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Don't recall whether it was on this forum or over on the once created on Facebook, but one of the posters talked about something I posted which for some reason they referred to as a wish list. Here I am actually going to create my own actual wish list of things I would like to see accomplished before this 4T is out. Am curious to know which ones you think we are likely to see as well as which ones we probably won't see at least not in this go round. May add to it from time to time. Here we go:
1. Gambling is now nearly everywhere and marijuana is on its way to being fairly universal as well. But there is one domino still left to fall, and that is sex work. Currently in the entire US it is legal in only a few counties of one state, Nevada. There have been rumblings in other areas including San Francisco, New York and Washington DC but so far nothing has gained sufficient traction. As we all know, many women engaging in this area are abused, beaten and even murdered. Legalization would enable women who experience such abuse to safely report said abuse to law enforcement. Not only that, but the reverse is true as well. Clients would be able to safely report "take the money and run" types and scam operations such as bait and switch to law enforcement. Both sides would no longer have to worry about obtaining a criminal record which in and of itself makes one's world a whole lot smaller. And police would be freed up to go after the real bad guys--the murders, rapists and armed robbers. It should be obvious to the PTB that prohibition of this activity hasn't been any more successful that it was with liquor a century ago.
2. A revival of rooming houses and sanitariums to combat the scourges of homelessness and mental health respectively. In the case of the former, it could drastically reduce the homeless population which has been a scourge for the better part of four decades. By 1987 we had the largest homeless population since the days of the Great Depression. In the case of the latter, it could reduce the number of mass shootings, this issue being brought up following the horrific school shooting in CT back in 2012.
3. An end to strict at will employment and a move toward a just cause system whereby an employer would need a just cause in order to fire somebody. At present in 49 of the 50 states, MT being the lone exception, one can be fired for any or even no reason and the employee has virtually no form of recourse. When unions were strong this didn't occur as much as union contracts specified the types of things their members could be fired for, and there were grounds for appeal. In many cases this applied where there weren't unions as well. The worst offenders are the gig economy companies where these decisions are made by algorithms and not real live humans. I do think that this would need to be done at the federal level because otherwise states would face blackmail by the large corporations.
4. The breakup not only of the large banks but other corporate behemoths as well who have severely stifled competition for the better part of four decades, even since the "Creed of Greed" espoused by the likes of Gordon Gekko took the helm. Do any of you see a possibility of some of the establishments popular during the last 1T to make a comeback in the upcoming one, such as town-specific department stores, mom and pop family diners, etc?
5. A move toward a saner pace of life. The current free-for-all is something like this: You’re over-extending yourself, doing a little bit here and a little bit there, and you’re not getting a whole lot accomplished. You’re spinning your wheels and not getting any traction at all. Take a breath. You need to find balance. Much has been written about work-life balance and the fast pace of life and workaholism spawned by modern technologies is, as I have said many times, the opposite of what many pundits had expected. Do any of you feel we will ever see the society of increasing leisure which we were once all but promised? These predictions were made at a time when at many if not most companies lifetime security was also all but promised, and so-called job-hoppers were ostracized.
There may be more items to come, and some of the ones here may force some folks to give up some of their conveniences, something so many are loathe to do. Seems as if each generation demands more convenience than the last one enjoyed.
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(06-01-2021, 01:00 PM)beechnut79 Wrote: Don't recall whether it was on this forum or over on the once created on Facebook, but one of the posters talked about something I posted which for some reason they referred to as a wish list. Here I am actually going to create my own actual wish list of things I would like to see accomplished before this 4T is out. Am curious to know which ones you think we are likely to see as well as which ones we probably won't see at least not in this go round. May add to it from time to time. Here we go:
1. Gambling is now nearly everywhere and marijuana is on its way to being fairly universal as well. But there is one domino still left to fall, and that is sex work. Currently in the entire US it is legal in only a few counties of one state, Nevada. There have been rumblings in other areas including San Francisco, New York and Washington DC but so far nothing has gained sufficient traction. As we all know, many women engaging in this area are abused, beaten and even murdered. Legalization would enable women who experience such abuse to safely report said abuse to law enforcement. Not only that, but the reverse is true as well. Clients would be able to safely report "take the money and run" types and scam operations such as bait and switch to law enforcement. Both sides would no longer have to worry about obtaining a criminal record which in and of itself makes one's world a whole lot smaller. And police would be freed up to go after the real bad guys--the murders, rapists and armed robbers. It should be obvious to the PTB that prohibition of this activity hasn't been any more successful that it was with liquor a century ago.
The surest way to make a necessary trade dangerous and exploitative is to make it illegal. "Sex work" is something that most women are scared to do because of the exploitation and violence. If people don't want to do it out of religious convictions -- fine. If it is legalized it can be taxed and regulated. The operators of a honeypot trap can be busted. Larry Niven and Jerry Purnelle, in their modern treatment of Dante's Inferno, missed the prostitutes but found the honeypot operators (the woman entices a man as a sexual client and someone knocks him out and steals the money) in a very bad part of the Inferno. I agree with that judgment.
Quote:2. A revival of rooming houses and sanitariums to combat the scourges of homelessness and mental health respectively. In the case of the former, it could drastically reduce the homeless population which has been a scourge for the better part of four decades. By 1987 we had the largest homeless population since the days of the Great Depression. In the case of the latter, it could reduce the number of mass shootings, this issue being brought up following the horrific school shooting in CT back in 2012.
We have the perverse idea that people do not need to rough it in life. We will always have poor people, people unable to stay where they are. Many people belong in sanatoria, and failure to provide those releases people whop become easy victims of abuse and exploitation or leaves people with no means of survival except to commit petty crimes for which they end up in jail or prison. Jails and prisons are poor places for treating the mentally-ill; the only good that I can see in incarcerating the mentally-ill in prison is that such people are kept out of our sight. Reformers of one time castigated the flop-house and the transient hotel -- but those are better than being out on the street.
There's something terribly wrong about pricing people onto the street.
Quote:3. An end to strict at will employment and a move toward a just cause system whereby an employer would need a just cause in order to fire somebody. At present in 49 of the 50 states, MT being the lone exception, one can be fired for any or even no reason and the employee has virtually no form of recourse. When unions were strong this didn't occur as much as union contracts specified the types of things their members could be fired for, and there were grounds for appeal. In many cases this applied where there weren't unions as well. The worst offenders are the gig economy companies where these decisions are made by algorithms and not real live humans. I do think that this would need to be done at the federal level because otherwise states would face blackmail by the large corporations.
Really -- we need strong unions as the only institutions that have a dedicated interest in protecting the rights of workers. My late father found that a union contract gave plenty of leeway for firing someone for gross misconduct. One of his subordinates cheated an insurance company for workers' compensation claims, and my father fired him for ripping off a vendor. Solution? He went to the hiring hall for someone else.
The neoliberal era has had the expendability of workers as a cornerstone of fear that a boss can use when pay is poor as is everything else. As says the boss, "Someone else would love to take your job".
People should fear job loss for gross misconduct such as pilferage, sexual harassment, violence and threats of violence, unsafe behavior, or bad chemicals on the job -- and substandard performance. At-will employment makes it possible to fire the mousey-looking receptionist to put a mistress on the job.
Quote:4. The breakup not only of the large banks but other corporate behemoths as well who have severely stifled competition for the better part of four decades, even since the "Creed of Greed" espoused by the likes of Gordon Gekko took the helm. Do any of you see a possibility of some of the establishments popular during the last 1T to make a comeback in the upcoming one, such as town-specific department stores, mom and pop family diners, etc?
We did not get the full-blown depression that ravaged those corporate behemoths with bloated bureaucracies as is usual in a 4T. What did fail in the time in which this forum has been active (late in the Obama era) have most frequently retail giants, businesses in dying industries (such as coal), businesses that misbehaved (Internet fraudsters, companies in dying activities such as coal, and firms that misbehaved badly. Some companies like the Big Boy and Howard Johnson's restaurant chains or A&P die a little over the years. Some businesses either fail to adapt or make catastrophic mistakes.
Quote:5. A move toward a saner pace of life. The current free-for-all is something like this: You’re over-extending yourself, doing a little bit here and a little bit there, and you’re not getting a whole lot accomplished. You’re spinning your wheels and not getting any traction at all. Take a breath. You need to find balance. Much has been written about work-life balance and the fast pace of life and workaholism spawned by modern technologies is, as I have said many times, the opposite of what many pundits had expected. Do any of you feel we will ever see the society of increasing leisure which we were once all but promised? These predictions were made at a time when at many if not most companies lifetime security was also all but promised, and so-called job-hoppers were ostracized.
The 24-7 economy is practically dead. It may never revive... and for the sake of Humanity that may be a good thing. The late-night shift is called the graveyard shift for good reason. Its workers experience the most workplace calamities... and one telling pattern is that such disasters as the sinking of the Titanic, the explosion at Bhopal, and the meltdown of the core at Chernobyl all happened late at night. Do you think that the iceberg that sank the Titanic would have gone unsighted by day? The most dangerous time at which to drive a car is between 2 am and 6 am.
We may see more businesses close one day a week.
I expect computer-based work to offer such feedback as "You are making too many mistakes. Your work is deteriorating. You might want to take the rest of the day off. Your employer knows this, too, so don't worry. This is a great day to go to the golf course!"
As for job-jumpers... that was a concern when workers were paid well. In the neoliberal era, workers were far more expendable, and people leaving jobs that offered no fringe benefits or questionable fringe benefits was to be expected.
Quote:There may be more items to come, and some of the ones here may force some folks to give up some of their conveniences, something so many are loathe to do. Seems as if each generation demands more convenience than the last one enjoyed.
Convenience is a suspect commodity. I'd rather go on a nature hike than go to a casino, wouldn't you?
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
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(06-01-2021, 10:11 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: That's a good start.
I agree. We're embarking on a sea change in society, and the end of Gilded Age 2.0 is inevitable. Look at all the whining about low-paid workers not wishing to return to their miserable jobs. Is there ever a more appropriate time to say "DUH!"
Rewarding the rich and blaming the poor had to end at some point, and now seems as good a time as any.
Intelligence is not knowledge and knowledge is not wisdom, but they all play well together.
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06-09-2021, 03:46 AM
(This post was last modified: 06-09-2021, 12:52 PM by Captain Genet.)
New Zealand shows the effects of legalizing the sex trade:
http://www.stopdemand.org/wawcs0154993/i...%20Zealand
I'd rather see America and Britain adopting the "Nordic model" like Canada, Ireland and France already did. Under this model, selling sex remains legal, but pimps and johns are treated as criminal offenders. There are valid humanist reasons to curb porn and prostitution, not only religious ones. Who deserves more pity: a john who didn't get the sex he wanted, or a girl who has to use drugs in order to survive this "job"?
Virtual reality sex bots will be available in the near future for men who cannot get laid in real life, making exploiting women completely unnecessary.
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(06-09-2021, 03:46 AM)Captain Genet Wrote: New Zealand shows the effects of legalizing the sex trade:
http://www.stopdemand.org/wawcs0154993/i...%20Zealand
I'd rather see America and Britain adopting the "Nordic model" like Canada, Ireland and France already did. Under this model, selling sex remains legal, but pimps and johns are treated as criminal offenders. There are valid humanist reasons to curb porn and prostitution, not only religious ones. Who deserves more pity: a john who didn't get the sex he wanted, or a girl who has to use drugs in order to survive this "job"?
Virtual reality sex bots will be available in the near future for men who cannot get laid in real life, making exploiting women completely unnecessary.
As of now, I think laws against porn and prostitution are not valid or necessary. This lies in the realm of virtue. That said, cities have zoning laws so that certain types of business and activity are located in appropriate places. I don't look to bots to replace prostitutes. Virtue, not virtual.
Our society makes lots of money using sex to sell products, and popular culture glorifies it. And not just since the sixties. At the same time, our society criminalizes sex too much and imposes penalties for sex offenses that don't fit the severity of the crimes. Some time or another, we need to create a proper balance between promotion of sex and regulation of sex. Maybe that will happen when we get rid of guns too. Oh well, I'm not holding my breath for either.
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(06-09-2021, 02:46 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: (06-09-2021, 03:46 AM)Captain Genet Wrote: New Zealand shows the effects of legalizing the sex trade:
http://www.stopdemand.org/wawcs0154993/i...%20Zealand
I'd rather see America and Britain adopting the "Nordic model" like Canada, Ireland and France already did. Under this model, selling sex remains legal, but pimps and johns are treated as criminal offenders. There are valid humanist reasons to curb porn and prostitution, not only religious ones. Who deserves more pity: a john who didn't get the sex he wanted, or a girl who has to use drugs in order to survive this "job"?
Virtual reality sex bots will be available in the near future for men who cannot get laid in real life, making exploiting women completely unnecessary.
As of now, I think laws against porn and prostitution are not valid or necessary. This lies in the realm of virtue. That said, cities have zoning laws so that certain types of business and activity are located in appropriate places. I don't look to bots to replace prostitutes. Virtue, not virtual.
Our society makes lots of money using sex to sell products, and popular culture glorifies it. And not just since the sixties. At the same time, our society criminalizes sex too much and imposes penalties for sex offenses that don't fit the severity of the crimes. Some time or another, we need to create a proper balance between promotion of sex and regulation of sex. Maybe that will happen when we get rid of guns too. Oh well, I'm not holding my breath for either.
There are more people addicted to porn than to alcohol worldwide. Ignore this at your own risk.
Of course doing something about guns should come first, cos guns kill people immediately.
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