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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 7th, 2023

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  • Are they staying open because there’s marketing value in being open on a holiday, or because there’s business as usual money to be made. If it’s not for some extra marketing purposes, this just lays bare how much more money they could be paying folks and still remain profitable.

    Overtime and holiday pay was meant to disincentivize manufacturing companies from overworking their people and not letting them spend time doing frivolous things like being with family on holidays. The difference between the cost of labor and the value of labor was so small back then (after decades of negotiating, union action, and bloodshed) that a simple 1.5x was enough to disincentivize it under most circumstances. It’s so vast now for the service industry that they are willing to pay 2.5 times as much.



  • Don’t discount the amount of common people that are totally onboard with killing everyone in another tribe. There have been plenty of times when leaders are the only reason diplomacy happens in the face of a bloodthirsty population, though certainly more common that war happens because leaders channel the energy of that bloodthirst as it is easier and the benefits (to themselves first, their tribe second) are thought to outweigh the risks. Look through history and you’ll see enough instances of leaders trying to keep the peace only to be killed by their bloodthirsty population and replaced by someone who will act.

    I wish we could all just get along, but so far the only effective deterrent in all of history has been the threat of destruction, either by a sufficiently powerful peace mongering leader, or MAD that nuclear weapons established. I suspect the next change in this dynamic, if MAD holds true, is some real AI that takes the reigns. It would be hard to rule break if we had an omniscient leader that could kill you within seconds.