pmwhite

10 ms·

1.
by pmwhite 8y ago
An important example would be a family with children where both parents could work but do not have to. From the GDP POV, it is a huge boost to have a second parent earning an income, even if most of the additional monies end up dedicated t
2.
by pmwhite 8y ago
The small responsive unit of Delaware has an outsized effect on how corporations are run in all 50 states, and it cuts out the legislature of my state on certain aspects that were traditionally reserved to the states. The framers never imag
3.
by pmwhite 8y ago
I could be wrong, but I would have guessed we were onto the next phase by now, that could be labelled: "Brilli-ant rhymes with grant" That tenure would come from earning grants. Now keeping the grant gravy-train running smoothly
4.
by pmwhite 8y ago
That was my conclusion, too. The personal economics and the carbon footprint correlate surprisingly strongly. The CO2 costs of hybrids look attractive on a 5-6 year timescale, but it gets bad when the environmental costs of a new set of b
5.
by pmwhite 8y ago
Sure. Self-taught systems put a lot on responsibility on the student. Apprenticeship systems are very mentor-time-expensive and/or put responsibility on the student. If the students were already so great at this, they could make do w
6.
by pmwhite 8y ago
I wonder if hydrogen is practical to transport in large quantities. My guess is no. Your idea of methane, if it could be done efficiently, seems more likely.
7.
by pmwhite 8y ago
Plate tectonics is a candidate to go on that list, and it was controversial until good undersea maps were available circa 1970. That is 50 years ago, not 30.
8.
by pmwhite 8y ago
True. But I presume that Asimov is answering the letter using the language of the same. Translating "wrong" to "incorrect" does not add anything, better to take the issue head on using the same language. Better still w
9.
by pmwhite 8y ago
To oversimplify the issue a bit, it boils down to which you believe is more auspicious for both the planet and humankind: (1) a mix of housing with more dense housing, or (2) a mix of housing with more suburban single family dwellings. Whil
10.
by pmwhite 8y ago
That only makes sense for absurdly aggressive speculators or people with the political connections to borrow money for 1% or less. I have a fixed 15 year loan at 2.75%, which seems like a pretty good deal to me. Know where I can borrow a f
11.
by pmwhite 8y ago
Perhaps I am misunderstanding your point, but that still sounds like a fundamental problem with the originator. If you are lending money with the unspoken understanding that the note is likely doomed to be a loss unless the real estate mark
12.
by pmwhite 8y ago
In the SF Bay Area, the East Bay may relieve growth pressure to some degree. But fundamentally that can only go so far. If we cannot figure out how to develop wisely along the transportation spine of 101/Caltrain/ElCam, then we
13.
by pmwhite 8y ago
That is the fear, yes, but housing prices do not jump so quickly. They really are not likely to drop, as, perhaps, climb much more slowly. It seems we have achieved a self-reinforcing civic virtue "anti-pattern", where middle cla
14.
by pmwhite 8y ago
China was nearly crushed by the Mongols but absorbed the invaders into their society and rose again to great heights. The Roman Empire cracked under the pressure of mass migrations of well-armed peoples forced to move West by climatic shift
15.
by pmwhite 8y ago
That is not so clear. The Bitcoin network can easily be devoured by another cryptocurrency, if that other currency provides greater returns for a unit of work. The larger network within the crypto ecosystem may well have value, while affo
16.
by pmwhite 8y ago
"California, an extremely liberal state, voted in a 72% majority referendum for the three strikes policy." Incorrect. In 1994, when the three strikes legislation passed, CA was a purple state with a moderate Republican governor.
17.
by pmwhite 8y ago
But it is not even "a lot". $5000 can be acquired by scrapping together $500 from family/friends and giving that to a bail bond company. Not all poor people can accomplish that, but many can. If $5000 is a better bail for t
18.
by pmwhite 8y ago
The second. In the given example, if skilled programmers cannot find the bug in a couple dozen lines of code within an hour, it is not an Agile vs Better Agile vs non-Agile question. It is a question of whether there is a member on your t
19.
by pmwhite 8y ago
Preferring a promise of $50 later depends on trust. Economists are much too emotional to understand that kind of thing.
20.
by pmwhite 8y ago
"And if they were a "hero" and increased taxes to try and tackle it, they'd only get voted out next election, so someone else can come in, undo it, then spend all the savings." George H. Bush is one of the few impor
21.
by pmwhite 8y ago
In the traditional one room school house, once the student was beyond the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic, teachers did very little teaching as we know it. If you think about it, that is completely obvious. How could one person
22.
by pmwhite 8y ago
The missing ingredient from your description is: freedom. It is not degrading for a parent to choose to prioritize family matters over income. It is degrading for society to tell a person what their personal priorities will be based on a ch
23.
by pmwhite 8y ago
Yes, definitely true. If (1) everyone is highly effective in getting tasks done, and (2) working on tasks that are reasonably well prioritized by both technical risks and business value, why exactly do you need to know more? There are legit
24.
by pmwhite 8y ago
The US failed to achieve a South Vietnamese gov't that had reasonable support from the general populace, which was nominally on the list of US policy goals since the beginning, but was gamed at every step of the way. Until such was ach
25.
by pmwhite 8y ago
It is a little handwavy, but perhaps the BG worked for generations to achieve key areas of hybrid superiority by honing pure breeding lines in these two families? Does not seem to be what the BG are doing, though. Furthermore, one can now