hx87

53 ms·

721.
by hx87 10y ago
> But then the cynic says that government pay grades may not be up to snuff. If they really wanted to, they could sidestep the pay issue as every other government agency does, by hiring contractors.
722.
by hx87 10y ago
If I make a lock for myself, then it makes sense to keep it hidden. If I'm buying a lock from someone else, I'd like to know where it is, so it makes less sense to keep it hidden, at least from me and my agents.
723.
by hx87 10y ago
> I would damn-sure prefer the apparent "lock" to be hidden rather than in plain sight I would prefer the lock be visible to me over either situation. Otherwise, how would I know how easy is it to bypass?
724.
by hx87 10y ago
Tens of thousands sounds about right for running new wires to an undeveloped rural location, but if power & phones are already up, it's ridiculous.
725.
by hx87 10y ago
The irony is that people look only at the first inequality and think that Keynes advocates for make-work, whereas if one looks at the implicit inequality, Keynes is actually advocating for productive stimulus, or failing that, handing out m
726.
by hx87 10y ago
I don't think people here (or anywhere) dispute that here is a hard upper limit on the maximum population the Earth can support at any given time. The dispute is in the proposition that population is fated (or probabilistically likely)
727.
by hx87 10y ago
> if we go down this path they'll simply slaughter us Not before they "slaughter" themselves with pollution.
728.
by hx87 10y ago
Even if every Tesla was 100% powered by coal power plants, it would still be an improvement since it's much easier to control efficiency and emissions at a single 4GW plant than in a fleet of 40000 100kW cars.
729.
by hx87 10y ago
The Economist is classically liberal, not neoliberal--they're too hostile to monopolies, oligopolies and rent-seeking to be the latter.
730.
by hx87 10y ago
> This means that we'd have to stop free trade entirely (catastrophic for developing countries) or implement UBI across all countries at the same time (definitely impossible in the near future). That's a valid and important con
731.
by hx87 10y ago
> rigorous schooling and sacrifice of youth required to become a physician Which wouldn't be such a barrier to entry if medicine were an undergraduate degree (i.e. an MBBS) as in the rest of the world, instead of a graduate one, and
732.
by hx87 10y ago
Buying licenses and having 4GB of memory (and being disappointed about it) implies a desktop PC, and even a $80 refurb on eBay has at least an 80 GB hard drive.
733.
by hx87 10y ago
What Keynes is saying is that during economic contractions, Make-work > nothing Which is a sentiment he does hold, but it misses his real, implicit message, which is Productive government stimulus > handing out money > make-work &g
734.
by hx87 10y ago
You're right. What H1-Bs do though is allow companies to replace a worker with full mobility and bargaining power (a US citizen) with one who has limited mobility and bargaining power, which drives down industry wages. Now, if the visa
735.
by hx87 10y ago
> If the idea behind UBI is that people don't need to go work, and won't go buy McDonalds anymore, then tax income is going to plummet. The idea is that people don't need to go work, because robots do all the work, and thu
736.
by hx87 10y ago
Isn't the point of UBI to get everyone access to the capital share of GDP?
737.
by hx87 10y ago
Unprocessed corn isn't exactly bad for you--yes, it is a cereal and thus has large quantities of carbohydrates, but it has plenty of fat, proteins and fiber as well. It's when the corn gets processed, and the fat, proteins, and fi
738.
by hx87 10y ago
> Funny that we're always hearing about how difficult it is for tech companies to find software engineers. As we hear so often here at HN, the hiring process in the tech industry is beyond screwed up.
739.
by hx87 10y ago
That would be a subset of Explanation 3.
740.
by hx87 10y ago
It doesn't, but at least in the US it might seem so because society makes it as hard as possible to get hooked on heroin and tobacco (prohibition, restriction & taxes) and easy as possible to get off of it (rehabilitation programs)
741.
by hx87 10y ago
Maybe there should be a feature to auto-unfriend someone if I thumbs down their posts a certain number & proportion of times?
742.
by hx87 10y ago
Men have become more socioeconomically selective, at least to a greater extent than women have become less selective. I think you and I are in agreement there.
743.
by hx87 10y ago
> I just argued that this only exists on a philosophical level That definition of altruism doesn't even work on a philosophical level, since one can always level an unfalsifiable charge that /some/ part of the brain is per
744.
by hx87 10y ago
If I fall on a grenade, I'm not doing it for my country or some idea of "patriotism". I'm doing it to save my friends.
745.
by hx87 10y ago
You seem to be constructing a definition of altruism that isn't just practically impossible, but /theoretically/ impossible for anyone to meet, since you can always say "Oh, but they're /actually/ doing it
746.
by hx87 10y ago
> Males generally have far lower social value than females Probably because men are more willing to marry down socioeconomically, although this is changing and may move further in the direction of equality in the future.
747.
by hx87 10y ago
As long as you don't do silly things like use low sloped roof without membrane roofing or stucco without an air gap (or really, any modern building without an air gap), wood frame buildings perform beautifully in rainy climates.
748.
by hx87 10y ago
Leaks are fine--they happen to all buildings sooner or later. The key is to let the leaked water out of the building, which synthetic stucco of the late 1990s was terrible at. Today, if you want stucco in a wood framed building in BC you ha
749.
by hx87 10y ago
Even if a tax break is simply lowering a marginal rate (which it rarely is), it's not like enforcing a 36% tax is less costly than enforcing a 40% one.
750.
by hx87 10y ago
What about implementing an equivalent deduction for renters? I know renters theoretically benefit from their landlord's deduction, but that only applies if the landlord is carrying a mortgage, and tax benefits for landlords have a dubi

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