RE: Why we never learn
My AI can beat up your AI
RE: Why we never learn
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Google can't get their browser right, how could they do Ai?
RE: Why we never learn
I'm kidding.
But if we were being serious, I use AI for mainly one thing: producing the images on my writing pieces here. And my method is to use about six different AI engines, and find the best one appropriate to the task. For non-controversial images, I find Copilot or Meta are usually pretty solid, and sometimes I can trick them into doing something controversial. But usually I have to go elsewhere, especially for anything involving Kamala.
It was a lot easier to manipulate Copilot a few months ago. Like when I got it to make me this albino trans gorilla depiction of Snow White.
RE: Why we never learn
What's the old saying? "You can put lipstick on a gorilla, but it's still a gorilla." Pretty sure that's it.
Also, "A monkey in silk is a monkey no less" seems appropriate.
Don't thank me, thank Sixto.
RE: Why we never learn
Here is my response to CD's AI stats from earlier.
>> 1. The top (in terms of wealth) 1% own between 30-35% of the wealth. <<
But they pay half the taxes, like I just said. How is your point a rebuttal? It just validates mine.
>> 2. The combined wealth of the top 1% is more than that of the bottom 90%. <<
See previous comment
>> 3. The poorer half of the population own less than 2% of the wealth. <<
And pay 2% of the taxes, so sounds about right if fairness is the prerogative, measured by tax rates proportional to wealth.
>> 4. CEO compensation has grown by 1322% since 1978, while a typical worker's pay has increased by 18% in the same period. <<
Here's where it gets interesting. How is that worker's quality of life and work compared to in 1978? Results will vary. On the whole though you will likely find that said worker has tons more resources and variety available to them now. And that is thanks to the CEOs. In 1978 we had a Carter economy. Crippling inflation, lines for gas, rusty Korean cars. Who would like to go back to the Carter economy? Anyone? Meanwhile, those CEOs are creating private foundations with their wealth, funding space exploration, curing diseases, and funding your crazy Patreon and Kickstarter ideas if they are good enough. There is a smorgasbord of opportunity that there wasn't then, IF you can figure out how to take advantage of it.
>> 5. On average, the CEO of a top company earns over 350 times the salary of a typical worker. <<
That's mainly because of shifting tax laws. Rich people take their money in whatever form it will get taxed the least. This ratio means almost nothing.
>> 6. Between 1979 and 2020, after-tax income of the wealthiest 1% grew 228% while income for the bottom 20% grew by just 43%. <<
See answer to point #4
>> 7. Millennials control 7% of the nation's wealth. Baby Boomers, at the same age, controlled 21%. This disparity is largely caused by high student debt, housing costs and stagnating wages. <<
That's because most baby boomers are still alive. Duh. The average lifespan has increased from 60 in 1930 to late 70s now. When boomers were in their early 40s, their parents were dying, and they were inheriting their parents' wealth.
Secondly there were a LOT of boomers, so this is a useless stat since it does not weight for average wealth. (If there are more people in your generation compared to others, it will inflate this stat.)
Third, the parents of boomers were fighting in WW2 and getting paid crap by the govt during those years, which decreased their overall life earnings, and they were dealing with FDR's disastrous economic policies. News flash: the wealth of millennials is rapidly increasing now.
>> 8. The median white family has 8-10 times the wealth of the median black family, and 5-7 times that of a Hispanic family. <<
Don't forget about Asians. They work harder and smarter than white people.
>> 9. During COVID-19, billionaires increased their wealth by 44% in less than a year, while millions of Americans faced job loss and financial insecurity. The combined wealth of U.S. billionaires is estimated to exceed the GDPs of Canada and Australia. <<
Bogus stat. The stock market dropped massively in early 2020 before it increased afterwards DUE TO INFLATION. If you offset the market for post-Covid inflation, it's not up as much as you think. If you are just looking at microchips and EVs, yeah these segments skyrocketed. We had a big shift in the economy. Millions of Americans received massive gobs of money from the government, which caused a ton of inflation later.
>> 10. Around 700 individuals have more wealth than the bottom 50% of the country. <<
Yup. Now answer the question I posed in point #4. Would you like to go back to the Carter economy?
RE: Why we never learn
Final post of the night re: champagne. I was at a guy's memorial service earlier this weekend. He was a very lucky cancer survivor as a child and became a highly successful plumber. Made millions working on projects for rich people, and charged them double. He took his family to Disney three times a year and spoiled his kids. And there was champagne and no cigars at the memorial service, which is why I thought of this. Just thought you might appreciate hearing about a working class guy coming out on top.
Also, apparently he was a huge Trump supporter.
RE: Why we never learn
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Harambe,
I honestly haven’t got the time, patience or inclination to rebutt every one of those points now. I believe I could, but I’m a bit over exchanging statistics that prove little other than a massive ideological gap.
The only "argument" I want to make is a brief one, but I believe it has a large bearing on the whole discussion. I presume you know what a living wage is. I’m going to use the state of Ohio as an example, as it represents the median for income levels in the US. The living wage in Ohio, for a family of 2 working adults supporting 2 children is between $28-$32 per hour. The average wage in Ohio is $27.83 per hour. What does this mean? It means that after paying all essential expenses, the average Ohio family has nothing left over every pay to bank or spend. In fact, they are a fair bit short of being able to pay their bills, so they are either dipping into savings, or they are in real financial difficulty.
The average CEO salary in Ohio equates to $424 per hour. This means that if they had the same essential spending as the average worker, they would be left with an excess of around $400 for every hour they work to spend on whatever they like. Nice to be them.
There are two problems with this. The first is the glaring difference in disposable income, which is ridiculous. The second is the effect of adverse circumstances. What happens when gasoline or grocery prices go up? School fees? Taxes? The effect on the rich is negligible, the effect on an average (note: not minimum-wage-earning) family can be catastrophic. Those who argue for flat-rate tax systems or who think it’s entirely appropriate for fat cats to have numerous legal and/or illegal ways to reduce their personal income tax (often to 0) ignore the above.
And now, having addressed that one point, as I said, I’m tired of the to and fro with numbers, so I’m going to be a bit self-indulgent and engage in a little philosophy. While it doesn’t concern itself with particular points related to taxation and wealth, I think it addresses the frameworks within which we view these questions. You can tune out here if you want to, I’m writing mostly to solidify my own position in my mind.
There is a piece of wisdom that comes from the teachings of a person I seriously doubt ever existed, who, as the story goes, was instrumental in the creation of a religion I think is largely nonsense. This nugget specifically refers to a human property I don’t believe has any basis in fact, but in spite of all the above, I still regard it as one of the most profound and important questions we can ask:
"What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul?
When humans are young, they are naturally, to some extent, selfish. They have to be in order to survive. Everything is about their own wants and needs. I’m hungry. I hurt. I'm afraid. I’m wet. I need reassurance. I need a nap. Most of us carry this through to some extent into our early adulthood. This, too, is understandable. We are concerned with starting families we have to feed, with getting a good job that will provide security, and allow us meet our daily needs, and with any luck, lead a comfortable existence into the future. So we want to procure and keep every penny we possibly can. This is all normal.
This situation can change, though. For some rare children, they begin to demonstrate selflessness and altruism at an early age. They are protective of others by nature. They are unusually kind and generous.
What is more common is that we reach a certain stage in life where we are basically able to keep up with our needs, and more importantly, we have seen enough of the world to know the pointlessness of endlessly accruing more and more. And we start to realise that always putting ourselves first doesn’t make us happy.
Then, of course, there are those (a minority, I like to believe) who will never have enough. If they have $10 billion dollars in the bank, they won’t be happy until they have $20bn. They need the biggest house, the nicest cars, and they feel no compulsion to be concerned about the welfare of anyone else. Some think it’s OK to exploit and/or defraud others to get what they want. If other people are too lazy/stupid to take what they can by any means, more the fool them. Some people maintain this attitude their entire lives. To each their own. I’ll simply point out that history has a lot to teach us about what happens when people adopt that attitude.
Aside: I relate better to the quote above if we replace the word ‘soul’ with ‘self’.
Since it seems personal testimonies are de rigueur for this thread, I’ll offer a brief one.
I’m not wealthy, and I’m not struggling. I had excellent jobs straight out of school, which enabled me to take out my first mortgage on a house at age 19, and I owned it by age 24. I’ve had really well paid jobs, and run my own companies (albeit very small ones). I have had more than one real opportunity to become a multi-millionaire. On each occasion, I have not taken the opportunity, as it involved sacrifices I wasn’t willing to make – there were things more important to me than the accrual of wealth. I don’t honestly think I’ve ever been excessively greedy, but as I’ve got older, money has become less and less important to me. I have no doubt some of the reason for that is I have enough to get by without struggling.
So there. I mainly mention this so that it is clear when I argue for consideration of those around us, and against the "greed is good" philosophy of trickle-down-doo-doo, it’s not because I desperately need handouts from others to survive, nor is it because I have so much I can take a "high moral ground" without it affecting me personally. It's simply that the absurd suggestion the wellbeing of the poor is best served by giving more money to the rich is a poisonous, self-serving, bullshit doctrine.
In the end, each of us does what makes us happy and answers to our own conscience. And, to bring this back to politics, each of us chooses the party that best reflects their own values.
RE: Why we never learn
CD, I appreciate your thoughtful story and perspective quite a bit. You took the time to really write something of value above. Yes, I agree with your word substitution. I do think our differences in political philosophies are both oriented around what we think would benefit the common man.
My father arrived in America with two dollars in his pocket. He was an atheist hippie windmill engineer. A couple years later, he wanted to provide employment for poor people in his church. Taxes and regulations have consistently hindered him from providing meaningful work and sustainable wages for his employees. Over time, a lot of that work has been shifted to international locations where it can be profitable and provide decent local wages. There's a lot more I could say about this, but I want to bring it back to your example.
I left Ohio two and a half weeks ago after living there 3.5 years. I went from working 70 hour weeks, trying to wolf down enough calories on five-minute breaks to keep moving, to having no income. I have described here before what it is like in the poor neighborhoods there, full of drug dealers and disintegrating properties and lives. People can get ahead but they need a strong network to take the risks necessary for healthy, sustained success, and trying to figure everything out on one's own doesn't tend to work very well, at least in my experience.
I have seen different measures of wealth and poverty all over the world, in different types of financial systems. I have experienced the futility of working pretty hard for large businesses where I had information and innovations that could save them 7-10 figures on their bottom line, yet couldn't find how to get anything in return for my efforts. I have seen both generosity and stinginess from business owners, and both seen phenomenal innovation and listlessness, theft and entitlement from employees. There are probably times I have been in all four of those positions in one way or another. I've tried to help a lot of people and often seen it blow back in my face, and I don't seem to have much to show for it. Again we've arrived at different perspectives based on what we have seen work and not work for human motivation and thriving. I did some math on redistributing the income and assets of the wealthy, and though they make a lot, I doubt it would have the desired effect if forcibly spread around. People don't do well when given a pile of money and no responsibility. Everyone charges a price for their work, and it takes something to retain the good ones.
When people can't m catch up or get ahead despite their best efforts, there can be a pent-up rage that develops. I saw it every week on the Cincinnati roads, and I felt it every time I fought with Amazon managers claiming that carrying two tiny mailers at a time was more efficient than carrying five. The stupidly envelops you like a thick fog. It's hard to smash a system while it is strangling you. Anyway, I think that's why a lot of people are gonna vote for Trump. He might not make their lives better, but he provides a target they can smash. And Americans love to smash things.
RE: Why we never learn
If I were to make a political point from the above, it might be:
Capitalism is dog eat dog.
Communism is dog eat nothing.
There is a third option, which is where Kamala eats all the dogs. Could be worse, I suppose. Most pets are a waste of money.
RE: Why we never learn
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Well, we might know, or at least have an idea of, the outcome within the next 24 hours.
There is only one thing of which I'm absolutely certain: if one side loses, they will accept the verdict unquestioningly, and go back to working on what they can do to win in four year's time, if that is even possible.
If the other side loses, we know they will not accept the result, and there will be chaos and pandemonium. That is, unless they lose so comprehensively there can be no possibility of challenge, and that seems extremely unlikely.
I want to think that Americans won't be bullied into voting a particular way because of fear of what might happen if they don't. I hope they will choose wisely. They are not the only ones who will be affected by the outcome.
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Shoes On the Danube Bank
Write a Bob: The 1944 -1945 massacre of 20,000 innocents
Write a Bob: The 1944 -1945 massacre of 20,000 innocents
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Serendipitous Chapter 1 C
Tyler wonders what about Rebeka's real story.
Tyler wonders what about Rebeka's real story.
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