lurk2

38 ms·

811.
by lurk2 2y ago
Those weren’t the claims the grandparent made. Europeans do work less and vacation more often, but even when you account for this, they still earn less per hour worked. Vacation time itself might be a good metric for quality of life (which
812.
by lurk2 2y ago
Yes, they are. The largest of those three figures involves the purchase of a hard asset that provides utility to the purchaser over time. If you buy a $30,000 van, you’re not out $30,000, because you’ve received the van in exchange. I note
813.
by lurk2 2y ago
Rent free.
814.
by lurk2 2y ago
Those were not the claims being made. The claim was that: > Most Americans cannot: Never take on medical debt, travel more than a month out of the year, have a couple kids and educate them in good schools, and retire. Most Americans do t
815.
by lurk2 2y ago
> It's like saying that Europeans are wealthier because they are more likely to have a passport. It’s not like that as we were discussing tangible measures of wealth. Can you provide any evidence that Europeans are materially wealth
816.
by lurk2 2y ago
You don’t need to ask rhetorical questions if you want to make a statement; it’s incredibly obnoxious and not in the spirit of the forum.
817.
by lurk2 2y ago
> Most Americans cannot. You have no idea what you’re talking about and there is no statistical basis to the claims you are making. The only two metrics Europeans win out on is life expectancy (by around 4 years) and (narrowly) on home o
818.
by lurk2 2y ago
> We're really not. Just the health care issues, which can be directly seen in the life expectancy figures, make us materially richer, never mind anything else. They don’t. Americans earn something like 1/3rd more than the aver
819.
by lurk2 2y ago
My point here was not to idealize America but to criticize the idealization of Europe.
820.
by lurk2 2y ago
In a lot of states, inmates are required to reimburse the state for some portion of the cost of their incarceration. Oddly, the commissary issue strikes me as perverse, but the requirement to cover incarceration costs didn’t, at least once
821.
by lurk2 2y ago
> slaves can't buy goods This is true of some forms of chattel slavery, but not of slavery in general. Most forms of slavery throughout history allow slaves some degree of personal property. This was often legally considered to be t
822.
by lurk2 2y ago
> So we should be very careful not to equate that particular kind of "natural" with other concepts like "unavoidable" or "acceptable". Natural and unavoidable mean the same thing in the context the GP used t
823.
by lurk2 2y ago
If you consider these imperial powers to be ultimately responsible for the mode of production in the countries that they trade with, does it not stand to reason that they have some obligation to assume responsibility for the governance, pol
824.
by lurk2 2y ago
> Slavery in developing nations is usually managed by an imperial colonizer. Such as?
825.
by lurk2 2y ago
Which regulations do you believe are contributing to the system being broken?
826.
by lurk2 2y ago
> Puerto Rico has a life expectancy of over 82 years Where are you getting that figure from? I’m seeing 79 years, which is still higher than I would have guessed, but not higher than Portugal at 81.
827.
by lurk2 2y ago
> European society proves that Americans could have true freedom and quality of life if it weren't for corporations and oligarchs effectively owning our government. Europeans have far more restrictions on their rights of speech, sel
828.
by lurk2 2y ago
> Two years on, and we were just at the beginning of "discovery" -- an amazingly invasive process that appears to be unique to the US legal system. It’s a part of most common law legal systems.
829.
by lurk2 2y ago
> I am explaining these things for your benefit, not mine. You haven’t explained anything. Get over yourself.
830.
by lurk2 2y ago
> Anyone professing to be a Christian should be in favor of those with plenty providing for those in need. That isn't what you originally claimed and is not what I'm taking issue with. What you said was: "Anyone who takes
831.
by lurk2 2y ago
> but our govt should reflect the generosity of spirit we are called to manifest. The whole notion of state welfare necessarily involves the forcible expropriation of property, resistance to which is punishable by death. If I took $20 ou
832.
by lurk2 2y ago
> The Old Testament is where fake Christians always go to pick and choose. If you’re denying both the historicity and allegory of the Book of Job the whole religion begins to fall apart. If the Book is of allegorical value, why would Job
833.
by lurk2 2y ago
> Other humans are not "dogs" or "pigs". So why is the verse there? > Jesus is explicitly advocating welfare - providing food, drink, clothes, healthcare, and more to anyone in need. There is nothing in this verse
834.
by lurk2 2y ago
While I don’t want to look like I’m going to bat for the Hobby Lobby people, this seems like a very convenient way for you to argue that everyone ought to agree with your policy positions, even when those policy positions are not explicitly
835.
by lurk2 2y ago
> I.e. wealthy people who don’t give it all away will go to hell. Did Job go to hell? > And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends; and the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before. > [11] The
836.
by lurk2 2y ago
There have been changes in recent years that complicate this model because you are now required to register the beneficial (meaning the de facto, not de jure) owner of real property in BC. There was also an investigation into the casinos wh
837.
by lurk2 2y ago
I might have explained that poorly. What I’m talking about is not so much demonstrating applications by including practical problems in the problem sets (show, don’t tell), but instead opening every chapter with a paragraph or two about t
838.
by lurk2 2y ago
I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir here, but the data belonging to a faceless corporation (or even a government agency) can be dangerous even if the corporation does not have any nefarious intentions; this is because both the data and the
839.
by lurk2 2y ago
> The white hats will then steal back any stolen funds, and go before a prize court that will determine if their actions were legal, if the target was valid, and how prizes should be distributed between victims and the privateers. So the
840.
by lurk2 2y ago
There are many instances of people being questioned, harassed, and even framed based on circumstantial evidence. Western judicial systems are specifically engineered to address these problems via the process of discovery and adversarial arg

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