Quote:He is a bright person. I also think he will vote the party line, and he hasn't exhibited an ounce of independent thinking. He's still a clown.Is this just you holding his past in comedy against him? Do you just not like people with a sense of humour? Just because someone didn't go the usual route in politics doesn't mean he isn't good at what he does. Tommy Banks may well be Canada's best senator, and he was a Jazz pianist for all his life. The important part is that he demonstrate he is dedicated, intelligent, and willing to work hard to understand the problems of the country. It looks to me like he's managed all that far better than most senators.
Franken will almost certainly vote very liberal, which if you call that "the party line", then yeah, I suppose you're right. But that would be true of anyone on the right end of the Republicans, or the left of the Democrats. I think you'll find that Bernie Sanders votes "the Democratic party line", and he isn't even a Democrat! There is a difference between ideology and partisanship.
Quote:When do we get to stop working?When you can rewrite the second law of thermodynamics? As a species, we don't get to stop working, period. We're like a big shark, gotta keep on swimming. Living takes energy. Living in a society takes more. Living comfortably in a society takes more still. That energy isn't going to produce itself, no matter how you structure your society.
Quote:If we've sunk back to the 90's or 80's in terms of net worth, we still spend 2009 dollars.I'd need to see some other numbers, but I believe you're comparing nominal to real figures here. In real terms, you're almost certainly back to the early '90s. But by calculating in real terms, you lose the ability to say "we still spend 2009 dollars." If you're calculating in nominal terms, then you're almost certainly much richer than in the 90s, but most of that is inflation. Take your pick how you want to describe it, but you can't control for inflation and then put it back in again on top.
-Jester