I’ve always wondered why the consensus seems to be that it’s 100% necessary for an economy to continue growing for society to function, but maybe somebody smarter than me can explain it in terms I understand.

Because for real, if (IF) we could set things up so that everybody has access to food, pottable water, and shelter, then does it really matter if google took losses this quarter? Back when automation was still in its infancy, there was a hope that the human labor requirements would decrease without affecting survivability, so it’s not like what I’m saying is anything new. IF we were able to sustainably grow enough food, sanitize enough water, and build enough houses for everybody, make enough (NON-MONOPOLIZED) medicine for everybody, and just made it available for cheaply or for free, then you’ve successfully decoupled the economy from human survival.

Of course, the question becomes who would do all this with no profit to be had, which I know is the real crux of the issue, and is realistically not going to happen easily. But, as an idealist view, imagine this: A number of physically strong men and women and a number of scientists, who already have their own needs guaranteed, volunteer their time and expertise to spread the access to food, water, shelter, and healthcare to people in need because they actually just enjoy doing physical labor/ innovating technologies that will help humanity and aren’t just doing what a few suits who’ve never worked in that manner a day in their lives think is necessary to squeeze more money out of investors and poor people in exchange for a paycheck. After those needs are guaranteed, it should be possible to implement a form of capitalism for unnecessary expenditures without getting to the awful state we’re currently in (optional).

So to answer your question, no, I personally don’t think infinite growth is necessary perse, but our current setup does assume that it will somehow continue growing. As for the societal collapse issue, while our society is FAR larger and more interconnected than anything so far in history, it collapsing wouldn’t be the end of humanity (though on that note I would 100% rather society collapse from lack of labor FAR before I’d want it to collapse because Earth has completely run out of resources, so I guess I’m against your friend in that regard). Sure, there would be massive chaos (especially in population centers), and a lot of people will absolutely suffer and die (seriously, want to make clear I’m not making light of a collapse) but ultimately it still holds that anyone who can maintain access to food, shelter, and potable water (barring any health issues) will survive and eventually create a new society. Hopefully one that isn’t setup stupidly.

Instead, Gore found the materials taught children “how to be a good friend, a good human.”

Honestly, I can respect this. It’d be much easier to pull a Trump and claim that you fixed something that was never an issue by doing absolutely nothing, but she actually went through with it and admitted that she couldn’t find the issues she was looking for.

It kinda goes to show that there are actually sincere people (albeit ones that still tend to have disagreeable stances) on the right that just keep getting tricked by the grifters and conmen that won’t just bury their heads in the sand when something doesn’t fit their narrative.

The optimist wants to believe that makes up a lot of them, but the realist in me isn’t so sure.

That’s pig latin. They’re talking about old-timey toilets.

I’ll now incorporate into my world view that anybody who shares these physical characteristics is a war criminal. I took a statistics class once and I’m pretty sure that’s how it works.

Okay while I get what you’re saying, and you are right that it is unfairly different for govt. officials than for citizens looking for a job, I really have to correct that it’s not "any amount of debt" that will keep you from getting a clearance, or else they’d never get fresh college graduates. They specifically care about whether you seem to be in a financially precarious situation or are financially irresponsible. Student loans, mortgage, or credit card balances that haven’t gotten out of control will likely get a pass whereas loan shark loans, balances sent to collections, or gambling debt will very much flag red. Again I do agree that it’s ridiculous that politicians aren’t held to the same standard.

Idk you guys why doesn’t israel simply activate the jewish space lasers to wipe out hamas

After that FART group, I’m starting to think these people just put Elon Musk in charge of their naming schemes.

We have auto-complete just about everywhere now

vim

Especially when you reuse each of those names for all the scopes you have

Oh I’m sure he did notice, the question is probably more of “why did you keep sending them aid” to which the answer is probably something like trying to keep a stable power balance in the middle east since Israel is like, our only consistant ally out there, but considering both the abuses of power Israel has committed and the general poor record of US middle eastern interventions, I don’t think very many people will be happy with that explanation.

Well shit

A legitimate concern, too. All the stories about hospitals refusing pregnancy emergency care makes it dangerous whether you want the baby or not

Wait people actually have money? i thought that was a myth

I was going to say something about “cost of living in an area” because 10M in WV is gonna go a lot further than 10M in NYC, but then I started wondering what kind of knock-on effects setting that hard cap would have? Would cost of living in NYC decrease because now the rich people can’t be rich enough to comfortably afford it, or will it cause them to keep contributing to society for a paycheck because they don’t want to move? Feel like this might be a good speculative essay subject for a financial policy class.

Okay valid but at that point it’s not even like, specifically targeting latinos if the workforce being affected is no longer predominantly immigrant labor…

And here I thought all the cheap mexican labor fled last year or whenever. Did something change to bring them all back or something?

The beatings will continue until morale improves

I do not advocate for violence and would never celebrate somebody’s tragedy. Having said that, if Kristi Noem literally jumped in front of a train I may decide to get an ice cream cake that day.

We’re way past double, this is quintupling down we’re witnessing

If you are ever in a position where you need to figure out if a man you’re talking to is a pedophile, ask them their opinion on the book Lolita

“Romantic” ❌

“Disturbing” ✔️