TimPC

27 ms·

331.
by TimPC 4y ago
Hard disagree, the objections are still quite legitimate, especially the point about dodging accusations of racism and sexism. Haidt in particular seems to subscribe to the idea that if it was appropriate in 1950 it’s appropriate now. Centr
332.
by TimPC 4y ago
1-acre is pretty massive for a plot of land in the downtown core of the city. It can fit an entire apartment complex. The sale value is extremely high so the $1 million in revenue isn’t that attractive given the cost of holding the land.
333.
by TimPC 4y ago
I think if it creates a substantial disincentive for fuel efficient transportation we are going to end up making global warming far worse as we go to many more smaller vehicles for most transportation.
334.
by TimPC 4y ago
The business has maybe 30 spaces at $20/day. If we assume some people use hourly rates but most use daily lets say each parking space makes $25/day for $750/day. That works out to $273,750 before expenses. To get $1 million y
335.
by TimPC 4y ago
We aren’t talking multi-level though we are talking about an actual flat parking lot in the middle of a downtown core which is what speculators do and have done in my city while they wait to sell expensive land.
336.
by TimPC 4y ago
Just because it’s not possible to separately buy the structure or the land doesn’t mean the numbers are wrong. The point still stands that taxing land disincentivizes nothing while taxing structures discourages building them. Many towns in
337.
by TimPC 4y ago
My city assesses land and structure value separately as part of property taxes so having them assess just land instead seems like less work not more.
338.
by TimPC 4y ago
The analysis doesn’t go far enough. If you want to stop speculation you should tax land not property.
339.
by TimPC 4y ago
I think the actual measurement is off. If a single truck did over $3 million in road damage per year we’d have far worse infrastructure problems than we do. Chances are if you tax road damage you’re charging the hummer $10/year and the
340.
by TimPC 4y ago
I think you’re underestimating how fourth powers work. If you want to charge a 10,000 pound hummer $1000/year to provide substantial disincentive then you end up charging a five axel semi trailer (75,000 pounds) $3,164,000/year. T
341.
by TimPC 4y ago
Driving without insurance should be a jailable offence and needs to be taken far more seriously. You are at risk of not having coverage when you cause significant injury or death to someone. If a breadwinner for a family is no longer able t
342.
by TimPC 4y ago
Taxing negative externalities works to reduce those externalities even without mitigation though. I’d much rather have a government that taxes things we want less of than things we want more of. The status quo is income tax, which is far wo
343.
Ask HN: Preparing for Systems Interviews
2 points by TimPC 4y ago|0 comments
344.
by TimPC 4y ago
I think this continues to ignore my point. There is no absolute free speech. As the US court has repeatedly ruled, porn is a type of speech and thus unlimited free speech includes the proliferation of child pornography. Instead we have to c
345.
by TimPC 4y ago
This was never the case unless you have a very strange reading of history. Look how long bad ideas like witches causing problems persisted and the popularity of mob justice for such acts.
346.
by TimPC 4y ago
But everyone believes in some censorship so it’s disingenuous to claim one side believes in free speech and others don’t. Both sides want to censor harmful activity it’s just a question of what bar of harm they are using. Some people want t
347.
by TimPC 4y ago
But it’s not the same thing. I think lockdowns were clearly on the balance correct and in my province we on two occasions emerged from lockdown too soon causing a number of health complications. We also ended masking too soon and have made
348.
by TimPC 4y ago
Everything we know about infection science suggests that it would have been a lot worse. Travel restrictions dramatically reduce inter regional spread and lockdowns help reduce the number of people catching COVID locally. Given what we know
349.
by TimPC 4y ago
Poverty traps are still very real and exist in most welfare systems. Small increases have to be targeted to not push someone over a clawback boundary in order to be beneficial. If you give someone $100 and they lose their subsidized housing
350.
by TimPC 4y ago
What’s the utility of being in a different economic class? There is more to money than just spending it and I’d argue there are large utility gains from crossing class boundaries. The academic models ignore any utility except spending and d
351.
by TimPC 4y ago
This number is going down with every home inheritance and isn’t stable across generations. It’s largely a function of homes being bought for low values appreciating to over $1 million and not a function of labour markets.
352.
by TimPC 4y ago
You in practice have to disclose the last date you worked for your most recent employer which at a minimum makes you look very strange for quitting without another job lined up if you try to play it that way.
353.
by TimPC 4y ago
Communism where disabled people are consider “bad actors” who “don’t contribute” loses a lot of its appeal. If you can kick people out seemingly arbitrarily then it’s not a social safety net.
354.
by TimPC 4y ago
The original author seemed to think so and the regular speaking engagements and book deals seem consistent with that. It might not be the exclusive reason but it certainly seems a factor.
355.
by TimPC 4y ago
I feel like you’re taking the author out of context. His point is that without the open-source work fewer opportunities would exist for the person doing it. So it’s a bit disingenuous to act like you do all of this “purely for free” when it
356.
by TimPC 4y ago
Even after the dot com crash software was never a bad field it just felt that way because it was worse than it had been at the peak. There was still enough demand for most people to get actual jobs somewhere just not at the wages they like.
357.
by TimPC 4y ago
Because there isn’t a lot of good options for a high return investment so the inflation is lowering the value of your money quickly and using it to reduce interest payments makes a certain amount of sense.
358.
by TimPC 4y ago
This sounds like a useful banking product but unfortunately in Canada and the US they mostly try and get us to pay the mortgage quicker and then borrow money back at a higher rate if we need to. I think this product would lead to people not
359.
by TimPC 4y ago
Honestly if you’re paying a mortgage at current rates, 6 months income is an excessive amount to hold out. Assuming that’s $100k, you’re paying somewhere around $5600/year by not paying down your mortgage more aggressively. I have a lo
360.
by TimPC 4y ago
I believe the proposal on the table was that Twitter should give them permission to sell the stock they rightfully earned, not that anyone else should fund them. The blackout on stock sales suck.

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