2653

Full plate armor is pretty cool.

2654

The discussion of wahoo’s points is, IMO, missing one fairly big element: wages. Wages/compensation is a huge issue in both employment rates and in moving people off of public assistance. The GOP is referring to it’s current ideas of making people ineligible for Medicaid if they don’t work as “workforce development”. Yes, in theory, incentives like that can increase the pool of labor, but they do nothing to increase the actual number of jobs available, and they also do nothing to increase wages.

You want to reduce dependence on public assistance? Increase both the availability and the attractiveness of jobs, and you will see a big improvement. You want to reach a higher rate of employment, with less people sitting out of the workforce? Increase the wages offered and you will see a big improvement.

This to me is a great exemplar of what I think of as the conservative blindspot on employment and the economy: conservatives talk about jobs, taxes, spending, etc., but very rarely do they talk about wages, benefits, hours, scheduling, quality of life at work, etc.

This issue also illustrates the double standard of the conservative view of how to influence human behavior: when talking about the poor or working class, we have to use negative incentives, but when talking about higher incomes, we have to use positive incentives.

Both positive and negative incentives can be useful, and it’s one of the weaknesses of the conservative movement that when talking about the working class, it’s negative incentives all the way down.

2655

His worst nightmare.

2656
2657

image

2658

Thank you. I have a hard time taking any conservative talking points seriously precisely because of this.
However, I’d like to see the whole welfare state re-thought. UBI, reduce the work week to 32 hours (I’d go 28, personally), and guaranteed federal jobs. And since illegal immigration puts such a hair under xenophobes, start imposing stiff penalties on employers who hire them (as an aside, capital doesn’t pay any attention to borders, and i’m starting to think labor shouldn’t either, but whatever.)

It’s hard to see because we’re in it, but technology is moving really fast now, and not only is blue-collar labor getting replaced, it won’t be long before advanced AI starts doing the same for white collar jobs too.

2659

Too stupid not to post.
(Flood, by the way, is eight people. Who knew both geography and math could be so complicated?)

2660

“Breitbart’s headline writer seems to think Bangladesh is in the Middle East”

They’re brown-ish right?

2661

Any place south or east of Norway is the Middle East to Breitbart readers.

2662

So true. RIP, white Christian Sweden.

2663

Bangladesh is next to India, which is next to Pakistan, which is next to Iran. So, pretty close.

2664
2665

To a degree, this is one reason why I’ve come around to universal, single payer health care.

  1. It’s far better equipped to handle the realities of 21st century employment in America
  2. It will reduce the costs of employment to businesses without reducing wages
2666

Pretty sure this article applies as is to Puerto Rico, although the numbers would be off.

2667

Why is Norway so awesome except when we want to emulate its social safety net?

2668

Its mostly the blond hair, blue eyes and rugged good looks.

Oh and the fjords. Those things are awesome.

2669

Python parrot quotes in 3…2…

2670

I’m still pining for them…

(and I was typing at the same time as @Gordon_Cameron, so it was perfect timing)

2671

, This is during a House hearing, mind you. How long before they start flinging their shit?

2672

Cracked open Wikipedia to read up a little on this guy:

Lewandowski met his future wife Alison Hardy, when he was in ninth grade and she was in eighth. She married Brian Kinney in 1998, but he died on United Airlines Flight 175 during the September 11, 2001 attacks. She married Lewandowski four years later, in 2005. Lewandowski is a father of four children.

From 2015 to 2016, Lewandowski allegedly had an extramarital affair with Trump aide Hope Hicks.

On November 28, 2017, a pro-Trump performer, Joy Villa, filed a police complaint against Lewandowski for allegedly slapping her buttocks at a holiday party at the Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C. Villa alleged that after she told him that she could report him for sexual harassment, Lewandowski said, “I work in the private sector” and slapped her again. Lewandowski responded to the allegations by saying that “There is a due process and there is a process which they will go through to determine a person’s innocence."