Mary Meeker’s eye-popping annual Internet Trends report hits the web • Hacker News Board

Re: Mary Meeker’s eye-popping annual Internet Trends report hits the web

#61

Post by fffggg » Thu, May 31, 2012, 1:51 PM UTC

pessimizer wrote: post #60

fffggg wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's sarcasm, right? Military spending outstrips healthcare costs by nearly 2:1, and has for decades.

US public spending on healthcare is larger per capita than many other western countries with universally inclusive healthcare systems that also have better health outcomes. As a bonus, public spending on healthcare in the US is matched by massive private spending, being responsible for most bankruptcies and foreclosures and tying many people to wage labor who would rather be entrepreneurs. We know that healthcare wit…

It's true that US public spending is larger per capita. Several times bigger than many successful european countries. It's a problem and deserves recognition.

However, it is not "120%" of the problem as you suggest. Military spending is similarly out of proportion (arguably much moreso) and military spending consumes much, much more of our federal budget than healthcare.

I'm not objecting to the idea that we need to fix our health care system -- you are right on. I'm saying that it's not "120%" of the problem; defense is, and has always been.

Re: Mary Meeker’s eye-popping annual Internet Trends report hits the web

#62

Post by [deleted] » Thu, May 31, 2012, 11:24 PM UTC

potatolicious wrote: post #37

mikecane wrote: post #36

Amazed that one of the biggest changes is something she missed. How mobile tech changed the face and effectiveness of protest, from Egypt and the Mid-East to Occupy and ongoing (current protests in Quebec). Also missing is how effective live video -- especially Ustream -- has been in bypassing the MSM TV news to show the actions of police directly. And how such footage has been used to void arrests of protesters by p…

Not being in the Middle East (or ever having been, ever), I have to question that narrative, though it's a common one. We know the Egyptian government eventually shut down internet access (leading to ingenious hacks, such as the Twitter-voice-recognition-bot Google wrote), but the protests continued unabated. I'm sure social media had some role to play in the Arab Spring - but the extent of it I feel has been blown o…

[deleted]

Re: Mary Meeker’s eye-popping annual Internet Trends report hits the web

#63

Post by muzz » Thu, May 31, 2012, 11:58 PM UTC

adventureful wrote: post #32

muzz wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Social Security trust fund is $2.7 Trillion http://www.ssa.gov/oact/progdata/assets.html Changes to the program-- much smaller than the 1983 reform-- can insure solvency for a long, long time to come.

That trust fund doesn't exist, there is no actual money in it, as noted by the other comments. The Federal Reserve ultimately will lend the US Government that money (the Fed is now buying 95% of all long term US govt debt), now with interest on the debt, instead of there being an actual trust there earning interest. So any math that relies on that trust existing, is Enron accounting.

Wow. Hurry-- you'd better tell that to "the Chinese" and anyone else who's been buying our debt. And also, that must mean that we can all stop worrying about that $15T govt debt, since it's all "Enron accounting". Whew! Problem solved!