And news/social media were counting down to 0 oxygen and playing it out for drama, clicks, and profit. Absolutely disgusting, and much worse than any memes or jokes anyone online could’ve made about the situation.
Yeah, why not? They were perfectly fine with ignoring hundreds of migrants drowning after their boat sank near Greece last week. The only reason I found out about that is because I saw a meme bashing the media for ignoring it.
Do you read the news or do you get your news from social media? No judgment, I only ask because I’ve seen articles about the boat sinking since it happened, I’m surprised to hear someone missed it for a second. This Titan story definitely got more attention by far which feels criminal. A handful of thrill seeking billionaires vs hundreds of poor and desperate people…
That’s fair, plus the eccentric nature of “a few mega rich people tried to use a giant coffin to see a famous shipwreck and disappeared” is probably easier on the eyes than “hundreds of desperate people with no other choice drown in their attempts for a better life elsewhere”
The important story is buried in the middle of the article. This is another example of “think of the children” used to build censorship tools that will likely be later used in other ways.
A lot of people probably already knew this, but it’s useful to have studies like this to shove in the face of the “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps” crowd. It’s frustrating because we can change this, we don’t have to accept a society that simply revolves around “Whoever makes the most money gets to make the rules”.
I, personally, would like a society that cherishes camaraderie and compassion while also rewarding innovation and talent. There are too many people who believe in this zero-sum game that seems to pit everyone against everyone in this race to gather the most wealth; this is why we’re all struggling, because rich people have gathered the most wealth, and they are trying to protect it at all costs by using the wealth to control the rules that control how they gained the wealth to begin with. It’s all awful and we need to change it now.
I would challenge that any society which has any significant amount of wealth disparity wouldn’t eventually devolve into “whoever makes the most money gets to make the rules”. Money is an abstraction of human value, so if one person has significantly more abstract-value than most people, their power and influence will always be more than people who have less even if it isn’t as direct as our system via eg lobbying. On top of that, any economic system which has even the slightest asymptotic behavior towards wealth consolidation will eventually have wealth disparity.
Personally I like economic systems that use money as a price signal because of how decentralized it can be, but I’m not sure how you would avoid these tendencies without some major overhaul in the fundamental principles. Market socialism is at least better, since no one solely owns the means of production so it’s harder to accumulate wealth but I wouldn’t go so far as to say it isn’t possible at all.
Maybe a change in ethos like you said, competition can inspire innovation but it can also lead to tremendous waste as competitors reinvent their own wheels. Encouraging cooperation in tandem with competition could produce a more well-rounded society, but there will always be sociopaths who want power for its own sake and will naturally rise to the top and ruin whatever good thing we have going on. Maybe something like radical anarchism, which rejects (unjustified) hierarchy and makes it exceptionally difficult for anyone to gain coercive power? Fat chance ever implementing something like that, though.
We could get by with our current system we have, simply change the tax system to tax profit way more, so that it’s impossible to become a billionaire. And all that money is used to keep everyone housed, fed, and healthy. The people that want to abuse people for profit won’t have anyone to abuse anymore because people won’t be forced to work in unfair jobs with unfair wages. Wages will rise to natural level to meet what people think those jobs are worth doing. Some companies will find this unsustainable and will go away, and good riddance.
Wait. I really don’t mean this to sound rude here, but I have to ask… they actually needed a study for this??? Because I feel like it’s pretty obvious if one has spent any time working in the real world and not living in a vacuum of privileged wealth.
Yes, in fact it’s the most obvious things which need scientific study most desperately, because what’s “obvious” today may tomorrow be “cigarettes are good for your health”. If something is obvious (and isn’t a value or opinion), that’s a red flag that you should double-check because it might be an overlooked assumption rather than an objective truth. That being said it’s not exactly “sexy” science since the result tends to be “our hypothesis was correct”. The Ig Nobel Prize has some good example of this, dumb “obvious” or “pointless” research that on further reflection makes you think.
You’d be surprised by how much seemingly obvious folk wisdom turns out to be bullshit when scrutiny is applied. It’s good to test the basics, as it can clear up faulty assumptions later. Anti-poor rhetoric is a staple of right-wing propaganda, so it’s nice to have research on our side.
It’s more like we have a hundred years of studies that make this point, but it’s always good to test for different causes of inequality to inform policy better.
The thing with science is that you can’t just accept things because they seem obvious. The scientific method exists for a reason. Sometimes things that look obvious turn out to be false, and sometimes proving an obvious thing to be true is a necessary first step to have a solid foundation from which to build other more nuanced hypotheses. Either way, the point is that studies aren’t all about finding some new and surprising conclusion. Sometimes they’re about taking something you were pretty sure of already, and making it into actual science.
I’ll be glad if Brasil’s image starts turning from corruption ridden banana republic to corruption hunting democracy. I see signs, and they give me a little hope.
A completely brutal dissection of all of the failings of Stockton Rush, his hubris and those at OceanGate who were complicit in his insanity. So many times people raised warnings about this thing and instead of heeding them, the response was to sue the whistle-blower, who due to the way the US courts are structured (that is to say incredibly skewed toward the wealthy), had no choice but to withdraw his complaint.
Tbh, coming from a constitutional monarchy myself, where the king and queen are a moral backbone, born and bread diplomats, using their funds to salvage, maintain and protect items of cultural heritage like buildings, furniture, art, etc, giving people hope everytime they speak…
… I’m glad we’re not just stuck with politicians. Like OMG! Americans whining about monarchies when their oligarchy reminds of the aristocracy in all the wrong ways becomes a facepalm moment.
Have there been bad monarch’s? Yes. Have there been bad politicians? Yes. Have both partaken in both classic and modern colonisation? You betcha. But sometimes, just sometimes, you want someone born dedicated to your country - and despite how many politicians rub sensually up against the concept of patriotism, you notice real quick who’s just wearing the emperor’s clothes - and in my case it ain’t the king nor queen.
I’m Finnish so we’re surrounded by constitutional monarchies, and honestly aristocracies are just not something I’d expect from a modern nation. The idea that only a person with the correct heritage is fit for a national leadership position is frankly nuts, and I don’t think the only option to that is the dumpster fire that is US politics
Not really if you come from anywhere outside the Americas. Half of Europe and Asia still have kings/emperor’s and a big chunk of countries exist under other nations royals like the British Commonwealth.
I’m Finnish, and as I noted in another comment here we’re surrounded by constitutional monarchies and I don’t find “well everyone does it” a very compelling argument for aristocracy
The police murdered a young student electrician for ‘refusing to comply’ with a checkpoint set up outside an Algerian ghetto. His capital crime he was likely trying to avoid arrest? Driving without a license.
This riot wasn’t caused by social media, or Nahel’s murder for that matter. It was caused by systemic racism in France. Macron is trying to scapegoat and shut down social media because the kind of peace we wants can be destroyed by truth.
Lots of us wanted neither, we juqt settled for 5 more years of “Macron the dipshit that is covertly racist” to avoid 5 years of “Le Pen the dipshit that is overtly racist”. And we hate every minute of it.
I feel that’s a lot of countries right now. USA didn’t want Biden, but it was better than Trump. The UK is facing an election where we’ll have to chose between Starmer or Sunak(?).
I knew he was an ass, but this takes it to an entirely new level. Almost every expert in the matter was telling Stockton Rush that the Titan would implode and he ignored them for over 6 years. Not only that, he actively sued a whistleblower and essentially threatened him with bankruptcy to prevent him from going public with the very legitimate safety concerns. And he also organized the dives and payments in such away as to avoid any kind of regulation or penalty whatsoever.
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