Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Amazon Has Transformed the Hasidic Economy

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 175 posts

Re: Amazon Has Transformed the Hasidic Economy

#121

Post by hunter2_ »

Smithalicious wrote: post #109
toasterlovin wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For some reason the bi-weekly vs. semi-weekly thing doesn't confuse me, but I take your point and the dictionary seems to agree that it can mean either every two weeks or twice a week.

It confuses me because I regularly hear "bi-weekly" to mean "twice per week". I don't think I've ever heard someone say semi-weekly. Usually you can make a good guess of the intended meaning from context, but the two time intervals are similar enough that it's frequently ambiguous.

Interesting... in my area (NYC) I only hear people say it to mean 14 days. I suppose the rationale is to think of "bi" as "two" (precisely as you'd do for bicycle, bisexual, binomial, etc.) rather than as "twice" and then the ambiguity disappears. Counterexample supporting ambiguity: the word bisect, which means two sections, but can quite easily also be thought of as halving!

Re: Amazon Has Transformed the Hasidic Economy

#122

Post by [deleted] »

ars wrote: post #72
joecool1029 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Understand that the way Buzzfeed covered it obscures the very real fact that there's a huge amount of controversy regarding this specific Satmar Hasidic community. This is not a question of Antisemitism, there have been very real issues directly caused by prominent rabbis within this community. These controversies are known to pretty much anyone in the NY metro area, so it makes sense that the NYTimes (being located…

> this commitment translates into a 28% poverty rate The table used to calculate federal poverty level doesn't scale correctly to high numbers of children. You can make rather a lot of money, yet be considered poor if you have lots of children. Additional children don't cost as much as the federal government thinks.

[deleted]

Re: Amazon Has Transformed the Hasidic Economy

#123

Post by logjammin »

joecool1029 wrote: post #62
fortran77 wrote: post #2

Buzz Feed News (yes!) covered this same story with much more sensitivity several weeks ago. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/leticiamiranda/amazon-o...

Understand that the way Buzzfeed covered it obscures the very real fact that there's a huge amount of controversy regarding this specific Satmar Hasidic community. This is not a question of Antisemitism, there have been very real issues directly caused by prominent rabbis within this community. These controversies are known to pretty much anyone in the NY metro area, so it makes sense that the NYTimes (being located…

Not to mention child sexual abuse scandals in these communities in the NYC area.

Edit: hadn't seen an earlier poster's comment on this, my bad.

Edit 2: it's worth mentioning that the fraud/welfare issue is a massive political hot-button topic in Israel: many Israelis resent having to pay taxes to support hasidim who in many cases don't contribute to society: they don't serve in the army, they don't work, they don't go to university, but they have lots of children and get welfare for them and themselves. Current electoral brouhaha over there is at least partly driven by related issues and the overall religious-secular divide. It's fascinating reading!

Re: Amazon Has Transformed the Hasidic Economy

#124

Post by LegitShady »

defterGoose wrote: post #87
searine wrote: post #17

Considering how prevalent state-provided aid is among ultra-conservative sects like this, it is good to see a viable career path for them.

Kinda funny how antithetical that is to tradional conservative values regarding entitlements.

the 'conservative' here does not refer to traditional conservative politics that include those values. You're being confused by two definitions of 'conservative'.

Re: Amazon Has Transformed the Hasidic Economy

#125

Post by tacocataco »

joecool1029 wrote: post #62
fortran77 wrote: post #2

Buzz Feed News (yes!) covered this same story with much more sensitivity several weeks ago. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/leticiamiranda/amazon-o...

Understand that the way Buzzfeed covered it obscures the very real fact that there's a huge amount of controversy regarding this specific Satmar Hasidic community. This is not a question of Antisemitism, there have been very real issues directly caused by prominent rabbis within this community. These controversies are known to pretty much anyone in the NY metro area, so it makes sense that the NYTimes (being located…

I think that says more about the complexity of getting and utilizing welfare services being used as a way to keep people who qualify away from the benefits they deserve.

Re: Amazon Has Transformed the Hasidic Economy

#126

Post by Spooky23 »

jermaustin1 wrote: post #41
undefined3840 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up with a lot of Mormons...anecdotally would say their families were more often SMB owners than not. Utah also has a pretty happening tech scene nowadays.

I grew up in a small Texas town with an outsized population of Mormons, and the ones I knew were either public sector or business owners.

That’s a common SMB and family farm model.

Husband runs the business, wife works for the county/town/school for the healthcare and pension.

Re: Amazon Has Transformed the Hasidic Economy

#127

Post by wyclif »

bluedino wrote: post #57
pchristensen wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For Latter-day Saints (Mormons), the entrepreneurship roots go back to the early church history. Between 1831-1847, members of the church established 4 settlements and were expelled from 3(Kirtland, OH; Western Missouri; Nauvoo, IL; Salt Lake City). These areas were all frontiers at the time, and grew to become the largest cities in their region, which drew fear and persecution from people in the surrounding areas. S…

WordPerfect was ran by Mormons, wasn't it? I'd love to hear some stories (I already read Almost Perfect)

Yes, out of Orem, UT.

Re: Amazon Has Transformed the Hasidic Economy

#128

Post by 8note »

Alupis wrote: post #92
GhettoMaestro wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice! I wonder if the vendor gets his money earlier from Amazon if he delivered it faster.

> I wonder if the vendor gets his money earlier from Amazon if he delivered it faster No - Amazon pays sellers every other week.

not every order will show up on the next payment though; to my knowledge, they can be delayed until some amount of time after the order is placed or after it's arrived

Re: Amazon Has Transformed the Hasidic Economy

#129

Post by pmiller2 »

joecool1029 wrote: post #62
fortran77 wrote: post #2

Buzz Feed News (yes!) covered this same story with much more sensitivity several weeks ago. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/leticiamiranda/amazon-o...

Understand that the way Buzzfeed covered it obscures the very real fact that there's a huge amount of controversy regarding this specific Satmar Hasidic community. This is not a question of Antisemitism, there have been very real issues directly caused by prominent rabbis within this community. These controversies are known to pretty much anyone in the NY metro area, so it makes sense that the NYTimes (being located…

One thing you left out is that despite their insularity, the Hasidim vote, in large numbers, and largely the way their rabbis instruct them to. Combine this with the fact that they have very large families, and you can see how they can quickly become very politically powerful.

Re: Amazon Has Transformed the Hasidic Economy

#130

Post by crooked-v »

ars wrote: post #101
klank wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you back that up with some additional data? According to this: https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/federal-poverty-level-fp... A family of 8 is under the poverty level if they make less than $43,430. I'd not consider that to be a "rather a lot of money" if raising 8 children is involved.

$43,430 is the number that the federal government considers to be abject poverty. Clearly it's not though. But use your chart to check the 250% level often used as a cut off for services. You can make a 6 figure income and still be considered poor.

$43,430 split 8 ways is $5428.75/person/year, before taxes.
Post reply on HN