Aye, there's the rub. What indication is there that economic conditions, beyond those for the 1%, will improve?

Since one cannot undo history, it makes more sense to just get on with it than to merely sit in the mud and cry about evil colonial powers that left 50 years ago.

How's that working for you in Bangladesh and Zaire? We have what are essentially experimental laboratory results (I think we call them revolutions) to invalidate any proposed "economic" solution.

Disclaimer: I've been an industrial automation engineer since the PLC-2 and System 1 were king. I'm still at it, killing jobs wherever possible. Not out of malice, nor with any joy in that, but just doing my job.

TFA may be authored by a fuzzy-headed economist, but the core concept is undeniable. Humankind faces a surplus of employable bodies, and a deficit of employer positions, in the industrialized world. This trend can be compared to the situations in a lot of 3rd World countries. The industrialized nations, once fully built-out with AI and AA (Advanced Automation) will become 3rd world societies too. We're getting close to the tipping point already. There are only so many burgers to be flipped, and consumers with enough money to buy them.

Nature used to auto-correct overpopulation problems, with food supply vs. demand being the major engine. Is that what we're going to see when the whole world becomes third world? All the attendant unrest and upheaval will not be pretty.

My own solution: Enable and reward birth control wherever possible. Not as efficient as famine or genocide, but much less nasty.

Yeah, a social model where 99.9% of society endures scarcity while .1% enjoys a surplus.

Since when was Ayn Rand a rocket scientist?

+5 Sad but so.

The Fourth, and the othe nine, Amendments in the Bill of Rights, are not criminal statutes. They are proscriptions against specific judicial, executive, and legislative actions.

Violations can be tortious and civilly actionable, but not criminal.

Since when do police go to jail? /sarcasm

Move to another country where privacy means more than a door on a commode stall. That's about the extent of available options.

So true. To these people's thinking, medical licensing stifles innovation and competition too! We should have a web app to bypass over-priced hospitals and insurance companies, and summon an independent health practitioner. Let the free market decide!

IANAL, so I'd like a tort guru to enlighten us on exactly how creation and distribution of a product (AdBlock) that that gives consumers an informed choice over another product (advertising bullshit) is an actionable case. It sounds like a water utility company suing faucet makers for making a device that restricts flow of billable water, or the electric company suing light switch manufacturers.

I haven't a shred out doubt that these people are being hushed up, by whatever means necessary.

What I do doubt is the significance of the effect on mass media coverage. Other factors are in play.

Corporate media disdains adverse coverage of the H1B scandal because it is portrayed as "racist" against third-world emigres, and also because hey, business is business, right? (wink, wink).

I'm no lover of Sony (even though I do play EQ2), but if this B-grade flick is so annoying to the Dear Butterball, the widest possible distribution of the film certainly seems worthwhile. Like Spengler said about the Nazis, "When one has the opportunity to annoy these people, one should do so."

Damn, where's my mod points? +5 Hilariously insightful.