#us dissent

[allisondroberts]

I have nothing to hide. I don't break the law, I don't write hate e-mails, I don't participate in any terrorist organizations and I certainly don't le...

This is a frightening post that everyone should read about how easily good people can be manipulated into doing very bad things when a ruling authority is able to apply the right kind of pressure. Most people are not monsters, but they will become monsters if they feel that it is the only way to protect what they love. Increased surveillance makes it much easier for authorities to know exactly where to apply pressure to make people act according to their will.

We think that it can not happen here, but there are already government injustices running rampant in American society under the guise of the War on Terrorism or The War on Drugs.

Honestly, I do not know what the solution is as we are recorded and tracked to a frightening degree today, and I do not see that decreasing with technology's continued advance. How do we keep the ruling authority from abusing that wealth of data? This article adequately describes what can happen quickly and without our realization, but it does not give a good solution from stopping it happening.  

[allisondroberts]

Fair Compensation and Tipping

And while we are talking about the US and fair compensation for employees, lets discuss tipping. Growing up in the US, I didn't give tipping much thought. It was what you did when you went out to eat. As I got older, I became aware that there is a secret complex tipping system in other service industries that I have never fully understood. I am sure some cabbies in Boston hate me because I didn't know you were supposed to tip them on top of there outrageous fees. 

Moving to Australia which is a non-tipping country was a bit of a wake up call. Here all employees are paid a decent living wage though there is age discrimination which is bizarre coming from the US. With a few exceptions for apprentices, trainees and the like, in Australia if you are over 21 years old the minimum wage is $16.37.  Though US employers would assure you that a living minimum wage would bring about the end of the world or at least the service industry, it doesn't. There are still plenty of restaurants, cabs, fruit gets picked, and pretty much life goes on with everyone employed being about to provide themselves and their dependents food and shelter <gasp!>. It does mean than more restaurants have counter service rather than table service and the meal prices are a bit higher, but probably not as high as you would imagine. 

In the US employees working for tips fall into a similar category as the disabled in that employers do not have to pay them even the US's pitiful minimum wage. Not tipping in the US really is abusing the wait staff because without your tips they are not making minimum wage or coming close to a living wage. 

Here are two articles I found interesting with more perspectives on the US and tipping:

Next Time You're Tempted To Give A Bad Tip, Consider This          

This one explains better than I can how dependent US restaurant workers are on their tips and how nasty some customers are to their wait staff. Shame, shame!

Why Tipping Should Be Outlawed

This one goes over some of the conceptual problems with tipping and why it is not at all a fair system. As things sit, to be a decent person in the US you MUST tip your wait staff, but that doesn't mean you can't also work to get these people fair wages and reduce that necessity. I don't know that tipping should be outlawed, but I think it should be an optional extra for good service and not parted of the expected wage of the employee. It should be the bonus, not the bread and butter. 

[allisondroberts]

By now you've probably heard the story of David Eckert. He's the New Mexico man who was stopped by police, detained based on a suspicion he was hiding drugs in his rectum, and subjected to increasi...

This is just scary. The more I read about some of the things that happen with the US police of late the more frightened I become. How can the police demand invasive medical procedures on people, and how can doctors ethically agree to comply with those demands? Also colonoscopies in the US are EXPENSIVE so who is paying? As a taxpayer I think the war on drugs has been a huge waste of money already, I am certainly not interested in paying for possibly mules to have colonoscopies EVEN if I thought that was okay, and it is NOT. Not at all. 

Here is another example though I think it has been more widely covered in the media:

Dad's Attempt to Teach Son a Lesson Ends in the Most Tragic Way Imaginable

This is another one I can't understand. Since when does a report of car theft get you shot to death? Since when has a reported car theft lead to a car chase? Police need the ability to defend themselves from violent criminals who are trying to do them harm, but this new tendency of shooting first and asking questions later seems a dangerous and deadly path. 

[allisondroberts]

One common criticism of the libertarian ethos is that if we reduce government control over society, big business will have unchecked power over our lives, so

I really, really, really fail to understand why this isn't discussed more in mainstream media as it seems to be happening a LOT and why there aren't  lot of bank employees in JAIL. How has the US devolved to this state where banks can STEAL from people they have no business association with and suffer no ill consequences. 

[allisondroberts]

I am sure you are all aware of how unhappy I am with the ever changing US airport security theater, and this is a prime example. I can't believe that a citizen leaving the country with a valid passport is now considered a privilege and not a right. I am sure that every passenger that regularly travels overseas has creases in their passport. Mine certainly does. But more than the ridiculous nit picking, it is the inconsistency that really bothers me. If the Denver airport was fine with the passports, why is Dallas able to then pull them off the flight? How often is this stuff going on and it not being reported? These kind of stories make me reluctant to want to return to the US even for a short visit because I certainly don't want to be trapped there anymore.

[allisondroberts]

I think America's incarceration rate is shameful and ridiculous. I can't believe that society has allowed the rate to rise so high though I suspect your average American is not even aware of the problem. I fear that the privatization of prisons and the trend of allowing prisoners to work for corporations for below minimum wage will make the problem even worse since there will be along of money being made off of having a large percent of the population in prison.

I am not sure how one should consider crimes committed in prison. It doesn't seem that they should be viewed in the same way as crimes on the street, but they are also a concerning trend. Why should people who are incarcerated for brutality be allowed to continue being brutal during their punishment? Why can we not control crimes in prison? Why does society seem to think it is okay that criminals get brutalized in prison? It seems prison has the ability to turn petty non violent criminals into brutal monsters. That doesn't seem to be a good trend either. I don't know what the solution is, but I think we should spend more time, media time, discussing the problem instead of some of the other political issues that seem to distract from the countries real problems.

[allisondroberts]

This is unbelievable. I know rangers often do not get the respect that they deserve, but I don't think that people should be issued weapons without an extensive amount of training. A stun gun is a weapon, and it can be deadly. It should not be used in a non-violent incident. The increasing number of people in the US that are using stun guns without really considering the severity of their actions scares me.

[allisondroberts]

An article on the class polarization in the US. Some interesting statistics and some opinions. I didn't agree with everything, but it gave me some things to think about. It is based on a book that I have not read:

Charles Murray’s Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010