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1) I tried to read the article, but it's badly structured and edited. 2) The SF Bay Area has never had a ventilator shortage. In fact, we gave away 500 in Marc

1) I tried to read the article, but it's badly structured and edited. 2) The SF Bay Area has never had a ventilator shortage. In fact, we gave away 500 in March/April to other states because we have too many. 3) The article mixes up various timelines into an incoherent wall of text - General AI, corona pandemic and global warming effects all have different timelines. 4) The USA is run by oligarchs who have a policy of discarding workers, so that completely undermines the article - the unemployed will not be working on moving cities inland, they will just be forgotten and destitute. (I hope when Cory is able to focus he can improve the article. Maybe there is something worthwhile in there.)

eru 6y ago
> 4) The USA is run by oligarchs who have a policy of discarding workers, so that completely undermines the article - the unemployed will not be working on moving cities inland, they will just be forgotten and destitute. What's your evidence for that? Unemployment was really quite low in the last decade up until a few months ago, with presumably the same 'oligarchs' already in power?
- climwe 6y ago
  Unemployment was lower but jobs became worse. If there was no increase in federal minimum wage in a decade, you can see why employment went up in that exact same decade. It's not good enough to just point to one statistic and cancel out a deeply complex claim like that one.
  - eru 6y ago
    > Unemployment was lower but jobs became worse. How do we know that? > If there was no increase in federal minimum wage in a decade, you can see why employment went up in that exact same decade. That's great news, if true. It suggest a very actionable strategy to keep unemployment in check. (Though, of course, looking around the globe, even the absence of a minimum wage law doesn't make all other unemployment problems magically vanish.) > It's not good enough to just point to one statistic and cancel out a deeply complex claim like that one. Indeed. This was just to point out that the claim would have to be backed by quite a bit of evidence, because the surface facts about unemployment need quite a bit of explaining away first. There was no evidence at all provided in the comment I replied to. So this was an invitation to bring some evidence. I have no opinion on 'oligarchs', only on hypothetical 'oligarchs who have a policy of discarding workers'.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - s5300 6y ago
      I mean... have you read the Wikipedia page of the current head of the Dept. of Education? See also: page of the head of the Dept. of Justice? If you haven't... you really should If doing that doesn't change any of your opinions on the matter... oh well, we're already doomed.
  - refurb 6y ago
    Jobs became “worse”? Wages were up the quarter or 2 before Covid.
- 082349872349872 6y ago
  What's really quite low? Ours hit 3,4% in May due to the virus, but June just came out at 3,2%...
  - eru 6y ago
    Which place are you talking about? https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf says that US unemployment rate for June 2020 was 11.1%.
    - 082349872349872 6y ago
      "Ours" being swiss. This unemployment level is still very high, 50+% over June 2019. https://www.admin.ch/gov/de/start/dokumentation/medienmittei.. https://www.admin.ch/gov/de/start/dokumentation/medienmittei.... (caveat: bei uns gibt's Kurzarbeit.)
      - eru 6y ago
        Ok, that makes more sense. It's useful to point out which countries / places you talk about. We only let the Americans get away without it.
- redis_mlc 6y ago
  > Unemployment was really quite low No, a lot of former workers moved onto permanent disability, or left the job market. The statistic quoted in the media is only one of about 6, and it the most optimistic. You would be shocked at the true US labor participation rate. And of course, even people on UI age out after at most 12 months. See above.
flr03 6y ago
The ventilator shortage is irrelevant to the point the author is trying to make. It doesn't have to be true or false and should be taken as an hypothesis. The point he was trying to make is that economy is not about money, it's about resources. Money has no value as such, it's a number in a system, or at best a piece of paper. Food is a resource, a ventilator is a resource. Economy is about choices, about how you allocate a resource, it's not about numbers.

eru 6y ago

> 4) The USA is run by oligarchs who have a policy of discarding workers, so that completely undermines the article - the unemployed will not be working on moving cities inland, they will just be forgotten and destitute. What's your evidence for that? Unemployment was really quite low in the last decade up until a few months ago, with presumably the same 'oligarchs' already in power?

climwe 6y ago
Unemployment was lower but jobs became worse. If there was no increase in federal minimum wage in a decade, you can see why employment went up in that exact same decade. It's not good enough to just point to one statistic and cancel out a deeply complex claim like that one.
- eru 6y ago
  > Unemployment was lower but jobs became worse. How do we know that? > If there was no increase in federal minimum wage in a decade, you can see why employment went up in that exact same decade. That's great news, if true. It suggest a very actionable strategy to keep unemployment in check. (Though, of course, looking around the globe, even the absence of a minimum wage law doesn't make all other unemployment problems magically vanish.) > It's not good enough to just point to one statistic and cancel out a deeply complex claim like that one. Indeed. This was just to point out that the claim would have to be backed by quite a bit of evidence, because the surface facts about unemployment need quite a bit of explaining away first. There was no evidence at all provided in the comment I replied to. So this was an invitation to bring some evidence. I have no opinion on 'oligarchs', only on hypothetical 'oligarchs who have a policy of discarding workers'.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - s5300 6y ago
    I mean... have you read the Wikipedia page of the current head of the Dept. of Education? See also: page of the head of the Dept. of Justice? If you haven't... you really should If doing that doesn't change any of your opinions on the matter... oh well, we're already doomed.
- refurb 6y ago
  Jobs became “worse”? Wages were up the quarter or 2 before Covid.
082349872349872 6y ago
What's really quite low? Ours hit 3,4% in May due to the virus, but June just came out at 3,2%...
- eru 6y ago
  Which place are you talking about? https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf says that US unemployment rate for June 2020 was 11.1%.
  - 082349872349872 6y ago
    "Ours" being swiss. This unemployment level is still very high, 50+% over June 2019. https://www.admin.ch/gov/de/start/dokumentation/medienmittei.. https://www.admin.ch/gov/de/start/dokumentation/medienmittei.... (caveat: bei uns gibt's Kurzarbeit.)
    - eru 6y ago
      Ok, that makes more sense. It's useful to point out which countries / places you talk about. We only let the Americans get away without it.
redis_mlc 6y ago
> Unemployment was really quite low No, a lot of former workers moved onto permanent disability, or left the job market. The statistic quoted in the media is only one of about 6, and it the most optimistic. You would be shocked at the true US labor participation rate. And of course, even people on UI age out after at most 12 months. See above.

flr03 6y ago

The ventilator shortage is irrelevant to the point the author is trying to make. It doesn't have to be true or false and should be taken as an hypothesis. The point he was trying to make is that economy is not about money, it's about resources. Money has no value as such, it's a number in a system, or at best a piece of paper. Food is a resource, a ventilator is a resource. Economy is about choices, about how you allocate a resource, it's not about numbers.