themeatbridge

It’s not free. It’s paid for by taxpayers at much higher rates. Rehabilitation is actually cheaper in the long run, but then you don’t get the labor.

I use ostensibly a lot lately. Seems like an appropriate word for our times.

You know how you have to pay extra to have insurance to pay to take care of your mouth bones and your face balls? Well, what if we did that but with all the bones and stuff? Like, why are your foot bones included in the same insurance that pays for you to have knee bones or neck giblets? Why not do all the bones and stuff a la cart? And then maybe skin can be a premium add-on. We could charge separate for the red goo that’s all on the inside everywhere, and then it’s like a subscription model for having parts. We can sell it like “don’t pay for the parts you don’t have,” and people will think that they are saving money because each part costs less than the whole, but paying for everything costs more.

-some Health Insurance board member somewhere, probably.

… I should start an AI company.

Isn’t that like negative zero?

Sure are a contentious bunch.

Yeah, enjoy it now before the atheists destroy it with their atheism.

Not exactly. Like every good urban legend, there’s an element of truth to give it legs.

Tryptophan does metabolize into serotonin, some of which further metabolizes into melatonin, which can make you sleepy. But there isn’t more tryptophan in turkey than there is in other meats and some vegetables. It is an essential amino acid that you get from pretty much every meal that contains protein. Also, an overabundance of tryptophan doesn’t necessarily mean more seratonin or melatonin.

People get sleepy after eating a lot of turkey because their bellies are full of turkey (and probably stuffing and corn bread and mashed potatoes and gravy and pie and a few glasses of wine)

That’s actually a myth.

Yes, agreed, it is easier to obstruct than it is to lead. But Conservatives have been far more effective at both. It’s like a tug of war where one side isn’t holding on to the rope. It doesn’t matter if we’re trying to gain ground or just minimize the damage, Democrats suck at both.

Fair point. Politicians have always been shitty.

But also, inflation is only relevant to purchasing power, and does not represent the entire increase to the cost of living. Suvival itself has become more expensive because of new expenses that didn’t exist in 1938. More young adults carry a significant debt cost from education, healthcare expenses, home purchases, car purchases, and general debt. Credit was harder to come by, and was structured to avoid long-term repayments. There are also transportation costs, heating and cooling utility costs, internet, cell service, not to mention the cost of food. Fewer people grow their own food, and you cannot survive a Mid-Atlantic summer without air-conditioning.

$4.50 an hour might have been a poverty wage in 1938, but it would represent destitution today.

$2k a month is $24000 a year, almost 40% of your income. That’s not sustainable, even if you can find low rent places.

Bullshit. Conservatives have done just fine getting everything they wanted without all three branches of government. Democrats are bad at politics, and there are enough corrupt Dems to destabilize the whole party.

That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t vote for Dems. It means we should expect more from them.

At its inception.

Which is worse, the person who says they want to hurt you and then does it, or the person who says they want to help you and then doesn’t? Progressivism is still a beneficial ideal, and some Democrats fight for it, while others pay lip-service because they will say anything to be elected. But Conservativism is a plague upon humanity, leeching resources and power to feed those willing to harm others to get it.

So yeah, you can blame the mostly corrupt “good guys” along with the fundamentally selfish “bad guys,” but that doesn’t make them equivalent sides.

Have you ordered delivery in New York? $20 in fees and tips are not uncommon at all. But that reinforces the point, things are not usually expensive because of high labor costs. It’s a cost, but businesses that can’t afford to pay for labor are exploitation.

Almost all small local shops and restaurants did go bankrupt during Covid. The bailouts went disproportionately to the oligarchy. Some small businesses benefitted, but it would have been far more effective to bail out individuals.

But I agree that a negative tax or UBI would be great, too, as long as it was tied to the cost of living and paid for by business taxes. It would effectively subsidize every business, creating a minimum wage paid to every person regardless of whether they work or not.

That’s one argument against, but it’s not proven true anywhere it’s been tested. Shoppers at Walmart have a price point they expect. They can only raise prices so much before sales begin to falter, and their labor costs are not the most significant cost in their stores. Think about how few Walmart employees you see in their massive stores. Real estate, fixtures, even the utility bills are going to outpace the labor increases. Plus, the additional costs are typically offset by the additional sales that happen because everyone has a little more disposable income.

Chain stores and restaurants charge roughly the same amounts regardless of the local labor rates. Things that do affect local prices are the things that affect unit costs, like tariffs, taxes, and transport costs.

You are completely correct that corporations will use any excuse to raise prices, but they’re going to raise prices as high as the market will bear regardless. That’s not a reason to depress demand by keeping wages too low to survive.

Sure, that’s how we got here, but that’s not even true anymore. The most destitute and depressed regions still have a higher cost of living than the minimum wage would provide.

I’ll support any increase. I’m just saying that, after it passes, we’re not done.