Implementing long-distance high-voltage transmission lines is a common counterargument against the inherent fragile and unpredictable nature of variable renewable energy systems.

It’s fairly frequent (several times per decade) to have high/low pressure systems with a radius of 100’s of km, at which point a variable renewable system (wind+solar) can reach an output below <1% of installed capacity (when combined with the winter season) for extended (hours to several days) periods of time.

At that point, there is the choice of grid-scale long term energy storage up to a magnitude of TWh’s (potentially seasonal), long-distance transmission (up to 1000’s of km) or ensuring that other energy production systems exist that can pick up the slack (requiring redundant capacity, which is inefficient).

Luckily I drive a piece of last-millenium machinery.

May the japanese engineers that designed it with reliability in mind be praised.

Semla with rose jam filling

Within Swedish politics there is essentially complete agreement that the union model of labour negotiation should remain. Companies like Tesla are certainly an issue, but comparatively easier to deal with. The larger threat to the union model actually comes from undeclared labour which is a huge, systemic problem.

It ends up being significantly cheaper for the employer (no taxes, benefits, regulation) and can (in the short term) be beneficial for the employee (higher wage, still cashing in unemployment benefits etc.) even if it is disruptive for the collective long term.

In some businesses such as salons for hair dressers or mani-pedi, as many as 40% of labour is undeclared. Restaurants, construction and transportation are also high up.

Oh for sure, there are lots of companies pushing the gig-economy self employment model.

ironically the majority of those are government employees and police

It’s not ironic in the slightest. It’s for government employees that the conflict of interest between what’s best for the government (often low costs of labour) and employees (generous benefits and wages) becomes impossible to ignore.

Similar incentive structures do exist on a national economic level. For instance lower wages often provide a more competitive industrial basis internationally, even if that is not neccessarily beneficial for the individual employee.

Not much that I know of aside from a bunch of extra bureaucracy. Unions already perform polls on wages amongst members, and that information is generally available to the union members. Furthermore, there’s often even information available about wages within an employer organization if it is large.

Nope.

I’ve been disappointed by oat milk every time I tried it. To me it just tastes bad. At this point I’d rather take the coffee black.

Soy milk tastes differently from milk, but is passable at least.