Hacker News Reader

Comment by geggam | Hacker News Reader

Once you go full cynic you start thinking govts are created to protect the wealthy and wars are instigated to generate more wealth.

Then they call you a conspiracy nut so society ostracizes you and ignores your observations

View on HN

"In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people, the property of landed proprietors would be insecure. An agrarian law would soon take place. If these observations be just, our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation. Landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests, and to balance and check the other. They ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority." -- James Madison

> Once you go full cynic

I am not this - I am very optimistic about the human condition. However...

> govts are created to protect the wealthy and wars are instigated to generate more wealth

I think this is obvious at this point.

And I also think that our species is entering an age in which we'll be able to do without these lifeboats.

Airlines are accountable to the market. Cops are accountable to their ego.

Soon as you figure out someone's motivation their actions become obvious.

Edit: if precincts got paid based on customer satisfaction we'd see an overnight change making the police force unrecognizable. Crazy how money do that.

Regarding the money aspect: for someone living in western Europe, the police budget and income system in the USA seems crazy. How could they possibly do that they are supposed to do (uphold the law) with a system that forces them to select their actions based on the money it will generate for them.

What do you mean here? Fines?

Asset forfeiture is arguably more pernicious than fines.

Oh heck yeah - it just wasn't clear to me if that's what oneplane was talking about.

"Upholding the law" is such a subjective idea. An officer can uphold the law by running a speed traps and earning the department more money. They could alternatively do difficult investigatory work looking into violent crimes that would deliver more value to the community. If a community is the employer of officers it seems strange that officers would be held accountable to anything besides the needs of the community.

Developers live in a world of scrum, points, and delivering value. I think whoever pays for the officers salary should be the "product owner" of the police department.

"I think whoever pays for the officers salary should be the "product owner" of the police department"

Like what, the local governor/censor/consul/manor lord?

Look particularly at the system that Ferguson used to generate most of their revenues from traffic tickets and resulting fines from African-Americans: http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/06/us/ferguson-missouri-racism-ti...

As an American, it is shocking and appalling to see that we have recreated a version of debtors prison.

> Then they call you a conspiracy nut so society ostracizes you and ignores your observations

And then the party in power tries to eliminate the thing that lets middle-aged startup founders/small business owners get health insurance so they can cut taxes on the top 0.5% of income earners.

I pay $2300/month as a small business owner for health insurance for a single employee + family. I was well into my 20's before my entire salary was that much. The cost was ~$1000/month in 2009 or so, which I considered bad at the time.

I fault both parties for the ridiculous situation we're in regarding health care. The ACA was doomed no matter who won the last election. Not because of how it was structured, but because it didn't address the core cost problems.

Not defending Trump's actions. But, at best, he's damaging an already dying system.

Broken in many ways? Absolutely. Fixable on a technical basis? Probably. Fixable in the real world? Not as long as it's a Democrat (regardless of race) getting credit for the Heritage Foundation's plan.

As for costs, I don't know your state or situation but that does seem high. In Illinois for an individual plan with BCBS (PPO, larger of their provider lists) I'm paying under 500 non subsidized though if the exchanges still exist next year I expect it to rise $50-100.

Edit: clarity

Employee + family is typically 3 to 4 times the cost of employee-only. I do have a high end plan.

Thanks, wasn't sure of the impact of family - for the couple years it was my wife and I on exchange plans the cost was basically just doubled.

Picketty ignored the effects of WWI and WWII because they were so destructive of capital they made his case look weaker.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com