no doubt. Which is why I only have subcontractors, not permanent employees and almost all of them are in Ukraine. Also as I said, should something like that be attempted, I would shut down parts of businesses and get rid of the people who attempt it, I wouldn't run a business where I had to deal with this.
as someone who owns and runs a few companies, the largest having around 1000 people working in it, I can understand why some people, especually who never built a company, think that the people working for a company are underpaid compared to the people who buolt it. This misunderstanding is easy to develop, people (and many other animals) have a strong built in mechanism responsible for having emotions and feelings related to fairness. This expectation of fairness is easy to channel into a different sort of a feeling - expectation of equality, feeling that equality must be enforced because it may ne argued that it is unfair that there is inequality of outcomes.
So it is clear that there are political forces tbat use thw easiest pressure points in the human condition to achieve low hanging political fruits. The fwelings of unfairness become especially inflamed during harsher times, so an economic downturn can be easily used to pass various socialist, even Marxist agenda, which changes the power balance in the ruling elite (those near the reigns of political power). This is done at the expense of economic health, any amount of political power over economic forces misallocates scarce resources and decreases economic activity in the long run, while achieving short term pplitical goals.
On a personal level, I woildn't allow unions to take over my enterprise, I would rather see the business shrink and restructure than lose control over how it is governed.
Military is made of people. They also burn coal, diesel, gas, kerosene. They eat, they need transportation even more than anyone else. If they cared they woild stop themselves first. Look at the wars, look at all of the world militaries. How much CO2 and varoous poisons is produced by them in proportion to the rest of the population? What do wars cost us in terms of CO2 and poisons and all other ways, that military destroys the environment? Will people of this planet stop fighting and disban all militaries of the world? Quite the opposite, the end of our civilization will be accompanied by the biggest acts of aggression, most destruction, largest conflicts on the global scale.
If bombing solved world problems we wpuldn't have any problems, we definitely have enough bombs.
I just flew over half of the planet to the Maldives, these islands will surely disappear sooner than later due to the glaciers melting down. It is nice to be able to visit in the meanwhile.
That said, I won't buy an electric car. Maybe as my fourth or fifth, maybe, but I will keep driving a gas sedan for work and my sports car is just a fum toy, I don't care that an electric one accelerates faster, electric scales also go 0 to 200 in less than a second, doesn't make me want to drive it.
Teslas make me nautios, that is a strong no from me, some Chinese or Korean just are not interesting. Charging time is not there, it must be less than pumping gas, I don't want to plan my days around charging a vehicle. The batteries are too dangerous and the entire thing is too heavy. Cold degrades batteries, heat may cause a fire. No thank you.
I would switch to a nuclear powered car though, that would work for me.
The land of neverending surveilance, home of peeping toms.
Flock cameras are a scourge, constantly recording everyone without any courtorder.
LLMs are trained based on gradient descent, this optimizes data relationships. What this means is that this story is really talking about noise in the data. The history of the disabled is noose when compared to overall history, the LLMs show this clearly, it is just that there are people who really really want to present noise as if it was seriously important, that is their agenda.
Nobody said that eating and working need to go hand in hand. It's not a law of nature, you know...
Is this really the answer the answer you are posting on slashdot? How far have we fallen?
It has to do with the amount of rare earth reserves, but more importantly how easy those are to refine. The ones in China are the easiest and most environmentally, friendly to get in the world. Elsewhere in the world the process is much nastier and costly, and obviously more difficult.
China has rare earth reserves of approximately 44,000,000 tons. Brazil has about 21 million, India is next with 6.9 million, Australia after that at 5.7 million metric tons.
Russia with 3.8, Vietnam with 3.5, and number seven the United States with only 1.9 million metric tons in rare earths reserves. Again they are also much harder to refine than in China.
So basically, everybody here is wrong. You have no idea what the specifics of the situation are, and it is that not only does China have a larger reserve than everyone else, they are easier to get
They are not insane. You are just being a thoughtless internet knucklehead. Cut it out and do a little research on stuff before you go spouting off.
In a basic sense, this is true
Not really it's just wrong. The one approach that came from Western cultures is the scientific method which is both objective (to the maximum extent any human method has yet achieved) and universal which is why there is no such thing as Chinese, Canadian or Indian etc science there is just science because it is universal. As you alluded to the scientific method has often (including now to some degree) found itself at odds with western culture so I would argue that the scientific method is a product of western culture but not part of it.
Arguing that it is "culturally situated" is nonsense. While science has definitely impacted western culture it has also impacted every culture around the planet and today there are scientists in every continent from a myriad of different cultures. Your culture may impact which questions you want to answer with science but, if you are doing it correctly, it will not affect the knowledge you find and that's why it is both universal and acultural. Indeed, the universal nature of science means it is one of the few things that can bring people of different cultures to work together towards a common goal: to understand the objective reality that we all share.
Trump printed and handed out cash during COVID, that is socialism. It's a stupid form of socialism, but that's what it is.
Bush Junior passed and introduced the following:
1. Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Benefit (2003)
Largest expansion of federal welfare since 1965.
Added a new entitlement program without funding.
Taxpayers cover pharmaceutical costs for seniors.
Price negotiation blocked which transferred public money to private drug companies.
Long-term cost estimated over 1 trillion USD.
2. No Child Left Behind Act (2002)
Centralized federal control over education.
Took power from states and local school boards.
Tied federal funding to test results.
Expanded the Department of Education budget by 60 percent.
3. TARP Bank Bailouts (2008)
Socialized Wall Street losses.
Government purchased troubled assets and equity in failing banks.
Public money used to save private firms.
Risk transferred from private investors to taxpayers.
4. Nationalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (2008)
Federal government seized control of two huge mortgage companies.
Socialized hundreds of billions in mortgage losses.
Largest nationalization in U.S. history.
5. Federal Takeover of AIG (2008)
Government took 80 percent ownership.
Public funds used to pay private insurance contracts.
Direct state ownership of a corporation.
6. Steel Tariffs (2002)
Protectionist economic intervention.
Used federal power to interfere with free markets.
Forced consumers to pay higher steel prices to protect an industry.
7. Expanded Farm Subsidies (2002 Farm Bill)
Increased federal agricultural payouts by 190 billion USD over 10 years.
Direct wealth transfers from taxpayers to farmers.
Expanded central planning in agriculture.
Those are all socialist policies, they are a big state, interventionist, entitlement growing policies.
Senior Bush
1. Americans with Disabilities Act (1990)
Large federal mandate on private businesses and local governments
Forced costly compliance without funding
Expanded federal regulation of the labor market
2. Clean Air Act Amendments (1990)
Massive expansion of federal control over industry
Centralized environmental rules and enforcement
Imposed new costs through regulation and fines
3. Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (1990)
Raised federal taxes by 137 billion USD
Increased top income and corporate tax rates
Expanded federal spending rather than cutting programs
4. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act (1991)
Increased federal power over banks
Allowed government intervention in failing institutions
Moved risk from private investors to taxpayers
5. Savings and Loan Bailout Continuation
Continued Resolution Trust Corporation actions started under Reagan
Used taxpayer money to rescue failed financial institutions
Socialized private banking losses
6. Immigration Act of 1990
Increased legal immigration by 40 percent
Expanded government-administered labor quotas and visa programs
Managed labor supply through federal policy
7. Transportation Equity Act (1991)
Large federal spending on infrastructure
Expanded federal role in transportation planning
Increased dependency of states on federal funding
Whatever you want to call him, this guy increased the size of the government, introduced socialist policies, expanded federal control over business and banking. He did more to give government power over private enterprise since Nixon.
Reagan
1. Savings and Loan Bailouts
Used taxpayer money to rescue failed financial institutions
Created the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation bailout framework
Socialized private banking losses
Set precedent for future bailouts
2. Military Keynesianism
Massive deficit-funded military buildup
Defense spending increased 40 percent
Government spending guided industrial output
Economic growth driven by public debt instead of private investment
3. Tax Reform Act of 1986
Flattened tax rates but also expanded government direction of the economy
Removed many private deductions
Strengthened IRS enforcement powers
Increased tax burden on working and middle class through payroll taxes
4. War on Drugs Centralization
Large expansion of federal police powers
Federal control over local law enforcement through funding and mandates
Increased federal spending and bureaucracy
Directed social behavior through state coercion
5. Export Controls and Trade Intervention
Limited high-tech exports
Imposed sanctions and trade barriers
Government interference in private trade decisions
6. Protectionist Trade Action
Restricted Japanese car imports
Imposed tariffs on motorcycles to assist Harley-Davidson
Protected domestic industries with federal action
Violated free market principles
7. Social Security Rescue Plan of 1983
Raised payroll taxes
Increased government control over retirement income
Forced workers to pay more for a mandatory public program
8. Farm Lending and Subsidy Support
Expanded federal loan guarantees to farmers
Federal aid to agriculture during the farm debt crisis
Transferred risk from private banks to taxpayers
He was a so called pro free market guy, who really expanded the role of the government, grew public debt, expanded federal police powers, abused tariffs, bailed the banks out, expanded SS.
AFAIC all of these are basically Marxists, never mind socialists. I would not allow any of these people to run a corner store, never mind a country.
The Telegraph - this one talks about China and its complete automation of production lines, speed to manufacture and deliver the final product. The West is done, it cannot compete, I wrote this here decades ago, once the West loses its manufacturing due to inflation, money manipulation, regulations and taxation, it will lose its engineering and then its education and science. In any case, what the West lost a long time ago is its ability to manufacture anything quickly and cheaply, its ability to manufacture anything domestically because of all of the combined costs, rules, laws, taxes, basically the cost of government and all of the socialism.
The West cannot manufacture because socialism cannot produce, it can only consume, that's how the USSR died as well, this is the path for the West if it doesn't reform and it won't.
The car manufacturers are correct, the so called 'laws' are garbage. Europe and the USA are going to lose all of their manufacturing, China will win in this manufacturing war and that's all there will be.
IBM Advanced Systems Group -- a bunch of mindless jerks, who'll be first against the wall when the revolution comes... -- with regrets to D. Adams
