Single payer would be nice. Maybe we can model it after the Russian health care plan. Those in power seem to like their approach to stuff, should be a slam dunk!
I've been buying my insurance for a long time, about 20 years. Costs have gone up ~20% nearly every year for me. Over that time my coverage has deteriorated in many ways - higher deductibles, less included as part of the plan, fewer doctors in network, etc.
Things have slowed down since ACA, I went a year with prices about the same, and a 15% and 20% increase. So for me, the rate of increase slowed a bit.
I believe there is a defect in the human mind that causes tribalism. You see it flourish in spectator sports, red vs. blue, racism, vi vs emacs, etc. ad nauseum. I have friends and relatives from lots of different backgrounds and make an effort to understand people but still feel the pull of my human nature to distrust those different from me.
It's really easy to exploit this vulnerability for political, economic, or sadistic ends. Religion is related to this, possibly the same.
People don't get insurance because it is cheaper than paying for stuff. Insurance is, by definition, more expensive than paying for stuff. You are paying for all the stuff, plus the insurance companies overhead/profit/advertising.
The thing is, things like house fires, car explosions, and 28K medical claims cost more than most people keep handy. So even though it is more expensive overall, it can make more sense to pay more but chop it up into little monthly payments.
I think it is fascinating that alcohol stimulates chemical receptors linked with the starvation response. Nobody knew this before the study. I'm not sure why you hate science so much you dismiss the "fucking study" with so much hostility. You even have geek in your handle, which would imply respect for science.
That sounds sad! I'm fairly seriously underpaid for my schooling and experience but my job is so satisfying, flexible and easy that I am happy to stay. I could probably double my pay by simply switching jobs but I'd have to give up a lot. I'm not prepared to do that, I would rather retire later and be happy the whole time I am working.
If you can't trust the hardware changing rom doesn't do anything.
If you don't do anything on your phone you are crippling yourself. Most non-luddites put things like passwords and banking info into their phones. If you aren't putting your passwords in then why even have a smartphone?
You seem really pessimistic. I prefer to try to find solutions and find ways to make things better instead of assuming everything sucks and giving up. I'm realistic by nature (kinder term for pessimist!) and have to make a conscious effort.
Anyway, the post I was responding to was from someone where the actual policy was to throw e-waste in the trash. That's bad policy. I'm happy the places I have lived have better policies. We can work on getting the particulars right once good policies are in place.
Sad. The places I've lived (western US) have all had good e-waste and recycling programs. Schoolkids can tour the facilities and watch waste get sorted, palletized, and shipped off for raw materials. It isn't super hard to do it properly, but it is more expensive than phoning it in.
If your thief had a temper you would come home to a smoking ruin or an ambush after pepper-spraying or dogshit-spraying them. They know where you live. Even shit-in-a-box seems a trifle stupid.
Fascinating. I have the exact same problem in Milpitas, CA. I have stopped having anything sent to my residence since I can't trust it. I had an expensive package from overseas get returned to sender because I couldn't make it to the post office the same day I got the slip.
I never bothered trying to report it, I figured there would be no point. Now I have things sent to my girlfriends house or my workplace.
Money is like manure, you have to spread it around to do any good.
What a strange expression. Money is like manure, you need to pile it all up in a big heap and leave it there for about a year, turning it occasionally with a pitchfork before you can add it to your soil. Add about 1-2 inches of this aged money and work it into the soil to increase yields.
If you add fresh money, generally referred to as "hot money" you can burn the roots of your plants because it contains too much immediately released nitrogen.
What kind of ignorant recluse thinks security software has been solved for 20 years? The kind who condescendingly uses a tired "year XXXX called" put-down.
Most of the businesses I'm familiar with struggle to this day with performance issues related to security software. You might notice that security breaches are commonplace despite all the wasted CPU cycles and read/writes. I honestly can't fathom why you'd be so dismissive of an issue that is costing many many millions of dollars in wasted power consumption, criminal loss, lost data, wasted man hours.
What a strange response. Nihilists don't need a reason to live, and continuing living is less hassle than ending it. Killing oneself is something a non-nihilist would consider doing if they lost their faith.
You don't have to pay for engineering every time you build a charger, you pay for it once. The marginal cost of each authorized charger is no more than a few dollars. Apple didn't become the richest company on the planet by selling chargers at cost.
It's not rocket science, but as long as you can keep funding the business while it's not actually making much profit, it will work in the long run, and you will have a nice monopoly.
They are well on their way. Amusingly Walmart is frantically trying to play catchup with Amazon. It is funny to see them be the scrappy pint size underdog.
I had a different experience than you did. I was a Prime member for a year and bought a lot of stuff, made a handful of returns, perhaps 6. They were all for items that were significantly not as advertised, broke within weeks, or DOA. In every single instance I was given a return shipping label gratis and a full refund upon receipt of the item. They offer to ship a label for $1 or let me print it myself no charge.
I was so pleased with the return experience it was difficult to keep my resolution to cancel my prime membership after the year was up. I justified it by intending to reduce how much stuff I buy. Having the membership tilts the decision making for me towards "buy it" whereas having to consolidate items to get free shipping or coughing up the occasional shipping fee tilts it away from "buy it."
I've had awful return experiences with other online merchants, especially the dodgy chinese ones.
Thank you, looks like some good reading. One interesting article I found talks about three different approaches where Norway has high targeted subsidies that seem quite effective and New Zealand has no subsidies without harming the farming industry. The US clearly has a horrible approach, but politically difficult to remedy.
My friend who fancies himself a power investor claims that Amazon makes a ton of money from cloud services. They keep plowing this windfall into their retail infrastructure despite it being a money losing venture. Their strategy is allegedly to make it so damn big that eventually it will be profitable.
The marketing technique equivalence breaks down with returns. Many sellers won't refund shipping fees or pay return shipping - "free" shipping removes this obstacle to returns. I'm willing to pay quite a bit more for "free" shipping if I think a return is possible.
Do you have any unbiased links? I'd be interested to learn more but a quick search yielded only clearly agenda-driven predetermined result "research" both pro and con. I'm basing my opinion on history and talking to farmers around the world, who clearly have a biased outlook.
I always assumed such, but your comment prompted me to look it up - shockingly ticket sales are roughly the same as 20 years ago, gross revenue is double. I suppose population has increased which would indicate a declining share but I am very surprised. We have so many more avenues for entertainment now it is remarkable that watching film in theaters is holding up so well.
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Single payer would be nice. Maybe we can model it after the Russian health care plan. Those in power seem to like their approach to stuff, should be a slam dunk!
I've been buying my insurance for a long time, about 20 years. Costs have gone up ~20% nearly every year for me. Over that time my coverage has deteriorated in many ways - higher deductibles, less included as part of the plan, fewer doctors in network, etc.
Things have slowed down since ACA, I went a year with prices about the same, and a 15% and 20% increase. So for me, the rate of increase slowed a bit.
Why the hate?
I believe there is a defect in the human mind that causes tribalism. You see it flourish in spectator sports, red vs. blue, racism, vi vs emacs, etc. ad nauseum. I have friends and relatives from lots of different backgrounds and make an effort to understand people but still feel the pull of my human nature to distrust those different from me.
It's really easy to exploit this vulnerability for political, economic, or sadistic ends. Religion is related to this, possibly the same.
People don't get insurance because it is cheaper than paying for stuff. Insurance is, by definition, more expensive than paying for stuff. You are paying for all the stuff, plus the insurance companies overhead/profit/advertising.
The thing is, things like house fires, car explosions, and 28K medical claims cost more than most people keep handy. So even though it is more expensive overall, it can make more sense to pay more but chop it up into little monthly payments.
I think it is fascinating that alcohol stimulates chemical receptors linked with the starvation response. Nobody knew this before the study. I'm not sure why you hate science so much you dismiss the "fucking study" with so much hostility. You even have geek in your handle, which would imply respect for science.
The floggings will continue until morale improves.
That sounds sad! I'm fairly seriously underpaid for my schooling and experience but my job is so satisfying, flexible and easy that I am happy to stay. I could probably double my pay by simply switching jobs but I'd have to give up a lot. I'm not prepared to do that, I would rather retire later and be happy the whole time I am working.
If you can't trust the hardware changing rom doesn't do anything.
If you don't do anything on your phone you are crippling yourself. Most non-luddites put things like passwords and banking info into their phones. If you aren't putting your passwords in then why even have a smartphone?
You seem really pessimistic. I prefer to try to find solutions and find ways to make things better instead of assuming everything sucks and giving up. I'm realistic by nature (kinder term for pessimist!) and have to make a conscious effort.
Anyway, the post I was responding to was from someone where the actual policy was to throw e-waste in the trash. That's bad policy. I'm happy the places I have lived have better policies. We can work on getting the particulars right once good policies are in place.
Sounds good. Glancing at their website I can't tell how they make money off this. Do you have any idea?
Sad. The places I've lived (western US) have all had good e-waste and recycling programs. Schoolkids can tour the facilities and watch waste get sorted, palletized, and shipped off for raw materials. It isn't super hard to do it properly, but it is more expensive than phoning it in.
If your thief had a temper you would come home to a smoking ruin or an ambush after pepper-spraying or dogshit-spraying them. They know where you live. Even shit-in-a-box seems a trifle stupid.
Fascinating. I have the exact same problem in Milpitas, CA. I have stopped having anything sent to my residence since I can't trust it. I had an expensive package from overseas get returned to sender because I couldn't make it to the post office the same day I got the slip.
I never bothered trying to report it, I figured there would be no point. Now I have things sent to my girlfriends house or my workplace.
I feel bad for you if you think defending the richest company on earth from charges of stiffing its hardworking employees is a worthwhile endeavor.
Money is like manure, you have to spread it around to do any good.
What a strange expression. Money is like manure, you need to pile it all up in a big heap and leave it there for about a year, turning it occasionally with a pitchfork before you can add it to your soil. Add about 1-2 inches of this aged money and work it into the soil to increase yields.
If you add fresh money, generally referred to as "hot money" you can burn the roots of your plants because it contains too much immediately released nitrogen.
What kind of ignorant recluse thinks security software has been solved for 20 years? The kind who condescendingly uses a tired "year XXXX called" put-down.
Most of the businesses I'm familiar with struggle to this day with performance issues related to security software. You might notice that security breaches are commonplace despite all the wasted CPU cycles and read/writes. I honestly can't fathom why you'd be so dismissive of an issue that is costing many many millions of dollars in wasted power consumption, criminal loss, lost data, wasted man hours.
What a strange response. Nihilists don't need a reason to live, and continuing living is less hassle than ending it. Killing oneself is something a non-nihilist would consider doing if they lost their faith.
You don't have to pay for engineering every time you build a charger, you pay for it once. The marginal cost of each authorized charger is no more than a few dollars. Apple didn't become the richest company on the planet by selling chargers at cost.
It's not rocket science, but as long as you can keep funding the business while it's not actually making much profit, it will work in the long run, and you will have a nice monopoly.
They are well on their way. Amusingly Walmart is frantically trying to play catchup with Amazon. It is funny to see them be the scrappy pint size underdog.
I had a different experience than you did. I was a Prime member for a year and bought a lot of stuff, made a handful of returns, perhaps 6. They were all for items that were significantly not as advertised, broke within weeks, or DOA. In every single instance I was given a return shipping label gratis and a full refund upon receipt of the item. They offer to ship a label for $1 or let me print it myself no charge.
I was so pleased with the return experience it was difficult to keep my resolution to cancel my prime membership after the year was up. I justified it by intending to reduce how much stuff I buy. Having the membership tilts the decision making for me towards "buy it" whereas having to consolidate items to get free shipping or coughing up the occasional shipping fee tilts it away from "buy it."
I've had awful return experiences with other online merchants, especially the dodgy chinese ones.
Thank you, looks like some good reading. One interesting article I found talks about three different approaches where Norway has high targeted subsidies that seem quite effective and New Zealand has no subsidies without harming the farming industry. The US clearly has a horrible approach, but politically difficult to remedy.
My friend who fancies himself a power investor claims that Amazon makes a ton of money from cloud services. They keep plowing this windfall into their retail infrastructure despite it being a money losing venture. Their strategy is allegedly to make it so damn big that eventually it will be profitable.
The marketing technique equivalence breaks down with returns. Many sellers won't refund shipping fees or pay return shipping - "free" shipping removes this obstacle to returns. I'm willing to pay quite a bit more for "free" shipping if I think a return is possible.
Do you have any unbiased links? I'd be interested to learn more but a quick search yielded only clearly agenda-driven predetermined result "research" both pro and con. I'm basing my opinion on history and talking to farmers around the world, who clearly have a biased outlook.
You are part of a shrinking culture.
I always assumed such, but your comment prompted me to look it up - shockingly ticket sales are roughly the same as 20 years ago, gross revenue is double. I suppose population has increased which would indicate a declining share but I am very surprised. We have so many more avenues for entertainment now it is remarkable that watching film in theaters is holding up so well.