GREATEST HEALTH CARE SYSTEM IN THE WORLD
9 Likes
You’re an economist. It’s your job to design solutions to formerly intractable economic problems.
5 Likes
I thought this was the job of economists:
7 Likes
I wasn’t going for a thread of no expectations.
1 Like
Yeah, this would not surprise me:
(some US PDs might even say “yes”)
3 Likes
Dear fucking lord.
12 Likes
That one guy…“check the veracity of the letter”. God forbid somebody gets scammed over someone actually dying. Fuck that dude.
7 Likes
Basically, what does it say about us that it’s not
_un_believable.
5 Likes
I confess. I have used the self-checkout, because I really do a) have a preference with how my groceries are packed (mostly “not at all” and some clerks don’t ask or acknowledge that you said “no bags” (I keep reusable boxes in my car)) and b) social anxiety sometimes makes it so I really don’t want to answer and deal with the social nicety questions cashiers are often forced to spout. Or get lectured by fellow customers how I need to be “nicer” to the cashier (despite just merely declining to be sociable enough, or not wanting to deal with the probability of getting a “just okay? Why not great?!” if I do answer). Yes, all of those things have happened.
At the same time, I know where this is going. It’s nowhere good. But I don’t think the answer is “more low paid jobs!” A good UBI and privacy laws with teeth are (to me) better solutions.
8 Likes
I’m totally okay with self-checkout, or even Amazon-style no checkout, if we’d simply stop subsidizing these mega-companies and direct those tax dollars to a guaranteed minimum income system for all.
8 Likes
I love self-checkout. I really do, for all the reasons you mentioned.
The whole “we have to preserve low-paying jobs against automation” argument is never going to hold water. Automation has been with us since ancient Greece, when the first vending machines were invented. And working a modern checkout isn’t that unskilled – anyone who can keep all the procedures for exceptions in their head is bright enough to learn something better.
But they need the opportunity to do so, and that’s the real sticking point. Not to mention the “what’s so great about working for a living anyhow?” argument – automation was supposed to give us more leisure time, but its application has made work more precarious.
Ironically, industry is often short on maintenance people to fix the automated machinery.
9 Likes
The author of that article seems to think that cashiering is some sort of rocket surgery that the average person is incapable of and that bagging your own groceries is equivalent to a 16 hour day in a grueling labor camp. Since they didn’t mention anything about how it might be difficult for people with disabilities, I assume that doesn’t apply. They must be either so privileged that they never worked an entry level job or so inept as to be unable to qualify for one.
The only problem I see with using self-checkouts is having to wait when overrides are needed - alcohol, tobacco, ‘unexpected item in bagging area’. That’s not a big deal.
The author totally dodges the real big problem which is the ingrained cultural belief that anyone who doesn’t work at least 40+ hours a week making someone else richer doesn’t deserve to live, even if there isn’t any work for them to do anymore. That’s not in any way specific to self-checkouts, but it would be a good spot to illustrate the problem.
9 Likes
And they work for an on-line magazine 
Given what we know about how internships are organised and filled for such companies, I wouldn’t be surprised if your assertion is true.
8 Likes
The class basis of the US media is a severely underreported issue. NPR and the NYT are packed with Ivy League legacy kids.
6 Likes
2 Likes
The answer, my friend
Is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.
5 Likes
Wait. Sorry. The article’s author thinks Gaddafi was a good guy?
On the one hand I see the point. On the other hand, this is the nonsensical “geopolitics as sports teams” trope.
People who hardline their beliefs with zero compromise a) rarely get listened to on a broad enough stage to make a difference and b) usually turn out to be hypocrites. A better headline might be, “Guardian Journalist Shocked to Discover How Politics and Diplomacy Work”.
Even Ghandi was nice to English people when he talked to them. And it totally helped the cause of Indian independence to be so.
4 Likes
It’s entirely possible to think that:
- Gaddafi was a horrible person and a corrupt leader
- He didn’t deserve to get sodomized by a sword
- The American intervention left Libya in a worse state than when Gaddafi was in power.
- Cheering for #2 is tasteless and barbaric.
All of the above can be true.
9 Likes
I didn’t get that she thought he was a good guy, I got that she felt revulsion at the shitshow of a liberation, using “sodomized by a sword” for that purpose. Who knows her perspective, her family is another level of privileged crazy. Maybe that’s why she focuses on the specific murder details; she’s seen so many.
4 Likes