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We Could Fix Everything, We Just Don't

erikmcclure.com

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Re: We Could Fix Everything, We Just Don't

#51

Post by zmgsabst »

xboxnolifes wrote: post #39
croes wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>COVID was a great example of this. Was it? How many fought against social distancing, masks and vaccines? Same with climate change, how many fight against necessary measures.

A lot of the people fighting against these things are not feeling the pain. Many people in my family are some degree of anti-vaccine / masking mandates. I can guarantee you that if a single close family member ended up hospitalized due to covid, their tune would do a fast 180. All of their beliefs are based on whether someone they care about had something happen to them.

That sounds like a stereotype — “people who disagree with me are just dumb and emotional!”

Re: We Could Fix Everything, We Just Don't

#52

Post by smsm42 »

[deleted] wrote: post #47
kevmo314 wrote: post #23

> We could be running fiber-optic cable to every house in America, and we even know how much it would cost. That's the problem, isn't it? It costs too much. Of course we can fix everything, we could also do everything in the universe, but the question is at what cost? So here's my modest proposal: > I am here to remind you that it will only get worse unless we do something. The problem isn't painful enough. Have you…

[deleted]

What work do you imply?

Re: We Could Fix Everything, We Just Don't

#53

Post by bawolff »

> What they don’t tell you is that we already have solutions for a lot of problems, we just don’t use them. Sometimes this is because the solution is too expensive, but usually it’s because competing interests create a tragedy of the commons.

If you have a solution that can't be used because it costs too much money or other societal concerns, then you don't have a solution.

Part of making a solution is finding something that works in the real world and not an idealized world.

Re: We Could Fix Everything, We Just Don't

#54

Post by WalterBright »

grecy wrote: post #38
kevmo314 wrote: post #23

> We could be running fiber-optic cable to every house in America, and we even know how much it would cost. That's the problem, isn't it? It costs too much. Of course we can fix everything, we could also do everything in the universe, but the question is at what cost? So here's my modest proposal: > I am here to remind you that it will only get worse unless we do something. The problem isn't painful enough. Have you…

> the question is at what cost? The world will be a wonderful place when schools have all the funding they need and the Air Force must hold a bake sale to pay for new fighter jets. The US spent $8,000,000,000,000 on the "war on terror" [1], while 21% of adults are illiterate [2] [1] https://www.brown.edu/news/2021-09-01/costsofwar [2] https://www.crossrivertherapy.com/research/literacy-statisti...

It's much more expensive to lose a war.

Re: We Could Fix Everything, We Just Don't

#55

Post by eru »

EMIRELADERO wrote: post #22
tonymet wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how did hackernews brew so many well compensated communists.

Because, unlike what classical-liberal economic theory stipulates, human beings aren't inherently selfish. People can succeed under a system and still acknowledge it is a bad one for a big part of the population.

Economics doesn't stipulate selfishness anymore than physics requires cows to be spherical creatures that live in a vacuum.

Re: We Could Fix Everything, We Just Don't

#56

Post by jnsaff2 »

kevmo314 wrote: post #23

> We could be running fiber-optic cable to every house in America, and we even know how much it would cost. That's the problem, isn't it? It costs too much. Of course we can fix everything, we could also do everything in the universe, but the question is at what cost? So here's my modest proposal: > I am here to remind you that it will only get worse unless we do something. The problem isn't painful enough. Have you…

> That's the problem, isn't it? It costs too much.

Is it though?

Or is it that there is not enough profit for someone to make from running fiber to every home?

To be clear I’m not trying to lead with the question but actually ask something and that the difference might be useful.

Re: We Could Fix Everything, We Just Don't

#57

Post by toomuchtodo »

WalterBright wrote: post #54
grecy wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the question is at what cost? The world will be a wonderful place when schools have all the funding they need and the Air Force must hold a bake sale to pay for new fighter jets. The US spent $8,000,000,000,000 on the "war on terror" [1], while 21% of adults are illiterate [2] [1] https://www.brown.edu/news/2021-09-01/costsofwar [2] https://www.crossrivertherapy.com/research/literacy-statisti...

It's much more expensive to lose a war.

We still lost with nothing to show for it but debt for generations, millions of unnecessary deaths, and the TSA. Enjoy the debt service, “support the troops,” and millimeter wave backscatter scans without your shoes.

Re: We Could Fix Everything, We Just Don't

#58

Post by arp242 »

For a lot of things the problem is essentially a problem of scale. Those "ancient human tribes" who did so much better were tribes of 100-200 people, and it's actually not that hard to "do the right thing" with a relatively small group of people.

Blaming it on the two-party system is such a short-sighted US-centric point of view. There are plenty of countries with other types of democracies, and they have roughly similar problems. Details differ and some things are better (and others worse!) but overall: it's not that different.

I don't know about all the individual topics that are mentioned. I'm not an expert of blood cancer and I'm guessing the author isn't either, but ... maybe it's not that simple? The "Preclinical proof-of-concept study" from August 2023 doesn't really sound like "we've solved it, end of story" to me.

"We could fix everything, we just don't" seems far too simplistic. "Everything" encompasses quite a lot, and "I looked at this for a few hours/days and I figured it all out" is classic mistake that people make. Almost everything is conceptually simple. Actually doing it tends to be harder because all those details you didn't account in the high-level overview often do matter.

Re: We Could Fix Everything, We Just Don't

#59

Post by smsm42 »

grecy wrote: post #38
kevmo314 wrote: post #23

> We could be running fiber-optic cable to every house in America, and we even know how much it would cost. That's the problem, isn't it? It costs too much. Of course we can fix everything, we could also do everything in the universe, but the question is at what cost? So here's my modest proposal: > I am here to remind you that it will only get worse unless we do something. The problem isn't painful enough. Have you…

> the question is at what cost? The world will be a wonderful place when schools have all the funding they need and the Air Force must hold a bake sale to pay for new fighter jets. The US spent $8,000,000,000,000 on the "war on terror" [1], while 21% of adults are illiterate [2] [1] https://www.brown.edu/news/2021-09-01/costsofwar [2] https://www.crossrivertherapy.com/research/literacy-statisti...

You are implying the cause of illiteracy is the lack of funds. It is not so - in fact, the very worst schools often spend per pupil the same as the very best ones, or at least very close to it. Throwing money at the problem is not the solution - it would cause the worst schools spend even more and keep churning out ignoramuses. The bad schools are bad not because they can't find money to become good but because the whole system there is broken and it can't be fixed by just giving the same incompetent, ignorant and apathetic people more money to waste.

Re: We Could Fix Everything, We Just Don't

#60

Post by Gigachad »

jnsaff2 wrote: post #56
kevmo314 wrote: post #23

> We could be running fiber-optic cable to every house in America, and we even know how much it would cost. That's the problem, isn't it? It costs too much. Of course we can fix everything, we could also do everything in the universe, but the question is at what cost? So here's my modest proposal: > I am here to remind you that it will only get worse unless we do something. The problem isn't painful enough. Have you…

> That's the problem, isn't it? It costs too much. Is it though? Or is it that there is not enough profit for someone to make from running fiber to every home? To be clear I’m not trying to lead with the question but actually ask something and that the difference might be useful.

That’s the same as it costs too much.
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