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

Trading Time for Money

nicolasbouliane.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 159 posts

Re: Trading Time for Money

#131

Post by nicbou »

balfirevic wrote: post #90
taneq wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you give everyone a fixed amount of money, won't the cost of things just rise accordingly? I hear this argument a lot but I don't think it necessarily follows: - The supply of low end goods (the sort which you can afford with your UBI) is highly automated and will increase rapidly for any small price increase, making their pricing fairly inelastic. - The demand for these goods won't rise greatly (except for low…

That's probably true, except for one important category of goods that has a tendency to suck as much income from people as they can bear - housing. It is true that with UBI people have the option to move somewhere where housing is inexpensive, but I don't think it's desirable to have people already dependent on UBI move to places with lower economic opportunity - cementing their dependence on it. That being said, exp…

Healthcare, education, nursing and any other industry affected by cost disease likely won't get any cheaper either.

Re: Trading Time for Money

#132

Post by nicbou »

tt433 wrote: post #71
nicbou wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sincerely doubt that basic income will make us all Victorian-era gentleman scientists and patrons of the arts. I agree with the premise that culture comes from leisure, but realistically, if you give everyone a fixed amount of money, won't the cost of things just rise accordingly? Instead of giving people free money, wouldn't it make more sense to heavily subsidise the basics? Is there any indication that UBI would…

Not who you are replying to that's a bit of a strawman: he never said anything about Victorian era gentlemen. The book he mentioned doesn't either, at least in the first few pages. Why do you start talking about that? Usually when other people mis-state what I say, I get pretty angry.

It was tongue-in-cheek way to say "make art and pursue other hobbies".

Re: Trading Time for Money

#133

Post by nicbou »

paulryanrogers wrote: post #103
nicbou wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> wouldn’t such knowledge spread quickly and become common knowledge How to lose weight is open knowledge, but that doesn't make it easier, doubly so if you are also fighting other battles. Sometimes there is a solution, but it's just not attainable for everyone. > are there any real life hacks that are not obvious that result in significant quality of life improvements? I didn't want to make this post about my own l…

How do you cover medical when freelancing? Do you have a family to support?

https://allaboutberlin.com/guides/german-health-insurance

Health insurance is tightly regulated in Germany. It's not free, but it's very, very unlikely to bankrupt me.

Re: Trading Time for Money

#134

Post by nicbou »

pilom wrote: post #117
dilippkumar wrote: post #3

So roughly, the author is saying something like: if ( outsourcing_cost * alpha > opportunity_cost ) { outsource(); } and discusses how that alpha should be calculated. The author also mentions some side benefits of doing some tasks and getting better at them. Does HN have any thoughts about living a smaller life by doing fewer things and having more time to just live and enjoy life? If spending time figuring out how…

"In other words, are there any real life hacks that are not obvious that result in significant quality of life improvements?" Get a comfy bed. Buy comfortable shoes. Spend more money on things that make you happy and less money on things that others tell you should make you happier. Housing is a great example, there is a lot of evidence that housing size doesn't improve happiness but living close to work and minimizi…

I sort of disagree. You might end up buying yourself a really nice cage. I'd rather ride a bicycle around the country than drive a Mercedes to work.

Re: Trading Time for Money

#135

Post by nicbou »

depablo wrote: post #114

I don't agree with the point you made about groceries. These costs are always fixed. No matter how much you earn. And therefore they are irrelevant to the opportunity cost. For reference, if you earn 20k a month, your grocery expenses will roughly stay the same to earning 5k a month. They won't be 35% of your income (that would be 7000€ of groceries for 20k of income). Working more hours does not result in higher gro…

Static expenses also affect your disposable income. You can't pay someone with the money that's allocated to rent.

Insurance is also a static cost past a certain income. Income tax is progressive. You still consider those. It just makes the gross/disposable income relationship non-linear.

Re: Trading Time for Money

#136

Post by nicbou »

forgotmypw17 wrote: post #70
nicbou wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Professionals cut corners to cut costs. I accidentally chop them off because I'm tired and incompetent.

tired because you have traded away your sleeping time for money?

Tired because I am stuck maintaining a bunch of dumb things I decided to build, if we're being honest.

Re: Trading Time for Money

#137

Post by depablo »

nicbou wrote: post #135
depablo wrote: post #114

I don't agree with the point you made about groceries. These costs are always fixed. No matter how much you earn. And therefore they are irrelevant to the opportunity cost. For reference, if you earn 20k a month, your grocery expenses will roughly stay the same to earning 5k a month. They won't be 35% of your income (that would be 7000€ of groceries for 20k of income). Working more hours does not result in higher gro…

Static expenses also affect your disposable income. You can't pay someone with the money that's allocated to rent. Insurance is also a static cost past a certain income. Income tax is progressive. You still consider those. It just makes the gross/disposable income relationship non-linear.

Yes, but static expenses don't make a difference for opportunity costs. You have to pay these costs either way.

Re: Trading Time for Money

#138

Post by okthenletssee »

aynyc wrote: post #127
okthenletssee wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even simpler example: you don't get paid for eating food. Does that imply food has no value?

That’s a bad argument because you need to eat to survive, unless you don’t value human lives. So, yes, eating food has value.

The point is that just because you don't get paid for doing it, it doesn't mean that an activity has no value.

Your entire way of thinking about economics is wrong.

Re: Trading Time for Money

#139

Post by nelgaard »

GordonS wrote: post #125
robocat wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know a sample of people on “basic income”: they are on unemployment benefits (or similar.) I am unsure I see any correlation with higher output of culture, art, religion etcetera from those on benefits, even though they may have under-the-table income for necessary tools and consumables. They often do spend more time on family and friends though.

I don't see how that's a valid comparison - unemployment benefits are barely enough to survive on, and those in receipt are both stigmatised by society and pressured by the government to find a job ASAP. Basic income is about giving everyone a "no-catches" income that's enough to actually live on, rather than merely survive on.

And how much is that? This always comes up and we always hear that it will be enough to live on, but it will not break the budget.

Give us some ballpark number please.

Danish unemployment benefits are not that low. It depends what you earned before. But it can be DKK 19300 ($3100)/month.

That is taxable income, so the state get some back. On the other hand people on unemployment benefit also get many other benefits.

So multiplying that with 4.8 mio adult Danes we get 1 trillion DKK. The BNP is 2.3 trillion DKK (most likely a lot less after UBI). So what would a post UBI budget look like? You could cut pensions, kindergardens, special support for children, housing support, etc. But that would not be enough.

There have been some experiments. But they all have very little to with UBI. They are not even trying. They usually only last a couple of years and the participants are few and poor.

It would be more interesting with with a 20 year experiment that gave UBI to

* Totally randomly selected citizens * University graduates * People in low or middle income jobs that are boring. (Dilbert Land) * Nurses

I think someone is just scared that they would end up giving $3000/months to some investment banker, that use it to slightly expand his wine cellar.

Re: Trading Time for Money

#140

Post by robocat »

notahacker wrote: post #101
robocat wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you believe in UBI, and you have an average US income, you can already do your own UBI scheme by donating some portion of your income to a group of people in a poor country. Have you done that? If not, why not?

To provide UBI rather than targeted charitable aid to people assessed as being needy, they should probably donate that portion of their income to a randomly selected US citizen instead. (Though I agree that the targeted poverty relief payment to those with the greatest need for extra dollars would be a better use of the funds)

Cool concept!

Preferably instead the IRS could allow tax-free donations that are equally spread across every resident citizen.

I recall there is some wierd statistical winner-takes-all outcome to random payments within a population - maybe something to do with losing your whole stake?

Post reply on HN