Carl's Jr/Hardee's CEO considering automated restaurant

[Zaune]

What happened to the traditional socialist solution of getting the government (e.g. 90s UK Labour government) to hire an unlimited number of obstructive beurecrats? The amount of pointless paperwork the government can generate is unlimited, and no particular skills are required. Of course if you want this to sound good call it something like 'addressing the tragic deficit in the number of social workers available to tackle our pressing community justice issues'.

New Labour demonstrated how well that worked in practice, didn't they? Nobody likes pointless paperwork, not even people whose livelihoods depend on it; why do you think we let the anarchists come on our protest marches?

[Simon_Jester]

There are quite a few areas in the US where we could certainly stand to hire more people for the sake of the public good, not to create more 'pointless paperwork' like our resident trolling parody, but because we have actual problems brought on by a changing society, where the satisfactory solutions require people to work at them.

For example, if we're committed to actually trying to get everyone a high school diploma, we really need to take the incorrigibles aside and put them in special programs that stand a chance of getting through their asinine juvenile-delinquent skulls (yes, this is a personal issue to me). Said incorrigibles are educable, but not easily... and this is a manpower-intensive solution in education. The cheap and traditional ways involve just expelling them, but that isn't done anymore because of changes in cultural views on education, except in the most extreme cases.

And Shep...

On what planet would America find enough Republicans who think universal minimum income is a good idea even if it simplifies the logistics of welfare?

[MKSheppard]

For example, if we're committed to actually trying to get everyone a high school diploma, we really need to take the incorrigibles aside and put them in special programs that stand a chance of getting through their asinine juvenile-delinquent skulls (yes, this is a personal issue to me).

Just wait until they turn 18, and then warehouse them for the rest of their lives in Siberian gulags.

EDIT: I have two very specific names of juveniles that I run through Maryland Case Search or google news, just waiting for the fuckers to show up again.

[Simon_Jester]

The problem is that if they are kept in the same buildings with normal, functional children of the same age, they interfere with the education of those children, which is in turn the reason why we can't have nice things.

[Zaune]

I actually think Starglider's got a point. There's a huge difference between creating more civil service roles to achieve a specific objective, like administering the genuinely meritocratic tiered education system you propose, and creating jobs -government or private sector- out of an ideological attachment to work as an end in itself.

Whether you hire a vast army of adequately-paid clerical workers with a reasonable pension to cope with more and more complicated and often contradictory regulations about every aspect of civic life, or you let the minimum wage stagnate below the cost of living and systematically annihilate employee rights to make sweated labour cheaper than machines, it's still the same cultural blind-spot at work: The idea that everyone has to give up at least forty hours a week of their time to be entitled to the basic necessities of existence, even when there's plenty to go around anyway.

[MKSheppard]

The problem is that if they are kept in the same buildings with normal, functional children of the same age, they interfere with the education of those children, which is in turn the reason why we can't have nice things.

Doesn't your school system have a "problem" school where they warehouse the problem children?

[Darmalus]

UBI could be implemented by republicans.

Just make a tradeoff for UBI.

No more Social Security, No more Medicaid, no more EBT, WIC, etc. All that is rolled into UBI.

Massive savings in bureaucracy and duplication of services. ONE CARD TO RULE THEM ALL.

That's usually the long term plan I hear. UBI and socialize healthcare to cover 99%+ of the population's needs. Minimum wage is usually included on the chopping block, since now anyone can walk away from a job without threat of death by starvation or homelessness if the wage is inadequate for the effort.

[Simon_Jester]

The problem is that if they are kept in the same buildings with normal, functional children of the same age, they interfere with the education of those children, which is in turn the reason why we can't have nice things.

Doesn't your school system have a "problem" school where they warehouse the problem children?

Our school system has a few such, but they're smaller than they need to be and it's harder to put kids in them than it should be. At least, assuming you want a good education for the kids in the general-purpose schools (which can include special ed kids, they're not the problem except insofar as they have behavioral problems).

I will also note that the problem school is NOT supposed to just be warehousing. A good one actually has teachers who are seriously trying. The catch is that these are kids who don't need an algebra class or an English class; they need a drill sergeant beating into them the knowledge of how to be a human being capable of functioning in groups and acting in an orderly manner for a few years. Once they learn how to be human you can teach them abstract skills again.

[K. A. Pital]

What happened to the traditional socialist solution of getting the government (e.g. 90s UK Labour government) to hire an unlimited number of obstructive beurecrats? The amount of pointless paperwork the government can generate is unlimited, and no particular skills are required. Of course if you want this to sound good call it something like 'addressing the tragic deficit in the number of social workers available to tackle our pressing community justice issues'.

I think the price of $4-10k per month for higher education obstructs far more than any present-day bureaucrat.

Your society with paid education will be the first to feel the full consequences of rapid automatization and the pauperization of working poor families on a class-wide scale, as education is beyond the financial capabilities of ordinary people, and even debt slavery solutions to the problem are out of the question if there is no stable income.

Gattaca of the future minus the eugenics.

Those with "worthless bureaucrats" that have free education and healthcare will last longer against the oncoming dystopia.