Slashdot Mirror

For extras I was thinking of things like the kickstarter backer pin from when the Planet Mercenary kickstarter. Not used for anything else, so they got someone to do a run of something like 5k pins. At that order size, it probably cost about a buck a pin according to this site, so that's roughly $5k. There were other greeblies too (postcard, for example), but probably not enough to take it over 10k, so let's say it's a 5-10k range.

Total funding through the kickstarter was about 350k. This site seems to indicate that the average rate for small business loans was about 6%. The kickstarter launched in april 2015 and the final update was emailed 12/29/17 so that's about 20 months. Loan calculator says that 350k at 6% for 1.7 years is 18090/mo, which totals to 361800, for a total of 11800 in interest.

So certainly the extras were less than interest, but I don't think I'd call it peanuts or "more or less free". A set with more electronic extras, or where the extras are more of something that matches the base item, to hold down extra-only production costs, is probably closer, but still not likely to be ignorable.

And, again, if you don't carry the phone at all times? Or pull the battery?

Not something you would do normally. And if you do, you'll be flagged by the system just for that. It will certainly retain your picture and the driver will remember you, etc.

BTW - the goal isn't total anonymity. It's FRAGMENTATION of data

No disagreement here. Yet the cellphone gives marketeers and police alike a single source...

The link for the credit cards was from 2007.

The first link was from 2007 and talked about BOFA piloting the program. The second link is from 2014 and talks about the credit-availability to illegals from a much wider array of financial institutions. "Illegal immigrant" and "no credit card" are (nearly) orthogonal — if anything, an immigrant can get a card from a bank in his home country... Other options exist too.

And, after all, both Lyft and Uber accept Paypal and debit cards. Having an established credit is not necessary...

I think, I'm done here. It is getting tedious — especially because I find myself hunting for evidence to cite, while you reply with unsubstantiated (or outright incorrect) statements...

$10 * 40 hours per week * 52 weeks per year (no vacations) = $20,800

$20,800- 2,000 for average federal taxes = $18,800

$18,800 - median gross rent of 959 * 12 months = $11,508

$11,508 - rough average utilities * 12 months = $10,248

$10,248 - $2,641 for food = $7,607

$7,607 - rough average of health insurance per individual mandate of $3,000 = $4,607

$4,607 - annual average cost of transportation of $9,004 = -$4,397

Let's stop there. Now that person that "could live pretty well on $10 an hour" still has state and city taxes to attend to, general maintenance costs like clothing, a cellphone bill that needs to be paid (good luck getting a job without having a phone number), has no retirement, has no savings in the case of actually needing to use their health insurance, will never see a vacation, and is increasing their debt by $12 per day.

Do you understand why the average American has $16,000 in credit card debt?

That debt only covers four years of living expenses. Why could that be? Because that is how long many people live the way you describe as being "could live pretty well on $10 an hour" in order to attend higher education and seek out a better life. They rack up an average $37,172 of student loans during that time.

Now they have no savings, no assets, have never known a vacation, couldn't possibly afford to use their health insurance, have no credit, and have $53,172 in debt but finally have an opportunity to get a better job: "If you can keep up with the bots, you can stay."

How is that for living pretty well on $10 an hour?

$10 * 40 hours per week * 52 weeks per year (no vacations) = $20,800

$20,800- 2,000 for average federal taxes = $18,800

$18,800 - median gross rent of 959 * 12 months = $11,508

$11,508 - rough average utilities * 12 months = $10,248

$10,248 - $2,641 for food = $7,607

$7,607 - rough average of health insurance per individual mandate of $3,000 = $4,607

$4,607 - annual average cost of transportation of $9,004 = -$4,397

Let's stop there. Now that person that "could live pretty well on $10 an hour" still has state and city taxes to attend to, general maintenance costs like clothing, a cellphone bill that needs to be paid (good luck getting a job without having a phone number), has no retirement, has no savings in the case of actually needing to use their health insurance, will never see a vacation, and is increasing their debt by $12 per day.

Do you understand why the average American has $16,000 in credit card debt?

That debt only covers four years of living expenses. Why could that be? Because that is how long many people live the way you describe as being "could live pretty well on $10 an hour" in order to attend higher education and seek out a better life. They rack up an average $37,172 of student loans during that time.

Now they have no savings, no assets, have never known a vacation, couldn't possibly afford to use their health insurance, have no credit, and have $53,172 in debt but finally have an opportunity to get a better job: "If you can keep up with the bots, you can stay."

How is that for living pretty well on $10 an hour?

$10 * 40 hours per week * 52 weeks per year (no vacations) = $20,800

$20,800- 2,000 for average federal taxes = $18,800

$18,800 - median gross rent of 959 * 12 months = $11,508

$11,508 - rough average utilities * 12 months = $10,248

$10,248 - $2,641 for food = $7,607

$7,607 - rough average of health insurance per individual mandate of $3,000 = $4,607

$4,607 - annual average cost of transportation of $9,004 = -$4,397

Let's stop there. Now that person that "could live pretty well on $10 an hour" still has state and city taxes to attend to, general maintenance costs like clothing, a cellphone bill that needs to be paid (good luck getting a job without having a phone number), has no retirement, has no savings in the case of actually needing to use their health insurance, will never see a vacation, and is increasing their debt by $12 per day.

Do you understand why the average American has $16,000 in credit card debt?

That debt only covers four years of living expenses. Why could that be? Because that is how long many people live the way you describe as being "could live pretty well on $10 an hour" in order to attend higher education and seek out a better life. They rack up an average $37,172 of student loans during that time.

Now they have no savings, no assets, have never known a vacation, couldn't possibly afford to use their health insurance, have no credit, and have $53,172 in debt but finally have an opportunity to get a better job: "If you can keep up with the bots, you can stay."

How is that for living pretty well on $10 an hour?

The average household income is $55775 a year. $40 a month is $480 a year. That less than 1% of the average household income.

The average cost of food per month for a household is $550.

https://www.valuepenguin.com/h...

the extra cost on society of old, feeble, decrepit bodies.

My insurance rates beg to differ with you:
http://www.valuepenguin.com/ho...

It's the young and stupid who cost more. And of course, the ypotame.

"How many times has this administration embraced a petition and moved forward with it?"

How many times has this administration helped make the U.S. government better for its citizens in any way?

The U.S. government has been arranging that the rich get richer, allowing the violent to be more violent, and helping those who want to make money by killing people.

For example, the "Affordable Care Act" is, in my opinion, in the direction of other recent changes in government. Instead of 2 organizations between you and a health care provider, there now are 3 or 4. The ACA gathers money from those like myself who never get sick. See, for example, Oregon Health Care Cost Increases under the Affordable Care Act.

The ACA was announced and pretended to be in operation before the software was ready: How Obamacare's epic fail exposed our government's biggest tech problem. Whoever is at the top of the U.S. government was obviously completely incompetent. (Often a U.S. president merely pretends to be in charge, hiding what is actually happening, and who is arranging it.)

The ACA helped technology companies take advantage of state officials who are completely ignorant about technology development. For example, Oregon sues Oracle over failed Obamacare website.

Quoting: Oregon's suit, filed Friday in state court, alleges that Oracle, the largest tech contractor working on the website, made falsely convinced officials to buy "hundreds of millions of dollars of Oracle products and services that failed to perform as promised." It is seeking $200 million in damages.

If you love the U.S. like I do, help deal with the immense problems and lack of good leadership.

Have you heard about Google? You can google the health plans by name to uncover details...

For example, I was looking at "Gold" plans in my zip code in NJ, and came across this policy: "AmeriHealth NJ Standard Local Value Gold HMO"

When I googled that plan name I was given a link to Value Penguin, which had a page for this very plan. They appear to have the details for many plans offered in many states.

Have you heard about Google? You can google the health plans by name to uncover details...

For example, I was looking at "Gold" plans in my zip code in NJ, and came across this policy: "AmeriHealth NJ Standard Local Value Gold HMO"

When I googled that plan name I was given a link to Value Penguin, which had a page for this very plan. They appear to have the details for many plans offered in many states.

Oh give me a break.

This information is already available on multiple sources and on Healthcare.gov. I am fucking tired of these articles that have NOT been researched or are published with the intent of misleading people.

Plan information from Healtchare.gov without signing in:

https://www.healthcare.gov/find-premium-estimates/

https://data.healthcare.gov/dataset/QHP ... /ba45-xusy

Example of plan information from 3rd party sources:

http://www.valuepenguin.com/

The actual fact is that healthcare.gov. in the first two weeks of operation has made plan price comparisons FAR easier than it has ever been. This could be a major consumer positive event in healthcare.