This study has graphics breaking down different categories of out-of-the-labor-force people by demographic category and little descriptions of each. Their aim is (I think) to describe which kinds of work assistance programs each of the groups would benefit from, but reading through it is sort of surreal in some places. One example from one of their categories is a 61-year-old Filipino immigrant: “She used to work as a hotel housekeeper, but stopped nearly 10 years ago as her vision deteriorated.”
That’s not someone who will benefit from ‘job search assistance and counseling’, that’s someone who should get medical care and retirement. I don’t think this is ill-intentioned, but it’s kind of bizarre to read something that takes for granted that what we want is to get sixty-something women with failing eyesight ‘back into the workforce’.
In general I would like something like this to be more focused on the needs of the people it’s discussing? Like, what kind of assistance do they want, what kinds do they sign up for when it’s available (and when you’re not making their benefits conditional on signing up). I know conversations about labor force participation often treat it as an inherently good thing divorced from what it means for the people affected, but it’s more obvious here, where the whole article is about the details of the people affected – everything about them except what they want.
When we do get a sense of what the people in the study want, it’s mostly ‘a job that isn’t horrible’ – one with hours that let them cover childcare, one that doesn’t cheat them on pay, one that doesn’t make them put up with unsafe conditions and limp by with inadequate training. (This confirms a different instinct of mine, which is that all incentives and welfare rules against quitting your job in the world will get you is people who are more scared to quit horrible miserable frequently-illegal jobs.) Some of the job programs described really might help here, but if the thing you’re aiming to increase is just ’labor force participation’ then I think you’re missing a lot of the kind of help that’s actually needed.
Day: July 20, 2017
I want villains who go against the stereotypical bullshit that “evil cannot love” or whatever.
I want villains who spend months in their creepy dark lab building the death ray with their best buddy and hug each other when the superweapon is finally complete.
I want villains who fall madly in love with the other evil prince or princess they married to consolidate their power.
I want villains who tell bedtime stories to the little clone they created to be the successor to their throne and order their minions to get the clone a cup of warm milk because she can’t sleep.
I want villains hanging out with their best friends and acting like dorks while they bowl with their enemies’ skulls.
I want villains who are both evil and real, and real people have friends and families and loved ones.
Do you mean heroes?
No.
How do you get heroes from this!? What hero goes bowling
with the skulls of their enemies?I want
villains with families.I want
mad scientists helping their children with their science homework.I want villains leaving halfway though a battle because it’s
their anniversary and they are not going to leave their spouse waiting.I want villains who don’t work on Wednesdays because that’s
the day they visit their mum and take her out for tea.I want villains who hypnotise teachers to give their
children good grades.This reminds me of a series of recordings I made once as a joke…
Child: Daddy, Mrs Brown was talking about careers in class, and she asked me what you do.
Villain (in a deep, growling voice): I watch the world burn.
Child: Yeah, but I think she meant as a job?
Child: Daddy, Mrs Brown gave me detention again.
Villain: Let me fetch my gasoline.
Child: Um, Daddy, I’m not sure that…
Villain: Fire is the only way.
Villain: Ella, what is wrong? Are you crying?
Child: Josh said I’m ugly.
Villain: Ella, you are more beautiful than the screams of agony of a thousand enemies as I set them aflame.
Minion: Master, the elementary school has breached our security control and broken into our intercom system. They wish to negotiate with you regarding your daughter’s grades.
Villain: Negotiate? There is no negotiation. There is only repentance, or death.
Minion: Very well, master. Also, your daughter requests a bedtime story.
Villain: Tell her I am coming at once.
Minion: Master, why are your cape and robes… pink?
Villain: It is my daughter’s birthday today.
Minion: But what about darkness and evil, master?
Villain: The covenant of darkness is lesser than the covenant of fatherhood, Gerald.
!!!!!
Do you all want republicans? Because this is how we get republicans.
Fiction creates republicans?
Or are you just saying republicans are people?
Well I was mostly joking, but kind of not. All the examples in this post have essentially been happening in America for real recently. I could run through the examples if you want, but my main philosophical thought was the irony of enjoying a fictional wholesome villain while real world villains actually do craft their own fiction that their followers eagerly consume.
Like how demagogues presenting a wholesome front tends to make people forget how horrible they are, in addition to the demagogue themselves believing themselves to be wholesome.
I don’t think our current demagogue believes himself to be wholesome at all. I think he believes no one is.
I also don’t think what we’ve seen of his relationships with his family members are actually loving–there does seem to be a *loyalty* element to some of it, maybe even on his end as well as theirs, but his behavior doesn’t read as genuine fondness to me.
So I don’t see him as a real world example of what I was asking for in fiction here.
I like you. Thank you for the thoughtful reply. 🙂
Hey, you’re welcome!
Also…
Real life bad people and villains seem like really different things to me?
Monsters are stories. In real life, evil is boring.
The good monster stories aren’t allegories for how bad Republicans are. They’re their own thing.
And also, gayness is usually part of monster-ness. Or disability. Or some other thing that means people see you as transgressive just for existing. That’s pretty much the opposite of being a Republican representative.
true
Libraries are free, mostly. Pretty much everything millennials are “killing” costs money.
Plus, unlike half the stuff we’re killing, libraries actually have a practical use
we out here
Not to be *that* millennial, but as a librarian I’d just like to say that the greatest thing you can do to support your local library is to understand how they are funded and to support their funding with your vote.
Libraries can do a lot all on their own but quite often they cannot legally “toot their own horn” so-to-speak when it comes to advocating for sustaining or increasing funding, getting levies or bond issues passed, etc. Libraries need you to love them not just with your checkouts and attendance at programs.
We can do that too.
build libraries on dead golf courses.
We Are Dewey’s Army X3
Friendly reminder that many Libraries double function as free schools and other free resources, sometimes including otherwise inaccessible technology, like 3D printers.
The libraries in my city host ‘English as a Secondary Language’ classes, cooking classes, classes on how to use that 3D printer, local history classes, responsible naturalistic gardening classes, beekeeping classes, and all sorts of other fun topics. Plus the plethora of clubs that use the library conference rooms as their meeting place.
All for free.
Support and visit your local library. Ask about their services and classes. VOTE TO KEEP THEM FUNDED
Support libraries also that don’t have as many fancy functions and programs – where I work, we’re long on books (we have a lot that nobody even reads anymore) but short on programs, so we’re trying to phase it in as neatly as we can. Right now we have computer classes, and we’re about to do some renovation and begin supplying laptops for patrons to check out, in building, for a range of time. In smaller libraries, the best way to help out is (unfortunately) monetarily – we get most of our revenue not from the state, but from patrons during book sales, print/copying/fax/fines, local-business candy sales, and donations. And circs still count! The more circulations (of books, movies, games, etc, obvs) your library gets, the more the state and the library boards will agree that your library is worth funding, and worth supporting monetarily – because it’s a visual representation of how much the library is in use. And guys, I love ‘Dewey’s Army’.
@darthteia library appreciation post
Rocco, my 5 month old Boxer
What type of turtle did I grow
HAS DONE U A TRICKERY
hi tumblr!
this lovely person’s ip address is 68.145.254.239, they live in calgary, alberta, canada, and their internet service is shaw communications. do with this information what you choose.
additionally, you can reroute them to a screamer or jumpscare if they try to visit your blog – just follow the instructions here: http://freehostedscripts.net/blockip/
reblogs appreciated! 🙂
Shaw uses dynamic ip adresses for residential customers so the ip adresses anon used may very well also be used by a completely innocent third party as well. It also means the location may be off, when my family was using a dynamic ip it look liked we live about 2 hours from where we actually were.
While I would still block the ip adress in order to stay safe it maybe a good idea not to reroute them to a screamer or jumpscare since other people could end up getting caught in the middle.
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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