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It’s Time to Build

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Re: It’s Time to Build

#861

Post by bsanr2 »

chaseadam17 wrote: post #297

> We need to want these things more than we want to prevent these things. This is like saying we need to want to end poverty more than we want to prevent ending poverty. No one is for poverty, but very few people are against it enough to give up their money, power, or time. We need to want these things enough to make sacrifices > We need to break the rapidly escalating price curves for housing, education, and healthc…

Third, non-voting legislative house. 1 member for every 3500 citizens, geography agnostic; get 3499 of other interested citizens together and elect one of you to represent the group, for whatever policies or interests you care for. Members of this body are the only people who are allowed to meet with the Senate during four annual 6-week periods of sequestration. Outside lobbying by non-individuals is banned. Conversely, "legislative marketing" to the public by individually-controlled entities is banned.

In this way, the arms-length nature of the Senate and the existence of a body close to the public are restored, while disrupting the influence of entrenched, established interests.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#862

Post by vvpan »

danimal88 wrote: post #784

I build tech enabled, innovative physical infrastructure solutions for buildings. People do want them. VCs, less so, unless it's as high margin as a photo sharing app, destructive and lucrative as consumable businesses like Kurig, etc. Consumers don't know what they want until the possibilities are presented to them. VCs are literally the gate keepers of much innovative possibilty at the early phases of enterprises.…

I am not the first to point out that our issue is not the lack of resources, but the inability to direct them in a meaningful way. The idea that free-market dynamics will create the best resource allocation is just hard to believe. People will say that "well other system do we have!?" which to me is defeatist, assume the worst from human race kind of approach. There are people out there doing much research on coordination, new ways to have a democracy, novel voting systems (say, quadratic voting). We need to believe that we can do better.

A seminal article on the failure of the chaotic human coordination to-date is "Meditation on the Moloch". https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/

Here's a passage I liked:

> Like all good mystical experiences, it happened in Vegas. I was standing on top of one of their many tall buildings, looking down at the city below, all lit up in the dark. If you’ve never been to Vegas, it is really impressive. Skyscrapers and lights in every variety strange and beautiful all clustered together. And I had two thoughts, crystal clear:

> It is glorious that we can create something like this.

> It is shameful that we did.

> Like, by what standard is building gigantic forty-story-high indoor replicas of Venice, Paris, Rome, Egypt, and Camelot side-by-side, filled with albino tigers, in the middle of the most inhospitable desert in North America, a remotely sane use of our civilization’s limited resources?

Re: It’s Time to Build

#863

Post by wool_gather »

vvpan wrote: post #862
danimal88 wrote: post #784

I build tech enabled, innovative physical infrastructure solutions for buildings. People do want them. VCs, less so, unless it's as high margin as a photo sharing app, destructive and lucrative as consumable businesses like Kurig, etc. Consumers don't know what they want until the possibilities are presented to them. VCs are literally the gate keepers of much innovative possibilty at the early phases of enterprises.…

I am not the first to point out that our issue is not the lack of resources, but the inability to direct them in a meaningful way. The idea that free-market dynamics will create the best resource allocation is just hard to believe. People will say that "well other system do we have!?" which to me is defeatist, assume the worst from human race kind of approach. There are people out there doing much research on coordin…

If you haven't read it already, "Moloch Hasn't Won" is an interesting series of essays expanding from "Meditations on Moloch": https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ham9i5wf4JCexXnkN/moloch-has...

Re: It’s Time to Build

#865

Post by lucio »

Talanes wrote: post #649
lookdangerous wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder what you think about the necessity of the health insurance industry? Seeing as how apparently it began as a sort of subscription service to keep hospitals afloat when beds were empty... It is a lot to wrap my mind around, but I have the general feeling that insurance drives the prices of health care way up and we would be better if we could all pay out of pocket for most things, but be covered by a true 'ris…

I've never looked for data to back this up, but I had a teacher outline the following theory of healthcare costs. Insurance companies have out-sized bargaining power and will only pay a fraction of the list-price for a procedure. Doctor's know this, so prices inflate to the point where the negotiated price is in line with what they'll actually do it for. Everyone who is not insured or not covered for that procedure e…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeDOQpfaUc8 With references

Re: It’s Time to Build

#866

Post by metabagel »

bigbob2 wrote: post #803
quietthrow wrote: post #313

Since you are reading why nations fail I would like to recommend a pairing. How democracies die by Daniel Ziblatt and Steven Levitsky. The central thesis here is parties are the gatekeepers of democracies and when they put party before nation they erode the democracy that eventually fails. More often it’s a slow degrade than a sudden spectacular collapse. The erosion paves way for leaders that are more “spectacular”…

Very convenient way for party insiders to justify coronation of their preferred candidates regardless of "benefit to the nation." This same line of "gatekeeper" reasoning is exactly what justifies polling locations being closed and reopened elsewhere without notifying voters, years-long revolving door media propaganda campaigns, and accusing everyone who disagrees of being a Russian asset. The Republicans and Democra…

“ The Republicans and Democrats alike are guilty of such behavior.”

This isn’t a useful line of thinking. We can and should draw distinctions between the two parties. They aren’t the same. Pretending they are just muddies the waters.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#867

Post by mindslight »

seibelj wrote: post #588
novalis78 wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it starts with the financial system. The current system incentivizes bureaucracy, regulation and stagnation in part due to the cantillion effect but also indirectly because it destroys capital, increases debt and prevents a savings / capital asset accumulation desire in the populace. Say what you want about the gold standard but it did lead to the great industrial revolution in such a short period of time pro…

Another benefit of a hard-money system (bitcoin would be better than gold nowadays) is that governments can only wage war by spending hard money. And they can only get hard money by extracting it from citizens. It puts a very strong limitation on the government’s ability to wage war, when they need to convince us all to pay for it rather than printing money. Another common trope is that deflation limits the economy.…

I generally agree with your viewpoint, but the argument against deflation isn't from needing to clerically split currency units, but rather that having currency itself appreciate delays purchases and causes the economy to stall.

But deflation doesn't seem to have held computing back much. And when someone wants a loaf of bread, they're going to buy it regardless of being able to save if they wait a week. I do agree that it will generally slow the economy, and this is a good thing for sustainability and conserving natural resources.

A good indicator that we're well past prudent investing into basically gambling is the SV bubble where equity is paying to flood cities with inexpensive e-scooters, hoping to create a culture of renting them so they can gain a future income stream. The physical goods are so meaningless to the financials that many end up destroyed or discarded. That's the kind of "investing" that the past two decades of artificially low interest rates have caused.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#868

Post by preommr »

kyletns wrote: post #860
jeremyjh wrote: post #831

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Democrats did a fine job "gatekeeping" Sanders from the 2016 and 2020 nomination, to what end? I don't understand this perspective. Sanders lost because he lost primary elections. That happened because democrats didn't believe in him as a candidate. Many of us have been steadfast in our disbelief for years due only to listening to what he himself says about what he wants to do. Why discredit our opinions this w…

Sorry, but if you don't think the entire Democratic machine has been working against a Sanders win for 5 years, you haven't been doing enough research. I know you don't like him, and you are 100% entitled to dislike and vote against him - but to pretend that he lost only because he wasn't popular enough is pretty blind to how our democracy runs.

Not having enough support is the only reason he lost. The DNC didn't go in and tamper votes.

I've seen many sanders supporters get upset over things that they perceive as unfair like how candidates dropped out to stop splitting the vote.

Every single candidate has had complaints about being treated unfairly. People were calling joe's campaign dead in the water. Yang got upset enough that he called out networks in a very public manner.

And yea, Sanders wasn't supported by the establishment. But like we've seen with Trump, the establishment doesn't matter if the candidate has real support. Obama was a no name senator that beat the most establishment character ever because he had that support.

Sanders had a lot of problems as a candidate, and those are the real reasons that he lost rather than conspiracy theories about machinations by the elite.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#869

Post by lucio »

hyko wrote: post #566
kebman wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody want's a new McDonald's destroying their old status quo in their country. People don't want one-world-gov. They want disparate nations, that have charm and local uniqueness. Except that goes directly towards harmonizing international (trade) laws. If you want a lesson, check out how Lidl did in Norway when they challenged local chain stores.

The failure of Lidl in Norway due to vested interests is an argument for one world government. Maybe if we had one government we’d finally be able to settle on one electrical plug, which side of the road to drive on etc. etc. Imagine if every country developed its own indigenous WiFi standard? How lovely, until you want to read your email. Charm and uniqueness is great on a postcard, but not when you want to actually…

one world standard is not the same as one world government.

one world full bureaucrats regulate-everything-to-death government is a dystopian nightmare.

"Were we directed from Washington when to sow, and when to reap, we should soon want bread" --Thomas Jefferson

"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."

--Ronald Reagan

Re: It’s Time to Build

#870

Post by pascalxus »

GuiA wrote: post #824
pascalxus wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly why we need innovation in politics. Imagine for a second, that you declare a region, say 1 square mile, somewhere as almost completely free of all regulations. Then, let all the companies that want to build there, go nuts and build whatever they want. This then serves as an innovation incubator, and an example for the rest of the nation as to what can be built, when we allow it to be built. Imagine th…

> Imagine for a second, that you declare a region, say 1 square mile, somewhere as almost completely free of all regulations. Can you murder your competitors in this 1 square mile? Can you steal their inventory? Can you hijack their equipment? Can you threaten their employees? Can you force your employees to work overtime till they drop? Can you dump all your industrial waste wherever you want in that 1 square mile?…

I'm talking about the regulation that prevents stuff from being built. obviously all the normal laws like no murder would still be in place.
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