Hacker News Reader

owengriffithson Euro area is back on the brink of recession

They don't seem to make the link that maybe Brexit is not such a bad idea after all, which seems a logical conclusion to me.

owengriffithson How Australia's $49B internet network came to be ridiculed

This article didn't mention what Australians are choosing to do when they have a range of speeds. According to the figures NBN released 80% of customers aren't even paying for the top speed they could. Similarly, this piece from Vox notes that fast internet just is not nearly as valuable as proponents claimed.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/only-17p...

https://www.vox.com/new-money/2016/10/17/13230500/gigabit-ne...

owengriffithson How Student Debt Reduces Lifetime Wealth

College students will have to pay the cost of their college educations one way or another. Either with loan repayments or higher taxes.

The problem is how much people in the US spend on getting a college education, not the funding mechanism. (ie living away from home, rather than living at home like most of us do in Aus).

owengriffithson Can America's Farms Survive the Threat of Deportations?

A lot of pro-immigration people quote that figure about illegal immigrants paying taxes, as though paying even a single dollar in tax represents a new benefit to government finances. However, the government needs to collect more tax than they spend for an immigrant to be a net benefit.

The $11bn in tax revenue works out at around $600 / capita per year (there are around 17 million people living in illegal immigrant headed households).

For reference, the (limited) welfare state in the US spends around $3,000 / capita and total government spending is around $17,000 per capita.

owengriffithson Study: Immigrants Founded 51% of U.S. Billion-Dollar Startups

"One of the basic premises of anti-immigrant policies is that you can somehow influence the ratio of "useful" vs "not-useful" immigrants."

You mean like pretty much the entire western world's immigration policies, or the USA's H1B, O1 and E3 programs? We in Australia have plenty of people who still want to come, even though we are selective with who we let in.

owengriffithson American Firms Want to Keep Older Workers a Bit Longer

Actually yes. The food shortage is because the government is preventing people offering more money to bring the market into balance.

owengriffithson Electric cars are no longer held back by crappy, expensive batteries

I think there's a bit of confusion about Pack prices vs Cell prices. The $145 is cell only, which is one of the reasons it is so much lower. There don't seem to be consistent pack-pack price comparisons.