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<title><![CDATA[Comments for entry "My Fix-the-World Fantasies" at Dilbert.com Blog]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/830]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[Regular thoughts and updates from Dilbert.com]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from phil1342]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1919267]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[Two bottom up solutions:

- The &quot;formalized village&quot; approach -- structure created for helping people in the same community: http://www.capitolhillvillage.org/

- The live with friends/intentional community approach -- a group of people buy a large residence and hire support staff as needed.

A top down partial fix: use universal design in a majority of new residences]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[FriPMCSTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from RavenBlack]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1782808]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[I take two issues with your vision. First, I think you're wrong about unemployment - you're right not be worried about it, but not because there'll be &quot;enough work&quot; in the future. The problem is that there's *always* &quot;enough work&quot;. We as a society shouldn't want or need more work, the only thing we want or need is more of the product of work - mechanization and automation reduces jobs but increases product, and society hasn't yet figured out how to keep itself functioning cleanly under this changed system, hence &quot;unemployment&quot;, which should be a good thing, us all not having to toil as much, being categorized as a problem! The closest it gets to being a problem, even assuming a conservative &quot;everyone must contribute to be worthy to live&quot; viewpoint, is that all the work is concentrated into ten hour days for a subset of people instead of six hour days for everyone who wants a job. Plus the work is allocated on a basis of &quot;what will make me, the boss, richest?&quot; rather than &quot;what is a needful or desirable product?&quot; which can lead to things like producing less of a thing that people want so that you can charge more money for it. I'm not proposing any particular solution to this problem here, I'm just outlining why &quot;unemployment&quot; is a symptom of the problem, not the problem itself.

Second, doctor assisted suicide - I agree with you that it's the compassionate thing for the suicide, but it's not very compassionate at all to the doctor. Suicide booths, a-la Futurama, seems more compassionate all round. Obviously not with the whirling blades, but a nice comfortable &quot;go to sleep and never wake up because of smell-less carbon monoxide and eventual complete removal of all oxygen&quot; sort of thing would be relatively easy to engineer and no third party would have to be involved - maybe a doctor could assist someone into the booth if they're not strong enough to make it there themself, if that specific doctor didn't feel bad about doing it. (I realize a car exhaust in an enclosed space is functionally similar, but it's smelly and unpleasant and unreliable compared to a deliberately engineered version of the same mechanism.)]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from timmackey]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1782159]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[Good joke about leaving the car running in the garage BUT...
The main problem with aged care is not the community or physical structure but the deterioration in the brains-even more than in the bodies-of the elderly. And I speak as the career of an aged person. If we could prevent or even significantly slow that deterioration it would make a huge difference eg more children would care for their parents and not put them in a home.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[ThuPMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from Drowlord]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1780117]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[@Therion, if only rich American citizens were buying US treasuries, you might argue that people who can invest in bonds can also be taxed, however it isn't simply rich American citizens buying it.  A lot of federal debt is foreign-owned.  A lot of federal debt is where banks and businesses have parked money for which they don't have immediate use.  Nobody will ever loan the US money again, under your idea.

Frankly, I can't imagine that very many of us would stay in the US if our assets were summarily confiscated, and our taxes were upped to extreme numbers.  Europe has historically had this problem (called &quot;Brain Drain,&quot; long considered one of Europe's biggest problems) where educated and motivated people leave high tax countries to live in the US where success is easier.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[WedPMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from Jengineer]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1779789]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[Hi Scott

Many years ago I made a trip to Austria, I was amazed to see at 9 AM a line of retired people waiting for the bus. They were all geared for a hike in the nearby mountain, with hiking shoes and feather caps. As  the bus was leaving with that jolly bunch of old kids aboard, I saw a very very old woman running at us in the street. She started to knock very hard on the bus door with her walking stick. The driver stopped and opened  the door. She rushed in with her large toothless smile,  she was laughing very loud, thanked the driver, and the whole bunch started to laugh and sing. The average age in the bus was shurely over 70.

Here's my point: healthy living, good food  and exercise is the key. This is where spending must go, for the older and younger generations, because the situation is getting worse and worse with today's kids. And it's not very expensive to fix. Go play outdoors and eat more vegetables.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[WedPMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from whtllnew]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1779702]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[@Therion

And that is precisely the point I was making at first.  I could agree with most of what you say if you'd leave out the hate.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[WedPMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from Therion]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1779562]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[Well no !$%*! because he never expressed &quot;hatred&quot;. But he doesn't like that way of life. 
]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[WedAMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from whtllnew]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1779353]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[@Therion

The views expressed on the website are a long way from hatred of rich folks.  As for chasing the moneylenders out of the temple his prob there wasn't so much with what they were doing as with where they were doing it.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[WedAMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from Therion]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1779315]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[Guy, there's a whole Wiki stewn with quotes from Jesus on wealth and rich people:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_views_on_poverty_and_wealth#New_Testament

The only time he gets angry in the entire New Testament is when he clears the temple in Jerusalem of money-lenders and animal-sellers (Matthew 21:12-13, John 2:13-22).

Great man, Jesus (assuming he existed).
]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[TuePMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from whtllnew]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1779254]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[@Therion

[I'm not saying anything that Jesus and Mohammed didn't say. ]

I don't care what Mohammed might have said on the matter and the worst thing I can recall Jesus saying on the matter was that its very hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, which is a long way from calling them completely awful people.  If he said anything worse tell me the chapter and verse.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[TuePMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from Melvin1]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1779233]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[Scott, are you sure you didn't get a PhD from a liberal arts school?  

For an engineer with an MBA who normally has great insights, you often stumble on central planning as the answer to life's challenges.  What makes you think that a group of bureaucrats will come up with a more efficient system than the enterprises who are currently competing in the senior housing markets?  Google &quot;central planning failure&quot; and read the associated papers - or read &quot;The Road to Serfdom&quot; for the problems with your strategy.  

I will give you credit for saying &quot;Government just needs to be the mouthpiece and the cheerleader, i.e. leader,&quot; but in practice, words affect little, and government action means political influence and rent-seeking (now known as cronyism).]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[TuePMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from Therion]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1779220]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[&quot;Why do you have to say these things in the least rational, most insulting way possible? I have no great love for businessmen but lets be fair. The only differences between a businessman and an ordinary guy are 1) they wanted success enough to work for it and 2) some factor (luck, talent or something) helped them beat the competition. . &quot;

I'm not saying anything that Jesus and Mohammed didn't say.  

The connotation of &quot;businessman&quot; seems to be somebody devoted to the acquisition of wealth. I don't think such people are &quot;normal&quot; on the whole, and I stand by what I said.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[TuePMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from Therion]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1779217]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[Drowlord, let's leave aside your silly and incoherent second argument that the federal government is in debt to itself through Social Security.

Will an emergency tax on bondholders be &quot;suicide for the federal government&quot;?

Obviously not. If somone is rich enough to loan money to the federal government, then he's rich enough to be taxed.

In other words, your argument boils down to an anti-tax-the-rich ideology. You take as a starting axiom that the rich can't be taxed. Even though the evidence is strongly compelling that taxing the rich heavily -- far from leading to Somalia, as you suggest it does -- actually makes a society better. Look up research on Gini coefficient which proves exactly this point.
]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[TuePMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from Drowlord]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1779188]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[@Therion, The federal government runs at a perpetual (and massive) deficit.  Cutting out &quot;current&quot; bondholders at any point in time guarantees that nobody will ever put money into federal bonds ever again.  This is, obviously, suicide for the federal government because, as already pointed out, they run at a perpetual deficit and need a constant influx of new credit.  It also doesn't solve many problems for them, as huge amounts of debt are &quot;owned&quot; by the Social Security Trust Fund.  Cutting out current bondholders effectively decapitates our nation's most expensive program that's already in crisis.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[TuePMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from ina]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1778948]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[dugfromthearth,

you are missing the main point - getting rid of unemployment.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[TueAMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from dugfromthearth]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1778730]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[We need to ship our elderly overseas. Instead of building retirement communities in Flordia, build them in Costa Rica. The cost of living, healthcare and everything else is vastly cheaper. As long as they are living in their own enclosed community, it hardly matters where they are living if the weather is nice. The government would save a ton on medicare and the elderly could live very comfortably on social security.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[TueAMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from swp]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1778729]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[My theory, since soylent green has already been taken, is that you fell asleep on the couch with the tv on and were subliminally influenced by them showing &quot;Logan's Run&quot; on the late late show.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[TueAMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from Runner1]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1778728]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[There is no saving us.
  Old people suffer and their families and their doctors make them feel they have to have the new knees, the new hip and the cancer drugs.  There last years are nothing but a sufferfest and very few say no.  Very few would take the sucide help I predict.
  But if they were forced to go to your elderly camp maybe more would.  My grandmother was in a very nice home and would never leave her room because there were just old people out there and who wants to be with them!]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[TueAMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from jthvedt]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1778591]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[&quot;And I'm doing it all with government leadership as opposed to direct meddling and financing. Which politician hates that plan?&quot;

All of them. The meddling and financing leads to a great big lobbyist-funded gravy train; not to mention the politician/lobbyist revolving door.

There's no money in leadership.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[MonPMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from whtllnew]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1778590]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[@Therion

[It's too imaginative, too compassionate. Businessmen seem to be too all-around awful humans beings for them to bother doing it, and the Republican base would never allow such a project to be done in the public sector. So it's not gonna happen.]

Why do you have to say these things in the least rational, most insulting way possible?  I have no great love for businessmen but lets be fair.  The only differences between a businessman and an ordinary guy are 1) they wanted success enough to work for it and 2) some factor (luck, talent or something) helped them beat the competition.  If you had said 'Businessmen are too greedy to bother doing it' I could have agreed with you, but no, you said they were plain awful, as if they don't do anything good.]]></description>
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