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Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

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Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#241

Post by cafeoh »

thegypsyking wrote: post #223
igorkraw wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can and aren't already, maybe consider organising with less privileged workers for things like striking in unison. Or getting politically active to grow economy and society so it will be kinder and allow a slip up. One of the many reasons I would never move to the US is that in Europe I don't feel like a minor slip up or bad luck will send me into financial ruin. I'll need surgery on my shoulder soon and hopef…

I moved from europe to the us because I could never become financially independent with the low compensation and high taxes in EU. I would never wish for us to ever be as unambitious and hard to grow as the eu is.

You would never wish it for those that achieve growth or for the people suffering homelessness, debt, precariousness, etc? My gut tells me we both have very different ideas on what ambition is/can be, what form of growth is valuable, and how economic liberalism weighs in.

Ethics aside, the taxes I've been paying out of my salary since I've been in the industry allows me today to benefit from an incredible financial safety net as I'm attempting to put together my own R&D software company.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#242

Post by maroonblazer »

WalterBright wrote: post #239
renjimen wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Becoming one is a choice under your control To an extent. Some people are predisposed to addiction and the poor are much less likely to have the knowledge or support required to recognise or battle addiction.

I know that some people are predisposed to addiction. It's harder for them, sure, but becoming an addict is still a choice for them. I know some who chose to get and stay clean, too, despite being predisposed. I wager that poor people are far better at recognizing addiction than non-poor. I hired a stoner once, not recognizing it. He robbed the company blind to pay his dealer. Social workers are always trying to get…

How much of a choice is it to be attracted to a given individual? Or to crave a certain kind of food? Or to be consumed with a specific kind of work? Or to care for your child?

I.e. I think we overestimate how much of a 'choice' certain outcomes are for most people.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#243

Post by dham »

> That large animals like humans seem to be able to develop sophisticated defenses against parasites that parasites can’t counter-adapt against, meaning that parasitism is way less of an issue for us than it is for smaller animals, which is good because parasites are bad.

The lack of parasites probably leads to most auto immune diseases in humans.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#244

Post by avl999 »

dham wrote: post #243

> That large animals like humans seem to be able to develop sophisticated defenses against parasites that parasites can’t counter-adapt against, meaning that parasitism is way less of an issue for us than it is for smaller animals, which is good because parasites are bad. The lack of parasites probably leads to most auto immune diseases in humans.

citation needed

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#245

Post by kiba »

WalterBright wrote: post #239
renjimen wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Becoming one is a choice under your control To an extent. Some people are predisposed to addiction and the poor are much less likely to have the knowledge or support required to recognise or battle addiction.

I know that some people are predisposed to addiction. It's harder for them, sure, but becoming an addict is still a choice for them. I know some who chose to get and stay clean, too, despite being predisposed. I wager that poor people are far better at recognizing addiction than non-poor. I hired a stoner once, not recognizing it. He robbed the company blind to pay his dealer. Social workers are always trying to get…

I know that some people are predisposed to addiction. It's harder for them, sure, but becoming an addict is still a choice for them. I know some who chose to get and stay clean, too, despite being predisposed.

A fairly useless way to think about when it comes to solving problems in our society.

At the end of the days, people's choices are determined by large number of factors, most of which we are unaware of or currently ill equipped to understand.

It would be like a person having a seizure and people deciding to blame said person for making a choice to be corrupted by a devil.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#246

Post by noisy_boy »

dgb23 wrote: post #171
victorcharlie wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, yeasts are unicellular fungus. I believe that fungus are the most important life-form in this planet by far . Pretty cool, huh? :)

That is pretty cool! Paul Stamets is worth mentioning here. One can find a ton of media presence, books and projects from him. Very interesting stuff!

For a second I thought you were referring to Stamets on Star Trek. Stamets, mycellium... tribute or coincidence?

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#247

Post by meken »

maroonblazer wrote: post #242
WalterBright wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know that some people are predisposed to addiction. It's harder for them, sure, but becoming an addict is still a choice for them. I know some who chose to get and stay clean, too, despite being predisposed. I wager that poor people are far better at recognizing addiction than non-poor. I hired a stoner once, not recognizing it. He robbed the company blind to pay his dealer. Social workers are always trying to get…

How much of a choice is it to be attracted to a given individual? Or to crave a certain kind of food? Or to be consumed with a specific kind of work? Or to care for your child? I.e. I think we overestimate how much of a 'choice' certain outcomes are for most people.

I agree with this.

I’ve often contemplated that given that the part of me that has a poor work ethic and refuses to get help has generally won out, I would easily be on the streets if I was born into a family of low socioeconomic status, rather than having lots of savings and living in a nice apartment. Also, I’ve spiraled downwards many times, and I’m lucky that food, isolation, internet are my vices, rather than hard drugs.

In the times I’ve finally “decided” to improve my life, I honestly have no explanation for why I did that, versus continue to spiral downwards.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#248

Post by pininja »

WalterBright wrote: post #240
boplicity wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>In Seattle anyway, 90% of the homeless are either drug addicts or alcoholics That's a big claim to make. Do you have any sources?

The "Seattle is Dying" video produced by KOMO, the local TV station. "60 Minutes" also ran a segment on the Seattle homeless a couple years ago. They went in looking for people who were down on their luck. They found drug addicts and alcoholics.

When I hung out with a homeless guy in North Beach, SF for a good hour while he was painting his perspective on shelters was that the addicted folks were in shelters, and non-addicts that went to shelters were treated as if they were addicts. He felt rather de-humanized by the whole system and so he stays on the street.

I haven’t seen these videos yet, but I’m curious if they went to shelters or streets.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#249

Post by WalterBright »

maroonblazer wrote: post #242
WalterBright wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know that some people are predisposed to addiction. It's harder for them, sure, but becoming an addict is still a choice for them. I know some who chose to get and stay clean, too, despite being predisposed. I wager that poor people are far better at recognizing addiction than non-poor. I hired a stoner once, not recognizing it. He robbed the company blind to pay his dealer. Social workers are always trying to get…

How much of a choice is it to be attracted to a given individual? Or to crave a certain kind of food? Or to be consumed with a specific kind of work? Or to care for your child? I.e. I think we overestimate how much of a 'choice' certain outcomes are for most people.

People often conveniently claim they had "no choice" so they can absolve themselves of responsibility for their actions.

> How much of a choice is it to be attracted to a given individual?

Don't confuse ones' choices with ones' desires. You have free will, you can indulge in the bad predilections, or not. Your choice.

Nobody said making the better choice is easy.

If I had my druthers, I'd eat nothing but donuts and ice cream all day. But I choose otherwise.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#250

Post by human »

pkdpic wrote: post #176

Im thankful to have a job and a roof over my head and a little bit of savings. Not having to really worry about money still blows my mind now and then. Looking across the street every day in California and seeing the homelessness crisis in full swing is an ever present reminder of what this economy and this society can do to you if you slip up for even a second and / or have even a minor run of bad luck. Working in s…

I don’t think you read the piece.
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