"The point is not to give you a job.

I am always amazed that people make this specious association. They think the whole point of all this industry and agriculture etc is so some guy can collect a pay check.

I mean... Really?"

    So, what is the point?
    If it is "the economy" then:
    No, companies are not in business to give you a job. They exist to make money for owners and stockholders.
    Jobs come as a side effect of wanting to produce things to sell to support the money making process
    But consider, there is a need to sell these items. To make purchases, buyers need money.
    Most get their money from jobs.....
    Without those jobs, they will buy less/nothing
    Fewer jobs means less money to be spent on goods. Lower purchasing, less revenue.
    Fewer jobs with more people chasing them means lower wages. Lower wages, less purchasing, less revenue.
    Prices are not set according to production costs, but on "what the market will bear".
    Lower production costs will only result in lower prices when the demand curve supports the business making more that way.

"Okay, yes you have fewer people but you also lower costs when you do that which allows for more production. Consider the wealth we have today versus 50 years ago, 100 years ago, 150 years ago, 200 years ago... etc. We have more stuff per person then we did before. More people can afford luxuries than before.
So yeah... a given factory is going to need fewer people. But that is going to lower the cost of producing that good which means that you either afford more if it because production will be higher or you'll have extra luxuries on top of that."

    Some will have extra luxuries. Those who missed the lottery and don't have an out that gives them an income wont have the luxuries (or the basics, possibly)

"The trend over time is very positive."

    For some

"We're going through a rough patch and the people running around saying the sky is falling are acting like fools."

    You see people with their livelihood threatened, or people seeing the livelihood of others affected having a reaction to this, and they are fools?
    Their reaction may not be entirely effective, but is there an effective way for them to react? Would anger be understandable if they dont see one?

"Yes, some people are going to get fucked. That happens when we go through these phases. Some people are structurally unemployable. In past cycles these people would often starve to death or be driven into crime."

    Callous. Would you feel that way if if was you or yours having to go through this?

"So this cycle most of those people are going on welfare for life. Sucks but it beats starving to death."

    Then you cannot argue against welfare...

You have a great point about us entering a phase of instability.

I think there are two points,

Your "adapt or die" stand, while having some truth to it, comes across as callous.
There is a huge amount of personal human tragedy and pain involved, Saying "adapt"...
It wont work for everyone.
And the reason for entering this phase seems to be simply that those who already have much have more, while costing many who have little more than they can afford...

We as a society *can* do something about this. We, collectively, are deciding to do this,
to allow it. Those with more/effective control move us closer and closer to this.
It is always easy to say "that is easy/harmless/ok" when you don't have to suffer the consequences.
But a certain amount of negative emotion seems understandable towards those who cause this, and toward those who cheer-lead for it.
I know you are not cheer-leading this.

"And who do you suppose pays extra for the things those companies make? You know so they can pay for his FREE solar panels"

The cheapskates who wont plunk down sufficient for a product so it can be made without excessive environmental waste

"According to your logic, the people who do the most for the poor are the poor, which is a paradox since they have little to no resources to begin with."

But that is what happens. Because they know what it is like to be poor, they know how hard it is, so they help each other.

"And I'm not sure how we expect the most wealthy to give a greater percentage of their income when we're already taking a greater percentage of it through progressive taxation."

I would be most happy to trade places with them. Take that severe burden from their shoulders..... :-)
And the rates for the wealthy have been coming down. I dont think going to a socialist 90 percent tax for the wealthy is called for, but the current crying and whining coming from the wealthy is... Well, I am having trouble with a word. Pathetic, callous, stupid.

"But let's go to the numbers. According to the IRS's 2011 numbers, charitable giving is on a bell curve. Apparently, the most charitable are on the income extremes [urban.org]."

Did you mean "...isn't on a bell curve..."

On the lottery, 1111% agreement. Teenage me, when I saw that announced, said "this will end badly...".
So, they have people thinking more about some random bit of luck to lift them out of poverty.
They sold it on the notion that the funds would be used to supplement the pathetic amounts going to some schools. ( has it gone to schools, and has the general fund amounts been kept where they were, or were they lowered? )
So, preying on people's hopes and dreams to lower taxes is what it looks like from where I sit.

"I take issue with the notion that I should have to support those that are unwilling to work for an income,"

For those truly not willing to work, fine. In my experience, most are willing, eager even, to work.
It is much more difficult to get a job than you know.

"especially those who sit on unemployment because they refuse to take work they consider beneath them"

Beneath them?
Or not sufficient in pay to get the bills paid. ( got a job, now, loose the house.. )
Or damaging to your C.V. ( yes, I am working in a 7-11/bowling alley/etc, but I am a really great coder, hire me! Does that fly?
I recall my last out of work experience ( thank God, a long time ago... ), having recently before been working as a programmer, contract ended, it was *hard* to convince the hiring manager I was worth a shot. And that was *before* the "send everything to India, pay less!" spree...

And it is much harder to get unemployment benefits than you know, having watched some friends go through it.

"If he says simply, "well, relative to where you started - EXACTLY where you started!" I would sy it's impossible and say it's a trick question."

It's not, if he allows you to move infinity fast ( I.E., no time elapse for motion ).

I thought the president was elected? When did we stop ruling?

Just how much money is there in monitoring how ice sheet change in mass?
And how much money is there in the industries that lead to increases in CO2?

You put forth that money can lead to unethical and immoral behaviour...
Im going to suggest it might be found in other places than scams to fund ice sheet mass change monitoring...

Were actively prevented using tactics that were illegal ( and immoral ).

Who said anything about it being either IBM or Microsoft?

There were a number of other players around in that day.
Any of them could have taken things in good directions.
I liked the non-MS directions better, in general.

Nit, the operating systems of those systems were written by the creators of those systems. Microsoft created basic interpreter packages ( some installed by the creators ).

The units presented the basic interpreter to the user as the "home screen", so I can see how you would think this.

"The left-wing assumes people never abuse a system, and are ***officially*** shocked when they are forced to acknowledge that it happens."

"The right-wing assumes everyone will abuse a system, whatever it is, and ***want to make sure it is*** themselves."

Fix it for you.

There is no pipe either..

Now we know why there is no spoon

One point on this....

The navy does learn a lot about how to construct subsequent ships by sinking current ships in live fire exercises.
This is what happened to the USS America.

A minor point, the CV-66 was steam powered, not diesel.