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It’s Time to Build

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Re: It’s Time to Build

#181

Post by sidlls »

rezz wrote: post #123
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #63

> The problem is desire. We need to want these things. The problem is inertia. I agreed with most of the essay until I got to this point, at which point I rolled my eyes and briefly skimmed the rest. It's akin to people who say that the reason there are so many overweight people is that they lack willpower and motivation. Look at pictures from middle-America in the late 1940s - virtually everyone is thin, whereas tod…

Using an example where an outcome (weight gain) is completely driven by an individual’s (in)action (consuming more energy than expending) is probably not the best argument for opposing a “try harder” approach to living. Yes it’s never been easier to eat like shit and have hobbies that require no movement, but the opposite is also true.

A single outcome in over a single point in time, you mean. It doesn’t address the structural issues, such as cost and availability of healthy foods, that contribute to the need to lose weight in the first place.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#183

Post by usaar333 »

car wrote: post #40
kortilla wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think there is evidence of European governments being any more competent during this pandemic.

Certainly not all of them, but the German healthcare system has dealt extremely well. There is plenty of testing capacity, and plenty of ICU beds. Thanks to century old unified health insurance laws. Edit: Otto von Bismarck actually instituted the health insurance system of Germany, certainly not a socialist!

The republican stronghold of Texas has one of the lowest covid deaths per capita in the United States, better than even California (which is doing relatively well). Deaths per capita at 16/million is lower than almost anywhere in Western Europe.

It's not obvious to me at all you can make a political judgement from covid19.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#184

Post by IkmoIkmo »

rezz wrote: post #123
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #63

> The problem is desire. We need to want these things. The problem is inertia. I agreed with most of the essay until I got to this point, at which point I rolled my eyes and briefly skimmed the rest. It's akin to people who say that the reason there are so many overweight people is that they lack willpower and motivation. Look at pictures from middle-America in the late 1940s - virtually everyone is thin, whereas tod…

Using an example where an outcome (weight gain) is completely driven by an individual’s (in)action (consuming more energy than expending) is probably not the best argument for opposing a “try harder” approach to living. Yes it’s never been easier to eat like shit and have hobbies that require no movement, but the opposite is also true.

Would you say the same when talking about drug addiction, rather than just weight gain? Would it matter to drug addiction rates, if there were cheap Fast Drug stores all across the country, akin to fast food stores?

I think it's quite clear that here it makes zero sense to just say 'try to resist taking these ubiquitous drugs which give short-term satisfaction' as a policy measure. You'd need to treat it as a public health issue in which human beings not rational robots, but instead pleasure-seekers who would be helped by e.g. a sugar tax, policies that restricted the number of fast food stores to a minimum concentration level, healthy-food subsidies, public health and information campaigns, public cycling infrastructure, rules to enable workers to engage in sports at their workplace blablabla.

Apparently willpower is not enough and there are lots of policy instruments we could employ.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#185

Post by curyous »

zachrose wrote: post #50
car wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Certainly not all of them, but the German healthcare system has dealt extremely well. There is plenty of testing capacity, and plenty of ICU beds. Thanks to century old unified health insurance laws. Edit: Otto von Bismarck actually instituted the health insurance system of Germany, certainly not a socialist!

It's also hard to say just yet about how poorly the American system is failing.

But it’s just a case of how bad: really bad, or really really bad. When a basketball team can get tests, but ordinary citizens can’t, that is not a healthcare system, it’s a wealthcare system.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#186

Post by johnzim »

car wrote: post #24

It’s great to see this passion and sentiment. I wholeheartedly agree. In my opinion, the deficiencies that the pandemic is unmasking in the american system need a political solution and change. Looking for heroic activism isn’t going to fix the systemic issues. The left starts out with a stronger bias toward the public sector in many of these areas. To which I say, prove the superior model! Look to the European democ…

Yep, Germany's Healthcare system is a good model - Mandated Govt insurance with optional Private Insurance.

Uptake is about 75% on the private side, 25% stick with the Govt model.

You could drag Obamacare there with the right political will but breaking Company based healthcare apart is a tough political cookie.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#187

Post by kitotik »

decasteve wrote: post #138

I like the sentiment. I like the impassioned tone and the call to action. I'm sitting here thinking: where can I go to help run some machines, lathes, 3D printers, CNC, etc? How can I roll up my sleeve and help build what's needed in these times? How can I help move humanity forward through this pandemic and climate change? In these times I often turn to the wisdom of Buckminster Fuller, who was more prescient about…

Thanks for the Buckminster Fuller reference! Such an underrated thinker.

I hate being overly cynical, but I think that there is a simple answer that can be found by looking at who’s incentivized to not make these systemic changes.

To take that further, there’s a subset of that group that is incentivized to actively prevent such systemic change.

It just so happens that those 2 groups wield the most authority, power, and influence.

So, that leaves me with a view that some may call ‘dystopian’, but I consider ‘hopeful’:

Only a massive revolution can change this system.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#188

Post by nopriorarrests »

mnky9800n wrote: post #169
nopriorarrests wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still do not understand the logic. Let me put it straight. 1. US Government has unlimited funding, heck, it came up with 2 trillions _during last month alone_ with some financial alchemy which I don't fully understand. But clearly it's not starving. 2. US Government has kinda poor record producing tangible results during last 30 years, in terms of advancing science, housing, whatever. I mean, can CDC quickly figure…

Just to address "producing science". Science is incremental, often is done with out clear end products, and value can only really be measured much later typically in terms of wide spread effect. Like the internet existed decades before everyone used the internet. And only because tax dollars supported it. Thus if you want more output, they only true solution is to fund much more science than is funded today.

If some machine takes your money and produces 98% war and 2% science, maybe - just maybe - the only true solution to fund more science is not to put more money into said machine, but change configuration first.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#189

Post by ssivark »

nopriorarrests wrote: post #149
covidacct wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's one teeny tiny example. They made a smart investment, to the tune of billions of dollars, in computer science. And not just for the past 30 years, but continuously for the past 100 years. That investment included a modest (6-7 figure, depending on how your count) investment in a project on digital libraries years before private capital caught on. The private investors were rewarded handsomely for their investm…

I still do not understand the logic. Let me put it straight. 1. US Government has unlimited funding, heck, it came up with 2 trillions _during last month alone_ with some financial alchemy which I don't fully understand. But clearly it's not starving. 2. US Government has kinda poor record producing tangible results during last 30 years, in terms of advancing science, housing, whatever. I mean, can CDC quickly figure…

> Private capital, during the same time frame, gave us google search and maps, smartphones, movies on demand and god knows how much other stuff

That's an extremely lazy and superficial analysis.

Where did the foundational ingredients for each of those things come from? Computers, networks, video compression, touchscreens, materials, ... heck, even pagerank, and a large fraction of the breakthroughs in ML/AI (till very recently) have come from academia -- through publicly funded research. Companies are very good at solving the "last mile" to apply technologies towards making products, but don't typically have the vision or the wherewithal to pursue deeper innovations.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#190

Post by HashThis »

oxymoron wrote: post #70

I'm in the process of reading _Why Nation Fails_. The central thesis is that the rich and poor countries are separated by inclusive vs extractive institutions. The extractive institutions are characterised by elites that attempt to defend their own wealth and status by maintaining the status quo and resisting the creative destruction that may threaten that position. It seems to resonate a bit here, when Marc speaks o…

It is all about our congress selling out the American people, every year for 50 years. It is a supply chain of THEFT of the full citizen base, by corporations and the wealthy.

The American people must stand up and force it to stop.

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