I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

But if you believe in small for its own sake, that's great. Go make some small stuff happen.

If it's by tearing down big stuff, and not worrying too much about who gets mashed by the falling debris, please don't.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by Sidd Finch

If it's by tearing down big stuff, and not worrying too much about who gets mashed by the falling debris, please don't.

Most of the big stuff is pretty resilient, and if it can be brought down by a bit of windmill tilting and bashing of heads against walls it usually should be brought down.

Of course, if Bernie's Bozos get a head of steam up like the Tea Partiers, there could be some debris.

[taxwonk]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

small or big, I like folks who believe in some good stuff and make it happen. As you can tell from your fb feed, I like people who fix up and use barns, not who leave them to the ravages of time.

But I don't worship big or small on their own. I grew up in a place where there were a lot of small minds.

But if you believe in small for its own sake, that's great. Go make some small stuff happen.

I believe in small because when you work small, people remain accountable to one another. If you hire someone to work at your mom & pop and they live down the street, you can believe you'll be paying them enough that they don't need food stamps.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by taxwonk

I believe in small because when you work small, people remain accountable to one another. If you hire someone to work at your mom & pop and they live down the street, you can believe you'll be paying them enough that they don't need food stamps.

Let me guess; you have been watching Andy Griffith show? As long as people go to CostCo and Target and Walmart small places can't make it. I'm the problem, you're the problem.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by taxwonk

I believe in small because when you work small, people remain accountable to one another. If you hire someone to work at your mom & pop and they live down the street, you can believe you'll be paying them enough that they don't need food stamps.

That invites a bigger discussion about community. If you don't think a huge part of what's led to predatory elements running wild in our economy has to do with loss of community, and depersonalization of most processes impacting our lives, you aren't looking very closely.

The movie The Corporation remains an excellent starting point for the bigger explanation of What's Gone Wrong. The new Chomsky movie on Netflix is also a nice encapsulation of the Reasons We're Fucked.

ETA: And yet I can't remain anything but selfish and self interested. As I look around, I see no way to fix these problems. The average American hasn't the intellectual brain power or understanding of the forces causing the problems to start a movement to do so. And honestly, he probably couldn't even if he did. There aren't any easy villains or heroes, and no ideological or political solution. The rational brain runs back to the basic infallible logic every time: Choose that which costs you least in terms of money. Draw the circle small, as depressing as that is. Because nobody in a position of power - absolutely nobody - is looking out for you.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by taxwonk

Call me a cynic. I have become convinced that sea change requires chaos. We're nickel and diming our way into the toilet.

Huge 2.

But the forces in favor of retaining the status quo at all costs are insurmountable. A Trump presidency will infuriate his followers with a lack of ensuing chaos. The political and economic systems at work will neuter him, just as they would Bernie, or anyone else promising real change. They can absorb almost any shock and will convert any serious change agent to a supplicant, consciously or not, in short order.

And God help us if we actually ran into a factual scenario where significant change could occur. That could only happen with massive social disruption, including significant violence, or following some monstrous terrorist attack (dirty bomb, etc.). And that change would be implementation of de facto martial law (under some bland term like "Emergency Terror Threat Procedures"). Sounds nuts, right? Well, consider all of the leaks of domestic spying that have come out in the past ten years. And now consider why so much of that spying is taking place. Would you seriously argue spying on our own citizens is done solely to thwart Middle Eastern terrorists? The policy wonks in the Pentagon endlessly game out economic crises and social disruptions. (They don't argue things like global warming. They accept the science and plan for how to deal with its fallout.) If we get another 2008, or a massive terrorist attack on our soil, and it causes conditions ripe for true change agents to tinker with the system in a manner which would adversely impact the corporate and political elite, the script will quickly shift from something approaching Brave New World, under which the proles are currently managed, to something a bit more Orwellian.

In short, the only real socioeconomic or political change you're likely to see in the near term is the kind you really, really don't want.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

This stupidity needn't be enhanced with comment: http://www.esquire.com/news-politics...otton-prisons/

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

This stupidity needn't be enhanced with comment: http://www.esquire.com/news-politics...otton-prisons/

Clearly, between this guy and Cruz, Harvard has dramatically lowered its standards to admit more conservatives.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by taxwonk

I believe in small because when you work small, people remain accountable to one another. If you hire someone to work at your mom & pop and they live down the street, you can believe you'll be paying them enough that they don't need food stamps.

Yeah, right. This is the old "slaveholders with three slaves instead of a plantation full treated them better".

There is no shortage of small operations that rely on underpaid under-the-table workers to serve their food, stock their shelves, tailor their clothes, etc. Walmarts makes an art of paying the minimum permitted by law, many a small operation simple pays less than the minimum permitted but chooses their victims carefully.

There are a lot of small operations I like a lot and frequent. I think I've been inside a Wallmart twice in my life, I don't like them.

But I'm still going to Starbucks.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

Clearly, between this guy and Cruz, Harvard has dramatically lowered its standards to admit more conservatives.

That or, perhaps more probable, this moron's campaign reports show significant donations from private prison companies.

[taxwonk]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

That invites a bigger discussion about community. If you don't think a huge part of what's led to predatory elements running wild in our economy has to do with loss of community, and depersonalization of most processes impacting our lives, you aren't looking very closely.

The movie The Corporation remains an excellent starting point for the bigger explanation of What's Gone Wrong. The new Chomsky movie on Netflix is also a nice encapsulation of the Reasons We're Fucked.

ETA: And yet I can't remain anything but selfish and self interested. As I look around, I see no way to fix these problems. The average American hasn't the intellectual brain power or understanding of the forces causing the problems to start a movement to do so. And honestly, he probably couldn't even if he did. There aren't any easy villains or heroes, and no ideological or political solution. The rational brain runs back to the basic infallible logic every time: Choose that which costs you least in terms of money. Draw the circle small, as depressing as that is. Because nobody in a position of power - absolutely nobody - is looking out for you.

Of course, community in general is at the heart of change. It's essential to solving the problems of persistent crime and education, it is what will fuel a rebuilding of family and health improvement before the need to flood the ER. In Chicago, New York, and cities all over the country, activists are using abandoned lots and blighted areas to guerilla garden (this is one way to combat food deserts without massive farms that, really, Sidd, don't do anything to actually feed people). Smaller businesses that are part of the community may initially lead to further isolation for minorities, but that isolation will acts an incubator for creating jobs, adding to the small economy, and making communities more attractive to and accessible to outsiders, which should eventually lead to more diversity in communities.

But it will require the kind of conscious sacrifice that, I agree, we aren't as a culture willing to make. It will take massive breakdown. Yes, that will hurt a lot of people, the world over. But only by tearing everything down will we have no choice but to rebuild.

And it will eventually all fall down. As we say in the tax game, it's all just a question of timing.

[taxwonk]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

This stupidity needn't be enhanced with comment: http://www.esquire.com/news-politics...otton-prisons/

Tom Cotton is nothing but Ted Cruz without the intelligence and, Thank God, the money and machine.

[taxwonk]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

Yeah, right. This is the old "slaveholders with three slaves instead of a plantation full treated them better".

I really try to avoid this as a response these days, but, fuck you. Sometimes, your level of condescension goes beyond the edge of the envelope,

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by taxwonk

I really try to avoid this as a response these days, but, fuck you. Sometimes, your level of condescension goes beyond the edge of the envelope,

yeah, sometimes it does. Sorry about that. I'll try to dial back.

Because I love you like the brother I never had and so never got to beat up on.

[taxwonk]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

yeah, sometimes it does. Sorry about that. I'll try to dial back.

Because I love you like the brother I never had and so never got to beat up on.

We cool.

As a peace offering, I haven't been following all the slam Afro Funk y'all been laying down, but I've always liked King Sunny Ade, even if he may be a little tame for you youngsters. https://youtu.be/30dwP1PI0C0?list=PL3F514B058BCC5378