Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Stay Gold, America

blog.codinghorror.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 239 posts

Re: Stay Gold, America

#41

Post by ETH_start »

eunos wrote: post #4

On the cost increases graph, As always, things that got cheaper are things that American import from other countries while things that got more expensive are things that you cant import and solely depends on American workforce, more or less. So I found it very funny that right now there are more and louder voices on reducing trade deficits and bringing manufacturing backs. Well, are most folks ready to have the black…

The things that got cheaper are primarily things on which the government imposes the fewest restrictions and provides the fewest subsidies. Incidentally, that includes most physically tradeable goods that are also easier to import.

Let's look in more detail at the medical field for instance:

There was a 3,200 percent increase in the number of healthcare administrators between 1975 and 2010, compared to a 150% increase in physicians, due to an increasing number of regulations:

https://www.athenahealth.com/resources/blog/expert-forum-ris...

>Supporters say the growing number of administrators is needed to keep pace with the drastic changes in healthcare delivery during that timeframe, particularly change driven by technology and by ever-more-complex regulations. (To cite just a few industry-disrupting regulations, consider the Prospective Payment System of 1983 [1]; the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996 [2]; and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Act of 2009.) [3]

In contrast, the fields of medicine in the US less affected by this surge in government intervention; cosmetic and laser eye surgery, have seen prices increase at below the rate of inflation. [4]

[1] https://www.cms.gov/medicare/payment/prospective-payment-sys...

[2] https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/laws-reg...

[3] https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/special-topics/h...

[4] https://healthblog.ncpathinktank.org/why-cant-the-market-for...

Re: Stay Gold, America

#42

Post by noduerme »

geraldwhen wrote: post #35
alkonaut wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compulsory voting removes an important signal where participation indicates the legitimacy. Which is why very few democracies have compulsory voting. Having 70-80-90% participation with non-compulsory voting should be the goal of any self respecting democracy and politicians who reject measures to increase voter turnout should be viewed with extreme suspicion.

[dead]

You should see how security handles drunk people at the slot machines in Vegas. Just recently a friend saw them come over, prop up a dead drunk guy, reach into his pocket, put money in his hand and help him feed it into the machine.

(My response was: That security guard should get a raise; you really need more minimum wage employees who care that much about the company /s)

Re: Stay Gold, America

#43

Post by gadders »

Hilift wrote: post #10
coldtea wrote: post #7

> We are at an unprecedented point in American history, and I'm concerned we may lose sight of the American Dream The understatement of the year. From all I read, hasn't it been dead and burried for decades? (Of course not for some founder who hit the jackpot like Jeff). "Evidence indicates that in recent decades social mobility in the United States has declined, and income inequality has risen.[7][8] Social mobility…

There has always been poor people in the US. There seems to be more shame and stigma attached now though, along with denial. I think that is one of the reasons the iPhone is more popular in the US. It helps people feel like they aren't poor.

There have always been poor people, but also wage earners managed to support a nuclear family and have a mortgage on a house with a non-working partner through working a blue collar job. This seems to be disappearing.

Re: Stay Gold, America

#44

Post by fifilura »

noduerme wrote: post #37
alkonaut wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compulsory voting removes an important signal where participation indicates the legitimacy. Which is why very few democracies have compulsory voting. Having 70-80-90% participation with non-compulsory voting should be the goal of any self respecting democracy and politicians who reject measures to increase voter turnout should be viewed with extreme suspicion.

This is an excellent point. Turnout may be an important signal which is lost with compulsory voting, and certainly any politician trying to suppress votes is dishonest. To play devil's advocate and to argue for compulsory voting for a moment, however: It is a potential antidote to the type of voter apathy by which a somewhat demoralized but popular party (e.g. Democrats in the last US election) put themselves out of…

Not voting is a poor way to show dissent since it practically gives your vote to whoever gets the majority.

Better then to vote for yourself, vote blank, vote for whoever you would rather have in charge, or vote for the least bad.

Re: Stay Gold, America

#45

Post by dijit »

booleandilemma wrote: post #23
gary_0 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> hasn't it been dead and burried for decades? "It's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it." - George Carlin, like 30 years ago. Just after he observed that "hard-working people of modest means continue to elect these rich cocksuckers who don't give a fuck about them."

I've often wondered why our politicians should be so rich. Why are so many of them millionaires? It would be nice to have laws preventing this, somehow. Or maybe force them to donate x% of their wealth to the areas they represent every year, in addition to the standard taxes. Do politicians even pay taxes? :)

I go back and forth on this myself.

I'm the first to admit my ignorance of such topics to be completely honest.

However, what I've noticed about myself as I've become more wealthy is that I'm less corruptible.

I've always had a strong moral backbone, sure, but I've noticed that I am less likely to do things that compromise what I want to do, as I've become more rich.

So, maybe you need your politicians to be somewhat rich and numerous, in order to prevent external pressure from people who have an incentive to bribe *ahem*... sorry.. "lobby".

Re: Stay Gold, America

#46

Post by pjc50 »

geraldwhen wrote: post #35
alkonaut wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compulsory voting removes an important signal where participation indicates the legitimacy. Which is why very few democracies have compulsory voting. Having 70-80-90% participation with non-compulsory voting should be the goal of any self respecting democracy and politicians who reject measures to increase voter turnout should be viewed with extreme suspicion.

[dead]

That's pretty representative of the elected: congresspeople and presidential candidates who are far too old and steered around by advisors.

Re: Stay Gold, America

#47

Post by Terr_ »

alkonaut wrote: post #24
noduerme wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having lived in a country with compulsory voting (Argentina), I find the notion charming but I can scarcely say it leads to more intelligent outcomes.

Compulsory voting removes an important signal where participation indicates the legitimacy. Which is why very few democracies have compulsory voting. Having 70-80-90% participation with non-compulsory voting should be the goal of any self respecting democracy and politicians who reject measures to increase voter turnout should be viewed with extreme suspicion.

> Compulsory voting removes an important signal where participation indicates the legitimacy.

Not really: Voters can still choose to "not participate" (whether as protest or laziness) simply by casting a ballot that is functionally empty of choices.

If anything, the signal you're talking about becomes stronger, since a compulsory-voting system removes or reduces certain practical impediments which have nothing to do with deliberate protest.

Re: Stay Gold, America

#48

Post by pjc50 »

alkonaut wrote: post #24
noduerme wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having lived in a country with compulsory voting (Argentina), I find the notion charming but I can scarcely say it leads to more intelligent outcomes.

Compulsory voting removes an important signal where participation indicates the legitimacy. Which is why very few democracies have compulsory voting. Having 70-80-90% participation with non-compulsory voting should be the goal of any self respecting democracy and politicians who reject measures to increase voter turnout should be viewed with extreme suspicion.

> Having 70-80-90% participation with non-compulsory voting should be the goal of any self respecting democracy and politicians who reject measures to increase voter turnout should be viewed with extreme suspicion.

The US has a long history of voter suppression, which is often supported by the remaining voters. There's a lot of court cases about it; states will fight hard to reduce the impact of the ""wrong kind"" of voters.

Re: Stay Gold, America

#49

Post by DaSHacka »

throwpoaster wrote: post #31
booleandilemma wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've often wondered why our politicians should be so rich. Why are so many of them millionaires? It would be nice to have laws preventing this, somehow. Or maybe force them to donate x% of their wealth to the areas they represent every year, in addition to the standard taxes. Do politicians even pay taxes? :)

Maybe the people who serve society at the highest levels should also have the biggest stake in its successful outcomes.

That would still require what GP is suggesting, no?

1%'ers don't have to worry about the price of groceries nor affordable housing; they can just brute-force whatever they desire through excessive wealth.

At least, that's the impression I get from the millionaires I know. Perhaps not all are like this (they gathered their wealth primarily via private equity) but I have no reason to think politicians would be any different.

Re: Stay Gold, America

#50

Post by gadders »

I don't know how you can want to improve democracy, and be in favour of universal mail-in voting, the most open to abuse form of voting there is.
Post reply on HN