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notch656c

675 karma · joined December 16, 2022

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notch656c··on The strange and awful path of productivity in the US construction sector
The argument of existing homeowners is "forget improving my own house, let me externalize costs to others to raise my own property values."

We as a society have strong reasons to provide a glide path towards reducing that moral hazard created by old entrants.

notch656c··on NYC jails want to ban physical mail, then privatize scanning of digital versions
You know the process for executing someone is very long, expensive road. Eager is the worst possible description of the death penalty.

There are plenty of criticisms for the death penalty but now you're changing the goalposts as you realize your description written in a science fiction feel good reality was a bad fit.

notch656c··on NYC jails want to ban physical mail, then privatize scanning of digital versions
Someone tried to rob me at gunpoint many years ago. Pointed a gun to my head when I got a flat tire innocently trying to bike home from a bad part of town. Why was I in a bad part of town? Working in a hospital with the people helping the people in a bad part of town.

I didn't try to kill them, even though I managed to fight the upper hand off of them. When the scuffle ended all I said was "don't point things at my head."

Choose to believe me or not. Don't make presumptions about eagerness.

notch656c··on NYC jails want to ban physical mail, then privatize scanning of digital versions
In a politer society with more reasonable laws using a gun to take someone's money would have exactly one outcome: a 9mm hole in that robber's head.

Anything beyond that is charity.

notch656c··on NYC jails want to ban physical mail, then privatize scanning of digital versions
Bavaria is the second most well off state so it seems a little unreasonable to assume the average numbers must be near that. These are the kind of crimes disproportionately concerning the poor.
notch656c··on NYC jails want to ban physical mail, then privatize scanning of digital versions
Your comment is unpopular but in some ways it's probably right. I think family, indirectly, forces a lot of crime. Once you have kids to feed the desperation is real. You may be able to support yourself on minimum wage but add a kid or two into the mix and no real skills and the result is having a family results in crime. Toss a court order for child support on top of that, and hey it's go to jail for non-payment or go to jail for theft or whatever -- at least the theft charge has a definite ending whereas child support they can chase you literally forever for that.

When I look at peak imprisonment rates it corresponds pretty well to when men are at max pressure to provide for dependents. Most of us wouldn't hurt someone else for our own good even if starving but look your starving kid in the face and the question becomes more difficult and theoretical about morality and risk of getting caught may go out the window.

notch656c··on NYC jails want to ban physical mail, then privatize scanning of digital versions
The reason I would be hesitant to hire the ex-con is not because they're bad. OR I think they're going to be bad to me and thus I need extra insurance or whatever.

The reason I wouldn't hire them is because the system salivates to put those people back in the system, and I prefer to hire someone less likely to get pulled into the abyss at any random moment and cause me to lose out on my trained workforce. Their PO, any officer scanning automatic plate readers, customs agents, whoever, they're all chomping at the bit to pull that person back out of society and employment.

notch656c··on NYC jails want to ban physical mail, then privatize scanning of digital versions
It will make more sense once you realize the judicial system, cops, prisons etc demand their tribute and if less people are breaking the current laws more will have to be invented or prison sentences made longer.

Government apparatuses don't shrink in size. This is why the war on drugs started after prohibition, Henry Anslinger had to go after the evil marijuana. If people stop committing crimes we'll just have to invent more.

notch656c··on Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes
It would be simple for me. I would refuse to go to your restaurant because dealing with multiple systems is too much work for my feeble mind. And my wife tells me I'm better with math than the common person.

Your system is better. But it's special. Special is bad because I don't like having to do things X different ways for X different restaraunts. I would rather pay a little more and not have to remember the quarks of your restaurant. I am also just trained to tip so I will feel icky leaving your restaurant no matter if you are paying them a fair amount already.

So if you charge more money to include the tip I will still feel obliged to tip anyway and I will leave with the experience your restaurant is too expensive and not come back. In short I think you've done the right thing. Don't fight the mob, embrace it.

notch656c··on The strange and awful path of productivity in the US construction sector
It's more profitable to our lower classes to keep the Mexicans / Guatemalans / whatever locked up in their own country to suppress their wages and competition and then allow free trade of goods. That gets us lots of cheap shit without having to pay USA wages.

I'm in favor of open borders mostly on humanitarian grounds, and I offer our lower wage laborers as offerings on the pillar of sacrifice for that.

notch656c··on The strange and awful path of productivity in the US construction sector
Hey you can play fuck fuck games all day about how 5 person years of labor, almost half of that highly skilled (I'm accounting ~150k+ all in compensation) is not enough for a cookie cutter 2000 sq ft house. I'm calling bullshit; if it really is taking that much for a McClone basic bitch house then someone is taking the piss somewhere.
notch656c··on The strange and awful path of productivity in the US construction sector
I would only apply such standard if it passes the symmetry principle with currently legal houses which is the context in which above mentioned about the not being worth bulldozing/fixing if they met the old codes. I.e. if the problem was legal for the construction of a currently inhabited house then the same logic about not being worth it to start over applies to the new house as the old house. Therefore it couldn't possibly devolve into codes being meaningless but rather worst case devolve into creating a baseline of allowing older codes which apparently are safe enough we haven't kicked their owners out. In effect it would create equality in home ownership rather than a standard where you can build a house and then vote to make it harder for the next guy to artificially raise your property values. If something is truly too unsafe to exist the rules should be applied uniformly rather than giving privileged immunities to early entrants.
notch656c··on The strange and awful path of productivity in the US construction sector
The building inspector can't see all the people you're making homeless right now by creating ever more expensive building codes. The permitting office doesn't see the good food people can't buy their children because they're spending more on their mortgage. The code enforcement officer doesn't see the person who ended up missing finding cancer early because their gas tank was empty and they couldn't book a doctor's appointment after increased inspecting and architectural requirements. People just see "bad thing happened in house because bad codes, spend more money that gets ripped away from other things that make us safe."

And that's part of the trickery involved here. People say "look that one guy died in that house so we need to require stricter code here." They're not noticing the freezing homeless people that died because housing become $X dollars more expensive and they lost the musical chairs game. Sure the homeless guy wasn't going to buy a brand new house, but through the substitution effect across a wide swath of society eventually down the chain it does filter down to everyone ultimately affecting their access to housing. And hey, added bonus, current homeowners property is also worth more when building becomes more expensive so why not juice that one housing related death for all you got even if you know saving that one in a million rich person's life ends with 2 more dead homeless people or whatever.

The ability for voters, already homed, to just change up the codes on everyone while not having their own homes subjected creates a cruel moral hazard and socially bifurcating effect. The guy that gets in early comes in and gets his, then says fuck you, you have to play by different rules.

I'm not saying the houses should be torn down. I'm saying any updates should put situation where homeowner voters are subject to their own medicine. I don't think they'll choose to tear down the houses. No they might decide after all "hey good enough for me, good enough for you."

As for "can't build with X thing they did/didn't have before." Well you can update the codes to allow both the old and new method for something. That would satisfy conditions for both standing and new construction without uniform enforcement causing old houses to be demolished.

It's honestly kind of insane I've had a couple people basically suggest that if the rules be applied evenly, they're going with the "go and tear down houses when code is updated and see how quick we can make everyone homeless" option to pick up their toys and go home rather than give others the same chance they had by allowing the old ways in the code. That's the only way I can make out you would seriously think people would end up homeless.

notch656c··on Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes
The government will never never allow any kind of bank account that cannot be closed and is forever accessible.

The closest we have to that is gold buried in a hole somewhere or maybe a cold storage seed phrase in your head and the discipline not to reveal it in torture.

notch656c··on Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes
I'm sure this varies so I came to this same scenario at a high end sushi restaraunt where there is a waitress, a sushi chef, a non-sushi cheff, hostess, bartender etc and every single one of those people are working on your dinner (closer to $100 per person, but still).

I wasn't sure and I had hoped the tip worked as you said getting spread around (at least to the sushi chef who takes the sushi order directly and drops it at your table). I figured the hostess would tell me straight up since she's not taking my tip directly and doesn't benefit greatly one way or another.

She made it clear to me. Don't expect anyone beyond the waitress to get a meaningful share. I presume she meant either the sharing was very minimal or the waitress was likely to pocket most of it before reporting the amount to the people she may obliged to share it with. That didn't sit well with me but I have a feeling she was telling the truth, especially in light of the fact that the waitress would have every incentive especially with cash to just pocket the money and tell everybody else they were stiffed or got 5% or whatever.

notch656c··on Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes
You said tips were akin to feudalism.

Personally I didn't agree with your redefinition, but since you go by a completely different standard than everyone else I went to your level to make you understand your absurdity.

> It is logically inconsistent and means that if wages, payments, or exchange of goods exist in any form as compensation for work, then the system is feudalism.

And no I was saying minimum wage law is doing the exactly thing you fear, which is split us apart by outlawing poor people from working if the value of their labor is less than the minimum wage amount. It creates the same bifurcated society you feared where the very poor now have their jobs outlawed and have to work in the black market and shadows already more than they already do. Minimum wage law is basically a giant "fuck you got mine" to people creating less than that value and creating a cartel where a number of poor people benefit at the expense of the even more poor through violence of the state.

notch656c··on Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes
Minimum wage is feudalism again though. You're outlawing the jobs of those who create less than minimum wage in value, thus relegating them to the black market and/or less employment. It separates the wage workers and benefits some of the poor at the expense of the even more poor.
notch656c··on Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes
What the businesses I saw this at did was the waitstaff worked the tables part the time and prepped take out orders part the time. So in effect delivery workers were stealing time they could use to wait tables or directly serve a takeout customer that would usually tip them something. It wasn't that they had staff just for takeout that wasn't getting paid regular wage.

Naturally the waitstaff super resented having to maybe take on less tables to do essentially unpaid work on the side of taking your order, prepping utinsels and drinks, possibly even making some very simple ready made stuff themselves, and plate bagging it up etc and a lot of the shit they have to do for a normal table except for no tip.

notch656c··on Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes
The issue is the waitstaff that prepare takeout at some restaurants are "tipped" service workers.

Which means they don't earn almost any wage.

So if they spend all their time prepping takeout orders for delivery workers they make NO money. So they get very pissed doing this work and intentionally slow it down.

my experience is from several years back, things may have changed.

notch656c··on The strange and awful path of productivity in the US construction sector
>because updating old houses to the new code frequently requires rebuilding substantial portions of the house to comply with new requirements

OK but if I build a new house to the old code then I also will need substantial work to rebuild it to bring it into compliance. So I could use the same logic I shouldn't have to. Safe enough for them, safe enough for me.

>No, houses are held up to the code that applied when they were built,

Again, that's the scam. I'll build my house to one code and then vote to make the code harsher for the next guy to up my property value. If it's impossible to build a new house as economically as mine, mine's now worth more than it would have been.

notch656c··on Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes
I was working as a contract worker through postmates. I was not paid by the hour and earned nothing if the customer cancelled.

Later the courts ruled this was technically employment and I got a token check in a class action, but of course never back paid for the hours as an employee.

notch656c··on Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes
See my below post. The issue is the delivery driver has to pick up the order from a full service restaurant much of the time. The full service restaurant workers will blackball the delivery driver if he doesn't tip them, and that happens proportionally to the cost of the food. After 2-3 times the delivery driver not tipping the restaraunt at the food he's picking up, he will be waiting forever until his customers cancel.
notch656c··on The strange and awful path of productivity in the US construction sector
Yes that's the scam. Magically the houses are not held to the same code. Got mine, fuck everybody else.
notch656c··on Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes
Yeah I did food delivery and a sizeable amount didn't tip at all. It also created huge problems picking up food because many of the places people ordered from were full service restaurants, and the workers would purposefully go slow as fuck because they knew they would get no tip as most the food delivery companies don't provision for a tip to the restaraunt people preparing the food for the food delivery guy. A few times I had to take a loss on orders to tip the restaurant I was picking the food up from just to get them to release the food.

The food delivery guy is basically seen like the UPS worker. All around I decided it was a fucked business model and quit pretty quickly.

notch656c··on Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes
I don't know all the mechanisms behind how it happened. I expect indirectly yes, as employees choose to work where they are paid highest (if possible) and employers putting the pre-calculated percentages on the receipt / point of sale that match those desires influence tips. You have to keep up with employee expectation to keep and retain employees and setting those expectation at the point of sale as a voluntary option is an easy win.
notch656c··on Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes
I noticed the expected tipping percentage go up after most customers started tipping in credit.

Tipped workers had to up their game because they can no longer do tax evasion with everything on the record. Back in the days where most paid their restaurant with cash, tips were more like 15%. The move from 15 to more like 20 to 25% almost perfectly corresponds with the amount needed to make the same earnings after tax.

notch656c··on Fentanyl vaccine tested in rats
"Paraphernalia."

IN my state it is a felony have a reagent that say tests for THC whereas ownership of the THC itself is legal.

notch656c··on Fentanyl vaccine tested in rats
I've been homeless and I think part of that is just for someone with no problems it doesn't make sense to be inner-urban homeless in these crim-ridden areas. I assume those people are all fucked up for one reason and therefore as a sane person I don't want to be around them.

I had a very strict rule when I was homeless. Stay away from other homeless people. Camp on the edge of town. Ride the bus into rural areas.

How did I get a job with just the clothes on my back? I hitch-hiked to north dakota in the oil fields where a man is a man and they don't give a fuck what you look like. They hired me to do day labor, and once you have enough money for a van or a short stay airbnb it only gets easier from there.

Get the fuck out of tenderloin, and san francisco at all costs. Hitch-hike if you must. If you want guaranteed housing you can also look into doing seasonal harvesting work for fisheries in alaska. They'll pay your flight from seattle and then cover your food/shelter while you're working.

notch656c··on Fentanyl vaccine tested in rats
It seems selfless but not pragmatic. Prohibition doesn't seem to make the opiate problem smaller, it just makes it more dangerous for users, the public, and the people selling it.
notch656c··on Fentanyl vaccine tested in rats
Die-hards make up the most volume for recreational substances. Alcoholics by far consume the majority of alcohol sales, for instance.
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