Avid Amoeba

@ avidamoeba @lemmy.ca

Posts

200
Comments

5721
Joined

3 yr. ago

2h ago

Embarrassing defeat for UK's Starmer as Greens seize Labour stronghold
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Avid Amoeba @lemmy.ca 2h ago
Yes baby! And look at that margin!

7h ago

Ottawa is cutting 40,000 public-sector jobs. What it could mean for Canadians

If you take the change in population, the peak of this graph makes the number of public service workers per capita about the same as it was at the beginning of the graph in 1990.

9200 per million in 1990
9100 per million in 2025
About 0.009 per capita in both cases

And here's going a little further back as percentage of pop:

9h ago

Ottawa is cutting 40,000 public-sector jobs. What it could mean for Canadians

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Avid Amoeba @lemmy.ca 9h ago

Welfare has to be a part of the system too, as it is in China (China's as well as ours could be considerably better). I was just talking about public/private jobs. Funny you mention China because Canada's, as well as most western countries' economies between the Great Depression and the neoliberal era used to be much more like China's today. Mixed public-private systems with a lot more economic planning than after. Growth was stronger as well as wages. I'll come back to you in the other thread with post-war inflation numbers. They weren't high. Just no time to write something coherent.

10h ago

Ottawa is cutting 40,000 public-sector jobs. What it could mean for Canadians

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Avid Amoeba @lemmy.ca 10h ago

I don't have percentage number. I do however have an ideal percentage unemployment - really fucking low - as that gives workers some bargaining power to get higher wages and better working conditions. And for me the government should play a role of an employer to regulate the labour market, like it has done in the pre-neoliberal era. Removing workers from well paid jobs during 6.5% unemployment adds more people to the unemployed pool, competing for the same private sector jobs, lowering wages for everyone. This is what the layoff part of the austerity measure does. It lowers wages across the board. In other words it favours the interest of business owners, by having them pay lower wages and therefore collecting higher profits.

If on the other hand the private sector is short on workers and need these people, I think firms should up their wages to attract them.

13h ago

After months of experimentation I think I've crafted the perfect meme for this community.

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Avid Amoeba @lemmy.ca 13h ago

Halp the slow of us pls.

13h ago

Ottawa is cutting 40,000 public-sector jobs. What it could mean for Canadians

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Avid Amoeba @lemmy.ca 13h ago

Austerity rarely means reduced total spending. Rather it usually shifts money from going to the working people and into large private business owners. Any talk about concern for the size of deficit and budget is usually bullshit. Look who's getting more of that spending and who's getting less. That's what it's almost always about.

18h ago

‘I wish them all the best. Run it like a business,’ Ford says as Humber Polytechnic moves to trim workforce

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Avid Amoeba @lemmy.ca 18h ago

The statement makes sense coming from a businessman who lasted 2 months at Humber before dropping out.

18h ago

Former Canadian Deputy PM Says China Benefits the Most From US-Canada Trade Spat, Warns We Should Be Skeptical of Commitments from Beijing

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Avid Amoeba @lemmy.ca 18h ago

Oh boy.. Targeted at Americans, this message could be useful. In Canada, it sounds like yet another case of failing to read the room. And with this coming from her, I'm glad we managed to eject her and elect Carney for the position she thought was in the bag. Had she become our PM, I feel like our response to Trump would've looked something like Starmer's and it would've suffered a similar popularity dump. Making a fascist PP takeover much more likely.

1d ago

Some Grocery Items Have Increased Dramatically In Price Since Last Year. 'This is Unprecedented Inflation,' Experts Say.

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Avid Amoeba @lemmy.ca 1d ago

Inflation is an issue, but this is also a failure of domestic policy when it comes to feeding ourselves and keeping money in our own economy.

This failure is a direct result of the deliberate policy to outsource a lot of economic and industrial policy to the free market.

1d ago

Modi: India stands with Israel 'with full conviction'

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Avid Amoeba @lemmy.ca 1d ago

How's Israel's popularity in India?

E: Answered it myself:

Views of Israel are fairly divided in India (34% favorable, 29% unfavorable).

From PEW.

1d ago

[Video] Gavin Newsom blames progressive language for Democrats losses

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Avid Amoeba @lemmy.ca 1d ago

Most of his vetoes have been against straightforward material concerns, not mandating trans flags on paper straws.

This is the most damning part against giving him the benefit of the doubt.

2d ago

Best e-bike converison kit (mid motor)?

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Avid Amoeba @lemmy.ca 2d ago

The best in what regard? Bafang is probably still one of the best overall. It doesn't have torque assist though. Tongsheng does have torque assist and a lot of people like it.

Then there's more fancy stuff like CYC's Photon which produces 135Nm in 3.5kg.

2d ago

Firefox 148 introduces the promised AI kill switch for people who aren't into LLMs

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Avid Amoeba @lemmy.ca 2d ago

Supposedly. Says 148 in About.

2d ago

Hundreds of American nurses choose Canada over the U.S. under Trump

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Avid Amoeba @lemmy.ca 2d ago

That scheme is totally crazy. Just because the money comes from the hospital budgets, it somehow passes as OK spending while it doesn't if it goes through the public budget for nurse salaries.

2d ago

Firefox 148 introduces the promised AI kill switch for people who aren't into LLMs

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Avid Amoeba @lemmy.ca 2d ago

Maybe the article was written by AI that hallucinated the setting.

2d ago

[Video] Gavin Newsom blames progressive language for Democrats losses

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Avid Amoeba @lemmy.ca 2d ago

Well, he's close to saying they need to focus on universal material issues more than leaning into identity politics, which I agree with, but I don't think that's quite what he's going for. Focusing on universal material issues does not mean throwing this or that marginalized group under the bus and he's already run over some people.

2d ago

Ottawa is cutting 40,000 public-sector jobs. What it could mean for Canadians

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Avid Amoeba @lemmy.ca 2d ago

Austerity is common to both liberals and conservatives as both support the primacy of business over workers. More workers on the street increases the willingness of the workforce to work for less or do shittier jobs at someone else's business. The economic lib-con difference tends to be in degree (and lately competence), not in priorities.