That’s exactly what I do. I also have IoT devices that are still trucking along a decade later. I fully expect them to likely do a decade more.
Both Tasmota and ESPhome provide open source firmware for many IoT devices. They throw up a local API interface that other systems can talk to. Providing legacy support is as hard as using HTML put and get commands.
Just hard a read through, and there are a lot of problematic flaws in your concept.
In the first section, corruption will be a HUGE issue. The groups deciding on pay rates will have insane power, which will attract bribes etc. E.g the powerful pushing down wages in their field of interest for short/medium terms profits.
On top of that is the inefficiency problem. Very few jobs are equal. E.g. a sawmill worker, working on the outskirts of a big down will want different compensation to one working completely out in the sticks. There’s also no system to adjust for changing demand. If you’ve not got enough builders, tough shit, no pay increase to pull in talent.
Trying to cover these will create an insanely complex and problematic bureaucracy, that will grow rapidly out of control. It’s basically a version of what the USSR and communist China did. Reading up on how they failed could be enlightening to you.
On to the second point. You’ve again got massive inefficiencies. Often the blemished bananas etc don’t go to waste. They are used to make things like banana ice-cream or banana bread etc. You also jumped straight to processed foods. There is no accounting for making something better from cheaper, but higher quality ingredients.
It’s a LOT more efficient to just work out the cost of feeding a person (in a particular location). If it costs $X to feed a person for a month, then just give them each $X. They can decide how to most efficiently use that money. Some will buy basic meals, others will cook using higher quality ingredients, still others will add to it to cover take away each night. All get fed, and efficiencies get maximised on a local level.
As for taxation. It’s a good idea in principle, but would have problems in implementation. It’s already a problem that unphotogenic causes get underfunded. Your idea would be equivalent to America using “Go fund me” to cover medical costs. It works, ish, but is horribly unfair.
A better solution might be a donation match system. You pay $Y and the government diverts $Y of your taxes (up to how much you paid) to a cause of your choice. The UK government does something like it already. Gift aid allows UK tax payers to donate to a charity. The charity can then claim 25% of the amount from the government. E.g. a £100 donation becomes £125 to the charity.
Your ideas are a good leaping off point. A few useful bits of advice.
Check to see how an idea can be corrupted.
Check if it’s been done before, and how it worked/failed. Also look at how inefficient your idea is.
A large amount of inefficiency can be worse than unfairness. A split where some get $300 while others get $100 looks unfair. However, if the fix leaves everyone with $80 then the unfair version still wins overall (everything else being equal).
That would effectively create a planned economy. In theory it could work. Unfortunately, the human element cripples it. How do you rank the value of doctors against cleaners? How do you rank bananas against bread? The core elements were tried with communism, and found to fall severely short.
What has been found, in Africa, with micro loans/grants is that people are a LOT more efficient at maximising value locally than a lot of applied rules. Giving them money (e.g. to start a business) is a lot more effective than giving them resources directly. It uses capitalism to optimise on the local scale.
One of the key things with UBI is letting people and businesses sort things out on the small scale. While capitalism has massive issues, it’s VERY good at sorting this sort of problem.
My personal preference would be a closed loop tax based system. Basically, a fixed percentage of money earned (e.g. 15%) is taxed on everyone. That is then distributed on a per capita basis. There would be a cutoff point where you pay more than you receive. The big advantage is that it’s dynamic to the economy. If the economy shrinks, then UBI shrinks with it, encouraging people to work more to compensate. It provides a floor of income, letting people negotiate working conditions, without the fear of homelessness. It also channels money from the rich, where it moves slowly, to the poor, where it has a far higher velocity.
No sane UBI plan will do this. The goal is to cover Basic needs, not replace working. What it does attempt to do away with is the requirement to work yourself to the bone to barely survive. Working to pay for things more than the basics is still expected.
A useful side effect is to rebalance the power dynamics between larger companies and their employees. It’s a lot harder to abuse someone if they won’t be homeless within 3 months if they quit.
If it smells like pork, you’re holding it wrong.
In the UK, they’ve taken some tills out. About 4 tills become 16 self checkouts. They still have plenty of tills for normal checkout.
It definitely lets less staff get more people through, in less time. So far, it’s not been excessively abused over here. It’s also made my life significantly less annoying.
To be fair, that’s a fairly universal problem. In the UK it’s a basket Vs trolley split. They do have trolley self checkouts, but it’s separate, and mainly intended for scan as you shop.
On a side note, what’s with American supermarkets not having baskets at all. Did I just have really weird luck?
I went to the US for a few days. Their self checkouts seem to be universally awful, compared to the UK or German equivalent.
While the hardware is far less reliable, and more convoluted, it’s the users that seem the main issue. Self checkout is generally intended (over here) to shift the fast, small shops out of the main queues. 1 big line and a dozen or more tills. In the states they treat it as just another till. Built for trollies, and 1 queue per till. Combined with a slow user and it becomes hell rapidly.
It’s definitely needed. I watched a relative pass. Her brain was gone from stroke damage. It took almost a fortnight for her to pass however. It was horrible.
Old Age Pensioners.
The age group most likely to drop dead, and so have the least scrutiny.
Fyi, the bat thing was while he was high as a kite. He thought it was a plastic bat, someone had thrown on stage. He discovered he was wrong the hard way!
Officially no. It’s actually something Ozzy was involved in the campaign for. There’s a religious crowd who freak out at the very idea. No government has yet had the will to push updates past them.
There are however doctors who will happily make a pain med prescription that is “incompatible with life”. If the patient happens to die, while dealing with the pain, well at least they weren’t in pain.
I believe the police also have a similar mindset. They won’t look too deeply, if they suspect it happened that way, with the patient’s consent. They do have the shadow of Harold Shipman hanging over them however. They missed a serial killer for years, since he was targeting OAPs.
I disagree. I told my wife to “calm down” once, and it worked perfectly. She went from emotional to very calm and focused.
It might have been at the incongruity that I would actually dare say that, or just the time for her incandescent rage to move to fully focusing on me, but she DID calm down (for 2-3 seconds).
I can’t see it as anything but white and gold. However, other photos clearly show it is black and blue.
Interestingly, if I’m scrolling past, my brain will sometimes perceive it as black and blue for a fraction of a second. I can normally flip optical illusions at will. This one jams me in the wrong viewing mode.
It’s also worth noting that it wasn’t the hydrogen that caused the fire. The Hindenburg had an aluminium skin. It began having degradation issues, so they painted it. The paint was iron oxide based. Aluminium and iron oxide are the 2 main ingredients in thermite.
Analysis of the video shows that it was the skin burning off. It would have gone up almost as badly, even if filled with helium.
I remember when my first was born. 2 different parts of my brain had opposing thoughts.
1 part was thinking “This is the cutest, most beautiful thing ever. I must protect and nurture them at all costs.”
The other part was thinking “My god newborn babies are ugly!”
I can easily see cognitive dissonance pushes most people to the first thought. It’s you being hacked by hormones, an effect that is disturbingly powerful.
I was also caught out by how much my (male) hormones were affected, even pre birth. It both disturbed and amused my wife.
I’m a parent. I would also struggle to keep a straight face. My minion might even get a compliment for the insult. They will still be in trouble for it though!
Parenthood isn’t about being perfect, but just ahead of your chaotic lovable minion.
I used both options. It’s worth mentioning that, depending where you live, using a drying rack indoors can cause major mold issues. The humidity needs to go somewhere.
It’s also worth noting that modern dryers are massively more efficient than the older ones. Many older dryers (at least in the UK) could run at around 2.5-3kW. my new one is down to 500W. That energy also gets dumped into the living area as heat, so isn’t wasted in the winter.
Basically, the equations are not as simple as they first appear.
Adopting a rescue dog has various home checks and interviews and welfare checks. Leaving hospital with a baby: “Do you have a car seat for them?”, “Yes…”, “You’re all good to go then!”, “…”