US Current Events December: Inflation Growing Faster than Santa's Belt Size

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > US Current Events December: Inflation Growing Faster than Santa's Belt Size

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BRJurgis: Aug 15, 2007; Well I hear the thunder roll, I feel the cold winds blowing...
But you won't find me there, 'cause I won't go back again...
While you're on smoky roads, I'll be out in the sun...
Where the trees still grow, where they count by one...

Fister Roboto posted:

A business can provide a valuable service to society while also being horribly exploitative for profit. This isn't contradictory. That's literally neoliberal capitalism.

It's surprisingly easy to get people to admit our system relies on desperation and exploitation, it speaks towards a cultural acceptance of modern day slavery or serfdom, although I think few average Americans can see the inherent injustice and cruelty (and typically racism or at least classism) of this setup. It relies on the perception of "lesser/lazy/non-productive" people, how else will you get them to work for little pay and even less respect?

# ? Jan 1, 2022 19:41

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# ? May 4, 2024 18:16

Xand_Man: Mar 2, 2004; If what you say is true
Wutang might be dangerous

HonorableTB posted:

In Seattle the urgent cares are completely private and unrelated to major networks, at least the ones I've been to.

I've been to UW's Urgent Care for potential broken bones, etc. They have several, though they're all relatively close to the main campus.

# ? Jan 1, 2022 20:08

Kraftwerk: Aug 13, 2011; i do not have 10,000 bircoins, please stop asking

BRJohnson posted:

It's surprisingly easy to get people to admit our system relies on desperation and exploitation, it speaks towards a cultural acceptance of modern day slavery or serfdom, although I think few average Americans can see the inherent injustice and cruelty (and typically racism or at least classism) of this setup. It relies on the perception of "lesser/lazy/non-productive" people, how else will you get them to work for little pay and even less respect?

I�ve foolishly tried to argue with a lot of American conservatives about this and it�s really bad.
For a bunch of religious people claiming to follow Jesus they really get a lot of things wrong. Their understanding of history and labor relations is so childish and paranoid that you have to spend hours pulling teeth with them in arguments before you can really dismantle their programming. It�s no wonder they�re unreachable. You basically have to coddle them with language that doesn�t cause them to shut down and resist new information.

Like a lot of them believe that the promises made under socialism get you dependent on government which removes incentives to work and eventually pave the way for a �maniac� to take power and start killing everyone.

I point out that this can happen under any economic system and that the capitalist that competed with the Soviet Union provided things like education and healthcare because under capitalism this counts as an investment in your people to make them more skilled and educated.

Somehow these people believe that if you provide everyone with free healthcare, education and infrastructure it somehow convinces people not to work. This makes no sense. Our economy depends on ultra high skill jobs so for us to remain competitive we need sufficient investment in education and healthcare.

Their brains are broken and you have to use careful language and frame everything as if you�re a business owner and how the cost benefit analysis works for social programs. If you do that it takes the wind out of their sails and they start to come around to social programs as good or they start to waver in their dogma. Then they begin to say that capitalism does have flaws that need to be fixed.

So basically you can bring people around but it requires extremely tiresome arguments and a lot of deconstruction of flawed historical premises. You can never say �socialism� or �social democracy�. You gotta talk about single payer healthcare and govt negotiated drug prices as advantageous ways to do business and reduce waste and cost. You gotta say education is an investment so people can make their money and spend it rather than bury it in student loans to stimulate growth.

By default most of these people believe that everyone must be threatened with starvation and homelessness or else we will end up poor and miserable due to unproductive citizens �draining the system�.

At that point they�ll admit capitalism is �flawed� and needs to be changed �but it�s still the system that lifted everyone out of poverty�. Yes. It did so because we stepped in and provided basic needs for people so they could spend their money on good and services and now we took all that away.

# ? Jan 1, 2022 21:01

FlamingLiberal: Jan 18, 2009; Would you like to play a game?

A lot of the anti-leftist talking points you hear border on religious theology these days

# ? Jan 1, 2022 21:14

The Bananana: May 21, 2008; This is a metaphor, a Christian allegory. The fact that I have to explain to you that Jesus is the Warthog, and the Banana is drepanocytosis is just embarrassing for you.