Alan C.

Time is a scarce commodity, and labor-saving devices accord us with opportunities to spend time on things other than tedious, repetitive tasks. They also increase safety and conserve resources. As far as what to do with low IQ, unskilled workers, there is nothing to do. People have to take responsibility for themselves at some point.

Bernie Sanders promises to "get big money out of politics" while promising to spend $18T on health-care, education, public-works projects, etc. It's essentially a huge vote-buying gimmick. The thing that worries me isn't Bernie Sanders. It's the throngs of mindless morons who support him.

An Alarming Number Of People Think “The Martian” Is A True Story I never cease to be amazed at just how dumb people are. The degree of credulity and lack of critical thought is astounding.

Most Americans have less than $1,000 in savings

Tough new equal pay law threatens to accelerate California’s business exodus The State parasites are once again driving up the cost of running a business which will only exacerbate unemployment. This will create a tsunami of new lawsuits, as if employers didn't already have enough to worry about. Employers will be forced to impose a moratorium on hiring or simply relocate.

There is nothing wrong with asking questions. The peer review process is not about proving people wrong. It's important for filtering out nonsense, and also to get different perspectives in the event that something is overlooked. There are very brilliant people who do physics for a living (eg. Lawrence Krauss, Michio Kaku, Kip Thorne, Stephen Hawking). All they do is physics, and sometimes they cogitate on ideas for years. Ideas are subjected to extreme rigor, analysis, and scrutiny, and if there are ways to circumvent known physical laws then I'm sure they'd discover it.

My employer provides 5 days of paid sick leave per calendar year, even though it's not mandatory. I usually miss two days per year due to a cold. I think the most I ever missed was 3 days. We do have, and have had in the past, employees who use all 5 sick days every year. They called in sick for headaches, hangovers, or "not feeling well" which means that they stayed up late the night before.

D.C. introduces paid leave: Why 2016 could (finally) be family leave's election I'm sure that it won't have any effect on employment.

People who lack redeeming qualities (eg. marketable skills, exceptional talent, integrity, professionalism, trustworthiness, dependability) define themselves by superficial and meaningless things such as ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, sports team, political party, culture, nationalism, etc. None of these things tell you about their character. The answer to your question about the outcome of multiculturalism is that society will regress to the lowest common denominator. As a percentage of the population, the number of people who solve problems for the rest of humanity, and make our lives better, is exceedingly small (probably in the single digits) and they're vastly outnumbered by the rest of the population.

French socialists and unions are among the dumbest people on the planet. Striking utility workers cut power in France to protest partial privatizations (2004) Rail Sabotage Is Reported in France (2007) French unions threaten to sabotage D-Day anniversary in dispute over wages for electricity workers (2009) French workers accused of 'being lazy' by U.S. tycoon riot on streets as last ditch protest to save 1,200 jobs descends into violence France to seek ban on Amazon bundled discounts, free delivery France calls for EU to regulate Web giants to counter dominance Unemployment In France Just Hit A 12-Year High And Shows No Signs Of Slowing Down (2011) France’s Relentlessly Deteriorating Unemployment Fiasco Thousands strike in France over pension reforms (2010) Commuters Walloped by Strikes in France, London (2010) France convicts Google Maps for unfair competition

The Fed has been talking about raising the interest rate by 0.25% (one quarter of one percent), but even that insignificant amount could cause too much damage, especially for people who carry large sums of debt.

Previous thread 94,610,000 Americans not in labor force. An increase of 500K in one month. Participation lowest since 1977 (38 years). 56,647,000 women not in labor force. Number was 56,253,000 in August. I doubt the Fed will increase interest rates. It will probably attempt more QE to keep the various bubbles (eg. housing, stocks, bonds) from deflating.

Mounting extortion plagues shopkeepers in violent Venezuela 100+ Venezuela Security Officials Accused of Extortion

Fiorina wants to establish no-fly zones in Syria and says we must be prepared to shoot down Russian planes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXUSBwYqcS8

Not voting.

You think society would be better off we returned to the good old days when people harvested crops by hand instead of using industrial farm equipment, and dug holes and trenches with pickaxes and shovels instead of using excavators?

Paul Krugman Sticks It To Poor People With $225,000 Salary To Study Income Inequality

I don't think it's being frowned upon. I think the vast bulk of people in society don't have the slightest idea what it is, its implications, or its necessary requisites, let alone knowledge of basic economics, and they probably couldn't care less. Division of labor is the reason why billions of people are alive, fed and sheltered reasonably well, and accorded a slew of labor-saving devices. Civilization is like a fabric. The State is pulling on its threads. Take a gander at Venezuela to see what happens when the fabric begins to unravel.

It's a satire site reminiscent of The Onion. Very funny though.

Democracy: Take tens of millions of feeble-minded, credulous, envious, self-righteous, ignorant, vindictive, superstitious malcontents, misanthropes, and morons, ask them for their ill-informed, unqualified opinions about things which they know nothing about, then take the most popular ones and impose them upon the entire populace using the force of the State apparatus. Exactly how is this supposed to make society better? Most people can't even take care of themselves, but somehow their opinions about how everyone else should be forced to live are supposed to count for something.

Carly Fiorina defends Bush-era torture and spying, calls for more transparency

Guy makes suit almost entirely from scratch. Costs $4K and takes 10 months. Again, demonstrating the importance of division of labor. Without private property, free exchange, and money prices, we would all be living under grinding poverty, growing our own food, making our own clothes, building our own shelters, and millions would die of starvation and exposure.

More people on the planet have access to a mobile phone than they do to a toilet. If you can figure out why then you'll have your answer.

Examples of reductio ad absurdum would be the following: "If raising the minimum wage doesn't cause disemployment, as you claim, then it should be raised to $100/hour." "If natural disasters result in economic growth because of the spending needed to fix everything, then it makes sense to bulldoze everything because the ensuing reconstruction will also result in economic growth." When people reject your analogy (eg. taxation is theft, conscription is slavery) then they are experiencing cognitive dissonance.