Hacker News Reader

It's much better than the alternative!

mritterhoffon Sticky wage norms and the real wage cost of unexpected inflation

That might be a side effect, but I'm doubtful it's the cause.

The main cause as I understand it is that the govt prints money to offset the gap between what it collects in taxes and what it spends.

mritterhoffon Supreme Court upholds broad conception of birthright citizenship

I suspect OP mean declining fertility rate. USA population is still increasing, but is slowing down, and will sharply drop if the fertility rate remains below replacement of ~2 children per woman.

mritterhoffon The U.S. Ammo Shortage Is Worse Than You Think

You're moving the goalposts. There's tons we can do to improve US healthcare outcomes (we overspend compared to what we get [1]) by emulating what has succeeded in other countries. But that conversation and solution is different than "nobody has healthcare".

As to defense, I live here, as do the majority of the people I love and like. It's in my interest to have my country continue to exist as a sovereign nation with the ability to defend itself from foreign adversaries.

1. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-expectancy-vs-health...

mritterhoffon The U.S. Ammo Shortage Is Worse Than You Think

Most Americans have some form of health insurance [1].

I'd argue that my country is worth defending, despite its many flaws.

1. https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2025/demo/p60-28...

mritterhoffon The L in "LLM" Stands for Lying

No one is stopping you, and maybe it's worth trying out!

mritterhoffon In 6 violent encounters, evidence contradicts immigration officials' narratives

It seems to be, given how many people voted for "mass deportations".

It also makes it easier for employers to get away with poor working conditions for those workers.

mritterhoffon US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

Moving electrons around isn't inherently immoral like slavery is. It's odd to compare the two!

mritterhoffon San Francisco to offer free childcare to people making up to $230k

Housing is expensive because homeowners have weaponized zoning laws to make it illegal to build housing the city needs.

mritterhoffon In New York City, congestion pricing leads to marked drop in pollution

A small section of it is.

> “Bowtie” bounded by Broadway and Seventh Avenue between 42nd and 47th Streets.

mritterhoffon Size of Life

My understanding is that picked fruits and veg are still alive [1], and often respirating [2]. This is a big component in figuring out how to refrigerate them at the optimal temperatures and atmospheric makeup.

1. https://healthland.time.com/2013/06/21/theyre-alive-harveste... 2. https://agriculture.institute/food-chemistry-and-physiology/...

mritterhoffon In New York City, congestion pricing leads to marked drop in pollution

Big agree. Times Square would be a great place to start.

mritterhoffon Covid-19 mRNA Vaccination and 4-Year All-Cause Mortality

Agree. Also I don't think any adults were forcibly vaccinated again their will, they just lost out on certain societal privileges.

mritterhoffon 'A full-blown crisis': Americans brace for a surge in healthcare costs

Seems 48.6% of US employees had employer-provided health care in 2023. Lower than I would have thought.

https://www.kff.org/state-health-policy-data/state-indicator...

mritterhoffon 'A full-blown crisis': Americans brace for a surge in healthcare costs

> because healthcare demand is unlimited.

How's that? Beyond some level of care I suspect demand drops of a cliff. No one goes to the doctor for the fun of it.

mritterhoffon Wealthiest 10% of Americans make up 50% of purchases and consumer spendings

Ignoring the pandemic, the percentage has been north of 45% since 2014 or so, according to Moody's: https://archive.is/AW6rW

mritterhoffon In a U.S. First, New Mexico Opens Doors to Free Child Care for All

Why would that be better? I think you'd miss out on economies of scale and end up paying more.

mritterhoffon Neuralink 'Participant 1' says his life has changed

I'm mostly cheering for more competition in the field. No reason for advances in life-changing technical progress to belong solely to that one company.

mritterhoffon Meta is spending $10B in rural Louisiana to build its largest data center

I agree methane leaks (and monitoring programs cuts) are a problem. But even with them, methane burns much more cleanly than coal. The former primarily emits CO2 and H2O, while the latter emits SO2, NOx, heavy metals and more.

mritterhoffon Meta is spending $10B in rural Louisiana to build its largest data center

While Meta has a non-binding promise to build more renewable energy, the Louisiana Legislature passed a new law that adds natural gas to the definition of green energy, allowing Zuckerberg and others to count Entergy’s gas turbines as “green.”

As much as I prefer burning gas over coal, conflating it with zero(-ish) emission energy sources like wind, solar, and nuclear is bad.

mritterhoffon NASA's Juno mission leaves legacy of science at Jupiter

Wikipedia says it would need to be 75x more massive in order to start fusing hydrogen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter#Size_and_mass

mritterhoffon Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

Thanks for sharing info about MIPS, it looks great.

Short animation of how it works for anyone else who's unfamiliar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvyoSzAPIBE

mritterhoffon The Fancy Rug Dilemma

I'm no rug expert, heritage or otherwise, but it looks like there are some really expensive rugs out there: this[1] site lists 9 worth over $1M USD. So I'd assume there's a big spread between that and rugs you get at Ikea. So I think he's being genuine, not satirical.

1. https://www.luxxu.net/blog/top-10-most-expensive-rugs-in-the...

mritterhoffon Waymo granted permit to begin testing in New York City

Prioritizing pedestrian right of way sounds like a perk to me.

mritterhoffon NASA's Juno mission leaves legacy of science at Jupiter

It's an odd choice of words since 1. Most people know it's the largest and heaviest planet 2. They didn't specify planet but are still ignoring the sun, which is 1000x Jupiter's mass.

mritterhoffon Show HN: Bicyclopedia

When I first landed on this page I didn't see any call to action so I left. Adding animation or a label to the button might help.

mritterhoffon Waymo granted permit to begin testing in New York City

Agree. Though I imagine the cost to run robot taxis in low density areas would be much higher than in high density areas, as there'd be a higher distance between rides, and so more wasted time and gas. I suspect that would slow adoption.

Also if we dream big here, I wonder how robot buses would work in low density areas, maybe with dynamic routes and pricing?

mritterhoffon Measuring the environmental impact of AI inference

Well said. Moralizing energy consumption is inefficient and no way to run a market. It'd be better to pass regulation that internalized the externalities in the price of electricity so that it captured the societal costs of emissions.

mritterhoffon Waymo granted permit to begin testing in New York City

Not in terms of throughput though. Buses and trains still have em beat.

mritterhoffon How does the US use water?

Seems to me we need a better pricing system for water so the market can sort out if the application is valuable enough.