84 karma · joined January 25, 2016
The whole sentiment around the subreddit really seems to be amplifying a class war attitude in the United States.
I remember reading an article (I think this was it [1]) about reddit getting manipulated by advertisers. Either posting about a product, or upvoting posts that were positive about a product and downvoting negative posts. Imagine what someone with a larger budget could do.
[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaymcgregor/2017/02/20/reddit-i...
One example is BNSF. Most railroads are on warpath to increase operating margin as much as possible. Cutting routes, laying off staff, and neglecting customer satisfaction are the norm. Imagine being laid off after your company has had its most profitable year ever. These actions are being dictated by institutional investors. BNSF is the only major railroad not taking on precision railroading. It's possible that this will be a failure on BNSF's part, but Berkshire is willing to take the bet and act differently from everyone else on the idea that this will be better long term. Institutional investors are not interested in that.
The current increase in value and ramping up of energy use is not due to an increase in the usefulness of the coin, but instead on a renewed interest in the game of hot potato that is speculation.
I also have difficulty seeing the first benefit you list as being a benefit. I don't have a problem with people pursuing degrees in fields that aren't big money makers, but I also don't know that the government should be in the business of incentivising people to study in these fields.
On the other hand, there is societal benefit to these fields being pursued in general. And the market economy may not adequately pay for the benefits it receives. As a society we wouldn't want everyone to major in poetry, though.
Union Pacific has a huge drive for constantly increasing efficiency. Their profits are up significantly year over year, but this fall they cut about 500 jobs from their headquarters in Omaha, around 6% of their Nebraska employees, and this isn't even the first time they've done it. To keep the big investors happy they are constantly searching for ways to cut costs.
On the other hand, this might also be a product of the industry. The railroad is necessarily growth constrained. It's unlikely that significantly more products will move to being transported by rail and there is very little room for new lines to be constructed.
Also, the demand for gasoline is very inelastic. Very little driving done today is for pleasure, so the cost would have to be raised so much that people are reducing driving out of necessity/looking for alternatives.
Finally, consumption taxes on necessities act regressively (ie the poor are taxed proportionally more than the rich).
[1] https://www.gatesnotes.com/Energy/My-plan-for-fighting-clima...
Also, it's my understanding that when most people talk about exercising for better sleep they are specifically talking about low intensity steady state cardio exercise.
I've been using r4ds for the past couple weeks. This is the first time I've really understood how everything in R and the tidyverse fits together. I am really enjoying the book. It has already helped me immensely.
Seriously, thank you for writing this.
This could also affect the amount of capital available to the economy as insurance companies invest their premiums.