I think it's necessary to reiterate my question yet again. If extreme inequality (almost all the growth in the past 30 years has gone not to the top 1% but the top 0.1%) and all of the social ills it entails — from recessions and depressions (the 1929 and 2008 stock market crashes occurred at historical highs of…

You can always count on Kurt Vonnegut to gently cut through bullshit, especially when its extreme exclusionary self-interest disguised as higher morals.

I guess I'll have to wait to get that response to my question. As for the most ridiculous thread on this site ever, may I direct you to one of the trillions regarding "cancerAIDS"? Discussing inequality is hardly ridiculous. As for the variety of signs at protests being caused by generalized angst, what do you think…

You're right. I forgot to mention the important category of "your aunt's surgery". Canada continually falls short in the isolated anecdotal evidence supporting a straw man argument category year after year.

My apologies for trying to match your glibness, but I don't think it needs to be said that I know you ought to be careful about what books you read. The book I suggested earlier (The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett) was one presenting the conclusions of several hundred peer reviewed studies…

Wait, what ARE the real problems if not historically high rates of inequality, leading to an extreme concentration of economic and political power, the destruction of the economy, and the mortgaging of the future of our planet and its human and non-human inhabitants in order for rich corporations to get even richer?…

And I only say pretty much, because I can tell how fastidious you are with your facts, so I wouldn't want to leave you another chance to totally ignore my point on a made up technicality.

I actually live in Canada, one of the countries that is better than the United States (by pretty much every meaningful measure). I hate to crush your dreams, but it's not only "rich kids" who go to school. It's all kids. The same is true in Scandinavia, and pretty much all the other rich countries. A big part of the…

You know you can learn about things without having first hand experience of them. I believe it's called "reading". I have never been in banking, but since the banking industry is not a secret society, knowledge of its internal machinations are available to the public.

They recieve huge bonuses because the committees who determine bonuses are made of people in the exact same line of work as they are, and whose own bonuses are determined largely by comparison to the bonuses of people in their field. They give their colleagues big bonuses so their colleagues will return the favour.…

This is meant to reply to the post made below me by Sir Osis of Thuliver:

I barely read what you had to say because your opening sentences made me wish I was blind, but I did skim through your thingy and saw that you made the argument that people who aren't hungry like to make.

You're a terrible douchebag.

You didn't read it in an hour.

Gus IS Brock. He poisoned himself.

Uh I think that Brock is 6.

I believe that Huell had all the time he needed to lift the cigarette. If you watch the scene closely, you will notice that Saul doesn't call him off until he finishes his search, and Huell gives Saul a little nod after he pockets it. As for how he did it, it can't be that hard to flip open the pack and feel for the…

I think it's somehow important to the legacy of the show for Bryan Cranston to win an Emmy for every season.

yes very good, very good
i read it because i love that speech and Banks's reading of it, and I chuckled throughout because of your doing of stuff to it.

I watched End Times on Monday morning because I was so utterly convinced Walt had nothing to do with poisoning Brock, and I found that what I had initially thought to be a completely honest argument to Jesse turned out to be quite obviously false. However three things make it believable: "I did not do this!"; his…