prottog

58 ms·

661.
by prottog 4y ago
The government is sandbagging CPI figures in order to lower its obligations that are tied to the official inflation rate, like Social Security payments. This isn't some underworld conspiracy theory; look at some of the academic discuss
662.
by prottog 4y ago
The price of anything that can be converted to a monthly payment, which is most things in this highly financialized economy, inflates when the interest rate is artificially suppressed. The CPI understates that kind of inflation because it l
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by prottog 4y ago
> to do price control, but that won't fly in capitalism Price control doesn't fly in any economic system. Putting a legal floor or ceiling on the price anything doesn't affect what it actually costs to produce it.
664.
by prottog 4y ago
I'm in favor of a system of free(ish) markets operating well, with big fortunes made from value creation and not rent-seeking behavior. If that results in wealth inequality, so be it; the old idea that a rising tide lifts all boats has
665.
by prottog 4y ago
I'm not advocating that millions of people die in a vacuum, but millions of people risking death so that the other billion people in China could live a normal life is at least worth considering the trade-off. The median age of a Covid
666.
by prottog 4y ago
No doubt that's what will happen, although it's clear to me that less centralization, not more, would be better for countering this sort of stuff.
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by prottog 4y ago
In the end, the "step" (as a metaphor for production) comes from those who produce more to those who produce less, whether due to differences in ability, desire, or circumstance. It's redistribution. And it's entirely fa
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by prottog 4y ago
A lot of the modern American progressive argument presupposes the validity of its own assumptions. It's entirely circular logic. > oppose a policy which intends to decrease [inequality] Of course, there is very little discussion on
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by prottog 4y ago
In reality, the step has to come from somewhere.
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by prottog 4y ago
> wanting equality It's equality of outcome writ large, not equality of opportunity. I see it as a nonsensical extension of the classical liberal idea that everyone is born equal, which to me means that everyone is treated equally u
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by prottog 4y ago
Beyond saying that growth for the sake of growth is bad, you're saying that having nice things is actually bad. Same-day or two-day shipping is nice. Automobiles are nice. Not having those things is already a rapid decline in quality o
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by prottog 4y ago
If that was true, we'd still be riding around horse buggies, instead of the imperfect-but-better cars. Because we live in an imperfect world populated by imperfect human beings, every solution is a half-baked solution, and misery will
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by prottog 4y ago
Yes, it's a damn shame that the so-called innovators in SV didn't tackle actual problems the solutions to which would materially improve human existence. Imagine if those billions went to companies like TerraPower or NuScale inste
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by prottog 4y ago
A lot of human drivers indeed are awful, but at least you can put a name and a face to them and punish them if they hurt you out of negligence, and maybe that makes people feel better about them than driverless cars owned by faceless corpor
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by prottog 4y ago
Where is "here"? Metropolitan France?
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by prottog 4y ago
> If all Google employees quit on the same day, and refuse to return without getting a seat in the board You're expecting way too much. I know plenty of people who work at Facebook all the while claiming that "they know it&#x27
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by prottog 4y ago
To be fair, there are a lot of inflated egos among the rank and file of FAANG laborers.
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by prottog 4y ago
I know Google employees who pretty much took arbitrary time off during Covid. There was seemingly no accountability as the cash cow kept on producing and stock prices kept on going up. Google employees who feel hurt by these actions can fee
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by prottog 4y ago
> The west is captured by Malthusian thinking It's been almost 200 years since Malthus's passing and the human population has octupled since then, so you'd think that most people would give him less credence, but you'
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by prottog 4y ago
Besides calling me stupid and gullible, do you have an answer for my original point, which is that the Covid vaccines behave so differently than other vaccines, and that there may be a public health benefit in acknowledging that? I get vacc
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by prottog 4y ago
> We can choose to upzone You'll hear no arguments from me. Even the biggest cities in this country are laughably low density. > convert some roads to bus rapid transit and some to bikes I don't know, I used to live in one o
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by prottog 4y ago
> Humane cities are a matter of choice The choice to have founded your city a thousand years before the invention of the automobile, maybe. Many European cities that were rebuilt after destruction during WW2 were built in a more automobi
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by prottog 4y ago
Precisely. "It's the economy, stupid". Among the employed and single in Silicon Valley, estimates are that there are three men for every two. It's an awful place to date, even beside the fact that nobody moves anywhere f
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by prottog 4y ago
I'm repeating an idea I read somewhere else, but we should just stop calling it the "Covid vaccine", since it doesn't seem to make you any less likely to catch the disease or spread it once you have it. The word "va
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by prottog 4y ago
It's hard to look at typical Silicon Valley workplace or the broader society around it and say that there is diversity of culture, political viewpoints, and philosophy.
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by prottog 4y ago
Boston is an archetype of the "coastal liberal elite" city in the line of NYC or SF, so clearly it gets respect. ;-) > people who put tribe and faith ahead of logic and reason For many things, one man's logic and reason is
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by prottog 4y ago
Strict non-competes being allowed is probably the only factor that really matters there. Jurisdictions that favor renters almost universally have higher rents and a poorer experience for normal renters who don't cause damage and pay re
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by prottog 4y ago
If we define the Midwest as the plains between the Appalachians and the Rockies, Pittsburgh is clearly closer to the Midwest than the East Coast.
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by prottog 4y ago
For the purposes of having the next Silicon Valley, I'd wager the salient factor is pro-competition laws (such as California's ban on noncompetes), not pro-employee laws. It's virtually guaranteed that if California adopted F
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by prottog 4y ago
As an immigrant who has been all around this country, I don't think it's the lack of hospitality to immigrants that keeps them away from places like Ohio. Immigrants don't go there for the same reason native-born Americans ar

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