Generational Dynamics Forum - New Site

The question is, what does
0:45
it mean to be poor in America? In the
0:48
1960s, the government asked Molly
0:51
Arshonsky to go and find out the answer
0:54
to that question. What is poverty? which
0:57
if you think about is really hard to
0:59
define because one person's definition
1:01
might be really different than someone
1:03
else's. But here's how the government
1:05
defined it. They started by assuming a
1:07
couple of things. Number one, they
1:09
assumed it was a family of four.
1:12
Secondly, that food was the biggest and
1:15
most predictable part of their budget
1:17
and that if you knew the bare minimum
1:19
cost of feeding that family, you could
1:22
just sort of work backwards to estimate
1:24
everything else. because food was
1:27
consistently the biggest part of a
1:29
family's budget back in the 1960s. But
1:32
fast forward to today and we spend
1:35
proportionally way less money on food
1:38
and way way more on everything else like
1:41
housing and health care and child care,
1:44
transportation, insurance, debt, taxes
1:46
and all those other things. And those
1:48
categories did not get factored in to
1:52
the original formula. And what that has
1:55
done is it has created the illusion that
1:58
poverty has barely grown. But Michael
2:01
Green says if we apply the same original
2:05
method and the same logic except we use
2:09
the share of income Americans spend on
2:11
essentials today, we would not get a
2:14
poverty line of $31,000.
2:17
Instead, it would be closer to $140,000.
2:21
The simple reality is in a world in
2:23
which in order to afford to rent or buy
2:26
a home, you need a second income, child
2:29
care becomes a very real component of
2:31
it. We're actually seeing more and more
2:33
households who are incapable of clearing
2:35
that threshold for participation in the
2:37
modern economy. The last 50 years has
2:40
seen an extraordinary tax cut for the
2:42
wealthiest Americans and an
2:43
extraordinary tax hike for those in kind
2:46
of the 20th to 80th percentile. Ignoring
2:49
that is really at the core of the issue.
2:50
And that would mean millions of people
2:53
who consider themselves to be middle
2:55
class by the original definition and the
2:58
original logic of the government are
3:01
instead actually living in the
3:03
modern-day equivalent of poverty.

Why does every large company believe it needs an HR department when equally large companies didn't need one in 1960?

AI Overview

Large companies rely on Human Resources departments today because complex employment laws, massive compliance risks, and specialized talent management did not exist or were far less regulated in 1960.

Most users on Quora agree that the shift toward modern HR is driven by legal mandates and operational scale.

Why 1960 Was Different

Fewer Federal Laws: In 1960, federal employment regulations regarding discrimination, safety, and family leave were minimal. Landmark legislation like the Civil Rights Act (Title VII) passed later in the 1960s, drastically changing legal liabilities.

Simpler Benefits: Pensions and health benefits were standard and uniform, requiring far less individualized administration than today's complex 401(k) plans, health savings accounts, and multi-tiered insurance options.

Command-and-Control Culture: Workplaces in 1960 often relied on strict hierarchies where grievances were handled informally by line managers without formalized legal protections or dispute processes.

Why Companies Need HR Today

Massive Regulatory Risk: Crossing employee thresholds triggers complex federal and state laws covering discrimination, wages, workplace safety, and medical leave. A single compliance failure or wrongful termination lawsuit can cost millions.

Global and Remote Workforces: Managing employees across multiple states or countries introduces complex tax, legal, and payroll variations that require dedicated expertise.

Talent Acquisition and Retention: Sourcing specialized knowledge workers requires active recruitment, competitive benchmarking, and structured onboarding that line managers cannot handle alone.

Employee Well-being and Culture: Modern organizations use industrial psychology and specialized engagement strategies to reduce turnover and foster productivity.

Higgenbotham wrote: Wed Jan 11, 2012 3:24 pm "Life organized legalistically has thus shown its inability to defend itself against the corrosion of evil." --Solzhenitsyn

I've read a lot of Solzhenitsyn and, if I interpret him correctly, he would be looking at what kinds of social and political arrangements allow the balance to be shifted toward excessive use of law and inappropriate use of the law. In Gulag, Volume I, he has 3 successive chapters - "The Law as a Child", "The Law Becomes a Man", and "The Law Matures".

aedens wrote: Sat Sep 19, 2026 8:30 am Even with the video proving his innocence He was fired.
The DEI brain dead cannibals have assured collapse as HR drills more holes in the rotted hull.
They cannot handle questions or accountability.

Higgenbotham wrote: Thu Feb 02, 2023 9:49 pm Also, during the early stages of this breakdown, there were economic losers and beneficiaries. The beneficiaries were the corporations who could cookie cutter their outlets across a previously interesting and varied landscape, producing the forlorn, bland, and ugly architectural landscape that now exists across America. McDonalds perhaps being one of the first and best examples.

Higgenbotham wrote: Wed Sep 09, 2026 12:09 pm For example, the middle class only needed one job at 40 hours per week to support a family in 1971. During the maintenance phase, the hours required to support a middle class family at the same level as in 1971 were increased to approximately 120.

However, some observers suggested that Amodei's post was less about safety than about consolidating control over AI technology.

"Dario makes the case to stop open source and concentrate enormous technological and economic power with Anthropic," wrote Chamath Palihapitiya, an investor and co-host of the tech podcast "All-In".

Notions of slowing down or even pausing AI development have long been met with cynicism in certain corners of Silicon Valley, with critics accusing leading AI developers of hyping their technology as a marketing ploy.

Anthropic and OpenAI are both reportedly preparing for potentially record-setting initial public offerings.

Higgenbotham wrote: Sun Dec 25, 2022 6:28 pm I said there are two opposite modes of living in the United States. The first is an expectation that you will spend your entire life in one area with other people who will spend their entire lives in that area. The second is an expectation that you will go to high school in one place, college in another place, then career in several places (no longer at one company) with sole focus on that. Everything else is something in between. The first mode engenders real connections while the second mode engenders transactional relationships. An example of a transactional relationship would be something like, "I have a buddy who is also 420 friendly. He finds me really good dope cheap and I fix all his computers." The best example of a transactional encounter I can think of is prostitution. Also, in a big city, encounters are briefer. That's not to say there isn't some overlap.

I told her in the second mode of living, people are taught from an early age to look to the next step in their progression and to primarily engage in transactional relationships as a means to get to that next step. A high school kid might be told to be friendly to the teachers because they will be writing college recommendations or whatever. They would not be encouraged to be friendly to teachers they genuinely like and not be friendly to teachers they genuinely do not like. And so on when the kid gets to college.

Higgenbotham wrote: Sun Aug 09, 2026 11:35 am People had a strong sense of meaning in their lives. But then something happened. The
2:03
percentage of the population, especially young adults, saying my life feels meaningless. It started to creep up and
2:09
then and then explode. Something happened very recently, really only in
2:14
the past 15 years, that made life feel meaningless. And meaninglessness, the
2:19
lack of meaning in life, lies behind the explosion of depression and anxiety.
2:25
So some people find meaning more easily than other people do. The number one
2:30
predictor of your life feeling meaningful is is living your life in
2:35
real life. It's relationships. It's living kind of in the old way. As a matter of fact, it wasn't that long ago
2:42
that almost nobody said, "My life feels meaningless." But having distance between you and other people, or having
2:48
technological mediation between you and other people, for example, having a screen between you and your friends, you
2:55
and your loved ones, you and your family. Well, that changes life. It takes it from in real life to something
3:00
more like, I don't know, a simulation of real life, which is exactly what a lot of young people say today. When I
3:07
interview them, they'll say, "My life feels fake. It feels like something's missing. It feels like I'm living in a
3:14
simulation."

We cured boredom — and created a meaning crisis | Arthur Brooks: Full Interview
Big Think 53,388 views Aug 7, 2026

https://youtu.be/WP3wl1rsXjg?t=62

Higgenbotham wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2026 7:08 pm

Higgenbotham wrote: Mon Sep 02, 2024 7:58 pm She asked me what I thought of AI. I said the first thing that comes to mind with regard to any new technology is whether you believe the civilization is on the ascent or the decline. If you believe the civilization is on the ascent, and you are right about that, then AI will probably on net be a positive and force for good. However, if you believe that the civilization is on the decline...at which point she interjected, "Oh, definitely!"...and then I finished my thought.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says U.S.-China AI race poses "toughest dilemma"
Face the Nation and CBS News

We begin with the stunning news from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei Saturday that he is urging a slowdown when it comes to the development of artificial intelligence. It was a pronouncement that his chief competitor Open AI CEO Sam Altmann and Elon Musk quickly agreed with. Our Jo Ling Kent sat down with Dario Amodei yesterday. He explained the thinking behind his decision.

"What we're building is essentially intelligence. When something's very powerful, then of course it can be used well and it can also be used for ill and and so I am worried about what we've seen..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBoKkUQuNJ8

: the aspects of an action, policy, or decision (as in politics or business) that relate to public perceptions

… when a broken-down bailout recipient like Citigroup tries to pay its top executives gigantic bonuses or to acquire a new private jet, it has failed to reconsider the optics.
—Nick Paumgarten

Skilling said Baxter "was concerned about the optics of the conflict, but not about the ethics or propriety of the transactions," according to interview memos.
—Peter Behr and April Witt