gottorf

31 ms·

481.
by gottorf 3y ago
I believe there have been a few studies that studied localities (in different parts of the world) that banned plastic bags, and they've all had either zero net effect on plastic usage or it actually increased. Anecdotally, 100% of groc
482.
by gottorf 3y ago
> encouraged people to consume and stifle savings Ironic in hindsight; every monetary and fiscal policy as of late seems to be designed to punish savers and reward debtors.
483.
by gottorf 3y ago
Yes! People, irrational and misinformed as they may be, respond to incentives.
484.
by gottorf 3y ago
> The invisible hand of the free market will not and can not sort it out by itself You are but one small part of the invisible hand! Other people have other preferences. Efficiency per dollar isn't the end-all, be-all of the market
485.
by gottorf 3y ago
> why you view incandescent light-bulbs as being superior to LEDs. Is it solely because they are simpler? They certainly don't last as long and cost more to operate. I've gotten in the habit of writing down the in-service date
486.
by gottorf 3y ago
> Instead they cherry picked the most onerous regulations from the alcohol and pharma industries and taxed it like tobacco… while basically ending any sort of enforcement against black market operators. The worst of both worlds!
487.
by gottorf 3y ago
Yes, the problem is the lack of willingness on the part of school districts to enforce discipline (perhaps compounded by the fact that public schools are often hamstrung by policy in this way), and likely a similar failure on the part of pa
488.
by gottorf 3y ago
> in New Orleans, 35% of kids don’t have enough calories per days to have a proper brain development Source? I find that hard to believe, considering how cheap and plentiful calories are and how numerous the various public assistance pro
489.
by gottorf 3y ago
Landlubbers are accustomed to momentum (p = mv) behaving in a certain way instinctively from years of experience, where the heavier something is, the more frictional force against it from the ground, and therefore the mass behaves a certain
490.
by gottorf 3y ago
It seems clear at this point that Covid (the latest variants in the wild, at any rate) does not cause "often debilitating effects", and so any mitigation must have its costs, which are very high for any easily-transmissible respir
491.
by gottorf 3y ago
Others have touched upon the point of crime, but it really is worth mentioning that crime (especially of the violent and/or property type) is a huge hindrance to the economic revitalization of any area. It's much, much easier to r
492.
by gottorf 3y ago
> When’s the last time anyone built a nuclear plant in 4 years? South Korea is one of the world leaders in commercial nuclear power, and as of 20 years ago they were able to build plants in under 5 years[0]. Seems like recent constructio
493.
by gottorf 3y ago
> you could make considerably more "tax revenue" by funding the IRS The US government expenditure as percentage of GDP is now over one-third, as opposed to the pre-WW1 long-term average in the single digits. Keep in mind that m
494.
by gottorf 3y ago
> his name was number 1 of 49 listed in an email from upper management titled “Quality Managers to get rid of” Sounds like a healthy corporate culture when it comes to safety!
495.
by gottorf 3y ago
The threshold at which you have to include the income in your taxable income is $0.01.
496.
by gottorf 3y ago
Devil's advocate: the longer you stay away from gainful employment, the more marketable skills you lose. (This is one of the arguments against a minimum wage; that it keeps low-skill and therefore low-pay labor from establishing a foot
497.
by gottorf 3y ago
> where they are at the whim of politics, your infra is in constant political/bureaucratic peril Whims like this: https://apnews.com/article/new-york-rest-stops-chick-fil-a-1...
498.
by gottorf 3y ago
> The entire welfare system should be vaporized and replaced with a tax credit for the poor (i.e. a UBI). Yep, call it a negative income tax if it goes down better than UBI, but many other things would be better than the system we have n
499.
by gottorf 3y ago
No argument against your company's WFH productivity! But: > 2020-21 and then we went back to the office in 2022 and our profits and stock price dropped The broad stock index rallied like crazy 2020-21 with ZIRP, then all of 2022 was
500.
by gottorf 3y ago
> Our stock price shot way up. This would imply that a company's stock price is directly influenced by its productive output; in reality, it's only very tangentially so. Especially for low-profit, high-growth tech companies, I&
501.
by gottorf 3y ago
Interesting, but a simplistic analysis. It could very well be the case that the thing being talked about the most in earnings calls (in this case, production) is being talked about because it's constantly being missed, whereas the stuf
502.
by gottorf 3y ago
> Colombia looks to have a GDP per capita about 1/10th of the US, so if we scale it up 10X... Ah, yes, but costs for public projects like this in the US is far greater than 10x Colombia's.
503.
by gottorf 3y ago
You will have to present something better than a meme cartoon if you want me to change my mind.
504.
by gottorf 3y ago
> (maybe it will shock you most most world doesn't have AC even if its 50C outside) The solution is, again, more energy abundance so that most of the world can have AC. To paraphrase another HNer, I wish for the average Bangladeshi
505.
by gottorf 3y ago
I'm not sure why you're focusing on the billionaires, when it's evident that the common man of today lives in the comfort of pre-industrial kings.
506.
by gottorf 3y ago
> To any climate change denier... I'd love to smash that idiocy out of your head if that would help Well, one must balance the downsides with the positives. Cheap energy from fossil fuels allowed humanity to flourish like never befo
507.
by gottorf 3y ago
Yeah, I'd be curious about this, as well. A garden-variety 1U server sitting in a rack somewhere could be pulling 80W at idle and 1KW at load.
508.
by gottorf 3y ago
> Modern wood houses have very poor noise insulation I agree, but this doesn't have anything to do with the woodenness of the construction. Virtually all interior walls in your typical North American single-family home, built with w
509.
by gottorf 3y ago
> just showing up regularly, like same coffeeshop everyday at the same time I can't emphasize this enough (minus the coffee shop part ;-)). Meeting someone with regularity is how you go from stranger to acquaintance to friend. Pick
510.
by gottorf 3y ago
Argentina is definitely a case study on the importance of governance on the lives of everyday citizens. With its fertile lands and diverse landscapes with plenty of mineral resources (including crude oil), there's no reason for it to b

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