It's weird to frame this as 'neglect'. Some minority groups are uniquely distrusting of medical professionals (I'll cite this later when I'm not on a work network) - that's going to impair testing participation.
In the past, medical researchers went out of their way to use minority test subjects and that's been understood to be more problematic than our volunteer-based system.
The vast majority of medicine was developed in white and asian countries, it's not surprising that medicine is optimized for people in those clusters. And it's only unethical that it winds up this way if you think it's unethical for people to advance their self-interest. Personally, I think that motivates most of the research so I'd rather have medicine that isn't tailored for me than no medicine.
I'm sure we can make things better, but to act as though any disparity is conclusive evidence of neglect/racism/prejudice/structural barriers isn't helpful and isn't going to get us any closer to improving medicine.
I think this is where a conversation about professionalism needs to happen. Professionalism is a two way street, we should expect professionals to avoid needless controversy but we should also expect professionals to let things like this memo slide - if some autist's manifesto on a company's listserv makes it impossible for you to do your job, you're not a good employee.
It's interesting that it's hostile to say "you are only here because you're a diversity hire" but "you only got the job because you are a white male" isn't understood to be as hostile.
At some point, we're going to have to decide whether we're committed to equality among protected classes or not.
The doctrine of States' rights is presupposes federal supremacy and a legalistic viewpoint. Marijuana can't be a State's rights issue because it's a federal issue. This is why you often hear the states' rights advocates call for a smaller federal government - states rights can only flourish without the shadow of federal jurisdiction.
Right now marijuana is illegal federally - all States' rights proponents acknowledge this. The old policy of being hands off but reserving the right to bring the iron fist down on otherwise legal businesses was a bad policy. The uncertainty and risk profile killed a lot of investment - to this day, the tax burden on pot businesses is insanely high because they're not permitted to deduct business expenses related to growing/distributing marijuana because those activities are federally illegal.
Thankfully, Sessions is legalistic. If congress got off their butts and legalized it/returned the legality decisions to the state, Sessions would surely respect their decision.
I enjoy marijuana more than most and I suppose Sessions enforcing the law - it's a bad law and collectively we need the motivation to make it better. This legal twilight zone is complete bogus - bring it into the open and drive out the criminal element and let the best organization flourish.
>Second, take a look at what happens to people who do leave the government. Very often, their salaries go up in the private sector.
There's a serious selection bias here. You'd only expect people to leave if their new job is better.
Why aren't the DMV clerks clamoring for walmart jobs? Because we probably overcompensate a lot of government employees and undercompensate others. This is another example of government incompetence and I bet they'll double down. Someone right now is trying to increase the pay grades, I promise it won't be enough to retain NSA talent but it'll make some high school congratulate in a cushy position very well off.
>are classified as gold digging whores if they think the father should provide for them while they do so
That's not a fair characterization. A lot of successful men select for that trait during courtship. I earn enough money to raise a family on my salary. I would prefer that my spouse would stay at home. I've been slandered as a chauvinistic sexist for articulating this viewpoint but I still hold it.
>The point is that there shouldn't be any economical or work-related downside (other than slightly less pay during maternity/paternity leave) for having a child.
but there are productivity downsides to having a child - taking more sick days, less flexibility, etc.
To the extent that we expect equal pay for equal work and we have lowered expectations for parents who work, there should be downsides to having a child or upsides to remaining childless.
>Developed is quite apt for any society that values its members.
Still, developed isn't the right dimension. Pygmy tribes value all their members, but they're not developed. Well, do they even 'value' their members? They don't value their members enough to integrate into the global economy and enjoy the benefits of evidence based medicine and trade.
Development is more closely related to infrastructure and safety/security. We understand poor parts of Mexico to be less developed than NYC because of ease of access to infrastructure and the difference in safety/security.
Right wingers claim that too many people are dependent on welfare. When Republicans threaten to cut entitlements, the left shrieks "you're LITERALLY KILLING US". That seems congruent with the right wing view. Where's the liberal bias there?
They're underfunded for the level of management and expectations for reliable service.
As another comment noted, the MTA uses 120% of London's transportation budget to serve 20% more riders.
Superior management could improve the service without additional expenditures but it would probably involve breaking the gravy train for political factions like unions and politicians' friends.
I'm not sure how Elon Musk could be any more wrong than urban transit planners.
I live in a cold city, most of the bus stops aren't protected from the elements / heated so waiting for the bus is excruciating. It's not possible to track the bus with enough precision to reduce outside wait times to acceptable margins (~5 minutes).
I do drugs recreationally that impair my ability to drive. Invariably this happens at night, after about 8 pm at which point the busses run hourly. The thought of burning an hour because I missed a bus is a serious dampener and makes Uber much more attractive.
And the bus isn't a collection of random strangers - it's people who are too poor / cheap / sick to drive themselves. The bus riders seem to skew loud, cantankerous, and disrespectful of personal space and privacy. I deal with PII on a regular basis, I can't work on the bus.
But transit planners insist this system is as good as it can be and to make it better, they'd need more money. Bus drivers make more than junior devs at my company, bust the transit unions and maybe public transit will have a chance.
When I was younger, my parents moved out into the country and they bought a lot that had been intensively overgrazed and over farmed. Our neighbor farmed hay / alfalfa for the nearby dairy farms and he told us it would be centuries until the land could support a crop.
The 'dirt' was dust, rocks, and fossilized manure. Within 3 years of being let alone it recovered enough to support the hardier plants and weeds, that winter we planted barley and rye to add organic matter, compete with the weeds, and put some roots in the soil to stop erosion. After that, it came back with a vengeance. 7 years after our neighbor said it'd be centuries until we could grow anything on it, he bought the rights to plant alfalfa on some of the lot.
I have no doubt that people could manage the soil better, but things return to nature pretty quick especially if you can help nature do what it's trying to do.
6 million parts is probably misleading. Bolts, screws, and washers are replaced perfunctory and with aerospace-grade parts that are presumed to be in compliance - half the parts on a plane might be things that are replaced that way.
Also, that part count is probably inclusive of the engines and avionics and those are inspected on separate schedules by separate technicians. Lord knows how many parts are on a 747 circuit board, but as long as the board is working correctly, do you need to check every capacitor on the board?
The D service also takes tens of thousands of hours and months - each panel is removed and every inch of the aircraft is inspected by master technicians and factory representatives. IT can only happen at special factories that have the space for the plane to come apart and come back together like it should.
"forced camaraderie" misunderstands camaraderie. The US GOV didn't force people to work together in WWII, it invited them to work together and people rose to the occasion.
Nationalism gives people a way to draw the friend/enemy distinction at the border and a way to resolve differences without civil war.
To the extent that America draws its friend/enemy distinction inwards, civil war becomes inevitable.
It's a real bummer that we think of nationalism as a dirty thing, in its highest form it should be collaborative. One can believe that America is for Americans and illegals need to go back AND believe that those people should improve their own country. The MAGA crowd wouldn't resent Mexico for doing well, or at least there'd be less resentment than the status quo where Mexican nationals come here and misbehave.
the friend/enemy distinction is embedded in humanity. Overcoming the distinction is like asking humanity to move beyond Good and Evil, it might be possible for the ubermensch but the ubermensch is an elevated version of present day humanity.
The real question is how you're allowed to interact with The Enemy. Refusing to work with The Enemy is something one does at their own peril.
Good for them highlighting the issue of poverty, but the ideology is palpable and too adversarial for what could solved collaboratively.
Too much social welfare is driven by 'good intentions' rather than emphasis on changing people's lives. I'd be more inclined to support larger budgets if I knew they were spent better.
Bezos, Gates, and Buffets aren't the reason that healthcare and housing can be cripplingly expensive. My neighborhood has houses that cost about 20-40x the city's median earnings, I can't throw a stone without hitting an "all are welcome here" / "we're glad you're our neighbor" sign - it's a nice sentiment. But these same people would freak out if a developer tried to build a 400 unit apartment down the block. IF we don't allow housing stock to grow, spending our way out of homelessness won't be feasible.
When it gets cold here, indigents show up at the hospital complaining of "chest pain". they get monitored for a while, some respite from the cold, and meals but in the most expensive way imaginable. If we could just exchange a right to emergency healthcare for a living stipend and a place to live, both parties would be better off. That deal should be on the table.
During the D maintenance, every part should be inspected. Things like fuel lines should be inspected much more regularly, ideally more often than it would take to rub through a fuel line.
But a visual inspection on a fuel line can be really difficult. I had a motorcycle with a leaky fuel line once, luckily it sprung a leak while warming up in my driveway and I turned off the bike before anything bad happened but it was almost impossible to tell where the leak was without pressurized fuel, the hose looked pristine without positive pressure to highlight the crack.
In race cars, they sometimes 'overpressure' the fuel line (above operating pressure but below max pressure) to check for leaks, I wonder if they ever do that routinely for aircraft.
In the past, medical researchers went out of their way to use minority test subjects and that's been understood to be more problematic than our volunteer-based system.
The vast majority of medicine was developed in white and asian countries, it's not surprising that medicine is optimized for people in those clusters. And it's only unethical that it winds up this way if you think it's unethical for people to advance their self-interest. Personally, I think that motivates most of the research so I'd rather have medicine that isn't tailored for me than no medicine.
I'm sure we can make things better, but to act as though any disparity is conclusive evidence of neglect/racism/prejudice/structural barriers isn't helpful and isn't going to get us any closer to improving medicine.