peacetreefrog

13 ms·

91.
by peacetreefrog 8y ago
True, but apparently that value was less than the cost to provide it. Toys R Us is a pretty basic economic transaction. They sold toys, and the people buying them get the value. We're not dealing with public goods or externalities or
92.
by peacetreefrog 8y ago
So, you (and the author of this article) are complaining both about the people lending money losing out, and also complaining that Bain et al spent too much money paying the loans back?
93.
by peacetreefrog 8y ago
Who is going to read the book he recommends at the end -- 9 Minutes, 20 Seconds? A well-written in depth look at a 29 person plane crash and the people involved? Sounds terrifying.
94.
by peacetreefrog 9y ago
You could argue that viewing legislation like this as a sort of magic wand, "just pass a law that says nothing bad can happen to you if you don't check email outside of work and that'll fix everything" is even cuter, mor
95.
by peacetreefrog 9y ago
Government workers being excluded from this bill is classic. Reminds me of the unions in LA who pushing a $15 per hour minimum wage, then wanted to be exempt when it got passed. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016
96.
by peacetreefrog 9y ago
What do you mean the companies making the rules? Do you mean laws or rules like "you have to check your email after 5 pm"?
97.
by peacetreefrog 9y ago
Well, it is a model . I think it's helpful in seeing where people are coming from on different issues. And note, it's not like all three axis are "valid" or "right" or have equal weight for every given issue.
98.
by peacetreefrog 9y ago
Yes perhaps. I think the civilization vs barbarism axis is the one most most up in the air on this issue. Some conservatives might view the always plugged/everyone on their phone in culture as harmful and might be in favor of something
99.
by peacetreefrog 9y ago
This is a great issue to view through the lens of economist Arnold Kling's "3 axis model" (1) which says people tend to view issues through three separate lenses: oppressed vs oppressor (liberals), freedom vs coercion (libert
100.
by peacetreefrog 9y ago
Ok, what would you like to bet?
101.
by peacetreefrog 9y ago
Note, again, this was their response when this article was written in 2010. "...since leaving Harvard for Silicon Valley nearly six years ago" is referring to 2004. Just clarifying, because when I first read this I thought, &quot
102.
by peacetreefrog 9y ago
On the one hand, this is a very shitty thing to do. On the other, he was young and dumb and FB was very different than it is today. I suppose it could be red flag and indicate larger character flaws that have leaked into how FB operates now
103.
by peacetreefrog 9y ago
I think Stack Overflow is great and it's helped me a lot in the past, but I'm not sure how useful it'll be in the future. I've been learning Elm the past few weeks and have noticed a lack of good SO questions and answer
104.
by peacetreefrog 9y ago
I suppose and that makes sense, but that's more of a correlation/symptom of failure, whereas 1-3 seem more causal
105.
by peacetreefrog 9y ago
All of these seem reasonable, self-explanatory except (4), can you expand/expound on why not taking a salary seems harmful? Is it because then the owners tend to just dip into their cash on hand and aren't that disciplined?
106.
by peacetreefrog 9y ago
Yeah, this is not happening. I don't think a world conqueror + decree would do it, no one would do it and it'd just be the end of the world ruler. I suppose the mostly likely route might be a nuclear war or something. Chernobyl
107.
by peacetreefrog 9y ago
I know that itching feeling well, here's what's mostly worked for me: view your phone as tool with a limited set of functionality. For me, that functionality is: calls, texts, Google maps, Spotify, Audible, podcasts, and a camera
108.
by peacetreefrog 9y ago
I don't think this is true in a world where people can borrow money.
109.
by peacetreefrog 9y ago
The thing is, most humans are not doing those types of jobs for YEARS like robots. Humans can learn on the job and acquire skills and impress their boss and get raises and maybe become the boss and apply to other jobs or find something like
110.
by peacetreefrog 9y ago
Yeah, and part of the reason we have cheaper stuff is because of outsourcing/specialized firms like this. Take the hotel example, it's probably much more costly to hire (and interview and vet etc) all your own bartenders and clean
111.
by peacetreefrog 9y ago
Here's the takeaway: the frugals/similar bloggers are bad because they, "are telling an older generation of elite Americans — the very people whose policies and financial decisions kneecapped the economy — what they want to h
112.
by peacetreefrog 9y ago
Fair enough. Nothing personal against the people of the USPS. I do think those same "external forces we won't realistically be able to get rid that require the USPS to suck" would also make them suck at banking though.
113.
by peacetreefrog 9y ago
That's the point though. The USPS costs more then it takes in, by a lot. Yeah, it's due to regulators, but they're not going anywhere. That's exactly the argument against having USPS pick up additional responsibilitie
114.
by peacetreefrog 9y ago
But competition is a problem in healthcare too. Why do you think health care is so expensive? A big factor is no one has to pay for anything out of pocket, and no provider has any incentive to compete on price. In fact, no one knows what
115.
by peacetreefrog 9y ago
It's an interesting question. Obviously the money has to come from somewhere. Mail trucks cost money, and no one is going to go out and deliver letters for free. It's easy to say we should just make up the difference with tax r
116.
by peacetreefrog 9y ago
Congress isn't going anywhere though, why would their impact on the ability of the USPS's money to make money banking be any different from mail?
117.
by peacetreefrog 9y ago
So the postal service loses money because it's mandated by law that it has to serve the entire country. But mandating that it has to provide banking services for the entire country is going to save money? Ok.
118.
by peacetreefrog 9y ago
The USPS lost $2.7B last year, even though it has a monopoly on mail. Why anyone would want to give it more responsibility is beyond me.
119.
by peacetreefrog 9y ago
Producer surplus by definition is benefit to the drivers. It's the amount actually make minus the minimum amount they'd be willing to take. This paper purports to show how the minimum drivers are willing to accept (their reserva
120.
by peacetreefrog 9y ago
This paper: http://www.nber.org/papers/w23296 Talks about how much of the value to Uber drivers is in that the work is flexible and can be done on their own schedule. More than 2x the producer surplus vs less flexible

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