Register to vote: https://vote.gov
Contact your reps:
Senate: https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm?Class=1
House of Representatives: https://contactrepresentatives.org/
Cooling? Is this some US thing?
The post literally links to US government sites, so I am hopeful you’ll be able to sort out this mystery
In many places in the US, if you do not have a system to remove humidity from the air in a space, you will fail to regulate your body temperature via sweating, leading to heat stroke and more.
Last summer we had a streak of 45 consecutive days over 100°F where I’m at.
I’ve never turned on my heater. I don’t even know if it works. If it gets cold I grab an extra blanket or wear pajamas. When my AC quit working I moved in with a friend for a few days while it got fixed, because the inside of my trailer house can hit 125 in the summer.
In February I used less than 200kWh of electricity . In July I used nearly 1800.
Yes. I assume you’re in Europe, it’s way hotter here and an apartment without AC is essentially useless much of the year.
Same reason we guzzle ice water (or soft drinks) like crazy people in restaurants.
It never occurred to me that it wouldn’t get above 100F/37C in other countries
In 2022, over 1600 Americans died from heat related illnesses.
The fact that this is political is maddening.
But what about the shareholders??!1!!?
If only we could codify these ‘rights’ into some kind of a ‘bill’…
We COULD do this, if every lobbyist were disposed of and we similarly handled the billionaires. Otherwise there’s no hope here.
Killing the people using the system and not the system itself just treats the symptoms, but not the disease.
I’m not advocating violence, but don’t the symptoms need handled to treat the disease at some point?
Kind of? If the disease (Capitalism) goes away, so too will the symptoms. It isn’t necessary to kill the bourgousie, just make them irrelevant and whither away.
If the state does not uphold their rights to property, they have no power.
Right. ‘Handle’ was not necessarily code for ‘murder’. But something’s gotta give and the aforementioned bourgeoisie are unlikely to take whatever that ends up being lying down.
The EFF and ACLU employ lobbyists.
The fact that a terrible system is being used by both good and bad actors does not mean the system should be protected.
Corruption isn’t only on one side.
Hmm, my point is more that lobbying the government is essentially the same as petitioning the government, which is a protected right for good reason. While we could certainly be doing more to clamp down on kickbacks (e.g. Clarence Thomas), to ban lobbying wholesale would be to throw out the baby with the bathwater.
If everyone has a home how can I look down on the homeless and drug addicted while I drink cheap bourbon?
Humanity runs on
Gesundheit.
Way too many people are absolutely appalled when I say I don’t care if some of my taxes go to keeping lazy people alive, inside, fed, and warm. I don’t care if someone is not working because they’re disabled, being educated, looking for a job, or just lazy, no one should live without basic human dignity.
I agree so much. The vast majority of people wants to work to some degree anyway because they tend to feel useless and bored and go nuts. I see this in the huge number of refugees every day, they are going insane waiting for their documents to be approved so they can finally look for a job, be it just McDonald’s. And those who don’t - well so be it. I’d rather have someone unemployed and “lazy” than half assing some job they hate.
I’d love to have a system where everything mentioned in the meme is provided and everyone pays like 90% taxes. You get an apartment in an appropriate size not more than 15 minutes from your workplace. You get basic groceries provided and if you want truffles or crazy imported fruit you still have your 10% for that. Those 10% can go to whatever you like. You have housing. You have food. You have clothing. You have infrastructure and all your basic and medium needs are met. Save up for a trip somewhere, buy weird groceries, jewelry, go to a restaurant.
And there are just natural leaders and politicians and whatnot. I am sure that people will still want to have a “career” for money unrelated reasons. Imagine a manager who actually rocks at managing a team instead of an asshole who only does this job because it pays better. Likewise, and this hurts me so much when I see this on the playground, “low end jobs” would still be done because a lot of people love the idea of doing construction, waiting, cooking, cleaning. Garbage men are being looked up to by kids. Kids naturally love these kinds of jobs but somewhere along the way to adulthood the social stigma kicks in and the realisation that these jobs pay shit keeps them from going down these roads.
I mean at this point scarcity is artificial
For a few more years, at least, til they reinvent the real thing with climate apocalypse. Even if we turn around right now; incomprehensible numbers of people are going to die to this. Every day adds more.
We have built most of the machinery necessary to create a kind of heaven, and the fuckers we allow to have control of it are using everything we give them to create hell. Every breath they draw is a shame we all must carry.
I will gladly accept if my taxes go to someone lazy if it means people that need it are getting the assistance they need. It’ll happen anyways may as well help people who need it. That said I don’t condone people scamming the system but it’s either very high administration costs or people that need it don’t get it usually. I went on assistance once, needed it short term, recall some dude talking about how it was his weekend spending money. Annoying to hear but I got the assistance I needed for that short time till I got a job. Always felt my attitude would fit better in some European or Scandinavian countries but I’m older now and don’t speak anything other than English.
Laziness is NOT an existential threat.
What else is labor good for if not making things better? I want to chase improvement, not profit.
FR FR, defrauding the system should be punished, not prevented, because right now preventative measures are very obviously doing jack shit in actual service to the public
I’m not even talking about fraud. I think someone should still be entitled to a basic existence even if they don’t want to work. Like sure, don’t give them an Xbox Series X, but, give them food and heat. Maybe even an Xbox 360. What are those, like $30?
I only find my life fulfilled if I have the latest systems, games, and full online services for each.
And only then should we all collectively say, “well then get a job.”
My point is that the argument for not doing that derives from paranoia about the system being defrauded by the unscrupulous poor or whatever
I hear that argument a lot and the fear and paranoia about the system being defrauded is so unfounded. People are crazy susceptible to propaganda. The cases found to be actually fraudulent are under 10%. The statistics for fraud are super low and so many people who are legit disabled get denied over and over. It’s mind boggling lol
You are promising a lot from an institution that is corrupt to its core and has a vested interest in denying you these things in order to extract the most out of you and hoping you die before society has to support you
civlized countries are starting to realize it’s cheaper to help people than keep them in poverty
I’m a simple man. I see Eddie Izzard, I upvote
What happens when you see a monkey in a tree, while you’re wearing a beret?
Le singe a disparu
What does owning adequate clothing even mean?
Here in California, I can go to a local shelter right now and get all of these things. Except adequate clothing because I don’t know what that even means.
I’d assume adequate clothing means clothing that fits properly, and is appropriate for the climate and weather.
Sometimes I see homeless people wearing shoes that look way to big for them and I’m guessing it’s because that was the closest they could find that fit on their feet so they just had to go with that. It’s really not adequate though because it could be a tripping hazard.
Additionally, facilities to wash clothing. This was one of the biggest struggles when I was homeless.
Homeless people pick their own clothing. They are often too zonked to even care
Umm, please use a more appropriate term, like consciously-divergent.
Regressivist scum keeps attacking strawmen. More non-news at 11.
Source: your anus
Tru
Not everyone is so lucky that standard sized clothing and shoes will fit them, or are even manufactured.
Honestly if we just tax the rich and start distributing government surplus we probably wouldn’t even need to mandate most of this list.
I think you could mandate the things you mentioned and the list.
Yeah both is good but I just wanted to really illustrate that the thing standing in our way is inequality.
Minor nitpick: if it’s snowing outside (and you can do so), then wear a fucking sweater inside! Heating a whole room by a few degrees when you could just not run around with a T-shirt is just so wasteful.
If you can’t wear one, because you’re disabled, then ignore my mant, please.
Fair comment, just wanted to add that it depends on the humidity and shelter condition. Dry cold is perfectly comfortable with extra layers - I’ve heard many stories of relatives sleeping outside in snow caves or under layers of snow over animal skins - but depending on how badly insulated your house is and how close to the ground (the answers for which, for most people in the situation of the comic, are: badly and low) you may not have much of a choice.
Electricity companies hate this trick!
For real I dont understand why people forget that they can just wear thicker clothes even at home. And they complain the electricity is expensive
But let’s not forget the fact that a heart pump would be great, if ran minimally and a small fireplace is not going break the bank. So don’t think heating is a complete burden, enjoy the fruits of labor we all work hard on.
This is the real answer, with the efficiency of a heat pump you can have your t-shirt and wear it (guilty free) too.
heart pump?
And honestly it’s so cozy to be in a chilly room in a toasty wool wrap.
Significantly lowering indoors temperatures can have detrimental effects on health, particularly for elderly people. Also, electricity should be sufficiently accessible and cheap that I don’t need to freeze my butt off in my home in order to pay the bills.
You’re reading waay too much into my comment. I specifically said that there were exceptions and only said that you shouldn’t heat up to t-shirt temperatures.
I suppose it’s not you I’m annoyed with actually. It just rubbed me the wrong way. We’ve had 13-15C indoors this winter in order to afford the power bill, and that’s with geothermal and a decently isolated house. Combined increases in grid fees and electricity price have multiplied our power bill five-fold the past years (and that’s with everything else inflating also).
Next winter we’ll hopefully have cleared the chimney and start burning wood again during the most expensive parts of winter.
Yes dress for winter even indoors, but once my nose and extremities and phalanges get cold, I’m turning on the heater.
Ah, to be young again and not have your hands and feed start freezing indoors when it starts getting chilly outside…
I do that, but I also have fish tanks without a heater which can’t go below a certain temperature, so there is a fine balance that must be maintained.
So what if now hear me out we do none of that, and do number go up instead - you know - for the shareholders?
but to fully achieve this goal we must overcome the Capitalism
