RBWells
I guess look around the world and see what’s working? Unfettered capitalism wouldn’t work, and cronyism isn’t unique to capitalism.
Unfettered meritocracy doesn’t work either. Say I’m born smart and ambitious and become a captain of industry. Why do I “deserve” to make 100x or 10000x more than someone who is working hard but not smart or ambitious, or someone who is wildly creative in a not monetizatable way? And how do you even ensure all kids get the same starting line to actually have a meritocracy, if you are enforcing capitalism? 100% inheritance tax maybe, and the money allocated out to everyone?
Maybe all these systems are ideas - capitalism, socialism, fascism, meritocracy, and none could be achieved in real life, because we aren’t living in a controlled test environment.
On your specific question, I think cronyism and inheritance are problems that transcend capitalism, but if you could somehow magically disappear them, meritocracy would reveal its faults, there isn’t a perfect system. All we can do is try to think about what we want to achieve (environmental restoration, a healthy population, a vibrant marketplace that serves everyone not just a few) and try to incrementally get there.
Yeah I grew up before there was A/C all over, even in school didn’t have it until I was 12, and as bad as heat with no air conditioning is, it’s not as deadly as freezing weather with no heat. What do the homeless people do in cold places, do they just die in the winter? There is no season here where going outside in regular clothes would kill you, at least. Uncomfortable, sure.
But again, I think it’s some epigenetic adaptation, I really do run cool, and now my kids do too.
Better to leave your phone at home (or better, in the pocket of someone who lives in your house and takes the same daily path as you do) if you are doing something that’s currently illegal. Or in any situation where you are doing something legal that the cops are likely to break up.
The juror going home thing is terrifying but I don’t think the government would be after you for fulfilling your civic duty.
Ha! Well as much as I hate the cold, I hate the heater even more. Resist turning it on until it’s really too cold in long sleeves and a sweater. Air conditioner we keep at 78F, and it helps to keep the house from mold/mildew, improves air quality. Heater dries everything out and feels awful. We do set the heater to 60F, and don’t run it often.
Community radio, my kids (and they find music through me too), YouTube music recommendations, opening bands at concerts, and sometimes NPR.
I have the opposite problem, when it gets past a certain coldness I can’t warm up without an external heat source. Hot weather I can be cool IF I am in the shade with a breeze, grew up without AC in Florida so probably just adapted.
School kids here do have to do heat danger videos for athletics though, for some ungodly reason they do practices in the afternoons not before school and kids were dropping in the heat. It is dangerous like extreme cold is, I don’t go do yardwork when it’s the top of a summer day.
Was just saying that if people can say they “love the cold” because they like being warm, it’s no sillier to say you like the heat because you like cooling off.
Meanwhile, people who say they love cold weather:
“I like sweaters, coats and boots, bundling up, sitting inside by a fire with hot cocoa.”. Really sounds like they enjoy being warm, not cold after all.
So maybe “I like air conditioning, watching the sun from inside, the feeling of coming in out of the heat in the summer, a refreshing cold shower in the morning, being able to wear fashionable sunglasses and hats.”
