⛈️ Information ⛈️The American tech scene would explode in a second Renaissance if the US got basic universal health care as a public right.
Khionu S 
@Elucidating or 3/4 of engineers would quit for the farms :clown:
But seriously, there's no end to the reasons we need this.
@khionu Yes I bet a bunch of people would do something they'd instantly regret. But that would be good for the industry. Get the folks who are only here for the cash out.
Those folks aren't always bad, just to be clear. But I'd like to imagine a world where people like their work.
@Elucidating I was more trying to invoke the whole "wisened engineer seeks digital-free solice" meme
@khionu As someone who grew up on a farm, it is my duty to just laugh at folks who think it's the simple life and wish them luck. They need it.
@Elucidating Mood. I didn't grow up on a farm, but I did live in a hunting cabin with barely any electricity for a couple years. No heating, just a wood stove. Barely old enough to form memories of it, but it was... a time.
Esteban Küber 
@Elucidating @khionu retiring to a farm isn't the goal, the goal is to have an escapist fantasy to get through the day.
@Elucidating @ekuber This is actually a very good model, I know a *cough* spicy bookshop that did this.
@Elucidating @ekuber I think if I were to soft-retire like this, I'd do an embedded coffee shop. Have hermetic enclosures with all the tools inside so people don't have to worry about contamination
Eric Schultz@Elucidating @khionu thank you so much for saying this. As a nephew of two farmers and grandson of one, I am infuriated by tech people treating farming for a living as this little vacation. My uncles' broken bodies and empty bank accounts tell another story.
"Mediocre Bunny" Evelyn@Elucidating @khionu I am hereby demanding that my boss have fresh business cards printed for me with my new title: “Wizened Engineer.”
Daniël Franke 🏳️🌈Most great engineers I know, have some kind of dream of a non-tech job. That said, that's mostly because tech companies generally have a soul draining "culture".
@Elucidating @ainmosni just take something bougie, like boats, and slap on something actually productive, like building them.
Josh TriplettEven more so if we had UBI as well.
@Elucidating @josh I don't have anything more than a hunch, but I feel like rent is gonna start getting addressed in the next 5 years.
Chip Warden@Elucidating Truth™. Employers want employees tied to them for heath insurance so we won't leave. UHC would allow us to work for employers who treat us well.
Eric McCorkleI'd bet north of 10k that at least half the workforce would quit and go do something else.
@emc2 I actually think many more people would work in software if it were the case, not less.
A huge amount, probably over half, of modern software labor is uncompensated.
Frank Skornia@Elucidating And the entrepreneur scene too.
That was one of the supposed promises of Obama's healthcare act that attempted to separate healthcare from employment - but it didn't do enough and was still too beholden to insurance companies and political manipulation
That was one of the supposed promises of Obama's healthcare act that attempted to separate healthcare from employment - but it didn't do enough and was still too beholden to insurance companies and political manipulation
Atomic FoxThe whole purpose of the present system, as far as I can tell, is to minimize entrepreneurship and innovation by making it so that people NEED a corporate job. Certainly that's its function, if not strictly its purpose, but I can't envision another purpose.
Jonathan HendryNot only the tech scene.
Wes Kennedy@Elucidating no fucking joke
@Elucidating our economy generally would. So much more business creation.
freeformz 🏳️🌈
bdonnelly@Elucidating ...and the Arts scene. Journalism too perhaps.
Jason Yip@Elucidating Not just tech but all kinds of entrepreneurialism.
Derek Ledbetter@Elucidating The goal of many business people is not to get rich, but to be richer than others and control them.