David Graeber (RIP) and others would seriously question whether the financier even does anything for the economy, let alone society.
I think the argument is they provide liquidity to an economy, but I’m not sure how that it translated to a value assessment
On one end of the spectrum, they make capital available to businesses in order for them to bootstrap and expand. They pick winners and losers and make decisions that significantly alter the course of economic development.
There's everything in-between. Factor in the universal human tendency for self-delusion, and you got tulip pushers who think they are moving the pillars of world.
This is happening where I live. Previously huge tracks of mountain and forest are slowly being cut up. However, it's the rich newcomers that are selfish with their land. When we were children we had ATVs/dirtbikes and could put in hundred miles a day of riding. Now many trails have gates and no trespassing signs. Used to be a sense of shared commonwealth amongst connected properties. Now, it's the "privatization" of…
Where do these parcel divisions get recorded exactly? I thought it would be a really fascinating open data source record to capture all the timelines of land being divvied up and sold and when houses get built through some map timelapse videos.
Unfortunately it depends on the state, and some states don't have electronic records of these sorts of things. There exists a whole subculture of people, some for research and some for profit motives, who stalk the dark halls of records buildings to glean that info. Other states however, I think you could probably manage that.
I grew up in Alaska, and I think I disagree in a philosophical sense. There's a lot of stuff hacked together in ways experts in the relevant fields would certainly not find beautiful. Expanding foam is probably not in the toolkit of very many master architects; most people have never read an electrical code (and in many places, there's no entity imposing one); many boats, snowmobiles, and other vehicles have been ada…
There is beauty in a utility shell script. But I guarantee you, no one in this forum wants to work at an org or in a society where everything is a mishmash of shell-scripts. It's sometimes nicer to have things that scale and are standardized across the board.
No doubt. Rural life does not scale past a certain point, which is why cities exist.
Ok, but you aren't special in this regard. I work in a red state, in a red county. My boss regularly praises Trump at work. Another claimed that his personal hero is George W Bush and said so in published interview in the biggest trade mag for our industry a few years ago. There are still office debates about the existence of WMDs in Iraq. Most try to shovel their conservative bullshit down my throat. And we haven't…
Based on your tone, it sure sounds like you care what they think.
I was born in Siberia region of former USSR. There I would do ungodly amount of things myself. To the point that I got really sick of doing those. When I immigrated to Canada one of the things I've come to immensely enjoy is the ability not to do everything myself. Well a bit later I've also discovered that you basically have to check everything unless you want it f..ed up royally.
The apogee was reached when one of the electricians I hired to change my power switch for water heater did the job and no electricity was flowing to said heater. He was doing this and that and finally said that he is giving up. This got me mad and I checked the wiring myself. Are you ready for this ? ... He screwed both of the 2 outgoing wires to a grounding plate that happened to have 2 threaded holed completely ignoring everything else that was there.
If only we didn't live in a world of property taxes... Wealth should not be sneered at. Wealth buys a new well for your farm. Wealth buys you tools to expand your capabilities. Wealth allows you to exploit the capabilities of society to accomplish things beyond yourself. Do you want to preserve gun or property rights so you can continue to live a self-reliant lifestyle? That takes wealth(or you can cop-out and let ot…
> Most HN readers time is far more valuable than a plumber or carpenter. Are you sure about that? A good plumber, here in Seattle, can cost $300/hour.
Depends on how many hours you can work, though, and how many hours you're not getting paid for.
David Graeber (RIP) and others would seriously question whether the financier even does anything for the economy, let alone society.
I think the argument is they provide liquidity to an economy, but I’m not sure how that it translated to a value assessment
The counter argument (Mariana Mazzucato in particular) is that they extract value rather than create value, and this, like all other value extraction, is a net harm.
I was told once when doing a WFA practicum that if search and rescue were called it would take several hours before I could expect to see a helicopter or have a team at the trailhead. This is mostly because it's a volunteer organization and whoever is at the phone doing dispatch has to call people and get them to go from where they're at to the headquarters to get gear, and then from there to wherever they're needed.…
In the pacific northwest, helicopters are almost never used for searching. The are just too expensive/dangerous and often useless as they cannot see through fog/cloud/trees etc. Everyone heading into that backcountry should be prepared to spend a night or two in the woods. That doesn't mean hauling a tent but it does mean hauling some warm rain gear, a proper flashlight (not a cellphone) boots and some basic first ai…
Are those helicopers lacking IR capability? They should have it, and that should work in most conditions.
I think part of the problem is we’ve confused (and society has disproportionately valued) what is valuable to the economy vs what is valuable to society. I think it was Penn Jillette who basically said we should most value those who we’d want around in the apocalypse. Farmers, doctors, mechanics would all be worth more than a financier. Maybe the irony is that in the coming decades they will have their comeuppance if…
David Graeber (RIP) and others would seriously question whether the financier even does anything for the economy, let alone society.
A financier works to efficiently allocate resources in the economy, which is very valuable.
>80% of anything is been willing to give it a go, the other 20% is been willing to learn from fucking it up the first time. Them's the old rules. New rules: 45% of it is being willing to give it a go, 65% of it is knowing how to find the right YouTube video to watch so you don't fuck it up. :)
Oh man, YouTube is such a godsend when it comes to learning so many things but it also promotes terrible behavior for those looking to monetize information that would be better served up as plain text. Anything physical, such as learning an exercise or doing a car repair falls into the former category. On the other hand, there is a lot of very good talking head content that could be served up as plain text. Instead i…
A lot of the useful "how-to" content on youtube is created by people wanting to make a buck from creating the videos.