Recent submissions

Comment · 13 years ago
60% of the US national debt matures in three years or less. It isn't rational to expose yourself to that much interest rate risk, but the people taking on this risky debt on behalf of the rest of us won't be the ones responsible for paying it if interest rates spike.
Comment · 13 years ago
Not to mention the fact that peasants typically worked from dawn to dusk.
Comment · 13 years ago
Charity tends not to elevate anyone to the working class. Most money ameliorates poverty temporarily, is spent on fundraising and bureaucracy, or is diverted (stolen).
Comment · 13 years ago
Robocars with shower, kitchenette, and bedroom would not be within the means of many homeless people.

Edit for response: a robocar with all of these amenities would be an RV costing much more than $10,000; the land cost would just be shifted to the public as these vehicles take up all available parking. Not to mention that a shower and kitchenette would require utility hookups, meaning they would really need an RV camp...

Comment · 13 years ago
If the Bay Area were the entire world, I would agree, but most of the country is very cheap.
Comment · 13 years ago
There is a part of the homeless population that will not stay in free housing, damages it when it's given to them, or is severely disruptive to neighbors, and refuses addiction treatment or returns to drugs immediately after leaving treatment. Improving the circumstances of these people is an unsolved problem, and one many consider not worth solving when these people actively resist all "solutions" offered to them.
Comment · 13 years ago
Some people are not currently worth hiring at any wage due to their attitudes, ability, addictions, or mental illness, let alone at a wage that would put them above the poverty line. Eradicating poverty is far from simple, increasingly expensive the further down the tail you go, and almost certainly not a good investment.
Comment · 13 years ago
This isn't entirely accurate. The shrinking of the middle class is accounted for entirely by movement into the upper-middle (and higher) income classes, and what you say about the lower class ignores per capita data.
Comment · 13 years ago
Our society is structured that way, except for the "without going on welfare" stipulation. A sole breadwinner with a spouse and two children making $20k will receive another $10k in EBT and EITC, free healthcare, and pay a tax rate close to 10%. Effectively his or her income will be above $30k, which isn't bad considering per capita GDP is only about $45k.

How could society be structured to guarantee higher wages to unskilled workers?

Comment · 13 years ago
Nearly a quarter of the US population was officially in poverty in the 1950s. Doing unskilled work as a sole breadwinner with multiple children has always pretty much meant you would live in "poverty."

On a side note, a family of four making $20,000 will qualify for an additional $10,000 in EBT and EITC as well as free healthcare (Medicaid), bringing the wages paid by Walmart and Costco much closer together.

Comment · 13 years ago
Mayer chose to pose in a fashion magazine. She wasn't "treated" any way in this case.
Comment · 13 years ago
Can you go into more detail? It's hard to imagine how a test could be devised that wouldn't be gameable by giving answers that would be expected of a person with a normal personality.
Comment · 13 years ago
How do we know that girls study CS less due to misperceptions? The infographic is a collection of factoids, logical leaps, and prescriptions derived from those leaps.
Comment · 13 years ago
That doesn't pass the sniff test. Slaughtering a few thousand stunned pigs would be exhausting. Killing that many people who are trying to kill you? Not gonna happen.
Comment · 13 years ago
Why do you call them "dictators" instead of "royalty?"

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