With Daylight Savings once again coming up, it never fails for it to spark discussions about its purpose in modern times. People hate it widely while few seem to be okay with it and depending where you live, others don’t even know what the deal is.
Politicians have actually put it on the docket to be voted on, but seems to have lost traction. Quite frankly, this is an issue that should be done and over with. Just end it, but please end it when we have the clocks dialed back than forward, because I wouldn’t like time going faster than it already is.
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The calendar’s arrangement, at least for America. I think would be better if we had 13 months, having 12 of them with exactly 30 days in their block. The 13th month has all the extra days, and is extended during a leap year. Coincidentally, elections for president should be held during the leap year, to give people an longer voting window.
During the voting window each year, the last five days of December, all the days in the 13th month, and the first 5 days of January, are eligible as vacation days. Voters pick five days during the 15 day voting window to be on paid vacation. If they fail to vote and have a job, their employer will be penalized with an amount of money that is double the pay of the worker for five days of work. Citizens, if they vote, get a $100 check from the government.
This creates a carrot for everyday people to vote, especially workers. Employers are punished if they try to interfere with voting and vacation days during the voting season, which in turn makes it easier for people to participate in democracy. The vacation days allow for research, to have ample time to send a ballot or go to the booth.
Also, I personally dislike the regular months having variable lengths. It is disorderly and annoying, to have them stretch and bend seemingly at random.
Executive Orders in the U.S. political system
I’m Canada we have the “Notwithstanding clause” which can serve a similar function; allowing a premier to unilaterally decide something without the approval of parliament.
Neither should be allowed to exist.
Also remove the entire idea of some countries having “veto” power in NATO and UN matters.
The Electoral College
If we want to say we’re a democracy then we need to be a democracy.,
Here in Canada, parliament has been discussing universal basic income for years. Economists have proven it would save the government money. It would be a win-win. Do it already.
Canada did a study trial of UBI. People who could physically work ended up getting jobs while on it.
But, this is not the reality that sells in suburban Canada.
People are driven to work for fulfillment and nobody likes being poor. People will always try to make as much money as possible. The “welfare king/queen” is a rare mentality, most people are not content with being poor.
I think they’re doing another trial right away, and one of them’s in BC where Doug Ford can’t get at it.
Don’t worry we have plenty of asshat conservatives here we well
Capitalism
Oof, where do I begin?
- Fossil fuel companies
- cruises
- diesel cars
- low-cost fast fashion retail companies
- modern slavery
- racism
- misinformation
- political scapegoats
- two-party systems
- billionaires
- polyester
- Artificial food colouring
- non-medical drugs and smoking
- alcohol
- low-cost greasy fast-food chains
- kids on social media
I’m tired! 😩 We’ve normalised unhealthy, unsustainable, and elitist lifestyles way too much! There are ways to be successful, happy, stylish, and joyful without these things. Many countries are already committing themselves to such efforts, so I know I’m not asking for much. I understand freedom of choice, and I’m usually quite libertarian, but some things just bring temporary fun and no benefits at all. In fact, some harm those around us too.
Renewable energy, electric cars, second-hand retail, artisanship, fair trade, multiculturalism, science-based education based on facts and credible sources, government transparency and accountability, a true democracy where the electoral candidates actually represent their party’s base and voters don’t feel hopeless, economic equality, socialism, natural fibres in fabrics, simple and natural food, therapy, mindfulness, healthy homemade packaged food, and kids staying off social media needs to be good again!
diesel cars
Gone for good reasons.
missing one Universal healthcare or using part of the defense budget to fund/subsidized Healthcare for all in the US.
easier to get proof citizen documents/things, like passport right now its a convoluted , lenghty process for first time, and Inactive users for things like passports.
Yeah sorry, we already have free and universal healthcare so I didn’t think of it 😅 But you’re right! My mind boggles at how terrible the healthcare system is in the US. I feel awful for people with chronic conditions and vulnerable situations, especially. The fact that the most reliable option is not to be insured and hope that you won’t ever get seriously injured or sick is depressing. The people who oppose universal free healthcare and those who deny healthcare to the less fortunate are evil. I know it’s obvious, but Luigi Mangione (or whoever it was) did a good thing. I wish it were all of them, but at least he got you rid of one asshole.
funny thing is conservatives are ON ACA, but they dont want to expand it or use it all. they have propagandized by fox that its "obamacare’ so they cant make that distinction that it was dem majority that had the law. and why the gop have a difficult time of removing it.
people with chronic disease are often disliked by insurance, because they know they would cost more, so they charge more for it. Also each company has thier convoluted payment systems.
Yeah that was a jawdropping discovery… How people just decide to shoot themselves in the foot because the media told them some fake news. I heard some didn’t even know that they were benefitting from that Act. It’s ridiculous!
And yeah, I know the jist of how it works (not!) :/ It’s not like people choose to become chronically ill… I’m just sorry for the people who still have to live with the consequences of the actions by a bunch of obese anti-vaxxers who will be dead in a couple of years. This is why I believe that the insurance companies and those who voted against the ACA are murderers. They kill innocent people with them.
I’m sure I’m gonna get some spicy replies to this, but guns and gun culture in the US. There was a major shooting in my city in the past couple of days, and you can’t even guess where because it happens every goddamn day somewhere in the country.
Any situation where there is a gun or the likelihood a gun is present immediately escalates it. Everyone is on edge because at anytime someone might be carrying. A minor argument or altercation can easily turn into a homicide. I avoid large crowded events when it’s outdoors and there are no security gates and checks. I stay away from bar districts on weekends because the chances of someone intoxicated and carrying is much higher. I’m tired of having my head on a swivel everywhere I go.
And for the 2A folks, that used to work back when you can actually successfully take up arms against the government when they’re oppressing you. Joe Redneck’s 500 guns in his house won’t help stop the government from taking away his rights.
I’ll take a shot at a spicy reply: they aren’t wrong, at least not completely. Having a lot of guns won’t stop the government from taking your rights, but it does limit their options. That’s why American conservatives have to bend over backwards to make sure you know: if you’re an American who identifies with gun culture, they are unequivocally on your side *. The current administration would love to restrict gun ownership, but they’re still afraid of losing the support of that bloc. And I think it’s at least partially because they have guns.
*^provided you follow the law and support the troops and all the police as well and also aren’t openly queer or melanated^
Here’s the deal, if I could snap my fingers and remove all semi-automatic firearms across the US I’d do it in a second. The problem is, the cat’s already out of the bag. Some back of the napkin math here, but there are about 20 million AR style rifles in the US. Let’s say we do a buyback program that gets rid of a full quarter of those (that’s a crazy high number, but makes math easy) for $250 a pop. Just on payouts alone, nevermind the logistical overhead, that’s 1.25 billion dollars to make sure that if someone previously had access to 4 rifles on average, now they have access to 3. Not to mention all the other types of semi-auto firearms available like pistols, different rifles, etc.
What we need to do is improve the material conditions for people in their daily lives. It’s a whole hell of a lot harder to radicalize someone when they’re happy, healthy, and have a bright future ahead of them. Nationalized healthcare, an improved housing market, and sane tax laws in this country will go a hell of a lot farther to reduce gun violence than just making them illegal ever could.
I wish this was an issue we could just legislate a fix for, I really do, but it’s a symptom rather than a disease. That’s not to say laws can’t touch the issue. Sane and fair gun laws can and should be implemented, but on their own they will just drive the issues underground.
I hear ya. It’s the culture that needs to change. There are a lot of other countries where guns are available, but there’s no culture celebrated around it and it’s not ingrained into being such an important/integral thing to society.
A spicy reply in favor of your post: guns are obsolete. They’re completely useless and unnecessary in modern society. The only thing guns provide is the illusion of “safety”, which is only necessary because guns are allowed to exist. It’s a simple fact that getting rid of guns entirely would have the death rate plummet, especially for kids. Thousands and thousands of lives are sacrificed every year to enrich a powerful lobby and make people with smol pp energy feel a false sense of security.
Interestingly
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-adopting-year-round-daylight-time-9.7111657
We just got rid of it
Doesn’t that mean keeping it forever?
Define “it.”
Daylight savings. Daylight savings is one hour forward, which is the state being kept, no?
We’re going to stick to the summer time all year instead of the winter time
Authority, hierarchy, government, capitalism.
It really is amazing, all the insights, the discoveries, the knowledge, the artistry, the technology that the human race has acquired. Historically, every time we thought we knew the limits of our potential, we have gone far beyond those limits. Except that we still haven’t figured out how not to hand over control of everything to the absolute worst of us. Like literally put our most deluded narcissistic psychopathic pedophiles in charge of the entire fucking world.
Genuine question. I agree with you. How many of us do you think there are?
To me it seems obvious that we can do better. We could have a fair, sustainable, non-hierarchical, global system, where the people making big collective decisions are genuinely prosocial and competent. Surely if enough of us coordinated our efforts, we could bring this about?
But the older I get, the more people I get to really know, the more I find this to be a very, very rare perspective. Most people seem to believe in the current system. We must be divided into competing regional factions (nations) and within those have a power hierarchy based on wealth, and individually be primarily motivated by greed.
Let’s be more specific. Which of these do you think is most likely:
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folk like us—willing to sacrifice our immediate interests for a prosocial future—are common, but something is keeping us isolated (e.g., our communication networks—mass media, social media, etc—are being manipulated)
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folk like us are currently rare, but most people just conform and imitate. If our position was sufficiently publicised/promoted, the majority of people could potentially get on board, we could change the world.
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folk like us are rare, and most people are and will always be genuinely selfish. This system, where the strong exploit the weak economically, but in a way that leads to global economic growth, is the best we can do as a species, because most of us will always be selfish and short sighted.
I don’t think it’s as simple as people being like us or not. I’d say most people put their interests and the interests of their families first, most people have trouble thinking for themselves and tend to identify with whatever ideologies they are most exposed to, and most people want to make the world a better place.
So
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yes we are being isolated, divided, set against each other. Communication networks are being extensively manipulated, and potential dissent can be suppressed quite subtly like that.
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I draw no distinction between “folk like us” and people who conform and imitate. I’m not an exception, though I do at least try to be aware of it. Formation of a large scale movement will make all the difference. Of course the billionaire class will fight tooth and nail to prevent this from ever happening.
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Again, no distinction. I’m selfish and I benefit from economic inequality. But I can see that the system is working toward disaster. And I think most people see that to some degree. I don’t think it is the best we can do as a species. The problem is that the world’s most powerful people are mostly trying to stop us from making it better.
I don’t know what the answer is but I think raising awareness matters. Perversely I think that some good may come out of the Trump administration, because it serves as a model of the abuse of power, and it really ought to help people see who the real enemy is. Maybe we knew all along, but it was more comfortable to live with it. Maybe we’re at a point where we can’t live with it any more.
These are excellent insights, well articulated. Thank you.
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Most people are 20% pro social and 80% selfish forever.
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This is the purpose of the American Experiment. To devise a society that won’t ever truly be occupied entirely by the worst of us.
Time to reset the experiment with different parameters
It’s so far still working as a whole. If it were to fail, there’s no resetting it.
Not sure what you meant by “occupied entirely” but a society ruled by the worst, and committed to bringing out the worst in its populace is what I’d call a failed experiment.
Not at all. The American system is specifically designed to remedy that situation. Until it fails to do so, the experiment continues.
Sure thing bro. No war in Ba Sing Se
Disposable plastic. It should never have been a thing, but by now it really shouldn’t be a thing. No plastic food containers, no plastic textiles, damn near everything should be in cotton bags or paper boxes or glass jars or unlined metal cans but we’re so damn accustomed to convenience that the permanent externality is seen as necessary. I’m willing to make allowances for safety and medicine but even there the focus should be developing good biodegradable plastic.
People with young kids do not want daylight savings time all year around because it would be dark when they go to school. People like myself would like dst all year around because we hate it being dark at 4pm.
I hate this argument. Sorry.
Just start school later. The day is the same either way, choose to have school hours or winter hours.
And by the way, even if it is dark, so what? There are kids all over the world that go to school in the dark it really doesn’t matter.
Just shift you schedule accordingly, the number really doesn’t matter much.
Yeah I don’t find especiall persuasive myself but let me tell you. You want to control a population then make sure they have kids. Because nothing is going to matter for that person at that point over their kids (or most people anyway). So voting wise anyway you basically have this large group that are going to go ape trump on anyone suggesting it. Changing the school day has issues because its time has to fit with parents major work schedules. so the 9 to 5. The school day starts just after 8 partially so they can drop off the kids then go to work. No idea how they are picking them up but I can say my wfh places was pretty easy going with parents being on meetings while in the car picking up kids or taking 20 mins to do it.
I’d rather have accurate noon / celestial time for the few months it is still allowed and still have to switch twice a year than let the government make wrong-noon (“daylight saving”) time permanent. So, many of the “end time switching” movements I actively resist rather than support.
I imagine things like this aren’t “done and over” because there is no majority opinion.
RCV / a Condorcet Method might help.
- Doorbells and dogs barking in commercials
- General purpose household lighting above 3500K color temperature
- LED rope lighting bordering a storefront’s windows and doors
- Terrible cereal bags
- Turn indicators being on the inside corner of headlight assemblies
- 4 legged chairs/stools/tables at restaurants. By employing a 3 leg standard, they’re incapable of being wobbly
I love my very high kelvin lights. They give this cozy surgical room vibe. When I have visitors I make them a little warmer.
What defines a terrible cereal bag??
The heat press or glue or whatever is too strong and keeps me from opening the bag cleanly. Top tier cereal bags essentially peel open and leave a clean hole at the top of the bag to pour from.
And you see, people wonder why I always have, like, six knives on me.
Not OP, but I would say a lot of cereal bag plastic has too much elasticity. This means that you will pull in the bag in attempts to open it, but the plastic will just stretch, until all of a sudden the elastic tension (?) is released and the energy is distributed through a hairline crack in the bag that goes halfway down. The sudden release of energy can also cause the cereal to go everywhere.
rent a pair of scissors. Move on.
That qualifies.
3 legged chairs sounds like a nightmare, why not 4 legs with basic suspension mechanisms in the legs? 3 legged chairs is such a bad idea I’m questioning the validity of most of the rest of your screed. How do you propose 3 legged chairs to work without being a tipping hazard? 1 leg in the front or well off the back (impeding the walkway behind the chair)
On the topic of daylight savings, I used to prefer that we stay on the daylight savings side of the time. But honestly at this point I am fine with staying on standard time if that means no more switching.
Otherwise one thing lately that I wish was done and over with by now is physical junk mail. Literal paper showing up in my mailbox that I now have to dispose of. Something I don’t ask for and will never look at. And I can’t help but think that happens to millions in my country every single day all for an irrelevant number of people to even look at. I can’t imagine how many trees are lost each year for something that has zero usefulness.
I want to stay on daylight saving time year round. I agree, the fact that we keep changing the time twice a year is ridiculous. There’s no reason. Who is demanding we do this? We’re doing it solely because of tradition, like in the story “The Lottery” where they stone a random person to death every year for no reason, just because of tradition. Ironically, this is something I can see Trump getting rid of, it would be one of the very few things I’d support him on (along with abolishing pennies)
I’ve been doing it for 45 years, still don’t understand why people care so much
Because assholes in a society don’t like being told what to do. Not like we don’t have actual problems to deal with.
