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

3.28M file for U.S. jobless benefits

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

561–570 of 711 posts

Re: 3.28M file for U.S. jobless benefits

#561

Post by travisporter »

chatmasta wrote: post #282
baron_harkonnen wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After the depression the US emerged as the global hegemon because of major shifts in power that happened as a part of WWII. The US was uniquely adapted to grow to be the global super power at the same time that European nations were taking a huge hit from the war. I suspect this will ultimately lead to China as the new hegemon. We're seeing key advantages to the Chinese state that the US cannot adapt to. Decades of p…

I’m not sure about this. China is, rightfully, being blamed for the initial outbreak of the virus and their failure to contain it. I think when the dust settles, we’re going to see a rapid decoupling from China as countries look inward to strengthen their domestic supply chains. I have a hard time seeing China emerging as a winner from this crisis.

Inner cynic: For now long? 5 years? Then we will again be cutting costs, looking at the bottom line, and find that Chinese manufacturing gives a better bottom line.

Re: 3.28M file for U.S. jobless benefits

#562

Post by brightball »

rubber_duck wrote: post #35

And this is just the start. While I think the US response to Corona was slower than the response in my country I feel the US is the only country that's seriously discussing economic repercussions and debating the medical experts. In EU (at least in my country) it's doctors running things and we are in "stop the pandemic at all cost". Everyone is in panic due to Italy situation. But doctors are only trained to see the…

The issue on the framing of this topic also boils down to who asks it.

I often hear it framed as: "How much is a person's life worth?" or some general reference to stock values.

But when people say "economy" this is what it really means:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-52002734

Cash flow, supply chains, jobs, bankruptcy, debt, poverty, famine and more than likely families breaking up (financial stress is the #1 cause of divorce) plus a spike in suicides.

That's the economic impact. And when the question of virtually guaranteeing that outcome around the world to a significant portion of the global population vs a risk of a negative outcome for for the percentage of people who are susceptible to serious issues from COVID-19...it gets a heck of a lot murkier.

There's not a heartless bad guy in this situation. Both outcomes are terrible and if you purely look at the number of people negatively impacted, the economic fallout of this approach with its cascading effects look significantly worse.

Re: 3.28M file for U.S. jobless benefits

#563

Post by travisporter »

komali2 wrote: post #216
chewz wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And just like the Depression, a few years of boom times afterwards and that effect will be negated Actually Depression changed consumer habits for entire generation. People saved more, spent less, kept money under the mattress etc. Not a generation that you can kick-start an economy with.

Weird memory but my depression era great Grandma (matrilineal side all had kids at like 18) was teaching me a "depression soup" recipe. The first thing she had me do was peel the potatoes. All I could think was "this is the best part of the potato... We are literally throwing food away right now." I think lots of experiences like this with her led to me quite unfairly latching onto the "ok boomer" ageist wave. Time a…

Isn't depression era pre-boomer? (Baby boomers were born between 1944 and 1964). I think you've misclassified your great-grandma

Re: 3.28M file for U.S. jobless benefits

#564

Post by dwaltrip »

tharne wrote: post #405
ithinkinstereo wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went to my local 7-11 a couple of weeks ago to get some cash at the ATM. Next to it was a garbage bin for throwing away your receipt. Out of curiosity, I went through about a dozen and not a single one had a balance above $1,000. Most were below $500. There is little financial literacy in this country. Basic lessons about opening a bank account, the difference between checkings and savings, etc. is not something th…

That's a pretty biased sample. Most people with financial literacy aren't withdrawing cash at a 7/11. They're doing it at their own bank branch to avoid paying any fees. The reasoning here is circular. At the ATM in 7/11 that would only be used by people who aren't financially literate enough to absorb excessive fees, we find evidence of poor finances and poor financial literacy.

Charles Schwab is one of many banks that pays for all ATM fees.

Additionally, a financially literate person may value the time it would take find another ATM more than a $2 ATM fee.

Re: 3.28M file for U.S. jobless benefits

#565

Post by gwright »

markvdb wrote: post #262
SamuelAdams wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw this idea floated around on Reddit a few days ago. Basically the crux is that unemployment has a death toll, too. So if you close all non-essential businesses, unemployment rises, which increases the likelihood of people losing health insurance, losing homes, not paying electrical bills, communication (internet / phone) bills, etc. If some people lose all those things and don't have access to them again for 2+…

You've rightly identified the question as a false dichotomy. People in the US don't _have_ to die for lack of resources. The state helping the people to survive this crisis or not is a political choice.

I'm not really worried about lack of raw resources and immediate needs. We'll figure that out via a mix of savings, private charity, and local/state/federal assistance. I'm assuming that we'll mitigate the virus via treatments, vaccines, or the brutal reality of acquired immunity.

The more difficult political problem is how the financial pain is going to be distributed and how we reboot the economy. How assistance is distributed, taxes are adjusted, or fiscal measures are taken is going to be very complicated with opportunities to create winners and losers based on the policies. So far I'm not particularly impressed by Congress in this area.

Re: 3.28M file for U.S. jobless benefits

#566

Post by devonkim »

thrwn_frthr_awy wrote: post #488
devonkim wrote: post #476

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, USDS and 18F jobs are kind of contract-based and do hit past six figures last I saw. However, they were defunded a lot since last I saw by POTUS45 so it's not clear what the state of comp is. DC area tech is a mish mash of rather enterprise-centric businesses and can be challenging if you're in the wrong domains of expertise.

Unemployment services are ran by the state. The entry level Software Engineer salary by the state of California is around $64k, with senior level salaries between about $75-$105k in Sacramento. I do not know if if this is normal, above average, or below average when compared with other states.

Virginia, DC, Maryland have similar cost of living but VA, MD, and DC have drastically different governments, tax rates, rights, and laws despite people working in roughly the same 40 square miles. Even a federal employee graduating and writing software should make more than that. Senior salaries are between $110k and $140k with not a lot of outliers on either end (the distribution matters more to me than a median when talking salary these days for white collar jobs).

California is a huge state and the Bay Area is going to have drastically different stats for even the same industry comparing San Diego, Los Angeles, Sacramento, and San Luis Obispo (yep, there's software jobs there too).

Re: 3.28M file for U.S. jobless benefits

#567

Post by champagneben »

Demiurge wrote: post #416
seph-reed wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, legitimately, how to we make it so the government does have repercussions? I see a lot of people making jokes about guillotines and nooses, but is there no better way?

I suggest by campaigning to bring logic and critical thinking into early childhood education. Then philosophy, the classics. Science education. Once you have more people who can understand that there are scientific and moral issues with manifest destiny, and religion isn't going to solve global warming, there will be some shifts in the public discourse and public policies.

What's the scientific issue with manifest destiny?

Re: 3.28M file for U.S. jobless benefits

#568

Post by gwright »

lonelappde wrote: post #100
SamuelAdams wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw this idea floated around on Reddit a few days ago. Basically the crux is that unemployment has a death toll, too. So if you close all non-essential businesses, unemployment rises, which increases the likelihood of people losing health insurance, losing homes, not paying electrical bills, communication (internet / phone) bills, etc. If some people lose all those things and don't have access to them again for 2+…

> losing health insurance, losing homes, not paying electrical bills, communication (internet / phone) bills, etc. None of this is true because non-essential bills have also been shut down.

I think what you are saying is that discretionary expenses have been greatly reduced. That is true, but I think you then make a very big leap to assuming the savings can easily offset the fixed expenses that you mention (insurance, rent/mortgage, utilities).

Re: 3.28M file for U.S. jobless benefits

#569

Post by billyhoffman »

MattSayar wrote: post #482
luma wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Further, unemployment benefits are managed by the states, and those states are running web services which typically see a few hundred hits a day. They are now trying to process tens of thousands of new records each day, and at least in MI the service is absolutely not up to the task. My wife managed to get her filing completed a little after 1am this morning. She was the only one of her 20 coworkers to successfully f…

Wow, just found what my state (CO) is doing to help manage the influx. Talk about a low-tech workaround. >IMPORTANT NOTICE: Because of the high volume of claims, we are asking that you help us help you and our greater community. >If you need to file an unemployment claim and your last name begins with the letter A - M, file a claim on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, or after 12 noon on Saturday. >If you need to file an un…

Distributed load balancing!

Re: 3.28M file for U.S. jobless benefits

#570

Post by gwright »

econcon wrote: post #500
sundaeofshock wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously? There were a number of submissions yesterday to HN discussing the relative merits of sacrificing millions for the sake of the market. Perhaps you missed those?

If world runs out of food supply or other important products, then the "young people who don't have any underlying disease" will also die.

Not going to happen because of the virus. Could happen if the politicians don't remember to keep the economy functioning.
Post reply on HN