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Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble

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Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble

#261

Post by tpallarino »

cmurf wrote: post #62
bmwe30is wrote: post #30

>Some are rooted, embedded in their communities; and some are trapped — because housing is unaffordable where the better paying jobs are. And the jobs that are high paying are not the jobs they built their lives on. There's some texture and nuance to this statement. I remember on NPR, they interviewed a lady whom mentioned similar sentiments; her and her husband had built a family, worked in the blue-collar industry…

Strict universal nomadism is incompatible with agricultural development. Most of human existence has been nomadic, but the recent default for ~10000 years has been sedentary (non-migratory) mainly because of agriculture. And we've replicated the "farmer schedule" in most all subsequent careers. The rise of interdisciplinary personalities (or at least recognizing this is a thing) might just be a new old thing: the mod…

It's not nomadic in the sense that nobody was moving thousands of miles in one fell swoop into completely foreign environments full of complete strangers and an unfamiliar culture.

Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble

#262

Post by enraged_camel »

microcolonel wrote: post #89
GavinMcG wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The extra money would become meaningless because prices would adjust to accommodate it. That's not actually supported in the literature.

I mean, it is the case if UBI contributes to inflation, which it clearly would. Literature or no literature, if the money supply increases, prices will increase unless efficiency improves faster.

>>Literature or no literature, if the money supply increases, prices will increase unless efficiency improves faster.

No. This is one of the pitfalls of economics: overly simplistic models that don't (can't) properly account for external factors, and assume everyone has perfect information and behaves rationally.

The real world does not work that way.

Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble

#263

Post by tpallarino »

nandorsky wrote: post #121
darod wrote: post #43

I wonder how long it will take for this thought to fade from Steve's mind once he returns to SV. It's easy for people come to these realizations after getting outside of their comfort zone but just as easily return to the status quo. I think one of the biggest myths about tech in general is that it's here to help people. It's really not. It's job is to remove barriers to make workflows more efficient, typically to th…

"I think one of the biggest myths about tech in general is that it's here to help people." It does... if it didn't, it wouldn't exist. Tech is a net positive for society. You typed that on a machine that gives you access to the world's information in seconds at minimal cost. Efficiencies drive down costs which benefits society as a whole. Can you imagine how much your computer/phone would cost if the production of it…

I'd argue that reducing the chances of dying and increasing the chances of reproductive success are not the same as "helping people" in the sense of actually allowing people to live meaningful and fulfilled lives, which at the end of the day is all that matters.

Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble

#264

Post by enraged_camel »

darod wrote: post #242
int_19h wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the point, if the jobs keep getting automated? Why should we force people to do "public service" that robots can and will do better?

so what do you do with the people?

Why do you have to do anything with the people? Certainly they will find something to do themselves, either hobbies like gardening or more serious endeavors like trying to establish a self-sustaining colony on Mars.

Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble

#265

Post by tpallarino »

slackingoff2017 wrote: post #112
GavinMcG wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The extra money would become meaningless because prices would adjust to accommodate it. That's not actually supported in the literature.

The value of any currency is how much real stuff you can buy with it. If there's 20% more dollars in circulation each one would be worth 20% less. This is why UBI is wealth distribution. Too keep the UBI money from being worthless it can't be printed money, it needs to be money taken from someone else.

It's not quite equal due to factors such as money velocity and liquidity. There's also the question of improved productivity/etc. to be had from this redistribution, which would increase effective buying power.

Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble

#266

Post by quickthrower2 »

asteli wrote: post #103
peterwwillis wrote: post #56

One of the main reasons I don't live in SF is the conversation. The first time I visited, I heard tech talk in bars, cafes, on street corners. If I can't get a beer or a coffee or take a walk without hearing about work, it's not for me.

I was on BART a few weeks ago and had two tech dudes strike up a conversation about JIRA directly across me, shouting over the din of rail noise. It can get obnoxious.

JIRA ... the bane of our lives!

Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble

#268

Post by projektir »

thinkfurther wrote: post #249
mcguire wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...because otherwise most of us would be dead. Or would never have lived, which is the same thing, kind of.

If anything had been slightly different whole other sets of sperm would have fertilized the egg, so that's not such an impressive argument. Especially since all of us will be dead at some point, regardless. And funny how that "compassion" doesn't extend to the people crushed every day, the people shrieking in anguish as we speak. The question isn't just how many people are "alive", but what life are they living. What…

I'm in rather strong agreement with your post. There seems to be some brand of, I don't know, utilitarianism? That decided that any life, no matter how wretched, is equal to any other life in the evaluation of how bad things are, when this just can't be correct.

> What would make someone seek power over others? Why has this defect been normalized?

This one, though, I would say comes from biology. Power imbalance is the name of the game of everything in nature. You can find it in monkeys, you can find it in simpler life forms.

At some point, we need to accept where all this garbage originally came from (which is also why it's so resilient and strong) and oppose it, assuming it won't eat us first.

Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble

#269

Post by josiahpeters »

wutbrodo wrote: post #241
josiahpeters wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not like you're just pulling free money out of thin air by using a credit card. And it seems likely that the finance institutions behind the credit cards are offering them as a product that makes money and not as an act of goodwill. If everyone paid their credit cards off at the end of the month like they say they do, do you think credit cards would be advertised or pushed as hard as they are? The finance institu…

> i'm sure there are some people are responsible enough to never incur a finance charge from a credit card by always paying their monthly balance. I've never actually met one of those people. I used to say I was one of those people, but in reality if you had asked to look at my statement history I would have been embarrassed by how many times I ended up paying interest charges for things I probably shouldn't have pur…

> This is a really bizarre assertion: my bubble is such that I've literally never met someone (that I'm aware of, just as with your claim) who _doesn't_ pay their credit cards off in full each month.

I'm probably halfway in between the working class and the tech bubble. In fact I grew up near the poverty line. I have a lot of lower class "technical debt" that I am still working to replace. Most recently my wife and were replacing the non-existent financial skills that my parents and public education system imparted to me. All of that to be said, it's no wonder we have polarized experiences with credit cards.

I did a quick Google search to make sure I wasn't completely off base here. According to the American Bankers Association Credit Card Market Monitor May 2016 report [http://www.aba.com/Press/Documents/ABA2016Q2CreditCardMonito...] 42.1% of Americans are Revolvers (carry a balance and pay interest) and 29.7% of Americans are Transactors who pay their bill in full each month.

I'm not insulted because we we're absolutely being irresponsible with our finances. We didn't have a budget to flow, we we're not saving money for future purchases, and we were very much not in control of where our money was going.

> But I don't justify my weakness by claiming that we'd be better of if dessert never existed[1].

I don't think I was suggesting that credit cards should never exist or that they are evil. I was trying to contrast the fact that even when 29.7% of people are benefiting from 1% - 4% cash back, that 42.1% are not. And that the companies who offer these products are in fact making money on them. Because people like me we're going into debt using them. And in my case, I was buying crap I didn't need and really shouldn't have bought because I truly couldn't afford it. Otherwise I would have always paid my balance in full at the end of the month.

Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble

#270

Post by quickthrower2 »

PeterisP wrote: post #163
tomrod wrote: post #3

Second sentence starts with: > We have a summer home ... Is this common for people living inside the tech bubble?

With the real estate trends being the way they are, that may be more affordable as you think. Real estate in the big cities is sky high, but as people are moving there, other places are getting more and more empty and thus cheaper. Buying a summer house for me would cost ~5% of my main residence cost, and it'd likely be larger. A fun anecdote from a local insurance company handling rural areas - they insure houses fo…

That's negative land value. Doesn't bode well for investment though, but more of a depreciating luxury like a weekend car.
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