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In a U.S. First, New Mexico Opens Doors to Free Child Care for All

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Re: In a U.S. First, New Mexico Opens Doors to Free Child Care for All

#401

Post by WalterBright »

ivan_gammel wrote: post #255
WalterBright wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a moved to pure individualism built around selfishness The US was founded on individual rights and freedoms, not community sacrifice. Meanwhile, during the 1800s, scores of millions of people moved up from poverty into the middle class and beyond. (Immigrants to the US arrived with nothing more than a suitcase.) > Funny how we keep forgetting the past and reject what benefited us as a whole Oh the irony!

> The US was founded on individual rights Excluding those whose land was stolen and redistributed by government. > not community sacrifice Excluding government-funded infrastructure projects like canals that enabled growth. And support that immigrants received from ethnic communities. > Meanwhile, during the 1800s, scores of millions of people moved up from poverty Yes, fifteen tons, we know that song.

Every nation that exists or ever existed took land by force. And yes, there were public works projects.

The government did not engage in welfare until FDR.

Re: In a U.S. First, New Mexico Opens Doors to Free Child Care for All

#402

Post by EasyMark »

georgeburdell wrote: post #269
russdill wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, what, pay someone a full time salary for caring for 1 or two children? Pretty sure that doesn't scale

If governments aren’t willing to value women at what their work at home is worth, they’re not serious about tackling the birthrate problem. Show me a country with universal childcare with a TFR above 2.1. It’s a cheap substitute for the love and attention only a mother can provide young children

It doesn't have to be mother at home. Roles can be reverse. I think it's very important to point that out.

Re: In a U.S. First, New Mexico Opens Doors to Free Child Care for All

#403

Post by EasyMark »

siliconc0w wrote: post #113

My current theory is that we've basically gotten addicted to importing the world's smartest kids so we have been unwilling to invest in our own children.

Definitely one of the few policies that Trump "championed" that I supported him on; severely curtailing H1B visas going forward. Those who are here can be grandfathered in, but going forward the program should be wound down, and we invest in our own civilians and youth.

Re: In a U.S. First, New Mexico Opens Doors to Free Child Care for All

#404

Post by Aloisius »

runako wrote: post #166
parineum wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It takes a good idea and a willingness to take a risk to start a business. I don't think that risk aversion is what's stopping new businesses, there are a lot of people who do a lot of what I consider too risky. Instead, what I wonder is how many new businesses wouldn't be viable under a tax structure that provides ubi and health care. Not to be dismissive but that's definitely a concern in a world replete with fledg…

The data on UBI isn't out there, but it is notable that countries with similar tax rates to the US manage to have universal healthcare and more expansive safety nets. Some examples: New Zealand (tax rate ~30% less than the US), Korea, Switzerland, Australia, UK, Japan, Netherlands, Norway. Americans really should be asking why we're paying a significantly higher tax burden than New Zealand and not getting similar ser…

New Zealand effective taxes rates are generally higher than the US, not lower unless you're doing something odd like comparing based on average local wage.

Switzerland, the Netherlands and Japan all use the Bismark model (contributions for insurance), so taxes don't really reflect the cost of universal healthcare.

The issue in the US is not an allocation problem. The average person in the US already pays more in taxes that are spent on healthcare than in any other country. We're just so inefficient with our spending that we only manage to cover a fraction of our population with it.

Re: In a U.S. First, New Mexico Opens Doors to Free Child Care for All

#405

Post by vlovich123 »

reliabilityguy wrote: post #387
vlovich123 wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not if the samples are skewed. For example, the people who get the care are from stable environments with financial means. After universal childcare is implemented, we start measuring these things in the broader population that has fewer access to resources generally.

The assumption here is that only people with means got care and were surveyed. I am not sure that this is the case. Moreover, you can correct for those factors, and, I assume, any statistician worth their salt are.

Given the reproducibility crisis, particularly in the social sciences, I wouldn’t put too much weight into the skill or honesty of the people doing that work (and statisticians they are not - more like people with a humanities background who take some statistics courses and then do numerology)

Re: In a U.S. First, New Mexico Opens Doors to Free Child Care for All

#406

Post by ivan_gammel »

WalterBright wrote: post #401
ivan_gammel wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The US was founded on individual rights Excluding those whose land was stolen and redistributed by government. > not community sacrifice Excluding government-funded infrastructure projects like canals that enabled growth. And support that immigrants received from ethnic communities. > Meanwhile, during the 1800s, scores of millions of people moved up from poverty Yes, fifteen tons, we know that song.

Every nation that exists or ever existed took land by force. And yes, there were public works projects. The government did not engage in welfare until FDR.

I agree on that. It doesn’t make your previous comment right.

Re: In a U.S. First, New Mexico Opens Doors to Free Child Care for All

#407

Post by sleight42 »

jameslk wrote: post #143

It’s good that it’s a state policy, not a federal one. We need more policies to stay at the state level, regardless of the policy. Federalism is how we can test the effects of competing policies under the same house. If the policy is a problem for you, it’s a lot easier to vote with your feet and move to a different state than to move to a different country

"Vote with your feet" is a privileged assertion

Re: In a U.S. First, New Mexico Opens Doors to Free Child Care for All

#408

Post by Aloisius »

jazzyjackson wrote: post #227
roughly wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, it turns out that things like free health care, adequate food, good schools, and all that other socialist mumbo jumbo is actually good for productivity and the economy, too.

Why is "the economy" our highest priority here?

Why is the production, distribution, trade and consumption of goods and services (aka, the economy) the highest priority?

Well, mostly because it's required to keep the vast majority of people in society alive and the effects of disruption are only second to war in terms of potential for misery.

Re: In a U.S. First, New Mexico Opens Doors to Free Child Care for All

#409

Post by nradov »

omikun wrote: post #391
nradov wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've strayed pretty far from the original topic here, but the reality is that the US military is literally running out of working aircraft because they're so old . The average age of USAF aircraft is now about 28 years. The fleet was allowed to decay and not substantially recapitalized during the GWOT. Many of the fighters in the combat coded inventory aren't even allowed to hit their original 9G maneuvering limit a…

Oh yes it’s about time the US enters another war so we can justify even more military spending and less spending to improve the livelihood of the people. Just kidding we are already doing that with Venezuela.

You're really missing the point. If we're going to have a military at all then we have to constantly keep building new combat aircraft (and other weapon systems). The old ones wear out and become obsolete. Ironically this is the best way to prevent a major war, through deterrence. (I do think that attacking Venezuela would be stupid and pointless.)

Re: In a U.S. First, New Mexico Opens Doors to Free Child Care for All

#410

Post by WalterBright »

ivan_gammel wrote: post #294
seizethecheese wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment is sort of weird. Like you’re finding technically true rebuttals that don’t really refute the high level point.

The high level point is idealism not grounded in historical facts and probably not worthy spending time and going deeper with criticism, because full rebuttal isn’t some expert knowledge - ChatGPT can do that for you. America of 1800s is everything but libertarian paradise and is not truly exceptional. Industrialization in Europe increased prosperity while building welfare states at the same time.

Not truly exceptional? Some fun facts:

1. The immigrants came by the boatload from Europe to the US. Not the other way around. The Titanic was built for that purpose.

2. The immigrants were the poor of Europe, not the wealthy.

3. The US middle class and upper middle class and the wealthy came from those poor people. I can't think of any American wealthy families that came from the wealthy of Europe.

4. The height of Americans increased dramatically from 1800 to 1900. This is only possible by plenty of food being available. Visit Fort Henry and look at the uniforms of the 1700s. They look kid sized.

5. The uniforms of Civil War soldiers look teen sized. You can see them for yourself in the Gettysburg museum.

6. In WW1 when the US Army arrived on the scene, the Germans were shocked at their height and high quality plentiful food, and then knew they had lost the war.

7. The US supplied all the Allies in WW2 (including the USSR), provided the shipping fleet to do it, floated two navies, one for the Atlantic and one for the Pacific, and simply buried the Axis under the weight of all the hardware it made.

8. The Wehrmacht relied on horses.

9. The European middle class did not have cars until after WW2. The pre-war US filled the country with Model T's for everybody.

10. My grandfather started out shoveling coal in a steamer (a dirty, rotten job). By the turn of the century, he had his own middle class home, and later a vacation home and a couple cars.

America truly is exceptional.

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