and I'm not so sure I want to eliminate those regulatory hurdles. Fukushima isn't exactly a distant memory. Talk to me when it's dirt cheap to run a nuke plant safely or when CEOs go to jail for 20+ years for running one unsafely. For now there's too much risk that some assclown will come in to cut safety & pocket the resulting profit and get off scott free.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/09/16/venezuela-now-has-toilet-paper-but-no-breast-implants.html.

Jokes aside, they did have shortages. The gov't saw the problem and reacted to it. Problem solved. You'll note no one's talking about their TP shortage anymore. See, that's kinda the idea behind socialism. You see a problem and then instead of waiting for some phantom invisible hand to solve it you actually _do_ something.

Just more personal "personal responsibility" politics that complete ignore reality. Goody. Where do I begin?

Not everyone has the chops to make it through college. Their brains don't work that way. But there's nothing for you in life if you don't make it through anymore thank to outsourcing and a complete lack of protection for local industry. How do these guys whose brains _can't_ comprehend AP credits galore compete with a guy in China working 70 hours a week breathing carcinogens?

Then there's the parents. Half the country goes out of it's way to keep people from opting out of parenthood in any other way than abstinence. Try being lower income and getting birth control or a vasectomy in Alabama and let me know how that works out for you. But once again, "Personal Responsibility" politics to the rescue! Ignore the fact that sex is a basic human drive on par with eating/breathing. Ignore the fact that when you're dirt poor with no hope it's hard to say no to the few sources of joy you have in your life. It's so much easier to look down on the little hussies and the dead beat dads, ain't it? It absolves you from the moral implications of abandoning 70%+ of the populace to their (very miserable) fate.

Schools can fix a _lot_ if we let them. Schools can and should act as parents when parents _can't_ because our God damned society didn't equip the parent with the skills and resources needed to do so. This doesn't mean schools _replace_ the parent either. It means they support the parent. This is what it means to have a society and civilization and not "I got mine, f**k you".

as you think. Most of the fed's budget is made up of taking care of old people (Medicare/Social Security) and the Military.

Also don't forget, it's better to punish a 1000 innocent men than risk letting 1 guilty one go free.

but what you're seeing here is the same effect that makes test scores lower in America. We test _everyone_ for college at one time or another, including people who are just plain not smart enough. Other countries have programs to train those people to be plumbers and what not and skip the testing.

Now, I think what we do is actually better. There are plenty of folks who can make it through college and will be better for it, and we give them opportunities they don't have in other countries. But it does skew our test scores in a way folks like to ignore. I'm guessing you're seeing that here. People who don't smoke pot are more likely to make it through a course at the U.

at least large scale wars. They're bad for business, so the mega corps say 'no' whenever anyone wants to start one up these days.

What you might be looking for is a way to end occupations and large scale violence. Iraq and Afghanistan aren't wars. What's going on in Mexico isn't a war. There's no single combatant to subdue. There's no legitimate government organization to fight. etc, etc. If you want that you have to deal with poverty. People with good economic options don't become terrorists or a drug lord's foot soldiers. Good luck with that though. I don't see a way to fix the economies of places like Mexico, Iraq and Afghanistan with how much money people make off them being shit holes. Private prisons, defense contract profiteering, and the ability to use these "wars" to keep a lid on progressive politics all mean the powers that be want the status quo to go on...

that we all make use of for a modern life be a source of profit? I don't see the point of these sorts of rent seeking schemes people subscribe to under the guise of "efficiency". Ever instance of gov't waste I've ever seen has existed for one of two purposes: either corruption or round about socialism. Properly funded Post Offices and DMVs are fast, efficient and a pleasure to use. Now, when a bunch of "Starve the Beast" (google it) types cut there funding, yeah, you wait a while. But then you're just falling into their trap then, aren't you?

Gerrymandering + unlimited money in politics means we're pretty screwed. The corps realized early on they just had to buy off _all_ the local elections to win the country. We'd need to change our entire political system, but we have too many divisive issues (Abortion, Gay Rights, Gun Control) to get anything like that off the ground.

because this is the most transparent attempt to pay people less that I've ever seen :).

The Gnu Hurd project's icons are trademark free. Microsoft's? Not so much...

that's why the law for it's called an "Ordinance".

like the pay cuts that have been going on in tech since server admining as been getting easier?

the sale of Alcohol in public places. In my state you're liable if you serve booze to somebody until they're drunk and they go off and kill someone in their car. Pay attention sometime when you're at a sporting event. They're friendly about it but they cut you off after a few drinks.

Basically, Imagine a stadium full of soccer hooligans with 3x as much booze as they're normally allowed to have.

until we intervened in their politics to stage a Coup d'état and put an (at the time) friendly bunch of ultra right wing fascists in power. You can find pictures of girls in short skirts and pants from before than. America turned Iran into the right wing religious hell hole it is today, so you'll forgive them if they're a little testy towards us.