5 ms·

It's only a moral hazard if you define it to be. Who are you to tell people what they should do with the money they get from the government?

by sedachv 16y ago

tptacek 16y ago
It is easy to get into long, pointless arguments if you redefine well-known terms to suit your agenda. You and I (I think) agree about unemployment benefits, but you represent my point of view badly, and I wish you'd stop.
- sedachv 16y ago
  Definition of moral hazard from Wikipedia: "Moral hazard occurs when a party insulated from risk behaves differently than it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk." What is the behavior change of people if government provides money to the unemployed, and why is it bad?
  - mistermann 16y ago
    If I am hungry and have no money for food I might be more motivated to go get a job. If I have someone giving me money every week, that I can use to buy food, I might be less motivated to look for a job.
    - sedachv 16y ago
      Why is having a job a good thing?
      - sedachv 16y ago
        I see this got modded down already, so let's examine the question closer: If you're reading this, chances are you're here because you've read Paul Graham's writing and want to be an entrepreneur. Paul Graham says that jobs are bad things (http://www.paulgraham.com/hiring.html http://www.paulgraham.com/hiring.html) and you should be an entrepreneur instead. The problem is that something like 90% of startups will fail. I bet there are more than a few people on HN who have worked on a startup while receiving unemployment benefits. So if you're on unemployment benefits and decide to do a startup under the table, there's at least some chance something good will happen. The chance that nothing productive will come out of people working in the unemployment GULAG digging the Great Mexican Ditch (btw, wouldn't it be cheaper to hire Mexican laborers to dig it?) is 100%. Of course, none of this applies to you, because you're a special entrepreneurial snowflake. No one you know or care about has ever, or will ever, be unemployed. But everyone else is supposed to be your wage slave, willing to move across the country to work on your social media startup, cleaning toilets for stock options (because, you know, janitorial services is a dead industry). Either that, or they're a welfare queen spending their days snowboarding and playing x-box while sipping champagne and smoking cigars rolled from your tax dollars. And fuck their safety net and their medical care. This is why I have no problem calling out "libnerdtarians" and other social conservatives. There's a surprising lack of self-awareness, empathy, and the ability to perceive things from other people's perspectives. Some people call it being a sociopath: http://addictinginfo.org/new/?page_id=342 http://addictinginfo.org/new/?page_id=342

It's only a moral hazard if you define it to be. Who are you to tell people what they should do with the money they get from the government?

by sedachv 16y ago

It's only a moral hazard if you define it to be. Who are you to tell people what they should do with the money they get from the government?

tptacek 16y ago

It is easy to get into long, pointless arguments if you redefine well-known terms to suit your agenda. You and I (I think) agree about unemployment benefits, but you represent my point of view badly, and I wish you'd stop.

sedachv 16y ago
Definition of moral hazard from Wikipedia: "Moral hazard occurs when a party insulated from risk behaves differently than it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk." What is the behavior change of people if government provides money to the unemployed, and why is it bad?
- mistermann 16y ago
  If I am hungry and have no money for food I might be more motivated to go get a job. If I have someone giving me money every week, that I can use to buy food, I might be less motivated to look for a job.
  - sedachv 16y ago
    Why is having a job a good thing?
    - sedachv 16y ago
      I see this got modded down already, so let's examine the question closer: If you're reading this, chances are you're here because you've read Paul Graham's writing and want to be an entrepreneur. Paul Graham says that jobs are bad things (http://www.paulgraham.com/hiring.html http://www.paulgraham.com/hiring.html) and you should be an entrepreneur instead. The problem is that something like 90% of startups will fail. I bet there are more than a few people on HN who have worked on a startup while receiving unemployment benefits. So if you're on unemployment benefits and decide to do a startup under the table, there's at least some chance something good will happen. The chance that nothing productive will come out of people working in the unemployment GULAG digging the Great Mexican Ditch (btw, wouldn't it be cheaper to hire Mexican laborers to dig it?) is 100%. Of course, none of this applies to you, because you're a special entrepreneurial snowflake. No one you know or care about has ever, or will ever, be unemployed. But everyone else is supposed to be your wage slave, willing to move across the country to work on your social media startup, cleaning toilets for stock options (because, you know, janitorial services is a dead industry). Either that, or they're a welfare queen spending their days snowboarding and playing x-box while sipping champagne and smoking cigars rolled from your tax dollars. And fuck their safety net and their medical care. This is why I have no problem calling out "libnerdtarians" and other social conservatives. There's a surprising lack of self-awareness, empathy, and the ability to perceive things from other people's perspectives. Some people call it being a sociopath: http://addictinginfo.org/new/?page_id=342 http://addictinginfo.org/new/?page_id=342