truxus

The hype is strong with this one.

Don't you think it's about time we removed all the unnessecary independent voices from media so we can stop confusing people? The Russians and Chinese are doing it; we need to catch up - we've got to have unity in our messages. /Sarcasm

Click bait title.

The Saudis are locked in golden handcuffs. We provide them lavish lifestyles, they provide us irreplaceable energy resources. When the oil is gone those people go back to living in the dark ages.

Well put. Glad there are rational people in the discussion.

RT and Sputnik are weapons of information warfare. It would be rational for USA's society and government to end their toleration of Russian media in domestic space. The only legitimate reason for Russia to have US news media arms is to show public discord and private confusion. I don't know why this even needs to be discussed. There exist some foriegn nation's who's objectives and values align with the US, but Russia is not one of them.

A simple example:

10 people make widgets. Annual production is 10 widgets. Mean annual standard of living is 1 widget.

9 people make widgets, 1 person is on UBI. Annual production is 9 widgets. Mean annual standard of living is 0.9 widgets.

In the second example one widget was destroyed, and everyone was affected.

We are all counting on one another to to create value. At my business, in my community, and our country as a whole, I'm counting on you to take a job and work, because if you don't we will both have a lower standard of living.

Having lived around people all my life, I will tell you that if you give someone something free, it is rare that they give more of themselves to their community.

I will not remind you that utopian experiments are not new.

Police, insurance, and fire department are paid services to protect property. UBI is a scheme intended to increase consumption, that is, destroy property.

In both cases real wealth is lost from the economy.

State sponsored destruction of property.

What if you decide to fund a self-destructive addiction? Or send the money to a foreign country? Is that in the public interest?

The problem with UBI is that it doesn't promote social behavior. In fact it promotes anti-social behavior, since a UBI recipient need not provide any value to his community as a condition of this benefit.

Charity is not a legitimate role for government.

I agree with parent, it is foolish to take your pregnant wife on a trip through a warzone. The children suffered for a decision they were not old enough to make.

Your definition is yet undefined...

Does your DNA change day to day?

>Because their social media lives are not its business -- citizens or not.

This is a bit absurd. First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees your right to publish papers. But now you also want the right to prevent your publications from being read? The government has had a program collecting a vast majority of publications for a very long time i.e. the Library of Congress, so one might say the precedent has already been set.

Well you don't become the largest democracy in the world by baking pies...

Your success touched a nerve. Lots of people making excuses for how lucky you are, and how lucky others aren't.

It's been known for millennia that "luck" is actually being ready for opportunity and then acting decisively when presented with opportunities. Preparation and action is what seperates winners from losers. You cant help losers win, you can only buy them time.

My parents were small farmers in the 80s when it was "get big or get out". I remember a lot of kids in my 20-person grade level had shoes that were falling apart, myself included. Grandpa died in 94 and my dad tried to keep the farm going by himself but could only last 2 years before the farm went broke. He left home and trained to be a truck driver. He drove over the road for 2 weeks at a time, when he was home he'd sleep, then go back out. My parents declared personal bankruptcy and the bank took their property and we were evicted in April 1999. We moved not far away, my parents needed a co-signer. My grandmother lived in the same house as us because they couldn't afford to move her double wide trailer. My parents slept on a pull-out couch for a year. Nobody gave them hand-outs. Life began slowly to turn around soon after.

You do what you have to do. And in the meantime you get ready for the next move. America is the land of opportunity, don't forget that.

To play devil's advocate: you can opt to not listen to Erdogan, just wait until he is finished.

I believe he's right, the Queen's message is similar.

Am also a design engineer, I specialize in water and wastewater works. My clients are all municipalities, with tight budget and politics are a factor. Engineering productivity has climbed thanks to computers, but construction productivity continues to decline. In my experience on small jobs this has a lot to do with safety and regulations. It takes a team of 2-3 to enter confined spaces (manholes) for momentary inspections or maintenance, it takes extra workers to set up traffic zones to ensure travellers are less of a danger to the workers. Time is taken to ensure archeological, agricultural, and culturally sensitive areas are not disturbed. Minority and women owned businesses are given contractual preference, whether they are most qualified or not. It takes a special (read: expensive) team several weeks to document trivial wetland areas (most people call them roadside ditches), and another person weeks of labor to explain how impacts will be minimized. The government sets standard labor rates for construction labor.

But these are things we as a society have deemed important. Its not acceptable for lives to be lost. It's not acceptable for construction workers to accept low wages. It's not acceptable to recklessly degrade our environmental resources, and it's important to have diversity in this industry.

I don't know if it's true in other countries, but it seems the USA vascilates between priorities depending on the public administration. I am young so my experience is short. Bush saw a real estate bubble, Obama saw an insurance bubble, Trump et al aim for a construction boom. I would add that in New York my home state, a Democrat state, there is a large infrastructure program starting, so it's not just Republicans.