Sorry, no victory laps for someone who failed to beat one of the worst presidential candidates in American history.

Jobs suck. That’s not news, everyone has known that for a very long time. Sure, some jobs suck less than others, and some people genuinely enjoy their job, but generally jobs just suck. That’s why they have to pay you to do them. But it takes more than a paycheck to make a job worth it. There was a time in America where the average person could work a job (albeit, often a sucky one) making a decent wage working only 40 hours a week, take a vacation every year, own a home, have a family and a community, all the things that make working a sucky job worth it. Over the last fifty years or so, many or all of the things that make working a sucky job worth it have slowly become less and less accessible to many people.

I am one of those people. I worked full time. It sucked, as many jobs do, but after putting in a full day’s work I didn’t go home to a wife and kids or a life that made me feel happy and fulfilled. I would drive my hour commute, which I hated, pick up take out or fast food, come home and watch TV, play video games, smoke pot, and drink. I’d go to sleep, wake up the next day and do exactly the same thing. I did that for years. I was absolutely miserable. People can’t live like that.

I have a feeling that “tragic mistakes” will keep happening until all the Palestinians are gone from the territories Israel wants to annex.

Consumer spending fuels economic growth…Job and wage growth helped counter the hit to consumers wallets from rising inflation, but a continued slowdown or reversal there could tip the scales…“While these indicators do not necessarily predict a recession, especially with a robust labor market, a weakening in employment conditions could exacerbate household financial instability,” said Gregory Daco, EY chief economist. “The combination of subdued job growth, sluggish income progression, and diminished savings could lead to increased delinquencies and a potential retrenchment in consumer spending.”…retail spending unexpectedly stalled in April in a sign of consumer fatigue and worry. Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, has said its customers are spending more on necessities and less on discretionary goods like home furnishings and electronics.

Why does no one talk about the cost of housing? Housing is astronomically expensive, and the more people have to spend for housing, the less they will have to spend on everything else.

I live in a very rural area and I have very fast fiberoptic broadband, provided by a local, not-for-profit cooperative. Absolutely the best Internet service I’ve ever had.

More than half of Americans — 56% — mistakenly believe the U.S. is currently in a recession…That’s not the case…The U.S. economy, as measured by GDP, is growing.

I think it shows that GDP is not necessarily a very good measure of how an economy, or society, is doing. GDP can go up for reasons that don’t really have anything to do with the lives of average people improving in any meaningful way. Plus, the rate of growth in Q1 was, what, like 1.5%? That’s very modest growth. The economy is not exactly roaring.

So GDP is growing and we’re not in a recession, but that doesn’t mean the economy is “good” or “strong,” necessarily. It takes much more to determine the strength of the economy than just looking at GDP figures.

So, Rowsdower, is that a stupid name?

“It is imperative that the Senate, in a bipartisan way, comes up with crippling sanctions against the ICC — not only to support Israel but to deter any future action against American personnel,” Graham said.

In this time of political division, it’s good to see there is still at least one thing liberals and conservatives agree on, and that is that the US and Israel must be allowed to commit war crimes without consequences.

Now everybody go fucking vote.

Vote for whom? You clearly don’t want me to vote for just anyone, so say the name. Stop being a pussy and say who it is you want me to vote for.

I’m not down on the economy, the economy’s down on me.

i’m not about to liquidate my accounts just to stick it to the man.

I didn’t say you should. I am saying that under the current model, investors, including individuals whose retirement accounts are tied to the stock market, need to accept and allow for periodic market corrections, otherwise asset bubbles will form, making much more severe crashes inevitable. The problem is, investors don’t plan for or are willing to accept periodic corrections, they will only accept their accounts going up, at an increasing rate, forever. Needless to say, that is impossible.

But until we come up with a better system, cheering for the collapse of the stock market hurts pretty much everyone

We’d better come up with a better system fast because regardless of who is or is not cheering for what, no asset market goes up in value forever. Market corrections are a natural part of any market cycle and many people believe the stock markets are generally overvalued at present. Some people would even say that the current market “bubble” is being propped up by people who don’t want a correction to occur because it would mean a decrease in their retirement savings, but all that does is all but guarantee that when the inevitable correction does occur, it will be more severe than it needed to be.

I would consider it, though they don’t currently sell anything I would consider to be affordable.

Nice try, Joe, but I will never buy a Tesla. Ever.

…an ongoing surge in demand from millennial home buyers has steadily pushed home prices higher

The thing is, housing is a universal human need, so as the population goes up, the demand for housing will go up as well.

Everyone always forgets the “it just works,” easy, normie distributions like Fedora. I guess people figure if you’re looking for an OS like that, you might as well just use Windows, but I’d rather not.

It certainly seems that in the vast majority of cases, shareholders feel their trust is best honored when profits are maximized, and that their trust is violated when profits are insufficient.

What happens when distinctive cultural tradition collides with corporate America?

Corporations have a fiduciary obligation to maximize profit for shareholders. That is the primary reason for their existence. It is not to meet a need, promote well being, or respect cultural traditions, it’s only to maximize profit. If in the pursuit of maximum profits a corporation does end up meeting some need or promoting well being, it is incidental. Popular theory is that the companies that best meet their consumers needs will also be the most profitable, but reality is much more complicated than that and this theory often doesn’t hold up, which is unfortunate because it is the basis for our entire economic system. We have built our entire economic system on the idea that the pursuit of profit should be the highest ideal. I think we can now say conclusively that was a mistake.

I don’t think there are very many people in the US who are “anti-white.” I think a majority of Americans are against white supremacism, or a racial hegemony/hierarchy that has “whites” at the top. That doesn’t mean I want a hierarchy that has another group at the top, I want no hegemonic order at all. I think most Americans would prefer it if we could all just see each other as, well, Americans.

I realize that’s easier said than done in this very divided era. I can’t deny that I have a hard time seeing some people as my countryman, because their culture, beliefs, and ideals are so much different than mine. I’d like it if we could reach some kind of consensus on what it means to be an American. I think we will reach a consensus, but getting there is going to be… contentious.

I’m not young, but I’m also not committed to a political party. I consider myself politically and ideologically agnostic. I’m not going to limit myself to only one ideology or orthodoxy. I prefer pragmatism to rigid orthodoxy.