This is what befuddles me about DU...

[JanMichael]

Here.

What gives? Our unions are getting broken, wage inflation is stagnent at 2% most always under under 5%, HC has a 14% Inflation, and here is a perfect example of the problem, yet it gets no ATTENTION! WTF gives?!

[LittleApple81]

1. Some threads just sink... while other stay forever despite being mostly

pap or unsolvable issues.

[salinen]

2. Ah

well it's kinda complicated. You are the President and have knowledge of labor and management issues. For me, this stuff is crazy.

[disinfo_guy]

3. Try calling it: "DLC helps Rich Bastards steal Health Insurance"

It's all in the presentation :)

[JanMichael]

4. I'd do that but it's louis c's thread, not mine...

I don't think he's got a handle on the code words yet.

[disinfo_guy]

5. It's very important, but to make an omelette...

To get attention at DU you need to cause a conflict. Try baiting the neo-liberal anti-union types into one of their "unions are no longer necessary" lines, then you'll get the union Democrats to respond. Sprinkle liberally with some red meat class warfare rhetoric (this goes over well at DU since so many upper middle class management types read it). Perhaps throw a Jesus was a socialist angle, which will get the athiests posting. Always throw in a stab at Bush and the GOP.

Or at least, so I figure.

[amjsjc]

18. Just post the following:

Hey am I the only liberal who opposes (include major liberal shibboleth here)

alternately try:

Hey am I the only liberal who supports (include any plank of the Republican party platform that's shown up in at least four of the last five elections)

voila! Insant controversy

[AndyTiedye]

27. Even Capitalism Would be an Improvement over the Kleptocracy We Have Now

Unions? It isn't that they are no longer necessary, nobody has said that, it is that they,
and labor as a whole, have been castrated by outsourcing. They have no power anymore.
None at all. One peep out of the union and management ships those jobs overseas.
More jobs gone forever.

For labor to regain its power, it has to join forces with the workers overseas, and ensure
that their efforts to organize are not crushed by oppressive governments.

A Democratic administration *should* make big changes in the sort of representation
we send to trade organizations like WTO. Labor needs to be at the table.
International trade agreements should work to bring labor and environmental standards
up to match our own, not down to the lowest common denominator.

[sendero]

6. I notice ...

... a distinct reticence to discuss economic issues, and economic justice is one of the main reasons I'm a Democrat.

For many, I think economic issues in general are hard to navigate, because economics is inexact and confusing and full of opinions that are hard to quantify in terms of merit.

Me, I love talking economics. The country is, economically, on the highway to hell and there are many roads leading there :)

[Jackpine Radical]

16. I wish ta hell

people around here knew the difference between "reticence" and "reluctance."

Grump. Grump.

[sendero]

20. sorry...

... I'll consult a dictionary.

[sendero]

21. oops...

... upon consulting a dictionary, I'll stick with "reticence"

[Jackpine Radical]

25. I think the problemn arises from "reticence to...."

One might be reticent in general or reticent about something, but it seems awkward to say "reticent to discuss..."

Then again maybe I'm all wet.

[JDPriestly]

7. Analyzing economic issues

requires a lot of thought. I like to read the posts in the economic forum. Many of the posts are just brilliant. I learn a lot because I have a lot to learn. But I don't write much because I'm not an economist.

[Tansy_Gold]

12. I think it requires not only thought but knowledge

I think -- treading on dangerous water -- we also have a whole lot of new and very young DUers in the past few months, as schools are letting out. Economics as such doesn't seem to be taught much in the schools any more, just "capitalism."

I confess I've never ventured into the economics forum, but you've whetted my appetite. Economic justice is. . . . justice.


Tansy Gold, who honestly shakes her head every day at the presence of a stock market thread on DU. . . . .

[Hoping4Change]

8. What sort of feedback were you wanting?

You presented the facts and you provided the answer. It seemed to me very self-contained and that you posted it simply to provide information.

[JanMichael]

11. It wasn't my thread. I simply wanted to point out how substantive...

...threads, right or wrong, often get dismissed in GD.

It's simply a frusteration post on my part.

[Hoping4Change]

17. I think the poster is preaching to the choir. That particular post

which was extremely informative and well written should be sent to a newspaper to reach a wider audience. Maybe he would have had more feedback had he asked DUers whether the Democratic platform sufficiently addresses the issues he raises.

[KG]

9. put 'nader' in the header and see what happens.

:eyes:

[JDPriestly]

10. Disappearing posts

I hate to criticize DU because I love it so much. But -- I notice that posts on important subjects disappear. I haven't been on DU long enough to spot just what goes wrong, but, often, I want to return to a subject that was posted a few days earlier because I thought or read something new on the topic or, and I don't know how to revive the lost post. Am I just not sophisticated enough about how I approach the DU website? Does anybody else have this problem?

[Tansy_Gold]

13. You can try bookmarking the thread and then go back to it

at your convenience. I realize this means you have to anticipate finding something interesting later. ... . .. but it's a possibility.

[Cocoa]

14. try the economic forum

it's much slower there, topics stay at the top longer, and people with specific knowledge and interest post there.

[Pobeka]

15. This isn't hard.

This is just money laundering, no matter how you slice it. HC rising at 14% is not based on the actual cost of delivering the care, it's based on HMO's and insurance companies raising rates to cover their, uh, "overhead".

The real problem is not how to pay outrageous rates for health care, it is rather how to bring the costs in line with something normal and moral.

I chose that word "moral" very carefully, because health care is not often functionally different than a monopoly. When you are sick, you need treatment immediately, and do not have the opportunity to switch health care providers. A moral society would recognize this and regulate the HMO's and insurance companies. But, of course, there are no lobbiests in the halls of congress giving money to our representatives asking them to keep the cost of health care reasonable.

[Zomby Woof]

19. because it requires thought

Plus, you need to write things with a tone of breathless paranoia, constantly remind us what they are saying over at FR, use the phrase "Bush is toast" in every title, and an assortment of acronyms like LIHOP, MIHOP, SOL, PDQ, FUBAR, and SSDD. Make sure also to talk down to your readers so you can get a flame war going.

C'mon, Mike! You know the DU drill by now. :-)

[kiahzero]

22. It's a wonky topic

Hence drawing less interest than threads where people can just vent.

[baboon]

23. i have noticed the trend here.

Only garbage floats to the top.

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

30. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

33. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[tom_paine]

26. A couple reasons, JanMichael

1) It is easier to destroy than it is to build

How does that relate here? Well, it's easier to tear down Busheviks or speculate (something I am quite guilty of, but my 90% correct future predictions since the Totalitarians took over gives me some reasons for thinking myself, at least in a Slave Nation like Imperial Amerika, damned near infallible in my speculations, whether that's true or not) than it is to take a hard look at our problem and envision solutions.

2) We are facing Tyrants who utilize Trotsky's Perpetual Revolution better than Trotsky himself. Of course, as they are destroying the American Experiment in Self-Government, it is infinitely easier and more rapid than whatever we must do to Restore the Old Republic, if that's even possible.

As a result, people are diffuse and splintered, just as Trotsky, Goebbels and Rove envisioned when they developed and perfected that stratagem. People are mad and thus ill-suited, for the moment, to rationally discuss solutions.

3) The Busheviks have pushed the Battle Lines of Tyranny so far back, that we will have to fight, perhaps not just metaphorically, to preserve even tiny crumbs of what the Old Republic used to be

Again, this plays into prioritization. Even though this problem (obscene wealth inequity), and the environment, are perhaps the two greatest problems we face as a nation and a species, the Battle Lines have placed the basic right/privilege of a decent wage nearly as far back into irrelevancy as a Fully Empowered 4th Amendment, which began dying decades ago and only recently perished fully.

Just some explanation. I'm not saying I agree with it.

[nostamj]

28. it happens

today a thread about "who is clinton sleeping with" got 90+ replies in two hours.

a thread seeking help for military families like Mari333's got 80+ in THREE DAYS and that was mostly kicks and a needless flamefest.

that's GD. some weeks if you don't have the right buzz words (for instance recently: F911, Clinton, MM) you don't have a prayer of lasting in this forum.

my post on HERSH's stunning new article is still under 20 replies after 12 hours.

go figure.

:shrug:

[tom_paine]

29. kick for Michael

:kick:

[Redleg]

31. I hear ya and feel your pain.

Economic issues get short shrift here at DU. Perhaps some DUers don't like to get to bogged down in numbers?

[Ms. Clio]

32. I wish we still had a count of the page views

I think, like many other semi-lurkers, I read far more than I post.

And sometimes I think people just don't know what to say--I've noticed that threads about the awful living conditions in Iraq--no electricity, crumbling hospitals, etc., sink like stones, also.

[bleedingheart]

34. Just insert Abortion or Guns into the issue and it will get attention

:evilgrin: