Hit men aren't what you think • Hacker News Board

Re: Hit men aren't what you think

#271

Post by sangnoir » Sat, Dec 07, 2024, 7:16 PM UTC

gerikson wrote: post #29

jajko wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No need for speculations, literally any theory may be a valid one and we simply don't know. Agree re that silencers, they are trivial to make if one has some basic skills and equipment, the problem is usage - you can't use them anywhere where folks may ask questions. Don't mean for hits obviously but some training with silencers is required to wield them well. But maybe in rural US nobody bats an eye, hard to say fro…

Except that the VA health insurance is unironically one of the better options in the US.

...and its still pretty awful. Which says a lot about the entire industry.

Re: Hit men aren't what you think

#272

Post by kube-system » Sat, Dec 07, 2024, 7:16 PM UTC

ruined wrote: post #191

kube-system wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The system wasn't designed. There were no design choices. The entire thing is a legacy result of expectations and costs that all started snowballing from the moment FDR decided wage caps were a good way to stop inflation. We're not in the situation we're in because anyone thought it was a good idea. We got here incrementally over ~80 years.

of course the system was designed. of course there were design choices. it's a system implemented and executed by human beings at every step, constantly. every functional atom of this implementation was a conscious choice by someone. if nothing else, a choice is constantly being made to persist with the present system. yes the design is a result of negotiation between countless people and groups of people, who all ha…

Sure, the healthcare system is "designed and perpetuated" by all of its participants, in the same way that poor labor practices in Asia are perpetuated by Walmart cashiers.

Technically all of the participants involved are a part of the system, yes, but my key point here is that none of them have the agency to change it.

The only people who can change it are voters and congress themselves.

Re: Hit men aren't what you think

#273

Post by dragonwriter » Sat, Dec 07, 2024, 7:20 PM UTC

kube-system wrote: post #272

ruined wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

of course the system was designed. of course there were design choices. it's a system implemented and executed by human beings at every step, constantly. every functional atom of this implementation was a conscious choice by someone. if nothing else, a choice is constantly being made to persist with the present system. yes the design is a result of negotiation between countless people and groups of people, who all ha…

Sure, the healthcare system is "designed and perpetuated" by all of its participants, in the same way that poor labor practices in Asia are perpetuated by Walmart cashiers. Technically all of the participants involved are a part of the system, yes, but my key point here is that none of them have the agency to change it. The only people who can change it are voters and congress themselves.

> The only people who can change it are voters and congress themselves.

Most of the participants in the system are eligible voters, so asserting that voters can change the system is very much asserting that nearly everyone in the system has agency to change it.

(The fact is “voters can change it” is optimistic, because the US is not a direct democracy and, due to gerrymandering, campaign finance, and other factors, only loosely a representative one, being functionally more of a plutocracy. The people who benefit from its inefficiencies and inequities have disproportionate power over its structure.)

Re: Hit men aren't what you think

#274

Post by srj » Sat, Dec 07, 2024, 7:29 PM UTC

blahyawnblah wrote: post #44

kube-system wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1) it is not hard to get a silencer. You can make one in under an hour with cheap parts from a hardware store and a drill. As you can to construct an entire gun, if you want a crude option. But this isn’t Japan. Obtaining a commercial silencer doesn’t require someone to smuggle them through international customs, just across state lines. They’re harder to get than a handgun, but not hard enough to get that a determ…

You have to wait at least 8 months (it varies) to get a suppressor when you buy one. You also have to submit passport photos, get finger printed by either the sheriff or police chief, and then wait. This is in addition to a regular NICS type check.

ATF approvals for individuals are much faster now. Last week I got a Form 4 approval in just 2-3 days.

Re: Hit men aren't what you think

#275

Post by acdha » Sat, Dec 07, 2024, 7:35 PM UTC

nradov wrote: post #254

acdha wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s profit, not basic functionality. If they denied claims at the level KP does, the CEO would still be a millionaire but they’d be spending tens of billions of dollars of the money their customers are paying for healthcare on healthcare instead of diverting it to shareholders. This should be like a regulated utility, not a private equity fund: comfortable living but nobody should be getting wildly rich because th…

Quality of outcomes depends on what metric you look at. In some ways the US healthcare system is excellent, in other ways terrible. For example, the US is at or near the top for 5-year survival rates for most types of cancer. The major factors driving increased morbidity and mortality for Americans are mostly outside the healthcare system. Overeating, trauma, substance abuse, sedentary lifestyles, etc.

The U.S. does well but at what cost? For example, if we’re paying considerably more than Brazil but barely edging them out on outcomes it’s not as much of an accomplishment as it sounds:

https://www.jagranjosh.com/general-knowledge/cancer-survival...

That’s also a hard comparison because incidence rates are not equal, with age and environmental factors playing a significant role. For example, is a 1% savings worth spending 2-3 times more money versus, say, reducing our fossil fuel usage which will significantly reduce our cancer incidence rates as well as saving billions of dollars?

Re: Hit men aren't what you think

#276

Post by sangnoir » Sat, Dec 07, 2024, 7:51 PM UTC

chomskyole wrote: post #232

vouaobrasil wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We don't like violence. Why not? Violence is a tool like any other, and our entire western society is predicated on it. We are cogs in a corporate-run state and if we don't like it, there is the police force. If we get evicted, the police is there to tell us to stop sleeping on the bench. If we don't listen, they have the guns. The underlying systemic violence of our society is rampant. Personally, while I neither…

I agree with your overall assessment. The narrative is that we decide on rational reasons (which doesn't excludes violence as such) mixed with a moral superiority (which excludes violence). I think saying that we don't like violence is just sharing the moral common sentiment and hoping that it leads to some understanding/highlighting of the contradictions. The reality is that people will fight for life when you push…

> What is "violent" is generally defined by those who are more powerful I'd say.

I think the hidden war of words is over the definition of "illegitimate violence" (like premeditated murder) and "legitimate violence" (like getting tazed, kettled at a protest, or shot dead by police at a traffic stop). The latter is generally not defined as "violence" at all by those with power.

There was an interesting article that analyzed usage if the word "violent"/"violence" in mass media reporting on college campus protests in the US. Going by the reporting, when police were bashing heads, the protests were not violent, but became "violent" when protestors were fighting back against counter-protestors who got physical. Violence meted out by the government is not called that.

Re: Hit men aren't what you think

#277

Post by sneed_chucker » Sat, Dec 07, 2024, 7:51 PM UTC

blahyawnblah wrote: post #44

kube-system wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1) it is not hard to get a silencer. You can make one in under an hour with cheap parts from a hardware store and a drill. As you can to construct an entire gun, if you want a crude option. But this isn’t Japan. Obtaining a commercial silencer doesn’t require someone to smuggle them through international customs, just across state lines. They’re harder to get than a handgun, but not hard enough to get that a determ…

You have to wait at least 8 months (it varies) to get a suppressor when you buy one. You also have to submit passport photos, get finger printed by either the sheriff or police chief, and then wait. This is in addition to a regular NICS type check.

Not any more. An E-Form 4 is now processed in a week or two.

Re: Hit men aren't what you think

#278

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Dec 07, 2024, 7:56 PM UTC

userabchn wrote: post #267

int_19h wrote: post #32

Growing up in Russia in the 90s, assassinations (usually of folk associated with various organized crime groups, but also the occasional journalist or politician) were fairly common. As I recall, usually the person would get shot with some common weapon - often milsurp TT - somewhere in their daily routine where there aren't people around, e.g. on the stairs in their apartment building. But sometimes you did get more…

My suspicion is that this murder was organised by Russia as an attempt to normalise and encourage further vigilante actions, thereby weakening society. They chose their target well for this one, but I imagine, even after the shift it has caused in what is considered acceptable, there will be less widespread approval of future killings.

[deleted]

Re: Hit men aren't what you think

#279

Post by UncleMeat » Sat, Dec 07, 2024, 9:21 PM UTC

oskarkk wrote: post #245

michaeljx wrote: post #113

I don't understand the comments excusing the CEO of his responsibility. I work for a scale-up insurance company, and the CEOs are pretty clear with their mandate: customer service is paramount, we make money by streamlining our processes, negotiating hard with our network, and pricing properly our products. NOT by denying claims. This philosophy is enforced from the top all the way down, with Chinese walls between pr…

But wouldn't denying less claims necessitate raising prices? I see stats like these: https://i.redd.it/7aa6zytdox4e1.jpeg If the company is denying so much claims (32%), and they have quarterly profit around $6B on $100B revenue (and they had less profit in earlier quarters, even a loss in Q1), I think they would need to raise prices to stop denying most claims that they deny. And what then? Someone would kill the CE…

Not necessarily. You could improve efficiencies or cut other costs.

But even if it did mean prices went up... so what? That's the point of insurance. You pay in an average amount and the insurance covers you if you are on the wrong side of the cost distribution. If I am buying insurance then I want insurance. I don't want to get lower premiums by having a fun game of "maybe actually you'll not be able to get that cancer treatment" based on somebody other than my doctor deciding that I don't really need it.

Re: Hit men aren't what you think

#280

Post by tesch1 » Sat, Dec 07, 2024, 10:23 PM UTC

chomskyole wrote: post #228

Method-X wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Causing intentional harm is a pretty good definition of violence, don't you think? And then the next step is diluting the meaning of the word “harm.” Is hurting someone’s feelings causing harm?

I think you are sidestepping the argument here. Tell me, if I outsource the physical act of harm, say by paying someone to beat someone else up, would you say I am not violent?

Yes