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Yondoza

@ Yondoza @sh.itjust.works

Posts
8
Comments
132
Joined
2 yr. ago

  • Rent is Robbery

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  • Love your optimism, but "making things affordable" is not a valid plan for managing resources. It provides a goal without a solution.

    Are you suggesting price fixing? That has a lot of associated outcomes that typically cause worse situations than doing nothing.

    You can introduce a guaranteed buyer at fixed price points which alleviate some of the negative consequences, but add others.

    These are not simple problems. The reason these problems exist isn't solely because "rich and powerful people are evil" as nice as that would be. These problems still exist because they're complicated and 'one size fits all' solutions haven't been found for them.

  • Rent is Robbery

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  • Disclaimer: not advocating for current system.

    What alternative would you propose for providing loans?

    My controversial (for Lemmy) take is that loans are good for society. They provide an incentive to not hoard resources, but provide them to those who want to put them into action today for future benefit.

    A good loan benefits both parties, ie. An auto loan that allows someone to buy a car to get to a job to earn an income that is above the cost of the loan. Without the loan that person couldn't get to work and whatever service they were providing to society is lost.

    All that said - that doesn't mean the way loans work today is the best solution, but the same functionality of trading current and future resources needs to exist. You don't have to call it a loan, and it doesn't have to be performed by private for profit institutions, but if you want a thriving economy I believe you need this function carried out somehow.

    The equivalent function in Communism is (or historically has been) a centrally planned resource allocation which very clearly is a horrible idea because of the incentives towards corruption. If you take a literal interpretation of communism (instead of historical) where "the workers own the means of production" trade unions could fulfill this current to future resource allocation function. I do not know if this would create the same corruption as single central authority, but my gut feels is that it would (based on the US labor union and organized crime affiliation of the past.

    In short, the current function for trading current and future resources (ie. loans) is far from ideal, but I have not found an alternate that provides more benefits than deficits. I would love to learn about more alternatives, but just saying 'loans R bad' makes it sound like you're advocating getting rid of them with nothing to handle their underlying function, which is a terrible idea.

  • Formerly Rulestine

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  • Honestly, probably the most contested* area throughout history. Maybe after Anatolia, but that has been relatively peaceful in my lifetime so it feels different.

    *And by that I mean contested by the most powerful players at their respective times. I'm sure there are places that have had more consistent fueds at a much smaller scale.

  • Hardcore bassist

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  • Whose got your favorite bass face?

    I think mine is Sam Wilkes or Joe Dart.

  • Hardcore bassist

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  • Bassists are just translators between rhythm and melody instruments (source: bassist).

  • Americans of Lemmy, what is your approach to next year's election?

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  • I understand your frustration, but unless the voting system is modified to approval or ranked choice you are probably not acting in your best interest voting for a third party. I hate that fact as much as you and I want to see it changed, but that's the reality of the system we're in.

  • Sharks Rule, Rule

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  • Honestly, I disagree. It is much more surprising to me that lifeforms I recognize are older than stars. They're different timescales in my mind that I never even considered comparing.

  • Sharks Rule, Rule

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  • Wow, sharks @439mya, Polaris @70mya. They're more than 6 times older! This is NUTS!

  • soda rule

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  • Wow, fuck grandma. Why have modern convinces if you're still expected to work as hard as the last generation? Shouldn't our goal be that each generation has a shorter work week than the last?

  • Child Laborule

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  • Most, if not all, laws should include annual inflation adjustments. That includes minimum wage, social security, food assistance, as well as minimum fines for breaking laws. Inflation is built into this economic system. The Fed is mandated to keep inflation at 2%, we should not be surprised that these laws become outdated.

    It feels like an unnecessary way to keep politicians relevant since they have to keep voting to update these figures instead of just building inflation into the law.

  • Accurate.

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  • Whose a good comedian that never fails to make you laugh?

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  • Jeff Arcuri - his funniest stuff is his crowd work so he constantly has new stuff to watch.

  • THIS WORLD IS TOO HECTIC FOR ME

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  • How do you deal with a existential crisis?

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  • I agree. Meditation in general - focusing on existence/experience without your mind's narrative - would probably be good for the OP. The narrative is what is scary, because it is what's afraid of not existing. Setting that aside can be very liberating.

  • How do you deal with a existential crisis?

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  • True! Add do that 13 million the 13 billion years before that too!

    Then it gets fun! You can think about whether you didn't exist before the big bang! Did you not exist, or since the universe didn't exist and you couldn't exist can you count that as you not existing?

  • Just the basics

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  • Rice and beans, baby! It's a world wide staple for a reason.

  • Would you support your country joining an 'open invite' Free Trade Agreement with the only stipulation being the implementation of a Carbon Tax?

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  • But then the rule that it involves tarrifs against non-FTA countries means there is a downside to it. Suddenly the utility graph has a big zone that’s below zero.

    In what I was suggesting, there are no required tarrifs between the non-FTA and FTA countries. The only requirement would be that within the FTA there are no tariffs. Presumably the trade laws between a non-FTA and FTA country would remain the same, and might have a slight increase to compensate for the internal carbon tax.

    I'm sure this small clarification doesn't actually make much of a difference on your larger point. I'm clearly not a trained economist. I appreciate your response, but there are a few things over my head. Do you have good suggested reading/videos for "Network Effect Problems" or "Utility Graphs"? Or should I just search around?

  • Would you support your country joining an 'open invite' Free Trade Agreement with the only stipulation being the implementation of a Carbon Tax?

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  • Constructing economic incentives is generally more effective at driving desired actions than completely disallowing things. It also allows for 'crowd sourcing' the decision making process for what is low hanging fruit and what is difficult or 'expensive' things to change.

  • Would you support your country joining an 'open invite' Free Trade Agreement with the only stipulation being the implementation of a Carbon Tax?

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  • When people hear “free trade” they think of a system that waives all import duties, which may or may not be what is desired here. I can think of some bad actors passing a “carbon tax” just to get all the other duties on their goods dropped.

    Honestly, this is exactly what I was thinking when I formulated this question. While I agree with your comprehensive list, we may not have time for that. Even a 10 or 20 year deal of a "carbon tax free trade agreement" may be all we need to course correct. If it is effective (at curbing carbon emission and as a political tool) a new FTA with the qualifications you listed could be crafted. The more qualifications, the slower nations would be to adapt/enroll and I'd be wary of adding too many if the goal is fast action now.

    Bad actors' intent matters little, as long as their actions align with world goals.