Drew M.M.

@drewmm.com

325 Followers 670 Following

Writer, Audio Guy, Businessboi, Rescue Dog Otaku.

Does this mean that members of the political class might actually collude in the maintenance of useless employment? If that seems a daring claim, even conspiracy talk, consider the following quote, from an interview with then US president Barack Obama about some of the reasons why he bucked the preferences of the electorate and insisted on maintaining a private, for-profit health insurance system in America: “I don’t think in ideological terms. I never have,” Obama said, continuing on the health care theme. “Everybody who supports single-payer health care says, ‘Look at all this money we would be saving from insurance and paperwork.’ That represents one million, two million, three million jobs [filled by] people who are working at Blue Cross Blue Shield or Kaiser or other places. What are we doing with them? Where are we employing them?” I would encourage the reader to reflect on this passage because it might be considered a smoking gun. What is the president saying here? He acknowledges that millions of jobs in medical insurance companies like Kaiser or Blue Cross are unnecessary. He even acknowledges that a socialized health system would be more efficient than the current market-based system, since it would reduce unnecessary paperwork and reduplication of effort by dozens of competing private firms. But he’s also saying it would be undesirable for that very reason. One motive, he insists, for maintaining the existing market-based system is precisely its inefficiency, since it is better to maintain those millions of basically useless office jobs than to cast about trying to find something else for the paper pushers to do. So here is the most powerful man in the world at the time publicly reflecting on his signature legislative achievement—and he is insisting that a major factor in the form that legislature took is the preservation of bullshit jobs.
A graying, wide-ruled page of school notebook paper, laid out on a gray bedspread. It's dated February 18, 1994. Under the date, a teacher has written "I will give you chance to do this over neatly" in red pen. A yellow sticky note has been applied just under that. Dated February 23, 1994, it reads, "I have decided not to do it over neatly" and it's signed, in slightly chaotic little-kid lettering, "Drew."
An elderly woman unceremoniously throwing an unwanted lobster off of a boat, but the lobster has been replaced with Dr. Wright, Will Wright's avatar from the SNES port of SimCity.
The Neverhood, floating on a black background. On the left an orange castle, a chain dangling from it. A long bridge connects that to the rest of the map, with a a cream tower striped in blue, and red and green scenery.
White text on a black background: "We also cannot dismantle the monopoly of digital fiefdoms taking 30% platform fees on all game revenue of every single developer out there. Only by an organised resistance of a large number of developers moving to a collectively-owned gamer-friendly platform could this be done. We can welcome and prioritize the rise of such a platform, and actively encourage its creation, as one of the tools of our deliverance from exploitation, but as an individual studio we are powerless."
The same line of oak tree as in the image further up in the thread, under the same night sky--but this time only a few stars are visible through the striations of magenta northern lights.
A line of black silhouetted oak trees under a starry sky. On the right the sky is gray-blue. On the left, the northern lights are glowing magenta and pink and, in the lower-left of the image, a lime green.
A black and white catttle dog mix looking coyly off to the right. To the left of her head is a maroon-purple plug of Eggbug, the Cohost mascot. It looks velvety, and being fresh from the mail, it is not perfectly round. The Eggbug has an uwu face, stubby little black legs, and one visible, iridescent wing.
A closeup on the background figure from an "AI"-generated courtroom image of Caroline Ellison. He has the broad mouth of a muppet, and vacant button-like eyes. His skin and hair are the same pale done. In front of him is something that could be a hand, or maybe a tree stump? Behind him is a man in a blue cap, his eyes and nose flatly abstracted if inked quickly.
The word "yes" in the prog-rocky psychedelic style of the band Yes.