Holy shit. They did it. The crazy bastards did it. @MSNBC created a graphic with photos of the 20 candidates to appear in the first debates, and they actually went so far as to remove @AndrewYang and include someone who didn't even qualify. This is shameless in how brazen it is.
Good Lord. @MSNBC just can't help themselves. In the latest example, they include his photo in a list of top 8, and manage to read every name but @AndrewYang's??
Isn't it kind of odd how @MSNBC went with 7 bars here instead of 8? Doesn't it look asymmetrically unappealing? Does it look to you like something is missing? That number 8 spot belongs to @AndrewYang with 1.1%.
I'm going to go ahead and leave this here in this thread, as it obviously belongs here. You can force the brass at NBC to put someone on the stage according to their rules, but you can't force them to ask him anything beyond the absolute minimum of questions. #DemDebate#YangGang
With #LetYangSpeak now trending across the country, I feel I should expand this thread with some more examples of blatant MSNBC shenanigans in their treatment of Andrew Yang. Here's where they spoke over his appearance at the Poor People's Campaign Forum.
This egregious behavior has even been noted by @FAIRmediawatch where despite polling 8th at the time, an MSNBC graphic earlier this month excluded Andrew Yang in a photo compilation of 20 candidates. #LetYangSpeak#YangGang
10/ In this latest NBC graphic, @AndrewYang's positive Twitter mention percentage is literally off the charts, likely because #LetYangSpeak was a top trending keyword nationwide all day on Friday and anything over 40% couldn't be displayed… Also, no room for a 9th anyway, right?
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There's something about the debate going unsaid when we argue over whether AI will replace human labor or complement it.
If replace, then basic income is definitely needed.
If complement, then it's easy to believe we own the total value of our enhanced labor. But why is that?
If my labor is enhanced by technology, such that my work as a human contributes 10% to what I produce and a machine contributes the other 90%, then why do I deserve anything more than 10%, even if I own the machine?
Now we need to ask where the machine came from...
Robots, AI, computer hardware and software, it all came from the past. Those alive today are building on what those humans no longer with us built, who themselves built on what they were given.
Government spending was invested in all of this technology to grow and accelerate it.
"People perceive national debt as a negative, Grey said. But instead, he argues, you can think of it as a savings account, because people are earning interest through the bonds that they hold."
It is a choice we make to issue Treasury securities $1 for $1 of federal spending that exceeds taxes. We don't have to do that, but it's popular because people like earning a US government guaranteed rate of interest.
The US issues USD. We choose to also issue securities that pay USD interest. Our 14th Amendment says we can't default on any of our promised payments. Just keep making the payments, and we may as well also issue a $1 trillion coin to demonstrate we don't have to issue securities.
This is good but I wish it also included how Medicare Part D doesn't even carry the same issue as the rest of Medicare because it was set up to use general revenue. It's the example that proves all that's required to "fix Social Security" is just a legislative change in wording.
If we decide to reduce Social Security payments in the future, that's a political choice. We certainly don't have to do that. We can keep making 100% of payments, and no we don't even have to lift the cap on payroll taxes. We can just spend the money.
It's really harmful how wide and how strong the myth-based belief is that the national "debt" is some big scary loan of some kind instead of being more like a savings account and how running a deficit is somehow bad regardless of what the spending is for.
At their annual meeting, the Southern African Quaker Community voted in support of the introduction of a universal basic income for all people legally in South Africa. Here they explain the reasons behind the resolution.
"The poverty-stricken masses have nothing going for them, see no hope for their future, and have nothing to lose. South Africa is a tinderbox that will catch fire if a match is thrown into it... South Africa may be considered a real-world example of where the world is going."
"In our view as Quakers, unconditional universality is pivotal. First, this emphasizes the equality and worth of all. Second, it avoids introducing a massive bureaucracy and associated procedures, often carried out by uncaring officials and involving lengthy waits."
Pre-pandemic, employment increased quite a bit in the basic income group, but the increase did not remain significant during the pandemic. It's possible that this and other non-significant results were due to unexpected attrition by the end of the experiment. (more on that later)
Income volatility was another measure that decreased significantly pre-pandemic, but did not remain significant, as did psychological distress. People in the basic income group moved from "likely to have a mental health disorder" to "likely to be well" in year one, pre-Covid.