Pluralistic: The enshittification of tech jobs (27 Apr 2025)
Todayâs links The enshittification of tech jobs: Our last line of defense has fallen. Hey look a...
Pluralistic: The enshittification of tech jobs (27 Apr 2025)
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Pluralistic: The enshittification of tech jobs (27 Apr 2025)
Todayâs links The enshittification of tech jobs: Our last line of defense has fallen. Hey look a...
Pluralistic: The enshittification of tech jobs (27 Apr 2025)
Archive Links: ia

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First there was Daenerys crowd surfing on a bunch of colored 'freed' slaves, and now there's Daenerys very transparently trying to purpose class-warfare to serve her plans of imperial domination. I just cannot get behind her lets-free-all-the-slaves platform, sorry.
"Occupy Congress"?
As I read more and more about different âoccupy movementsâ in various cities across the country, I am filled with a desire to help these mostly well-meaning, but disorganized folk. Not that I feel I am above them in any wayâŚbut as with any âmovementâ, a decisive step must be taken in order to gain a solid foothold in any direction. It doesnât seem any of them know which direction to take.Â
Matters are complicated by the appearance of, and alignment with, the Anarchists. Bandana-wearing, identity-hiding, authority-hating provocateurs for whom disorder is the goal, and not simply a means to an end. When something doesnât work, it sometimes must be dismantled before it is reassembled. While most people who desire change have, at least, some sort of plan or idea to achieve their goal of change after dismantling, the anarchy movement does not. Their wish is for a permanent state of disorder in which everyone fends for themselves.  This does not make it any easier for the majority of others in the peaceful assemblyâwho have goals to instill change in a new order, legally and peacefullyâ to be taken seriously by the establishment. Standing side by side with anarchist creates an even more volatile situation, facing police who are lined up in riot gear and ready at a momentâs notice to initiate a conflict, as they did in Oakland, CA last week. Iâm not sure why police chiefs around the country continue to think that a âpreemptive show of forceâ is a good idea and will simply dissuade people from protesting or assembling peacefully. Showing up in riot gear is, and has always been, an inflammatory affront to folks, whoever they are; whatever their goal. The police in Oakland went too far by intentionally throwing an exploding tear gas canister right at an already-injured victim, whom others were gathered around trying to help. There should be at least one cop in jail right now.
So there are two major problems with the movement right now: 1) It is extremely unorganized, very nearly directionless, and thuslyâŚgoalless. 2) Authorities are not permitting peopleâs right to peaceful assembly. Well, this second issue can be addressed right away, as it has a clear direction and answer:  People must keep assembling. For whatever issue that We, the People, deem fitâwe need to assemble. And there are many issues that warrant assembly in this time of failing âleadershipâ, failing economy, and enormous greed. Otherwise we, the People, may lose our right to assembleâanother usurped power by a government that continues to step toward authoritarianismâŚand possible tyranny. I never thought I would actually use the word âtyrannyâ to describe mainstream actions by mainstream authorities in the United States, but authorities seem to be taking more and more, year by year. People have the right to peaceful assembly in this country, and are free to do so. We should be free to do so without being physically endangered by authorities, as was the case not only in Oakland recently, but in New York City where it started, and other cities as well.Â
The first problem of being goalless, however, is a big one. It is not insurmountable, but someone either needs to step up as a leader, or the group needs to create and agree on an agenda as a set of realistic demands. For example, one of the most commonly heard issues among the protesters is inequity of wealth. They could start by passing around a petition which limits the compensation of CEOs and other high-level executives to sayâŚ50 times that of the average worker they oversee (the current average CEO in the U.S. takes home 475 times that of their average worker). This would provide more incentive to pay the average worker more, as well as address the issue of: How much money does a CEO deserve to make? (If the average worker in a company is making $30,000 per year, does the CEO really need to take $14.25 million?)  How about petitioning for the eradication of all tax-breaks for companies and industries which need absolutely no financial aid⌠such as oil, pharmaceuticals, or any of the financial giants or insurance companies. This was proposed in Obamaâs âJobâs Billâ but must have really scared off not just Republicans, but all members of Congress whose campaigns are funded by enormous contributions from these companies/industries. Which leads to an important, or possibly the most powerful and promising change that this country could enactâŚone that could actually put our country back on track in 10-20 years: a complete separation between private interests and campaign contributionsâa âseparation of corporation and stateâ as I have seen already suggested on an occupy-movement sign.Â
Could we imagine a United States without corporations throwing big money into both âlobby movementsâ (what the corporations do when they organize for change), or throwing money directly into a senatorâs pocket as a âcampaign contributionâ? Can we imagine our representatives in Washington, and around the country actually reading up on the news and deciding for themselves, in their hearts, what might be the best course of action for a particular issue, or set of issues? We might actually get politicians in office who have hearts again! Indeed, it is hard to imagine a corporation sending a strongly-worded letter, just as you and I would do to voice our concern to a politician, without having control over our lawmakers, like puppets.   The job might begin to attract people who wish to serve their community, their country, and their constituents for the first time in a long timeâinstead of attracting people who wish to serve themselves and their cronies, and to be at the center of a âbidding warâ of big-money private interests that serve only a few.
Another suggestion might be to petition for our âbailoutâ money to be returned to us, the taxpayersâŚand to be used in the form of jobs creation, or enhancement of small-business loans, or other true economic stimulus (the bank bailout did not stimulate anything, as the banks failed to loan anything after their giant receipt). Perhaps they could petition for the downsizing of our enormous federal government, starting with the biggest cash cow of allâthe Pentagon. $460 BILLIONâŚfor what?? To make the decision to get into war in IRAQ and spend an additional $1.2 TRILLION?? Another suggestion: Get rid of âHomeland Securityâ, which has become such a giant elephant of bureaucracy, that law enforcement all over the U.S. has even gone on record to say is âuselessââdelivering âintelligenceâ so slowly and so late, that those dangers have already been made public.Â
Another not-so-far-fetched idea⌠Start your own political party, and get on the ballots. There is nothing in the constitution which stipulates an only two-party system. It has created gridlock in the past, and is doing so now. A three-or-more party system would help move things along immeasurably, as one of three parties would always lean one way or the other. Some true debate, and real progress would be possible in mitigating two nearly always-opposing sides. Get some signatures and elect someone into office in the next election. If you canât beat the system, join âem, right?
Whatever the agenda items, âoccupy Wall-streetâ, âoccupy Oaklandâ, or âoccupy main-street, USAââthere needs to be a clear agenda with an agreed-upon list of demands before anyone takes the movement seriously.  It is not enough that the protesters themselves are serious. That is admirable, reallyâŚbut not enough. Either get organized to enact change legitimately, or be prepared for a long hard winterâŚÂ I agree with most of you, but like many others in this country, Iâm waiting to see some realistic goals established. What do you want?? How about âOccupy Congressâ?
our boss is screwing us over. and we don't even notice it.
This week President Obama said the obvious: that wealthy Americans, many of whom pay remarkably little in taxes, should bear part of the cost of reducing the long-run budget deficit. And Republicans like Representative Paul Ryan responded with shrieks of âclass warfare.â
It was, of course, nothing of the sort. On the contrary, itâs people like Mr. Ryan, who want to exempt the very rich from bearing any of the burden of making our finances sustainable, who are waging class war.
Read Paul Krugman's NY Times Piece The Social Contract

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The final pre-point I want to make here - before tooling off to France in 1789 - is more in the form of a question. How did we get into a situation where Franklin Delano Roosevelt is portrayed as Satan incarnate?
Yes, yes. I spend a lot of time around libertarians and I know that their current version is all about hating government. No other agenda or priority. See my earlier challenge (two postings back) daring libertarians and decent conservatives to consider taking on a positive goal instead of a purely negative one - fostering competitive enterprise and not just reflexively hating all civil servants, under all circumstances, all the time, while ignoring every other threat to freedom. That may by Ayn Rand, but it sure ain't Adam Smith.
If government is always and automatically evil, then yes, Franklin Roosevelt was the antichrist, because he sure expanded its reach. If, on the other hand, you judge by outcomes... defeating Hitler, ending the Great Depression, starting the process of racial justice and - above all - engendering a society that both fostered vast amounts of competitive enterprise and kept the social order flat, then maybe we should consider cutting the man some slack. (Wasn't he admired by the "greatest generation"?) I'd like to see you -- or any ruler/leader across all of human time -- do better.
Sure, some of FDR's bureaucracy got cloying. Or else it got "captured" and stifled competition. Democrats themselves axed many New Deal and Progressive agencies - the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Civil Aeronautics Board, for example, had to go! Others needed trimming and so did the pre-1960 tax rates that JFK slashed. Indeed, about half of the Reagan-era government prunings seem pretty much called for... a process culminating in the Clinton-Gingrich Welfare Reform, another time that the moderate-right had a strong point. And was listened-to.
But outcomes comparison is not kind to those who gutted Glass-Steagel and other bank regulations, opening the door to abuses that helped bring our Second Depression. And since every single prediction ever made by Supply Side Economics proved wrong, well, we can understand why science and outcomes comparison are the Big Enemy, attacked by Fox 24 hours a day. If facts are inconvenient, well, damn those who live and work with facts.
Too many Americans have been brainwashed to believe that America is in trouble because of its poor and its retirees. America is not in trouble because it coerces a dwindling number of taxpayers to support the military/security complexâs enormous profits, American puppet governments abroad, and Israel. The American eliteâs solution for Americaâs problems is not merely to foreclose on the homes of Americans whose jobs were sent offshore, but to add to the numbers of distressed Americans with nothing to lose the sick and the dispossessed retirees, and the university graduates who cannot find jobs that have been sent to China and India. Of all the countries in the world, none need a revolution as bad as the United States, country ruled by a handful of selfish oligarchs who have more income and wealth than can be spent in a lifetime.
Paul Craig Roberts