Rivalarrival

@Rivalarrival@lemmy.today

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨They eliminated cashiers and keep the profits. NY Democrats are fighting back.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  True. Very true. But the solution to that problem is a completely different conversation than what we have been having in this thread. That conversation starts with a “citizenship dividend”.

  Democracy takes the political power of the individual, conveys it to government, where it is used to provide all manner of services. Those services are available to everyone, but they are not utilized equally by everyone.

  The individual is not currently compensated for the use of their political power. We are taxed proportional to those services that we use, but those taxes don’t make it back to the source of the power that enabled those services.

  That should change.

  Each of us should be individually compensated for the government’s use of our political power. We should each receive an equal dividend. The most common term for this dividend is “Universal Basic Income”, and it should be enough for the food on our tables and the roofs over our heads. We should receive that income before we get out of bed on Monday morning. The 40 hours we typically work in the week should not be for basic subsistence, but should be entirely gainful.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨They eliminated cashiers and keep the profits. NY Democrats are fighting back.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  You do realize that the prices in the store right now are already the maximum the stores can charge, do you not?

  The market doesn’t see the price hike. You pay $100 today, before I hike the prices. I hike the prices to $111.11, but my shelf labels show you the “discounted” price of $100. You keep paying the $100 price that the market currently bears.

  And why can’t the elderly or disabled use self-checkout?

  That point was completely irrelevant. If someone can’t use the self checkout, ADA compliance requires accommodation, and the business can’t charge them extra. They get the same discounted price as the self-checkout. So, they put a handicap placard on the cashier stand, train the cashier not to ask any questions about disabilities, and give the same “discount” to anyone who uses the register.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨They eliminated cashiers and keep the profits. NY Democrats are fighting back.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  For ADA compliance purposes, the human cashiers have to give disabled customers the same rate as the self checkout. If I’m running a store, all my staffed checkouts will have handicapped placards, and cashiers will be trained not to inquire as to disability status, but merely “accommodate” everyone in line.

  Now everyone is getting the “discount”.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨They eliminated cashiers and keep the profits. NY Democrats are fighting back.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  Sure they can. They hike prices 11.11% and the 10% discount brings them right back to their original price. Their 3% margin stays a 3% margin. They can even post the “discounted” price on the shelves to make it seem like customers are getting a good deal.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨They eliminated cashiers and keep the profits. NY Democrats are fighting back.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  ADA compliance will kill the entire thing. You can’t charge someone for accommodation of a disability that prevents them from using the self checkout. All the human-staffed registers will be posted as handicap accessible, and they will default to the “discounted” self-checkout price.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨They eliminated cashiers and keep the profits. NY Democrats are fighting back.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  If I have a $150 grocery bill, a 10% discount would be $15.

  If you have a $150 grocery bill, it’s being hiked to ~$166.66 before you get to the checkout. Then the 10% discount is bringing it back down to the $150 you were paying before. The net discount is zero: you’re paying exactly what you’re paying now.

  If you keep going to the cashier after this, you’re paying the company the hiked price, which gives them an extra $16.66 for maybe 5 minutes of cashier labor. The company turns around and pays the cashier $1.66, netting an extra $15 from you for their shareholders.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨They eliminated cashiers and keep the profits. NY Democrats are fighting back.⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  Turnover of cashier jobs is ridiculously high. They aren’t losing their jobs. They are leaving shitty jobs where they have been heavily exploited by dickhead employers, and they aren’t being replaced.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨They eliminated cashiers and keep the profits. NY Democrats are fighting back.⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  “Cashier” has pretty much always been a heavily exploited, poverty-wage position. Cashiers might be putting food on the table, but their dickhead bosses aren’t paying them a living wage. They aren’t putting roofs over heads, or kids through college. Turnover is ridiculously, criminally high. People aren’t getting fired when the position is eliminated. They are leaving just as fast as they already were, and they aren’t being replaced.

  The position is used to systematically exploit workers. Eliminating that position is a net positive.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Boys will be boys⁩ ⁨⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, pretty much.

  I remember eating 4000 to 6000 calories a day in high school. I could put away two double whopper meals - large fries, large coke - in a sitting.

  Or a 16" pizza, with plenty of room for Jo-jos.

  Or 4 big plates of spaghetti, with half a loaf of garlic bread, and salad until there was no more salad to be had.

  I was scrawny. Too scrawny for high school sports. 5’9", but I didn’t break 100lbs until my senior year.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨virtual politics⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  He’s got about a week left to live and prevent a special election until he will have been dead since June.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If your in jail and you have a heart condition, and they taser you and you die are they responsible? Even if they know you have a heart condition?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  The sign being metal would probably provide a low-impedance path for the electricity to flow around your body instead of through it. It would function similarly to a faraday cage.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If your in jail and you have a heart condition, and they taser you and you die are they responsible? Even if they know you have a heart condition?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Why am I being tasered?

  This question needs to be answered before any meaningful conclusion can be made. If I am being tasered by cops to stop me from unjustifiably harming you, responsibility for that tasering falls on me.

  If I am being tasered for no good reason, responsibility falls on the taserer.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Return to office propaganda floating around LinkedIn⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Take the money saved by not commuting, and invest it. The ROI on that investment gives you more than your Year 06 raise in Year 01.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How come in America Cunt is such a egregious word but not the same in Europe?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  “Cunt” isn’t actually any more egregious in America than Europe. The difference is that here in America, there are just far more cunts to take offense.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why is gun violence lower in Switzerland than in the US?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Indeed. Systemic problems need systemic solutions.

  Home Ownership is the single largest factor affecting poverty rates. We need to drive everyone toward home ownership rather than renting. Renting should only be feasible for small-time landlords who live on one unit of a duplex, triplex, or quadplex. Apartment buildings should be converted to condominiums. Land Contracts (basically rental agreements with fixed monthly rates that automatically convert to mortgages after three years) should replace traditional rental agreements with their annual rent hikes. All that is easily achievable by offering owner-occupant credits to property taxes, then jacking up the tax rate on investment properties beyond a rate where renting could be profitable. With renting generally infeasible, landlords will be pushing tenants to become buyers instead, mostly through tenant-favoring land contracts instead of landlord-favoring rental agreements.

  We desperately need universal healthcare replacing our employer-sponsored healthcare standard, including optometry and dental coverage.

  Prison reformation: Prisoners need to earn at least minimum wage for their labor. Their spending can be restricted while in prison, and their saved wages released as a monthly or weekly allowance after their release, but their labor needs to lead to economic gains, or we are just creating recidivism.

  Universal Basic Income needs to be phased in. We can start with $20/wk for every man, woman, and child in the country, and increase it periodically.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why is gun violence lower in Switzerland than in the US?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  14-24 year old impoverished young men forced to live in urban hellscapes with no legitimate opportunity for economic advancement comprise the bulk of both murderer and murdered.

  It’s almost like systematically forcing people into desperation results in profound violence.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Being poor is expensive⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Who said anything about working for someone else? You’re free to conduct your own affairs in any manner you want to. I, personally, want to see that you are compensated for the use of your political authority in our democratic system of government. You don’t have to accept that compensation. If you really want nothing to do with any sort of democratic society, you’re free to withdraw from it entirely.

  But that’s pretty much the extent of my interest. You acquire your political power by virtue of being human; the most you are “owed” for the government’s use of your political power is that which you need to continue being a human. (Technically, you are owed less: You already receive the benefits of law and order that arise from the government’s use of your political powers. The monetary value of the rule of law could be deducted from your “citizenship dividend” and it would still be fair and reasonable.)

  UBI does not replace work. It removes the exploitative factors from work. It enables you to take on the risk of working for yourself. Today, you might need 20 hours of wages a week just to live, and you can only devote another 20 hours a week toward your preferred project before you are considered “overworked”. With UBI, your “just to live” hours are zero, and you get to devote all your time to your preferred project. That might be gainful employment; that might be charitable work; that might be artistry or writing.

  This “rightful landlords” stuff you’re talking about might arise from some other economic system, but not from a “citizenship dividend”. Not from “UBI”. You are “made whole” for the conveyance of your political powers as a human when your essential human needs are minimally met; that’s all UBI is for.

  What you seem to be describing is more like society claiming “eminent domain” over all land, taxing everyone who uses the land, and paying that tax out to everyone. In which case, yes, you’ll receive something for everyone else’s land use. But you’ll also owe something for your own land use. You’ll owe a lot of money on the valuable residential land where you lay your head. You’ll receive a pittance on the cheap agricultural and industrial land used to feed and clothe you. The net flow of money will be opposite the way you think it will be: The farmer and the industrialist will be receiving more than they are paying, for utilizing land that is useless to the overwhelming majority. (Commercialists will pay more than you, though…Commercial land is vastly higher value than residential, which is more valuable than industrial, which is much more valuable than agricultural, which is more valuable than mining lands)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Being poor is expensive⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If UBI was intended to be the single, primary source of income, I’d agree that it is too low. But it isn’t. The economic purpose is, basically, to remove human need and desperation from contract negotiations and labor agreements.

  It’s easy to exploit a drowning man. UBI is intended to keep your head above water, so you can always afford to walk away from a shitty boss.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Being poor is expensive⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Current Poverty line for a single person is $16000. $12000 is 75% of the current single-person household. $12,000/yr, free and clear, before you leave for work on Monday morning. You’re above the poverty line by noon on Monday.

  You and your partner are both receiving the same UBI. Together, you’re receiving $24000/yr. That’s 110% of the current poverty rate for a household of two. You’re above the line just from your UBI.

  For you, your partner, and your two kids, that’s $48000/yr. That’s 145% of the poverty line for a household of 4.

  Does that still seem unreasonable? I’d be ecstatic over 25%.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨This was the best ever segment of Saturday Night Live⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I think this post needs more cowbell.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Being poor is expensive⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Waiting an hour for a bus each way for your daily commute

  Adding an hour-long commute turns an 8 hour day into a 10 hour day, for no extra pay. A $25/hr job turns into a $20/hr job.

  For the bus rider, avoiding that “commuter tax” strictly limits employment options to those employers on the same line(s) as their home. Adding a transfer slashes the hourly rate even faster.

  Further, those bus lines only operate in dense urban areas, where housing costs are also at an exorbitant premium for the space acquired.

  The driver can choose to work in less dense areas, where traffic jams simply don’t occur, parking is easy to find, and housing costs are considerably lower. The bus rider can’t: buses tend not to serve such areas.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Being poor is expensive⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  And there it hits again: the core of the issue is not the bus agency, but the lack of support for excellent public transit.

  I don’t control the busses. I don’t dictate to the busses when they need to come. I don’t dictate to the busses what routes they take, or where they will actually go. I can only accept whatever level of service they are willing to provide.

  I do control my car. I do dictate to my car when it needs to go. I create the level of service I will receive.

  The monetary price of a bus fare is significantly less than the cost of a car trip. But even with the absolute best public transit system, the opportunity costs vastly exceed the difference. An hour commute turns a $25/hr job into a $20/hr job. Employment and/or housing choices are limited: Job and home need to be on the same bus line, because a twice-daily transfer is just going to kill hourly earnings. And, of course, there is the premium on urban housing.

  Between the time costs, the housing costs, and the restrictions on employment choices, busses are a massive cost borne primarily by the impoverished.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Being poor is expensive⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Minimum wage isn’t going to cut it anymore. We need UBI.

  Democracy is the idea that political authority is derived from the people. The government’s power to levy taxes and conduct its business is taken from We The People; We The People should be fairly compensated for the use of that power. We should each be paid a citizenship dividend of 75% of the current poverty level, before we put a single hour on the clock.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨She skipped groceries for a week to pay for that Little Caesars.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Not under this rationale, no.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨She skipped groceries for a week to pay for that Little Caesars.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The “+s/es” construction typically indicates plurality. “It” is fundamentally singular, so there is no justification for “its”.

  “It’s” eliminates more exceptions to various rules for word construction; it achieves greater simplification.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨She skipped groceries for a week to pay for that Little Caesars.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Found the English teacher.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨She skipped groceries for a week to pay for that Little Caesars.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The apostrophe-s construction “it’s” suffices for both the contractive form “it is” as well as the possessive form of “it”. “Its” exists solely to satisfy the craven pedantry of elementary school English teachers. Nothing of value is lost by abandoning this archaic construction.

  “Its” is deprecated.

  Downvote all you like; pedant tears are full of electrolytes.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The holy trinity⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Whiskey, Vodka, Tequila

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Lawyer here: I concur!⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  The Bollinger B1 and B2 were supposed to have exactly that. A central passthrough all the way from the back of the bed to the front bumper. You would have been able to haul 20’ lumber entirely within the vehicle.

  Of course, their $125k price point for a no-frills electric work truck was twice as much as three-row luxury SUV pretty much doomed them from the start. If they had targeted a price point suitable for fleet operations, we’d all be driving them.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why exactly are nursing aids paid so poorly?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Chronic Luigi Insufficiency.