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Comment Re:Automation and jobs (Score 1) 720

Mincome works for employers as well. If the government was picking up the tab for a living wage, the biggest advantage is that you no longer have to. There is no point to having a minimum wage if the government is paying a living wage. This is the same reason that Universal health care is in the interest of most companies, because they no longer have to pay for employee insurance.

Then there are the side benefits. If everyone has a safety net, you can be damn well sure that moral is going to improve, which generally correlates with a rise in productivity. You also will get rid of most of those employees who don't really want to work, but just want a paycheck.

So, I believe that cheaper, more productive workers are in the interest of corporations.

Comment Re:Automation and jobs (Score 1) 720

That is also an unfair comparison. You get disability benefits because you can't work. The option is either sit and collect a check or return to work. It is an either / or situation. The point of a Mincome is that if you decide to work you still get the check and you get paid from your employer.

If those on disability had the option to go back to work part time (or take a different job entirely, start a business, or what have you) and still collect benefits, how many do you think would go back to work?

Comment Re:Ripoff (Score 2) 82

1-2 years? This was going on for a while. I remember watching Battle Bots on Comedy Central (Vlad The Impaler FTW) back around 2004. There was on on the Discovery Channel around the same time as well (Robotica, I think?), each with all types of merchandising behind it. Hell, Robot Wars was started in the early-mid 90's

Comment Re:Won't anyone think of the corporations? (Score 1) 407

They can just get into the education sector. You already have a captive clientele, School nurses are even cheaper than prison doctors, and cheap meals are still cheap meals. Plus you have ample facilities for punishment and detention, A yard for "recess," and if you don't want to deal with public schooling, plenty of room for boarding students as a private school.

Schools are practically part-time prisons as it is, might as well go that extra few steps and use actual former prisons.

I am joking, but sadly that case could easily be made.

Comment Re:My Anecdote: (Score 1) 355

I bought my white Macbook in 2007, paid $1200. One of my family members made the remark that they only ever buy the Walmart special, (whatever is on sale for around $300) and told me that $1200 for a computer was a crime and I was stupid to ever pay that much. In that time, the longest they have ever had a computer was 2 years meanwhile my Macbook is not only still kicking, it still works pretty damn well, though I did max out the RAM a few years ago, install Lion, and am on my third battery.

After all these years, it still works great as my portable computer, Software Radio terminal, and music server though my desktop PC is my primary computer.

Comment Re:There is no "working AI" at this time (Score 2) 98

Of course it is AI, not cutting edge AI, but it is still AI. Just because it is now a mature solved problem, doesn't make it any less valid.

It is like saying that someone doing the old "calculate the landing position of a cannonball fired at X velocity at Y angle" problem isn't doing physics because modern physics now involves super-tiny particles and / or traveling at speeds near the speed of light.

Comment Re:Why are slashdotters such idiots? (Score 1) 395

This issue?

Slashdot has become just another cog in the internet hate machine. It is gotten to the point that for any story, 70% of the comments now are just bitching and moaning at the topic, even when it is really unwarranted. I am starting to wonder if this place had devolved into trolls and trolls trolling the trolls.

Comment Re:Never made an honest dime (Score 1) 181

One thing that does bother me a little is that all the successes of any company get attributed to the CEO. They have a lot of hard working, very smart and creative people working for the company, who have their accomplishments left in shadow because of the the CEO being the public face of the company. It's not all The CEO!

FTFY. I mean, it isn't like Eric Schmidt wrote every line of Google, Gmail, and Youtube. Jeff Bezos didn't sit down and engineer the Kindle. And Steve Ballmer sure as fuck didn't build the XBox or write Office. Like it or not, these guys are the public faces of their companies, and in good times get all the credit and in bad times get all the blame.

Comment Re:I really hope... (Score 1) 482

You could always take a look at Japan. While I wouldn't say it has gone that far, it isn't too far off. That is one big reason why the birthrate is so low. Of course, those who aren't obsessing over their dating sims and sleeping with their anime-girl pillows can probably get all kinds of 'tang and from what I hear, adultery is pretty much standard operating procedure for any married man.

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