bmmayer1

40 ms·

391.
by bmmayer1 9y ago
Fewer than 10% of prisoners are held in private prisons, so how are private prisons the 'central problem' with the US prison system?
392.
by bmmayer1 9y ago
Do you have any evidence that that will work? Can you point to a situation in history when a 'massive retroactive redistribution of wealth' has solved poverty?
393.
by bmmayer1 9y ago
> what the rich choose to do with their money that is causing problems What do 'the rich' (as a class) choose to do with their money that is causing problems, and what are those problems?
394.
by bmmayer1 9y ago
That book was well written but incredibly condescending to people who do live those lives and don't get to 'abort the experiment' when they aren't comfortable with the step down in lifestyle anymore. And obviously there
395.
by bmmayer1 9y ago
You won't find an argument with me that the tax system should be fairer, or at least have fewer loopholes (fair is obviously a matter of opinion). But note that we have moved the goalposts here from a discussion about economic opportun
396.
by bmmayer1 9y ago
Never said that. But does the widespread ability of most Americans to finance a house, a car, and in general a better standard of living, without having to be rich, powerful, in the right caste or social strata not far trump feudal sharecro
397.
by bmmayer1 9y ago
What really seems to be happening is the jobs continue to exist as before, but they are driven under the table which is certainly not where we want most people to be working if we truly care about workers' rights. Keep in mind the true
398.
by bmmayer1 9y ago
I think the point is that fairness leads to inequality.
399.
by bmmayer1 9y ago
True, but 'do not covet thy neighbor's goods' is also one of the oldest traditions we have. There's a reason such moral imperatives have developed in our culture; they are more often than not destructive.
400.
by bmmayer1 9y ago
If the true intention of 'inequality' arguments is to highlight the plight of the emaciated and hungry, then it certainly doesn't come across. I don't know where you're getting the 40% number, but 40% of Americans a
401.
by bmmayer1 9y ago
The bread analogy doesn't make any sense. Inequality is a relative metric, not an absolute one. If I only need one loaf of bread to survive, who cares if my neighbor has 100 or 1000?
402.
by bmmayer1 9y ago
How is society becoming more feudal? I've heard this from so many people and the evidence doesn't seem to support it. For example, ~64% of Americans own a home. What % of feudal peasants owned a shovel, let alone a home?
403.
by bmmayer1 9y ago
It's key that monkeys, like humans, object to unfairness--not 'inequality.' Turns out that relative contribution matters a lot to how monkeys/people judge rewards.[1] [1] https://www.nature.com/articles&#x
404.
by bmmayer1 9y ago
> Demanding that a subset of Americans work in poor conditions or at a discounted rate to cover the gap isn't OK No one was demanding anything. Home care workers were working by mutual agreement with their respective employers. &quo
405.
by bmmayer1 9y ago
True, and it also varies widely by region.
406.
by bmmayer1 9y ago
It's unclear what the point of this article is supposed to be other than to stoke outrage at the 1% who get premium treatment while the rest of us proles suffer 'normal' healthcare. It's almost as if all of a sudden havi
407.
by bmmayer1 9y ago
Facebook and Google are also not anywhere close to monopolies--in fact, they are behemoth competitors against each other for online advertising dollars, because media companies sell to advertisers, not free end users.
408.
by bmmayer1 9y ago
So, obviously my citizenship or my country's history has no bearing on the merits of my criticism. It seems you want to have a completely different argument. I think it's fair to criticize someone for being aware that a person is
409.
by bmmayer1 9y ago
Yes, except as a full grown adult, the author never reported the situation to the authorities, took this 'secret' to the grave and even 'inherited' his slave from his parents. He said he paid her an allowance (which didn
410.
by bmmayer1 9y ago
+1 true. I only grouped EU together for simplicity. It also makes sense since they, by their own political and economic admission, are a unified trade bloc and should share some responsibility for EU-wide economic indicators.
411.
by bmmayer1 9y ago
This is an excellent piece and does answer my question actually. People simply conflate fairness and equality and that seeps into the discourse because it makes for easy platitudinal soundbites. Of course, taken to its logical conclusion, e
412.
by bmmayer1 9y ago
The real problem is, while many complain about 'inequality' no one has consistently defined what 'equality' looks like in a way that can be replicable, implementable, or prescriptive. What is this world in which income &
413.
by bmmayer1 9y ago
To be fair, Americans work. Work work work work[1]. Americans love work and elect politicians who love work. Europeans hate work. Hate hate hate hate[2]. They hate work and elect politicians who also hate work. That major (cultural? economi
414.
by bmmayer1 9y ago
+1 Our schools simply do not teach critical thinking. Very few educational systems do worldwide, in fact. Students mostly just learn through repetition and rote memorization, and formulaic creative processes (standard five paragraph essay,
415.
by bmmayer1 9y ago
> I'm not sure the marginal cost of an extra student is very high. They take a seat in a classroom and a few hours of teacher time to grade their work Maybe, but there's also opportunity cost. That's one seat that someone
416.
by bmmayer1 9y ago
> Or he just hates LA traffic. Nope that's the main one. You obviously haven't lived in LA :)
417.
by bmmayer1 10y ago
Sure, we're all descended from Africa. But we all know that ethnographic definitions are arbitrary, and how long ago you or your ancestors immigrated apply more or less to your demographic label depending on a host of cultural, social
418.
by bmmayer1 10y ago
The problem here lies with the imprecise term 'African American', a designation which, according to customary usage, includes many native-born Americans who have never been to Africa, as well as excludes many native-born Africans
419.
by bmmayer1 10y ago
"CEO pay is wrong" What does this mean? Paying CEOs is wrong? The pay that all CEOs get is wrong? The pay that some CEOs get is wrong?
420.
by bmmayer1 10y ago
Hyperbole like this makes it difficult to take his arguments seriously, even if he makes some good points about the changing nature of work. Really, barbaric? Having set work hours in a steady job with regular pay in a safe workplace with b

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