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Monday, May 23, 2016

64% of Europeans Want a Guaranteed Basic Income, still none anywhere:

https://www.rt.com/news/344079-basic-income-europe-poll/

64% of Europeans are in favor of an unconditional equal government distribution of cash, with only 24% opposed.  Supposedly, Europeans live in democracies, from Italy to Spain, and yet not a single country in Europe is actually passing a basic income law.  How is it that the 24% have ascendancy over the 64% in a democracy?  What exactly is going on?

We have reached the point where there's no longer any point in arguing the merits of a basic income.  Everyone already knows about the merits and has long ago been convinced by them.  If educating people about the basic income were enough, then we'd already be done.  Now we simply stand here, helpless and naked, in the face of the total oligarchic control of the world, which has simply decided to ignore the vast majority of its citizens and enact its own will regardless.  So long as you can't get control of the party platform process, it doesn't matter what the people want.  And party politics requires so much campaign finance that no one with a platform unpopular among oligarchs can ever get elected.  Representative democracy is a farce and one of the least democratic institutions on Earth.  If we don't switch to direct democracy, where referendums are allowed on the ballot regardless of which party is in charge, and the people can directly vote for the laws they prefer, the basic income will never happen, no matter how popular it becomes.

For years, decades, I've been arguing for the basic income as the obvious best solution to automation changing our employment prospects.  Now I find out that this was all pointless, because the argument was already won long ago.  It's just that we're all equally powerless to do anything about it, because the 'democracies' we live in are frauds.  What we need isn't a basic income, it's the courage to march on our capitals and directly impose our will over the land because the politicians will never, ever listen to us so long as we speak nicely.  Switzerland is lucky enough to have a direct democracy process.  For everyone else it's going to take a revolution.

I don't think 'The Leisure of Grisaia' is a terribly important addition to the canon visual novel, but Grisaia is Grisaia.  It only costs $2 too, so people may as well buy it from Steam.

Meanwhile, Hello! Kiniro Mosaic is fully out in bd, so now's the time to rewatch the series in its most perfect form.

Also, the newest Fairy Tail ova has finally been translated.  Welcome to beautiful Wendy greatness.

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