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

Things I still can't do in November 2014

facebook.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 153 posts

Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#31

Post by estebank »

> 30. Get a discount from the federal government for being healthy. Fat people should pay more taxes because they cost society more. This means some approved weigh in and testing centers

Am I the only one finding this insulting, disgusting and backwards? People can be overweight for a multitude of reasons, some of which are:

    * Genetics
    * Medication
    * Health conditions
    * Smoking
    * Enviromental reasons
    * Lack of sleep
    * Age
    * Pregnancy
    * An inactive lifestyle coupled with high consumtion of lipids
You want the government to spend less money in fat people? Make the government first invest money to avoid having an epidemic of overweight people.

Some people have reasons other than stuffing their faces for being fat. It'd be impolite of me to say what I think of this person for implying there aren't.

Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#32

Post by antr »

ntietz wrote: post #10
octatone2 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or just dumb ideas. Call the police from an app? Your phone is still a phone ...

While it's easy to call emergency services by 911, it's more difficult to call, say, the local sheriff's office for something that's not an emergency especially when you're traveling. An app could help solve that and resolve the best non-emergency number for you in your current location.

http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/about-112

Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#33

Post by gordaco »

ElectricMonk79 wrote: post #30

> 30. Get a discount from the federal government for being healthy. Fat people should pay more taxes because they cost society more. This means some approved weigh in and testing centers Perpetuating the myth that unhealthy people are a financial and social burden. That's wrong because.... * MIND QUAKE: Fat people are 'on average' healthier!! * Why? Because they clutch their heart and die in an instant. 'Healthy peop…

I don't think I buy it, do you have some references? There are a lot of nonfatal chronic illneses derived from obesity, alcohol consumption and tobacco.

My biggests problem with this point are not related with the veracity of his implied statement, but rather, with the slippery slope of making people pay more because of health problems (that are actually less in their control than we may believe), which is anyway happening already in an indirect way; and also, that it would constitute another form of poverty tax, considering that obesity is often caused by the poor quality food that people with little to no money can afford.

Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#35

Post by crdoconnor »

"Get a discount from the federal government for being healthy. Fat people should pay more taxes because they cost society more. This means some approved weigh in and testing centers"

This argument seems to be pretty common among the glitterati from Wall Street.

I wonder why they don't see the incredible irony.

Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#36

Post by eterm »

sup wrote: post #23

> 21. take a picture of any object and find out where to buy it (Shazam for things) Like Amazon Firefly.

I'm pretty sure that many of these problems could be "solved" by hiring a personal assistant type person to do things like find out where to buy something or coordinate his dry cleaning.

But it sounds like this person is incredibly self entitled and wouldn't pay for that.

Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#37

Post by jwdunne »

estebank wrote: post #31

> 30. Get a discount from the federal government for being healthy. Fat people should pay more taxes because they cost society more. This means some approved weigh in and testing centers Am I the only one finding this insulting, disgusting and backwards? People can be overweight for a multitude of reasons, some of which are: * Genetics * Medication * Health conditions * Smoking * Enviromental reasons * Lack of sleep…

Medication resonates with me strongly. A lot of anti-psychotics increase appetite massively and are known to cause weight gain. I remember I was larger than I'd ever been and I'd got to that point very quickly.

A "fat tax" could very well hit some of the most vulnerable citizens. People with severe, long-term psychotic illnesses who are prescribed neuroleptics long-term and are unable to work comes to mind.

Perhaps making healthy foods more accessible than unhealthy foods is a better place to start. In the UK, for example, I could buy much more processed food stocked full with sugar than I can fresh vegetables for the same price.

Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#38

Post by ElectricMonk79 »

gordaco wrote: post #33
ElectricMonk79 wrote: post #30

> 30. Get a discount from the federal government for being healthy. Fat people should pay more taxes because they cost society more. This means some approved weigh in and testing centers Perpetuating the myth that unhealthy people are a financial and social burden. That's wrong because.... * MIND QUAKE: Fat people are 'on average' healthier!! * Why? Because they clutch their heart and die in an instant. 'Healthy peop…

I don't think I buy it, do you have some references? There are a lot of nonfatal chronic illneses derived from obesity, alcohol consumption and tobacco. My biggests problem with this point are not related with the veracity of his implied statement, but rather, with the slippery slope of making people pay more because of health problems (that are actually less in their control than we may believe), which is anyway hap…

http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/healthcare/fatties-and-smokers...

> Ultimately, the thin and healthy group cost the most, about $417,000, from age 20 on. The cost of care for obese people was $371,000, and for smokers, about $326,000. And as Kip Viscusi has pointed out, when you add in the costs of the state pensions that those who die young don’t get, smoking and gorging save the government vast sums of money.

Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#39

Post by badgersandjam »

ElectricMonk79 wrote: post #30

> 30. Get a discount from the federal government for being healthy. Fat people should pay more taxes because they cost society more. This means some approved weigh in and testing centers Perpetuating the myth that unhealthy people are a financial and social burden. That's wrong because.... * MIND QUAKE: Fat people are 'on average' healthier!! * Why? Because they clutch their heart and die in an instant. 'Healthy peop…

This. Plus its fucking miserable dying slowly over the space of 20 years. I've watched it happen to so many people. Avoid work, retire early, spend everything, eat everything, do what you must do as early as you can before probability becomes your worst enemy.

Edit: The people I've watched die had one regret only: Waiting until retirement to do what they wanted at which point they can't. Perfect cogs with pensions and private healthcare paid up through slavery for 40+ years. Nothing to show other than some bricks and a hip replacement and a nice plot in the graveyard.

Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#40

Post by netcan »

skrebbel wrote: post #9

All of these score 1 on one of my favorite HN comments, the Yudkowski Ambition Scale[0]. That's OK, but it's a bit disappointing for a post that clearly tries to come off as visionary. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4510702

These are both kind of like brainstorming tools, ways of thinking about ideas. Your tool encourages one to aggrandise an idea, which can be useful. This encourages trivialisation an idea, which can be useful too. I think doing both at the same time is a sort of essential entrepreneurial doublethink.

Ideas, products, inventions and such are surprisingly (very surprisingly, to me) hard to place on that Yudkowski Ambition Scale. The line between trivial and revolutionary is surprisingly blurry.

I think one could argue or tweak several of these to be in the 2-5/6 range. At least they could to the extent that they can be argue to be a 1.

1. Get a blood test simply, myself, without going to a lab, and get the results overnight.

If you extend this past just bloods, combine this with DIY diagnostics tools, 23andme, items 5, 16, 31... I'm sure you can arrive at a sort of preventative medicine something something new paradigm. A Yudkowski 3?

2. Build a house myself using standard small interchangeable parts like legos.

Revolutionize town and cityscapes, quarter the cost of our single biggest purchase.... Yudkowski 3, I think.

Even Yudkowski's 1 & 2 could arguably be 3-5s.

Post reply on HN