HEmanZ

23 ms·

271.
by HEmanZ 4y ago
Does it seem at all realistic that someone at the median is paying 50% income tax in the US?
272.
by HEmanZ 4y ago
So much depends on how you measure it. But median individual income in the US is quite a bit higher than 19k no matter how you measure it. Real, adjusted, individual including non working and part-time population above 15yo: $38k/yr In
273.
by HEmanZ 4y ago
“Dogs are cute and whatnot”… I suspect from your comment you have not had a good dog in your life before. I’m sorry for you for that. Dogs, when raised well and taken care of, have incredible emotional intelligence and can communicate extre
274.
by HEmanZ 4y ago
Thank. You. I’m shocked by how little historical context people here have. It almost makes me wonder if the average age on here is extremely young? I remember at a young age I felt like the world was falling apart because I had 0 historical
275.
by HEmanZ 4y ago
If you think corruption is actually worse now than it has ever been, as opposed to better but more visible to the general public… I have a nice bridge to sell you.
276.
by HEmanZ 4y ago
This trust thing is true, but it doesn’t mean that institutions are lest trustworthy. It seems more that we have the tools (institutional, cultural, technological) to actually understand many systems better and see how untrustworthy they ar
277.
by HEmanZ 4y ago
I want to call out that at least in the US, politicians actually appear way less corrupt than they used to be. Any reading of specific political histories, e.g Robert Caro, you can quickly get a feel for just how insanely corrupt politician
278.
by HEmanZ 4y ago
Advice here seems generally good. I did start learning about finance and investing very young, and my views have changed a lot as I’ve gotten older. So take this advice as stuff after you learn investing basics. 1) financial independence is
279.
by HEmanZ 4y ago
I don’t know enough to know if he was anti-Semitic, he could have been. But your quote really doesn’t make him seem an anti-Semite. If that’s the worst leveled against him, I think it’s just hot air.
280.
by HEmanZ 4y ago
Reading HN, I get the strong suspicion many people didn’t grow up around drugs. People don’t always think they are throwing away their lives. They think “this makes me cool” and “it’s no big deal” and “anyone who’s anyone does it”. Often th
281.
by HEmanZ 4y ago
I think my point is that it can be both. There is a lot we can do to help in the cases you point out. But I just don’t think the problem is entirely solvable, or even mostly solvable, without changing a destructive sub-culture, which we can
282.
by HEmanZ 4y ago
Usually the "society" issue is framed as some sort of welfare crisis. I have a more-than-one-hand-full of friends and acquaintances from earlier in life who ruined or ended their life with drugs. And so I don't know anything
283.
by HEmanZ 4y ago
I have known quite a few friends from earlier in my life who became serious addicts and ruined their lives or ended their lives by it. I would not describe a single one as having started using because they were mad at society, sad, or lones
284.
by HEmanZ 4y ago
In Manhattan or San Francisco? Probably not. But in most of the gigantic, sprawling USA, I suspect affordable housing absolutely has everything to do with cost of building a house.
285.
by HEmanZ 4y ago
Ability to be a hacker or researcher is not on the list of important CEO skills. If I had to collect my (totally unqualified) opinion of most-important skills of a good CEO, I would say: - Ability to promote a company vision (even if you di
286.
by HEmanZ 4y ago
Are you an engineer? How often have you worked on something that would be noticeable immediately if you left? I’ve never in my career worked for an extended period on something that was just maintenance. Software systems are extremely stabl
287.
by HEmanZ 4y ago
Also do you really think the table stakes for modern debates are anything close to what was going on at the turn of the century? Gender identity really compares to “should women vote”? Discussions around race today have the same stakes as “
288.
by HEmanZ 4y ago
I believe this is some kind of false cultural memory. Just because the topics are new doesn’t mean the underlying divide and ideological debate are different or less vehement. Today its “what is gender”, yesteryear it was “should women vote
289.
by HEmanZ 4y ago
And just to add to this, I actually think the political polarization of today is just not substantial compared to many other eras. Every generation since the early modern period thinks it’s politics are the most controversial. But the 1880-
290.
by HEmanZ 4y ago
I'm not sure controversial issues and neuroticism breaking up parties is new whatsoever. I have read too many things that sound exactly like what you've written from the 70s, 50s, 30s, 20s, 10s, 1880s, ..... Even in the 1500s aris
291.
by HEmanZ 4y ago
Doctor pay-per-hour-worked varies a lot by specialty. My wife gets $270k/yr on her current contract after max bonuses and paying for malpractice insurance. That comes out to about $60/hr. this is in a mid col city in the USA. That
292.
by HEmanZ 4y ago
They have very little power in most primary care specialties. The expectation from hospitals is you will work this hard or they won’t hire you. Hospitals are more than happy to just dump more hours onto their over-exhausted doctors rather t
293.
by HEmanZ 4y ago
My point was not at all to make you feel better. It was to explain a systematic reason why doctors underperform and empathize with their position instead of blaming them personally.
294.
by HEmanZ 4y ago
It is required by the hospital. I have made her promise me we will try finding a better work-life balance hospital within a few years, but it’s hard to apply to new places with this kind of schedule
295.
by HEmanZ 4y ago
These threads always have lots of people jumping on doctors and their decisions/callousness/lack-of-reason/missing up-to-date-into/etc.etc.etc. My wife is a physician (OBGYN) at a major city hospital that primarily serve
296.
by HEmanZ 4y ago
Yes but it’s a fuzzy term, what I meant was more in the “animal” realm of living. Just to give an example, I (and I think most humans) feel negatively about deforestation or destruction of plant life because it is destroying or profaning so
297.
by HEmanZ 4y ago
I don’t know whether to be amazed at this agricultural feat that brings cheap, tasty, high-protein meals to the masses of humanity, or sickened by an abomination of nature that turns a living thing into a bio-engineered fast-growing blob. I
298.
by HEmanZ 4y ago
I have had a similar situation, but in mine the seller immediately re-listed the property at 4x the price I paid. Airbnb says they can’t do this, but they literally did, on the same account. I had 3 terrible Airbnb scam experiences in 2022,
299.
by HEmanZ 4y ago
Idk what country you’re paying 40-60% tax in. I make very good money in the US and I don’t pay close to that. Using the US as an example, most people pay an effective tax rate of 20%. This is equivalent to a peasant getting a 10% tax and th
300.
by HEmanZ 4y ago
I think you’re right, peasant life wasn’t so dystopian through the Middle Ages, and it seems to get a bad rap. Peasants didn’t have modern freedoms but they were not chattel slaves. They had a lot of free time and for much of history had a

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