagree with means that you're being unjustly put upon and must suck it up and obey.
That's OK, I don't expect you (or Donald Trump or Governor Murphy) to accept it.
There are many, many avenues for you to try to get a law changed
"It is not my business to be petitioning the governor or the legislature any more than it is theirs to petition me; and, if they should not hear my petition, what should I do then?"
I am not a politician; I have no charisma nor political skills, nor the skills required to hire such people, nor the money it would take to successfully lobby against even one law (and there are many bad ones). In practice, I cannot get a law changed. My choices are obey or not.
You are not a creature in a state of nature that has been cruelly subjugated and is striking a blow against The Man by doing what you want.
No, of course not. If I'm breaking the law I'm doing what I want because I want to do it, and I don't much care if The Man doesn't like it. Advocacy? Pfah, The Man won't listen to me. Sometimes he won't listen to a clear majority; the national maximum speed limit lasted for 22 years. If it had been obeyed that whole time, we'd still have it.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
5d ago
Probably true empirically but that doesn't mean you should therefore support those breaking the law*.
It means I must choose between acceding to every bad law or supporting lawbreaking in some instances. I won't give politicians that blank check.
(and no, I don't accept "We live in a society therefore suck it up and obey", no matter how many words you put behind it).
This is not because helping people take a chemical or cross an imaginary line between countries is depraved, it's because they are chipping away at the machinery that drives organized, peaceful, advanced societies.
Sometimes, I want some of that machinery chipped away, so the organized, peaceful, advanced society can be less regimented.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
5d ago
There are Spanish versions of those ads. I suspect they're both.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
5d ago
What I expect is more like
- Speed limit is too low -> everyone obeys the speed limit -> it becomes a non-issue, with would-be violators just sucking it up.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
5d ago
That's been tried before: in 1992 (admittedly under the elder Bush administration) Randy Weaver (not the best of characters, mind you) had an undercover informant request illegal shotgun modifications, then ATF agents shot his dog, shot his son in the back, and shot his unarmed wife who was holding a 10 month old baby.
This was actually a joint Federal operation. ATF entrapped him, a US Marshall killed his dog and his son, and an FBI sniper killed his wife.
There isn't a full-sized grocery store in Manhattan. There are a few in Philadelphia, but very few people are within 5 minutes of them.
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