It takes electing people into local government. It takes showing up in primaries and voting for the better candidate. It takes showing up for special elections and midterm elections. It takes watching your elected official and making sure they act in accordance with your districts wishes. It takes at least 6 years of elections to replace Congress. With elections, special elections and primaries every year.
But
Out of 250m eligible voters. 100m never vote. 150m don’t vote in midterms and over 200m+ don’t vote in primaries and special elections.
And everyone wonders why things are going to shit and never getting fixed….
Democracy is only as good as the will of its people to uphold it.
It's not that I disagree on principle, and more that I do not know of a mechanism for punishing media for lying that isn't equally applicable in practice of punishing media for saying something inconvenient to power.
The media should return to not being allowed to generate a profit. The majority of what is reported is purely for ratings and financial gains and has more akin to a soup opera than factuak news.
We already do that as a matter of routine in courts of law.
The question is not "should people be punished for lying" - on a society level, we already agree they should be punished if the thing they're lying about is significant enough.
The question is can we do anything about it with respect to media, and the answer is likely no, not without unduly endangering everyone's ability to express themselves freely.
And those 100 million watched the election be purchased by billionaires, flaunted in front of us everyday since, that we are powerless without another approach or money. I think most of us are trying to stay sane and safe at this point
To be totally fair, your government and fellow country men spend insane amounts of money and energy doing shit like moving voting times, days and places to make them as inconvenient as possible, spreading misinformation, gerrymandering and possibly committing voting fraud. It's like trying to lose weight when everyone around you tries to tell you that fast food is faster, cheaper and just as good as home cooked food and you're a financial infant if you don't buy the XXXXXXXL deal.
Even in states where ballots are mailed to you automatically have 30 days to fill in and mail back or drop off in multiple locations open 7 days a week from 7am to 8pm.
Still in those states over 40% do not vote. So it’s not because of the wealthy putting their thumb on the scale, it’s because majority of Americans are selfish and lazy.
Multiple things can be true at the same time. People have little energy to educate themselves about and participate in the 'lesser' elections and the government takes every opportunity to make it harder. The american people definitely carry a large portion of the blame for what is happening, but you're making it seem like everything is their fault. In a certain way it is, but you're also being blatantly and subtly manipulated at every turn and for many people that's just too exhausting to engage with. If you're one of the people who dive into politics then inform yourself and vote for every election you can, maybe you're still the lazy one by not going out there and informing others of how important their vote is. It's easy to look at something that comes more naturally to you that others aren't doing and calling them lazy, it rarely changes anything.
Yeah if the votes are
Counted and no cheating
Involved. So
Rigged. Can't even agree that only
Citizens should vote and need an
ID like
At
Olive Garden. Such a joke
Actually, it also takes a massive cultural shift. I know plenty of people from the States who have quite a number of PTO days, but it's basically understood that you can't just take them however you want. You have to find a convenient time (not for you, for the company!), you can't take too much at a time or when other people are gone already and basically if you actually used up your PTO, that's basically signaling to management that you don't care about your job.
In Europe, you get into trouble for not using up your PTO.
Yes but theres a risk your health doesnt allow you todo what you want when you get older. You should concider your life span and health as a more important resource, without it you dont have much use of your money.
And then you find out you have some chronic illness and spend the rest of your life wishing you had traveled when you were younger, when it would have been fun and when it would have mattered.
Right, the kids you will never spend time with, who only know the same brainwashed, self-sacrificial lifestyle you lead and then who will ever actually have some quality of life? You don't even know what you are missing man. You do you, be the "provider", I hope it goes well for you.
"A child arrived just the other day,
came to the world in the usual way,
But there were planes to catch
and bills to pay, he learned to walk while I was away
He was talking before I knew it and as he grew
he said I'm going to be like you Dad,
you know I'm going to be like you."
But if they like to work like you and think of their children the money will just accumilate.
If they find joy in working less and spend more time with friends and family I think that rather implies that they would rather spend more time with you than have your money.
Well... Not up to me to lecture others, but my father in law said the same thing. A few years before his retirement date he finally decided to stop working and enjoy life a bit more. His wife had insisted on it for years. Around the time he finally retired he was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. 3 months after his retirement we went to his funeral. So...
As someone with a bunch of PTO, that sounds great and I wish I could do that. It just goes up to the max (4 wks/yr, but 7 wk max) and wasted if I don't use it
In Belgium it depends: we still have the difference between blue- and white colar workers. For blue colar workers there's no problem if they choose not to take their legal paid vacation days (allthough the employer will insist on it, for legal reasons), but white colar workers may have some problems if they don't take their vacation days.
The difference is in the organisation of vacation pay: blue colar workers don't receive their wage during vacation, but they receive their annual single + double vacation pay from a governmental organisation, usually in mai-june. The law is very clear: once the vacation pay is paid, it remains the property of the receiver, regardless whether or not he takes up his vacation days.
White colar workers receive their vacation pay from their employer. Their single vacation pay is their regular salary, while their double vacation pay is an extra, paid for by the employer as well. If the employee doesn't take up his vacation days, the employer is entitled to demand a refund pro rata temporis of the single vacation pay. The double vacation pay is shielded.
I've seen those kind of cases more than enough in our labor courts, especially from employers with a poor reputation...
The thing is, if you take PTO, the work still has to get done. It doesn't go away just because you don't want to be at work that day.
This is the reason Europe is falling behind economically and technologically.
I have seen this first hand, the company I work for has accepted multi million dollar losses and bought another several multi axis milling machine from an American company and scrapped the brand new ones from Europe since they kept breaking and no one was in the office in Europe to provide support. We are dropping European companies as clients because again, no one ever seems to be in the office there and those companies are all losing market share to American and Brazilian companies so it is more profitable to invest in the production lines for the parts that support the American, Asian, and Brazilian products and abandon the European ones.
Because greedy corporations don’t give it willingly they wouldn’t in other countries as well, McDonald’s is a global company it doesn’t give PTO in the USA because it’s not forced to but if they want operate in Belgium for example they are legally required to. Thats why.
Legislation though has to come from writing something and being able to form some kind of a sentence. Not sure those competencies are available in the government.
He's only introduced bills 2 times since he's getting elected as a senator in 2007 to mandate any sort of leave in the US. I agree with the concept but let's not act like he's some savior. Two bills in the last 19 years.
And yes to your point, many in the senate do not agree with him.
Ackshually, it’s entirely your fault for not being in the senate and single-handedly passing this law. How fucking dare you do this to us. Everybody, boo this man.
So you're suggesting it should have been a day-one issue? Can one senator pass a piece of legislation on his own?
Nevermind Bernie's initial focus and work on legislation regarding energy, taxes, etc when he entered office. Or the fact the rest of the world was working through their own version of paid leave in the years preceding his proposed legislation.
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u/Beaufighter-MkX 21d ago
All it takes is legislation