ucaetano

43 ms·

421.
by ucaetano 8y ago
And that's before you even get into the issue of defining the market (a necessary step for any analysis of monopoly power): what is social media?
422.
by ucaetano 8y ago
> pyramid schemes. What? Did Herbalife and Amway went out of business and nobody told me so I could celebrate?
423.
by ucaetano 8y ago
You didn't answer the parent's question: monopoly on what?
424.
by ucaetano 8y ago
> Facebook is at or near monopoly status Monopoly status for what? Ads? No. Online ads? No. Communication amongst friends? No. Reading news? No. They have a monopoly on what?
425.
by ucaetano 8y ago
The 55 cents a mile is for an "average" car, with "average" mileage driven an "average" number of miles per year. The problem is that cars don't depreciate just on mileage, but on age too. So dramatically
426.
by ucaetano 8y ago
> It's just protectionism of different sorts. Sure, but both being protectionism doesn't make them equal or even comparable. Placing a 5% fee on certain products and banning all imports are both protectionism, but are in no way
427.
by ucaetano 8y ago
404? Was it deleted?
428.
by ucaetano 8y ago
I don't oppose a production/consumption tax, it is necessary given the intricacies of the world, but we need to keep in mind that it is regressive, and will impact the poor more, when making decisions about taxation. But between V
429.
by ucaetano 8y ago
No worries, and no need to apologize, I don't take offense when people assume I don't know something (particularly economics and business topics on HN).
430.
by ucaetano 8y ago
Europeans have a more friendly relationship with taxes than Americans. But VAT, despite being regressive, is still required, as today we have very complex businesses and you want to prevent gaming, where corporations optimize for allocating
431.
by ucaetano 8y ago
Oh, I know, all the splitting up on price-elasticity of demand and so on. But the issue with sales taxes is that it is applied on the final sale, which generate distortions when the products are being imported, or have a long supply chain s
432.
by ucaetano 8y ago
The problem is that sales taxes are regressive, disproportionally impacting those for whom consumption is a large % of their total income. Particularly poor people. And sales taxes (vs. VAT) is a terrible idea overall, it is a tax on consum
433.
by ucaetano 8y ago
Sure it does, on the Black Sea.
434.
by ucaetano 8y ago
> would economic gains from high-speed rail between New York and DC accrue to a taxpayer in Kansas? Yes, because that economic gain would translate into more taxes, which would be applied across the rest of the country, funding, for exam
435.
by ucaetano 8y ago
Oh, sure, I'm very familiar with the problems. That's why it is depressing. And it isn't even a rational decision for those people, the economic gains would largely outweigh the costs, being a net-positive for the rest of the
436.
by ucaetano 8y ago
> the only part of the U.S. comparable to Germany (600 people per square mile) is the northeast megalopolis (900 people per square mile) Which has >50M people, 2/3 of the population of Germany. In that comparison, that region sho
437.
by ucaetano 8y ago
Wow, this is depressing. For comparison, here's Germany's: http://www.apps-bahn.de/bin/livemap/query-livemap.exe/dn?L=v... (might need to zoom in to see more trains)
438.
Alphabet jumps more than 4 percent after big earnings beat(cnbc.com)
9 points by ucaetano 8y ago|0 comments
439.
by ucaetano 8y ago
> What I'm arguing is that dismissing these philosophical problems as just nonesense rooted in the vagueness of language is missing the point. Oh, I agree, I don't think they are nonsense at all, and they do force us to think a
440.
by ucaetano 8y ago
If the city is dense enough, the supermarket will be less than a block or two away.
441.
by ucaetano 8y ago
> I think self driving cars have the potential to build on our car centric ecosystems. But the problem is that car-centric systems are not scalable and sustainable. Sure, self-driving cars would do well in the Bay Area, but they would on
442.
by ucaetano 8y ago
> These systems are forced to take a stance on the Ship of Theseus problem — they're tracking the identity of files/documents whose entire contents, name, and format may change over time. But that's my point: when you choo
443.
by ucaetano 8y ago
> By "object," I just mean "a thing in the world." We can talk in particulars: a candle, a ship, whatever. That is still a vague definition. Are you talking about the set of matter (atoms, etc.) in their certain relat
444.
by ucaetano 8y ago
> Which vague term? "the same", as in "is it the same ship?".
445.
by ucaetano 8y ago
For any X, the foundations of X come from Philosophy.
446.
by ucaetano 8y ago
This reminds me of someone who once told me that the vast majority of philosophical problems are self-inflicted and caused by the intentional use of vague and ambiguous definitions, and therefore could be solved trivially simply by agreeing
447.
by ucaetano 8y ago
> I can't wait for [cities] to be redesigned for self-driving cars Personally, I hope it never happens. The US is still suffering from when its cities were redesigned for cars, vs. public transit and pedestrians. Self-driving cars c
448.
by ucaetano 8y ago
> I do recognise your name from your repeated and tireless defences of Google and the morally bankrupt spyware/online ad business Ouch, ad hominem attacks? Come on, you can do better than this.
449.
by ucaetano 8y ago
That's not a business model for the company. But it is for the investors.
450.
by ucaetano 8y ago
It is free for consumers, not for organizations. Gmail for consumers doesn't have a business model by itself, but it fits into Google's larger business model.

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