Will Shetterly's Blog, page 134
April 6, 2014
Basic Income: Mincome vs. SIME/DIME
When discussing Universal Basic Income, proponents cite a Canadian study, Mincome, and opponents cite a US study, the Seattle-Denver Income Maintenance Experiment, aka SIME/DIME. When googling for comparisons of the two, I found Evelyn L. Forget's THE TOWN WITH NO POVERTY, which includes this about SIME/DIME (italics dime):
When Nixon came to office, he appointed Donald Rumsfeld to head the poverty programme, and Rumsfeld brought along an assistant named Dick Cheney. R...
April 3, 2014
April 2, 2014
Why opponents of abortion should be socialists
73% of women who have abortions say the reason is that they cannot afford to have a child now. Eliminate economic need, and you eliminate the economic need for abortion.
James Baldwin on race
“It's up to you. As long as you think you're white, there is no hope for you. As long as you think you're white, I'm going to be forced to think I'm black.” —James Baldwin
socialism is not asceticism
At What is a good counter-argument against "you're a socialist writing from a Macbook" type of argument?, Viciobrasil asked, "Everytime I try to have a discussion with my mostly reactionary and/or right-wing friends, they always use some argument like: "You're socialist and you have a MacBook" or "You read about Socialism in your iPhone". I know this is some kind of fallacy, but I don't know how to counter-argument them. Can someone shed a light for me?"
I answered, "The point of socialis...
I answered, "The point of socialis...
April 1, 2014
George Orwell on new ideas and Karl Marx
TRIBUNE Looking through Chesterton's Introduction to Hard Times in the Everyman Edition (incidentally, Chesterton's Introductions to Dickens are about the best thing he ever wrote) , I note the typically sweeping statement: ‘There are no new ideas.’ Chesterton is here claiming that the ideas which animated the French Revolution were not new ones but simply a revival of doctrines which had flourished earlier and then had been abandoned. But the claim t...
Carless
We sold our beloved 2000 Toyota Echo a few days ago and have no plans to replace her. (Yes, we loved her enough to give her a gender. She was silver, but we named her Ruby. It just seemed right.)
My big recent discovery is that Google's bus schedules are great. If you plug in your location and click "More options and times", you get the walking time between the bus, home, and your destination.
My big recent discovery is that Google's bus schedules are great. If you plug in your location and click "More options and times", you get the walking time between the bus, home, and your destination.
