18th February 2021, 7:04 AM
Oh geez how time flies. My position is a little more immediate now. While I mostly still agree with what I've said here, rather than just focus on charity, I'd rather focus on Obama's failure of imagination.
Giving those without jobs the task of building homes and infrastructure for the homeless is increasingly necessary and it's necessary right now. We're in an as yet unannounced second great depression, and it's full scope is going to be revealed as soon as the pandemic is behind us, if not a bit before then. It's a nightmare we have to contend with now, not just dream about from an armchair.
To that end, Biden stating outright at his recent town hall that he will NOT forgive debt beyond 10,000 dollars (an entirely arbitrary cutoff point, if you think you can do $10,000 with the stroke of a pen, why not $50,000?) is an utter failure and the sort we already expected from him, sadly. And yes, he IS having to deal with a pandemic and now a natural disaster, it's affecting the rest of us FAR more than it's affecting him though, so no, I won't "give him a break".
More specifically, we need to radically rethink how companies work. Comrade... I don't mean that the government should take ownership of every large company, but the people working at them? They definitely should. That's the sort of radical shift that will also prevent automation from replacing everyone's jobs except on a clear schedule to providing alternatives. I call for an end to secret board room meetings where a few at the top know about upcoming layoffs but no one at the bottom levels do. The employees would vote for the company leadership positions. There would be votes on the direction a company goes. Nothing the top does would happen without the approval of the majority of their employees. Bottom-up management, that's what I'm asking for here.
Giving those without jobs the task of building homes and infrastructure for the homeless is increasingly necessary and it's necessary right now. We're in an as yet unannounced second great depression, and it's full scope is going to be revealed as soon as the pandemic is behind us, if not a bit before then. It's a nightmare we have to contend with now, not just dream about from an armchair.
To that end, Biden stating outright at his recent town hall that he will NOT forgive debt beyond 10,000 dollars (an entirely arbitrary cutoff point, if you think you can do $10,000 with the stroke of a pen, why not $50,000?) is an utter failure and the sort we already expected from him, sadly. And yes, he IS having to deal with a pandemic and now a natural disaster, it's affecting the rest of us FAR more than it's affecting him though, so no, I won't "give him a break".
More specifically, we need to radically rethink how companies work. Comrade... I don't mean that the government should take ownership of every large company, but the people working at them? They definitely should. That's the sort of radical shift that will also prevent automation from replacing everyone's jobs except on a clear schedule to providing alternatives. I call for an end to secret board room meetings where a few at the top know about upcoming layoffs but no one at the bottom levels do. The employees would vote for the company leadership positions. There would be votes on the direction a company goes. Nothing the top does would happen without the approval of the majority of their employees. Bottom-up management, that's what I'm asking for here.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)