Congratulations. Through you, we found the exception to the rule. Thank you.

Meanwhile, in my own country, what I replied is completely true and do I wish it wasn’t.

I had my grandmother in an elderly care facility, unfortunately, and I can tell you with no unease the floor workers are paid the minimum wage; if they work the night shift, they get a small increment, usually around 10%, to the base salary. While the board of directors, most of which have no true in the day to day working of the institution, earn at least double that pay, with the director of the institution earning above €3500, for a six hours day of work.

Meanwhile, on the childcare front, I have three separate institutions preying on the local public daycare, which is completely free, charging a rate based on the income of the couples or parents putting their children there, ranging from €60 to more than €200, not including transportation, which alone can be anywhere from €40 to more than €100. A couple earning both parents minimum wage can end up paying more than €300 per month. And the institution gets a stipend for each children from the state.

Although most of these institutions are non profits on paper, workers are paid minimal wage, by default, while directors get lavish pays and service vehicles, replaced yearly, while the other vehicles are run until the wheels fall off.

So, again, thank you. You showed the exception to the rule. And I am glad it exists. But it should be the rule, not the exception.

And that is why child and elderly care should never leave the public domain.

These are essential services nowadays; the wide family support that once existed is crumbling.

Private companies do not care. The company exists to make money and generate profit, at any cost.

If the accounting of one single entity was made public, it would be horrendous to read. The profit margins are huge, the salary gap between floor personel and executives gargantuan.

A Pavlovian response is an automated reaction triggered by a given event, that regardless of context, the individual can not withhold.

The classical example is about dogs being fed after the ringing of a bell. This created the association that food always followed the bell ringing. At some point, only the bell ringing made the dogs salivate, in expectation of the food.

In the real world, how can this influence people?

Imagine you get exposed to something - sight, sound, feeling - and that stimulus is followed by a reaction, be it voluntary, involuntary or even coerced. Give it enough repetitions or a very strong impression and a very hard to overcome association is made, that can stay for a life time.

You can control the show, not the audience.

Give them the AI! All of it! And then we just wait.

You mean my civilian public identity data?

Let’s speak about me now: I have no social media presence and I like it like that. I pay my taxes, I drive a 20+ years car. I’m boring and I enjoy it as it is.

Someone telling me I seem suspicious because I have no electronics and no interest in using it would be gold.

Actual event: I was once stopped for speeding. The police pulling me up asked me if I hadn’t seen the FB post warning for the speed radar. And I bluntly put it that I had no account on the network. Their face was priceless. I got fined for speeding, fair, but that was that. Social networks are not official communication channels. They want to be, but they are not.

According to what I’ve been told, an entire page of requirements was forwarded by the travel agency; not something they drafted but just passed on.

The application was also handled by the travel agency and it was the agency taking the photo to process the travel authorization, regardless of the passport info already been made available. As personal note: this entire demand on the looks and garments for the travellers make sense if we factor the heavy use of automated tools being used at border controls nowadays. And how poor they can be is also widely known.

Tourist VISA. Everything I listed came through the travel agency.

Under the current american politics reasoning I’m a radical but I have no predefined approach to ideas and concepts.

Not gay, nor transgender. And I think people are more than labels. Human dignity is howed to all.

But I’m not really white. Give me a few days under a hot sun and I darken enough to pass for something else.

This person is completely oblivious of political strife.

That was a typo on me. I have to rectify that.

Burn Notice fan? Because I just heard your message in my head in the main character’s voice.

Is Mr. Skeletal an old time cliopart? Very nice.

What is a burner phone? A phone with no direct association with your name? A prepaid plan?

I’ve mentioned this in the thread: what would be the reaction if someone arrived there with no electronics on them? And if further stated they did not intended to buy any for their stay? What could happen?

That is grim outlook!

I actively fear that.

you’ll either water

Mind explaining this part, please?

I’m not going anywhere.

You made a pretty grim image. I’ll have nightmares, tonight.

No country is worth this. And even North Korea, someone shared here some time ago, is not that invasive. They do give you a nanny to escort you around, you can go everywhere, you can’t take pictures or film but they don’t care about what you do in your country.

Visiting family of their current partner. And as the tickets were paid for by the family living there, there is an added feeling of obligation, but the main drive is the eagerness to travel abroad, the opportunity. Their words, not mine.