asciilifeform: 'in its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread.' (tm) (r)
asciilifeform: funkenstein_: go, take. if you're gainfully employed in usa, you are almost certainly either one of the destroyers or supplying necessities to those who are.
asciilifeform: funkenstein_: there are folks who work for food and roof more or less directly (soldiers, mexican slaves.) it is useful to distinguish the categories.
asciilifeform: did funkenstein_ miss the entire collection of threads re: 'the bezzle' (term from galbraith) ? and mircea_popescu's 'tin woman' essay? re: how imbeciles print money like toilet paper, and the only way to afford food & rent in usa is to work for the folks who get first or second dip into the freshly-printed bucket ?
asciilifeform: funkenstein_: if you don't grasp the fact that some folks do work which ultimately helps destroy everything that is good and bright, i have very little to say.
asciilifeform: funkenstein_: does it follow that they are in 'useful work' ?
asciilifeform: funkenstein_: i've met folks who 'appreciate' what preet bharara does. and obama. etc
asciilifeform: funkenstein_: allow me to explain. i work for something quite like an antivirus firm.
asciilifeform: funkenstein_: i can guarantee you that it is. from the big-picture standpoint.
asciilifeform: brahmin would demand 'orbital' hazard pay just for -being in the same room- with an untouchable for a few hours.
asciilifeform: and that you can get this, if lucky, in the bowels of u.s. dod.
asciilifeform: i suppose i should clarify, again, that i wasn't speaking of -actually working- as bureaucrat - that is, sitting in meetings, filing reports in triplicate. just that being paid to do, in effect, whatever the fuck you want, is almost like being rich.☟︎
asciilifeform: http://log.bitcoin-assets.com/?date=10-06-2015#1159011 << this has to win some sort of prize for 'martial in atomic dirigible.' EVERYBODY i ever met in usa works for salary. i suppose it follows that neither i nor anyone i know in meatspace is 'even half-competent.'☝︎☟︎
asciilifeform: http://log.bitcoin-assets.com/?date=10-06-2015#1158998 << mircea_popescu is posting through a temporal modem from 1870s ? because 'spoils system' in usg civil service is long, long gone. nobody at nsa, usually not even the director (they don't stick around long anyway) worries about which party is in the white house.☝︎☟︎
asciilifeform: i imagine it will materialize when the nominal 'civilian control over army' evaporates
asciilifeform: mats: i wonder when usa will adopt the ancient ru tradition of commanders 'borrowing' entire regiments to build their country houses, chop wood, etc.☟︎
asciilifeform wonders where mats met these in the proper army
asciilifeform: what is it called in usa when you are nominally an officer, but only because you had ph.d. when you put on the uniform
asciilifeform: perhaps i am thinking of wrong term here
asciilifeform: mats: some snakepit. perhaps one of these. can't recall presently
asciilifeform: (warrant officer, naturally, will never go near a war)
asciilifeform: decimation: the office next to mine at old work was inhabited by a russian fella. with rank of major.
asciilifeform: mats: one time when i was out of work for many months, i applied to be a... sysadmin in afghan. but was rejected, with polite letter that 'you gotta already be in the army.' for some reason this was not stated in the wanted ad.
asciilifeform: decimation: being locked in a castle where quality food means 'burger king' sounds like my mental picture of jail
asciilifeform: mats: but presumably not because of the high-quality ways to spend time off work there ?
asciilifeform: what good is downtime if it's in afghan with 300 baud modem-over-dead-goat
asciilifeform: mats: from my perch, it looks more like patent office (i.e. actual work) than the other kind
asciilifeform: for most of the 'staff', this consists of reading porn, yes
asciilifeform: you can sit there and do mostly whatever.
asciilifeform: having worked in a very obscure usg bureaucracy (one of the many army labs) i will say this - it is a kind of valhalla for folks with own projects / ideas. not because anyone will support these (smoke less crack) but because there is virtually no accountability, management, or actual task
