Democracy: Every Cook Can Govern

Discuss any topics related to metaphysics (the philosophical study of the principles of reality) or epistemology (the philosophical study of knowledge) in this forum.
Steve3007
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Re: Democracy: Every Cook Can Govern

Post by Steve3007 »

Greta:
the Chinese focus on creating new "silk roads".
Things like the TPP? I've never yet taken the time to look into it to try to understand what effect it will have on the trade of the countries that are in it and why anyone might regard it as bad. Is it generally considered to be good for Australia?
Maxcady10001
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Re: Democracy: Every Cook Can Govern

Post by Maxcady10001 »

I believe the TPP would have given America a much stronger foothold in Asia, with countries other than China. Of course, all politicians did, was say "it's going to cost Americans jobs", and it was all shut down. Yes, it would have cost Americans jobs, but the growth in GDP would have been worth it for the economy, and the jobs it cost would have been very small. Also America would be far less reliant on China, outsourcing jobs to other Asian countries. I don't know if Greta is talking about the TPP though. About America and why people want Civil War, I listened to a podcast where they mentioned that the founders were either religious fanatics or gold crazy. And how a woman named Anne Hutchinson was the first "American", in that she was a projectivist, claiming the way she felt was the way the world was according to God. People now I see as projectivist, projecting their feelings onto the world, claiming to know how it should be. It was Sam Harris' podcast. I don't really understand why anyone would even try to start anot her civil war it would be over in days, with all rebels either dead or imprisoned. Since this thread was started, several keywords may have flagged government operatives. What's the best place to live besides America, i'm thinking about moving?
Steve3007
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Re: Democracy: Every Cook Can Govern

Post by Steve3007 »

Since this thread was started, several keywords may have flagged government operatives.
I suspect it would be pretty difficult to design an algorithm which would be able tell whether a poster appears to be genuinely contemplating violent revolution just from analyzing their words here. I'm a human being and I'm still not completely sure of this one myself. Simply looking for the occurrence of certain words wouldn't tell you anything.
Maxcady10001
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Joined: September 12th, 2017, 6:03 pm

Re: Democracy: Every Cook Can Govern

Post by Maxcady10001 »

I guess there is no way of knowing if someone is serious from just here. But, if comments are flagged here, any similar comments elsewhere from participants in this conversation could be flagged, and the seriousness of these claims could be ascertained.
Chili
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Re: Democracy: Every Cook Can Govern

Post by Chili »

ZoneOfNonBeing wrote:Chili - but why have social safety nets when that can be the norm? Social safety should not be the backup plan, it should be THE plan.

-- Updated November 10th, 2017, 7:36 pm to add the following --

Can you agree that housing, food, and health insurance are human rights? Do you agree that every person deserves a living wage?
To me the language of "rights" is problematic. I do think that everywhere people are being honest and fair-minded, they will naturally gravitate toward taking care of each other. America is a real outlier among the advanced nations. If you go nearly anywhere else you see much better conditions and outcomes. America, like Russia, is a kind of blend somewhere between an advanced nation and a 3rd world oligarchy.
Steve3007
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Re: Democracy: Every Cook Can Govern

Post by Steve3007 »

It seems to me obvious that the thing to remember about rights is that every right conferred on one person is an obligation imposed on another person. If I say "person A has a right to food" then that is equivalent to saying "person B has the obligation to do work to grow, prepare, package and distribute food for the consumption of person A".
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Sy Borg
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Re: Democracy: Every Cook Can Govern

Post by Sy Borg »

Steve3007 wrote:Greta:
the Chinese focus on creating new "silk roads".
Things like the TPP? I've never yet taken the time to look into it to try to understand what effect it will have on the trade of the countries that are in it and why anyone might regard it as bad. Is it generally considered to be good for Australia?
As far as I can tell, whenever Australia do business with the US our deluded conservatives are eaten alive by hard nosed American negotiators. I doubt that losing a little of the US's business and its superior negotiation ability will much harm Australia.
Steve3007
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Joined: June 15th, 2011, 5:53 pm

Re: Democracy: Every Cook Can Govern

Post by Steve3007 »

As far as I can tell, whenever Australia do business with the US our deluded conservatives are eaten alive by hard nosed American negotiators.
I've always imagined a stereotype of Australian business negotiators being pretty hard-nosed and blunt themselves. I guess that's largely due to the Murdoch effect and the stereotype of the blunt plain-speaking Aussie male. I remember reading the British/American journalist and author Bill Bryson's account of working for the Times newspaper in London during the 1980s when the new Australian management swept in. His account was of the old tradition of the seedy, alcoholic Fleet Street hack spending most of the day "researching stories and following leads" in the pub being swept away by the brutal commercial realities of the new Australian overlords.

---

Interesting story on the radio this morning about food banks - places where people can go for charitably-donated food if they can't afford it. In the US, they're apparently called food pantries and one in 7 Americans have used them. The story was about Walmart paying their workers too little to live on and then making donations to food pantries to deflect criticism for that.

Perhaps a revolution is needed after all. Or perhaps an increase in the legally mandated minimum wage? Or perhaps that would simply mean that companies like Walmart, in a competitive world, couldn't afford to employ some people at all. Tiny wage better than no wage? Discuss.
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Sy Borg
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Re: Democracy: Every Cook Can Govern

Post by Sy Borg »

As far as I can tell, whenever Australia do business with the US our deluded conservatives are eaten alive by hard nosed American negotiators.
Steve3007 wrote:I've always imagined a stereotype of Australian business negotiators being pretty hard-nosed and blunt themselves. I guess that's largely due to the Murdoch effect and the stereotype of the blunt plain-speaking Aussie male.
:lol: The FTA was like a negotiation between a fanboy in the thrall of his big brother, and said brother. theconversation.com/how-the-us-trade-de ... -pbs-32573
Steve3007 wrote:Interesting story on the radio this morning about food banks - places where people can go for charitably-donated food if they can't afford it. In the US, they're apparently called food pantries and one in 7 Americans have used them. The story was about Walmart paying their workers too little to live on and then making donations to food pantries to deflect criticism for that.

Perhaps a revolution is needed after all. Or perhaps an increase in the legally mandated minimum wage? Or perhaps that would simply mean that companies like Walmart, in a competitive world, couldn't afford to employ some people at all. Tiny wage better than no wage? Discuss.
As you know, I think that the relationship between organisations and individuals today is increasingly echoing the relationship between humans and animals. Shrinking wages is just one symptom. Also note that the pressure on wages continues to be downward rather than upward due to outsourcing work to cheap labour in developing countries. The poorest country sets the benchmark.
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