The Political Discussion Thread

[garhkal]

We require registration, insurance is required to get registration.

That's how its Supposed to work.... But i have known far too many who didn't...

Depends if you mind being called a socialist.

Well, i have also been called a fascist..

With experience comes lower cost, except when you get into a crash in which you're at fault.

That is true, with experience, lower costs come. However, i;ve know people who made claims, CAUSE Someone out side the restaurant they were in, decided to get into a fight, and banged up their car door, or nextdoor's kid broke a few windows just for fun and a # of other things, where THE PERSON who owned the car was not at fault (and in many cases didn't even KNOW about it till they saw the damage the next day), but their rates still got jacked up cause they made a claim..

Hunting and fishing, sure, people do that for leisure, but I wonder how many could harvest and stockpile for any extended period (yes I am sure some can)
As for the rest, dude, you are a gamer, you probably roll in gamer circles and gamer geeks are quite frankly -notorious- for doing old tech stuff for fun, especially if they are into the historical societies and are recreationists as well!! basically, your hundreds are interest biased.

I am shocked how FEW gamers i know are into 'prepping'.. BUT know the skills they need..

In what way is technology -worse-?
The largest factor in technological advancement is human effort required to perform X task, which means -at worst- you are losing jobs, which is -entirely- why people like Womble say education is a cornerstone of societal advancement -besides the fact that it has been proven time and time again in history-

Well lets see.
How many people can still do BASIC math (add/subtract/multiply) ALL without having a damn cell phone or calculator to do the work for them?
How many can properly spell, without having to just use the automated spell checkers in their word program?
Heck, how many can write in cursive on PAPER??
ALso, look at generally how inpatient people have gotten cause of having all things all the time at the tip of their fingertips for so long, they have LOST the ability to be patient and wait...

[Falcon Horus]

How many people can still do BASIC math (add/subtract/multiply) ALL without having a damn cell phone or calculator to do the work for them?

Check!

How many can properly spell, without having to just use the automated spell checkers in their word program?

Spellcheck is notoriously iffy.

Heck, how many can write in cursive on PAPER??

With an actual fountain pen too.

[Annoyed]

Strange, i know quite a few people on welfare, who from the welfare, EBT, Section 8 (housing), Section 11 (day care), and all the other benies (such as tax credits etc), pull in quite a bit of money.. To where they have had family vacations each year when people i know who work, can't afford to do more than 1 vacation every 3-4 years...

And note how many of them are driving almost or outright new Cadillacs.
I can't count the number of times I've been in supermarket checkout lines, I see the person ahead pay with their EBT card, and then later on, you seem them loading their groceries into a very expensive caddy. I've also seen numerous exampes of people buying a very expensive flatscreen TV, paying for it with cash, and then half an hour later, you see the same person in the grocery line paying with their benefit cards. That is absurd.

And if you note, every time the government INCREASES how much they will pay for students to attend college on govt aid, the PRICE of that college class also seems to increase EXACTLY the same amount? JUST the same as with govt assisted rent. Such as BAH/OHA for mil folks. I could rent a room for 1000 a mo, and 2 yrs later, when my OHA/BAH got boosted to 1200/mo, guess what. THAT'S what the rent now costs.

People speak of the "military-industrial complex" but it's nowhere near as evil as the educational-government alliance.

[mad_gater]

No, seriously, learn some history.

perhaps it's you that needs to learn some history....along with some basic economics....basic economic principles state that when you have more people on the government dole than you have working/producing, no economy can sustain that forever

it's the same cycle that's been played out in history numerous times, which is probably where the saying "Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it"....and unfortunately the number of people willing to disregard history's lessons is alarmingly high....most free nations tend to follow what has comonly become known as the Tytler Cycle:

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."
“The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage

[mad_gater]

In what way is technology -worse-?
The largest factor in technological advancement is human effort required to perform X task, which means -at worst- you are losing jobs, which is -entirely- why people like Womble say education is a cornerstone of societal advancement -besides the fact that it has been proven time and time again in history-
Process workers loose the job due to automation, retrain them to learn a new skill, Miners loose a job because of automation, teach them to oversee wind farms instead, their lungs and your health bill will love you for it. The problem isn't -getting them educated-, the system exists already, it's this notion of "who will pay for it" and quite frankly, you all pay for it a hell of a lot more if you DON'T do it. West Virginia is a -shining- example of this, Coal country, "salt of the earth" hardworking men and women, yet most are poorly educated, are on or addicted to opioids, and receiving federal health handouts. Do you honestly see that model as a way forward for your country?

which is why it's not always for the better...computers lack one important factor...the inherently human ability to think outside the box

and quite frankly....if I owned a farm....I wouldn't be so quick to trust the activity of harvesting my produce to a bunch of glorified automated buckets of bolts that might choose a rather inopportune moment to start malfunctioning

so yes....assembly line manufacturers might save money in transitioning to robots rather than humans....but I would bet my bottom dollar that robots wouldn't be nearly as effective at maintaining the quality level that the product had when the process was overseen by humans

[garhkal]

Spellcheck is notoriously iffy.

Especially if you are typing a UK word, and spell check tries to alter it to a US word...!

With an actual fountain pen too.

Good for you. I used to Love using fountain pens, or more to the point Cartridge pens..

[Womble]

Strange, i know quite a few people on welfare, who from the welfare, EBT, Section 8 (housing), Section 11 (day care), and all the other benies (such as tax credits etc), pull in quite a bit of money.. To where they have had family vacations each year when people i know who work, can't afford to do more than 1 vacation every 3-4 years...

I am somehow skeptical about that. Do they work off the books?

Then where did all those thousands of med school peeps go back in the mid-lte 90s when it was getting 'flooded'?

Good question. Might have dropped out due to unaffordable tuition fees.

And if you note, every time the government INCREASES how much they will pay for students to attend college on govt aid, the PRICE of that college class also seems to increase EXACTLY the same amount? JUST the same as with govt assisted rent. Such as BAH/OHA for mil folks. I could rent a room for 1000 a mo, and 2 yrs later, when my OHA/BAH got boosted to 1200/mo, guess what. THAT'S what the rent now costs.

Well, that's the downside of treating education as a business to you. It doesn't happen in Germany, why is that?

[Gatefan1976]

which is why it's not always for the better...computers lack one important factor...the inherently human ability to think outside the box

Which is why you train and educate human overseers.

and quite frankly....if I owned a farm....I wouldn't be so quick to trust the activity of harvesting my produce to a bunch of glorified automated buckets of bolts that might choose a rather inopportune moment to start malfunctioning

Well, you could certainly support yourself and a family that way, out in the fields with a scythe and the lady or kids at home doing the threshing, but good luck supporting anything like a community, and good luck having the time required to do anything beyond work to survive.

so yes....assembly line manufacturers might save money in transitioning to robots rather than humans....but I would bet my bottom dollar that robots wouldn't be nearly as effective at maintaining the quality level that the product had when the process was overseen by humans

Process lines such as car manufacturing are still overseen by humans. In addition, most goods you buy today are built by robots, some products for quite some time now, certainly before either one of us was born.

[Gatefan1976]

I am somehow skeptical about that. Do they work off the books?


Good question. Might have dropped out due to unaffordable tuition fees.


Well, that's the downside of treating education as a business to you. It doesn't happen in Germany, why is that?

Will you stop making sense, I have to agree with you too much

[Annoyed]

perhaps it's you that needs to learn some history....along with some basic economics....basic economic principles state that when you have more people on the government dole than you have working/producing, no economy can sustain that forever

it's the same cycle that's been played out in history numerous times, which is probably where the saying "Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it"....and unfortunately the number of people willing to disregard history's lessons is alarmingly high....most free nations tend to follow what has comonly become known as the Tytler Cycle:

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."
“The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage

From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury,
Which is where we are now in most urban areas

The only solution I can think of is to require employment in either the private sector or police/fire/military in order to vote.

[Gatefan1976]

Oh, I missed this bit of "wisdom", let me respond.

perhaps it's you that needs to learn some history....along with some basic economics....basic economic principles state that when you have more people on the government dole than you have working/producing, no economy can sustain that forever

Your basic premise is flawed, the fall of the roman empire had NOTHING to do with government "dole", in fact, I doubt you even knew rome provided benefits given that you just said that such benefits were recent. The major economic failure of rome was the vast divide between the working class and the wealthy, and if you actually knew a damn thing about what you were talking about, you would have hung your "history repeats itself" argument on that. It's next failure was on spending so much on expanding borders and the military cost involved in such projects.

it's the same cycle that's been played out in history numerous times, which is probably where the saying "Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it"....and unfortunately the number of people willing to disregard history's lessons is alarmingly high....most free nations tend to follow what has comonly become known as the Tytler Cycle:

Wow, I have said that for years, I'm shocked.

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."

You just voted in the dictator.

“The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage

What a self righteous load of ****.
It does raise an interesting question though, if all of mans works are doomed to fail via corruption, just how corrupt would something be that is man made, and much older?

[Gatefan1976]

No, he doesn't.

[Falcon Horus]

I could go on.. but you get the point.

Remember the great civilizations of the Assyrians, Babylonians, Incas, Olmecs, Aztecs... just to name a few.

[Falcon Horus]

His head would probably explode if he knew Australia's Aboriginal civilization is 50,000 years old.

Totally forgot about them.

[Gatecat]

What about China? 221 BC Emperor Qin Shihuangdi unified all the warring states. The resulting Chinese Empire lasted 2123 years, not counting a few short break-ups, until 1912.