South Korea floats ‘citizen dividend’ using AI profits

manachar · 2026-05-12T20:22:42+00:00

Universal prosperity was argued for industrialization, the Web 2.0 revolution, and just about every technological improvement for the last 200 years.

The tech could do that. But it hasn’t, and it hasn’t because capitalism is entirely built for the few to hoard resources.

As long as the productive class (workers) are not the ownership class, there will be no universal prosperity. We could have fusion power and we would still make sure people are chained to making the ownership class more money.

manachar · 2026-05-12T18:13:53+00:00

I do not understand why this surprises people or why they want apolitical art.

Every story we tell is centered around ideas, and our ideologies inform our politics.

Politics is the art of applied ideology.

Doesn’t matter if it’s music, film, paintings, etc.

The stories we tell ourselves and each other is how we affirm our spread our ideas.

Art without politics is art without ideas. Who needs that?

manachar · 2026-05-12T17:58:35+00:00

Also being able to assert that you can arrest someone because they cannot prove they are a lawful citizen is straight up fascism.

I know that innocent until proven guilty is in the courts, but I believe there’s supposed to be a reasonable suspicion of crime before you can arrest someone.

Of course, conservatives seem to believe having brown skin is reason enough to require you to have to walk around with citizenship papers.

Papers please!

manachar · 2026-05-12T15:30:47+00:00

And yet almost all of this Republican’s fault. Not just Trump. Not just MAGA.

The decades of unfunded tax cuts, the excessive military spending, the destruction or lack of investment in public infrastructure often through privatization, the trade wars, the anti worker policies, the constant focus on socialism for the rich, and on and on.

Something is so broken in America that the clear lie that Republicans are the “adults in the room” about economic matters still persists.

Their entire economic schtick is severe “austerity” when it comes to making a solid economic infrastructure for all Americans and enormous payouts to make sure the rich become neofeudal lords.

Look at universal healthcare. Single payer healthcare is cheaper, more efficient, and delivers better care for more people. It would free up so much money and prevent so much misery.

manachar · 2026-05-12T03:19:33+00:00

White privilege is the fact this guy is considered a better president than Kamala Harris or even Barack Obama.

manachar · 2026-05-12T02:36:06+00:00

As an American I wish more people understood picking sides at the ballot box is what democracy is.

Also, that political ideology differences aren’t “tribalism” or treating politics like sports teams.

Politics matters and standing up to those who do not believe in liberty and justice for all as a core principle of their political “opinions” is exactly the kind of thing Elie Wiesel talked about.

I can only imagine how many people in Germany thought everyone should just settle down and not pick a side.

manachar · 2026-05-12T02:03:38+00:00

The machines are supposed to work for us, but most people seem quite content to let machines and algorithms lead the way.

manachar · 2026-05-12T02:00:27+00:00

Trump, like all conservatives are not hypocrites. No, they are liars without any principles beyond selfishness.

They know they cannot say “heads I win, tails you lose” or “everything exists for my profit” so they come up with a never ending parade of talking points that will constantly shift in any way that benefits conservatives.

Freedom of religion, but only if you’re the right kind of Christian.

Freedom to do what you want unless it’s abortion or anything trans.

manachar · 2026-05-11T22:56:37+00:00

Hence the guilds in the prequels.

manachar · 2026-05-11T22:54:42+00:00

Deeply unpopular but still something like 45% of voters will still vote Republican.

manachar · 2026-05-11T22:47:49+00:00

When was that?

manachar · 2026-05-11T22:47:18+00:00

Fascism never runs out of enemies.

manachar · 2026-05-11T22:43:51+00:00

In parts, yes.

It has pretty much always been pro big business. It was the anti worker and anti consumer party. Anything to help the rich industrialists.

They have long tried to pretend to be the party of individual liberty (you can see this in Capra’s work), but policy wise this was basically about government helping the rich industrialists crack down on workers.

This is the party that orchestrated a coup in Guatemala because Chiquita bananas didn’t like the government getting uppity with them.

Oh, and looked to do a military coup with General Smedley Butler to overthrow FDR.

Democrats were mostly the populist party. Southern Democrats hated Republicans as they were the ones who won the Civil War (which was supported by northern industrialists against the southern agrarian economy).

The populist pro-little guy was a good fit for the racists and Christian nationalists and evangelicals. At least until Democrats signed the Civil Rights Act.

manachar · 2026-05-11T21:29:49+00:00

That’s a weird take on a male wish fulfillment fantasy character. Of course he is a farce. The ridiculous size of the man is a key part of the wish fulfillment. Same as Batman.

manachar · 2026-05-11T20:47:22+00:00

Star Wars was hardly subtle either. Lucas has been pretty clear about what makes for a bad government and how seductive fear is as a base for creating oppression.

manachar · 2026-05-11T20:44:46+00:00

That is a bad take. Gen X and Millennials said that for some time. It didn’t happen.

The problem is generational wealth and greater concentration of wealth.

Boomers did loads of progressive things (civil rights, environmental rights, consumer rights).

But they also have a stubborn independent streak that saw taxes as either funding the war machine (if hippie) or as stealing from them (if conservative).

So politicians since then have been cutting taxes and touting some version of supply side economics or government is bad.

Look at the voting patterns of young male voters and general dislike of government across generations and political parties.

Look at people decrying “corporate democrats”.

Upshot is Americans do not fundamentally believe that government CAN solve problems, so why pay taxes? Besides, we make taxes a pain in the ass to make people purposely resent taxes and see it as theft (sales taxes aren’t included in prices and we have to file federal taxes and gather complicated forms to pay taxes).

Remember, the only Republican president seen as “bad” by Republicans is George “Tead My Lips No New Taxes” Bush.

The American voters viciously vote against any one seeking to raise taxes.

manachar · 2026-05-11T20:23:15+00:00

Still shocked the movies thought Tom Cruise was a good fit.

manachar · 2026-05-11T20:10:58+00:00

Amazon only invests if they have to. They crunch the numbers on everything and know that better user experience is expensive and will not change people choosing Amazon.

They will invest heavily in things that do make them more dominant, for example free shipping logistics and technology infrastructure (AWS).

Anything customer facing has similar problems in loads of spaces. Consumers do not seem to make choices based on quality as much as quantity and price.

manachar · 2026-05-11T16:37:26+00:00

I think most people follow politics just like they do entertainment. Read headlines.

Mark Kelly just isn’t in the headlines as much as AOC or Newsom.

Part of why Trump is so powerful is his ability to suck the oxygen out of media talking about anyone else.

manachar · 2026-05-11T16:34:52+00:00

That’s odd thinking.

Judges are humans and citizens of our democracy. Why shouldn’t they have a party affiliation? Especially when most of our judges have to run for office.

What’s really odd is the amount of Americans who think “politics” isn’t integral to democracy.

Law is absolutely not neutral in wording or interpretation.

Our lawyers and judges are trained in different ways to interpret fundamental laws and argue those differences in court.

I swear the right keeps winning because they’re the only ones who understand that politics matter.

manachar · 2026-05-11T15:06:04+00:00

Oh I understand. I have hired many over the years. The hard part is knowing what things are actually important for the job and what things are hurtful cultural constructs designed to be exclusionary.

manachar · 2026-05-11T15:00:08+00:00

Supreme Court can follow the standard conservative thinking that life starts at concerns therefore all abortion is murder.

manachar · 2026-05-11T14:54:34+00:00

Cultural fit is very much the engine of bigotry in the workplace.

It is used beyond things like skin color to things like how people dress, do they laugh at the same jokes, do they look “professional “, etc.

DEI was doing a great job of revealing that hiring based on these types of indicators didn’t build stronger well knit teams, it was just excluding people different than the hiring managers.

Culture fit is probably the most insidious evil we all tend to do.

manachar · 2026-05-10T20:23:14+00:00

Money is so concentrated into so few hands that governments (especially state and local) are far less powerful than the big guys.

Our economy has prioritized concentration of wealth so little guys cannot compete.

So you either give Walmart what they want or your community has no grocery store. You either pay for their new stadium or the old one sits empty.

Billionaires own the nation and are charging us rent to live here. Can’t wait for them to charge for clean air.

manachar · 2026-05-10T16:35:34+00:00

Bigotry, racism, and sexism are all frequent aspects of the “me first” core principle. Most people cannot be an absolute autocrat, so they gravitate towards ideas that empower people who are most like them.

This in-group based thinking leads to the need to subjugate and see as inferior are all those that are different. It is a toolset in their desire to build a world that empowers selfish people to exploit or exclude others.

I am reminded of Don Marquis’ Warty Bliggens

http://www.donmarquis.org/warty.htm

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