Earlier quoted context omitted.
People greatly underestimate the magnitude of bloodshed that would come with American isolationism. Because of Pax Americana, most people can't even grasp the concept or seriousness of, say, a neighboring nation dropping bombs on your city just because they want your territory. The US is insulated from such concerns, Europe is rife with them :)
Pax Americana can't last forever. The world must inevitably move on from the the old "gods playing chess" paradigm of East vs West. Something has to come next.
The U.S. is risking an academic brain drain
201–207 of 207 posts
Re: The U.S. is risking an academic brain drain
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you don't understand how progressive taxation works, maybe. High taxes on the marginal dollar after your middle-class life expenses are met isn't so bad.
Well, there are progressive taxes and there are progressive taxes. In Sweden, the taxes were a bit too "progressive" a couple of decades ago, when you could have a margin tax rate above 100%. It's a bit better now though... But if I understand you correctly, your argument is that once my expenses are met, I might as well give the rest of my money to the government?
This is not really a controversial position since almost all jurisdictions have some version of progressive taxation.
Among other effects, it compensates somewhat for value added taxes (eg sales taxes) that consume a disproportionate fraction of the income of poor people.
Re: The U.S. is risking an academic brain drain
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
You proved my point, if US did what Euro countries do to us, European pharma companies would lose their primary profit source. It's a wealth drain from US citizens to Europe.
Maybe you shouldn't choose to have such a terrible healthcare system then.
Other users have reformed themselves this way (I'm one of them), so I'm sure you can, once you internalize the value of what we're shooting for here (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html). It isn't primarily an ethical issue, if that helps; it's about trying to avoid degradation into boredom. Flame-style comments provoke worse, both quality- and quantity-wise.
Re: The U.S. is risking an academic brain drain
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe you shouldn't choose to have such a terrible healthcare system then.
I appreciate that you've moved toward civility in your comments on HN, but we need you to go further, because comments like this add no information and are just rude. Could you please just be scrupulously civil and respectful and only post comments that have good signal/noise ratio? Other users have reformed themselves this way (I'm one of them), so I'm sure you can, once you internalize the value of what we're shoot…
Re: The U.S. is risking an academic brain drain
#205Re: The U.S. is risking an academic brain drain
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, there are progressive taxes and there are progressive taxes. In Sweden, the taxes were a bit too "progressive" a couple of decades ago, when you could have a margin tax rate above 100%. It's a bit better now though... But if I understand you correctly, your argument is that once my expenses are met, I might as well give the rest of my money to the government?
You might as well give a larger fraction of it to the government. This is not really a controversial position since almost all jurisdictions have some version of progressive taxation. Among other effects, it compensates somewhat for value added taxes (eg sales taxes) that consume a disproportionate fraction of the income of poor people.
I never claimed it was controversial but the consequence of this (good or bad) is that I feel more inclined to ask for more free time rather than a raise. From a government position, the good is that it potentially opens up for more people getting employment, the bad is that I will pay less taxes (because I earn less). Had the progressive tax rate hit me less hard I might instead work to increase my salary so that in the end I would pay more in absolute money with the lower margin tax rate than with the current one.
The compensation you talk about goes both ways. If you have a high income, you're more likely to have a higher education and with that accumulated student debt that needs to be paid off. It can also be seen as one incentive to push yourself through getting a university degree, which again is seen as beneficial by most governments.
I guess you can see it both ways, either from a fairness perspective or a utilitarian perspective. I'm personally quite fond of fairness but, and this is a large but, I'm convinced that too much focus on fairness can be detrimental to everyone, including those who consider themselves unfairly treated (and hope to get even by more fairness). See my example above, if I paid more in absolute money but less in relative, that would seem less fair, but it would be more beneficial for everyone. Of course it would benefit me more thus be a thorn in the eye of some.
Re: The U.S. is risking an academic brain drain
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
>You can bicker a whole day of keeping people out and travel bans but you need to ask yourself what is one of the reasons we have them in the first place. Because they know you're a soft touch? How many 30 year old "Syrian children" from Pakistan and North Africa are you going to settle before you realize most of the people coming to Europe are coming for the free benefits and not because they're fleeing war? Shouldn…
"... before you realize most of the people coming to Europe are coming for the free benefits and not because they're fleeing war? " The majority is definitely not coming for what you call 'free benefits', and most of those who do will be sent back home in due time, if their home countries accept them back. Unfortunately it's quite common that they don't, and then there's not much left to do but allow also these peopl…
Those people are not leaving. You may tell yourself they're leaving. Your government may tell you they're leaving (someday), but when push comes to shove the media will be blanketed with sob stories and accusations of racism if anybody actually tries to repatriate them.