America’s Oldest Gun Maker Went Bankrupt: A Financial Engineering Mystery • Hacker News Board

Re: America’s Oldest Gun Maker Went Bankrupt: A Financial Engineering Mystery

#281

Post by r00fus » Sat, May 04, 2019, 5:26 AM UTC

ergothus wrote: post #22

Simulacra wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also the issue - perhaps - of market saturation. How many guns does one need? My pro-gun friends typically seem to have 2-3 but shy away from any more than that.

Compare to social media games like Farmville - most people might spend money they personally consider excessive, but that balances out with some other forms of entertainment. Meanwhile I've heard they had people spending upwards of $10k PER MONTH. Enough so that it wasn't "that one weirdo". So while the "average" owner might have 1-3 guns (in this case), and the average "fanatic" might have 5-10, you have enough obse…

Ah, the "whale" model. Of course, what's to seperate a whale from an investor looking to goose the numbers to get his % higher?

Re: America’s Oldest Gun Maker Went Bankrupt: A Financial Engineering Mystery

#282

Post by SlowRobotAhead » Sat, May 04, 2019, 5:34 AM UTC

walshemj wrote: post #206

SlowRobotAhead wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost all snipers in the US military today are still using a some Remington 700. The Mk13 which is expected to replace the Marine's scout snipers M40 is 700-pattern, just not built by Remington. You're going to be right soon, just not yet. Likewise, "The Military" is still using Rem 870 and Mossberg 500 shotguns. The "other military" that is, the IRS, Deptartments of Interior, Energy, Education, and everything else;…

They haven't switched to Accuracy International sniper specific rifels - the classic British two guys in a shed company.

The Mk13 isn’t an AI. The ya a 700 letters Stiller with an AI AX chassis. And yea, I wrote they haven’t switched.

Re: America’s Oldest Gun Maker Went Bankrupt: A Financial Engineering Mystery

#283

Post by ericd » Sat, May 04, 2019, 5:34 AM UTC

iamnothere wrote: post #279

ericd wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't mean that derisively, btw. I think it's perfectly fine to want to focus on other things besides raising children. We don't need more people being raised by parents who don't want to raise them. I do think we can modify our drives, though, and that free will isn't quite as much of an illusion as you say. Visualization is pretty powerful. But you're right that there's not necessarily a real point. If it's a co…

> I do think we can modify our drives, though, and that free will isn't quite as much of an illusion as you say. Visualization is pretty powerful. I agree that our drives can be modified, but who is modifying them, and based on what drives? And where does the drive to modify ourselves come from? It's turtles all the way down. To quote Hofstadter: "In the end, we self-perceiving, self-inventing, locked-in mirages are…

Heh fair enough.

Re: America’s Oldest Gun Maker Went Bankrupt: A Financial Engineering Mystery

#284

Post by dingaling » Sat, May 04, 2019, 5:59 AM UTC

sokoloff wrote: post #216

WorldMaker wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This doesn't get mentioned often enough when talking about the "1-percenters" and the wealth gap in Western countries, i.e. that most of the capital behind all of the current economic and social system is directly or indirectly held by part of the general populace itself. I think the keyword there is indirectly . It's still easy to blame the 1-percenters for the proportional lion's share of the blame when the major…

> the 401k...is also a full time job that the 401k "owner" doesn't need on top of their existing job that pays into the 401k in the first place Really? I can't imagine how to spend 20 hours per year on 401(k) related topics, let alone 40 hours per week on it. If you're under 40, buy a broad-based stock fund and forget about it. (Probably true if you're under 50.) Use the 40K hours you save by not having this extra "f…

> buy a broad-based stock fund and forget about it

The stock fund is a product designed by a third-party to make money for them, which was the poster's point about you not being in control of your pension in that case.

Re: America’s Oldest Gun Maker Went Bankrupt: A Financial Engineering Mystery

#285

Post by mschuster91 » Sat, May 04, 2019, 6:03 AM UTC

ericd wrote: post #268

mschuster91 wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She's one medical emergency or expensive treatment (cancer) away from bankruptcy anyway, which can wipe out her savings in an instant. No matter what, there will always be debt collectors looming over her head.

Insurance is a thing... you do have to build up enough savings to survive while not working, but that’s doable if you don’t blow everything on traveling and other luxuries.

I doubt this. Even as a German I regularly get healthcare gofundme's in my twitter feed. HN frontpage regularly has horror stories about billing, including "out of network" hospitals in emergencies.

There is no way one can build up savings to shoulder such shit, much less are savings to be used for medical issues!

Re: America’s Oldest Gun Maker Went Bankrupt: A Financial Engineering Mystery

#286

Post by dingaling » Sat, May 04, 2019, 6:05 AM UTC

leesalminen wrote: post #134

everdrive wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because selfish behavior is still wrong even if it's incentivized by a system.

I don’t believe that looking out for one’s own interests (“selfish”) is wrong. My dad taught me a valuable lesson as a child- the world owes you nothing and as long as you understand that you'll be fine. I take that to mean that nobody else will look out for you so you have to do what's best for you. In my situation, my employees profited nicely from a PE acquisition. They all got a sizeable transaction bonus. Not on…

> the world owes you nothing and as long as you understand that you'll be fine

Conversely, without the World you are nothing. You can't survive without the help of others.

Re: America’s Oldest Gun Maker Went Bankrupt: A Financial Engineering Mystery

#287

Post by Kephael » Sat, May 04, 2019, 7:26 AM UTC

kyrieeschaton wrote: post #259

jcranmer wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is an intriguing trend in the United States where, for the past several decades, the number of gun owners has gone down but the number of guns has gone up.

That claim is solely based on survey data, and there has been a undeniable trend towards false responses as people become more discreet. It goes hand-in-hand with the move towards home manufacturing.

I would never truthfully answer a survey asking me about firearms.

Re: America’s Oldest Gun Maker Went Bankrupt: A Financial Engineering Mystery

#288

Post by inflatableDodo » Sat, May 04, 2019, 9:26 AM UTC

moneywoes wrote: post #272

ericd wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main drive/purpose of life is to continue and spread itself, that’s just fundamental biology. You’re free to opt out of that and define your own goals (it sounds like enjoying yourself is your goal), but without another generation to pass it on to, everything that every human has ever done will have been pointless, because the purpose of most of what we do is to help humans. And what we collectively leave them wi…

So having offspring is basically the primary goal of our species?

Surely that is secondary to coming up with bad puns.

Re: America’s Oldest Gun Maker Went Bankrupt: A Financial Engineering Mystery

#289

Post by tempodox » Sat, May 04, 2019, 9:27 AM UTC

iscrewyou wrote: post #101

_bxg1 wrote: post #77

"Financial engineers" aren't interested in building a sustainable business; they want to play a game cleverly, make a cash-grab, jump ship, and leave thousands dealing with the fallout. It's a similar short-term strategy to that taken by many SV founders who build a company only to sell it, though obviously the latter don't cause nearly the same degree of harm to society. But they still pass on opportunities to creat…

I love the term financial engineers. In my head, it defines the person, the procedure, and the purpose.

I'd prefer the term “capitalism hackers”.

Re: America’s Oldest Gun Maker Went Bankrupt: A Financial Engineering Mystery

#290

Post by Spooky23 » Sat, May 04, 2019, 11:18 AM UTC

nickelcitymario wrote: post #147

UweSchmidt wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well then our intuition is wrong. If your finances throughout your life are not in order, if you have high debt, regardless if it's because of medical bills, student loans or too big a car and house, you are in a weak position. What good does a nice car do if you worry about bills and if you try to avoid to look at the balance in your banking app? You don't always know how rich some folks are, but for the most part i…

Well, thought experiment: John lives in extreme poverty. He's debt free, but is unable to adequately feed himself or his family. Several of his children have died from malnutrition. Marc lives in a nice suburban home, has 3 square meals a day, so does everyone in his family. However, his debts (including his mortgage, car payments, student loans) exceed his savings. If our intuition is wrong, then John is winning. He…

John isn’t someone of sound mind living in the US.

Both cases are poor examples. Financial health has two components; assets and cash flow. John can be in a better situation if his cash flow is good and he is solvent, but will always be facing more risks if he lacks key assets like a home.