[Newfie]

Ibon,

Dads house where I grew up was on the edge of the woods and surrounded by shrubbery. Dad loved the place, built it himself. When retired he would sit on the deck for hours slowly sipping coffee. And once in a while a bird would sit on his foot. He was very much at “home” there.

Dolan,
I very much agree the old work ethic must change. But, for me, it is deeply rooted in my psyche. I appreciate and understand the need for change, it’s just not in my bones given the way I grew up. But I seem to be adapting to retirement fine. FWIW - and along these lines read this, it’s short and very germaine.
http://www.zpub.com/notes/idle.html

As for our BUNKER, (that would be a great boat name)

We pretty much live, all winter, in our floating bunker. And we are not social butterflies. So for us this is all pretty normal. And where we are we have some decent free wifi. So that’s a better plus. So long as things don’t significantly change we are good for a long time.
They have 7 cases in 65k population, all stemming from a returning U.K. couple. Hopefully all in quarantine and contained, hopefully.

.

[Newfie]

As a side note my observation is that 93.25% of plain folks and 94.87% of MSM know Jack shit about statistics or how to interpret numbers.

2¢

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dolanbaker', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Outcast_Searcher', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('asg70', 'T')he downside is I would think this event will spur on development of further automation/robotics as robots don't get coronavirus.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Outcast_Searcher', 'T')hat's my thought exactly. And we could help pay for that with some kind of a robot tax (tax the robot production instead of the worker production).

And yet, on this site, when I bring that idea up, it tends to be met with hysterics by folks that claim to be capitalists.

I'm definitely a capitalist, but just letting people starve because robots supplant more and more humans, re the ability to do jobs most efficiently just doesn't seem like either a moral OR workable solution to me.

Look, if there are plenty of decent jobs and people just don't want to work, that's one thing. But that's NOT what we're talking about here, re the need for the UBI, once the robot/automation technology gets "out of hand".

[Newfie]

This is a fascinating discussion.

To the tax point a solution would be to move from an income tax to some kind of productivity tax. The other benefit from such a move would be to move to decouple the economy from population growth, maybe. I’m not sure of that, requires considering.

The more interesting problem is giving people something to do. And I think we have nearly 100 years experience of dealing with this, mostly not well. I have repeatedly linked to Bertrand Russell’s essay

http://www.zpub.com/notes/idle.html

because it shows that as early as WWII we had sufficient population for our needs and considers what to do with the new found spare time. He imagines all kinds of lovely pursuits like writing, composing, etc. and I think here he was dead wrong.

My readings and observations lead me to believe that we have an inherent desire to participate in the tribe, to be a necessary cog. If we are not participating then we feel really poorly, depressed, even suicidal. Those of us who do not desire to participate are looked down upon as laggards, anti-social, psychopaths, etc.

On the one hand we have told young folks to “follow their muse” which got them to go deeply into educational debt and acquire degrees that won’t feed them. Other groups have fallen into social decay and resorted to addictive drugs to fill the time.

The government agencies I have been involved with too frequently have a surplus of surplus people. This extends into the big engineering consulting firms I’ve worked with. It’s not universal which shows far more can be done with far less. Efficiency is infrequently valued highly even in for profit companies. I know that’s not a universal experience and some will say they have not seen that. Yes, but it is true in the industries where I worked. Drove me nuts. And then there are all the make work jobs like TSA. Society gets very little direct benefit from their direct efforts.

But society does derive benefit from those folks being employed. It gets them off the street, gives them a sense of place in the society, dignity if you will, it circulates cash which lubricates the economy. And these are far from trivial accomplishments within our culture.

Further automation will only stress the system to come up with additional ways to keep more people occupied and engaged. I don’t know how far we are down that path, or even if there is an end. Or if we are already hanging over.

[Newfie]

Actuall, come to think of it, In Praise of Idleness is a perfect read when holed up within The Bunker.

[dolanbaker]

Now this is what I call a bunker!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQy89tZ-mRU

[Newfie]

Impressive. But no water or cooker or shitter! Exactly what event is it good for? Other than how he is using it.

Now, for us, THIS is a bunker.

[Cog]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'I')mpressive. But no water or cooker or shitter! Exactly what event is it good for? Other than how he is using it.

Now, for us, THIS is a bunker.

[dolanbaker]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'I')mpressive. But no water or cooker or shitter! Exactly what event is it good for? Other than how he is using it.

Now, for us, THIS is a bunker.

[Newfie]

Heading North,

Heading South is totally opposite!

*****
I had taken that photo for a technical discussion about that sail. And damned if I could the darn photo to align correctly. It would be like this or the opposite, never correct. So I give up and join the fun.

[Ibon]

Nice bunker...

[Zarquon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', 'I') am walking the common area and the birds that would usually be darting away are just continuing to go about their foraging just a couple feet away from me and paying me no attention. I can't get over this and have no explanation.......

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Zarquon', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', 'I') am walking the common area and the birds that would usually be darting away are just continuing to go about their foraging just a couple feet away from me and paying me no attention. I can't get over this and have no explanation.......

[Ibon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Outcast_Searcher', '
')
Ibon, maybe they adapt really quickly to a lot less human foot traffic? (As a random guess).

.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Outcast_Searcher', '
')
Ibon, maybe they adapt really quickly to a lot less human foot traffic? (As a random guess).

.

[asg70]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'A')ctuall, come to think of it, In Praise of Idleness is a perfect read when holed up within The Bunker.