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Patrick Collison's Questions

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Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#41

Post by mark4 »

ISL wrote: post #28

On the Chinese research question: Just wait a decade. In all likelihood, I am permanently departing academia in about a month. The underlying reason is structural -- neither our funding agency nor our institution is willing to yield on a fundamental sticking point that is causing all of our young researchers to leave. I am about to join them. There is literally no path forward. In the decade that I have watched my wo…

Your answer resonated with me a lot. Can you elaborate on this? What is that structural reason?

> The underlying reason is structural -- neither our funding agency nor our institution is willing to yield on a fundamental sticking point that is causing all of our young researchers to leave.

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#42

Post by dantheman »

josu wrote: post #13
foolinaround wrote: post #2

One common answer for many questions comparing past to present : "More regulations" This is not necessarily a bad thing, but often it is becoming a nightmare of labyrinthine proportions to navigate, which hinders new entrants.

Cars and Cellphone service sectors are heavily regulated. Textbooks are not regulated. There is more to it than just "more regulations". Also regulation doesn't necessarily have to come from the government, for example, the Apple App Store is heavily regulated, and yet they have some of the lowest software prices compared to other platforms. In my opinion, competition through trade may have a stronger effect on price…

That is a correct definition of regulation - it captures a feedback cycle; but the parent, was clearly meaning government regulation. If customers don't like a product that helps regulate quality, etc...

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#43

Post by ffggvv »

akirakurusu wrote: post #18

"Why are so many things so much nicer in Switzerland and Japan?" Figuring out why this is without fully attributing it to culture has been of great fascination to me. It really is mindblowing just how _good_ things are in Japan, perhaps they're just highly optimized for tourism? The cleanliness, the service, the great care people place in doing things and in their work is just amazing. Anyone here have more insights…

why can’t you just attribute it to culture? it’s clearly that

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#44

Post by twoodfin »

For the first chart/question it’s important to distinguish cost from spending. For example, “food and beverage”: Americans are (at least pre-Covid) eating out a lot more than they were 20 or 30 years ago, so that category presumably now covers a very different basket of goods than in the past, even if they add up to roughly the same number of calories.

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#45

Post by dantheman »

grandmczeb wrote: post #16
peacefulhat wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Subsidized corn is not rapidly and consistently increasing in price.

I don’t necessarily buy the idea that student loans are driving price increases, but there’s a tangible difference between subsidizing producers versus consumers (corn subsidies are generally the former, student loans are the latter).

If people couldn't get the loans the price wouldn't be that high, people don't have the money to pay it.

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#46

Post by kevindong »

akirakurusu wrote: post #18

"Why are so many things so much nicer in Switzerland and Japan?" Figuring out why this is without fully attributing it to culture has been of great fascination to me. It really is mindblowing just how _good_ things are in Japan, perhaps they're just highly optimized for tourism? The cleanliness, the service, the great care people place in doing things and in their work is just amazing. Anyone here have more insights…

I've only been to Switzerland once and that was during a When I pay for something with an American credit card in Europe, the machine prints out a receipt for me to sign. I was buying a snack at a store in the Zurich airport and the clerk actually compared the signature on the back of my card to the signature that I scrawled on the receipt. That was the one and only time I've ever had someone do that.

I generally don't put any effort into those signatures so my signature looked nothing like what was on the back of my card so the clerk actually asked me to try again.

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#47

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

pchristensen wrote: post #30

"Why are certain things getting so much more expensive?" That list is pretty much rank ordered by the amount of non-substitutable human labor involved per unit. Everything in red is a pretty universal need (health, education, child care, housing, food), while the blues are mostly wants. So we want medical care, but that requires a lot of labor, and each of those workers requires housing, but that's supply constrained…

The answer linked to in Collison's question, https://medium.com/@arnoldkling/what-gets-expensive-and-why-... , is really insightful and interesting in my opinion and goes to a deep level of analysis.

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#48

Post by bawolff »

verroq wrote: post #29
akirakurusu wrote: post #18

"Why are so many things so much nicer in Switzerland and Japan?" Figuring out why this is without fully attributing it to culture has been of great fascination to me. It really is mindblowing just how _good_ things are in Japan, perhaps they're just highly optimized for tourism? The cleanliness, the service, the great care people place in doing things and in their work is just amazing. Anyone here have more insights…

Ethno states with shared culture and little internal division due to racial tensions tend to run quite well. See: China, Korea, Norway, Denmark, Czech republic

Counterpoint: North Korea.

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#49

Post by noirbot »

josu wrote: post #13
foolinaround wrote: post #2

One common answer for many questions comparing past to present : "More regulations" This is not necessarily a bad thing, but often it is becoming a nightmare of labyrinthine proportions to navigate, which hinders new entrants.

Cars and Cellphone service sectors are heavily regulated. Textbooks are not regulated. There is more to it than just "more regulations". Also regulation doesn't necessarily have to come from the government, for example, the Apple App Store is heavily regulated, and yet they have some of the lowest software prices compared to other platforms. In my opinion, competition through trade may have a stronger effect on price…

Textbooks aren't regulated in the governmental sense (though they are somewhat at the middle/high school level), but there's certainly been more "regulation" in the sense of schools trying to enforce what books are used for what class for their own enrichment.

Re: Patrick Collison's Questions

#50

Post by drcode »

andrewstuart wrote: post #25
akirakurusu wrote: post #18

"Why are so many things so much nicer in Switzerland and Japan?" Figuring out why this is without fully attributing it to culture has been of great fascination to me. It really is mindblowing just how _good_ things are in Japan, perhaps they're just highly optimized for tourism? The cleanliness, the service, the great care people place in doing things and in their work is just amazing. Anyone here have more insights…

I visited Japan and was just astounded at how much better the society is run. As a tourist, my obviously naive impression was of a place that is incredibly well organised, that seems to have no trouble investing in its own infrastructure, that is extremely safe and clean and generally prosperous. Where the people seem to have a sense of joy and fun. Just. so. well. organised. I really loved Japan. My favorite country…

I agree Japan is awesome (visited twice) but let's not overlook this: https://www.businessinsider.com/world-suicide-rate-map-2014-...
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