In a nod to labor unions, President Joe Biden is moving to boost wages for construction workers on projects paid for with federal funding, a step that would appeal to a key constituency ahead of next year’s presidential election and potentially shrink the pay gap between northern and southern states.
Don’t forget all the deregulation too.
@AttackBunny @ConditionOverload
Reagan and Thatcher were the worst thing to happen to the world at a time when we still had a fair chance at stopping climate change.
I remember when I was younger and the hole in the ozone was a big deal. We did something. Same with then I was a young kid smog was so bad that we had “smog days” (similar to snow days) where we weren’t allowed to play outside, or have recess or lunch outside. CA did something about it. There used to be a chance, but now……it’s hard to see anything under a hopeful lens.
@AttackBunny
You and I must be a similar age because I remember the hole in the ozone as well. I also remember writing an essay in grade school about pollution levels (when the library was my only resource).
We had a chance and our gov’ts blew it. :/
Sounds like it.
Oh god. Remember microfiche catalogs? Searching for shit on those things was fun. No, not really. Funny enough, the industry I work in, occasionally I run into scans of microfiche slides. They are so bad.
I agree we had our chance. We also had a chance to make everyone’s lives better, and let greed control everything. Well, not we, as in you and me, but the collective we.
@AttackBunny
I loved microfiche, mostly because my AuDHD brain adores rabbit holes. ;) It was not conducive to efficiency tho.
One thing that has always annoyed me is that the hippie generation (a few years older than I am) are the ones who now lead and control Western nations, and one would not be wrong in thinking they could (and should) have changed things for the better, but instead sold out to THE MAN they fought so hard against. :'(
Hippies were the minority of their day.
Yeah…… I always found the irony in the “peace and love” and “summer of love” generation being the ones to truly fuck us over, and being the absolute least loving and friendly people out there.
From what I understand, the only reason we were able to correct the hole in the ozone layer is because the alternative to CFCs (the aerosal propellant or whatever, that was mainly responsible for the hole) was cheaper.
The only way we have (or have ever had) a chance against these large scale problems is when the interests line up with profit-motive. If they don’t, like the past 3+ decades of climate change, we’re fucked.
It wasn’t cheaper to switch it was just forced on everyone.
It’s like aqueous based cleaners/paints. They don’t work nearly as well as the old stuff, but in CA we don’t have any choice. Shit, for some inexplicable reason, CA outlawed mineral spirits. I still don’t understand why. It’s probably one of the dumbest things they could have banned.
The current issue is that the US government has no interest in stopping climate change. They have plenty of financial interest in letting huge businesses do fuck all they want, and in the process fuck over everyone and the environment/planet. Plus they are all so close to one foot in the grave who gives a shit if the world is on fire, they are going to be dead soon anyhow, and fuck everyone else. They got PAID