fivestar

14 ms·

91.
by fivestar 9y ago
But the solution was never those Paris accords. There was no solution in that, just more dead ends for regular Americans. How is that helpful? Nothing gets fixed, but vulnerable populations become more vulnerable?
92.
by fivestar 9y ago
Total garbage. The ideologues just...need...to...stop. Your "settled science" and all the rest of it? Guess what? It's all up for debate because debate is healthy. Why can't these academics ever get out of their own
93.
by fivestar 9y ago
Look to your left, look to your right. If you can't spot the sucker--it's you!
94.
by fivestar 9y ago
Sure, except with gold, you could buy a nice suit and steak dinner in any era.
95.
by fivestar 9y ago
Except they are different. Gresham's Law--bad money chases out good. We do have a problem with fiat and who controls the issuance, no argument there. However, "money" or "currency" is also based on history. The
96.
by fivestar 9y ago
A stock is part ownership in a corporation. There are laws and rules that govern stock issuance and stock investing. You have proxy voting rights with many stocks. You can go visit the physical corporation which has a "book value&qu
97.
by fivestar 9y ago
Who invented Bitcoin? WE DON'T EVEN KNOW!!!! Who the hell would buy such a thing? Idiots.
98.
by fivestar 9y ago
There is a marked difference between investing and outright gambling. When you invest, you are placing capital at risk in order to achieve some kind of gain, be it growth or dividends. At the end of the investment, there is the return of
99.
by fivestar 9y ago
None of what you say negates the fact that it is a Ponzi. Plenty of Madoff's customers did the same things--they were "lucky" in the sense that they weren't at the last layer of the Ponzi. Someone will be. There was r
100.
by fivestar 9y ago
Which is evidence of nothing.
101.
by fivestar 9y ago
Except that it isn't--it's a bubble and at some point that bubble is going to pop. We already went through all this in 2008 and people have already forgotten the lesson! It's amazing how fungible the human mind is. "T
102.
by fivestar 9y ago
That doesn't mean it isn't a scam. Bernie Madoff's customers were all quite happy for many years.
103.
by fivestar 9y ago
It's a Ponzi.
104.
by fivestar 9y ago
Well stated. Were I to design a Ponzi for the 21st century, it would look and feel like Bitcoin. The essence of a good scam is to capture the imaginations of people who believe themselves to be smart and unable to be conned.
105.
by fivestar 9y ago
The calculus is all broken. The Boomers voted themselves lavish benefits and decided (as always) to screw everyone else. Now we're finding out that "everyone else" can't hardly pay their own bills much less keep all th
106.
by fivestar 9y ago
Show me one example since say, 1980.
107.
by fivestar 9y ago
The smugness practically drips from your pores. It's not government building those houses out in the cornfields, it is the monied developers who capture local governments and bribe them into letting them build those cracker boxes. I l
108.
by fivestar 9y ago
I wish HN members wouldn't downvote just because 'progressive' gets bashed. Too close to home for you? It's a valid point, but so is the other side--conservatives are just as bad. Two wings of the same bird, really.
109.
by fivestar 9y ago
In Japan, are property rights a big deal? How about corruption? Here in the US, you would get every NIMBY and enviro-whacko all fired up. Then you have the insiders who know where the right of way will likely be and they will buy up the
110.
by fivestar 9y ago
Maybe you don't understand the real incentives at work? In the US, it is jobs, jobs, jobs. Long, drawn out projects keep hardhats working for years. It's not about outcomes, which is a big part of the problem.
111.
by fivestar 9y ago
Well, we used to be, but not really these days. At least I don't see it much. Look at UAE or Singapore and see what they're up to.
112.
by fivestar 9y ago
But bear in mind what you just said IS NOT a valid argument for socialized medicine--it is an argument for market reform, or for looking at what is really going on in healthcare (hint: Wall Street).
113.
by fivestar 9y ago
I don't think this is the problem. I think that PENSIONS are the problem. The risk aversion comes from municipalities that are flat broke because they over-promised.
114.
by fivestar 9y ago
BMW lost its soul? They just keep shitting on the enthusiasts in an effort to win over the soccer Mom demographic. Sad, really.
115.
by fivestar 9y ago
Because it's not about real outcomes, it's about being seen "caring" about the environment, or whatever. The marketing people have the buyers figured out or it wouldn't be that way. I still chuckle when I see a Pri
116.
by fivestar 9y ago
More like 3-5 mins.
117.
by fivestar 9y ago
That would turn into a grind pretty fast--if it can't charge up in 20mins. it's a no-go long term unless it's in your garage (or someplace else you want to be).
118.
by fivestar 9y ago
I have mentioned to others on HN many times--don't wait until the tail end of your life to do the things you want to do. Practically every low hours boat and low mileage RV has a former owner who "waited too long."
119.
by fivestar 9y ago
This. I have been on contracts where "butts in seats" was a metric--they had to have the appearance of moving the ball on the project even though it was in the early stages and there was nothing for the developers to even do yet.
120.
by fivestar 9y ago
And yet, the current MBA groupthink trend is that remote workers are scum and must be dealt with accordingly. Insane.

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