In my meager experience, most actual work is NOT appropriately delivered or communicated in video - it's far too linear, unsearchable, not amenable to note-taking, monologue, and ultimately relies on presenter charisma, beauty, and professional voice and presentation talent - something that's in vastly shorter supply than most people believe.

I hate to imagine what Tufte's opinion of this would be. Buy them, read them, absorb them: https://www.edwardtufte.com/tu...

....but I doubt it, unless "smarter than" is defined by how quickly they can look stuff up on the internets.

ChatGPT and its ilk are great language and imagery resources but they're not even faintly intelligent.

1) the teachers that would be fine with this are probably phoning that shit in anyway; would we REALLY expect such a teacher - when told they can't use AI - to scrupulously follow the instructions and laboriously/ethically go through the papers carefully themselves instead?

2) re point 1, let's maybe revisit that whole 'tenure' bullshit and avoidance of merit pay raises/not-raises for teachers in general as some sacrosanct profession? I know if I hand a chunk of my job to a machine, I need to understand that I'm likely training my replacement.

....they're a canary in the coal mine for ALL American manufacturing businesses I'm acquainted with.

I've been in industrial logistics for coming up on 35 years now and this is 100% the example of pretty much every AA or AAA company I've dealt with, including corporate elements of my own firm. Boeing maybe was slightly more aggressive (or the results of their shitty, short term strategies are unfortunately vastly more consequential and obvious).

Would love to see some sort of contract clause for senior management up to c-suite that meant that departing the company doesn't exonerate you from the results of your choices, and that the giant, fat payouts are conditional on, dunno, 10 years exposure to clawback for incompetence or liability.

That'll never happen though, because the ones exposed to it would be the ones who would have to implement it.

....nothing of value was lost.

I'm sure Roku will discover that people hate this, this would be plan stage II: you only need to pay $5/mo to have NO ads.

Voila.

"I don't like the things their statistics prove, so I'm going to declare them a FOUNTAIN OF DISINFORMATION."

thestreet.com has whole sections on crypto and cannabis. Very credible source!
Yes, of COURSE the statistics show "statutory tax rates", how else are we going to compare region vs region?
Oh noes, some US companies paid nothing? it's the same in the Euro tax regime

Amazon: $44bn sales, $0 taxes paid.
https://www.theguardian.com/te...

Ikea? https://tehcpa.net/tax-plannin...

You want to pay more taxes? Please, be my guest. You are fully able to pay more than your minimum share. I think you should.

I don't give the faintest shit that there are crazy-wealthy people out there. My life isn't fired by envy.

Yeah, strange that someone should get worked up by pedophiles molesting children. Funny, that.

What?
" I have paid nowhere near that in taxes over my entire life. "
I mean, that's a staggering statement - either you're being disingenuous or haven't the faintest idea where government revenue comes from.
You know it's not just you, yes?
There are about 160 MILLION other people paying income taxes....that's about $2.3 trillion or about $15k per person average per year (this is FEDERAL taxes of course, not including state).

"meager amount of cash they get from fucking with us barely covers the costs of fucking with us"
Um, wut? You don't actually believe this do you?

Literally, this is 2 seconds on google:
https://www.taxpolicycenter.or...
54% of US govt revenue comes from INDIVIDUAL INCOME TAX.
9% from corporate income tax
30% from additional payroll tax (FICA - ultimately, another personal tax, really since it comes out of YOUR pay)
2% from excise taxes (Taxes on purchases of goods and services, mostly from gasoline, cigarettes, alcoholic beverages, and airline travel)
5% other (customs duties, estate taxes, other earnings) -- hilariously, before ww1 this funded the ENTIRE FEDERAL BUDGET.

Really? I have actual statistics:
https://www.heritage.org/pover...

* 38 percent of the persons whom the Census Bureau identifies as "poor" own their own homes with a median value of $39,200.

* 62 percent of "poor" households own a car; 14 percent own two or more cars.

* Nearly half of all "poor" households have air-conditioning; 31 percent have microwave ovens.

* Nationwide, some 22,000 "poor" households have heated swimming pools or Jacuzzis.

"Poor" Americans today are better housed, better fed, and own more property than did the average U.S. citizen throughout much of the 20th Century. In 1988, the per capita expenditures of the lowest income fifth of the U.S. population exceeded the per capita expenditures of the median American household in 1955, after adjusting for inflation.1

Better Off Than Europeans, Japanese
The average "poor" American lives in a larger house or apartment than does the average West European (This is the average West European, not poor West Europeans). Poor Americans eat far more meat, are more likely to own cars and dishwashers, and are more likely to have basic modern amenities such as indoor toilets than is the general West European population.

"Poor" Americans consume three times as much meat each year and are 40 percent more likely to own a car than the average Japanese. And the average Japanese is 22 times more likely to live without an indoor flush toilet than is a poor American.

Basic internet is one thing. Yes, I agree that a basic connection to the internet is no longer a luxury, it's an infrastructure item as important as a phone. But broadband? The whole whinge "but we have to apply for jobs online" is a canard; that sort of access works fine at a 5meg connection which is practically free.

"the main reason for (the deficit) these days is reduced federal revenue"
What? That's hilarious. The US government has spent like a drunken sailor, most recently spattering people with "just shut up and do what we tell you" checks through the nonsense of covid (that didn't have to destroy the economy, either).
https://budgetbook.heritage.or...
And lest one politicize this, I'm talking about BOTH Dem and GOP administrations. This is an AMERICAN addiction, not one side or the other. I was *delighted* when (during the Clinton era) US revenue managed briefly to climb above spending but tbh that was more a conflation of a) a post Cold war collapse in defense spending (long overdue) and b) inflated imaginary tax revenue from what would be called the dot.com boom. And unfortunately, with 9/11 +spending, followed by Obamanite +spending on social programs then +post-crash stimulus, followed by Trumpian then Bidenite +spending for Covid....it's INSANE that the US gov't is spending $50k PER HOUSEHOLD, 1/4 of that being borrowed against the future.

You can't see that's a problem?

"Big corps don't pay their fair share" ...is bullshit. It's like a religious meme that has no basis in fact.
https://taxfoundation.org/data...
The US corporate tax rate is *higher* than most of the EU the only meaningfully relevant context. Sure, you can insist that "all those guys" should pay more, but that's a larger philosophical question.
The blunt fact is the US corps DO pay more.

"raising taxes on the wealthy"
We could tax everyone making more than $1 million at 100% and it would pay for what, 6 months operation of the US? What happens month 7 then, Robin Hood?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/d...

"what about those who are disabled and trying to make their lives better"
Great point. Note that I'm talking about healthy individuals that can hold jobs. I see them standing begging on multiple streetcorners every morning.

The disabled absolutely should benefit from the wealth of this country, the wealthiest in history. Right now, the scam artists and worthless people are sucking all the $ out of the air so that we don't have them to spend on people who are trying to do the right thing. Helping you go to school - both in tuition, and practical assistance like broadband, should be a NO BRAINER.

We know the US gov't collects millions of pieces of data on each of us. We are in an era where we have sophisticated enough systems that they should be able to sort the wheat from the chaff.

People actively working to improve their condition like you are the ones who SHOULD BE GETTING THE BENEFITS. The USGov should be bending over backwards to give you MORE opportunities, not lumping you in with the grifters and scumbags that come up to Mpls from Chicago every month to collect their checks. Right now THOSE people are costing you benefits you actually deserve and can use.

"The average person is assumed by the social safety net to have internet at this point. Some doctor's offices are "portal driven", and calling them has a cheerful bot telling them to check the website."
Absolutely good point.
NONE of that needs broadband. None of it.
I have no problem with US gov't recognizing minimal basic internet access as an infrastructure issue to subsidized citizens who need such basic assistance.
(Maybe make the fucking ISPs earn their sweet monopoly deals for once instead of the taxpayer subsidizing THEM (even more) by the gov't paying retail prices, though....)

As much as I rail against them, I feel it's completely incompetent that basic gov't benefits aren't pegged to inflation.

And to be clear, I'm not talking about the objectively destitute or disabled. They genuinely need our assistance. But for the VAST majority of American poor?
https://www.heritage.org/pover...
"62 percent of "poor" households own a car; 14 percent own two or more cars.

* Nearly half of all "poor" households have air-conditioning; 31 percent have microwave ovens.

* Nationwide, some 22,000 "poor" households have heated swimming pools or Jacuzzis.

"Poor" Americans today are better housed, better fed, and own more property than did the average U.S. citizen throughout much of the 20th Century. In 1988, the per capita expenditures of the lowest income fifth of the U.S. population exceeded the per capita expenditures of the median American household in 1955, after adjusting for inflation.1

Better Off Than Europeans, Japanese
The average "poor" American lives in a larger house or apartment than does the average West European (This is the average West European, not poor West Europeans). Poor Americans eat far more meat, are more likely to own cars and dishwashers, and are more likely to have basic modern amenities such as indoor toilets than is the general West European population.

"Poor" Americans consume three times as much meat each year and are 40 percent more likely to own a car than the average Japanese. And the average Japanese is 22 times more likely to live without an indoor flush toilet than is a poor American."

Oh wait, I think you meant all the time - like, literally every day there are more:
https://twitter.com/libsoftikt...

"No, no, no, argStyopa, you're misunderstanding their deep desire to perform their art, pelvic thrusting and grinding in little kids faces isn't a SEXUAL act, duh!"

unpopular opinion: the government isn't responsible for leveling outcomes across all of its citizenry.

A humane state certainly takes care of the least-fortunate, ensuring they have basic nutritional needs, gainful work to do, basic clothing, a place to live. This is one of the reasons we formed societies; first for security, but second to collectively care for those who cannot care for themselves.

However, beggaring both the middle class* and the future** to ensure that those who are perfectly healthy and able but simply don't want to work have comfortable lifestyles, cell phones, private homes, nice clothes, a car or two, the internet, enough food to be obese ... is absurd. Almost as absurd as massive subsidies to huge, profitable firms because they're so big we fear the consequences of their failure. (Setting aside the pedestrian realities of government corruption, backscratching, nepotism, etc)

Understand that the government makes no money. Every dollar of wealth printed by the government is EITHER:
a) represents wealth taken from it's citizenry by skimming from what they have by any number of taxes, or
b) a tiny little decrease in the buying power of every other dollar in existence, like modern-day form of of seigniorage

So when you hear the phrase "federal dollars will pay for..." - that's (for at least half of us) YOU. YOU are "federal dollars". When "federal matching funds" are spent to not-build a gigantic white-elephant high speed rail in CA that nobody's going to use? That means some UPS driver in West Virginia is paying for it, a little bit. So is the dancer in Austin TX, the piano teacher in Boise, and the youtuber in Portland.

*let's not kid ourselves, the main people paying taxes are the middle class, and *maybe* the lowest tier of wealthy. The highest tier of wealth have the spare money to hide it or hire lawyers to structure their lives so that they pay nearly nothing.

** that the wealthiest society in all of history still can't afford all the shit we want to have so we have to borrow 38% (!) of our budget every year against the future is reprehensible.

https://fiscaldata.treasury.go...

Right, "never"?

https://www.clayandbuck.com/ch...
https://twitter.com/wokal_dist...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
https://twitter.com/realchrisr...
https://mynbc15.com/news/natio...
https://au.news.yahoo.com/outr...

Anyone who insists they be allowed to do a sexual dance (or anything of that nature) in front of children is a pedophile. Normal people understand this.

Maybe you want to talk to your shrink about that, pedo-enabler?