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Comment Re:The people didn't vote for this shit (Score 2) 144

As a boomer I still worry about 13 things which could happen.

1. Misinformation campaigns.
2. Stock market crashes.
3. Mass unemployment.
4. Social security and medicare going away.
5. Run on the banks.
6. Deflation followed by hyperinflation.
7. Private equity buying out publicly traded companies and removing them form large index funds, and the index funds crashing.
8. Natural disasters increasing because of bad environmental policy.
9. Fees to do anything other than sleep.
10. The takeover of state governments by the federal government.
11. Court judges and Supreme Court Justices interned (i.e. jailed)
12. The end of American democracy, the rise of the Great American Firewall and Canadian as well as Mexican border walls meant to keep Americans from emigrating, not the other way around.
13. Global thermonuclear war.

Comment AI could make that 0 work days. (Score 1) 173

The real question is will that be with zero income or some form of basic income.

How many will be affected?

How do you pay for the subsistence income?

A tax on AI transactions and robots?

Business won't take a tax standing up. They'll fight it tooth and nail.

We could lose our democracy and the right to vote because of the power of businesses.

Will it be a benevolent dictatorship, or one which culls people when they can no longer deliver value to businesses?

Comment The real reason why companies like the H-1B visa (Score 2) 162

Comes down to American labor laws.

Unlike the rest of the world American labor laws are an abomination:

1. No limits on working time. Salaried employees end up volunteering for the company they work for after 40 hours. If they don't work this unpaid overtime, they will be subject to progressive discipline up to and including termination.

2. America uses the "Employment-at-will" doctrine instead of just cause. This means you can be terminated for any reason so long as it isn't an illegal reason. What defines an illegal reason is very lax in all states with some being worse than others (Typically the red states are worse than the blue states). With such an ambiguous definition of what is grounds for termination, you see people fired for ridiculous reasons: For example if the boss doesn't like the color of your shirt when you show up for work, you can be fired and you have no recourse. Most working people in the United States are subject to employment-at-will except those in unions, and of course the top executives at companies. The executives have employment contracts and are typically protected by just cause employment standards (Just like the rest of the world)

3. Binding arbitration clauses. These exclude you from bringing a lawsuit in court against your employer. You have to go through an arbitration organization such as the American Arbitration Association. The judgement by the arbitrators is final, non-appealable, and private. The judgement is taken to a court and recorded after the decision has been made, and can be enforced by further sanctions in the court system. These arbitrators are funded by the companies which use them in their employment paperwork. Given that they receive their operating revenue from the companies, their decisions.

Comment California has its own click to cancel law (Score 2) 94

For California, a click to cancel law went into effect on July 2025.

https://cal.lawsoup.org/legal-guides/consumer/california-click-to-cancel-law-what-you-need-to-know/

It's only the federal-level law which was tossed by the eighth circuit on a technicality.

So I guess the federal appeals courts can toss a regulation and it applies nationwide?

Comment We'll have 50% unemployment and Private Equity (Score 1) 94

will end up owning everything. There won't be any safety net. No Medicaid, no food stamps, no Social Security and no Medicare. The government won't fund them because it will have become completely authoritarian by then. The unemployed masses will be reduced to stealing from those who are more fortunate, and they might end up being exterminated.

How this will happen:
1. AI will take up to 50% of jobs over time. The mass unemployment resulting from this will crash government finances.
2. During the effect of #!, the government will chip away at government benefits little by little until there are none. (The BBB is the start of this)
3. Suspend the constitution and remove the right to vote when the public has had enough and there is mass civil unrest.
4.Erect a "Great American Firewall" isolating the American Internet from the rest of the world.
5. Collect the guns. Make examples of those who are found to have them.
6. Build the "Great Northern" border wall separating the USA from Canada.
7. Revoke all US passports except those for Diplomatic purposes.
8. Start culling those who are a "burden" to society
9. Resurrect Project Sundial to keep the rest of the world from interfering.

Comment Re:Great News ... (Score 0) 23

You won't even get cash. You'll get some coupon to use at a store to buy a junk product that you probably shouldn't purchase in the first place. Meanwhile the lawyers representing the class will make off with half of the award or more.

We need legislation which limits the amount of compensation the lawyers get in class action lawsuits.

Class action lawsuits should only be used in in situations where there is evidence that the company has caused a lot of damage to consumers -- yet we see them for the most frivolous reasons.

Comment Re:laid off; not fired. There's a difference (Score 1) 60

It depends how your state defines "Gross Misconduct".

When you are fired for cause, it can be for "Gross Misconduct"

Typically people fired for gross misconduct do not get COBRA from the company, AND they're disqualified from receiving unemployment benefits. They can however sign up for medical insurance in the Affordable Care Act's marketplace.

Some employers utilize non-compete clauses where the non-compete exclusion time is doubled or tripled if you are fired for gross misconduct. This would hamper you even further from getting a new job.

Usually gross misconduct has to be willful.

Some states list incompetence in their definition of gross misconduct, others don't.

When someone files for unemployment, the employer can contest the application and state it was for gross misconduct, but the burden of proof will be on the employer to prove that it really was gross misconduct, and it has to fall within the definition of gross misconduct for the state where the employer is based.

Sometime firing for cause is justifiable, sometimes it isn't. Penny-pinching vindictive employers do exist. They hire companies to handle the denial of unemployment claims and make it hard for the employee to collect unemployment.

Also, the unemployment department rulings are completely appealable all the way up to an administrative law judge, and then into the state's court system.
Some cases have made it all the way to the state's supreme court.

Comment Coming soon: Mid-roll ads (Score 1) 185

When people start arriving later and later to avoid the ads, they'll just implement several mid-roll ads during suspenseful parts of the movie, just like they used to do on TV.

At that point we have to look at relevance: Will it be worth it to continue going to the movie theater with these increased ad loads?

What's the point of movie theaters anyhow? It seems that it is much easier to order new releases through some sort of "pay-per-view" mechanism, then having to drive to a movie theater. [Your popcorn will also be cheaper as well]

Personally, I think advertising a product is an expensive way of promoting a shitty product. If people didn't respond to advertising, the world would be better place.

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