minimum wage

[Hermit]

Blood donation should be compulsory for anyone who is healthy and no one should be paid for it. Basically another tax. It's the anti-libertarian principle of reminding people that being part of a community is not an inalienable right but something you pay for both financially and by behaviour. Even if we don't need all the blood and just pour it away its the principle that is important

oh god oh god oh god oh god someone phone Seth

One douchebag at a time, thanks.

[MrJonno]

Blood donation should be compulsory for anyone who is healthy and no one should be paid for it. Basically another tax. It's the anti-libertarian principle of reminding people that being part of a community is not an inalienable right but something you pay for both financially and by behaviour. Even if we don't need all the blood and just pour it away its the principle that is important

oh god oh god oh god oh god someone phone Seth

Seth should donate two pints as an anti-social/libertarian tax, through I must say the blood bank keeps on saying they don't want my blood when I try to donate. Apparently in socialist Britain my red blood cells aren't red enough

[Drewish]

Drew, would you help a dog that had been hit by a car? A human? If so, why?

Assuming no immediate risk to myself (the body not being in the middle of a still busy street, and the dog having a tag and clearly not being rabid) then yes. But only if I was on the scene.

OK, so you see an animal or a person bleeding in the road only as an opportunity for gain? And if you have no opportunity to gain from helping them, then "fuck 'em"? And you're proud of that? You see that as a virtue? Seriously?

Yes...

Make up your mind, please. A little logical consistency goes a long way in a rational discussion.

Oh would you look at that. I gave you the "yes or no" answer as you asked, and then gave two paragraphs of clarification as to what my standards for helping others are. You cut those out, and now accuse my of inconsistency. If you're going to be dishonest in a discussion, then try not to be so obvious.

Again, I will clarify or answer a question if asked. I have no problem discussing and debating with people who advocate for different positions. However, do not try to tell me what my position is. That only exposes how close minded you are.

Drew, would you help a dog that had been hit by a car? A human? If so, why?

Assuming no immediate risk to myself (the body not being in the middle of a still busy street, and the dog having a tag and clearly not being rabid) then yes. But only if I was on the scene.

OK, I'm willing to accept that if you weren't present you wouldn't do anything. But why would you go out of your way to help something so distant and unconnected to you as a stray dog, especially when you couldn't expect to reap any sort of benefit?

It's cost benefit. Notice that I said that the dog had a tag. There's no benefit to helping a stray (unless I'm looking to get a dog, but picking one up from a traffic accident is hardly ideal). There is a potential benefit to helping a dog with an owner. I often engage in low or no cost acts of kindness with those in my local community or social circles. This has a reputation benefit as well as sometimes leading to reciprocal benefits down the line.

If there are guaranteed benefits (often amounting to an exchange) then that's a factor. If the cost is minimal or nonexistent than that's a factor as well. My own moral code/heuristics (help people close to me whenever convenient, but not distant strangers) is based around maximizing the benefits of cooperating while minimizing the costs.

So how do you feel about donating blood.

Do you get paid to donate blood in the USA? I heard you did somewhere but I'm not sure.

In the UK you get tea and a biscuit.

Real biscuit btw not those things you lot incorrectly call scones and cover in gravy like barbarians.

I have given whole blood twice and platelets twice as well. I work at a hospital and we get to take time off from the day to give blood when the hospital does blood drives. It wasn't really painful, I got a card to put in my wallet that says my blood type, and I got a break from work. I did not donate while I worked at my last job, that was not at a hospital, and where I'd have had to go out of my way to donate. But the last time, I got a bad nurse and was very painful. I have not been back since. I'm also really tired of the Red Cross constantly harassing me about giving blood.

The US used to allow for paid blood donations, but it turns out that some people lied to get the money, so their blood couldn't be used, so now it's by donation.

[FBM]

Drew, would you help a dog that had been hit by a car? A human? If so, why?

Assuming no immediate risk to myself (the body not being in the middle of a still busy street, and the dog having a tag and clearly not being rabid) then yes. But only if I was on the scene.

OK, so you see an animal or a person bleeding in the road only as an opportunity for gain? And if you have no opportunity to gain from helping them, then "fuck 'em"? And you're proud of that? You see that as a virtue? Seriously?

Yes...

Make up your mind, please. A little logical consistency goes a long way in a rational discussion.

Oh would you look at that. I gave you the "yes or no" answer as you asked, and then gave two paragraphs of clarification as to what my standards for helping others are. You cut those out, and now accuse my of inconsistency. If you're going to be dishonest in a discussion, then try not to be so obvious.

Again, I will clarify or answer a question if asked. I have no problem discussing and debating with people who advocate for different positions. However, do not try to tell me what my position is. That only exposes how close minded you are.

What you did was flip-flop. You didn't clarify anything. You simply abandoned your original position. I am open-minded. If you ever manage to support your narrow-minded, self-aggrandizing, selfish positon with scientific data, I will accept that whole-heartedly. However, so far it seems as if you're just trying to hijack Darwin's findings in a fallacious manner to support your selfishness and egotisical desire to somehow "win," despite the fact that we're all going to die and end up in the same ground.

[pErvinalia]

@Drewish... Will you donate your organs on death?

[Azathoth]

Going to the pub after giving blood makes for a really cheap afternoon

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[Jason]

Why is automation cheaper than employing actual people? Does it have anything to do with the fact that the machines are manufactured at 1/10th the cost in places like India or China rather than in whatever domestic economy they're being installed in? Free trade is the great evil of globalization.

[FBM]

Why is automation cheaper than employing actual people? Does it have anything to do with the fact that the machines are manufactured at 1/10th the cost in places like India or China rather than in whatever domestic economy they're being installed in? Free trade is the great evil of globalization.

We fucked up at the Industrial Revolution and the birth of competitive capitalism. I think we should turn around, go back and have a do-over.

[PsychoSerenity]

Why is automation cheaper than employing actual people? Does it have anything to do with the fact that the machines are manufactured at 1/10th the cost in places like India or China rather than in whatever domestic economy they're being installed in? Free trade is the great evil of globalization.

Automation is cheaper because it's more efficient, and once you have the technology there's no point in going back. The machines are mostly made by other machines. The exponential improvements in technology could be used to free us all from drudgery, providing at least all our basic needs, and giving us time for education, self improvement, and greater creative pursuits. Free trade isn't the problem so much as the fact that the trade in question is not done for the benefit of all, but instead only for those who are already owners.

[PsychoSerenity]

An excellent article form Another Angry Voice arguing for a Universal Basic Income from a libertarian perspective.

[Hermit]

Ah, yes, if you increase the minimum wage, there'll be massive unemployment, companies will go out of business and for good measure the sky will probably fall.

Or will it? MacDonald established its first Danish branch in 1981, but did not begin to expand until the 1990s. Today there are 87 branches in the nation that has a population of well under 6 million. It also has a union agreement since 1989 under which minimum pay rates and work conditions are negotiated.



Even after adjusting for Denmark's higher cost of living that's more than twice the current minimum wage in the US, and if MacDonald didn't make a profit it wouldn't be there.

[rainbow]

OK why not a minimum wage for the whole world?

Most Africans would be very pleased to work for $10 per day.

How would people in the West feel about earning the same minimum wage as Africans?

...or is our standard of living not important?

[Hermit]

Please don't complain about your standard of living. We're supplying you with more missionaries than you can eat while having to put up with crappy MacDonald burgers ourselves..

[Svartalf]

[rainbow]

Please don't complain about your standard of living. We're supplying you with more missionaries than you can eat while having to put up with crappy MacDonald burgers ourselves..

You haven't had a MacPreach then, I assume?