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Amount of work that once bought an hour of light now buys 51 years of it (2017)

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Re: Amount of work that once bought an hour of light now buys 51 years of it (2017)

#141

Post by derefr »

tiedieconderoga wrote: post #120

Buying an hour of fire feels quantitatively different from buying an hour of light. When I go camping, my solar-fed LED lanterns are plenty bright, but I still need to cook and stay warm. I can do that using heat, which the efficient lights cannot produce in sufficient quantities.

> I can do that using heat, which the efficient lights cannot produce in sufficient quantities.

Ever tried an infrared lightbulb? (They often put them in bathrooms as something you can turn on after you shower to dry the bathroom out more quickly, usually in combination with a vent fan.)

Re: Amount of work that once bought an hour of light now buys 51 years of it (2017)

#142

Post by ryeights »

ticviking wrote: post #124
ryeights wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m a bit confused then… what exactly do you propose the average American should put in their sandwiches—your suggestion—at a $40/mo budget? Eggs and lentils?

What is so bad about beans, rice and eggs with some onions and cheap canned veggies that it's insane to suggest that kind of budget?

Nothing is objectively “bad” about that, but it is an insane stretch to call that “great food.” That is subsistence eating.

Moreover—can you put beans, rice, eggs, and mixed veggies in a sandwich? Because a sandwich was one of OP’s “$40/mo” suggestions. A food budget where a simple ham and cheese sandwich is an unimaginable luxury is ridiculous to propose as a reasonable target.

Re: Amount of work that once bought an hour of light now buys 51 years of it (2017)

#143

Post by jollyllama »

Nextgrid wrote: post #139
jollyllama wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was thinking about this recently. People will get evicted before not paying their cell phone bill, now. This would have been unthinkable 15 years ago.

The price of a cell phone bill will make no difference to someone in an eviction situation and a cell phone is pretty much essential to participate in society today. Rich people can virtue-signal all day long about how they live without a phone, but if you're poor and a potential employer or benefits office asks you for a phone number to process your application you can't afford to risk losing or delaying the opportu…

>Rich people can virtue-signal...

I understand that it makes sense in a lot of cases.

Re: Amount of work that once bought an hour of light now buys 51 years of it (2017)

#144

Post by itake »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #82
vineyardmike wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is actually well documented. There has been a notable increase in prices couples with an increase in women working (instead of staying home). It’s not a 1:1 increase of price to household income, but it’s well documented, and geographically correlated to rate of double-income households.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Two-Income_Trap

The wiki summary suggest rising costs causes both parents to work, but my postulation is the opposite: two family working causes rising costs: Women wanting to work has caused families to have more disposable income, causing inflation for everyone.

Re: Amount of work that once bought an hour of light now buys 51 years of it (2017)

#145

Post by charcircuit »

derefr wrote: post #140
ltbarcly3 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone in the US can go to a library and borrow a cookbook for free. If you are out of ideas you can do that too.

Great, now I need to own a car and afford gas to drive 40mi to the nearest library. (More importantly, now I need to have a kitchen to cook in .) You realize that there are people who are homeless and who live in areas that don't have any support systems for homelessness (e.g. homeless shelters), right?

Libraries can mail books to you.

Re: Amount of work that once bought an hour of light now buys 51 years of it (2017)

#146

Post by ryeights »

ltbarcly3 wrote: post #122
ryeights wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m a bit confused then… what exactly do you propose the average American should put in their sandwiches—your suggestion—at a $40/mo budget? Eggs and lentils?

Anyone in the US can go to a library and borrow a cookbook for free. If you are out of ideas you can do that too.

Dodging the question… provide me one example of a nutritious set of sandwich ingredients that can be procured at a cost of 43¢ per serving (assuming you spend a generous third of your $1.30 a day budget on just a sandwich). Bread alone would cost that much.

Re: Amount of work that once bought an hour of light now buys 51 years of it (2017)

#147

Post by constantcrying »

somewhat_drunk wrote: post #43
johnklos wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not racist for bringing it up - it's racist for blaming immigrants when it's the wealthy buying up and hoarding land and property, coupled with an out of control healthcare system, stagnant wages while corporate profits are huge, and lobbyists keeping politicians from meaningfully changing anything. I couldn't take you seriously, anyway. 2.7 million illegal border crossings have zero to do with 1.6 million housi…

>2.7 million illegal border crossings have zero to do with 1.6 million housing units Only if you assume all 2.7 million people are now homeless. Price is a function of supply and demand. Obviously, increasing the number of people within a system without commensurately increasing housing will result in upward pressure on housing prices. You could argue that the system-wide effect is minimal, but you would need data to…

Completely absurd what reactions you get when you point up obvious facts, like immigration increasing demand for housing.

This is especially true for cities, as that is where migrants obviously want to go and where new construction is much harder. Pretending that it is somehow not the case, is making things just worse and worse.

Re: Amount of work that once bought an hour of light now buys 51 years of it (2017)

#148

Post by inglor_cz »

ltbarcly3 wrote: post #108
ryeights wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You must be incredibly out of touch if you think $40 a month is a reasonable budget for “great food.” 2 weeks worth of ham and cheese sandwiches alone would eat up the majority of that figure.

Ham and cheese are both notoriously expensive though, and not especially healthy. One day of filet mignon would eat up the whole budget, but thats not an argument against what I said. As for out of touch, I grew up eating government peanut butter and free school lunches. Lots of years that is all I ate. Food assistance is great and we should do more, but jeff bezos hording wealth isn't causing people to starve as gp…

"not especially healthy"

Our knowledge of what is healthy is spotty at best, but plenty of countries that eat a lot of ham and cheese (France, Spain, Italy) are fairly OK health-wise, so it certainly seems to indicate that there is nothing seriously wrong about either.

Re: Amount of work that once bought an hour of light now buys 51 years of it (2017)

#150

Post by inglor_cz »

derefr wrote: post #140
ltbarcly3 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone in the US can go to a library and borrow a cookbook for free. If you are out of ideas you can do that too.

Great, now I need to own a car and afford gas to drive 40mi to the nearest library. (More importantly, now I need to have a kitchen to cook in .) You realize that there are people who are homeless and who live in areas that don't have any support systems for homelessness (e.g. homeless shelters), right?

YouTube has a lot of recipes, plus shows you exactly what to do - for people who haven't learnt to cook from their parents.

But of course, there will always be people falling through any cracks. That does not mean that the original piece of advice isn't sound, though.

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