synetic

8 ms·

31.
by synetic 3y ago
Yes it was irrational of Americans to fear government run ambulance services and whatnot. All governments are capable of doing bad things. The reaction to this fact ought not be the dismantling of those government services that worked and
32.
by synetic 3y ago
Desegregation occurring when the push to dismantle government run services was gaining traction caused the loss of public pools. Americans acquired an irrational fear of government in the 70s and 80s. We lost public pools, publicly run amb
33.
by synetic 3y ago
It was a joke (most likely) in the part of the economist. Self deprecation.
34.
by synetic 3y ago
Is there a circumstance in which an invasion of a country on the periphery of NATO is worthwhile for the U.S. to get involved with in your mind? If so what would such a circumstance look at? From my perspective we have seen Russia involved
35.
by synetic 3y ago
Isn’t this sort of obvious? People worldwide pay a lot for cable television with ads. Is it hard to imagine people paying for television without ads?
36.
by synetic 3y ago
It’s bad because government is much more efficient at this using taxation than relying on the benevolence of rich people. Harvard educated far fewer students than U.C. Berkeley and Berkeley has 1/5 the endowment. The budgets are prob
37.
by synetic 3y ago
I’ve mentioned some of the bad effects vouchers would have. That would be a supporting argument in my mind. The bad consequences are easy enough to deduce though so that should not be necessary. This is not an academic forum. This is a pl
38.
by synetic 3y ago
I don’t think the issue is spending. My main point is that school vouchers are bad. I did say that the method of school funding is idiotic. Smart kids dropped into a war zone may or may not do well. They might die for one thing. They mi
39.
by synetic 3y ago
If you read the paper cited by the person I responded to above you’ll see merely comparing dollars spent is not an adequate analysis. Poorer districts have to spend more on ancillary costs - school lunches, mental health resources, social
40.
by synetic 3y ago
From the paper you cited: While total per pupil expenditures may be greater for the typical Black or Latinx students’ districts, there is variation in how these dollars are spent. On average, both Black and Latinx per pupil expenditures ex
41.
by synetic 3y ago
People who have a higher propensity to live in a district with shittier schools overwhelmingly support an alternative. This isn’t shocking. What most people, including it seems you, haven’t thought about are the long term consequences to
42.
by synetic 3y ago
It’s not working well if they already have lost half their daily users. Did you read the article? The standard play for new entrants is to make a great experience and then slowly make it suck more by injecting intrusive ads into the experi
43.
by synetic 3y ago
I just checked it out. I’m on the iPad. I clicked on the icon for my profile. It shows a grayed out text that says “0 followers”. There is no link for a list of people I’m following and there is no display of who I’m following. After a
44.
by synetic 3y ago
I’m not counting it out. Lots of people want an alternative to Twitter since Musk has alienated a significant percentage of users. The Threads app though sucks really bad. It is a very bad implementation and it’s embarrassing that Facebo
45.
by synetic 3y ago
It’s an unusable app. I’ve followed about 5 people. On the app there is no way for me to see a list of the people I’ve followed. There’s no way to get a list that contains only the threads started by people I follow. Threads is a terrib
46.
by synetic 3y ago
Clearly not a lot. It took the comment as a means of letting others know that American style asphalt parking jungles is not the only option. That there are healthier, more aesthetically pleasing, and more environmentally friendly alternat
47.
by synetic 3y ago
Are we in agreement then that it’s best for PE not to be able to buy hospitals? Do we agree that nonprofit (as that term is applied colloquially) entities should run healthcare? I hope we are in agreement on this. If not then I hope your
48.
by synetic 3y ago
The CEO of United Healthcare makes around $50 million a year. The Medicare administrator makes around $400,000 a year. Administrative costs for Medicare are around 10%. Healthcare companies balked at being held to the same standard. Heal
49.
by synetic 3y ago
This is a nonsensical response. You know what is meant by “profit” in the context of this discussion. You argue in bad faith particularly since you deliberately left off the motive part of my statement. Obviously what is being discussed i
50.
by synetic 3y ago
You are now engaging in sophistry. Doctors in England can be paid more in their system than they make now without putting in profit motives. In a publicly funded system one can pay lots of money to workers without profit in the system. It
51.
by synetic 3y ago
We live in an imperfect information world. We do studies and try our best to determine cause/effect. Rarely can such a study be a proof. This is where common sense comes in. Sometimes it is wrong too.
52.
by synetic 3y ago
The following is sarcasm. If only one could think of a mechanism by which an entity controlled by people elected by the voting public could fund such things.
53.
by synetic 3y ago
You read into what I wrote what isn’t there. I just pointed out, in my original comment, that the person who wrote the article may not be a qualified source of information. Everyone should be curious and also be discerning on who it is th
54.
by synetic 3y ago
I didn’t make claims about how PE hospitals make a profit. I just said that no one should profit from denying care. I can think of a situation in which a hospital’s owners want to make sure their return on their investment exceeds x% per
55.
by synetic 3y ago
A large majority of people going into scientific research do so for a love of the subject and not to become rich. They just want to make enough money to live a decent life and pursue knowledge.
56.
by synetic 3y ago
The lasik surgeon in your example isn’t profiting by denying care. Their profit does not increase by declining service.
57.
by synetic 3y ago
Is this a serious question? You can’t think of a scenario in which a company in America profits from denying care? You should research insurance companies and understand how it is they make a profit.
58.
by synetic 3y ago
But it is not difficult to isolate from common sense. No one should profit from denying someone healthcare. All systems have ration care but it is immoral for someone to profit by denying care. Profit motive does not make for a good healt
59.
by synetic 3y ago
I’ve taught mathematics at the college level for over 20 years. The vast majority of the people can not draw proper conclusions from the charts without some coursework. Most people, including myself, don’t know enough statistics to know w
60.
by synetic 3y ago
The father is a meteorologist and has studied climate science. The son, jr., is a political scientist. I don’t know if he, the son, is really qualified to understand the science.

More ›