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On July 09 2016 23:25 Surth wrote: Well, let me put it this way: There is definitely a discoures, not a majority discourse but a discourse among conservative elements of society nontheless, saying essentially "if only he hadn't done X" or "he was a criminal thug" (as if that was something making you deserving of death). On conservative (and even surprisingly-non-conservative) subreddits. I have seen it here on TL, though not in the past few days. So all I want to say for now if you make statements of that kind, stop. It's fucking bullshit. The vast majority of people shot by the police should not have been shot, and it happens to blacks disproportionately more easily.
I'm not saying that the cops, individually, are at fault, not really (though I would assume some simply are very racist, and very triggerhappy). The problems underlying this are much deeper of course. Something samizdat noted on fb, which I had never thought about: how many cops are army veterans, who had been trained for years to shoot people on sight, who may have served for a tour or two and actually suffer from PTSD? The military trains you to not be part of civil society, to stand outside it - and yet many soldiers, returning hom, become cops, supposedly the moral center of civil society! And, as far as I know, most cops in the US have far less rigorous and frequent gun training (including gun safety training!) in the US than anywhere in Europe. It's an infrastructural problem. etc etc. but anyone who denies that racism continues to be part of the problem is being ridiculous.
The military has far stricter rules of engagement and accountability than the police.
On July 10 2016 00:08 farvacola wrote: Getting the Democratic Party to commit to anything as ostensibly progressive as a minimum wage is a victory in itself.
Clinton has been campaigning on a 12 dollar min wage so its not big of a victory.
If they wait 4 years before implementing the wage and index from there, then its already the equivalent of 13.50 today with 2.5% inflation/year. (not to mention that official inflation figures are far off from the inflation a typical household experiences with raises in rent and such).
Hillary Clinton is pledging to follow through on progressive health care policies in a new campaign document as Democratic delegates meet in Orlando on the party's platform and she woos Bernie Sanders' supporters.
The document mostly rehashes Clinton's previous proposals, including extending Medicare as an option to Americans 55 years and older, allowing undocumented immigrants to purchase coverage from Obamacare health exchanges, and fighting high out-of-pocket health care costs.
The document itself is largely symbolic, but it's taken on more weight this year as Clinton moves left to appeal to Bernie Sanders' supporters. The Sanders campaign is scheduled to hold a call on health care Saturday morning.
In a new proposal, Clinton calls for doubling funding for primary care services at community health centers, which serve working class and poor Americans. That proposal was part of a compromise with the Sanders campaign, according to Sanders delegate Michael Lighty, policy director of National Nurses United -- a group that was among the most vocal proponents of Sanders's single-payer care health care proposal.
The Clinton proposal would give the centers $40 billion in funding over a decade. During the negotiations leading up to the passage of Obamacare in 2010, Sanders pushed for more community health center dollars and won them in exchange for dropping his single-payer plan.
On July 10 2016 00:08 farvacola wrote: Getting the Democratic Party to commit to anything as ostensibly progressive as a minimum wage is a victory in itself.
Clinton has been campaigning on a 12 dollar min wage so its not big of a victory.
If they wait 4 years before implementing the wage and index from there, then its already the equivalent of 13.50 today with 2.5% inflation/year. (not to mention that official inflation figures are far off from the inflation a typical household experiences with raises in rent and such).
agreed it's not really a bernie victory; as it's a long time democratic issue anyways, and the actual number tweaks are likely to be something in the compromise range anyways (if it gets done at all). It really should've been inflation indexed a long time ago, as well as a lot of other things. Failing to index things is a common failure in laws. Though on rent that's because of other factors pushing up rent rather than inflation. $15 is really too high anyways, for a national wage. The problem with a national fixed minimum wage is there's just too much variability in cost of living throughout the country, so a single fixed value simply cannot be set at a truly good point.
The ideal system is probably a federal requirement that minimum wage laws at the state and local level are inflation indexed, along with a federal floor inflation indexed minimum wage sufficient for life in areas in the lowest 25% or something cost of living. But that only works if there are no incentives for states/cities to slot their wages below the "proper" amount-and there certainly are incentives there.
They also need to update the inflation indexer too, though, because costs of living have shifted so dramatically over time.
Edit: After all, if you believe we should have any minimum wage laws at any level of government it's hard to argue with the idea that they should be inflation indexed.
On July 09 2016 23:10 Surth wrote: For all those who defend the slayings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile:
What do you think would be the life expectancy of a black person trying to be a "sovereign citizen", doing the things these people in these videos are doing?
I had to stop watching after 4 minutes these people really are pathetic I honestly can't understand why anyone would want to be a police officer having to deal with this type of shit. These people are utter lunatics.
'is speeding a crime?' 'can you prove im driving?' 'HELP CALL THE POLICE'
-facepalm-
How can people be so oblivious to their wrongdoings and refuse to accept responsibility. You sped, accept responsibility, take your ticket ffs
They're selfish fools who have no respect for anyone but themselves
On July 10 2016 02:19 Soap wrote: Indexing wages to inflation only causes more inflation. The only way unskilled workers would make more money is if there were less of them.
The whole point of minimum wage is to provide a basis you can live off of. If the base does not rise with inflation then before long you can no longer live off it.
What do you think would be the life expectancy of a black person trying to be a "sovereign citizen", doing the things these people in these videos are doing?
I had to stop watching after 4 minutes these people really are pathetic I honestly can't understand why anyone would want to be a police officer having to deal with this type of shit. These people are utter lunatics.
'is speeding a crime?' 'can you prove im driving?' 'HELP CALL THE POLICE'
-facepalm-
How can people be so oblivious to their wrongdoings and refuse to accept responsibility. You sped, accept responsibility, take your ticket ffs
They're selfish fools who have no respect for anyone but themselves
On July 10 2016 02:19 Soap wrote: Indexing wages to inflation only causes more inflation. The only way unskilled workers would make more money is if there were less of them.
The whole point of minimum wage is to provide a basis you can live off of. If the base does not rise with inflation then before long you can no longer live off it.
Doesn't mean we can escape reality. If the economy doesn't support a living wage for tens of millions of people, at most the currency will devalue to reflect that.
What do you think would be the life expectancy of a black person trying to be a "sovereign citizen", doing the things these people in these videos are doing?
I had to stop watching after 4 minutes these people really are pathetic I honestly can't understand why anyone would want to be a police officer having to deal with this type of shit. These people are utter lunatics.
'is speeding a crime?' 'can you prove im driving?' 'HELP CALL THE POLICE'
-facepalm-
How can people be so oblivious to their wrongdoings and refuse to accept responsibility. You sped, accept responsibility, take your ticket ffs
They're selfish fools who have no respect for anyone but themselves
Yep they are morons, that's not the point tho ;P
Is the point that they would be shot if they were black?
On July 10 2016 02:19 Soap wrote: Indexing wages to inflation only causes more inflation. The only way unskilled workers would make more money is if there were less of them.
The whole point of minimum wage is to provide a basis you can live off of. If the base does not rise with inflation then before long you can no longer live off it.
Doesn't mean we can escape reality. If the economy doesn't support a living wage for tens of millions of people, at most the currency will devalue to reflect that.
the minimum wage in the US is low enough that the economy can support it. Most actual proposals are also low enough that the economy can handle them without inflation issues.
On July 10 2016 02:19 Soap wrote: Indexing wages to inflation only causes more inflation. The only way unskilled workers would make more money is if there were less of them.
The whole point of minimum wage is to provide a basis you can live off of. If the base does not rise with inflation then before long you can no longer live off it.
Doesn't mean we can escape reality. If the economy doesn't support a living wage for tens of millions of people, at most the currency will devalue to reflect that.
If everyone in the economy has perfect information and acts rationally and to maximize production of goods, perhaps.
On July 10 2016 02:19 Soap wrote: Indexing wages to inflation only causes more inflation. The only way unskilled workers would make more money is if there were less of them.
The whole point of minimum wage is to provide a basis you can live off of. If the base does not rise with inflation then before long you can no longer live off it.
Doesn't mean we can escape reality. If the economy doesn't support a living wage for tens of millions of people, at most the currency will devalue to reflect that.
the minimum wage in the US is low enough that the economy can support it. Most actual proposals are also low enough that the economy can handle them without inflation issues.
Its really hard to have any hard statements on things that are reflexive to perception more than it is to actual mathematics. Assuming the economy reacts to an index, sure, but it could just as easily react to perceived quarterly losses from having to uptick expenditure without immediate gains in sales.
This doesn't mean we should not fight for minimum wage, it simply means that minimum wage has ZERO chances of having a correct algorithm/system/number. It is something that has to be fought over fiercely, regularly, every few years.
On July 10 2016 02:19 Soap wrote: Indexing wages to inflation only causes more inflation. The only way unskilled workers would make more money is if there were less of them.
The whole point of minimum wage is to provide a basis you can live off of. If the base does not rise with inflation then before long you can no longer live off it.
Doesn't mean we can escape reality. If the economy doesn't support a living wage for tens of millions of people, at most the currency will devalue to reflect that.
If everyone in the economy has perfect information and acts rationally and to maximize production of goods, perhaps.
I think this is an essential point that gets overlooked far too often.
On July 10 2016 02:19 Soap wrote: Indexing wages to inflation only causes more inflation. The only way unskilled workers would make more money is if there were less of them.
The whole point of minimum wage is to provide a basis you can live off of. If the base does not rise with inflation then before long you can no longer live off it.
Doesn't mean we can escape reality. If the economy doesn't support a living wage for tens of millions of people, at most the currency will devalue to reflect that.
the minimum wage in the US is low enough that the economy can support it. Most actual proposals are also low enough that the economy can handle them without inflation issues.
Its really hard to have any hard statements on things that are reflexive to perception more than it is to actual mathematics. Assuming the economy reacts to an index, sure, but it could just as easily react to perceived quarterly losses from having to uptick expenditure without immediate gains in sales.
This doesn't mean we should not fight for minimum wage, it simply means that minimum wage has ZERO chances of having a correct algorithm/system/number. It is something that has to be fought over fiercely, regularly, every few years.
I disagree; there's plenty of hard data on which to base a minimum wage calculation; and a proper inflation index also does a great job of providing adjustments, greatly reducing the frequency with which it needs to be updated manually.
And what does this prove? That a police officer knows as much as a random smuck of the street? There is a reason they should be trained for years in how to deal with situations...
On July 10 2016 02:19 Soap wrote: Indexing wages to inflation only causes more inflation. The only way unskilled workers would make more money is if there were less of them.
The whole point of minimum wage is to provide a basis you can live off of. If the base does not rise with inflation then before long you can no longer live off it.
Doesn't mean we can escape reality. If the economy doesn't support a living wage for tens of millions of people, at most the currency will devalue to reflect that.
If everyone in the economy has perfect information and acts rationally and to maximize production of goods, perhaps.
It's worse than that. When in doubt, people raise prices.