4 ms·

I like to see self-determination in nations, the people to decide how they are going to live and select their own governance and own up in good and bad. Europe

by mc32 4y ago

I like to see self-determination in nations, the people to decide how they are going to live and select their own governance and own up in good and bad. Europe chooses their own way and within the constituent countries choose their own ways. France is wracked by large work stoppages from time to time. Russia and The Ukraine are steeped in corruption. Yes, sure, we could go in and teach them lessons on anti-bribery and corruption, but we have our own problems and we also try to fix the world and other countries' problems before we fix our own. On the one hand we squeeze retirees on their SS but on the other hand we extend benefits and housing to people without entry visas... despite our indigenous problem of fentanyl O/Ds, poverty, lack of education, obesity, etc.

gambiting 4y ago
>>Russia and The Ukraine It's Ukraine, without "the" at the front.
PaulHoule 4y ago
You've got some points. In most developed countries though there are not enough births to maintain a population that can easily pay for retirement, whether through the state or through the stock market. Just about everywhere other than Israel, which has different motivations than most countries, immigrants legal or not add more to the economy than they take out by a large margin. The trouble is that happens in a way that is fundamentally dishonest and undermines the legitimacy of the state. There will be some chicken-choking factory down south that they bust 700 illegal immigrants at but the people who run it will say "I had no idea... It's so hard to get help these days..." sand not face any consequences. Meanwhile I've worked for startups that make a big deal out of e-Verifying everybody and I worked with many immigrants who play by the rules and get treated pretty bad. It would be nice to see comprehensive immigration reform but it would make people confront things that they don't want to confront and frankly dump the political chessboard on the floor even though it would free us up in the long term to really confront the problems of the nation.
- mc32 4y ago
  We need to develop an immigration system like most other advanced economies where you allow guest workers and seasonal workers to come serve an economy and feel free to go back on the off-season (whereas now, that risks not getting back in) to enjoy lower COL and family. Also, skilled immigrants add a lot to the economy, unskilled don't add as much, never the less we do need reform and normalize the system. I think business fears they would have to pay a normal wage to these workers, so they are against such a system. However, that is only fair to the immigrant workers as well as native workers who are no longer undersold.
  - PaulHoule 4y ago
    Agriculture is a particular part of the problem. If you need help at a dairy farm, for instance. you need someone who is almost 100% reliable to look after the cows and what you find is that the "low skill" people in the area would rather work at the gas station or Burger King than do the much harder farm work that often pays a little more (not much more) than the service jobs. On the other hand you get someone from Mexico who is experienced in farm work and takes it very seriously because he is saving up to start his own farm. A farm owner can easily see eye-to-eye with a person like that. There is a horse barn down the road that has struggled economically for 4/5 of the time it has been there because it has been run by angry old people, heroin dealers, and other jerks until it has recently been run by the wife of an army officer who had great success. One owner was notorious for treating the help and the customers really poorly, hiring illegals and also turned the place into the HQ of the local Republican party for one election.
    - mc32 4y ago
      On a tangent, we could have programs to "modernize" some small scale operations such as the above. Many smallholders don't have the money or bandwidth to do some basic upgrades --even essential things like cash-flow or inventory control, instead they allow momentum to keep them doing things they same way they always did things which may not fit in today's economy very well. I've been to stores that still issue written receipts and keep manual inventory --like in a ruled notebook and it's not like they don't have cell reception or don't have a phone or tablet. There are likely a million islands in the Pacific.

by mc32 4y ago

gambiting 4y ago

>>Russia and The Ukraine It's Ukraine, without "the" at the front.

PaulHoule 4y ago

You've got some points. In most developed countries though there are not enough births to maintain a population that can easily pay for retirement, whether through the state or through the stock market. Just about everywhere other than Israel, which has different motivations than most countries, immigrants legal or not add more to the economy than they take out by a large margin. The trouble is that happens in a way that is fundamentally dishonest and undermines the legitimacy of the state. There will be some chicken-choking factory down south that they bust 700 illegal immigrants at but the people who run it will say "I had no idea... It's so hard to get help these days..." sand not face any consequences. Meanwhile I've worked for startups that make a big deal out of e-Verifying everybody and I worked with many immigrants who play by the rules and get treated pretty bad. It would be nice to see comprehensive immigration reform but it would make people confront things that they don't want to confront and frankly dump the political chessboard on the floor even though it would free us up in the long term to really confront the problems of the nation.

mc32 4y ago
We need to develop an immigration system like most other advanced economies where you allow guest workers and seasonal workers to come serve an economy and feel free to go back on the off-season (whereas now, that risks not getting back in) to enjoy lower COL and family. Also, skilled immigrants add a lot to the economy, unskilled don't add as much, never the less we do need reform and normalize the system. I think business fears they would have to pay a normal wage to these workers, so they are against such a system. However, that is only fair to the immigrant workers as well as native workers who are no longer undersold.
- PaulHoule 4y ago
  Agriculture is a particular part of the problem. If you need help at a dairy farm, for instance. you need someone who is almost 100% reliable to look after the cows and what you find is that the "low skill" people in the area would rather work at the gas station or Burger King than do the much harder farm work that often pays a little more (not much more) than the service jobs. On the other hand you get someone from Mexico who is experienced in farm work and takes it very seriously because he is saving up to start his own farm. A farm owner can easily see eye-to-eye with a person like that. There is a horse barn down the road that has struggled economically for 4/5 of the time it has been there because it has been run by angry old people, heroin dealers, and other jerks until it has recently been run by the wife of an army officer who had great success. One owner was notorious for treating the help and the customers really poorly, hiring illegals and also turned the place into the HQ of the local Republican party for one election.
  - mc32 4y ago
    On a tangent, we could have programs to "modernize" some small scale operations such as the above. Many smallholders don't have the money or bandwidth to do some basic upgrades --even essential things like cash-flow or inventory control, instead they allow momentum to keep them doing things they same way they always did things which may not fit in today's economy very well. I've been to stores that still issue written receipts and keep manual inventory --like in a ruled notebook and it's not like they don't have cell reception or don't have a phone or tablet. There are likely a million islands in the Pacific.