75 karma · joined May 25, 2016
It makes sense to develop new military tech continuously, but only scale out production when needed.
There are important contextual and regional difference that apply too. You're more likely to get a genuine reply in a place like the rural Midwest than you are in NYC. You also are more likely to get a genuine reply from a person relaxing at a bar than the cashier at a fast food drive through window. There are many people who will take the question as an invitation to talk if the situation is right.
Wealth can mean many things, but it is often associated with your savings more than your income. If you go by median wealth per adult, the UK is still wealthier than the US as a whole (#11 globally vs #21). The mean is another story, but that is no doubt influenced by the fact that there are many extremely wealthy people in the US.
There are downsides to inflation of course, lower economic growth is a big one. But we are entering a higher inflation, higher interest rate environment whether we like it or not, and that will result in lower wealth inequality. Money will have less direct purchasing power, and assets like housing or company equity will decline in value due to higher borrowing costs.
There are many people who will retort that 'inflation hurts the poor'. Yes, it hurts everyone, but it disproportionately hurts the rich. It is no coincidence that wealth inequality increased dramatically during the low inflation, low interest rate period we have experienced over the last two decades.
MoM is a cleaner way to look at things in volatile times like these.
By definition, the market return is an average, and there must be returns above and below the average. You could say above market returns require taking above market risk, but often times the level of risk you are taking is not known for certain at the point in time you make the investment.
Also, the hedge fund industry's goal is not necessarily to beat the market, it is to provide the highest level of return per unit of risk.
Having an above ground train that isn't deafeningly loud is a huge improvement to the neighborhood, and I wonder why we don't think more about making new quiet above ground lines, instead of drilling +$2B per mile tunnels. I understand that people may find them to be an eyesore, but the noise is the top issue by far. With 100 years of new technology since the last ones were built, we should be able to make huge improvements in this area.
Money is a huge problem if you are poor. My point is just that you can substitute frozen vegetables for whatever you are eating and it can be the same exact price. It does take more time to make, and is less convenient than unhealthy options. This is what I mean by time and discipline.
There are comments about vegetables having a high cost per calorie, but this misses the important point that many unhealthy, poor people are obese in the US. By swapping a meal at McDonalds or packaged snacks at the convenient store for some pasta with frozen vegetables, you may not be getting the same calorie/dollar value. But getting enough calories is not the issue for most poor Americans, getting enough vegetables is.
I'm not talking about fancy meal prep either. Roast some broccoli in the oven, boil some noodles. Add salt, pepper, butter. Done. Don't like broccoli? Swap it for something else.
An interesting thing to notice from your link, Union City, Guttenburg, and West New York (all in New Jersey) make the list while New York City does not. This is only because of how the lines are drawn.