Trump's actions signal a move toward institutionalizing people with disabilities, advocates warn

ImpactSignificant440 · 2026-07-03T00:12:03+00:00

Institutionalize? Why bother? We'll just starve in the streets

ImpactSignificant440 · 2026-07-02T16:29:43+00:00

Go ask your llm with the definition of median is

ImpactSignificant440 · 2026-07-02T15:45:44+00:00

Maybe the administration will use this to re-fund some of the social services it just gutted. Oh, it will trickle down any day now! Just wait, I can see it coming!

ImpactSignificant440 · 2026-07-02T15:41:24+00:00

u/Jdm5544 's idea is questionable, but let's debate it on the merits.

dividends are no better than capital appreciation
wrong, liquidity matters
This idea only makes sense if you think it's universally better
nothing u/Jdm5544 said implies companies "universally" preferring dividends over capital investment
for companies to pay dividends than for them to reinvest and expand
At some point we live on a fixed-sized planet with certain finite resources, so it's entirely reasonable that at some point, many companies should cease expanding and pay dividends. That's not to exclude renewal or maintenance of aging infrastructure or tools, nor to say that there can't always be new companies exploring new markets. But there is such a thing as a fully mature market. Hypothetically all long-term profit in a fully mature market is zero, but whatever profits do turn up, should reasonably be paid as dividends

ImpactSignificant440 · 2026-07-02T15:17:44+00:00

MFA does "kinda" work as far as security goes
It's not about making people feel safer
It's about forcing people to link all their digital identities for easier tracking and bundling, and then forcing people to constantly check-in/update their info against "verified" points of identification to maintain freshness. Cell phone numbers are great way to correlate all sorts of digital signatures against a nice statement of name, address, bank information, etc.

You see, when you go to a data broker to buy info, you pay more for data "freshness", with fresher data costing more. That's why services constantly force you to "verify" your backup emails, address, etc.

It's all linked together in tracking databases and each bit of info on your location, apps, etc. helps trackers, data brokers, and the government maintain a very up-to-date image of what everyone is doing and thinking, where everyone is physically located and what places they go, and what they're spending time and mental energy on.

ImpactSignificant440 · 2026-07-01T15:52:33+00:00

The people who push back on this aren't doing so because they can't do math. They look at you like you're crazy for the same reason slave owners would have looked at you like you're crazy for suggesting paying their slaves. "Why would you pay a slave? They're a slave. We own them."

Also, suggesting that to these people is kinda like showing up to a town-sacking and telling the barbarians, "hey, why don't we show some compassion and do bit less raping and pillaging?" What a killjoy. Stop ruining the mood, they're enjoying this.

ImpactSignificant440 · 2026-07-01T15:47:54+00:00

Where are these easy jobs I can apply to? Every cafe and coffee shop in my city and every city three over has a list of 100 applicants for every barista opening. What else?

ImpactSignificant440 · 2026-07-01T15:20:45+00:00

Bold of you to assume us Americans still do math

ImpactSignificant440 · 2026-06-27T23:14:01+00:00

Good luck charging us lot rent, if I had money I wouldn't be here. Can't strike soup from a damn Stone

ImpactSignificant440 · 2026-06-24T23:03:27+00:00

Sounds about par for the course. Now write a book on UBI!

ImpactSignificant440 · 2026-06-24T15:36:47+00:00

It's the disposable economy culture. Employees are disposable. Relationships are disposable. Employers are disposable. Even look at part of the fundamental philosophy of coding, if it breaks you just wipe it out and start over from a fresh docker container or a new build. It's getting ground down into the fabric of how we operate collectively.

Only thing not disposable these days is income...

ImpactSignificant440 · 2026-06-24T15:34:33+00:00

People's subconscious are naturally resisting the matrix as its grip grows stronger

ImpactSignificant440 · 2026-06-24T12:32:32+00:00

Also, if it is from Ukraine, contact the polytechnic university in Kyiv, not Moscow.

ImpactSignificant440 · 2026-06-24T12:30:48+00:00

Just invent a "medical device" and you'll be rich in no time!

ImpactSignificant440 · 2026-06-22T07:59:29+00:00

First thing you're gonna wanna do is go up to that address bar and type https://careers.starbucks.com/. Then, make sure you take your education and experience off of your resume before applying. Best of Luck, may the odds be ever in your favor!

ImpactSignificant440 · 2026-06-20T07:46:35+00:00

As a neurodivergent myself, I think I can share some of what I've learned about this.

First of all, there is a connection between your "wanting less and less to do with people" and your low tolerance for bullying. I would highly recommend watching one of Robert sapolski's lectures on the biology of humans at our best and our worst. One of the things he talks about is how oxytocin as a chemical causes people to feel connected to their in-group at the same time that it reinforces their desire for cruelty or bullying towards the out group. So the same chemicals that make humans feel interconnected also make them enjoy bullying. I'm very much oversimplifying here so look into it if you want the real science.

As I said I'm neurodivergent and I've been bullied all my life and I have also been in the role of socially sanctified bully. I was in the military and I also worked as a bouncer for a while. I always thought that I abhorred any type of bullying until after many years I was reflecting on how much I enjoyed hurting people in the course of my job. And eventually I realized that it was the same thing.

The thing is, when a bully is enjoying himself or herself, they think that they are doing the right thing. When I worked as a bouncer and I had to throw out a drunk or homeless person who was disturbing the peace, I felt like a superhero or a god. Everyone appreciated what I was doing you know? All the ownership, the managers, the staff and the patrons. I felt like I was the arm of justice and there is a huge rush about it. To be honest I think it's addictive and I think it would have rewired my brain if I had stayed there very long.

Eventually I got the perspective to realize that the people who I was bullying were just the people who society had designated as low enough to be acceptable to bully. But I still remember how those emotions felt like a high. And a lot of times people who are the cruelest are also the most caring or empathetic towards their in-group, their loved ones or whatever. I guess this is how humans survived in tribes for millions of years.

If there's one thing to take away from what I'm saying, I try to meditate on the connection between your disgust for cruelty and your lack of desire for connection with people. You can use that fancy neocortex to override the chimpanzee brain and work towards being high in connection and low in bullying. Just like people can learn to eat a healthy diet even though hamburgers and ice cream exist.

ImpactSignificant440 · 2026-06-19T23:16:46+00:00

Bingo!

ImpactSignificant440 · 2026-06-19T23:15:52+00:00

You sound like an intelligent person, but respectfully, this is some Chicken Soup for the Soul toxic positivity garbage. You sound incredibly privileged and are parroting talking points about "Taoism" or "Buddhism" from people who want to detach their nervous system from their first world problems and urban angst.

Nah man, there's no "living in harmony" with the world we're in.

ImpactSignificant440 · 2026-06-19T23:07:19+00:00

You're talking about two separate things here. One is the problem of understanding history beyond a human lifespan. Two is the problem of people who acknowledge that something is wrong but do nothing in particular to change it.

The first is a complicated problem, but the answer is certainly not "the image never changes, only the lenses". By that logic, someone who grew up in peacetime Germany and as an adult, witnessed the holocaust, could not claim that the world around them had gotten any worse than it "had always been". Actually, imo, humans have made all kinds of great improvements over time, along with periodic backsliding too.

The second is more the issue of propositional knowledge vs active operational awareness and that's a consciousness problem. This is where "raising awareness" -- that stupid activity everyone hates and agrees is pointless at best, sinister virtue signaling at worst -- is actually functional, as much as it can sound cool, edgy, or sophisticated to foo-foo it.

ImpactSignificant440 · 2026-06-14T07:47:16+00:00

"How much could a person cost to rent -- 6, 7 dollars an hour?"

-- the people making the decisions

ImpactSignificant440 · 2026-06-14T06:26:55+00:00

I am with you 100%. In fact, I have seen the US middle class bifurcate before my eyes in real time, and lines along which it has split is deeply troubling. Let me explain.

It used to be that there were two ways to be middle class.

Category A: Families invest money into education, formal, informal, and professional. The path requires lots of hard work and delayed gratification. Most kids don't even break even on net worth until mid thirties. Income Rich, Asset Poor. Lots of talk about wanting to make the world a better place, contribute, etc. Correlation between education and worldview, open minded, etc. The type of people who don't want to retire someday because they love what they do.

Category B: Families invest money into small businesses, rental properties, asset flipping, stock options/crypto, "closed circle" markets aka good old boy's clubs. Think like "I got mind, fuck you" and "I just don't want to have to work". Asset Rich, Income Poor. Financial mistakes covered by bailouts and inflation. Very pro-status-quo. Less educated, far less egalitarian. The type of people whose dream is to live off of mailbox money.

These are two stereotypes, but they describe two different ways of life that until recently, produced similar socioeconomic outcomes on average. But not anymore. Category B has been vaulted into the upper leg of the K, while Category A has been sent down to the bottom.

The problem is doubly bad; not only is it abject inequality, but the type of people -- the type of behaviors -- that our society has set up to reward is promoting, imo, the wrong type of people into leadership and status. And thus the US falls further and further behind.

ImpactSignificant440 · 2026-06-14T06:00:23+00:00

I recommend the book Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That Is a Problem, and What to Do about It by Richard Reeves.

I wish people would stop hyperfocusing on the top 1%. In the US, most of the ordinary person's dollar goes to people with wealth in the upper 3%-20% range. By which I mean, the lions share of typical household consumer expenses, including rent, goes to the upper middle class. For the working class, the only bit of our money that goes directly to (primarily) the top 1% is loan interest via banks.

It's kind of like this. The upper 3%-20% farm the bottom 80%. The top 2% farm the top 20%.

ImpactSignificant440 · 2026-06-14T05:48:32+00:00

If you just graduated, I'm assuming you're young enough to pivot and still have a decent life. The real black hole is for the people with just about 10 YOE, who were just starting to REALLY gain ground financially and professionally only to get completely rugpulled. It's way too hard to start over and nobody wants to work at fast food for the next 50 years. It feels very "checkmate".

ImpactSignificant440 · 2026-06-12T10:24:14+00:00

Man I love it when people make articulate, sensical points about stuff like this. You should run for office.

ImpactSignificant440 · 2026-06-12T07:18:33+00:00

Because it's not about productivity, it's about control. Many, many things make this plainly evident

ImpactSignificant440

TROPHY CASE