epicureanideal

Because in a well organized society where wealth accumulation is not by corruption, then by definition it would be by creating value, which benefits everyone.

The alternative is something like oligarchs that extract wealth because of state granted monopolies, corporatism that strangles competition with anti competitive regulation, etc. The accumulation of wealth is all out of proportion and possibly not even correlated in those cases with the production of actual value.

Society would be better if we could, and we would all benefit.

Looking at what the growth trajectories are of countries with high corruption, it’s not great, so our growth is probably still reduced by the corruption or lawlessness that still exists.

Exactly. It’s the cleanliness and safety issues in US public transit that makes people avoid it. Fix that and more people will use it.

Anything to get more clueless corporate management losers out of industry.

Are there any natural sources of this substance?

Any expected side effects, like cancer or something?

“With unfettered immigration...”

Or use well paid skilled labor and machines?

Very informative, thank you!

> That they haven't done that is one more indicator that they are thoughtlessly winging this.

Devils advocate argument could be that they needed to do this immediately and could not take the time to stockpile.

> American labor is low quality and high cost.

That is the opposite of my experience with software engineers, and my observation of the work ethic of most Americans in a variety of professions makes me think the opposite is true in pretty much every industry.

I think "American labor is low quality and high cost" is one of those things people think must be true about some other industry besides the ones they've seen, kind of like they think the news is inaccurate when it reports things they know to be false, but accurate when it reports on other subjects.

But didn't we have business card template programs, and even free suggested business card designs from the companies that sell business cards, almost immediately after they opened for business on the internet?

> We could actually just pay more money to public governmental employees

When their pensions are taken into account, government employees are ridiculously overcompensated already. They’re basically minor nobility at this point.

> Field of Dreams

This movie probably caused double or triple digit millions of wasted investments by small business owners when it put the wrong idea in to their head.

> What helps is remembering that absolutely nobody gives a shit about the code or the architecture. Nobody.

If there is no competition, money is nearly free, and you have all the time in the world, sure. If any of those isn't true, you probably want a reasonably well architected codebase so you're not spending 3X the salaries and 3X the time to build things as you would've with a well designed codebase.

> What helps is remembering that absolutely nobody gives a shit about the code or the architecture. Nobody.

We could easily say the same about anything. Nobody cares about the engine in their car either. Except they do, because it affects things like whether they can get from point A to B, which is what they really care about.

Same with code and architecture. It "doesn't matter" but it does, because it takes you from A to B at a particular speed and cost.

Why is there a segment of the population that wants to live in poverty and squalor?

How much pollution is okay? Why not argue for efficiency standards rather than bans?

Everything could be said to “harm people”. Banning travel could make some people depressed and who knows what that could lead to? Or it might lead to a less connected world and less familiarity with people in other places, and maybe makes wars more likely?

People drive to work anyway. A vacation or two every year is probably not even a double digit percent of a person’s total fossil fuel usage, and gives them a lot of happiness and reason to work and do things that are good for society.

Also: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_economy_in_aircraft

> the enshittification cycle is just that, a predictable cycle.

We will continue not to "have nice things" until more people are willing to pay for high quality services.

Sounds like those places aren't actually cheaper, and we're just "getting what we are paying for" in terms of lower quality for lower prices.

Is this part of an "eat bugs" marketing push?

"Bugs are just miniature lobsters". If anything, makes me not want to eat crustaceans.

> It is a sign of the times when I think huh, climate.gov… is that a reputable source?

Some have been wondering that for years already.

Let's hope this improves rapidly every year and can become a convenient, inexpensive temporary replacement in a few decades.

I wonder what the progress curve will look like.

This time it's 100 days, next year will it be 110 or 200? I wonder what the shape of the curve is?

We should run our economy in the way that has the best long term outcome, which is likely with plenty of competition rather than monopolies.

If other countries are doing something to advantage themselves relative to that, there’s tariffs or other ways to relevel the playing field.

So if we vote for a single payer healthcare system, we get a back door for government tyranny over every little aspect of our lives that they decide is bad for us, including as the science shifts? Don’t eat eggs or you lose your coverage, no wait, eat 3 eggs a week or you lose your coverage, no wait.. Sounds like a bad deal, and most Americans will take freedom over free health care if that’s the cost.

It would be great if they also asked people why they did or didn’t read a book in the last year, so we could have more insight.

What are the numbers for other countries?

What are some possible causes?

> The working class in America (specifically the lower segment) is surprisingly opposed to social protections

Probably because we stopped distinguishing between the hard working poor and the indolent poor, among other reasons.

Nobody trusts the government not to throw the money away giving it to their friends who administer NGOs, or staff up huge offices of administrators, or give it away to encourage lifestyles the majority disapprove of strongly enough that they’re willing to go without themselves to prevent it.

> It would be great if everyone could be wealthy enough to buy all their necessities and never worry about money, but that's a pipe dream.

Easily possible if we fix zoning laws, encourage building more homes, and reduce regulatory capture that prevents competition in industry.

Seems like they’re mostly accomplishing the opposite these days.

Another article on the front page is discussing the capabilities of AI for coding.

I wonder, given a 500 line problem, can any of the current cutting edge AIs make the code obviously, dramatically better?

How far can they go?

Unrealistic unless you’re talking about eating beans and rice, and sharing an apartment with a few other people for all six years. Remember taxes, etc.

> $25-35k per space

Seems unreasonably high.