I think whatever solutions are implemented only work if they're in tandem with other solutions. Like you say costs of living for certain things go up - only solution to that I see is schemes that reduce the need to spend money on those things/reduces their costs. It's a fine balancing act for sure.

It could be a means tested minimum wage where the means that are being tested are the health, size and recent profitability of the business? Either way, gotta address these issues somehow. Just dropping the proposals and adding nothing to address the problem they were meant to solve is the worst of both worlds.

I fail to see how a higher minimum wage hurts the economy.

If anything it should lead to more money circulating through the economy as people earn more and hopefully as a result from that become more financially mobile. Long term it should reduce the amount of people who depend on any benefits from the state too. Too many jobs pay the same they did 10-15 years ago and inflation has reduced the effective spending power for people who are in those jobs. Obviously with a hike in wages you have concerns about the rate of inflation increasing but in the short and medium term that can be managed. It's a balancing act and at some point wages need to be given a kick to catch up.

Like fuck sake.

Educators and education specialists can and should have conversations about how certain subjects are taught, so sure discuss whether there are more effective ways to teach maths, possibly with less written assessment etc. But wtf does that shit have to do with racism.

All three could drop the insults, but in general one party does have to drop the attitutde. Putting the insults and attacks aside (which Mitch and Irish are also guilty of, whoever cast the first stone with this bs is irrelevant) Flagg's tone is always incendinary and condescending. There'd probably be a lot less shitflinging if he just dropped that. It's the same problem Buzz had, although he was even more of a wrecking ball.

Back to current events... Navalny's show trial has commenced. The Russian authorities are saying he should have notified his parole officers despite the fact that he was in a coma.

I think when people say "Hey wtf, why is this dude allowed to take these highly personal digs at me" the response here shouldn't be - "well you shouldn't have shared that info about yourselves then" instead of "you're right, what they said was fucked up and crosses a line". It blames the person who was attacked, not the person who was actually being a dick. Just my two cents.

Best advice to both Mitch and Irish. Just ignore Rocky. He doesn't debate in good faith, looks for any thread to pull on to get a rise and ignores inconvenient truths that are pointed out to him. I agree with Jimmy and Mitch, this thread had some good discussion (with lots of healthy disagreement) until he came back and shat it up. It's disappointing that he constantly gets a pass for this shit.