Celestial-body-NOS
Why should Man not rebel against Nature, when Nature herself is in rebellion against Justice?
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Celestial-body-NOS
Why should Man not rebel against Nature, when Nature herself is in rebellion against Justice?
6mo ago
Heaven hath no rage like love to hatred turned
nor hell hath any fury like a woman scorned.
-- William Congreve
Celestial-body-NOS
Why should Man not rebel against Nature, when Nature herself is in rebellion against Justice?
6mo ago
An that's why I always say the best anti-rape policy is to lower the minimum wage
But then you have the problem of people who work full-time who still can't afford the costs of an existence worthy of human dignity.
and fight the unions.
That goes in the wrong direction; unions are an attempt to solve the very problem I am alluding to, namely the gross imbalance of power between Alice and Bob!
Doesn't the US have full employment already, therefore Bob was not raped?
Perhaps 'full employment' was not the exactly correct term; I am referring to the balance of power between management and labour, and economic circumstances in which the lack of an agreement has similar costs to both sides.
Celestial-body-NOS
Why should Man not rebel against Nature, when Nature herself is in rebellion against Justice?
6mo ago
Does this apply to all aspects of employment contracts, or only to sexual favors? Is Bob bound by anything in his employment contract, or can he break it as he sees fit because he is being held hostage by reality?
It applies to unreasonable provisions, i. e. ones Bob only accepts because Alice can afford to hold out longer.
It doesn't apply to 'doing the task for which he was hired, to a reasonable standard'.
Celestial-body-NOS
Why should Man not rebel against Nature, when Nature herself is in rebellion against Justice?
6mo ago
If it turns out that political considerations keep you from doing those strong measures
...there will still be less excreta on the pavement, because some of the people previously doing their business there will now be using toilets. Even if it isn't a complete solution, we're still better off.
Part one: hurt people by making them do X, part 2: ameloriate the harm from part 1
My proposal isn't making anyone do anything. If you want to reserve your business's toilets to paying customers, I am not proposing to forbid that course of action!
Under the status quo, businesses are in a position isomorphic to the prisoners' dilemma:
- if all businesses offer public toilets, I am better off than if none of them do, because there are fewer bowel movements on the ground.
- However, if all the other businesses offer public toilets, it is in my financial interest to reserve the toilets in my business to paying customers, and thus spend less on maintenance.
- If none of the other businesses offer public toilets, it is also in my financial interest to reserve the toilets in my business to paying customers.
Under my proposal, the extra taxes paid by businesses not offering public WCs would be reserved for the exclusive purpose of either directly providing facilities, or subsidising other businesses' provision thereof. (I apologise if that part wasn't clear.)
it's easy to say you'll do part 2 without actually doing it.
Hence the specific tax, from which businesses can make themselves exempt if they provide restrooms one can use without spending anything.
Celestial-body-NOS
Why should Man not rebel against Nature, when Nature herself is in rebellion against Justice?
6mo ago
Why not simply relinquish the silly ban on paid public toilets and enforce the law as it exists?
Because I am trying to come up with a solution for the problem of 'providing restroom facilities to people who cannot pay for them'.
It is generally considered unacceptable (at least in the West) to put someone in a position in which they have no choice but to violate the law, and then punish them for doing so. As people do not cease to have bodily functions when they cannot legally perform them, there needs to exist places in which someone can exercise the Greater and Lesser Conveniences, even if they cannot pay to do so.
(I suppose one could allow private businesses to operate paid toilets, subject to taxation used to fund the free-at-point-of-use facilities....)
Celestial-body-NOS
Why should Man not rebel against Nature, when Nature herself is in rebellion against Justice?
6mo ago
That analogy falls down when you equate the 'commons' to someone with feelings.
Celestial-body-NOS
Why should Man not rebel against Nature, when Nature herself is in rebellion against Justice?
6mo ago
A not entirely unreasonable point. Our economic system gives too much leverage to employers; if Alice hires Bob, Bob has a lot more to lose than Alice does; thus Alice can make unreasonable demands knowing that: 1. Bob will probably back down first, and 2. if he refuses, she won't have any difficulty finding someone more desperate. If we try to patch specific abuses with rules like 'don't make sex with one's boss a condition of employment', we end up playing Whack-a-Mole as Alice keeps finding more indignities to inflict on Bob, and campaigns against any intervention with the argument that Bob 'voluntarily' agreed to her terms, in the same way as the victim of a highway-man 'voluntarily' agreed to hand over his valuables.
Under full employment, however, if Alice demands that Bob offer her sexual favours, or forgo safety equipment in order to work faster, or stand up for his entire shift even though he could do his work just as well sitting down, or answer his phone at zero-dark-thirty for something could have waited until morning, or refrain from eating rice on Tuesdays, &c. &c., Bob is more likely to leave, and, having done so, is less likely to experience financial hardship as he can readily find a more reasonable employer, while Alice, less able to find anyone who will accept her onerous terms, will be incentivised to be more reasonable herself.
In such a system, the libertarian argument that Alice and Bob mutually agreed to whatever terms would be much more likely to hold water.
Celestial-body-NOS
Why should Man not rebel against Nature, when Nature herself is in rebellion against Justice?
6mo ago
That doesn't help the issue of people with empty wallets and full bladders/large intestines. If there is no legitimate place in public where people can relieve themselves without spending any money, everyone else will have to navigate a bio-hazardous obstacle course on the side-walk.
My recommendation:
- Tax businesses who do not offer public bathrooms (defined as allowing anyone to come in, use the toilet, and leave without buying anything).
- Use the revenue from the tax to fund (a.) subsidies for businesses who do offer public restrooms (as defined above), or (b.) construction and maintenance of free-at-point-of-use public toilets.
- Once there are plenty of places where one can empty one's excretory organs without spending anything, it will be much more justifiable to take strong measures against those who continue to No. 1 on walls or No. 2 on the pavement.
Celestial-body-NOS
Why should Man not rebel against Nature, when Nature herself is in rebellion against Justice?
6mo ago
Also check for parasites; hookworm has been known to have adverse effects on cognition....
Celestial-body-NOS
Why should Man not rebel against Nature, when Nature herself is in rebellion against Justice?
6mo ago
Strategic “divide and conquer” is a well-known tactic used to prevent group cohesion; anything which draws a wedge between white people or highlights differences will ultimately reduce the strength and chance of group advocacy.
Now apply the same reasoning to 'white people' wrt 'black people'.
Celestial-body-NOS
Why should Man not rebel against Nature, when Nature herself is in rebellion against Justice?
6mo ago
And more Biden voters in Texas than there were in New York. (xkcd #2399)
Celestial-body-NOS
Why should Man not rebel against Nature, when Nature herself is in rebellion against Justice?
6mo ago
With which Russia had also previously interfered (2004, Viktor Yushchenko).
Celestial-body-NOS
Why should Man not rebel against Nature, when Nature herself is in rebellion against Justice?
6mo ago
The radiological hazard of depleted uranium is overstated; U-238 decays very slowly, and is sometimes (due to its density) used as shielding for more rapidly-decaying nuclides.
However, it poses a chemical hazard, as uranium is chemically toxic in a similar way to other heavy metals.
Celestial-body-NOS
Why should Man not rebel against Nature, when Nature herself is in rebellion against Justice?
6mo ago
Russian propaganda mentioned it several times back during the Maidan crisis in 2014 and it was just as silly then.
Sillier, actually; I don't recall any noise among the Western nations about biting off any territory from Ukraine.
Celestial-body-NOS
Why should Man not rebel against Nature, when Nature herself is in rebellion against Justice?
6mo ago
And if Ukraine had sought independence for the sole purpose of continuing to keep human beings as property (and listed that as the reason in their declarations of secession), I might concede that the Kremlin had something approaching the general neighbourhood of a point.
Celestial-body-NOS
Why should Man not rebel against Nature, when Nature herself is in rebellion against Justice?
6mo ago
The central example of right-wing violence during the Trump era is a single riot where the only deaths were one of the rioters and a couple geezers that got too excited and had heart attacks.
Are you referring to the Diet-Coke Hall Putsch?
There was also the Charlottesville Massacre. (Kind of book-ends it....)
Celestial-body-NOS
Why should Man not rebel against Nature, when Nature herself is in rebellion against Justice?
6mo ago
For what?
Last American clay gained on the battlefield was the Pacific Trust Territory taken from Japan, and we didn't start that one.
Celestial-body-NOS
Why should Man not rebel against Nature, when Nature herself is in rebellion against Justice?
6mo ago
Note that Prince Harry is the great-great-great-great-grandson of a Russian Tsar (Nikolai I - Konstantin Nikolayevich - Ol'ga Konstantinovna - Andreas tis Elladas - Philip of Edinburgh - Charles III - Harry of Sussex).
Celestial-body-NOS
Why should Man not rebel against Nature, when Nature herself is in rebellion against Justice?
6mo ago
Is "I think it's a good thing there are significantly less teenage pregnancies" bait?
Might reel in Stannis Baratheon or Weird al-Yankovic....
Celestial-body-NOS
Why should Man not rebel against Nature, when Nature herself is in rebellion against Justice?
6mo ago
Celestial-body-NOS
Why should Man not rebel against Nature, when Nature herself is in rebellion against Justice?
6mo ago
From the perspective of 1945? Yes.
Celestial-body-NOS
Why should Man not rebel against Nature, when Nature herself is in rebellion against Justice?
6mo ago
The Boy Who Cried (Endangered Species of) Wolf?
Celestial-body-NOS
Why should Man not rebel against Nature, when Nature herself is in rebellion against Justice?
6mo ago
The problem with that method is that, as armaments technology advanced over the XIX and XX centuries, warfare became increasingly destructive to bystanders who had been minding their own business until their governments decided that they needed a distraction from their own inadequacies.
Celestial-body-NOS
Why should Man not rebel against Nature, when Nature herself is in rebellion against Justice?
6mo ago
If I recall correctly, their breakthrough was that they had a radar system small enough to fit on a plane.
"If you don't do this, we will shut down your business at gunpoint" is making people do it. Regarding the issue at hand, laws that require retail businesses to offer restroom access to non-customers would count as 'making' someone do something.
The plan I am suggesting is (to quote the Rightful Caliph) a Something Sort Of Like Left-Libertarianism-ist alternative to more coercive measures.
(A Something Sort Of Like Left-Libertarianism-ist Manifesto, Slate Star Codex, December 2013)
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