gottorf

7 ms·

61.
by gottorf 5mo ago
It's more that poor people have worse impulse control and higher time preference[0], which contribute to the behavioral outcome of spending money on lottery tickets despite the EV being negative. [0]: If we're splitting hairs, we
62.
by gottorf 5mo ago
Funny, someone cheated a temperature-related bet a few weeks ago: https://www.npr.org/2026/04/23/nx-s1-5797876/polymarket-pari...
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by gottorf 5mo ago
> Gambling is considered bad, and banned in many states, but many of those states run a lottery. This is just a straight up theft from the poor who are least well equipped to understand they are playing a rigged game, and not rigged in t
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by gottorf 5mo ago
> I'm still not sure if banning this activity counts as freedom. I believe that grown consenting adults do have a free will and should have the ability to destroy their lives if they so choose America is the land of the free, but I
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by gottorf 6mo ago
> Costco is for bulk staples and commodities for me > Milk, eggs, flour, flowers, microfiber towels, batteries, salt and pepper If you can walk out of Costco month after month with just those essentials, and never pick up any of the n
66.
by gottorf 6mo ago
No, you are not out of touch. Functionally everyone can afford a Costco membership and buy staples in bulk at a higher upfront but lower unit costs. The GP's comment about a family of four walking miles to a Little League game because
67.
by gottorf 6mo ago
Applying physical force to counter in the moment someone that tries to rob you is not vigilante justice. That would be more like if you had your phone robbed, and a few days later you went with your buddies to beat him up and get your phone
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by gottorf 6mo ago
Putting your different points together: > piles of research showing that severity of punishment is not an effective deterrent > not think of consequences > Deterrence means a lot less when you don't have to worry about recidiv
69.
by gottorf 6mo ago
> Every advanced economy in the world except for the United States has a well developed social safety net The United States has a very well-developed social safety net, despite what Reddit likes to claim. It spends a ton of money making
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by gottorf 6mo ago
> arresting people for the crime of not having money Such people are not arrested for not having money, but instead for being a pox upon the public by virtue of their behavior.
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by gottorf 6mo ago
https://www.handwrytten.com/ I guess it depends on your definition of "handwritten"; they're actually robotically written, so no actual human hands are involved.
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by gottorf 6mo ago
I'm aware of at least one business that does this already.
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by gottorf 6mo ago
It's a fun quote. On the other hand, while no one should accuse Rand of being a good writer of fiction, I don't find what's depicted in Atlas Shrugged all that fantastical.
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by gottorf 6mo ago
> the expectations of employers of having a college degree for even basic stuff This is mostly an unintentional side-effect of civil rights law, stemming from Griggs v. Duke Power Co.
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by gottorf 6mo ago
> as non-profits, the revenues and expenditures of higher ed have to balance; they can't take out surplus revenue as profit. Just pointing out that nonprofits do not have to balance revenues and expenditures at all. This is not a me
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by gottorf 6mo ago
> Under simplifying assumptions, including competitive labor markets, no direct schooling costs, and constant proportional returns, this specification yields an interpretable estimate of the average percentage increase in earnings associ
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by gottorf 6mo ago
My comment was on the price of higher ed, not its cost, which is what your ed.gov source shows. CPI component calculations done by the BLS shows "College tuition and fees", including adjustments for scholarships and grants, had a
78.
by gottorf 6mo ago
We must be talking at odds here. I'm neither claiming that being ethical is a sufficient condition to getting rich, nor that the ethics of the poor people described in the article played a significant part in their being and remaining
79.
by gottorf 6mo ago
> I don't think linking to a conservative think tank a particularly compelling counterargument Do you only ingest ideas from places that you're already inclined to believe? How do you get challenges to your beliefs? > is ine
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by gottorf 6mo ago
Have you observed a lot of critical thinking and good communication from recent college grads?
81.
by gottorf 6mo ago
> Europe is evidently constitutionally incapable of taking advantage of what is a genuinely one-in-an-imperial-lifetime chance to drain intellectual capital from the United States Perhaps you're already implying this, but for Europe
82.
by gottorf 6mo ago
I don't know if "regulation" is the right word. In the end, what happened was that the foremost power in the world, the US federal government, having observed that college grads earn more than non-college grads, flipped cause
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by gottorf 6mo ago
> which would you choose? The ones you're more-inclined to choose are the better ones Funny how despite all that, more people choose to come to the US from those "mature" societies than the other way around.
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by gottorf 6mo ago
> The primary goal for attending college, as stated by both students and parents, is for preparation for entrance into the workforce and adult life. Let's observe revealed preferences, not stated ones. > One can go to the enginee
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by gottorf 6mo ago
I think the notion that's being challenged is that a college degree is an automatic way out of "dad who’s out the door at 5am and home at 7pm", no matter what the degree is for and who is getting the degree; or that being cre
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by gottorf 6mo ago
"Everyone" is hyperbole, of course. But it's already too high a number.
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by gottorf 6mo ago
> Higher education improves society as a whole. It should be paid for from general taxation, and available to all > A couple of generations ago these were uncontroversial statements I don't believe those strong assertions you&#x2
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by gottorf 6mo ago
> Strange how I never see this line deployed against the mortgage interest deduction or health care for wealthy retirees For what it's worth, I see arguments like this all the time. Might just be the corner of the information ecosys
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by gottorf 6mo ago
> Maybe college never should have been for everyone? That was the norm for the vast majority of the existence of higher education. This is the only real answer.
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by gottorf 6mo ago
When any kind of trading "works", meaning it generates alpha above and beyond the market, you won't hear about it. Why would anybody give away their secret sauce?

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