And disregarding those expectations can carry personal liability for anyone in a position to do it, because the executive leadership of the company has a legal responsibility to act in the interest of the shareholders above all else.

So much this. I started using it during Covid, and it’s been so great that I prefer Sams over any other shopping experience.

At least it’s not that bad this time. No idea how she’s gonna go over in Miami, which may prove to be a weak spot depending how her campaign sells her, but at least she’s not quite as weak as Ol Chuckles.

It’ll be interesting to see how Debbie Powell campaigns against Rick Scott. Her early messaging is pretty weak, and her team is obviously trying to tie her in to the abortion amendment that might make the ballot (which is probably a mistake).

But there’s a lot to dislike about Rick Scott, so they have room to grow into a coherent message. Which would be a nice change of pace from the Florida Democratic Party, which can never seem to get out of its own way.

She faces very long odds in general, but especially given the party migration that’s happening in Florida the last few years. Here’s hoping she can put up the good fight and make Rick actually work for it for a change.

We had to do this in Colorado public schools in the late 80s.

30 years later I’ve got a mouth full of false teeth.

Not sure it worked out like they wanted it to.

This. Those weekly rockets are visible from my house. It’s almost a non-event to all but the most avid space fans - people play “was that rumble a rocket or a freight train”. The county EOC is trying to get permission not to activate for Falcon 9 launches because they’re so reliable.

But yeah let’s pretend SpaceX are all idiots because they blow things up in testing.

If you only do the easy part, then yes that’s infinitely replaceable. Being a pretty face is exactly that, and AI can do that all day long.

Being actually entertaining and engaging, though, is a different story, and AI is struggling to pick that up. And of course teams of corporate marketers continually fail at this.

But yes, the “job” of “being attractive on the internet” can now be outsourced to machines.

Is it “don’t use them and just keep track of your stuff”? Because that seems like the most right answer here.

That’s what I’m saying - there’s absolutely nothing about nonprofit status that demands a company not act like a total asshole. Have a look at all the really bad ones like the Komen Foundation or Red Cross if you want an example.

Best bet, barring adding more legal mechanisms to the law, is a private for-profit with careful leadership. Yeah, it can change, but companies that put values first can and often do confer those same values to future leadership. Versus, of course, publicly traded companies where rampant growth at all costs is the only legal requirement.

Most nonprofits don’t do a lot with the general public. They have the community they serve (which is getting something for nothing and therefore “customer service” is not a thing) and the community that funds them (where, of course, service is king). How the company treats you on the outside very much depends on which side of that equation you’re on.

This is necessary behavior for nonprofits, at least in the US, because of the demand for charitable giving. It’s ultimately a decent structure for a charity, but a pretty awful way to run a product or service business, since the incentives are all on the opposite side of “good product/service”. Private for-profits with strong, conscientious leadership do much better - I encourage you to read up on Patagonia and Gore-Tex as examples.

The idea that non-profits aren’t profiting-seeking is the biggest misunderstanding in the world. I work for a large one, and it’s absolutely the same rampant penny-squeezing 30%-unsustainable-growth-seeking monstrosity as anything in the Valley. The pittance that gets thrown to “charitable causes” is just another tax dodge in an otherwise profit-demanding venture. Swap “shareholders” with “the endowment” and there’s no difference at all.

Much better to be a for-profit company with a charter demanding where profits in excess of modest growth targets are spent internally.

They need to make some money - infrastructure isn’t free, employees need paid, etc. they should be self sustaining.

They don’t need to be 2009-Google profitable though. That pipe dream needs to end. 3-5% YoY growth is plenty.

I think you’re making a solid point, but I think the basic problem is a fundamental lack of the willingness to listen and digest someone else’s point of view. Sources of information are important to a debate, but they’re ultimately irrelevant if either side isn’t willing to even consider the possibility that there’s more to learn than what they already know.

Agreed. Lemmy has exactly one political opinion, and woe betide any poor soul of another persuasion.

Otherwise the community is pretty great. Lots of good conversation with intelligent commenters.

Are the unions still strong? When SCOTUS ruled against mandatory membership for public employee unions a few years ago I thought they might take a hit.

That’s a good raise, and the govvies I’ve worked with over the years deserve it.

It’s still far too small to stop the perpetual brain drain from federal agencies to government contractors. It’s going to take a lot more than 5% to keep good people in place when they can double their salary overnight by joining a contractor.

There’s nothing to be done about it. Legally there’s no such thing as “hate speech” in the US, and there won’t be unless we get around to changing the first amendment.

Continue living my life as if federal shenanigans mostly don’t affect daily life, because they don’t.

Hence people falling back to “I don’t care” as a defense mechanism. The world is too big, and there’s too much awful happening, to emotionally invest in all of it. Not and stay sane. It’s so much easier to narrow focus to your own life and pursuits, and let everything else be what it is.

And so we get these useless platitudes, because “I don’t care about that” can be both true and socially unacceptable at the same time.

New socially acceptable ways to say “I don’t give a crap”.