stupid first world problems you're dealing with

[Cryptowen]

i accidentally bought sweetened greek yogurt instead of plain. how do people eat this stuff it tastes i just gave a valentine's day gift to one of the keebler elves

 

s'goin down the sink it is

(plus side tho, now I have another container to plant garlic in)

[delet...]

Now there's the thread we should be reading. Cryptowen's guide to planting garlic in used yoghurt containers. Do you just get the leaves, or does actually garlic grow?

[Cryptowen]

Do you just get the leaves, or does actually garlic grow?

Generally I chop the shoots off, use those, wait for new ones to grow in

But in the past when I've had surplus I'd let some of them develop. One clove eventually yields an entire new bulb, so it's like endless free garlic

 

Expect more adventures in apartment growing, and maybe some actual legit crops if I end up going back to New Brunswick this summer & turning the three acres of turf I bought for 5k a few years back into proper farmland.

 

http://goo.gl/maps/mSYE9

 

LOOKIT THIS SHIT, WATMM I DOING IN THE CITY WHEN I OWN SOME OF THIS

(actually my land is a few miles away from there, on a dirt road that street view can't access, but you get the vibe of the peninsula no?)

[delet...]

yeah, nice view of the water.

[logakght]

I have enormous desires of making music, but I'm really uninspired.

[delet...]

I'm enormously inspired, just don't have any motivation do do anything. Maybe i should take up meth.

[logakght]

Yea me 2

[delet...]

I wouldn't know where to buy it, that's probably a good thing though. Of course there's always dexys, could go and get prescribed them. But i wouldn't want to have to have a medical record that states that i'm nuts enough to be prescribed motivational drugs. Plus with my personality i'd be more into taking the drug than doing anything useful with it. /stays on the couch.

[modey]

I wouldn't know where to buy it, that's probably a good thing though. Of course there's always dexys, could go and get prescribed them. But i wouldn't want to have to have a medical record that states that i'm nuts enough to be prescribed motivational drugs. Plus with my personality i'd be more into taking the drug than doing anything useful with it. /stays on the couch.

my god, dexies do so much for my productivity. maybe I need a prescription

[delet...]

You seem pretty productive modey.

[modey]

Not productive enough! I've got a ton of music stuff to do this month but not enough time, gah!

[Guest pafr]

Other's slavery to debt and its compounding interests, which means people not in debt are paying for all the slaves. The interest rate is how rich people make money.

 

http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/debt-slavery-30-facts-about-debt-in-america-that-will-blow-your-mind

[chenGOD]

People who compare wage inequality to slavery. Really?

[Guest pafr]

you call inability to manage your own spending and earning wage inequality? I'm fucking done. This world is fucked. Apocalypse for all.

[Guest pafr]

People who compare wage inequality to slavery. Really?

Seriously, which communist country are you from?

[delet...]

People who compare wage inequality to slavery. Really?

 

It has become a form of slavery. You know slaves in roman times had varying degrees of independence, some could even own businesses. In other words when someone talks about debt slavery and wage slavery, the analogy is not incorrect. In fact these are a modern but not overt forms of slavery. The independence of a vast swathe of the masses has been subtly taken away from them, replaced by the chains of debt and inability to progress beyond their class, or earn money from their savings, or buy property due to the little income that they receive, etc.

 

Perhaps you'd prefer the term serfdom to the rentier class though. Given that the term slavery probably sits in your mind as being something that only happened during the time the europeans exploited the west africans for their labour. I'm quite happy to not have my language co-opted though, so i'll keep using slavery, with nary a moment of PC doubt over the matter.

[Soloman Tump]

It has now been 24 hours since I last saw my wedding ring. I feel naked without it. It must be in the house somewhere.

 

I've even ripped apart the hoover bag, such is the extent of my searching. Rather gutted.

[chenGOD]

Slavery in a modern context relates to the plight of slaves taken from their home lands against their will, their culture systematically destroyed, people beaten and raped, locked up at night so they couldn't run away, and not getting paid for doing backbreaking labour from which they saw no benefit.

Regarding Roman slaves - lifted straight from wikipedia (as a basic source):

Slaves were considered property under Roman law and had no legal personhood. Unlike Roman citizens, they could be subjected to corporal punishment, sexual exploitation (prostitutes were often slaves), torture, and summary execution.

 

Now you of course are referring to this part:

A Roman slave could hold property which, despite the fact that it belonged to their master, they were allowed to use as if it were their own.^[2] Skilled or educated slaves were allowed to earn their own money, and might hope to save enough to buy their freedom.

[so note that the property belonged to their master, who could presumably legally seize it at any time, with no legal recourse for the slave]

 

 

 

Compare that to flipping burgers in a McDonalds if you will (as that is the common depiction of a "wage slave"). Such a person gets the ability to go home at the end of the day, vote in elections, own property (without it being seized by a master), has legal protection regarding working hours and conditions, etc. etc.

 

I find it ironic that you would refer to the co-opting of language and not realize the hypocrisy of your position.

 

Now if you want to discuss income inequality, by all means - I'm all about it. It is the defining issue of our time, moreso than anything else, in my opinion. But using hyperbole is a childish, attention-seeking ploy that serves no good in terms of rational discussion. Furthermore, the comparison provides a great disservice to those who suffered under actual slavery. Finally, I'd thank you to kindly not make assumptions about what I think regarding a topic, because you generally end up looking like an ass.

 

PAFR: "inability to manage your own spending and earning". Only one of those do you have an actual ability to manage on a mostly individual level - spending. The other, wages, is a complex series of negotiations that involves many actors.

[Guest pafr]

well fucktards tend to fall into lower income class anyways. If you don't know how to manage your money, then social mobility is out of the window for you. If you are retarded, then maybe your children are too, and you probably don't know much about investing in your children's education to give them more chance to be socially mobile. The widening of the social class gap is a natural phenomenon in rather anarchistic financial environments, and more so with less regulations. The ones suffering are the mostly the middle class citizens, people without debt but not much income either. The people benefiting most from our current system are people who have a lot and people who owe a lot. Wage can't really solve the problem. You can raise the minimum wage, but it doesn't really make much difference. Oh sure, you earn $2 more/hr, might be a great deal if you live in 3rd world countries. Companies are always trying to pay minimum for maximum gain. It's human nature to be greedy. Educating fucktards to not getting into debt (stop fucking spending more than you earn) can help lessening the social gap.

[chenGOD]

What an awfully empathic view you have of people in lower income brackets.

"fucktards" indeed.

[Guest A/D]

Yes pafr, you win a prize! Damn, I feel like watmm is angry today.

[Hugh Mughnus]

Not agreeing with anyone on the subject... But I think that VERY, VERY often people who have made many mistakes in life or made many bad choices immediately blame "the system" when they were fully capable of achieving much more and it's simply their own fault for having a shit life.

 

Oh, why are you living in low income housing with 9 children? Because you didn't wear rubbers? etc etc.

 

I also don't treat those people like they are any less human though. I don't know.

 

Also whether or not the wage gap is getting any worse (and it obviously is), quality of life/HDI etc are trending upwards as they have been for hundreds of years. So average people don't have it as rough as they think. Even relatively "poor" people smartphones so wtf? People have this sense of entitlement that I don't quite understand.

Edited February 6, 2014 by StephenG

[chenGOD]

Stephen: yes of course we have choices, and many of us make choices that are detrimental to our immediate well-being. We fail to maximize our utility. I actually agree with pafr (I just tend not to assume they are all "fucktards"(is that the technical term?) and there are many factors at play), education about debt and how credit works is very important.

 

The income inequality issue is something that is completely different from HDI (which has obviously not been trending upwards for hundreds of years, as the HDI was only created in 1990). And for developed (first world, global north, whatever term you want to use for the economically well off countries) nations, those sorts of indicators have actually plateaued in most cases, and in the US has gone down. The reason of course that it's gone down is because inequality is now factored into the HDI.

 

Income inequality is a huge problem, like I stated earlier, it is my opinion that in developed nations it is the most important issue we face (although it has become an issue in China, which is still a developing nation). Raising the minimum wage would have a huge impact, and it should be raised by some amount right now (variable per country) and then tied to inflation thereafter.

[Hugh Mughnus]

Stephen: yes of course we have choices, and many of us make choices that are detrimental to our immediate well-being. We fail to maximize our utility. I actually agree with pafr (I just tend not to assume they are all "fucktards"(is that the technical term?) and there are many factors at play), education about debt and how credit works is very important.

 

The income inequality issue is something that is completely different from HDI (which has obviously not been trending upwards for hundreds of years, as the HDI was only created in 1990). And for developed (first world, global north, whatever term you want to use for the economically well off countries) nations, those sorts of indicators have actually plateaued in most cases, and in the US has gone down. The reason of course that it's gone down is because inequality is now factored into the HDI.

 

Income inequality is a huge problem, like I stated earlier, it is my opinion that in developed nations it is the most important issue we face (although it has become an issue in China, which is still a developing nation). Raising the minimum wage would have a huge impact, and it should be raised by some amount right now (variable per country) and then tied to inflation thereafter.

 

As you've pointed out yeah HDI as a composite measurement has only been around since the 90s. What I meant is all the indices/data points used for the composite have been on the rise such as life expectancy etc regardless of the aggregate measure not existing. And the US is indeed on its way down now that it's IHDI not just HDI, you got me there.

 

I agree with you on all points, never disagreed at all and hope I didn't come across that way (even included a disclaimer in my original post, no?). I just find it frustrating when I run in to people or even have employees/co-workers say things like "man, you're so lucky" just because I have a decent job and nice things. I worked fucking hard, and part of that was the incentive of not making minimum wage.

 

I think minimum wage should be raised, but it's a highly complex issue as you know. There would be many negative consequences economically (think productivity wise, rational people thinking at the margin etc) if the minimum wage was TOO high.

Edited February 6, 2014 by StephenG

[chenGOD]

Krugman makes a pretty convincing argument for raising the minimum wage, and puts to rest the productivity issue as well (I'll give you a clue - Germany :) )

 

Sorry if I came off as snarky, just tying in HDI with the income inequality seems a little a disingenuous - there's little relationship there. HDI relates obviously to overall health of an economy, and I definitely agree that poor people in developed countries are very well off relative to people who live on under a dollar a day.