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Richard Lynch, an awesome PHP community guy and former colleague needs our help

richardlynch.blogspot.com

281–290 of 317 posts

Re: Richard Lynch, an awesome PHP community guy and former colleague needs our help

#281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

of course! Centralized economic solutions always work the best. The USSR is the best example of that. You people go back to coding and leave economics to economists.

That is simply not true. Centralized economic solutions work better for some things. Free market soluctions work for other types of things. The USSR was a dictatorship where everything was managed by the State. This is not what it is being proposed.

Markets are not always the most efficient way to determine price information.

Further, most transactions are private or semi private, meaning not conducted via an open market. The amount one business unit (or agency) charges another for goods and services may be informed by a market price, but not necessarily.

Re: Richard Lynch, an awesome PHP community guy and former colleague needs our help

#282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Magical thinking is probably the single greatest threat to the longterm survival of the human race. I can think of no situation where it is not appropriate to criticise it. Furthermore, illness and death are exactly the times when human beings are most likely to abandon rationalism and cling to magic, so these are the very times when the fight is most important, and we shouldn't shy away from that just because it mak…

The only person you are trying to benefit when you are trying to convince the dying of atheism is yourself. We should let people live their final days believing whatever they want. Even as an atheist, its clear to me that the right thing to do is allow the dying to be happy and comfortable, however they want that. Furthermore, there are many, many threats to longterm survival, not just mysticism.

The only person you are trying to benefit when you are trying to convince the dying of atheism is yourself.

Who is trying to do that?

Furthermore, there are many, many threats to longterm survival, not just mysticism.

Mysticism prevents us from dealing with those other threats rationally, and that makes it #1 on the list of mental bugs to fix.

Re: Richard Lynch, an awesome PHP community guy and former colleague needs our help

#283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very inspiring post. I think it will be hard for me to look at Ramen Noodles and not think about this for a while. Paraphrasing from a a recent movie "Every one should live by a code...glad to know that yours is Family."

May I ask which movie?

Fast and Furious 6

Re: Richard Lynch, an awesome PHP community guy and former colleague needs our help

#284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

of course! Centralized economic solutions always work the best. The USSR is the best example of that. You people go back to coding and leave economics to economists.

That is simply not true. Centralized economic solutions work better for some things. Free market soluctions work for other types of things. The USSR was a dictatorship where everything was managed by the State. This is not what it is being proposed.

> Centralized economic solutions work better for some things.

I could also say that 2 and 2 not always is 4. Please give concrete examples.

Re: Richard Lynch, an awesome PHP community guy and former colleague needs our help

#285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "you can get this public picture that everything is great" I'm not aware of anyone, from any political background, who thinks the US system is anything above "pretty crappy". I've heard some people express positive sentiments regarding small parts of the system -- the quality of certain types of care, for example -- but never for the system as a whole. The primary disagreements I'm aware of concern how to fix the c…

"The best health care system in the world" is a pretty common refrain among American right wingers. Many of them truly think that we are #1 in this area and that the great tragedy of socialization will be destroying that.

> ""The best health care system in the world" is a pretty common refrain among American right wingers"

In my experience, the right wing perspective is more like "some of the best health care procedures, embedded in a payment/distribution/insurance system that sucks". One of the biggest fears is that the few things American healthcare does well will be sacrificed, and the things that are wrong with the system won't actually be fixed, the costs will just be shuffled around and hidden a bit better.

Re: Richard Lynch, an awesome PHP community guy and former colleague needs our help

#286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The best health care system in the world" is a pretty common refrain among American right wingers. Many of them truly think that we are #1 in this area and that the great tragedy of socialization will be destroying that.

> ""The best health care system in the world" is a pretty common refrain among American right wingers" In my experience, the right wing perspective is more like "some of the best health care procedures, embedded in a payment/distribution/insurance system that sucks". One of the biggest fears is that the few things American healthcare does well will be sacrificed, and the things that are wrong with the system won't ac…

The two aren't incompatible. I agree with you about the details of the views, but they still generally think it's the best in the world.

Re: Richard Lynch, an awesome PHP community guy and former colleague needs our help

#287
post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in Fiji we've always had universal healthcare. When people need surgery/treatment they can't get here, the government sends them to India (Used to be Australia/New Zealand, but not any more).

Context: Australian and NZ relations with Fiji have seriously deteriorated (expelled diplomats, aid cuts, trade sanctions) since the military coup in 2006, and the resulting dictatorship there. [0] Despite the diplomatic meltdown between Fiji and the western world, Australia and NZ continued to offer healthcare to Fijians. It was a decision by the Fijian government to start sending people to India instead. [1] Also,…

The choice to send patients to India is purely based on financial, rather than political reasons. Even with the higher airfares, it often turns up significantly cheaper to send patients there. Of course in outlier cases where its thought that there is a higher chance of survival in Aus/NZ, patients are sent there instead.

Australia and New Zealand only deny medical visas for people in the Fiji government and military (and their family).

Re: Richard Lynch, an awesome PHP community guy and former colleague needs our help

#288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious about why he would even need insurance. Someone of his skill, who has presumably received a six figure salary for decade(s?). He would be in the wealthiest 1% of the entire world population, yet needs donations. What does that mean for the billions of others?

read the comment about his life in chicago - giving money to bands as one example. he's spent much of his life helping the larger communities around him - php and music are just two that have been mentioned. We've got no idea what Richard earned, but saying "six figures" can make it sound fabulously wealthy. $999,999 is six figures. So is $100,000. $100k in suburban Chicago raising a family is quite possible, but lik…

> 1%? Hardly. Someone earning $100k might be in the top 10%

I said top 1% of the world, not US. Someone earning $100,000 is probably in the top 0.1% actually.

But yeah, the rest of your comment is fair. I wasn't being judgemental about his request for donations; Merely pointing out how disturbing it is that despite his relative wealth, he needed help. This isn't a jab at him, but at the state of the world we live in.

Re: Richard Lynch, an awesome PHP community guy and former colleague needs our help

#290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

read the comment about his life in chicago - giving money to bands as one example. he's spent much of his life helping the larger communities around him - php and music are just two that have been mentioned. We've got no idea what Richard earned, but saying "six figures" can make it sound fabulously wealthy. $999,999 is six figures. So is $100,000. $100k in suburban Chicago raising a family is quite possible, but lik…

> 1%? Hardly. Someone earning $100k might be in the top 10% I said top 1% of the world, not US. Someone earning $100,000 is probably in the top 0.1% actually. But yeah, the rest of your comment is fair. I wasn't being judgemental about his request for donations; Merely pointing out how disturbing it is that despite his relative wealth, he needed help. This isn't a jab at him, but at the state of the world we live in.

ah.
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