Even if you are going to use imaginary paper representing imaginary lumps of metal to measure human value, even then politicians have still been faking the numbers ever since they realized that statistics affect elections.
And accordingly, if you are going to talk about whether wages have gone up, or gone down, or gone up a little, or gone down a lot, you must address the question of how exactly you are measuring inflation, and whether that measurement is or is not legitimate, and why.
In the charts to the right we show two SGS-Alternate CPI estimates: One based on the pre-1990 official methodology for computing the CPI-U, and the other based on the methodology which was employed prior to 1980.
Yeah, even though I usually disagree with @popobawa4u, his (its?) points are reasonable. Do I want to live that way? Hell no. But that is simply a disagreement, not a condemnation.
So, if itās that much of a challenge, why do you make it sound so frivolous?
???
You are just as responsible for how society is organized as anybody else is. And why change other peopleās structures when you and others can implement your own? There does not seem to be any compelling reason why the same systems, structures, frameworks, etc need to be used by everyone.
It is better to DIY social structures for what actually matters in life instead of more electronic and plastic crap. New kinds of families, companies, schools, property, currency, transportation, healthcare, etc. If these are where the real value is, then these are where the innovation should be. It seems more socially responsible than āhaving a jobā. Doing it or dying trying are equally valid options.
True, in this case, but they wanted the arrangement more than I did. My agreement to stay here temporarily is with a third party, my ex-spouse. Otherwise I would not stay here. Itās complicated.
Thatās right Dog does bless me!! Cause Iām white and old and have money and Fox News tells me Iām blessed! I canāt wait for the Rapture so all you sinners can burn while Iām in Heaven next to Supply Side Jesus!
Yeah, success at being a household of adults depends heavily on the members. Itās different than a family with parents and children, because those bound by genetics are more or less stuck together and have to at least try to make things work. That pressure isnāt there if youāre all 20-somethings.
If youāre the kind of person who needs a ton of privacy and your flatmates are the partying type, youāre obviously going to have a bad time, regardless of how compatible you are otherwise. Some stuff just doesnāt mix.
In fact, Iād argue that you have to be compatible in many of the same ways that members of a marriage should be. Having different strengths is good. Having completely different outlooks to the extent that there are things you canāt see eye-to-eye on and cannot come to a happy compromise on is probably not.
Me either though I think we could have a much better system for people that donāt have my level of privilege. Iām white, have a graduate degree, and work in engineering. That gives me a lot more options than most folks.
Alot of that is tweaking, rather than a full overhaul of society.
Cheaper, or more humanely financed Tertiary education.
More public health. The playing field can be leveled a bit. Sure. If you can convince the wider public that a bit of altruism is in their best interest.
The more basic chase for the God of Materialism, thatās an interesting one to combat. Itās something old style Christianity used to preach against. Rich men and camels and the eye of a needle. But we donāt have that guiding moral compass anymore. We have to figure it out ourselves.
I donāt remember being offered 0% financing on a $60,000 truck when I was 14. But I do remember seeing commercials running all day and night for basically unlimited free credit in the noughties and thinking āthatās ridiculousā. And wondering how anyone planned on making money when all this credit is inevitably defaulted on. Turns out that the creditees and the creditors both end up without any money except for the Too Big to Fail institutions. Who just get pumped full of cash, and then stop offering credit to even qualified people with incomes.
Hold on, can we clear something up? Do you live a nomadic life, or have first-hand experience with it? I could at least agree to disagree with someone who is speaking from experience.
I personally have a problem with the idea that any person can just opt out without a large coordinate effort among many people, because many of our needs fundamentally require that coordination. Do you have any medical conditions, for instance, diabetes (lets say Type I)? Then you rely on a large complicate network of systems that supplies you with medical equipment and insulin, which internally relies on other complex network of systems. You cannot remove yourself from that system, and therefore are at least bound to the requirements that system imposes.
The same logic would follow for many other conditions and situations: eyesight; special dietary constraints; allergies; childcare; any family that meet these criteria and may need support. More people than not are going to need to make the system work from the inside, because they cannot exist outside of it for long enough to build their own alternative. So it is very frustrating when I see people using these forums as a soapbox to show how independent they could be and how the rest of us just need to disconnect. It doesnāt help. I guess it doesnāt necessarily hurt either (except maybe distracting the discussion from how we can fix this system many of us are bound to), but Iāve just seen this line of thinking and mentally ran through my arguments too many times to remain silent this time.
