225 karma · joined October 22, 2017
Especially with ycombinator as it appears that Tech people land on the Liberal side based on the comments I have seen in the past here.
Anyhow I look forward to the downvotes . lol
Either he has 0 self awareness, has gone complete senile , or he is at the top of cow dung pushers.I tend to think he is at top of the dung pushing business.
Not saying that ebikes are bad but it would also be more appealing for the masses to embrace golf carts over bikes as a replacement for their vehicles.
It amazes me that a lot of these green cities haven't incorporated a small golf cart lanes as most people work within a range of a golf cart distance to travel.
The cost would be a lot cheaper than a car, no need for insurance premiums(if so, very little) , and less maintenance than . Also could likely double the lane traffic within the equivalent car lanes. The consumer would be more than willing to get on board using and buying golf carts just for the financial benefit of it.
The CORRECT ISSUE and primary issue we need to be focused on is conflict of interest.
It makes no sense to try to get a group of people such as congress that have conflict of interest to fix the problems they created and are benefiting from , hence the result of the Princeton study.
The sad part is that BOTH individual republicans and democrats should want to reduce conflict of interest as it benefits both sides and everyone in general. However BOTH party are too successful in keeping them fighting with each other , blaming each other, and chasing their tails trying to fix the issues with the people that created them.
when it becomes damage versus expected usage would be a good line just like hotels have been doing centuries.
basic cleaning services such as cleaning linens,dishes,furniture,light dusting, basic floor sweeping ,etc.
you destroy the property or require excessive cleaning because you had a party with excessive dirtiness like spilled drinks on walls , linens thrown all over the place and stained, etc. then include an abusive charge.
The tech is there now to be utilized as an assistant. However as the end user you better have enough knowledge to understand the solution or answer it spits at you to fact check it.
The biggest danger I see is utilizing the tool for solutions or answers by novices that don't understand enough to grasp the solution and confirm if in fact the answer it gives is correct or appropriate.
Simplistic example: A non techie manager trying to have it create sql queries to get the information they are asking for , is asking for trouble. However in the hands of a sql developer it could provide enough of the query build out to just require minimal tweaks.
Just yesterday I was playing with chatgpt and found an error between the code it generated and the explanation of the code. It contradicted itself.
However when I caught the error I asked it to further explain since it appears to contradict the code it generated. It then came back with an apology and it did state it made a mistake and was able to understand the error and fix it. Although I was specific about the mistake. I might try again later today to do the same test and see if it learned or generates the same error again .If it does I will ask it to confirm that its explanation and code match versus pointing out the error.
I would say its not a huge leap to think that.
I would even say its more than just other social media platforms. I would say it goes into main stream media on BOTH sides, Hollywood, sports, etc including global corporations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksb3KD6DfSI&ab_channel=Shoot...
Heck they could have even likely housed them all in one of their guest houses or servants quarter on the Island. Better yet they could have allowed them to stay on the main house for the 11 months they don't even live in their property.
This reminds me of the time Ted Kennedy was pushing for alternative wind energy until a study came back stating that the most efficient place to house them was right of marthas vineyards. Then he shut up quickly about it because it would have ruined their view. Clearly Martha's vineyard is a soft spot and off limits for the hypocrites.
I only Hope Desantis uses Florida money next to purchases property in Martha's vineyard and starts building housing for the homeless right next to them. Then will see how caring they really are.
These are the same people that love telling us what to do, but make themselves exempt from it all.
I don't see Desantis as the problem here. I see the Democrat leaders as the problem.
The democrat leaders were clearly not sincere when they declared their state as a sanctuary state ,since they got off guard by just 50 illegals. Not to mention the other democrat self declared sanctuary state having to call a state of emergency to handle the illegals they claimed to want to take in.
However , I have yet purchased a car from carmax, because they have been typically over $3.5K+ overpriced , for the same year ,model, and equivalent condition that I can get it at the scummy dealers.
Typical car shopping experience. Now this has to be modified a little depending if its a buyers or sellers market. However for the most part
1. Determine the car ,model,year, and condition of the car I want.
2. Browse carmax and set that as my highest price.
3. Email and go to local dealers and offer $3.5K- below carmax asking price than add tax and title to submit your offer as and out the door price.
4. Some don't responded but some do .
5. Go to dealerships ones that said they can do it at near the end of the month.
6. Then expect for them to do the bait and switch and send you to the backend manager who plays online games on his laptop for about an hour pretending to do something when they are really just trying to break you down. So when the manager comes into play I typically say great just give me a call or I come back after a couple of hours. so I don't wait there for no reason.
7. Manager plays the if he sold me the car for what I asked then they would be out of business. Then I say why did you agree to it and either I stay firm on my original offer or go up 500 bucks. they typically still don't approve at this stage which is expected and fine so I walk knowing they already have my contact information.
8. Play the wait game . Typically 1 or 2 weeks later I get a call back. They Agree for my original counter offer.
9. I go back in to sign the paperwork
10. The carsalesman is all giddy and sends me back to the manager and financier to close on the deal.
11. I get back and I see additional charges such as dealer fees and other bs which I say thank you but no thank you and the offer I submitted was out the door price. Sometimes I walk out again or they remove the charges .
fun stuff but like I said playing the stupid game has saved me $3.5K most times. The key is willing and having the time to play the stupid game with them, willing to walk, and not have an immediate need for a car.
There have been also times where I have been less willing to haggle on the price but even then I can typically get the car 1.5K below car max with little effort. When I buy new its a little trickier but I never pay anywhere near the msrp.
But are you taking into account how much a month you are paying into that insurance when comparing the two?
If CostPlus is coming close to what you are getting your prescription for with a paid into insurance plan, than I would call that a win for those without insurance.
Might be worth looking at lowering my own insurance coverage to one that might not be that great for prescription, as long as costplus and costco type places come close to after insurance priced meds.
When you say the prices were about even with what you pay at costco is that comparison with or without healthcare insurance paying part of it?
If your insurance paid part of it and its comparable then Cubans pharmacy is a win for those without healthcare insurance.
Atleast with the carmax and other fixed price dealers , you know what the worst possible deal is and can typically save 2.5K to 4K by going to a normal dealer. You just have to be willing to play the stupid games with them.
I cancelled my account with them but they kept billing me for months. luckily I saved the chat logs where I opened a chat with them immediately after canceling in order to have some type of written confirmation. I also emailed the support email accounts I found online stating my request to cancel the account, because I had other bad experiences with them canceling services and wrong charges.
So each month I had to get on the phone and go through and explain it was canceled then they would apologize and say they see where i had called to cancel but a mistake was made or more often they would hang up on me when transferring the call even after finding the CEO email address and emailing him directly.
I Got tired of it and I wrote a informal complaint to the FCC. I emailed the ceo and comcast support with filed complaint and cc'd the FCC. Just a day later got a call saying they see that a mistake was made and they are removing all the erroneous charges.
For example when I want to buy a car: I start at Carmax which I know its the highest price i can pay for the car. In history I have always been able to get a used car for 2.5K -4K cheaper elsewhere .
This is typically how it goes.
1. I determine which make,model, year car I want.
2. Determine what carmax has it listed for and make that the highest overpriced value for the car.
3. I send out emails and call dealers for similar cars ( millage,model,wear , etc) give them my price that is under 2.5K - 4K less than carmax.
4. they say sure come on in.
5. The games begin and the bs runs from the salesman script that tries to convince me that a manufactured car in the 100Ks is a custom one of a kind vehicle that I will never be able to buy again.
6. i Say here is my price and the good cop salesman than sends me to the back to the sales manager who says I will put him out of business if he sells me that vehicle for that price.
7. I say I understand then I walk out and he lets me walk out.
8. A few days or even a month later he calls me back says he can do the deal then send me back to the sales manager again.
9. the Sales manager than says oh sorry we cant do that price because its a cash offer or that I have to use his preferred loan provider. Or tries to convince me to take his loan provider anyways and then cancel it by paying cash or refinance it a week later.
10. I walk out again or I get the car. One case I had to walk out again until I got another call to come back. In most cases I only waste about an hour in the dealership all together talking to the salesguy and manager, since when the send me to the back to the sales manager I typically tell them I have 15 minutes to make it happen or you can call me back when you have all the information you need to make the decision.
So atleast today we have the no haggle places now to tell us what is the ripoff price for the car and not the dealership sponsored bs MSRP or the kelly blue book crap.
The crazy thing is that I actually want to buy the car from carmax because I do like the experience better, but its not worth paying 2.5K to 4K more for an equivalent car.
Not likely due to consumer preference, as its a given that dealership and buying experience is often hated by the consumer. look at this thread, talk to friends,and search the internet. Sure its anecdotal but its appears to be pretty consistent across the board despite not being a scientific survey.
Heck even carmax created their business model around how the consumer hates the buying process and even though carmax often charges more in the $2.5K - $4K range than what you can negotiate elsewhere they are still around.
Its more that they (the dealership) has a very strong lobbying influence and have rigged the market in their favor where the consumer has to take it. Like making themselves a forced middleman.
kind of how comcast is often rated among its own customer at the top of the most hated company list year after year ,yet they stay in business.
The sales/pr guy wasn't even sure why or not willing to disclose the why. I wonder if it had to do with unions. However that is total speculations based on an experience with gov't and unions approximately 20 years ago where the unionw was very concerned with computer and software I had written taking over union jobs.
During covid Business owners saw that the consumer was willing to take it so they will continue to run on skeleton crews as long as the consumer takes it.
Sure the consumer will complain but they are still using their money to buy from skeleton run places.Partly because most industries nowadays are Oligarch control and what one does the other does as well and the consumer has lost their control of the marketplace.
We are living in a world where the big guys have the majority control of the market place and the market want's skeleton crews.
This is seen across the board in all big business run industries. However with nursing, especially in the ER and the ICU that are now running a skeleton crew the consequence is your health and even your life. Until the big healthcare providers,insurance industry, hospitals, doctors , etc start to get sued over low staffing as the cause of death nothing will change and they know how to document to prevent such a case.
That is no longer the case and many now require 4 year bachelor programs to be hired as RN nurses. My wife has her bachelors in nursing and runs an ER and the hiring requirements includes a bachelors degree in nursing and not a 2 year degree.
Having said that we also need to look at patients taking more accountability for their health and consequences for wasting medical professional times.
Unfortunately the American public hasn't figured out what the real issue is yet. They reason why they haven't is mostly because the Democrat party , Republican party, entertainment industry , the Main Stream Media, tech industry, and the the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) has them occupied with the symptoms of the REAL issue in order to keep them chasing their tails.
The REAL ISSUE why healthcare isn't getting fixed is because of Conflict of interest.The American public hasn't figured out that going to congress who is riddled with conflict of interest and who designed the existing system that we have in place and is benefiting from it, might not be the best idea to fix healthcare.
In fact the best thing to fix healthcare (and the other 99 problems)is to STFU about it and focus ONLY On reducing conflict of interest in congress. Until we reduce conflict of interest in congress nothing will be fixed.
The Democrat party ,republican party, CPD and MSM want you focused on everything but reducing conflict of interest in congress. In order to fix healthcare and any of the other issues we must FIRST try to minimize conflict of interest by implementing the following as a start:
1. Term limits
2. Closing or reducing revolving doors between private and public sector.
3. No private campaigning contributions. Use tech to overcome the need of money.
4. Reform lobbying by doing away with the money aspect of it and utilizing technology to get your voice heard.
5. Pay congress members more and better benefits, but in return demand complete transparency from financial information to limitations in investments , NCA , and make pay and benefits tied to the general overall approval of congress by the American tax payers.
6.etc
Both party and the MSM solution to fix healthcare is the equivalent of going to the MOB and asking them to fix crime in your neighborhood which the MOB is benefiting from and is promoting. It just makes no sense to talk solutions with people riddled with conflict of interest.
You want to fix healthcare stop talking about healthcare and get the individual republicans and individual democrats to put their political ideology on hold and join forces to demand that their party ONLY focuses on reducing conflict of interest in congress.
My Wife is an ER nurse manager and while you have many self entitled idiotic patients that think they are staying in a resort versus visiting an ER, the patient satisfaction surveys is not very high in regards to the issue and why nurses are leaving.
My wife actually had a person complain that the ER did not have cow bells to call for a nurse (She claimed to be a retired nurse and they always had that for back up, lol) and they constantly complain how come they came in first for a stubbed toe, but another patient with a gunshot wound or heart attack is being seen first.
The bigger issue as why nurses are leaving the field from what she has seen and experienced is:
1. wages: The wages are beyond inadequate in certain nursing specialties and many have left to become traveling nurses or contracted nurses that get paid double the standard nurse pay.
2. Burn out: Besides covid, Hospitals Patient to nurse ratio is often exceeded and no accountability for the hospital to break those ratios. Nor any consideration for a high demand patient versus a low demand patient. Then when something goes wrong the hospital looks to pin it on the nurses. This was an issue before covid . but covid just added fuel to the fire.
3. BS. nurses get bs from ALL sides. They get bs from the patients and even more bs from upper management who set unrealistic process in place that is more concerned by hiding accountability and making things look good on paper than actual patient care. Then you had that whole BS covid movement crap calling nurses hero but besides lip service they did absolutely nothing for them. In fact they did the opposite. I know my wife had to fight the executives because they wanted to make nurses use their vacation time for sick time if they got covid. Their explanation for this that if the nurses got covid it was not likely from the hospital as the hospital takes extreme precautions to prevent it. The funny thing was that the same hospital spewing that BS also wanted nurses to not wear mask due to possible shortages at the beginning of covid. Insert the BS is to DAMN High meme here.
4. RaDonda Vaught's conviction. This is certainly not helping the case to get more nurses.