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Cards Against Humanity Redistributes Your Wealth

cardsagainsthumanityredistributesyourwealth.com

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Re: Cards Against Humanity Redistributes Your Wealth

#111

Post by harryh »

partiallypro wrote: post #98

"The US government actually knows how much money you have and has trillions of dollars to redistribute. Why don’t you get mad at the US government?" A lot of hardworking people don't want handouts from the government. Though some do, but I believe they are a minority. I generally hate the mindset of wanting money from the government. I want off of the government if I can help it. The fact is that most Americans pay v…

The fact is that most Americans pay virtually no federal income tax,

This is not really true. Especially when you also look at payroll taxes which are, for all intents and purposes, income taxes.

When I...made the median income level for the state I was living in at the time, I still paid no tax (outside of SALT) and got a return larger than what I paid in.

This is highly unlikely to be true. I'm sure you remember it this way but without supporting data it is very hard to believe.

Re: Cards Against Humanity Redistributes Your Wealth

#112

Post by sgk284 »

ridgewell wrote: post #12

>We excluded all Canadians. They already have universal healthcare. They’ll be fine. Yikes. I certainly got a laugh out of that, then an overly reflective period of what I'm grateful for, especially the benefits afforded from being north of the border.

Yea, it's pretty insane. Six of the 13 recipients in the comments referenced medical bills as a primary concern in their life that the $1,000 will help ease.

America has truly failed these people.

Re: Cards Against Humanity Redistributes Your Wealth

#113

Post by mobilefriendly »

dragonwriter wrote: post #88
bobcostas55 wrote: post #54

Literally every single poor person pictured is obese. That baby is almost certainly going to be overweight in a few years. I'm amazed this isn't a bigger issue politically. Nutrition is a huge driver of health inequality. In 50 years the obesity rate has quadrupled. A return to the eating habits of the 1960s is perhaps the greatest possible welfare achievement right now (in the US), with impact far larger than univer…

> A return to the eating habits of the 1960s is perhaps the greatest possible welfare achievement right now (in the US), with impact far larger than universal healthcare. You are comparing a concrete policy with a policy outcome for which there is no even remote concept of a policy mechanism that would achieve it. > And it doesn't need to cost anything. Massive changes to behavior are not free; the changes in eating…

Actually there are plenty of policy mechanisms to improve nutrition. First repeal subsidy programs for corn and sugar, in particular remove the U.S. import tariffs that create a market for high fructose corn syrup. Next end food stamp coverage for junk food and sugar drinks. Further, allow insurers, medicaid, etc surcharge for the obese-- make them pay for the extra costs they are imposing on the system. Consider taxes on sugar drinks. Finally improve school lunch nutrition.

Re: Cards Against Humanity Redistributes Your Wealth

#114

Post by AlexandrB »

FLGMwt wrote: post #110
electrograv wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Don't immediately react and reply that this isn't scalable. I agree that positivity is important. Certainly, let us take a moment to genuinely appreciate what they’ve done here to help 100 people! Now, since this is such a good thing they’ve done on a small scale, let’s scale this kind of help to EVERYONE who is in need! That would be truly awesome. Oh wait, sorry — it looks like we can’t actually have that problem…

Hi! Thanks for responding! I'll admit I was dismissive in my attempt at brevity so thank you for challenging me. I didn't intend to shut down discussion. I was countering the flood of commentary around what I perceived as issues ancillary to the actual topic. On the topic of scalability, I might been too dismissive, but I'd rather focus on the positivity of the topic as a whole, lamoon its impact, even if localized,…

> I didn't intend to shut down discussion. I was countering the flood of commentary around what I perceived as issues ancillary to the actual topic.

I interpreted GPs comment as an indictment of NH's policy of banning political news items, not as blaming you for shutting down the current discussion.

Re: Cards Against Humanity Redistributes Your Wealth

#115

Post by jessaustin »

Zhyl wrote: post #8
eutectic wrote: post #2

Why only consider within-country inequality (and, yes, I realize that the answer is 'because it's partly a publicity stunt, and humans are biased and parochial')? The average American is incomparable wealthy compared to the average African, and you can on average save a life for only a few $thousand to one of Givewell's top recommended charities.

Is it mandated that every top level comment on HN has to be some kind of cynical, nit-picky whining? Lighten up. This is incredible.

Is it mandated..?

Actually, it's an emergent phenomenon!

Re: Cards Against Humanity Redistributes Your Wealth

#117

Post by Nicksil »

lobotryas wrote: post #97
FLGMwt wrote: post #31

Oh hey, on top of the prevalent skepticism and detractions in the current discussion, I'll just throw out that, on its own, this is objectively a Good Thing. I won't dismiss the fact that this is good PR for CAH, but it is still morally-motivated positive impact for some fixed number of people. A company took some profit they had and exceptionally distributed to some of their less fortunate customers. Don't immediate…

>objectively a Good Thing Could you please defend this assertion? They themselves admit that their redistribution method is flawed (see the FAQ). I see this as an empty publicity stunt and something that doesn't help in the least.

It helped at least 100 people.

Re: Cards Against Humanity Redistributes Your Wealth

#118

Post by harryh »

mobilefriendly wrote: post #113
dragonwriter wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A return to the eating habits of the 1960s is perhaps the greatest possible welfare achievement right now (in the US), with impact far larger than universal healthcare. You are comparing a concrete policy with a policy outcome for which there is no even remote concept of a policy mechanism that would achieve it. > And it doesn't need to cost anything. Massive changes to behavior are not free; the changes in eating…

Actually there are plenty of policy mechanisms to improve nutrition. First repeal subsidy programs for corn and sugar, in particular remove the U.S. import tariffs that create a market for high fructose corn syrup. Next end food stamp coverage for junk food and sugar drinks. Further, allow insurers, medicaid, etc surcharge for the obese-- make them pay for the extra costs they are imposing on the system. Consider tax…

I would also add:

- regulate advertisements for unhealthy foods, especially ads targeted at children

- ban vending machines (and candy sales) on school campuses

- implement sugar taxes similar to cigarette taxes

Re: Cards Against Humanity Redistributes Your Wealth

#119

Post by alexasmyths »

harryh wrote: post #111
partiallypro wrote: post #98

"The US government actually knows how much money you have and has trillions of dollars to redistribute. Why don’t you get mad at the US government?" A lot of hardworking people don't want handouts from the government. Though some do, but I believe they are a minority. I generally hate the mindset of wanting money from the government. I want off of the government if I can help it. The fact is that most Americans pay v…

The fact is that most Americans pay virtually no federal income tax, This is not really true. Especially when you also look at payroll taxes which are, for all intents and purposes, income taxes. When I...made the median income level for the state I was living in at the time, I still paid no tax (outside of SALT) and got a return larger than what I paid in. This is highly unlikely to be true. I'm sure you remember it…

Only about 1/2 of Americans at any given time work (very roughly - think kids, elderly etc.) so most Americans don't pay tax is technically kind of correct, but not very meaningful at all in any discussion.

Re: Cards Against Humanity Redistributes Your Wealth

#120

Post by whack »

topmonk wrote: post #91
eutectic wrote: post #2

Why only consider within-country inequality (and, yes, I realize that the answer is 'because it's partly a publicity stunt, and humans are biased and parochial')? The average American is incomparable wealthy compared to the average African, and you can on average save a life for only a few $thousand to one of Givewell's top recommended charities.

The poorest countries all have something in common, which is overpopulation. It seems as if the poorest have enough offspring so that they are always on the edge of starvation. I wonder if by giving them additional money, so they can have more kids, and even cause a greater strain on the local environment, have we actually done a good thing? If there is an overpopulation of deer, we don't put big buckets of feed in t…

Your comment actually got me thinking... By what metric have you decided that a country is overpopulated?

Using the absolute population size? If so, is America far more "overpopulated" compared to every other developed nation? If China were to split up into 20 sovereign nations, would it suddenly stop being overpopulated?

Or perhaps you're using population density? If so, Taiwan, South-Korea and Netherlands must be absolute cesspools to live in, since they all have population densities higher than India's.

Or more likely, you think that a country is overpopulated because it has a lot of poor people? If so, that sounds like a mighty fine circular reasoning. "Why is XYZ so poor? Because they are overpopulated." "What makes you say they are overpopulated? Because they are so poor."

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