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User: ChrisMaple

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  1. Re:Trouble With Social Security?!? on Is There a Hearing Aid Price Bubble? · · Score: 1

    The stealing is an inherent part of Social Security. It always has been, and it always will be as long as SS exists. It cannot be otherwise, because just as government cannot produce, so government cannot (in a meaningful way) save.

    The problem is not that SS has no reserves, it is that government has become such a huge thief that not only has the government no reserves, the government debt has exceeded the ability of the whole country to pay the interest on that debt, if things don't change drastically.

  2. Re:Social security is in trouble? on Is There a Hearing Aid Price Bubble? · · Score: 1

    You're right, but consider further. Even if SS had dollar bills saved instead of IOUs, there would be no difference. Paper and ink has negligible real value. Even if SS had real reserves (gold, real estate, stocks), there would be some inherent weakness in the program, because in the end, SS is a claim on future production. If there's nobody around to provide the goods that SS recipients want/need, no amount of reserves will provide those goods.

  3. Re:Of course they're overpriced. on Is There a Hearing Aid Price Bubble? · · Score: 1

    What the devil is a hospital grade breast pump? Target sells a fairly quiet dual breast pump for under $100. Although some retail pumps are pretty cheaply made and fail after a half year of steady use, it's still a better deal.

  4. Re:Yeah, but who's buying? on Is There a Hearing Aid Price Bubble? · · Score: 1

    Capitalism is the economic aspect of the enforcement of rights (or more simply but less accurately, the existence of freedom). How you can confuse the illegality of unlicensed medical care as freedom is beyond understanding. Tax laws and wage restrictions also drive up healthcare prices, and neither of those is a part of freedom or capitalism.

    You clearly have no idea what capitalism is, nor what it implies.

  5. Re:Since no one ever buys them... on Is There a Hearing Aid Price Bubble? · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Fundamental to the concept of rights is reciprocity. In other words, if you call "A" a right but "A" involves violating someone else's rights, then "A" cannot be a right. Health Care can not exist without someone providing it through their labor. If that someone isn't paid for his labor, then in most cases he's doing it involuntarily: he's a slave to you. You have no right to enslave someone. If that someone is paid by another party without that party's permission (i.e. through taxes) then that party is being enslaved to the extent that the fruit of his labors is taken against his wishes. Again, you do not have the right to enslave someone.

    In America, medical care is expensive in part because of fascist-syndicalist laws restricting supply. The solution is neither socialism nor the status quo, it is freedom.

  6. Re:$3k is 2 months income? on Is There a Hearing Aid Price Bubble? · · Score: 2

    Although it's called "healthcare reform", it's only reform in the sense that the form is new. It is not reform in the sense of improvement, it's naked tyranny.

    True healthcare improvement would involve things like closing the FDA, ending licensure laws, prohibiting the extension or renewal of drug patents, and removing state restrictions on insurance companies.

    A hearing aid is simpler than a radio, and radios can be had for $5 at Walmart. Hearing aids should be even cheaper.

  7. Re:Nothing to surprising on Marx May Have Had a Point · · Score: 1

    Most of the relatively poor people I've met both drink and smoke. They're "unable" to save because they waste.

    The people living in "mobile homes" have a higher incidence of snowmobiles and off-road vehicles than those living in real houses. Same conclusion.

  8. Re:It's a scanner people can use on Why the Fax Machine Refuses To Die · · Score: 1

    The computer gives the user feedback at each step of the process. FAX machines do not (by default) show the user what the transmitted image was. As a result, the last step of sending a FAX is calling the recipient and asking "Did you get it OK?"

  9. Re:Yeah thanks..... on BMW Working On Laser Headlamps · · Score: 1

    The very best LEDs are now about 10X as efficient as incandescents. This would put a pair of premium LED headlights at 10 W, and any improvement by using lasers would be meaningless.

  10. Re:In related news on World Population Expected To Hit 7 Billion In Late October · · Score: 1

    The point of growth decreasing from 2.1% to 1.6% to 1.3% is that the growth is NOT EXPONENTIAL . And that point is crucial, because the implied trend is for growth to eventually fall below zero, possibly around 2060 C.E.

  11. Re:Ehrlich was right, just a little early. on World Population Expected To Hit 7 Billion In Late October · · Score: 1

    Microwave beams to power aircraft has been proposed

  12. Re:So let's make fossil fuels MORE expensive! on World Population Expected To Hit 7 Billion In Late October · · Score: 2

    the ONLY limiting factors on human population are Famine, War, Pestilence and Death.

    That's why the richest countries, that are well fed, healthy, and at peace, have uncontrollably booming populations. Wait... Italy isn't replacing it's population? The United States is growing only through immigrants?

    Wealthy countries have stable or falling populations for several reasons. Being relatively free, they can make choices that amount to running their lives wisely. They can afford condoms and other forms of birth control. They aren't so miserable that their only form of pleasure is screwing; they have the electricity to run their TVs and Nintendos 24/7. There are numerous other minor reasons, but they're mostly similar to the preceding.

    Poverty is largely caused by tyranny and secondarily by rotten religious beliefs. End those and the resulting problems (slowly) solve themselves.

    I benefit from the Third World consuming fewer resources, and approve when its denizens kill each other.

    That's a shallow belief, resulting from not bothering to consider the difference between all the effects of productive and unproductive countries. Taiwan and South Korea are productive countries, and by being productive they use resources. Do you really think we (the US) would be better off if Taiwan and South Korea were impoverished stinkholes? Do you think we'd be worse off if (for instance) Uganda be came a free and rational country, attracting investment and becoming productive, and in so doing using more resources?

    Failing to consider all the results is the second greatest cause of "unintended consequences". (The first being failing to understand human nature.)

  13. Re:I started to lose my hair when I was 17... on Hair Growth Signal Dictated By Fat Cells · · Score: 1

    doesn't cause any harm other than in their own heads.

    Thick hair protects the top of your head from sunshine. Do you think that skin cancer is not a problem?

    Thick hair protects from mosquitoes and other stinging and biting insects.

    Thick hair is an insulator. Bald people can lose a lot of heat from their heads, and may need to wear a knitted cap to sleep in a cold room.

    There's more than just vanity involved in not wanting to be bald.

  14. Re:My two cents.. on What Is the Most Influential Programming Book? · · Score: 1

    Numerical Recipes has problems, such as changing coefficients from the standard form in order to meet specified accuracy in the fewest terms, and not telling the reader about it. There's lots of stuff for people who need "good enough" results that work most of the time, but there are lots of pitfalls to catch the unwary.

  15. Re:Technology is useless... on Laptops In the Classroom Don't Increase Grades · · Score: 1

    A motivated student knows what the theory is for and wants to learn it. He doesn't need "ooh shiny."

    Some of the remainder can be pulled in by the flash, and so much the better. But top students are held back, wasting time while the teacher tries to entice the others.

  16. Re:Well duh on Laptops In the Classroom Don't Increase Grades · · Score: 1

    By and large, teachers are not a bright lot. They do want to do the best they can for their students. Combining the two, they are suckers for each and every new teaching fad and course of bullshit subjects. As a result, they've discarded teaching techniques that worked for centuries, and are teaching worthless fluff in preference to essential material.

    As a result, we have lifelong infants lecturing their parents on environmentalism and gay sensitivity.

    The grandfather post said a good teacher uses a good method forever, tweaking as required. Did you deliberately misunderstand this?

    Not only are most teachers overpaid, but in my opinion 4 out of every 5 teachers I had in grades 7 through 12 didn't even deserve to be paid, let alone be paid highly. Too many are clowns, petty tyrants, or have no idea how to impart their subject matter in a manner that produces learning. By and large, students learn in spite of, not because of, their teachers.

  17. Re:U-shaped tunnels on Tapping Subway Trains For Energy · · Score: 1

    I've ridden the NYC subways and seen the tracks. If the stations are high points of any significance, I haven't seen it. It seems like a nice idea, but there is one significant problem. Steel (wheels) on steel (tracks) has a low coefficient of friction, particularly if there's water or oil involved. It's not uncommon for a subway train to wait just outside of a station, waiting for the track to clear. It would then have to start up and climb the grade into the station. To do this, the grade probably shouldn't exceed about 3%. (Although that's a limit for railroads. Subways are powered at each car, so they can tolerate steeper grades.)

    To get back to the article, a flywheel seems like a poor idea, unnecessarily complicated and dangerous. If there's energy storage involved, then store it by lifting a weight 50 feet or so.

  18. Re:NASA Engineers on Mr. President, There Is No (US) Engineer Shortage · · Score: 1

    NASA only employs contract managers to mange contractors.

    mange (n) An itching skin disease of dogs and other domestic animals, caused by parasitic mites.

  19. Re:Shortage of engineering jobs, on Mr. President, There Is No (US) Engineer Shortage · · Score: 2

    In ten years, your employer doesn't care about your school history. He cares about the quantity and quality of your work.

  20. Reverse Effects of Climate Change on Will Climate Engineering Ever Go Prime Time? · · Score: 1

    Cue the pinhead-dancing angels.

  21. Re:I'm happy about this on Environmental Enforcement Agents Targeting Guitars · · Score: 1

    "As long as there is a illegal market in it..."

    There is one way, and one way only, to end an illegal market. That is to end the laws that create the illegality.

  22. Re:It's about time on Environmental Enforcement Agents Targeting Guitars · · Score: 1

    The EPA is unnecessary, and inevitably it has become a political plaything for people who want to control others. If an entity causes provable damage, you notify them and demand recompense; if they don't pay, you sue.

  23. Re:It's about time on Environmental Enforcement Agents Targeting Guitars · · Score: 0

    The major party names are Democrat and Republican. Not "Democratic".

  24. Re:I have a dream on The Copyright Nightmare of 'I Have a Dream' · · Score: 1

    When you have little to say and have to fill a 20 minute sermon, speaking slowly solves the problem.

    Historically, churches have lousy acoustics if you're interested in clarity. Say a syllable or two, wait for the echos to die down, then continue.

  25. Re:MLK's Family Received 800k from the Memorial on The Copyright Nightmare of 'I Have a Dream' · · Score: 1

    Justice applies to individuals only. "Social justice" is an oxymoron.