A few generations of purges for the bourgeoisie should work to apply useful selection pressure.

I think most people assume that a legally authorized business is operating above board and not operating scams. I don't know why people assume the best of capitalism when it keeps delivering the worst.

You will pay the government AND you will pay the buddies of the legislature that lobby for broken ass tax laws.

America, where the bottom 80% gets fuck all, despite driving about 70%* of the US GDP through consumer spending alone.

Imagine being so incredibly ignorance of economics that you don't understand the multiplier effect or the fraction that consumer spending contributes to the national economy? You might decide that it's a good idea to add tariffs to nearly all imports, shutting down the government, and restricting air travel needlessly. Cutting SNAP benefits means taxpayer money won't be going back into our local economies. Instead it sits in a treasury account, and no economic activity is possible.

My econ professor would have ripped me a new one in class if I suggested any of these as a good idea. (I liked to take some of the worst essays from students and respond to them publicly)

* US Private Consumption accounted for 68.8 % of its Nominal GDP in Dec 2024.

Case closed. The tests we designed cannot be questioned, so any assertion we make based on the data must be correct.

Of course, other tests and research contradicts this. And tests of people of African decent who have lived in Western nations for generations are far more in line with the socioeconomic ranges in standardized intelligence tests.

Turns out raising a baby with access to food, high quality healthcare, and parents that are native speakers of a western language tends to get you kindergartners that do pretty well on a Western intelligence test. Unless you're an arrogant dumb ass like Watson, this should not surprise you.

I've got no problem if there is real evidence of nature over nurture. But I'm a bit tired of having to tear through the tissue paper arguments presented on the topic. Obviously there is SOME contribution of nature. But even categorizing an individual's race by genetics is a bit problematic, because our current definitions have more to do with culture and nationality than with any solid boundary lines between what we might think of as race.

The whole topic is a pseudoscience, I'd put more faith in the bumps on my head because at least we can measure that.

Probably a sign of the Decline.

Watson made assertions that he could not support or prove. As a scientist, he refused to put up or shut up, and lost a great deal of his reputation out of his own stubborness and philosophically anti-science behavior.

Goes to show that nobody is perfect, and even with great genes you can be a useless tit.

Kind of ugly and dumb. I miss the wilder side of computing, back when we were rebelling against mainframe business culture.

Can't he afford to lease a building in town that is zoned for this use and has proper support for increased traffic?

Ultimately it's the taxpayers that pay when roads need to be repaved, widened, signs added, and signals installed.

Yea, we used to be kind of a big deal.

Most bubble economies output little CO2, since they are fake and built on hopes, dreams, and sweet little lies.

Surely one of these are going to fuck up and kill us all.

Hindsight being 20-20, we should have built guillotines the next year.

Consequences. The word you're looking for is consequences.

The race to surveil and market every human being on Earth. This only works at scale when we dedicate massive computing and energy resources to this bullshit. And governments and billionaires agree, this is what they want for us.

You as the target of this AI gets no choice. You don't get a say in the company board, as you don't hold voting shares. You don't get a say in your government because you didn't pay for a million dollar plates at a Mar-a-lago luncheon. And you don't get to refuse as a consumer because you're not buying AI or marketing services, you're the product.

Welcome to the new feudalism. Your just a peasant that is bought and sold with the land. It just happens to be virtual land now, and they call you a user instead of a peasant because it sounds nicer. But what rights do you have? In a way fewer because your peasantry status is not even generally recognized. Denial is a powerful tool for warping reality.

If a strong basic income is the right answer, we will try every other conceivable option first before getting to that one. The people in charge will wage a literal shooting war on the working class before agreeing to a slice of the profits, control, or property.