Notices by ☭⚑ Comrade Angles ⚑☭ (angle@anticapitalist.party)

So, is there a condition where you have like a small seizure thing every 3-4 years? Cause I've been having basically that, since middle school. They aren't very big, the last one I didn't even lose consciousness for, but they seem fairly regular, and I found it wierd. Like, I get all sorts of wierd visual distortion, and get dizzy, and generally have weird brain symptoms for a bit, and then it passes and I feel fine. As I said, weird. :/

This essay makes a very good point on some of the factors driving polarization, and also on the fact that we are seriously lacking in good governance. Worth a read, I think. :/

https://www.interfluidity.com/v2/7230.html

New goal: Find an excuse to use the word "Quadrilemma" in a serious conversation.

@chillallmen Our sins are great and terrible. -_-

Got a bug of some sort in my ear. Still alive, and a coworker says Im bleeding. Lovely day. -_-

@doctorow Ah, Entropy. We meet again. -_-

@yuduki This is further exacerbated by the vague nature of our language. For example, the nordic countries are widely agreed to be very socialist - and yet, I've heard it's easier to start a new business there than in america, which I'd say makes them more capitalist as well.

And yes, I'm guilty of this too. I was making an awfully vague statement when I said "Capitalism sucks." My apologies, I'll try and be clearer in the future. XD

@yuduki I'd argue politics is much the same way. You can have two very different governments that both work quite well, and two very similar governments where one of them works very poorly.

@yuduki Mmm, possibly. Personally, I think it's the details that really matter. We have a wide variety of cars and trucks on the road, for example, everything from tiny electric smart cars to massive diesel spewing semitrucks. Any two of these might have massive differences between them, and yet still both run fine. Yet, take any of them and make just a few small changes - a leaking gas tank, a cut break line, a dead battery - and they stop working entirely.

@yuduki You could argue this isn't Capitalism, as the 1960's thought they were plenty Capitalist? But, whatever you call it, I think you'll find widespread agreement on both the left and the right that our current system advantages the wealthy and powerful over everyone else. Even Trump promised to drain the swamp, after all. :/

@yuduki No, but I'd argue our current system exacerbates it. In the 1960s, for example, we had a top tax bracket of 91%, and it was an economic boom. Yet today, everyone insists that if we raise the top bracket even a little, it'll cause an immediate depression.

@yuduki I am in fact working on learning new programming skills, and am going to start looking for a programming job in a few months now. That doesn;t prevent me from noticing how our society systematically advantages some people over others, however.

@yuduki Sure, if you own the land, and have the skills. Again, time and money. :/

@yuduki Which is again, something you need time and money for. XD

@yuduki Not really. Breaking into a new market is often very challenging. Especially in this modern era, where pretty much every job demands large amounts of experience in the field or a relevant degree. So, simply jumping to a different field is no trivial matter.

@yuduki Sure, but most people only have their labor. If you don't want to work a regular job, your life gets a lot more difficult.

@yuduki This has a large effect on labor, where there are usually hundreds or thousands of people trying to sell their labor for any given company willing to buy it. This can vary depending on the market - plastic surgeons are rare, and they usually sell directly to the mass market, so thats a situation where they fall on the favorable side of the trade off - though, this introduces other factors that can make their lives difficult. But, I don;t have all day.

@yuduki Now, obviously these are extremes - most markets fall in the middle. And other factors can play their part, such as public relations, ability to wait out the other party in a stand off, etc, etc. But, in general, the ratio between buyers and sellers has a large effect on the power of any individual buyer or seller to negotiate their price.

@yuduki To start with, have you ever heard of a monopsony? It's basically the inverse of a monopoly - instead of a market with only one seller, it's a market with only buyer. So, instead of the seller raising prices as far as the market will bear so the buyers have to pay through the nose, the buyer can lower prices as far as the market will bear, leaving the sellers with hardly any profit margin.