gottorf

12 ms·

151.
by gottorf 1y ago
We disagree on the unspoken missions of those agencies, I guess. From what I've seen, the unspoken mission is actually providing sinecures for political allies. Or have you forgotten about a worldwide pandemic that happened just a few
152.
by gottorf 1y ago
Perhaps the American taxpayer could be incentivized to continue financially supporting the DR Congo in other ways? Maybe they could apply to become a protectorate or somesuch. You can't have your sovereign cake and eat it, too. In othe
153.
by gottorf 1y ago
Fairly accurate assumption to make in this case. Incentives around government spending are structured against close scrutiny of how much gets spent on what and why. Politicians love splashing their names on papers on how they got a bill pas
154.
by gottorf 1y ago
> got front run a few times by buyers purchasing with no inspection at or above asking Yeah, I observed this in the Boston area during the post-Covid easy money real estate rush.
155.
by gottorf 1y ago
> I think everyone has an interest in supporting their addiction to food and shelter. Maybe if one's income is so low that all they can afford is food and shelter. But this is a rich country, and even Mississippi is very rich by glo
156.
by gottorf 1y ago
I appreciate your viewpoint, though I disagree with some of it. I am not black, and I understand that this is a differentiating factor for some people. I personally know someone who has a troubled relationship with her family for, among oth
157.
by gottorf 1y ago
> “understanding” someone who doesn’t believe that people shouldn’t be treated equally and with respect because of the color of their skin, their sexuality, etc. Can you steelman the culturally conservative viewpoint? I find this to be a
158.
by gottorf 1y ago
> The south has always cared more about culture wars than their own self interest. Another way of saying that they[0] value preserving their culture more than economic or financial concerns, is it not? [0]: Insofar as any group of people
159.
by gottorf 1y ago
> they'll vote against their practical (economic) interests Not everyone's top policy priority is what will get them the most taxpayer dollars redistributed in their favor.
160.
by gottorf 1y ago
> get them to stop actively voting against their own interests Such a tired trope that I wish would stop. The whole point of a plural democracy is that people will have different interests, and there are few things that rub me the wrong
161.
by gottorf 1y ago
> And I didn't have to pay property taxes, insurance, real estate commissions, maintenance, repair vandalism, clean up after teen hookup parties, evict squatters, or any of my time. And of course, had you let it sit empty the whole
162.
by gottorf 1y ago
Economic inefficiency can feel really good. Personally experiencing tens of billions of dollars of capital investment designed for a capacity 50x as high, temporarily priced way below what it should be due to a market shock? Sign me up!
163.
by gottorf 1y ago
Quite right, I'm sure. But the part that I'm more interested about is why it feels like the floor got so much lower? I don't know that the average interaction in public (in any context, not just flying) is any or substantiall
164.
by gottorf 1y ago
As they say, "if you want to be a millionaire, start with a billion dollars and launch a new airline."
165.
by gottorf 1y ago
Not captured in numbers or the article, but I've noticed service becoming a lot poorer, though perhaps the downward trend has stopped for now. Between 2021-2024 or so, I encountered a lot of people working for airlines (gate agents, fl
166.
by gottorf 1y ago
Looks like it's stuck in the typical hell of environment impact reviews and local politicians seeing how many sinecures they can obtain through the project. I wish the project well and will follow up on it.
167.
by gottorf 1y ago
I'm a big proponent of LVT, and even bigger of gradually replacing most taxes with LVT, but the great thing about being a billionaire is you can just buy up a whole town and develop it as you see fit and not have to worry about specula
168.
by gottorf 1y ago
> of all the fudgeable numbers in economics, consumer inflation is the one they should try to be the most honest about. A lot of government liabilities are tied to CPI, so there's a strong incentive on the part of the government to
169.
by gottorf 1y ago
> In big city America, the problem isn't lack of jobs, it's that it is hard to find a job which pays enough for you to afford the limited housing stock. Maybe the more fundamental problem is that in big city America, it's
170.
by gottorf 1y ago
> Build a town, not a subdivision. I would really love to see a billionaire tackle this. There's loads of empty, or nearly empty, space in this country. Heck, take over a town if you really want! Sink a few million dollars into kick
171.
by gottorf 1y ago
> but “lighter” uses are always allowed in “heavier” zones. As far as I know, this is true of the American zoning system, as well.
172.
by gottorf 1y ago
Very closely tracks the money supply[0]. [0]: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M2SL
173.
by gottorf 1y ago
> I expect in the not to distant future, the only way someone will get to own a house is to inherent one. Only if the current insanity around zoning and regulation persists. In many real estate markets, it's literally illegal to inc
174.
by gottorf 1y ago
Put in other words, in any market, there are bids and there are offers. Prices don't move until one side gets in a rush. A seller's market (like in 2021) is one where buyers are in a rush and will lift the offer. A buyer's ma
175.
by gottorf 1y ago
Ant and Maven have existed for a long time, but for me they didn't prevent Java (and other JVM language) projects from suffering significant bitrot in the build process. For example, I worked on a project that just stopped being able t
176.
by gottorf 1y ago
> Amazon HQ2 is in Arlington It's in Arlington because... lobbying! Bezos wanted to absorb more defense spending in AWS and chose to be physically nearby to rub shoulders and get deals. > us-east-1 is in Northern VA. There's
177.
by gottorf 1y ago
Go is the only language where I've come back to a nontrivial source code after 10 years of letting it sit and have had zero problems building and running. That alone, for me, more than makes up for its idiosyncrasies.
178.
by gottorf 1y ago
> Fact is there are other "worthy" candidate cities to deploy NG to, to counter crime. DC is unique among those cities because it is federal territory where the federal government has exclusive jurisdiction, according to the co
179.
by gottorf 1y ago
How convenient of your political opponents to be so cartoonishly evil, so that only the most ignorant or craven could possibly support them! In reality, Trump gained in all minority populations between 2020 and 2024. He actually lost white
180.
by gottorf 1y ago
Believe it or not, there exist pretty good reasons why some people don't find the whole "convicted felon" thing to be very persuasive. But besides, do you dispute my overall characterization of the two parties? Insofar as maj

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