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Sacrificing everything for my dog. How I became a programmer

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Re: Sacrificing everything for my dog. How I became a programmer

#81

Post by hga »

flyinRyan wrote: post #64
eshvk wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Since I never clarified what I meant and you came up with such a specific notion, it would appear you're projecting some defensiveness here. Correct, I was taking up an example, which is why I used the phrase "one might say ". I didn't advocate a specific position (higher or lower taxes). I am completely detached; I don't participate in the political system in America (neither do I plan to ever) so I simply don't c…

>The problem that bugs me is this presumption that the people are not cognizant of what is good for them. Go to America. Live there for a while. Move to a red state and actually talk to people. This presumption won't seem so arrogant when you meet so many people for which there is no other logical conclusion to make. >I would argue that it is not in Warren Buffett's self interest to vote for higher taxes It's not, bu…

I grew up in and retired to a reddest of Red State America, spent a dozen year in the very Blue State Boston area and a dozen in the D.C. area, which was sort of mixed but plenty Blue State, and I have to say that this "What's the Matter with Kansas" false consciousness thesis is presumptuous bunk.

It basically labels our different concerns, or different weighting of various concerns, as illegitimate. In your case, a lot of this seems to reduce to the economic man world view ... and even then, since you don't consider things like "trickle down economics" (sure seemed to work better for us in the '80s than what's been tried after Clinton) or our "libertarianism" AKA classical liberalism at least debatable points vs akin to the KKK....

I mean, is there any room in your world view for religion, e.g. "Man does not live by bread alone", or, say, non-economic principles that are worth dying for??? Any non-economic reason why anyone would volunteer for the military?

Re: Sacrificing everything for my dog. How I became a programmer

#82

Post by Ultron »

Afforess wrote: post #31

I like the story, but I feel it's important to mention that the authors stated opinion on Karma is terrifying . Karma is essentially the worst sort of belief, in that superficially it seems to reward good behavior and punish bad behavior. This appeals to a lot of people because of its clear "carrot/stick" mentality and overall simplicity. This is the "Just-World" hypothesis. In reality, this kind of thinking means th…

I just didn't see how karma fit in to the story.

That said, anyone who is a friend of animals is a friend of mine.

Re: Sacrificing everything for my dog. How I became a programmer

#83

Post by [deleted] »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #74
flyinRyan wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>That is patronizing. There is a wide spectrum of reasons why one might say vote for lower/higher taxes between "they worked hard, so they deserve it" and "fuck you, I want mine". Since I never clarified what I meant and you came up with such a specific notion, it would appear you're projecting some defensiveness here. But I will go ahead and clarify my position: The fact of the matter is, the US is a combative syste…

A poor person should vote for issues that help them specifically and directly. Why? Your vote doesn't matter. The probability of your vote affecting the outcome is so small it can't be represented with a double precision floating point [1]. So why shouldn't the poor do the same thing everyone else does, namely vote for the guy who makes them feel good? (Incidentally, the idea that the poor vote R is statistical artif…

[deleted]

Re: Sacrificing everything for my dog. How I became a programmer

#84

Post by hga »

precisioncoder wrote: post #52
dapz wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it is mostly wonderful. In the part of the third world my parents are from unless your family is independently wealthy then you simply won't be able to afford to go to college and thus are destined to (at best) have some very low-paying menial labor job. Contrast this with the US, you can get federally-backed, low-interest loans, go to school majoring in engineering and move from poverty to middle class in on…

Well it's a huge difference with Europe. Specifically in Austria where I'm living everyone gets an education for free, there's free health care, even menial jobs are well paid. Everyone lives a pretty solid middle class life but there are much fewer people struggling to change the world. Fewer success stories but everyone is taken care of. It's an interesting situation, hell there's not even credit card debt since if…

Another thing to factor in: for whatever reasons, you aren't reproducing. Per Wikipedia, your fertility rate is 1.42 to 1.44 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_de...), which is perilously close to the "lowest low" of 1.3 from which societies don't recover from, and certainly isn't even close to the 2.1 needed for steady state replacement.

I.e. absent serious change, your society is doomed, you'll die out in due course; many say the example your and other counties like you provide are object lessons in what not to do.

Re: Sacrificing everything for my dog. How I became a programmer

#85

Post by flyinRyan »

michaelmior wrote: post #80
flyinRyan wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>That is patronizing. There is a wide spectrum of reasons why one might say vote for lower/higher taxes between "they worked hard, so they deserve it" and "fuck you, I want mine". Since I never clarified what I meant and you came up with such a specific notion, it would appear you're projecting some defensiveness here. But I will go ahead and clarify my position: The fact of the matter is, the US is a combative syste…

While frivolous lawsuits are certainly a problem, I think everyone citing the McDonald's coffee example should watch the documentary Hot Coffee. It puts that incident in a new perspective.

My point wasn't about what actually happened in the McDonald's coffee incident but rather how many people perceived it.

Re: Sacrificing everything for my dog. How I became a programmer

#86

Post by cpursley »

Ping-pong tables, ha!!

Part of the reason I won't take a higher paying job in an office environment is the satisfaction I get working from home and having my dog(s) by my side. Being able to step out of the house for fresh air and take them on a walk is worth it's weight in gold.

Re: Sacrificing everything for my dog. How I became a programmer

#87

Post by michaelmior »

michaelmior wrote: post #80
flyinRyan wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>That is patronizing. There is a wide spectrum of reasons why one might say vote for lower/higher taxes between "they worked hard, so they deserve it" and "fuck you, I want mine". Since I never clarified what I meant and you came up with such a specific notion, it would appear you're projecting some defensiveness here. But I will go ahead and clarify my position: The fact of the matter is, the US is a combative syste…

While frivolous lawsuits are certainly a problem, I think everyone citing the McDonald's coffee example should watch the documentary Hot Coffee. It puts that incident in a new perspective.

Sure thing. I just thought I would dump this hear for anyone who happened to be reading this thread because I found that documentary pretty informative.

Re: Sacrificing everything for my dog. How I became a programmer

#88

Post by StavrosK »

danso wrote: post #27
Falling3 wrote: post #2

I like this guy. Except for when he acted like cat owners couldn't make sacrifices too. I once had to cut a trip short because my cat missed me so much that he made himself sick.

I'm a dog and cat person, though mostly I've only been what my roommates have been. My current roommate has a dog. My last few roommates have had cats...Living in New York now, what I wouldn't give for a mouse-killing cat... It's hard to say which animal is better, overall. I will say though that a cat whose devotion you've earned, to the point that it's as loyal as a dog (yet knows how to use the litter box)...is my…

Regarding the litter box situation, I prefer dogs. They let you know when they have to go so you don't have to scoop foul-smelling poop and stink up the apartment.

Re: Sacrificing everything for my dog. How I became a programmer

#89

Post by flyinRyan »

hga wrote: post #81
flyinRyan wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The problem that bugs me is this presumption that the people are not cognizant of what is good for them. Go to America. Live there for a while. Move to a red state and actually talk to people. This presumption won't seem so arrogant when you meet so many people for which there is no other logical conclusion to make. >I would argue that it is not in Warren Buffett's self interest to vote for higher taxes It's not, bu…

I grew up in and retired to a reddest of Red State America, spent a dozen year in the very Blue State Boston area and a dozen in the D.C. area, which was sort of mixed but plenty Blue State, and I have to say that this "What's the Matter with Kansas" false consciousness thesis is presumptuous bunk. It basically labels our different concerns, or different weighting of various concerns, as illegitimate. In your case, a…

Sadly, you sound very much like what I'd expect from a red state. I bet you also think Obama is very left wing, don't you?

>since you don't consider things like "trickle down economics" (sure seemed to work better for us in the '80s than what's been tried after Clinton)

If you're not going to educate yourself, there's not much point in bothering with this. The stats are in, trickle down never worked [1]. And trickle down was continued through Clinton (somehow you don't realize he was more conservative than a lot of so-called republicans) on to the present time.

>or our "libertarianism" AKA classical liberalism at least debatable points vs akin to the KKK....

Of course libertarianism has some debatable points. But luckily, those points also belong to legitimate political movements as well (minus the naivety inherent in an-cap/libertarianism).

>I mean, is there any room in your world view for religion, e.g. "Man does not live by bread alone"

Sure.

> non-economic principles that are worth dying for???

As a matter of fact there are, though I would phrase it as "worth risking your life for" since simply dying is extremely unlikely to help anything.

>Any non-economic reason why anyone would volunteer for the military?

Sure. For example, if an imperialist, evil world power claimed my country was "terrorists friendly", "has weapons of mass destruction" or some such nonsense I would volunteer for the military to try and help push back these scum from our lands.

But blind patriotism? No. I don't believe someone "died for my freedoms" simply because they joined the military and died. For me to believe they died for my freedoms, my freedoms would have to be in danger from something they actually fought.

[1] Starting point, not that you'll care: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trickle-down_economics#Criticis...

Re: Sacrificing everything for my dog. How I became a programmer

#90

Post by nkohari »

Afforess wrote: post #31

I like the story, but I feel it's important to mention that the authors stated opinion on Karma is terrifying . Karma is essentially the worst sort of belief, in that superficially it seems to reward good behavior and punish bad behavior. This appeals to a lot of people because of its clear "carrot/stick" mentality and overall simplicity. This is the "Just-World" hypothesis. In reality, this kind of thinking means th…

This is a very superficial interpretation of the idea of karma. What you're describing is just someone rationalizing being a judgmental asshole.

Karma is about "paying it forward", not in an attempt to gain the favor of the universe, but because it is the morally correct thing to do.

If you believe in karma, you believe that the machinations of the universe will reward and punish justly, but you don't participate in the process directly. Individuals don't get to meter out "karmic retribution" to people they perceive to be unworthy.

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