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Journal by Sulla
Alright folks its that time of year again. This is the first year under the new tax plan so it will be interesting to see how everyone made out. Last year I ran into some problems because my work had my withholdings incorrect, evidently they failed to follow through with the corrections I asked them to for tax year 2018.
I was expecting that with the birth of another kid and my withholdings not being corrected that I would get a refund of around 1500, my refund ended up being 5500.
Thanks Trump! The additional amount that is being given back to me is enough to finish up saving for a downpayment and allow me to buy a home six months earlier. Thats six months I get to pay a mortgage for myself instead of paying a mortgage for someone else.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
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ANN JILLIAN'S HAIR makes LONI ANDERSON'S HAIR look like RICARDO
MONTALBAN'S HAIR!
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 23 2019, @05:58AM
The only ethical path is to donate that $4,000 to the progressive candidate of your choice or a minority-focused charity.
Only love trumps hate.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 23 2019, @09:42AM (4 children)
It is this kind of thinking that is going to kill the American ideal, the American Dream, the Shining City on the Hill, Real America. Enjoy you 6month premature house, Sulla. You have killed all the rest of us.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Sulla on Wednesday January 23 2019, @06:39PM (2 children)
The shining city on a hill has always been a myth. It existed because for a brief period of time the US was able to maintain a 70% tax rate on some individuals because everywhere else in the world that had running water was ravaged by war and the rich didn't want to deal with it. Eventually Europe and Asia recovered and the US had to compete with the rest of the world in keeping business owners and rich people spending money here. Combine lower tax rates with increases in spending on military and entitlements and you have a recipe for disaster. We should be doing 10+% across-the-board cuts to spending until we reach a point of fiscal solvency. I am sure some areas could see bigger cuts. Double the size of the airfoce, build new planes, then cut the entire Army because it won't be needed. Do stricter standards of who gets to receive unemployment and snap. Get us out of military engagement in Africa and the middle east. Don't pay for education in degrees that won't pay for themselves or are necessary to promote research.
But nobody wants to talk about cutting spending, so eventually our creditors will cut us loose and we will have the forever shutdown.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 23 2019, @11:40PM (1 child)
Pretty sure the "Shining City on a Hill" was Jonathon Edwards invention, circa, no wait, Winthrop, 1630:
Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Thursday January 24 2019, @12:04AM
I think most people are referring to the Reagan speech when they say it. At least that's what i was assuming.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday January 31 2019, @02:33AM
Indeed. What is the military industrial complex going to feed off of, if we don't pay our taxes?
(Score: 2) by Snow on Wednesday January 23 2019, @04:25PM
Pretty exciting to buy a house. I hope you can find something that works for you and your family!
You are one of the few Trump supporters that I have respect for. Even though I disagree with you, you present a compelling argument.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday January 23 2019, @04:58PM (58 children)
Now the question is, at what price to the rest of us (and yourself, really...) and for how long? You have an unfortunate tendency to selfishness and shortsighted thinking. Even some of his most ardent voting blocs are starting to become disenfranchised with him. I have a feeling that if you were a furloughed fedgov worker you'd be singing a different tune right about now.
Pull your head out and think about someone other than yourself and sometime other than the immediate present. This house of yours is going to come at a steep price...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Wednesday January 23 2019, @06:16PM (2 children)
As a government worker I am always under the threat of a furlough. When I was at the state I was putting aside 400 a month on my 32k salary to make sure that if the state ever had one that dragged on myself and my family would not be hurt. Also, this isn't a furlough. In a furlough you don't get paid for a day and you never get paid for the day. In this shutdown you don't get paid for a few weeks and then you get paid for the time that you weren't working
https://woldcnews.com/1638082/federal-workers-retroactive-pay-after-government-shutdown/ [woldcnews.com]
What will really hurt these workers is going to be the forever furlough when we collapse like the Soviet Union did because the Republicans wont stop spending on war and the Democrats won't stop spending on entitlements. Unfortunately either side points to the excesses of the other without reducing all of the excesses.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday January 23 2019, @06:56PM (1 child)
As a government worker...
So you're a government worker and you've already received your W2?
You must be really lucky, then , since so many departments have announced delays. [federalnewsnetwork.com]
(Score: 2, Touché) by Sulla on Wednesday January 23 2019, @07:11PM
I have not received my W2 and wont be filing until I do. But if you look at your prior years W2 and compare it to the last paycheck of the year you can figure out what all of the information is. Year-to-date taxable gross is lines 1 and 16 (if state taxes). Fed Withholding is line 2, Fed OASDI/Disability - EE is line 4, OR Withholding is line 17 (state), Fed FICA Med Hospital Ins / EE is line 6, ACA Health Reporting is line 12 DD, OPSRP if you have it is line 12 EE. Def Comp if you have it is 12 G, Life AD/D 1X Salary (I suppose this is your favorite as you must long for it to happen to me) is 12 C.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 23 2019, @06:22PM (40 children)
I didn't trust Trump when I voted for him. His promises sounded nice, but I figured they were just a bunch of hot air. The alternative however was a felon who somehow managed to literally collude with Russians while threatening to start a war with them, and she even had the nerve to accuse Trump of doing what she herself was doing.
Now? Trump is a dream come true.
The furloughed fedgov workers are 90% democrat. They should take advantage of Trump's wonderful economy and find non-parasitic employment. Of course that would mean actual expectations of being non-lazy at work, so some growing up might be required.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 23 2019, @06:51PM
I think this wins the agit-prop award of the day!
lawl
(Score: 4, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday January 23 2019, @06:52PM (38 children)
On the one hand, I hope Ivan paid you for this post. On the other hand, it kind of sucks, so I hope he didn't pay you too much.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday January 23 2019, @07:48PM (35 children)
This is SoylentNews not Twitter or Facebook. Nobody is going to pay anyone to shill here unless our traffic increases by ten times or more.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday January 23 2019, @08:24PM
I bet they target any forum that allows anonymous posting just because it's so cheap and easy.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday January 23 2019, @08:57PM
"This is SoylentNews not Twitter or Facebook. "
1, thank Dog.
2, my thinking is, the intelligence level here is higher than on those two sites
3, a tech site infiltrated is a tech site potentially corrupted.
4, again, thank Dog
5, No Profit! (this IS SoylentNews, lol)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 24 2019, @12:25AM (32 children)
BZZZT WRONG!
SN is actually a "grass roots" tech site so posting on here would actually be rather useful. People will read comments here and disseminate those opinions out further with the assumption that people on here are genuine. They have bots that can flood some amount of garbage while real live agents can maintain accounts across a host of sites. The effort/reward greatly favors spewing crap on any site possible, and with the total lack of policing around here (not saying more is needed) it is actually a pretty damn good platform for shills.
Also, the Russians were targeting conservatives in order to radicalize them into far right extremists and this site is a gold mine of near radicals. So ya, SN is very likely targeted.
If you wanna promote REAL community here TMB then we should organize a "meet your fellow curmudgeons" event. I would probably go just to find out which users are real around here! Then again it would probably be flagged by the FBI as a possible domestic terrorism... haha..ha...
(Score: 2, Disagree) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday January 24 2019, @01:48AM (31 children)
Well-put. I'd go further and state that Uzzard's sympathies with the hard right actually make SN uniquely vulnerable to this sort of evil astroturfing, which is one reason I fight so incredibly hard against it wherever it may appear. There seems to be something inherently antisocial in a lot of technically-adept people, which leaves them further vulnerable to the kind of borderline-solipsistic selfishness and fearmongering favored by the new fascists.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0, Troll) by khallow on Sunday February 03 2019, @06:01AM (30 children)
How does this unique vulnerability work? Does "uniquely vulnerable" mean not banning people for what they write?
It's really quite frustrating. One day you'll write brilliant stuff and then the next get into this stupid morality play bullshit. How about thinking for a change?
Here, shills are a fact of life. We already have a few cases of people spamming links in the journals and elsewhere for search engines. It's not a stretch that someone could spam opinions for other reasons. I think it probably a waste of time and money, but whatever.
I suggest as a solution, that you try critical thinking instead of pointless ad hominem attacks on the Buzz. I recall hearing various terms that indicate you've been exposed to the basic ideas of critical thinking, even if they've mostly slid off your impervious mental armor.
For a very recent example of how that could have been used in this very thread:
It's just the typical Azuma trash talk and name calling. Why is not paying that extra $4k "selfish and shortsighted thinking"? You're breaking one of the big rules of critical thinking - not thinking about a subject from another person's viewpoint. It doesn't mean you agree, but it does mean you're aware enough of the argument to see other viewpoints.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday February 03 2019, @06:00PM (29 children)
Oh, shut up. You call anything you don't like "trash," especially if it blasphemes against your God Mammon. You don't even realize how bad you've already made yourself look; no one except other gibbertarians agrees with you on your economic policy.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday February 04 2019, @04:19AM (28 children)
I think there's some projection there. Let's keep in mind your argument that because a single staff member of SN has opinions you don't like, you claimed that the whole site is "uniquely vulnerable". This argument has the virtue of being both trash and an argument I happen to despise. But I have no trouble understanding the difference between those two.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday February 04 2019, @05:54PM (27 children)
You didn't unpack it.
It goes like this: because said staff member has arguments I dislike FOR THE SPECIFIC REASON THAT THEY ARE ANTISOCIAL AND BORDERLINE PSYCHOPATHIC, the site is uniquely vulnerable FOR THE SPECIFIC REASON THAT IT MAKES SAID STAFF MEMBER MORE LIKELY TO GIVE ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR FROM OTHERS A PASS.
Now, you're not stupid (or at least, you're not developmentally delayed), so it's fairly obvious you *chose* not to unpack it, and tried instead to score some rhetorical points by feigning ignorance. Well, it didn't work, and anyone with three sparking neurons who *doesn't* have a malicious agenda did the above unpacking in his or her head automatically.
This means you're just trying to stir shit. Begone, troll.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday February 06 2019, @03:07AM (26 children)
A beautiful straight line.
I couldn't have parodied your argument any better than that. Note we have several issues here. First, Buzz's "ANTISOCIAL AND BORDERLINE PSYCHOPATHIC" isn't really antisocial and borderline psychopathic behavior. Words have meaning after all. Second, many such sites have people who are antisocial and/or borderline sociopathic. The uniqueness of the vulnerability is nonsensical. Finally, Buzz's job is to code, not act as a gate keeper to keep out potential antisocial psychopaths. There is no cause and effect here.
Speaking of antisocial behavior, here's a great example. Ad hominem name calling and of course, heavy projection accusing others of the antisocial and borderline whatever behavior you so readily indulge in.
So really, what was there to unpack? You spelled it out and our suspicions were confirmed.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday February 06 2019, @05:57AM (25 children)
So do you log in with the intention of proving my point for me better than I could do it myself, or is it just one of those Happy Accidents (TM)?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday February 07 2019, @01:33AM (24 children)
You "unpacked" it. You own it. I already noted I couldn't argue against your viewpoint here any better than you've already done.
How about instead of name calling you think about my observation?
There's four observations to unpack.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday February 07 2019, @02:20AM (23 children)
Except all you did was say "nuh uh, YOU." And everyone can see that. And you're not fooling anyone but yourself. See, here in the real world, if you are wrong, you do not become right by going "nuh uh, YOU." Most people learn this by fourth grade; you, for whatever reason, appear not to have.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday February 07 2019, @04:29AM (22 children)
We can always apply those three "sparking neurons" you claim to have instead. Unpacking my observation:
You have repeatedly asserted TMB exhibits such behavior. We have yet to see any support for your claim other than empty assertions. Further, psychopathy is not at all a clinical state. It is instead an empty label. Among other things, it informs us that you are swimming in the kiddie pool of pop psychology.
Remember the claim that SN was "uniquely vulnerable"? Well, lots of sites have lots of people running those sites, and not all of those people have ideal mental health. The "uniqueness" of the alleged vulnerability is way exaggerated.
I think it immature and over-the-top ridiculous to imply that SN is somehow doing things differently than anyone else on the internet merely because there is someone on the staff you don't like. There's probably plenty of people out there maintaining websites or other staff/admin functions, with opinions you don't like. You just don't know about them.
The point of this is that your whole alleged concern about Buzz's beliefs and proclivities is a huge red herring. It's not relevant at all. There's no magic way that Buzz will pull in the undesirables just because he has opinions and maintains code and the backend of SN.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday February 07 2019, @04:56AM (21 children)
I get it, you refuse to see the point even when it's aimed right at that lovely T-intersection between your eyebrows and north of your nose. As I've said about a zillion times before, I ain't doing this for your benefit, Sparky. It's for anyone who happens to cross your path. I'm well aware you've thrown yourself bodily into your own personal Hell and think everything's fine because you haven't hit the ground yet.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0, Redundant) by khallow on Friday February 08 2019, @12:43AM (20 children)
You're not aiming points at anything. I get this is the "Azuma plays an idiot" thread, but it would be nice to have some use of those brain cells instead.
Narrative over truth.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday February 08 2019, @04:22AM (19 children)
You're wasting my time and the time of everyone reading this subthread. They already saw what you were doing and saw it shut down. Are you some sort of mentally ill or what? OCD maybe?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0, Troll) by khallow on Friday February 08 2019, @04:35AM (18 children)
Clearly, your time isn't all that important else you'd have moved on rather than concern troll over the amount of time you're wasting on this thread. And this could have been a thread that didn't waste your time. It's not my fault you don't listen to reason.
Are you?
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday February 08 2019, @06:47AM (17 children)
How. Many. Times? "No u" does not work in the adult world, especially when you're not the one on the moral high ground.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0, Troll) by khallow on Saturday February 09 2019, @01:57AM (16 children)
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday February 09 2019, @06:08AM (15 children)
The projection here is incredible. Any sane, decent human being would long since have broken down under the levels of it you display constantly. Sometimes I wish I didn't have a conscience, like you; it seems life is a lot easier for you than for me on some fronts because of this.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday February 09 2019, @12:53PM (14 children)
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday February 10 2019, @12:06AM (13 children)
Keep telling yourself that. Again: your post history speaks for itself. You've built a reputation here and you reinforce it at every opportunity in the worst possible way.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday February 10 2019, @05:07AM (12 children)
Third, you ignore that there's a lot of sites out there and a lot of people maintaining those sites who happen to have the psychological traits you claim to care about in TMB's behavior. It's far from unique, even if TMB were to actually exhibit it.
Fourth, it's just a huge red herring. Even if TMB exhibited the behavior (which would necessarily also mean the behavior were well defined psychologically) were as you say, it's not relevant to vulnerabilities of SN.
In response, you just talked a bunch of shit, flip out and then do the DARVO thing. I don't mind that you're not all there psychologically. It's not my business. But just as you claim you can't just allow evil to go uncontested, neither can I. You are being evil and ignorant here. I get you won't change any time soon, but I think it reasonable to insist that you use that brain you claim you have instead of bullshit trash talk that adds nothing to the discussion.
The administrators of SoylentNews, which includes TMB, work hard to provide you with an free and open platform for your opinions and views. It's time to give them the respect they've earned. If you can't do that, then maybe you should fuck off?
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday February 10 2019, @05:28AM (11 children)
Pretty much everything about that post is wrong.
I don't give a damn if the DSM-V calls it "antisocial personality disorder" now; same way I tend to refer to war-caused cases of PTSD as "shell shock," like in World War II, because that's what it fucking is. George Carlin has at least one piece on the "euphemism treadmill" you would do well to avail yourself of. I call it as I see it: if I see someone who appears to have an innate, inbuilt tendency toward antisocial behavior, I am going to label that person a psychopath. If you don't like it, then as you suggest, "maybe you should fuck off?"
Your third point is an utter non-sequitur, and in fact works against you, as you have perhaps provided an explanation as to why so many sites are festering cisterns of trolling and spam.
Your fourth point is also wrong, and amounts to a bare assertion. Poison goes where poison is welcomed. I am not speaking of programmatic vulnerabilities, but memetic ones.
The rest of your post is pure ad-hom at best, mixed with that wonderfully un-self-aware projection your kind does oh *so* well, and the purulent cherry on top of this entire shit sundae is an attempt at...I don't even know what that is, some kind of Going Galt fallacy? It's utterly content-free, whatever it is.
In summary: your entire post is one gigantic, low-information whinge, wrapped up in an attempt to sound tough, manly, and competent. And failing. Miserably. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul, as the old saying goes. Because I sure as hell won't.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday February 11 2019, @03:03AM (10 children)
It's still a sign that you don't know what you're talking about (especially, you're trying to use the language as part of an ad hominem attack).
Plus, why can't you ever describe what you "see" rather than merely "call it"? It's another indication that you don't understand how to think critically.
For several posts you emphasized the "uniqueness" of the vulnerability caused by TMB speaking about certain opinions he has. The "utter non sequitur" shows that this uniqueness is nonexistent. And "so many sites are festering cisterns" is much greater than one such site.
Nonsense. What is the reasonable chain of causes and effects that goes from TMB to the memetic vulnerability you supposedly observed? Maybe you can do that (which I doubt, else I wouldn't have brought it up), but you don't. You merely assert it happens just like you assert all kinds of things without basis or any sort of support.
And "memetic vulnerability"? Sounds like a bullshit social justice thing. Not seeing a reason to care and calling you on that.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday February 11 2019, @05:48AM (9 children)
It's really not difficult. Again: poison goes where poison's wanted. Someone with sociopathic...ohhh, I'm sorry snowflake, I'll use your preferred term, "anti-social," tendencies is going to tolerate more of that from similar people. That has a direct effect on the overall tenor of a forum or BBS. Look at Gab for a perfect example.
Look, we all know this, and all the rest of us know you don't give a shit and are just going to sit here and blindly, automatically deny, deny, deny. It's like feeding cherry pies to a black hole hoping the thing won't be hungry any more if you keep it up. This isn't for you; it's for them. You just happen to be an excellent example of the aforementioned poison.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday February 11 2019, @06:34AM (8 children)
Well, you are welcome here. So there might be something to the argument. Still the point of making alternate, even poisonous viewpoints welcome is that they are challenged. When are you going to challenge my viewpoints?
Nothing blind about my defense of the truth, TMB, or SN.
It's more like an idiot expecting agreement by recycling the same insipid arguments with nary an adjustment for criticism of the argument. It doesn't work.
And I think you are noise.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday February 11 2019, @11:01PM (7 children)
You...really, really don't seem to have a grasp of the situation at hand here :/ Not that I ever expected you to, but this isn't even funny anymore.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday February 12 2019, @05:40AM (6 children)
Back at you on that. It wasn't funny when you started playing the games in the beginning. Still isn't funny. In addition, there's been all sorts of weird behaviors and evasions. For example, one time complaining that I wasting your time and then never mentioning it again. And of course, there's the decision made back when, that I was some sort of poison even though you've never, ever coherently explained what it is about my beliefs that would be remotely poisonous.
My view is that you are a moral braggart, eager and willing to shoehorn everyone else into your stilted narratives. Always was, perhaps always will be. But to your credit, there are worse things than being a moral braggart. After all, you do have something actual to brag about.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday February 12 2019, @09:18PM (5 children)
Your beliefs are poisonous because they are selfish and self-centered above all else, which ignores an important aspect of what it is to be human: we are social animals. You have turned wealth, Mammon, into an idol, and you judge everything by (what you think are...) its financial outcomes. Look around you at the anomie, disaffection, and suffering in this country wrought by that sort of thinking. That is why it is poison.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday February 12 2019, @11:57PM (4 children)
Care to point out where I'm "ignoring" this aspect?
Patently false. First, because turning stuff into an idol has no meaning. Nobody worships a little shrine to wealth. Some have little shrines to gods of fortune and success like say Ganesha, but that's not my thing either.
Second, because you're telling me what I think even though it's painfully clear that you aren't reading what I post.
Which let us note is much less than the anomie, disaffection, and suffering in countries with substantially less wealth. Wealth isn't some magic thing that deserves worship, but its presence correlates with a substantially better human condition than its absence.
And as I seem to have to repeat in our discussions, humanity has done very well for itself over the past half century. For example, since 1970, we've greatly reduced in absolute terms the worst poverty in the world (link [ourworldindata.org]). This is completely unparalleled in human history.
Finally, as I recall saying before, if we're merely going to accept what you say, then why not say nice things about me? I'd rather be a nice guy than a bad guy with an altar to the Almighty Dollar in my closet. Why can't I be a white hat too! It's apparently within your power to decide these things.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday February 13 2019, @02:16AM (3 children)
You are very deliberately refusing to comprehend what is being said to you. You don't need a literal shrine to Mammon in your goddamn closet; it's been a point of order in religions from post-Exilic Judaism to Buddhism that "where your love is, there your religion is," expressed in some form or another. You carry the shrine to Mammon in your heart, in other words. And of course, "out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh."
As to reducing absolute poverty, yes, that's all well and good...but 1) how long will that last? 2) at what price further down the road? and 3) can it be maintained? The answer to 3) is a no, if people who act and think like you continue their ascendancy.
If you want me to "say nice things" about you, then earn them. Until then, I will continue exposing you for the ambulatory trash fire in a bag of human skin that you are.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday February 13 2019, @05:54AM (2 children)
I think my reasoned and thoughtful replies indicate otherwise.
Even so, I don't love wealth. I just think it's a tool that can and does solve a lot of humanity's problems. Wealth from my viewpoint also is not wealth in the traditional sense. Better education is wealth. A better societal or cultural infrastructure (in the sense of reduced anomie and corruption) is wealth. Sure, a bag of gold is wealth in a reasonable sense, but so is being able to live two decades longer in good health. Knowledge is wealth. And so on.
For example, the graph I linked to has a factor of three reduction in the particular metric (extreme poverty level of $1.90 per year, inflation and standard of living adjusted) from 1970 to around 2015 despite the world's population roughly doubling over that time period. That indicates to me a huge sea change.
I don't think it's reasonable to ask whether it's sustainable when you didn't realize it was happening in the first place. I get the sense that you're looking for a loophole, a way to say this massive improvement in the human condition doesn't count.
My view however is that it's sustainable in two senses - resource consumption and environmentally. In the former case, we have an enormous knowledge and infrastructure base for which to create and supply developed world societies for the vast majority of the world even if the sources of things like energy and other resources has to be moved around a bit to work in the future.
Second, it already works for the developed world, which presently is about a billion people. We have for positive environmental factors: low birthrates (with the entire developed world being negative population growth in the absence of immigration), pretty good environmental protection (low pollution and good habitat protection), great and efficient infrastructure (including pretty good resistance to disasters and accidents), and considerable responsiveness to environmental concerns. It also means reduced military conflict (mostly between developed world states) which is another source of environmental problems.
So when we extend this prosperity to all of humanity rather than just a seventh of it, we'll see huge, global improvements in resource usage (yes, we will use more resources per capita, but more sustainably), and similar improvements in population growth - universally negative and environmental harm, combined with a much more peaceful and capable world.
OTOH, the moral and regulatory side of developed world societies can be unsustainable. For example, you mentioned the alleged inelasticity of health care. That exists primarily because developed world systems encourage a great deal of health care consumption. When increased demand for health care services results in very small increases of health care cost, then of course, it's going to be inelastic. The problem is that there's no real limit to what can be demanded in the future when one doesn't have to bear more than a small fraction of the costs of the service consumed. While the US is far ahead, every other developed world country does have problems with growing health care costs. Over a few centuries, that may lead to levels of health care costs that are unsustainable.
A particularly notorious example of moral unsustainability is the idea that wealth inequality is bad and then measuring said inequality strictly in terms of assets owned. A criticism I wrote in late 2017 sums this up:
A fourth point that I didn't address then is what sort of actions will improve wealth inequality as measured? There's a fair number of really bad ideas that will improve this screwed up measure of wealth inequality while harming people greatly. One is reducing student loan borrowing. Borrowing money, which is a negative asset, to pay for college education, which is zero value as an asset, has negative value in the wealth inequality scheme. Another is giving people phony assets with high valuation. For example, we could create a company, Merica Inc`, and give everyone equal share. Now claim the shares are worth a billion dollars apiece, but don't actually let people sell their shares. On paper, you've greatly reduced the wealth inequality without actually reducing the actual wealth inequality one bit.
Wealth inequality is a huge moving target that can never be satisfied without a destructive leveling of the entire economy and for which there's a lot of bad ways to improve the metric while harming ourselves. It's a conveniently unsolvable moral problem.
GDP is an economic example of pursuing metrics in an unsustainable way. Economic activity is not net benefit to society. But people are willing to entertain all sorts of complex variations on the Broken Window fallacy just to push this metric up a little. For example, over the past three decades, we've seen failed GDP boosting efforts throughout the developed world. Japan, for example, is working on its third lost decade with massive debt.
Meanwhile a lot of the regulatory schemes are selfish impositions on the whole of society for special interest groups. A classic example is minimum wage laws which are often pushed by labor unions. For example, a few years back a California labor union leader attempted to bake in [soylentnews.org] a economic advantage for his union.
Society is more than just some labor union workers who want more money. It's also the people who pay for those services.
My point behind the topics of the last few paragraphs is that these are ways to turn sustainable economic systems into unsustainable ones which are often proposed by the very people who claim to care about the sustainability of the economic systems in the first place!
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday February 13 2019, @05:08PM (1 child)
You said a whole lotta nothing. As usual. Along with an attempt to shift blame for your own selfish thinking onto someone else with "Well, AKSHUALLY it's not me who's selfish, it's you who's selfish by being less selfish because blah blah blah, no, not gonna pay attention to what you said, just outright deny it."
I am not speaking here of wealth inequality or absolute vs relative poverty in a vacuum, but rather, how the progress we've made was made. You don't seem to understand what it is that got us here, how unsustainable it is in the long term, or that everything we've done has just kicked the can down the road. When certain resources run out, not only will that poverty return, and not only will it be massively larger than before, *we won't have anything to jumpstart ourselves out of it.*
You seem to be only capable of seeing the short term. I can't tell if this is a lack of imagination or something more sinister, but I thank my lucky stars you aren't in charge of policymaking anywhere on this planet.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday February 14 2019, @05:09AM
It wouldn't have been nothing, if you chose to read it. For example, I demonstrated why your continued accusations that I worship wealth/Mammon/whatever are in error. You don't need to entertain that particular narrative any more.
I don't buy that you are being less selfish.
So am I.
I disagree. I think you're the one who doesn't realize how sustainable this thing is. And kicking the can works. We don't completely abandon every place that could have a natural disaster because natural disasters don't happen all the time, for example. We don't walk around with umbrellas always extended just because it might rain a few hours or days from now. Kicking the can works just fine when we can handle the can at a future time with better economy of effort and resources.
One of the ugly things about the climate change thing is that it proposes radical and costly fixes now without actually doing much of benefit for the future. Meanwhile the procedure of kicking the can down the road means a wealthier and more capable future generation can deal with the problem, which they likely will have to anyway.
Back at you on that. I can't tell you how many times we get discussions on SN about climate change or other future related problems where we dwell at length on what could happen in the future. Then I'm dismissively told that I'm short sighted. How did they forget what we just discussed? To continue on a theme, it's triumph of the narrative over truth.
My view, of course, is that I'm actually thinking the long term here, based on our actual problems and things that actually work. And my view is that it is very, very short sighted to obsess about one problem just because it could get big in a couple centuries rather than problems that we know are big now, and will stay big if we break society merely to attempt to fix that long term problem. And as I've noted before, there's a nasty dynamic between poverty and overpopulation that will make climate change issues worse in a huge way, if they aren't addressed now. Poor people have lots of kids. One can't get around that with would-be climate change fixes that make these underlying fundamentals much worse. You make more poor people now, you will have more greenhouse gases emissions later, more pollution later, more habitat destruction later, and so on.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Sulla on Wednesday January 23 2019, @09:18PM (1 child)
I don't know how to keep out Ivan but this will work for Xi
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday January 23 2019, @11:21PM
Got news for you, my selfish friend: you have let Ivan in so far that you can floss with his foreskin, to borrow something a friend said.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday January 23 2019, @07:01PM (4 children)
Awful soon for a federal worker to know exactly what his return is going to be....
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday January 23 2019, @09:50PM (3 children)
Not, if you do your own taxes. It's not terribly difficult, if you don't have much money/property/investments. Plus, it saves $50, or more depending on where you go to get them done for you. Sure, he's counting his chickens, before the eggs have hatched. That doesn't mean his estimate will be very far off from reality.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Wednesday January 23 2019, @10:06PM (2 children)
Is what I said above. I did the same thing last year to predict my tax burden as early as possible and was accurate to the penny. But then again I am an Accountant. Deathmonkey can do the same thing I did, all he needs is his W-2 for tax year 2017 and his last pay stub from 2017. Cross reference the two papers and then apply the same lookups to the last pay stub from 2018. You can go ahead and get all your other documents uploaded so all you need to do when you receive your official W-2 is to make a few last minute adjustments if necessary, take a copy for yourself, attach the original, and submit.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 24 2019, @06:05AM
I WILL NOT SUBMIT!
Oh damn! Maybe I shouldn't be saying that shit [cafepress.com] around here.
And I find your button offensive...
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Friday January 25 2019, @06:29AM
As a followup I received my W2 today and it matched my last paycheck of the year exactly. So anyone who wants to get a jumpstart can follow the method I detailed above.
For those of you like my liberal boss who is always saying people should pay more taxes, and himself ended up in a higher tax bracket this year, deal with it and pay your taxes and stop whining.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday January 31 2019, @02:36AM (8 children)
Sounds like $4k to the good. After all, what was that money going to be wasted on instead? Military industrial complex? Helping some rich geezer with their finances? Helping some bureaucrats destroy jobs and negate the American dream?
Back at you on that.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday January 31 2019, @07:36AM (7 children)
"No u" doesn't work. It didn't work on the playground and it doesn't work in the adult world. As to the rest, how about you actually read about the effects of that cut so far?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday January 31 2019, @02:01PM (6 children)
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday January 31 2019, @06:36PM (5 children)
No it didn't, and you are the one playing "the usual games," not me (and see, this is a case where "no u" DID work, because anyone following the thread and your history knows how you operate). The takeaway here, dear hollow-headed Hallow, is that you don't get to just speak things into existence.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday February 01 2019, @02:25AM (4 children)
Let's break that down into real numbers. $4.4 trillion was spent [thebalance.com] (link is to 2018 budget, but not much different from actual outlays) by the federal government in 2018. $1 trillion went to Social Security, $625 billion to Medicare, and almost $600 billion to military expenditures. In other words, about half of all government spending (and $2k of that $4k of tax savings Sulla referred to) goes to rich geezers who promised themselves that money and the military-industrial complex. I think we'll find similar levels of avarice and self interest manifesting in the rest of the spending as well.
So your babble about "selfishness and shortsighted thinking" ignores that a majority of taxes paid goes to selfishness and shortsighted thinking right now. Thus, I'd rather Sulla has the money instead rather than engage in slimy wealth transfers. At least, Sulla earned his money rather than bribing some politician or voting for the politicians with the most extravagant promises.
This is typical of the people who complain about such things in the paying of taxes. They are peculiarly silent about where the taxes go. I attribute that to some combination of selfishness and shortsighted thinking, hence, my foundation for the "Back at you" comment. As usual, I don't think you've thought through the moral implications of taking peoples' wealth via taxes and giving it to the usual politicians to squander. It's not going to result in people who believe in paying taxes.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday February 01 2019, @07:12AM (3 children)
Would heaven there were a "-1 Willfully Missing the Goddamn Point" mod...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday February 01 2019, @01:03PM
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 02 2019, @10:03AM (1 child)
He does it on purpose. He has an alt-wrong agenda and he's trying to brainwash the hard of thinking.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday February 02 2019, @02:28PM