Yep. Part of me is terrified every time I go to sleep -- but the sleepiness wins.
2,204 karma · joined May 2, 2011
I make social & technical systems better, for people.
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Thank you for posting this article – I'm lucky - my dad tested negative for the gene that has afflicted our loved ones – but I feel so guilty vs. all of my cousins who still have to face these risks.
We have the power to enable them and others like them to make their own decisions, to have even a slim bit of hope (or even a slim bit of uncertainty) for the first time since we've recognized that familial ALS was a thing. I can't overstate how big of a deal that is. Agency, even if risky, is so much better than the fear and powerlessness of waiting for the inevitable.
It’s not a better experience and it feels very much like I am now being asked to do more while still paying more.
It’s so severe that even if they improved the terms, nobody would use them because US debit cards' reputation is tainted.
“According to the 2019 Federal Reserve Payments Study1, “Debit cards, including both prepaid and non-prepaid, were used almost twice as often as credit cards in 2018, but the value of credit card payments exceeded the value of debit card payments by almost 30%.”
In Visa’s Operational Performance Data4 report for the three months ending on Dec. 31, 2020, it reports $741 billion in U.S. debit transaction volume, a 17.4% increase over the previous year. It compares to $542 billion in credit card volume.
Debit cards in the US are widely used.
My family is one of the unlucky ones that has genes for ALS so I’ve watched enough family members struggle. (I’m lucky, selfishly, because I dodged the gene but I still care deeply about this).
It’d be nice in some ways if it were that easy, wouldn’t it? Poverty would be easily ignored because it’d be chosen. Except, as noted above, even then, when economic disparities pass a tipping point, violent revolution tends to happen. So even if that idea were correct, the rich cannot afford to ignore inequality either.
Lastly, would you prefer to part with some of your wealth by choice or be parted with it (and maybe your life) by force when economic inequalities pass a tipping point? Regardless of morality and notions of property ownership and personal wealth, history has plenty of examples of violent revolution when the rich few neglect the many. So, rightly or wrongly, sharing the wealth may be a survival strategy, as it were.
The truth is, had I done so, I’d feel a lot like you described.
As things get easier, true craft and skill are less appreciated and lost as the application becomes more democratized. From the perspective of the expert/skilled individual, this is terrible. On the other hand, it’s amazing what happens when everyone has a mindblowingly good camera on them almost always. In the end, we are collectively better for it, but individuals absolutely do see their value diminished.