US Politics Mega-thread - Page 1394

On November 04 2014 11:56 Nyxisto wrote:
This is an online board that exists because people make a living from playing video games on the internet and other people make a living from commentating on it. If that is a viable career path then I don't think we have a problem. Also productivity increases way slower than it did in the past. Societies survived when single machines replaced hundreds of workers over night, I think we're going to survive a robot that cleans toilets.

On November 04 2014 13:01 IgnE wrote:


Come on nyx. This is clearly a stupid comment. Every single recession since the 70s has resulted in a jobless recovery, and everyone knows that only a handful of progamers make enough money to live on. Even fewer make more than the median wage.

On November 04 2014 12:46 oneofthem wrote:
um no. i do like critical theory, particularly early horkheimer. but not marxist in the short run. marxism as a piece of economics and social program is just unscientific, for lack of a better description. it made some good critical and aspirational points

On November 04 2014 13:05 Nyxisto wrote:


That's true, but the recessions also didn't really have to do a lot with job automation, which was the mechanism in question. I really think we have a lot of stuff going wrong but "machines taking our jerbs" really seems like a horror scenario from the past.
Progaming also just was one example. There are tons of new jobs that people couldn't have imagined even a decade ago, I don't really think we're running out of ideas.

On November 04 2014 13:15 Shiragaku wrote:

I can imagine you have had quite a few adventures with anti-revisionists and other Marxist-Leninists.

On November 04 2014 13:05 Nyxisto wrote:


That's true, but the recessions also didn't really have to do a lot with job automation, which was the mechanism in question. I really think we have a lot of stuff going wrong but "machines taking our jerbs" really seems like a horror scenario from the past.
Progaming also just was one example. There are tons of new jobs that people couldn't have imagined even a decade ago, I don't really think we're running out of ideas.

On November 04 2014 13:01 IgnE wrote:


Come on nyx. This is clearly a stupid comment. Every single recession since the 70s has resulted in a jobless recovery, and everyone knows that only a handful of progamers make enough money to live on. Even fewer make more than the median wage.

On November 04 2014 15:06 IgnE wrote:
Please gender-ize that graph for me. Workforce participation is going to go up if you consistently add only the women who are getting jobs, since they show up in the numerator and the denominator.

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/LNS11300001




Labor arbitrage is obviously a factor, but even that has to do with technology. You can't run factories in China without international flights, telephone lines, computers, and other network devices that only started to come online in the late 60s. Technological shifts also played a major factor in the the hollowing out of the workforce through the loss of mid-level, living wage jobs that were routine and came with well-defined protocols and instructions since they were replaced or downsized with the aid of robotization in the case of factories and computerization in the case of administrative positions.

The Air Force on Monday fired two more nuclear commanders and disciplined a third, fresh evidence of leadership lapses in a nuclear missile corps that has suffered a rash of recent setbacks, including the firing last year of its top commander.

The most senior officer to be relieved Monday was Col. Carl Jones, the No. 2 commander of the 90th Missile Wing at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming, in charge of 150 of the Air Force's 450 Minuteman 3 nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles. He was dismissed "for a loss of trust and confidence in his leadership abilities," and has been reassigned as a special assistant to the wing commander.

The actions Monday were confirmed in response to an AP inquiry about an internal Air Force investigation of two commanders at the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, which also is responsible for 150 Minuteman 3 missiles.

It is unusual for disciplinary action to be taken against senior officers at two of the Air Force's three nuclear missile bases on the same day. Officials said the timing was a coincidence. It extends a pattern of leadership failures in the ICBM force over the past year.

Last March nine officers were fired at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana, which is the third of the three nuclear missile bases, in response to an exam-cheating scandal there. Last year, Maj. Gen. Michael Carey, commander of the entire ICBM force, was fired after an investigation into a drinking binge and other misconduct while he was in Russia as head of a visiting U.S. government delegation.

Five states are gearing up for votes that could raise their minimum wages in Tuesday's general election, near the end of a year that saw protests in cities around the United States by workers demanding better wages.

A coalition of organizations called D15 has been been coordinating many of the demonstrations and strikes to push for a minimum wage of $15 an hour.

Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska, Illinois and South Dakota have proposals on their ballots to raise their state minimum wage requirements, which currently range from $6.25 to $8.25 an hour.

Four of the states lean Republican. Many in the party have traditionally opposed the government setting minimum wage limits, arguing that doing so could cause job losses and stifle economic growth.

This year’s ballot measures are largely expected to pass because every minimum wage initiative that has appeared on statewide ballots since 1996 has gained voter approval, according to the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, a U.S. liberal advocacy organization.

Over the past two years, 13 states and the District of Columbia have enacted minimum wage increases, raising pay for 7 million workers, according to a recent White House estimate.

Cities are also eyeing action. In June, the Seattle City Council unanimously approved an ordinance to phase in a $15 hourly minimum wage — the highest in the nation.

And in April, the Maryland legislature approved raising the state's minimum wage on to $10.10 an hour, equaling the highest state rate in the nation and drawing praise from President Barack Obama.

Maryland's minimum wage has been $7.25 an hour, and was last raised in 2006. The bill will raise it in stages to $10.10 in July 2018.

On November 04 2014 15:22 IgnE wrote:
And women joining the labor force to take lower-paying positions has obscured the fact that we've been having jobless recoveries since before 2000?