Sunday's Doonesbury - "We'll need more Prisons"

[n2doc]

[Egalitarian Thug]

1. K&R. Thanks for posting. n/t

[littlemissmartypants]

2. Ki

ck.

[xchrom]

3. Du rec. Nt

[NoMoreWarNow]

4. it's really really hard to understand the horrible mentality behind such laws

they have to be psychopaths of some sort

[xxqqqzme]

26. It is extremely difficult

for me to grasp how non-medically trained legislators can legislate medical treatment and procedures.

[NoMoreWarNow]

29. that really is the crux of it

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. Aaaaarrggghhhh

too true to be funny.

the "where are you..in the kitchen" bit is funny as hell.
Mr. dixie and I email across the house!

[RevStPatrick]

9. Sweetie and I have Facebook conversations...

...sitting next to each other on the couch.

[dixiegrrrrl]

13. Wow....that says a lot

WHAT it says is not clear...

[RevStPatrick]

14. We're both computer geeks...

And share many of the same Facebook friends.
I think it's cute when it happens.

[dixiegrrrrl]

24. Mr. dixie said to tell you he thinks it is cute also...

[shraby]

22. So do Mr. Shraby and me.

[DirkGently]

6. KNR

[grantcart]

7. I was talking to a Republican relative about the coming conundrum

about having excess labor in an economy that continues to increase productivity making more goods and services while requiring less and less labor and a system that requires people to have a job to sustain themselves.

He agreed there was no obvious solution and quipped that the traditional response was simply to "build more prisons".

[fasttense]

10. You do not have to have excess labor.

Though I sometimes seriously question the idea that we are more productive and make more goods and services with less labor. I think the labor pool is just hidden and NOT recorded. Like in 3rd world countries where children work for pennies, most countries try to deflate this number or turn a blind eye to child labor. When A sporting goods corporation claims their shoes are made with less labor, they really mean their shoes are made with Cheaper labor not less. The labor pool has merely moved to other places and other people do it instead of Americans. Like the cheap food Wal-Mart sells. If Americans picked the produce at minimum wage or a real living wage, instead of using migrant labor from other countries, there would be a much lower unemployment rate. If Americans made most, or all, the products Americans currently buy up, there would be no unemployment in the US.

But assuming you are right and corporations are using less labor and not merely using cheaper labor, then there are other ways to reduce the unemployment rate. And having a job can still be the system of commerce.

Increase the length of schooling required of children before they are allowed to get a job and increase the age at which children are allowed to enter the labor market. When Newt came out with his love of child labor, he was trying to increase the labor pool so very cheap labor would be available in the US.

Make college free and keep more young adults in the educational system (like we did with the GI bill). This is why Raygun did away with the free college tuition in California.

Decrease the retirement age. RepubliCONS are pushing for increasing the retirement age not because we live longer, but because it will increase the labor pool and make for cheaper labor.

Pay higher wages, if higher wages are paid both partners would not need to go out into the workforce and the labor pool would shrink. Both partners working outside the home in middle class and upper class families is a recent phenomena in the US.

These are just the ones that come to mind. I'm sure there are many humane ways to decrease the labor pool and allow people to work.

Locking up people who do not have job does not have to be the only answer.

[AdHocSolver]

25. The popular concept of productivity is producing goods with fewer workers.

What the capitalist refers to as productivity is the production of a specific amount of goods at lower costs, especially labor costs, irrespective of the number of workers required to produce that quantity of goods.

Therefore, a business can "increase" productivity by producing the same amount of product while using MORE workers who are paid LOWER wages so long as the cost of production is lower.

So corporations increase productivity by reducing the number of higher priced American workers and replacing them with lower priced foreign workers.

[fasttense]

27. Yes, that is what I was trying to say.

That there are enough jobs out there to keep everyone employed if corporations were NOT constantly on the hunt for cheaper and cheaper labor no matter the moral implications.

I have a friend who claims that jobs are disappearing and unemployment is skyrocketing across the globe because there are not enough jobs for everyone due to technological advances. I say the jobs are still out there, they are just different and being paid a whole lot less.

[AdHocSolver]

28. There is another way corporations "increase" productivity.

This has to do with merger mania.

A company "buys" or merges with another company. The companies then "merge" their personnel, information systems, accounting, purchasing, marketing, and other departments having similar business functions.

Then half the employees in each of these departments are downsized and the remaining employees are expected to work extra hours to handle the extra workload at no increase in pay.

It isn't necessary for a company to merge with another company to reach the same "productivity" increase.

I knew this programmer who worked in a specialized department with four other programmers. Over the period of a year, the other programmers' jobs were eliminated leaving my friend doing the work of five programmers all by herself.

The last straw was when the company reduced her paid hours from 40 to 30, although she was told that she would still be required to accomplish the same amount of work for however long it took.

She became so stressed that her doctor recommended that she quit her job because it was affecting her health negatively. She finally did quit.

[Aviation Pro]

8. Let me get this straight. So Eddie the....

....Rapist Enabler^TM wants to essentially decriminalize the act of rape while making it a crime for the victim to have control over her body.

Do I have this fucking right?

Because I'm beginning to suspect that this fucking asswipe has a little bit of history when it comes to forcible rape, which, if true, he needs to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, convicted and sent to the worst hell hole of a privatized prison where he can have a liitle fact finding mission on the subject of rape - from the victim's perspective.

Oh, and his little P90X show muscles won't be worth shit.

Go fuck yourself with a broomstick, you fucking walking wad of splooge.

[fasttense]

11. Forced pregnancies, talk about government interfering in your life. n/t

[valerief]

12. One thing I'm not clear about when it comes to Republican rape punishment.

Let's say a woman is raped, and she becomes pregnant as a result. She's forced to carry the baby, else face imprisonment herself. After all, the zygote/embryo/fetus is as much a person as, say, Bain Capital, and that's as much a person as you can become in America.

Anyway, what if, while she's pregnant, she gets raped again. Would the "person" she's carrying be charged with a crime, because (1) it didn't do anything to stop the rape and (2) it never notified the authorities about the rape? If yes, would said criminal be removed from the woman and sent to prison?

I mean, is that the way to safe abortion Republican-style? Get raped twice?

[a la izquierda]

18. Mind= blown nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. I see the first two PANNELS are not a joke

That is part of the problem we have...agghhh

[Laelth]

16. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[SunSeeker]

17. K&R

[Electric Monk]

19. k&r

[Ty Templeton]

20. Punchline Spoilers

While I appreciate the sharing of a Doonesbury, it's best if you don't title the post with the actual punchline of the joke. Punchlines are designed to work with some element of unexpected twist involved in the reveal, and by using the punchline as the title, you more or less guarantee it's less funny to read. Consider that for the future. Thanks. (Not annoyed, just trying to help)

[hfojvt]

21. nice catch

But that's a good thing, right? Think of all the jobs for guards and contractors.

[EVDebs]

23. The Ayn Rand psychopaths

stems from a doctrine of selfishness. More godless (god defined as love) nonsense