Sounds like this guy needs a new hobby, maybe metalworking?
There are too many video games
51–60 of 173 posts
Re: There are too many video games
#52That is where universal basic income comes in place so everyone can work on the fun stuff they want to work on.
Sounds like an interesting theory. Who will be the ones that do the productive work that pays for UBI?
The implication of your comment is that people only do productive work now because they are forced to, to avoid starvation. And that you think such a system is fine. Because if you thought people now do work which interests them, you'd still think that in a UBI world, and if you thought the current system wasn't fine, you wouldn't go straight to "but who can be forced to do horrible things if we take the forcing lever away? That would be bad".
Re: There are too many video games
#53> This is a whole another blog post, so I'll paint with broad strokes for now. My city, Seattle, is crumbling. We don't have the energy to maintain the roads, and our bridges are literally falling apart. We can't even maintain what our grandparents built, let alone make any grand new projects. What in the world does this have to do with people creating art? Maybe the crumbling infrastructure is emblematic of poor lea…
> we aren't allowed to blame Democrats for running Seattle into the ground in tech circles I exist almost exclusively in tech circles in and around Seattle, and we blame existing leadership for tons of problems. This seems so weirdly divorced from reality that it smacks of ideologue speak.
I work exclusively in tech circles around L.A. and even being remotely sympathetic to Republican views is anathema. San Francisco is ideologically way more entrenched even though, ironically, their city is a mess, much like Seattle.
Re: There are too many video games
#54Let's say for the sake of argument that there is too much art out there, that we need less people writing novels and more people fixing potholes and whatnot - fine. How does the author propose deciding _who_ gets to make art? Even if you have an oracle who can assign some sort of quality number to an art project before it's made...how are people supposed to get better at it? It's going to take thousands of cruddy Unity indie projects to make a single Undertale or Stardew Valley. The more crappy art we have, the more good art will come later, as artists either get better or luck upon a good idea combined with the perseverance to make that idea a reality.
Re: There are too many video games
#55That is where universal basic income comes in place so everyone can work on the fun stuff they want to work on.
Sounds like an interesting theory. Who will be the ones that do the productive work that pays for UBI?
Probably people that "want more" than whatever the government stipend buys them. I would probably change nothing about my day to day if I the government started paying my living expenses, except worrying less about what happens if I become unable to work.
UBI probably won't pay enough to have high-speed internet in a two bedroom apartment in a popular city center eating at fancy restaurants three meals a day. It will be the absolute minimum to not die if you can't work. So, people will probably go to work to have a better life than that, but at least have something to fall back on if it doesn't work out. Having a fallback means startups, volunteering, self-care, all sorts of good things. The risk of starving to death living in a cardboard box goes to zero, which prevents a lot of people from doing a lot of things. It's a very real possibility in the current world.
I think people that read this site don't quite understand what "real life" is like in America. There are no paid sick days. If you don't report to your shift, you're fired. If you're lucky, you very carefully fill out the right paperwork and keep your job this time as a courtesy. (There is no federal protection here; for example, FMLA doesn't apply during your first year or so at a job. Some states do a little better, but with remote work, you'll find that most of the jobs are in states without protections! Happened to a friend, though their home state also offers no protections.) While you're sick, you still have to pay for rent and food. UBI is the acceptance that corporate America isn't going to cover routine events like receiving medical treatment. It won't enable people to party 24/7 for 80 years on the taxpayers' dime. It just means you don't starve to death if you get unlucky.
People will continue working to do a little better than merely existing, if they're able.
Re: There are too many video games
#56Aren't all these indie games he's decrying being made on free time? Whether they are working day jobs, in school living on debt, or living with their parents, it's still their free time. Society isn't supporting the vast majority, and the experience they gain is very valuable. Show me a failed indie developer and I see someone who can at least ship.
If it's their free time, why should they spend that contributing towards fixing his bridges or maintaining his roads? Does the author do that? I know I don't, I just pay my taxes on my earnings like everyone else, occasionally volunteer, and do whatever I want in my free time.
I don't see the problem.
Re: There are too many video games
#57At a global scale, everyone-in-the-search-space view, there is significant duplicity. That's life. If you look hard enough, you could find games, songs, books, paintings, even people that are essentially indistinguishable from each other. Yes, there's lot of artwork in the world.
Ask yourself instead if the thing you are making should instead be an improvement to some other thing, or if you want to use your time on earth to make a potentially-similar thing that is focused on your immediate neighborhood.
Nothing wrong with that.
Re: There are too many video games
#58Odd to focus on games when Seattle is propped up by a tech industry with people being overpaid by hundreds of thousands to make useless apps and websites. Indie game devs are usually making things at home during their downtime. As far as I know, there’s no volunteer hobbyist bridge repair club, so they’re not really taking away from anything. Meanwhile you have companies that have an easily replaceable service like S…
If the company hires you for a job and they’re happy with your work, you’re not overpaid. Companies are desperate for engineers that the price has inflated, the value of engineers has gone up because no one wants to make useless apps or websites without being paid.
Re: There are too many video games
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sounds like an interesting theory. Who will be the ones that do the productive work that pays for UBI?
Maybe not people doing "productive" work, but the people who pay most of the UBI would possibly the billionaires and corporations who have dodged taxes since their conception.
Not close to enough money even if you take all of it from them. UBI would be on the back of the middle and upper middle class.
Re: There are too many video games
#60> This is a whole another blog post, so I'll paint with broad strokes for now. My city, Seattle, is crumbling. We don't have the energy to maintain the roads, and our bridges are literally falling apart. We can't even maintain what our grandparents built, let alone make any grand new projects. What in the world does this have to do with people creating art? Maybe the crumbling infrastructure is emblematic of poor lea…
I mean if you want to point at anything for blame... at least point at government spending. More than half of federal discretionary spending is on the military. Put a few % of that towards infrastructure... For reference .003% of the federal budget goes towards the national endowment for the arts'
I mean why have a local or State government if you’re just going to treat them as a convenient receptacle for tax money that originated locally with basically no responsibility over the local status quo?