I call this thread dead.
My apologies to the list.
I had not idea this would turn out like this.
On 2018-06-13 14:23, David Schwartz wrote:
> How can this NOT be a political topic?
>
> It's about jobs. Jobs that are being replaced by automation. At companies who
> are really only interested in PROFITS, not the quality of life of their
> employees or what costs they dump on the community as a result of
> under-paying workers or laying them off. They just don't care. They answer to
> their shareholders -- a growing percentage of whom are foreigners -- not the
> communities where they set up shop and employ their workers.
>
> Profits are mostly a function of the economy and current political winds.
>
> It makes no sense to talk about jobs -- current or future -- when you're
> swimming in a job pool that's being flushed down the drain by the very people
> who you elected to keep your job intact!
>
> Our POLITICIANS just handed the 100 largest corporations (their shareholders)
> and the wealthiest families in America a $500 billion "gift" that they SAID
> was going to be used to "create jobs."
>
> Yet all that windfall has been used for so far has been stock buy-backs, and
> lay-offs preceeding the movement of these same jobs to countries with lower
> labor costs, since now that they've got all the money they need to afford
> huge capital investments off-shore without pissing off their shareholders.
>
> If you're not part of that tiny sliver of the US population (income or net
> asset holdings of 7-figures or more), your elected officials are not
> representing YOUR current or future needs. (I'm not!)
>
> Shareholders don't give a crap about WHERE the companies they own employ
> people, or where those employees come from! They only care about profits,
> share price, and dividends. Corporations have a fidicuary responsibility to
> their shareholders. PERIOD. Not even their employees. Which is why
> corporations are resisting efforts to reform or immigration laws -- the
> current immigraion laws are working very well for them and are HIGHLY
> PROFITABLE!
>
> SHAREHOLDERS want automation. Why? Because MORE PROFITS. And a reduced need
> to worry about employees of all stripes and colors.
>
> And who cares what CitiGroup says anyway? They've just been given $50 billion
> in tax cuts; fines levied against them for breaking the law have been
> dropped; regulations supposedly costing them profits (because they're
> designed to protect consumers) have been eliminated; and they just reported
> their most profitable quarter in history! Yet lots of folks seem to feel
> sorry for them for whatever reason while their customers and employees are
> getting screwed.
>
> What I don't understand is why anybody who's not a shareholder in any of
> these corporations is defending them or the latest tax policies handing their
> shareholders HUGE stock growth and dividends.
>
> The Fed just announced an uptick in interest rates this morning, with two
> more expected by the end of the year. Because they say inflation is on the
> rise. This hits EVERYBODY in the pocketbook, not just the wealthy.
>
> For most people, our costs are going up, but not our wages. If we're lucky,
> we've got a few years before our jobs are replaced by robots. By then there
> won't be any unemployment insurance or welfare, because clearly we lost our
> jobs because we're just "too lazy". And there won't be enough tax revenues to
> support any kind of "social safety net". So if you can't afford to live
> today, you probably won't have any savings to help when you lose your job and
> cannot find another one for a while.
>
> Why is anybody even paying attention to warnings from CitiGroup about robots
> replacing their workers? There's absolutely nothing WE THE PEOPLE can do
> about it if our "elected officials" keep ignoring what WE need and instead
> implement tax and economic policies that benefit Corporations instead.
>
> We in the tech industry like to think that we are in some pivotal way
> responsible for guiding the future of America. That we can ignore politics.
> That we can cheer on corporate malfeasance as long as it's not the folks
> paying OUR salary. That we can ignore the INDIRECT COSTS TO SOCIETY that
> arise from the technology we're paid to create that will inexorably lead to
> our own professional demise.
>
> Sooner or later we need to look at the economy and our political environment
> with the same critical eye that we use to build our software.
>
> In the mean time, rest assured that our entire frigging economy is being run
> by people selected by less than 10% of the population (the % of registered
> voters who tend to vote in primaries), becuase the rest are so cynical and
> resigned that they think their voice doesn't matter.
>
> And the ones who do vote these days ... are tending more and more to be
> people with the most extreme views in society today.
>
> -David Schwartz
>
> On Jun 13, 2018, at 10:36 AM, Steve Litt <sl...@troubleshooters.com> wrote:
>
> On Wed, 13 Jun 2018 09:36:04 -0700 techli...@phpcoderusa.com wrote:
>
> wow David. Yikes!!
>
> I posted this link because we are in the center of some big changes that no
> one is talking about. I never intended it to become political.
>
> Your post was offtopic, and it was obvious, at least to me, that it would go
> political.
>
> It might be a good idea for you, the Original Poster, to declare this thread
> dead, before it REALLY gets out of hand.
>
> SteveT --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss
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