Messaggi: 48
Lingua: English
ceigered (Mostra il profilo) 05 marzo 2010 05:58:43
andogigi:Forgive my ignorance, but I take it that the US does not have a system like Australia's where one can pretty much live off of a fortnightly gov't welfare payment until they can get a job (the program includes activities to aim for that)? That honestly shocks me, I never knew how comprehensive/friendly/naive the Australian welfare system was until I looked this topic up today, even Ireland's* payment that I saw only lasts 312 days for the maximum (fair, but if times are tough and people aren't hiring it makes things complicated). I guess though there is potential backlash, particularly in countries which underwent an "anti-socialist" culture for a short time.
My friend has been unemployed for over a year. His government benefits are getting ready to end and he cannot find work. When this happens, he will probably be thrown into the street.
But yes... My family's had a close run in with the whole being thrown into the street bizzo. Australian real estate is really not geared for 6 person families.
I'm also going to be negative by saying that last year I don't think change.org really achieved anything, apart from a lot of public interest in various issues they may have forgotten about. But the fact that it's mostly pushed along by your standard group of activists probably shows the average American really doesn't care (2000 votes was the most I remember, and that's hardly a chip off of the US's population. If it was Iceland, different story!)
*then again it appears you get free education for children and a whole slew of other benefits, which would probably lighten the load.
jan aleksan (Mostra il profilo) 05 marzo 2010 08:57:57
ceigered:good point. Even if it's just clicking on a button, I'd like my vote to have some value (anyway, I decided not to vote because I'm not a US citizen).
I'm also going to be negative by saying that last year I don't think change.org really achieved anything, apart from a lot of public interest in various issues they may have forgotten about. But the fact that it's mostly pushed along by your standard group of activists probably shows the average American really doesn't care (2000 votes was the most I remember, and that's hardly a chip off of the US's population. If it was Iceland, different story!)
, 
darkweasel (Mostra il profilo) 05 marzo 2010 13:28:59
jan aleksan:(anyway, I decided not to vote because I'm not a US citizen).So what? I've never even been to the US and I voted.
Hispanio (Mostra il profilo) 05 marzo 2010 13:40:02
darkweasel:Me toojan aleksan:(anyway, I decided not to vote because I'm not a US citizen).So what? I've never even been to the US and I voted.
. qwertz (Mostra il profilo) 05 marzo 2010 15:07:46
In most european countries electronic voting machines were skipped because they can be manipulated. You can check the Chaos Computer Club technical briefings to prove that. So, in my opinion Internet votings will not achieve something. Probably you could more archieve if you put a esperanto market zone (like a farmers market where everybody speaks Esperanto to sell and buy things) around a parliament which members of the parliament have to cross a least one time per day. Traffic jams gets every car driver anoyed. Especially if they have to pass this esperanto people with these "ĝp (ĝis poste)" t-shirts. (just a crazy idea
) 
Pharoah (Mostra il profilo) 05 marzo 2010 15:52:43
Just curious, why a farmer's market?
shely141 (Mostra il profilo) 05 marzo 2010 16:34:30
ceigered (Mostra il profilo) 06 marzo 2010 09:38:20
Pharoah:The only problem is that in, say, DC, you'd be lucky to get even 10 Esperantists to show up. Such a small group would de-legitimize the movado and make us look even sillier than we already do.I doubt it would - its for teaching the language, not creating a minority group. However, like always, there's someone with great ideas like "helping your neighbours by paying taxes to fund welfare programs is evil and socialist/communist/anarchist/other-unrelated-yet-clumped-together-ist, and I have that authority because I'm from pre-BC Christian lineage" who will lobby against EO using the very point that there's not many speakers. Seriously, I think the supreme dude of the universe should do a product recall on human logic one of these days...
Pharoah (Mostra il profilo) 06 marzo 2010 20:57:47
ceigered (Mostra il profilo) 07 marzo 2010 08:38:01
Pharoah:Ah, another cynic. Do you read Reddit by any chance?Cynic as in "join the club" or cynic as in "oh, one of THOSE people again"?
Nah never seen reddit, what's it about?