It’s all good. Discussion is good. And yes, I agree technology can be a vehicle for great good or great evil. 

But I thought Gaga was transgender, wasn’t that the rumor some years ago before she started showing her face?

I cannot imagine what it feels like to watch your ex-husband

Agreed. Hence, why I suggested that we might use technology to assist with that middle ground. In a way it’s not unlike the concept of free speech, if you open the door to allow anyone to say whatever they want without repercussions you’re going to get a mixed bag of results. Some good, some not good.

That’s your opinion. And how do you define “rarely interact”? I would say some of them care because they often comment on whatever I might post. It’s not always practical or feasible to communicate face to face or even every day of the week.

Well, that’s one cynical way to put it. On the other hand it allows me to share things, not necessarily bragging and not always making me look as good as possible, to an audience that a) I interact with every day or b) live far away from me but I still like to stay in touch with.

Your CD is in the mail.

It’s easy to call one person, calling several is the problem. Hence, having a way to share info with a group is good. We have a group of about 20 people in our small town and we do things together, sometimes all 20 and sometimes a subset of the group.

True, but in some cases it can be difficult to spot the fake. I’m just suggesting that we might try to find a way for technology to assist. 

Well in some ways yes, but in other ways no. People who have accidents or DUI convictions pay higher insurance prices. I don’t. In this case I pay the same price for soda as people who are heavy drinkers. At least with auto insurance you have some control over your cost, drive more safely and save money. Drink less…

Not even close.

Not if they turned around and ate fried chicken and pork bellies every day. 

But what about people who drink responsibly? When I drink soda is usually because I am in a place where I either don’t want to drink alcohol or they don’t have other non-alcohol options. Water is ok but I do like a little flavor with my drinks.

It actually is a bad idea. The problem is the alternative is worse; censorship.

If someone is actually my friend and they want to talk there is this thing called a phone.

This is a good point. From the customer’s point of view the money spent will be the same (although it won’t really be the same, it will be higher) if the tip is built into the cost. So why does it matter to the customer if the tip is separate versus included?

My understanding is the WA, OR and CA all require minimum wage to be paid before tips. 

This happens in other industries as well. I work in IT sales, lots of really good sales guys get promoted to management where they find out they make less (different commission plan) and they have to deal with all sorts of BS that comes with being a manager.

You’ve never run your own business have you? See when you run a business you do everything you can to manage cost. Especially in restaurants. Labor is somewhere between 35-40% of my overall cost to produce a meal. Continually raising labor cost with no real value added will only result in the customer paying a higher…

I never said I didn’t want someone to make a living wage. I said a job has a value and that is how that job should be paid. A 15 yr old kid living at home with his parents, generally speaking, doesn’t need a “living” wage.