It’s Time to Build • Hacker News Board

Re: It’s Time to Build

#901

Post by kelp » Sun, Apr 19, 2020, 7:11 PM UTC

tekdude wrote: post #740

buss wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In San Francisco, at least, YIMBY is the organization that is organized around ending regulatory capture in housing, and The Neoliberal Project (in SF YIMBY Neoliberal) is organized around broader dismantling of regulatory capture. We mobilize people in support of reform-focused politicians and have even started running our own (Sonja Trauss in 2018 and myself in 2020). Happy to talk more about it -- steven.buss@gmai…

I've read about YIMBY groups before, particularly the one called BARF (if I remember correctly). This is a great start to the type of work that needs to be done. However, I have to ask: What is your group's funding situation? Who is bankrolling the effort? Is it grassroots funded, or are there wealthy benefactors who agree with the objectives (or, from a more cynical perspective, might be using your group for somethi…

I’m what would be considered a major donor to the YIMBY effort and I’ve donated in the low 5 figures.

It’s generally grass roots though I know some wealthy individuals have donated much more of the total funds.

The progressive camp of SF politics often tries to discredit the YIMBY movement by claiming AstroTurf. But it’s simply not true.

This was started by motivated individuals who started organizing and then went and started looking for donations.

The reality of SF housing politics is all the “local control” has given a lot of power to local groups that can hold a new development hostage. So developers have to essentially pay them off with “community benefit” to keep each group from delaying your project through years of appeals.

This sets up a system where a small number of developers have the relationships and know how to work the system to get their projects done. Limits local construction competition.

We also have local politicians (Aaron Peskin) who own significant amounts of rental properties, and find ways of opposing new housing supply. A policy they directly and personally benefit from.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#902

Post by eitland » Sun, Apr 19, 2020, 7:18 PM UTC

hyko wrote: post #566

kebman wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody want's a new McDonald's destroying their old status quo in their country. People don't want one-world-gov. They want disparate nations, that have charm and local uniqueness. Except that goes directly towards harmonizing international (trade) laws. If you want a lesson, check out how Lidl did in Norway when they challenged local chain stores.

The failure of Lidl in Norway due to vested interests is an argument for one world government. Maybe if we had one government we’d finally be able to settle on one electrical plug, which side of the road to drive on etc. etc. Imagine if every country developed its own indigenous WiFi standard? How lovely, until you want to read your email. Charm and uniqueness is great on a postcard, but not when you want to actually…

> Maybe if we had one government we’d finally be able to settle on one electrical plug, which side of the road to drive on etc.

That's nice, but seeing how the wast majorities of crimes against humanity are made by too powerful nation states against their inhabitants I am not very exited to see what atrocities an even more powerful would do.

At least now if the local government are trying to kill you there's a small chance that you might manage to escape to a safer place.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#903

Post by eitland » Sun, Apr 19, 2020, 7:21 PM UTC

kebman wrote: post #428

Jommi wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a great comment, and hopefully I could add some real life example around this, esp with 1) and 2). Uber did this in Europe. Uber pushed, fought and introduced gig-economy employment laws in every country it has operated in EU, specifically around taxi and for hire transport regulation. Uber employed a huge amount of legal and PR counsel to achieve this, with massive lobbying funding. And what has happened? It…

Nobody want's a new McDonald's destroying their old status quo in their country. People don't want one-world-gov. They want disparate nations, that have charm and local uniqueness. Except that goes directly towards harmonizing international (trade) laws. If you want a lesson, check out how Lidl did in Norway when they challenged local chain stores.

More importantly, Lidl didn't have Norwegian newspapers when they arrived and while some of the things they sold were great a number of others just didn't feel right. A lot of the food they try to sell just didn't work because we aren't used to it at all.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#904

Post by jariel » Sun, Apr 19, 2020, 7:33 PM UTC

luckylion wrote: post #670

jariel wrote: post #617

The most sorely lacking in self-awareness aspect of his post is that a16z is a primary driver of a flavour economic (and social) neoliberalism that is a 'root cause' of almost everything he lamented. 1) If non-college educated kids had a legit path into the market (like they do in Germany) then surpluses would be more evenly distributed and housing wouldn't be such a problem. But they don't have path because a) indus…

I don't disagree on the primary point you're trying to make, but I feel like you have a warped image of -at least- Germany. Germany has a housing crisis as well, rent is through the roof in the major metropolitan areas. > The US doesn't really care that much about citizen v. non-citizen - the economic benefit in the short term is outsource/insource - there is no consideration for the population. That's very true for…

I'm a non-German who lived in Germany, the US, and other places.

As you say 'it's impolite' to talk about the citizens in a nationalist way, yes, but Germany (and many other nations) are still deeply ethnocentric - it's by default. Almost everything about Germany is 'German' and when almost all economic, political and social concern on a broader level is about 'Germany'. It actually takes some intellectual effort to go beyond and think in terms of 'Europe' or even 'The World'.

'Not being so nationalist' is a social artifact of many nations these days, and I suggest it's just a healthy dose of self-awareness, but it doesn't change the definition of what the community is in the minds of citizens.

FYI I should point out that I don't think the US in a 'Germany model' would somehow result in the government building rocket-ships, but it would result in healthcare, better employment terms.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#905

Post by kriro » Sun, Apr 19, 2020, 7:34 PM UTC

"""You see it in manufacturing. Contrary to conventional wisdom, American manufacturing output is higher than ever, but why has so much manufacturing been offshored to places with cheaper manual labor?"""

"""Is the problem money? That seems hard to believe when we have the money to wage endless wars in the Middle East and repeatedly bail out incumbent banks, airlines, and carmakers."""

This is interesting. They are investors, why is he asking the government to provide the capital for this. Shouldn't they be all over these great unexplored opportunities? How many companies that build actual physical stuff have they backed compared to yet-another-SaaS plays? I'm really curious how a pitch of "we want to build/manufacture stuff in the USA" would have went pre-Pandemic at a16z. Even trying to pitch hardware instead of software seems hard enough as is.

"""The problem is regulatory capture. We need to want new companies to build these things, even if incumbents don’t like it, even if only to force the incumbents to build these things. And the problem is will. We need to build these things."""

This is also interesting. Isn't one of the first things they want "moat, moat, moat"? Sure it's nice to ask for easier entry into markets when you try to fund the disruptor. But once said disruptor is funded they also want as much protection as possible.

"""Instead of attacking my ideas of what to build, conceive your own! What do you think we should build?"""

As a start, I would humbly suggest to rethink the model of "relocating all companies to where the capital is located" and move towards "move companies to the places where they should build most of their stuff". It's pretty mindblowing to me why software companies should be located in SV even when their customers are located elsewhere. I would also argue that building stuff should be done in a more humble way than the typical VC-ambition. Build, test, show profit, grow organically. I think that could be more healthy than pump up 20 builders and hope one goes hyperbolic.

As an aside, the cynic in me thinks that Theranos would probably go through the roof right now if it was still around and waste a lot more capital than it did. It's easy to call for action, any action in times of crisis without being careful and level headed enough.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#906

Post by arrosenberg » Sun, Apr 19, 2020, 7:35 PM UTC

lucio wrote: post #869

hyko wrote: post #566

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The failure of Lidl in Norway due to vested interests is an argument for one world government. Maybe if we had one government we’d finally be able to settle on one electrical plug, which side of the road to drive on etc. etc. Imagine if every country developed its own indigenous WiFi standard? How lovely, until you want to read your email. Charm and uniqueness is great on a postcard, but not when you want to actually…

one world standard is not the same as one world government. one world full bureaucrats regulate-everything-to-death government is a dystopian nightmare. "Were we directed from Washington when to sow, and when to reap, we should soon want bread" --Thomas Jefferson "Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, s…

> "Were we directed from Washington when to sow, and when to reap, we should soon want bread" --Thomas Jefferson

This wound up being completely false by the early 1900s. Turns out people like to eat and get paid consistently more than they like imagined freedoms.

> "Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." --Ronald Reagan

Also pretty ironic coming from someone who raised taxes 11 times after fomenting a giant populist tax cut that the country couldn't afford.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#907

Post by manfredo » Sun, Apr 19, 2020, 7:41 PM UTC

KirinDave wrote: post #844

thu2111 wrote: post #833

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This page has many links to such papers: https://swprs.org/a-swiss-doctor-on-covid-19/

"A swiss doctor on COVID-19," huh? Well since it's written by a doctor we should give it the benefit of the doubt and read the page and the links. But I confess, upon doing so I find that this is a page full of good (and in some cases, familiar) resources presented in a way that reminds me of a well-produced climate science denial websites. That's an incendiary claim, so please let me provide an example. Here's point…

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Re: It’s Time to Build

#908

Post by adventured » Sun, Apr 19, 2020, 7:51 PM UTC

KirinDave wrote: post #882

thu2111 wrote: post #849

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where are you getting your information? Re: Ventilators in New York. New York doesn't have a ventilator shortage and never did. It had a predicted shortage based on bad simulations, but never a real one. In fact it's now sending ventilators elsewhere: https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/04/coronavirus-crisis-ve... "On April 2, Cuomo predicted the state would run out of ventilators in six days “at the current burn rat…

Sorry, I already have decided in another post your "Swiss Doctor's" summary isnt't very credible and that National Review article seems to have an awful lot of hedging in it. Thank you for the effort, but I don't believe there is much more to say on the subject.

> Thank you for the effort, but I don't believe there is much more to say on the subject.

You were wrong about what you claimed. That certainly needed to be acknowledged given your responses here.

The parent answered your false claim, with what Cuomo said and what is actual fact: NY does not have ventilator shortages.

Politico: "New York sending 100 ventilators to New Jersey"

https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2020/0...

ABC Grand Rapids: "New York, California send Michigan ventilators for coronavirus relief"

https://www.wzzm13.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/new-y...

ABC Baltimore: "New York sending 50 ventilators to Maryland"

> "In our hour of need, other states stepped up to help us. We promised we would do the same," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Twitter Wednesday.

https://www.wmar2news.com/news/state/new-york-sending-50-ven...

Re: It’s Time to Build

#909

Post by abvdasker » Sun, Apr 19, 2020, 7:53 PM UTC

buss wrote: post #405

tekdude wrote: post #388

Regulatory capture is indeed a major underlying cause of a lot of the issues, but who will actually do the political work to fight against it? Someone spent money to capture the regulations in the first place, through lobbying and campaign donations. Who will spend the money to lobby and donate for the cause of undoing that? The "builders"? No, their focus and limited capital is spent on whatever it is they are worki…

In San Francisco, at least, YIMBY is the organization that is organized around ending regulatory capture in housing, and The Neoliberal Project (in SF YIMBY Neoliberal) is organized around broader dismantling of regulatory capture. We mobilize people in support of reform-focused politicians and have even started running our own (Sonja Trauss in 2018 and myself in 2020). Happy to talk more about it -- steven.buss@gmai…

In order to fix regulatory capture at the structural level you have to fix campaign finance in the US. It's the only way.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#910

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Apr 19, 2020, 7:57 PM UTC

KirinDave wrote: post #882

thu2111 wrote: post #849

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where are you getting your information? Re: Ventilators in New York. New York doesn't have a ventilator shortage and never did. It had a predicted shortage based on bad simulations, but never a real one. In fact it's now sending ventilators elsewhere: https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/04/coronavirus-crisis-ve... "On April 2, Cuomo predicted the state would run out of ventilators in six days “at the current burn rat…

Sorry, I already have decided in another post your "Swiss Doctor's" summary isnt't very credible and that National Review article seems to have an awful lot of hedging in it. Thank you for the effort, but I don't believe there is much more to say on the subject.

[deleted]