Good.

We need to rid ourselves of the rot economy and get back to making things people want rather than focusing on number go up.

Every day I look into the eyes of my daughter and feel like I didn't do enough to protect her future. Meanwhile my parents continue to post fossil fuel propaganda to Facebook, yet they gush over how they tried to protect my future.

It is the greatest sin that I must ask more of my children than I could ever ask of myself.

You mean I could be an English speaking programmer in the Philippines?
I would have to consider it.

Local press has been dying for years in that it's too slow and takes time to adapt to the quick landscape of the world. This has caused news deserts and pushed us to a point where Facebook or other social media locations become the community hub. I say we find a way, a framework to take that back.
Let's make the local news central community but find a way to provide news without a paywall, but provide services. Sell a subscription to local users that give them access to post comments or interact with the town space and moderate it in such a way that only local users have an opportunity to interact with the site but share the media to outsiders. Create social spaces for local organizations to plan events and gatherings but again, allow it to be restricted. Sell a business license that allows them to setup their own space and promote their business in the community, but also push their daily specials, host events.
Setup ties with local schools so that they can also promote events or news to the community. Establish APIs so they they can tied to their LMSes.
Give local people a chance to host their video blogs or podcasts without having to go through Google or whatever number of 3rd service far off mega corporations.

Again, the goal is to create an easy to adapt framework that can't scale past a community. Bring back the sense of community that the newspaper once did. Make the content accessible to all, but edited by some. Keep the ads local so that people think of a reason to come to the community.

I saw this article and I can't help but think that I want to help the small communities build that level of connectivity that has been lost over the decades. I live in an area where the communities gets smaller and are dying. The town that once lived near is now unincorporated. Other towns are half the size they once where.

I think with the right design, and the right level of local management, this could become something that catches on like wild fire and builds around the area. I know it's missing and paywalled papers are not long for this world.

You have that guy who gets lots of tickets done but always works on the piddly shit so that he looks better for his bosses.

Then you have that crazy mofo that never appears to get anything done because he's taking on the impossible regularly.

From a level high up, who do you think is considered the low performer?

Who is the one who should be let go?

I know people are pissed off how often fascism is brought up, but damn if this doesn't feel eerily familiar to nations bending over backwards to appease a certain German leader.

I feel like if I dig further, I could find certain businesses in Germany that did the same thing.

I see this as a big story that will likely slide under the radar until it's too late. The summary should be that American processors need to get off their ass or risk losing access to 1.5 billion customers. That's just if RuPay stays confined to India. If it integrates with BRICS and works to supplant the U.S. Dollar, that would likely weaken the U.S. market share.

While a large majority of transactions go uncharged, there is likely enough larger transactions to fund the system to the point where it's profitable. It sounds crazy but it's a version of the American tax system where the lowest portion doesn't get taxed or gets enough of a refund that the tax no longer applies to the person yet at the same time the people in higher income brackets effectively fund the government.

Is it a good system? That's questionable. Is it a fair system? I think so.
You don't have to monetize every single transaction to be profitable. And to those who find a way to exploit the system by always buying below $23.3, congratulations for putting in all that effort.

Maybe they should have bought another private jet or something. That would have fixed everything.

I am trying to think of the last good merger.
  HP and Compaq? Newp
Microsoft and Nokia? Negative
Boeing and McDonnell Douglas? Gonna pass on that one.
AOL and Time Warner? Who?
MySpace and Newscorp? Read about it on Facebook
Daimler Benz and Chrysler: I heard they got a divorce.
Quaker and Snapple? No Go
Sears & K-Mart? I don't recall the last time at shopping at either venue.

If you want to talk about some sort of good ones, Disney and Pixar but they had a pretty tight knit relationship to begin with.
Some talk positively about SiriusXM, but I honestly don't think that should exist. They should continue to be competitors.
Exxon Mobil is another that is spoken of positively but I don't see how being a near monopoly is a good thing.

I am tired of these corporatists that want to push themselves into the mainstream as important while only wanting to ensure their corporate immortality which only fuel's Peter's quest for literal immortality.

I hope this incoming administration implodes and somehow many of these power hungry individuals somehow manage to become irrelevant. I think the United States and the world would be better off.

Other nations are starting to have this issue as well but Americans have to be first in anything not good for them or the rest of the world.
1. Cheap, non nutritious foods are high profit margin and addictive. Corporations promote the hell out of them for this reason.
2. American society continuously gears itself towards convenience over health. The top complaint I hear about any town center is there is never enough parking. Campus? Never enough parking. We don't build around public transit and therefore want to take our cars everywhere, right up to the door. Strip malls won out over large malls because they are "cheaper" but also require less walking. People just drive from store to store.
3. Who has time to work out or pay for a gym? I myself am exhausted after a day's work even if that involves sitting at a desk. That and when kids are involved, energy is devoted to them. If the weather is terrible, a park isn't an option.

I am not arguing that theft isn't a problem, but I am confused that if Theft is such an issue, why are profits even higher than what theft is and is it possible that lowering the price of goods could in some weird way, I don't know, deter theft as people might be able to actually afford what's being sold.

I know, it's a wild concept. Lowering prices to goods so that they are more affordable so people can buy them instead of trying to steal them.

I also know that these people are creating a black market for these goods and lowering the prices of their goods might compete with the black market prices.

Democrats treated the Black community as a guarantee for years with doing little to actually help their situation.

Welcome to the Find Out portion of FAFO.

Disclaimer: I am a Democrat and deeply disappointed.

Reagan was a fairly radical departure from Carter's policies.
While there is a lot of overlap and yes, Congress makes policy and president enforces policy, how that's done does make a difference. Would the Cold War have ended if Reagan wasn't president? Would unions have fallen under their own weight if Carter was in charge?

I used to have the same attitude you demonstrate, but looking back on various presidential approaches and the outcomes, I don't hold your same views any longer. Presidents do make a difference and a bit more sometimes while sadly the same upon other policies.