5 ms·

I agree that more funding in science and technology is what we need. But Barack Obama had more in common with the status quo than with what his commentary is su

by tekni5 10y ago

I agree that more funding in science and technology is what we need. But Barack Obama had more in common with the status quo than with what his commentary is suggesting. There also seems to be a disconnect between what is being said in this article versus the reality. Yes there have been improvements in crime and poverty perhaps, but the quality of employment, the quality of general life for the average person in the West seems to have only degraded in the last decade or two. I would also argue that the pace of technological advancement has decreased. Despite on-going advances in computer science, we have stalled in many other fields since the end of the cold war, in particular space.

pnathan 10y ago
> quality of employment, the quality of general life for the average person in the West seems to have only degraded in the last decade or two. can you cite some data sources for that claim?
- tekni5 10y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_inequality_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_inequality_in_the_Unite... http://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2015/05/01/income-inequality-is-the-new-economic-issue http://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2015/05/01/in... http://cepr.net/images/stories/reports/working-paper-domestic-outsourcing-2016-03.pdf http://cepr.net/images/stories/reports/working-paper-domesti... https://www.amazon.com/When-Good-Jobs-Globalization--unionization-ebook/dp/B01KL4HYDK https://www.amazon.com/When-Good-Jobs-Globalization--unioniz... http://www.ledevoir.com/documents/pdf/CIBC-eqi_20150305.pdf http://www.ledevoir.com/documents/pdf/CIBC-eqi_20150305.pdf http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/twec.12238/full http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/twec.12238/full https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-016-3358-5 https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s... https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/cesptp/halshs-01301803.html https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/cesptp/halshs-01301803.html https://www.technologyreview.com/s/515926/how-technology-is-destroying-jobs/ https://www.technologyreview.com/s/515926/how-technology-is-... https://www.kansascityfed.org/publicat/econrev/pdf/13q1tuzemen-willis.pdf https://www.kansascityfed.org/publicat/econrev/pdf/13q1tuzem... https://www.princeton.edu/ceps/workingpapers/172farber.pdf https://www.princeton.edu/ceps/workingpapers/172farber.pdf
  - Pyxl101 10y ago
    The question was about "the quality of general life for the average person in the West". I looked through most of the links and I don't think they address the topic. Income inequality for example measures relative equality, not absolute "how well off" someone is. If for the sake of argument an alien benefactor made everyone in on the planet 100x richer in the sense of material wealth, there'd still be the same levels of wealth inequality as today. The articles about job quality and job polarization also do not address how well off people are in an absolute sense.
    - DefaultUserHN 10y ago
      You wanted to understand why a Trump supporter is voting for Trump. The Trump support tells you of his experience and why he is voting for Trump. You then demand scientific data to back it up. You are not even listening to what he has to say, and you are not listening to his experience. And this is why you can never understand why he is voting for Trump.
    - tekni5 10y ago
      There are multiple factors addressed in the links I posted, loss of manufacturing jobs, employment opportunities, job quality, etc. I think you are getting hung up on semantics, when I made a fairly general statement, which might have been a little too broad but I don't feel it is an incorrect generalization about the current situation in many Western countries. Speaking from my experience (note, I'm not even from the US, I'm from Canada) what I said appears to hold true, for example just the other week our finance minister told people get used to the job churn as the employment field has entirely changed. Recent graduates aren't able to pay off their student loans either, and the government as of today (November 1st) is issuing student loan payment halts on incomes below 25,000. On top of that the housing market in Canada is going insane, prices skyrocketing in multiple major cities for detached housing, while interest rates and growth is stagnate. If that's not a sign that things are getting worse, I'm not sure what is. As far as I can tell the news in other Western parts of the world is just as bad.
- DefaultUserHN 10y ago
  You wanted to understand why a Trump supporter is voting for Trump. The Trump support tells you of his experience and why he is voting for Trump. You then demand scientific data to back it up. You are not even listening to what he has to say, and you are not listening to his experience. And this is why you can never understand why he is voting for Trump.
  - tekni5 10y ago
    I just want to point out I'm not a Trump supporter, in fact I'm in Canada so I cannot vote in the US election. My original comment was just a general observation.
- tdkl 10y ago
  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-27/get-ready-to-see-this-globalization-elephant-chart-over-and-over-again http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-27/get-ready-... https://www.ft.com/content/13603aa2-0185-11e6-ac98-3c15a1aa2e62 https://www.ft.com/content/13603aa2-0185-11e6-ac98-3c15a1aa2... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt8h0GC2KdY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt8h0GC2KdY

by tekni5 10y ago

pnathan 10y ago

> quality of employment, the quality of general life for the average person in the West seems to have only degraded in the last decade or two. can you cite some data sources for that claim?

tekni5 10y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_inequality_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_inequality_in_the_Unite... http://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2015/05/01/income-inequality-is-the-new-economic-issue http://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2015/05/01/in... http://cepr.net/images/stories/reports/working-paper-domestic-outsourcing-2016-03.pdf http://cepr.net/images/stories/reports/working-paper-domesti... https://www.amazon.com/When-Good-Jobs-Globalization--unionization-ebook/dp/B01KL4HYDK https://www.amazon.com/When-Good-Jobs-Globalization--unioniz... http://www.ledevoir.com/documents/pdf/CIBC-eqi_20150305.pdf http://www.ledevoir.com/documents/pdf/CIBC-eqi_20150305.pdf http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/twec.12238/full http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/twec.12238/full https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-016-3358-5 https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s... https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/cesptp/halshs-01301803.html https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/cesptp/halshs-01301803.html https://www.technologyreview.com/s/515926/how-technology-is-destroying-jobs/ https://www.technologyreview.com/s/515926/how-technology-is-... https://www.kansascityfed.org/publicat/econrev/pdf/13q1tuzemen-willis.pdf https://www.kansascityfed.org/publicat/econrev/pdf/13q1tuzem... https://www.princeton.edu/ceps/workingpapers/172farber.pdf https://www.princeton.edu/ceps/workingpapers/172farber.pdf
- Pyxl101 10y ago
  The question was about "the quality of general life for the average person in the West". I looked through most of the links and I don't think they address the topic. Income inequality for example measures relative equality, not absolute "how well off" someone is. If for the sake of argument an alien benefactor made everyone in on the planet 100x richer in the sense of material wealth, there'd still be the same levels of wealth inequality as today. The articles about job quality and job polarization also do not address how well off people are in an absolute sense.
  - DefaultUserHN 10y ago
    You wanted to understand why a Trump supporter is voting for Trump. The Trump support tells you of his experience and why he is voting for Trump. You then demand scientific data to back it up. You are not even listening to what he has to say, and you are not listening to his experience. And this is why you can never understand why he is voting for Trump.
  - tekni5 10y ago
    There are multiple factors addressed in the links I posted, loss of manufacturing jobs, employment opportunities, job quality, etc. I think you are getting hung up on semantics, when I made a fairly general statement, which might have been a little too broad but I don't feel it is an incorrect generalization about the current situation in many Western countries. Speaking from my experience (note, I'm not even from the US, I'm from Canada) what I said appears to hold true, for example just the other week our finance minister told people get used to the job churn as the employment field has entirely changed. Recent graduates aren't able to pay off their student loans either, and the government as of today (November 1st) is issuing student loan payment halts on incomes below 25,000. On top of that the housing market in Canada is going insane, prices skyrocketing in multiple major cities for detached housing, while interest rates and growth is stagnate. If that's not a sign that things are getting worse, I'm not sure what is. As far as I can tell the news in other Western parts of the world is just as bad.
DefaultUserHN 10y ago
You wanted to understand why a Trump supporter is voting for Trump. The Trump support tells you of his experience and why he is voting for Trump. You then demand scientific data to back it up. You are not even listening to what he has to say, and you are not listening to his experience. And this is why you can never understand why he is voting for Trump.
- tekni5 10y ago
  I just want to point out I'm not a Trump supporter, in fact I'm in Canada so I cannot vote in the US election. My original comment was just a general observation.
tdkl 10y ago
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-27/get-ready-to-see-this-globalization-elephant-chart-over-and-over-again http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-27/get-ready-... https://www.ft.com/content/13603aa2-0185-11e6-ac98-3c15a1aa2e62 https://www.ft.com/content/13603aa2-0185-11e6-ac98-3c15a1aa2... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt8h0GC2KdY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt8h0GC2KdY