gottorf

39 ms·

691.
by gottorf 3y ago
> Fossil fuels have historically and still benefit from incredible amounts of explicit subsidies (e.g. government money) and implicit policies (e.g. unpriced externalities like pollution and CO2). Fossil fuels receive an estimated ~$7T (
692.
by gottorf 3y ago
> Of course we can. Can we really, without either a massive reduction in population, a massive reduction in standard of living, or a massive centralization of capital and authority to force a switch to alternative energy sources? And if
693.
by gottorf 3y ago
> This brand safety stuff is just an excuse for woke marketing staffers to feel like they're "making a difference" The incentive structures are clear: you do nothing and maybe get fired if your company gets embroiled in a
694.
by gottorf 3y ago
I'm not convinced that any UBI program will remain either U or B for very long. The numbers just don't work out. At least, not until we have "fully automated luxury gay space communism"-level technology.
695.
by gottorf 3y ago
Since we're talking about people receiving public funds, I think it's correct that the recipient has to prove that they can handle it, not the other way around.
696.
by gottorf 3y ago
As an immigrant to the US (and having lived in multiple countries before that), I definitely have a different view. It's quite interesting how often that is the case. > We treat our society like a zero-sum game. In my experience, Am
697.
by gottorf 3y ago
For those that don't drive long distances and don't need a >150 mile range, very lightly used Nissan Leafs are available in the low $20k range.
698.
by gottorf 3y ago
Hear, hear! Just make a Kia Rio with an EV drivetrain and sell it for under $25k.
699.
by gottorf 3y ago
> they are fundamentally laundering free innovations done by a very small number of people, like Linux Kernel developer. They will not stick around There's a big difference between inventing something (Linus Torvalds as the "ge
700.
by gottorf 3y ago
Maybe we should just reduce the need for white-collar jobs? Since we don't exist in the Metaverse yet, most things that we actually "need" are performed by blue-collar people and almost always involve transporting atoms aroun
701.
by gottorf 3y ago
It was in response to GP's comment about the "US car tax"; I'm pointing out that no matter how someone gets around, there is going to be some kind of tax. I don't mean to imply that public roads are free. But I do m
702.
by gottorf 3y ago
> Of course new under 35K seems hard too. You can buy a new base model budget sedan (think Kia Rio, Nissan Versa, etc.) for $20k, or slightly under if you can get a good deal. I myself bought a decent hybrid hatchback for under $30k earl
703.
by gottorf 3y ago
> I left real estate because I was told by my boss I needed to upgrade my car to, at a minimum, 2yr-old Lexus NX or I'd be relegated to internal work rather than meeting with clients. Yeah, I grant you that is the case in certain oc
704.
by gottorf 3y ago
> and not be forced to pay the US car tax > Having experienced the public transit systems in Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore The Seoul Metro, widely considered to be one of the best in the world, also lost like a billion dollars a year for th
705.
by gottorf 3y ago
What an unwarranted attack. You could equally say that the NPR you listen to in your tiny apartment that you pay $3000 a month for has poisoned your brain to such an extent that you believe walking 50 feet down a government sidewalk makes y
706.
by gottorf 3y ago
> Does anyone know what is driving this? Mostly supply and demand, but it is true that pickups these days are a ton nicer than the cheap and functional single cab, 8 foot bed, rear wheel drive, roll-up windows trucks of yore. And to be f
707.
by gottorf 3y ago
A 19yo paying $1650 every month just to get around! That would have paid for my first car and insurance for six months, just a scant decade and a half ago. > I think a major culprit is our social-focused society creating this desire to k
708.
by gottorf 3y ago
It's more accurate to compare the average monthly car payment over time, not the total price of the car. The majority of people don't buy the total price, they buy the monthly payment (whether out of innumeracy or a desire to have
709.
by gottorf 3y ago
I'm not sure why you took such offense; it's a reasonable interpretation of the words you spoke for yourself: > there is no such thing as excessive "playing it safe" As you noted in your other comment: > I'm a
710.
by gottorf 3y ago
That sounds like pricing for a "business-class" Dedicated Internet Access service, with meaningful SLAs and no oversubscription.
711.
by gottorf 3y ago
Yeah, everything is a tradeoff that should have a coherent risk-benefit analysis attached to it. "X at all costs" isn't realistic.
712.
by gottorf 3y ago
Put another way, the incentives facing any single component of a greater whole does not always align with the incentives of the organization itself. In fact, you could say that a good measure of how well an organization is run is how closel
713.
by gottorf 3y ago
Sigh... because I have all this spare time to devote another thousand hours into this game, right? ;-)
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by gottorf 3y ago
How do the demographics and labor force participation rates compare? Does the youth unemployment rate match the overall unemployment rate? Does your country have an exceptional growth rate that could sustain maximum employment despite those
715.
by gottorf 3y ago
> I am happy I live and work somewhere where we hold companies to a higher standard. I don't know where you live, but virtually every place I can think of with strong labor protection policies have them for the benefit of those with
716.
by gottorf 3y ago
In the eternal words of DevOps Borat: "To make error is human. To propagate error to all server in automatic way is devops."[0] Not everything in society has to be about maximum efficiency. Paper ballots aren't maximally effi
717.
by gottorf 3y ago
> But it is really just the consumer facing prices that go up. A lot of inflation is profit taking on the corporate side. The US CPI went up 21.9% over the past 5 years[0]. The PPI went up 27.3% over the same timeframe[1]. So it's u
718.
by gottorf 3y ago
> long-term discouraged workers, who were defined out of official existence in 1994 The labor force participation rate, defined as the percentage of people 16 years of age or older who are working or seeking work (minus "institution
719.
by gottorf 3y ago
> the government lies deliberately to keep inflation adjusted payments down "Hedonic quality adjustment" is the preferred term. ;-)
720.
by gottorf 3y ago
Seems self-evident to me that increasing the supply of dollars does not automatically increase the supply of goods and services that people actually consume.

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