Government didn't give you those free school lunches? Also, if you were that poor, you would have qualified for college tuition assistance - if you didn't take it, that's on you. I'm sure. if you think about things a little more, you'll find many "liberal" programs helped you along the way to "getting there yourself" -- many programs that Democrats want to fund and Republicans don't.

I also don't think your characterization that liberals believe people are stuck as haves or have-nots, or that conservatives believe all things are fluid and self-determined is accurate. For example, plenty of red-states receive assistance ultimately provided by blue states. Republicans want to cut funding for many assistance programs supported by Democrats. Conservatives often do this under the guise of eliminating "fraud, waste and abuse" though they usually can't document much of that.

Elon Musk . He's been all over the place on both sides, voting both Democrat and Republican, was woke, but not anymore, definitely part of the ruing class. Granted, one could argue it's part of a progression, but still a dichotomy to some extent. Also, in the same vein to some extent over time, Trump.

We do agree that, in the long run anyway, employers that just want dumb employees aren't doing themselves any favors.

Anyway, best wishes...

"Microsoft takes Security Through Obscurity too far."

I get your points, but I simply used it for lack of something better coming to mind quickly about people who are literally in charge of - aka ruling - things -- like the rich, politicians and politically connected. I'll note that those in the "ruling class" and those who are "woke" aren't mutually exclusive, as your imply; it's not a Left vs. Right; Trump(ist) vs. Others thing. It's more of a Haves vs. Have-Nots thing with the former always wanting more and them not caring if the latter have less. Though I'd remind the former that usually only works for so long - ask the French aristocracy about how that went.

Some (many? most?) employers want some employees to be critical, independent thinkers with the rest/bulk just doing and believing what they're told and staying put. That's good for the employers, but not necessarily for the employees. Pretty sure this isn't a surprise. More AI and dumber workers will help with that.

I get why upper-management dislikes this, but did they consider that trying to deliver things, especially complex things like CPUs, on a schedule is part of their quality problem?

I'm guessing they're modular components that can be easily swapped out. And the newer cones are probably already certified as replacements.

Hopefully you mean the FAA. Politicians and the Courts have problems with the FCC and just net-neutrality, so I'm sure they'd have a fit about them trying to regulate airplanes. :-)

Actually, my first thought from the title was "dimmer switch", which made me think of this Steven Wright joke.

Have they frozen upper management (their) salaries? (Probably not)

Those are also things those in charge - financial and political - don't want the masses to be good at. Those skills help people think for themselves. For the most part, the ruling classes want docile, dependent workers that just do and believe what they're told. Here's an interesting bit from Bernie Sanders Bernie Sanders Reveals Why Billionaires Are Going Crazy Over AI

That will do you well when a White House cabinet position opens up. :-)

According to Google, Starliner is a fixed-price contract, so (in theory) they should only get paid for meeting milestones. There's no extra profit to Boeing in dragging this out (again, in theory).

Paid for with U.S. taxpayer funds. Contractors are paid by the government which paid for by the people. It's government, and our, IP.

And the copyrights for them go to ... publisher, AI/LLM owner ... ?

Won't really know for sure until someone shuffles across Mars in socks and touches the rover. :-)

Over 1/3 of the world's population, really? Although, think of how much money OpenAI will have lost by then. /s