Solar is also doomed because eventually it will have to scale up to the point where enclosing the entire sun simply isn't enough.

Enough for what? A quick back-of-envelope calculation seems to suggest total solar output works for 1W/10kg of nonsolar matter in the Solar System. That's enough to, for example, nanomotors and slow microchips, or several classes of living organisms for that matter.

We are currently having problems because we've used stored energy that's running out to boost our output for a given technological level, and consequently haven't learned to pace ourselves, not because there's an inherent shortage of energy in the Solar System.

Your just ignoring the fact that if Edison could put a meter on the sun then Solar would be fantastic.

Well, since solar power is measured in W/m^2/y, just put a solar tax on real estate, with grid power consumption as a deductible.

You don't like it, then change the law. Don't go crying because the cop did their job.

In a sane society, it is the job of a cop to use the law as a tool to keep the peace and protect people's rights, not to enforce every minor idiotic whim of those mentally and morally twisted enough to secure for themselves a place in the legislature. Separation of powers has a purpose.

Yet, what I do know is the powers that be will do everything to keep it going. [...] It could come crashing down any second now, but at the same time, they could simply keep this system chugging along.

The problem is, for all their might the Powers That Be are still just the institutions of a particular society. They draw their justification for existence from its mythology, and so are bound by it. And that means they can't, in fact, spend endless amount of money they don't have since that violates the assumptions underlaying our concept of what money is. Nor can those assumptions be altered without sparking an outright revolution, since that would reveal the entire game of masters and servants as what it is: just an option amongst many, not an unalterable law of nature.

So, what happens is the various Powers do their best to keep the system chugging along, but as it evolves further away from a stable equilibrium their means fail catastrophically one by one. We're currently seeing the effects of one such failure, that of consumer credit. Of course banks could simply continue extending credit ad infinitum without expecting it to be paid back since it's all just numbers, except not really, because that would ultimately reveal money to be nothing but a bookkeeping fiction. So they stopped, cheap credit failed to mask the real situation anymore, and now economy is going through a shock.

There's going to be more such shocks as more instruments fail in turn. They'll get worse each time, since the already-failed ones are no longer there to help arrest the fall, until finally too much of superstructure is gone to keep the system standing and the crisis turns into death convulsions. In the meantime, expect all the usual trappings of the end of an era, such as various types of fundamentalists and their increasingly desperate struggle for power.

When was the last time you didn't negotiate prices on a house or car? And which is selecting an employer more like, buying you milk and bread for the week or a major purchasing decision?

Neither. You aren't a buyer but a seller, and you can't afford to wait for a better price because every second that goes by unsold (unemployed) is lost forever with zero profits but non-zero upkeep costs. Your position is like a landlord who must pay a constant mortgage from his property and can't get rid of it (except via suicide), so he can't afford to wait for high-class tenants. Also, there's far more rooms for rent than tenants, so realistically he's stuck with the shitty situation for the rest of his life.

I am well compensated at my job, but dislike the idea that they are aware of my activities outside of work.

You dislike it and the employer likes it for the same reason: it makes you position on the job market worse. And since they already have a stronger position, there's little you can do about it short of unionizing. But unionizing makes above average talent relatively - though not necessarily absolutely - worse off, and everyone likes thinking they're better than average. That combination of ego and selfishness is easy to turn into a weapon to make people act against their own best interests: all you have to do is tell them they deserve it better than someone else, and will get their due if they only forget solidarity with them. And when it's their turn to be eaten, there's none left to stand with them, so they fall.

Not that it really matters. The revolution of the proletariat failed, but it seems the bourgeoisie is perfectly capable of destroying the entire superstructure their might depends on without anyone's assistance. You can't have a business without customers, you can't have customers if people don't have money, and they can't get money without wages or social security. The only real question is: with communism discredited, what happens when the downward spiral reaches the point of no return? You can't maintain social cohesion without any kind of ideology when bread and circuses stop coming. Will we see the return of fascism, will someone come up with something entirely new, or will civilization simply collapse?

And what gives you the prerogative to be the freeloader? Obviously not everyone can be.

But I want everyone to be a "freeloader". I want everyone to block ads, at least ads-as-they-are-now, intrusive and tracking. Then when the system falls apart we can replace it with something better. (And almost anything would be better. Perhaps a combination of non-intrusive and non-tracking sponsorships along with a fee charged every ISP and distributed to content creators via statistics sampled from a set of volunteers, a la the Nielsen ratings.)

How about calling it the ability to negotiate well or successfully?

We are talking about a simple number. One party wants to maximize it, the other minimize. There isn't any room for anything except a game of chicken there.

If Reddit is too naive to see past this or they truly have a problem with aggressive/bullying negotiators then they need to become tougher negotiators themselves or stop hiring aggressive people.

Or they can take advantage of their vastly stronger position and simply refuse to indulge the candidates. Sure, they might miss out on "top talent", but it doesn't take that to maintain a message board.

...it's about the fact that culturally we (usually) are comfortable about men being pushy about their salary, while women tend to be treated negatively if they do the same thing.

Or perhaps because we generally socialize men to be more assertive from childhood, when women attempt to negotiate they have less experience and do a poorer job. (And then there's the un-PC possibility that men are, on average, more assertive for biological reasons that no amount of socialization will change.)

Negotiating is a subtle skill and I'm not convinced that we can say that two people who are both attempting it are "doing the same thing" without very careful observation.

the real kicker though is how ungrateful the greeks are of the money loaned to them. it's like they're totally oblivious to it being greeks who spent the money.

Grateful for being scammed and conquered?

Eurozone is a brilliant trap, nothing more:

1. Create a free trade zone with a single currency, so weaker economies can't balance their imports and exports through the exchange rate.

2. Mandate that every nation must have a positive trade balance, which is of course impossible since they trade mainly with one another and every credit on one nation's balance sheet is a debit on another's.

3. As all economies weaker than your own fail one by one, "rescue" them with loans who's terms destabilize their society and further cripple their economy.

4. Enjoy your new colonial empire. Deutschland uber alles!

The US military is by definition not a mercenary unit. They are the military arm of the US government. They do not fight battles in exchange for private financial gain. The French Foreign Legion is a mercenary unit.

The French Foreign Legion is part of the French military. How could it be any more of a mercenary than US military?

On the more real side of things, switching off mobile phone networks whenever you have some suspicion is about as useful as nuking things.

Against terrorism, yes. But against demonstrations and protests it could be very effective.

who wants exactly what was joked about, to take everything from those who have more and give to those who have less, which is the ultimate in tyranny

Really? Because from what I've seen, most forms of tyrannies take from those who have less and give to those who alrady had more. Please explain why you think that situation is better than the reverse?

Also, coming to think of it, such typical tyrannical pastimes as murder, torture and imprisonment also seem slightly worse than mere property redistribution, but perhaps I have my priorities scewed.

A lot of things we have now were never even addressed in Star Trek. For instance, nobody in Star Trek carried around a digital camera.

Of course not, that's from Star Wars: R2-D2.

What's "bleak" about Startship Troopers?

This sounds pretty bleak:

The author does mention past troubles in the book - those having to do with the universal franchise, which, in his not so humble opinion is a mistake