No, and it's just not a joke anymore.

Sorry to agree.

This decapitation of education, military, cyber-defense, public news, the arts, disaster preparedness, climate science ... the list goes on ... is so systematic that it can only be described as a fifth column effort to destroy the U.S. from inside, which Putin can't do from outside.

History suggests the axe may well fall on the remaining if a certain target head-count is not achieved.

Seeing a lot of layoffs lately in tech generally. My sense is that Corporate knows something that the rest of us do not. (Or at least that Wall Street does not.)

I don't think most of the people they will inevitably layoff qualify for this package. age + num years work >= 70. They seem to be per-emptively shielding against age discrimination lawsuits.

And yes, but no. I think we all know what's happening. No one wants to say it out loud.

Yeah, agree. It's a clever way to cull the herd of the ones you would have difficulty laying off (due, as you say, to the appearance of age discrimination).

Next up, whole teams will be axed—not individuals.

I'm laughing, having explained to my wife that if you are 69 and have worked there one year you are eligible for buyout/retirement.

The kid that started at 10 years old though, there for the whole 51 years: sorry, in another 9 years you will be eligible.

Hilarious that there is an algorithm.

Age + years of service >= 70.

61 + 51 in your example.

I'm dumb—somehow I got it in my head it was your age when you started.

"How do you know that the evidence that your sensory apparatus reveals to you is correct?" [1]

[1] https://youtu.be/_LXen-07Qds

Having been covered a good deal of the wealth across my life, I disagree. (Although it is possible of course that I was just happier when I was younger—poverty being beside the point.)

it is well established that they are correlated.

that doesnt mean that wealth is the only factor of happiness, nor is it the strongest. but it is correlated.

I don't question that.

I wonder though if there is a sweet spot—a goldilocks degree of wealth. Too much wealth becomes a burden itself.

Is there a linear relationship between wealth and happy? Someone 10× as wealthy as another person—10× happier?

I suspect not.

if you spend time traveling (I have, significant time - can't imagine a different life) you will unmistakably conclude that happiest people, by far are from the poor(est) countries. it is only "western minds" that think (this is ingrained in societies like USA) wealth and happiness are correlated.

the happiest part of my life was when I had nothing materially (but no debt, just basically at zero, making enough to live paycheck to paycheck)

"Data from 2020 through 2022 found that between 50% and 63% of Americans report living paycheck to paycheck."

(Well, that's a relief.)

One bullet point down: "But there is no clear definition for the phrase "paycheck to paycheck," so people should be skeptical of statistics based on the concept, one economist said."

If only the US was a petrostate, that would solve all our problems.

I can't tell if you're sarcastic or not! You're aware that the US is the biggest oil producer in the world?

Not per capita. Norway produces roughly 6x more oil than the US per capita. Also, TIL that Guyana is the world's top oil producer per capita.

See: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/oil-prod-per-capita?count...

You're forgetting the us is #1 in producing natural gas, at 1,069,000m3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_natural_g...

Russia and Iran are the second and third largest suppliers, but their goods are sanctioned. They also 'only' produce half / a quarter of US output.

Also contrast this with, China (#4) and Qatar (#6) that produce 258 and 170 billion m3 respectively.

Norway has a population of less than 6m with a huge oil reserve. That's not a good proxy for the US in any way.

Or, not a popular opinion, as a country we had a kind of solidarity when things were universally tough. For me (I'm old enough) that was the 1970's with inflation, the Iran hostage situation… During that Bicentennial I remember the country pulling together more.

eBooks (ePubs) are too expensive.

I assumed (naively) that the electronic version would be the cost of the pulp version minus the cost of the pulp and printing and also minus the cost of shipping.

Author, publisher, editor still get their same cut.

In fact with DRM, the price should even be less that the above since there are no used-book sales lost.

Also minus the cost of the unsold copies.

Gonna have to ask for a proportional version of this font.

I mean, look at the capital "I".

;-)