Okay, kiddo. I'm 58. There were still paper straws in use when I was a kid. And I'm not talking about the ones filled with flavored sugar powder.

They weren't sucky back then because we didn't drink 44oz of pop at a time, so they didn't become terribly mushy.

Sounds like someone has a serious addiction problem.

My 22 year-old son has thanked us for similar parenting choices. Difference was, computer was in his room, but we used software to limit his screen time and Internet destinations. Didn't get a smartphone until highschool. We're doing the same with his 13 year-old sister.

My wife and I made this choice based upon observation of our friends who had children before we did. We didn't want the device-addicted zombies we saw them becoming. We made the same choice about DVD players and screens in our vehicles. Gen Z and Millennials have serious problems dealing with boredom and appropriate levels of stimulation.

Well, for one, I'm not a programmer. Was in a former life, but decided I preferred IT. Furthermore, I've never been replaced by an outsourcing company, but I have seen the results. If you think it is economically viable to pay workers based upon another geographical location's economy, then you need to repeat ECON101. I think you need to spend some more time thinking about and researching the issue.

My issue is with our society's constant drive to the bottom, while sharing less and less of the fruits of the labor of workers. You sound like the type of person who lacks empathy, and thinks being outsourced could never happen to you because you are such a coding god. I wish you luck.

Made his money buying up software companies and startups, laying off the programmers, and out-sourcing the work to India, China, and elsewhere as $15/hr contractors. "The world is going to a cloud wage." Fuck that guy. You think H1-Bs are evil? This is the shit that is truly fucking over the American tech worker. Tech companies have been driving down the percentage of income devoted to salaries for the last 30 years. This guy recognized the trend and infused it with steroids.

If there is one place to be conservative, it should be education. Okay, and nuclear weapons. And firearms. Education, nuclear weapons, and firearms....

OK, back to seriousness, we should be careful with education. We've seen some bad results following the trend of the decade and rolling it out to schools. How about we do more empirical studies. Try the new ideas out for a bit (On your kids, not mine.), before rolling them out nationwide. Common Core hasn't done well in my local school system. They used it as an excuse to kill the gifted program, catching my son in 6th grade, and my daughter missed it entirely. Now we see all these commercial entities popping up to try and make up for public school inadequacies, Kumon, Russian School of Math, etc. Yes, the COVID remote learning caused a great deal of damage as well.

Anyway, my main point is that I think we need a lot more empirical data before we go monkeying around with one of the most important segments of society.

Maybe the reason is compensation for all the miserable shit they have to go thru: menses, child birth, menopause, getting their pussies grabbed....

Gen Z and Millennials don't have the patience to read books. If it's longer than a Tweet, their eyes glaze over.

What you know about addiction couldn't fill a microbe's edition of the Constitution. Learn yourself before you burn yourself.

I long ago decided content providers could lick my salty balls. I'm old enough to have suffered thru cable company monopoly abuse. I switched to DishNetwork and had them for years, until the native DirecTV TiVos were released, providing higher quality recording because they captured and saved native MPEG2 streams to disk, instead of a TiVo external to the satellite receiver recompressing the content and storing to disk. Soon after switching to DirecTV I got a call from Dish's anti-piracy dept basically accusing me of stealing service. I told them why I switched, and to go fuck themselves.

One day I walked into Costco and was approached by a DirecTV salesman, and I asked what the current deal was. It was much better than I was paying, and included a $200 Costco gift card. He said I'd have to sign up in my wife's name and cancel my original service. Two days before install I got a call telling me that they'd wised up to my attempt to save money, and would be cancelling the order, and asking I'd like to turn my original service back on? I said "Sure, as long as I get the same rate." They declined, and so did I. I was well aware of alternate means of obtaining content, and I was tired of getting ripped off. I've been content provider free for more than 15 years, except for what comes with Prime and Netflix, tho I wanted to cancel Netflix once they discontinued disc service. Family whined. Anyway, content providers charge too frakking much. Don't pay it. Raise a new flag.

Did I say it hasn't changed? No. I said it has not "evolved beyond" what is framed in the Constitution. RTFC. Don't project.

I wish you'd tell Uncle Thomas to get his black ass back in the field. He's been way, way too uppity.

No, it has not "evolved beyond" what is framed in the Constitution. Congress has created the laws and institutions to implement the powers it is given. It's as simple as that. Go read Article I.

@stevew:

If you read the Constitution, you will come to the realization that these agencies and commissions are ENTIRELY constitutional. The Necessary and Proper Clause, Article I, Section 8, Clause 18, gives Congress the power to enact all laws necessary to accomplish the tasks assigned to Congress by the Constitution. The commission in question, the FTC, regulates commerce, which is explicitly a power given to Congress in Article I, Section 8, Clause 3. Congress enacted the law that created the FTC and governs how it will be run, the FTC Act in 1914. The Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914 created a standalone Federal Trade Commission composed of five commissioners appointed by the President with Senate approval. No more than three commissioners may belong to the same political party, and each serves a seven-year term, with staggered initial terms of three to seven years to ensure continuity. The President designates one commissioner as Chair, and any member may be removed by the President for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance.

So, if in its final decision, the Supreme Court says the President has the power to remove commissioners at will and populate the commission with all Republicans, then they will plainly be telling the President he can violate the law and do as he pleases. You know, like the immunity they gave him months ago. Which of course is completely frakked. My theory is that this is payback for FDR's actions. MAGA is in the process of tearing down the institutions and frameworks that were created and instituted, and the stability and rule of law that helped create the US as the world power it is. We are heading the way of a banana republic, all for short-term gain and the ability to rule over the convulsing corpse that we will become.

BS. How many consumer PCs six years ago came with TPMs? The real requirements for a consumer PC for web browsing and occasional Office use hasn't changed in 10 years. Windows 11's hardware requirements should be no different than 10's. TPM should be optional. M$ is just colluding with the hardware vendors to increase sales.

Depends on your hygiene and proximity to your last shower. Your statement is just an echo of the prior post about the sex recession. I really do feel sorry for you repressed Millennials and Gen Z'ers.