raze2012

Nah you're think backwards. Who votes and influences policy the most? Old people. Why? They have time to go to townhalls (which are often scheduled during the work week times), they have time to line up at the polls. Politicians famously only listen to calls and many haven't updated their communications for the 21st century to take in new forms of communication.

So there's two clear solutions here.

1. Mandatory voting. This includes making voting days holidays (to give people time) and removing any current obstacles that keep people from voting.
2. Citizens need modern, local forums. We really shouldn't be on a private social media where anyone can yell at a politician in order to get news on policy. Tie these forums to voter's state ID and monitor them for feedback on proposals and bills.

That's the bare minimum.

Even simpler for me. Everyone gets one vote. You paying into social security? You get one more vote. We could break this down further to "is more than X% compensation social security payments", but let's keep it simple.

As much as we gripe, billionaires don't influence votes as much as we think (they simply lobby whoever gets in later). Politicians influence votes and focus on the demographic who votes the most. Who happen to be the people who don't need to plan around 8 hours of work in order to get to the polls. And those who won't be around to see the fruits of their labors 20+ years later. Let's reward those who work and need to face their future.

Doubtful. If they live in an urban area, that means they need to up their compensation to compete with local talent in the city (because housing is more expensive). Whereas an employee in a suburb commuting might take a smaller pay. The extra few thousand dollars of stipend wouldn't cancel this dynamic out.

Was it always this stupid, though?

. I can’t afford to lose this job; the pay is good and there aren’t many alternatives in my area.

To be fair to your coworkers, they probably had the same reasonings. They just weren't willing to fake a doctor's note to get out of it.

they asked if I had a degree in theoretical physics. I said I have a theoretical degree in physics. They said welcome aboard.

The social contract was "pay us properly and we won't burn your factory down". Our compromise was unions. But yes, we lost that contract some 40 years ago and our pitchforks grew dull, distracted by the usual culture wars brought out to divide the working class.

Why did we reduce our 3rd places to loud rowdy bars or religious institutions? We couldn't get a slightly louder version of a library to hang out in, with some electronics to connect to?

Really makes me miss my university library. It had 5 floors and the first 2 floors werre more social collaborative ones. Even had a Cafe. People who wanted to deeply focus go to the 4th/5th floor where it's dead quiet.

Power these days generally means government trifecta. 2009 was indeed the last time Dems had that. 2010 had it lose congress majority, the I believe 2018 had it lose SCOTUS majority.

The Black Panthers did more to advance gun control laws than any "radical left hippie kumbaya" ever did. Let minorities have the same freedoms and suddenly things need to be toned down for everybody.

the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.

Sure does meet the definition, yes.

that’s not what I said.

I'm saying you're premise is flawed, unprovable, and simply bad. Does that get it through to you? You're making unfounded assumptions and triping down doesn't make it more correct.