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Amount of work that once bought an hour of light now buys 51 years of it (2017)

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Re: Amount of work that once bought an hour of light now buys 51 years of it (2017)

#251

Post by [deleted] »

Dalewyn wrote: post #204
_yb2s wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I resent the laws banning incandescent lights. I consider myself an environmentalist, and am very careful about wasting electricity. I love the warm dim light from an incandescent and think it helps me fall asleep... the light from one incandescent dimmed to about 20-40W is all I need after sunset, and all I want. It's like sitting near a campfire. My house is solar powered, and I keep a window open witho…

I resent the banning of incandescent light bulbs for a practical reason: Heat. In colder regions it's been common sense to use an incandescent light bulb to keep a space heated so it's just above freezing (above 0C or 32F) during the winter months. This is to prevent things like plumbing and sensitive machinery from breaking due to ice formation. A full blown heater is generally complete overkill and impractical for…

[deleted]

Re: Amount of work that once bought an hour of light now buys 51 years of it (2017)

#252

Post by fooker »

jiggawatts wrote: post #245
patmcc wrote: post #210

One way I like to think about progress: there are things that are (basically) post-scarcity. Things that have become either too cheap to meter or close to it (for an average "western" consumer, at least). Light. Water. Ice. Calories (if not picky). Entertainment (radio, youtube, etc). Information (google, Wikipedia). We still have a ways to go, but that's a good damn start.

In 2008 when the financial crisis hit, I had some friends that got their news from Zero Henge got into a panic spiral. One of them was seriously thinking of quickly buying a plot of land and farming it so he wouldn't starve to death when the economy collapsed. I had to explain to him that no, he won't starve to death. Even if money ceases to exist overnight, the government will step in and forcibly collect the food f…

>Apparently, all you need is a trip to Costco and about $2,000 will buy you a year's supply...

The real issue is doing this while everyone else in the city is trying to do this at the same time.

Our supply chains are very very fragile, as COVID era panics have proved.

Re: Amount of work that once bought an hour of light now buys 51 years of it (2017)

#254

Post by jiggawatts »

fooker wrote: post #252
jiggawatts wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 2008 when the financial crisis hit, I had some friends that got their news from Zero Henge got into a panic spiral. One of them was seriously thinking of quickly buying a plot of land and farming it so he wouldn't starve to death when the economy collapsed. I had to explain to him that no, he won't starve to death. Even if money ceases to exist overnight, the government will step in and forcibly collect the food f…

>Apparently, all you need is a trip to Costco and about $2,000 will buy you a year's supply... The real issue is doing this while everyone else in the city is trying to do this at the same time. Our supply chains are very very fragile, as COVID era panics have proved.

So the preppers were right all along...?

Re: Amount of work that once bought an hour of light now buys 51 years of it (2017)

#255

Post by Auracle »

bumby wrote: post #136
somewhat_drunk wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>2.7 million illegal border crossings have zero to do with 1.6 million housing units Only if you assume all 2.7 million people are now homeless. Price is a function of supply and demand. Obviously, increasing the number of people within a system without commensurately increasing housing will result in upward pressure on housing prices. You could argue that the system-wide effect is minimal, but you would need data to…

Like most large systems, economies are complicated. A counter-point is that unskilled immigration also drives down many essential costs, like food and construction. Immigrants tend to work for less and are disproportionately represented in the agriculture, construction, and meat-packing industries. So in some ways they may increase demand costs while also bringing down supply costs.

Again, the flip side of that is that they depress wages - not only for unskilled jobs. You probably wouldn't be happy if you're an accountant on one side of the building and in the other side the people working in the meat packing plant are making as much as you.

Re: Amount of work that once bought an hour of light now buys 51 years of it (2017)

#256

Post by Auracle »

johnklos wrote: post #38
Auracle wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Land/space are limited. I live where most on HN would consider very rural - the closest town is 600 people and a town of 20,000 is about 30 minutes from me. Even when I was buying a home back in 2011 there were basically no good plots of land for sale. What was there was about $10,000 an acre. I eventually got my house for $180,000 and it’s on 15 acres, meaning my 3,000 square foot house was basically only $30,000 wh…

It's not racist for bringing it up - it's racist for blaming immigrants when it's the wealthy buying up and hoarding land and property, coupled with an out of control healthcare system, stagnant wages while corporate profits are huge, and lobbyists keeping politicians from meaningfully changing anything. I couldn't take you seriously, anyway. 2.7 million illegal border crossings have zero to do with 1.6 million housi…

I'm not "blaming immigrants." That's exactly the attitude I'm talking about when I say you're called racist. I'm blaming our governments for allowing and/or encouraging it. It's completely insane to open the floodgates when housing prices are through the roof.

I don't understand how you could think millions of people coming over here couldn't affect the supply side of supply and demand, but considering your list of grievances I think it's pretty clear where you lie on the political spectrum and couldn't possibly blame immigration for anything.

Point me towards where people are "hoarding" property. Rental units don't count as they still contribute to the housing supply.

Wages have also been depressed for a long time by immigrant labor, from illegal immigration to H1Bs. Healthcare costs are, again, increased by (illegal) immigration. Illegal immigrants can go to the ER, get treated for free, and we're all stuck with the costs.

None of these are the only causes, but it's a contributing factor and one side of the political spectrum won't acknowledge it and the other pretends to while still allowing it for big businesses' sake.

Re: Amount of work that once bought an hour of light now buys 51 years of it (2017)

#257

Post by Auracle »

jodrellblank wrote: post #107
somewhat_drunk wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>2.7 million illegal border crossings have zero to do with 1.6 million housing units Only if you assume all 2.7 million people are now homeless. Price is a function of supply and demand. Obviously, increasing the number of people within a system without commensurately increasing housing will result in upward pressure on housing prices. You could argue that the system-wide effect is minimal, but you would need data to…

One person ferrying drugs over the border weekly would be 52 illegal border crossings a year, and no change in population.

From the article I linked: "For the 12 months ending Sept. 30, 2022, CBP stopped migrants more than 2,766,582 times, compared to 1.72 million times for fiscal 2021, the previous yearly high. "

Those are 2.7 million STOPS. It's not an estimate. The means the number of people actually crossing is higher. Those stopped are generally given a court date and released into the country. Someone transporting drugs wouldn't be.

Re: Amount of work that once bought an hour of light now buys 51 years of it (2017)

#258

Post by fooker »

jiggawatts wrote: post #254
fooker wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Apparently, all you need is a trip to Costco and about $2,000 will buy you a year's supply... The real issue is doing this while everyone else in the city is trying to do this at the same time. Our supply chains are very very fragile, as COVID era panics have proved.

So the preppers were right all along...?

In some sense.

It really depends on how much you are willing to prepare for low probability events.

Would you wear a bullet proof vest every day?

Re: Amount of work that once bought an hour of light now buys 51 years of it (2017)

#259

Post by Auracle »

henry2023 wrote: post #63
Matheus28 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blaming immigration on how much we aren’t building is a mental gymnastic I haven’t seen before. Besides, those immigrants are the ones building those houses.

Not only they build those houses. They don't get to own them. Hard to imagine an undocumented immigrant having spare 250k cash for a downpayment. OP comment is a joke.

I guess they all just live in the woods then. News to me.

People taking up rental units still take up supply. If landlords are having a hard time renting out their units, they aren't going to increase their prices.

Re: Amount of work that once bought an hour of light now buys 51 years of it (2017)

#260

Post by aidenn0 »

qingcharles wrote: post #223
bgirard wrote: post #60

Wow, I had to check the math and with my assumptions it does in fact take >2 hours of minimum wage labor to power a CFL for 1 year ($7.25/hr, 0.14$ KWh). It's much higher than I expected. I had the notion that turning off CFLs was hardly worth my time but that's not entirely true.

Except this is 2023 and most CFLs are being rapidly replaced with LEDs which require far less power.

LEDs use more than 50% the energy of a CFL (numbers vary) so it's still more than an hour of work by these numbers.
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