hyeonwho4 · HackerTrans

vor 7 Monatendiscuss

Was $10k before or after the insurance negotiated discount? Pre-discount prices mean nothing: I had the same tests ordered twice (needed the results urgently), once through my PCP/HMO and once paid to a walk-in doctor's office in cash. The cash price was $700. My PCP claimed a price of insurance $3500, who then negotiated it down to a "discounted" $710. So the worst of both worlds would have been a high deductible plan.

hyeonwho4

vor 8 Monatendiscuss

There use to be "Raccoon cafes" in Seoul. You go buy a drink and pet the raccoons. IIRC animal cafes were banned around 2019 or so.

hyeonwho4

vor 10 Monatendiscuss

Looks like IoT devices are the next frontier in residential proxies ... or provide spies the next leading indicator into SV business performance.

hyeonwho4

letztes Jahrdiscuss

I agree with you that Chinese rural poverty is probably improving faster, but I'm not sure that rural poverty has been "steadily getting worse" in the US as you claim. This [1] page with data from the census bureau make it look like rural poverty goes in waves, with the recent local maximum in 2013 about half of the initial 1959 measurement.

But this is all confounded by definitions. China defines poverty to be an income of $2.30 per day, which corresponds to purchasing power parity of less than $9 per day in the US [2].

I wasn't exaggerating about emaciation: bones were visible.

[1] https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/rural-economy-population/rur...

[2] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/PA.NUS.PPP?locations=CN

hyeonwho4

letztes Jahrdiscuss

I haven't been to China since 2019, but it is pretty obvious that median quality of life is higher in the US. In China, as soon as you get out of Beijing-Shanghai-Guangdong cities you start seeing deep poverty, people in tiny apartments that are falling apart, eating meals in restaurants that are falling apart, and the truly poor are emaciated. Rural quality of life is much higher in the US.

hyeonwho4

vor 2 Jahrendiscuss

The president attempted to block access to the National Assembly via police and military. The military administration's first order was to announce a ban on public gatherings and political activities and announce violators would be arrested without due process. This would have been a huge deal if it had been implemented even a few hours faster and the National Assembly were unable to convene.

hyeonwho4

vor 2 Jahrendiscuss

The reasons referenced in the declaration of martial law were "cabinet and prosecutorial impeachments" and "budget difficulties in the face of national problems".

hyeonwho4

vor 2 Jahrendiscuss

The military tried to physically prevent the National Assembly from meeting on a vote to disband the martial law. If they had been successful, the elected National Assembly would have no power. That's about as close to a military takeover as you can get without shots being fired.

hyeonwho4

vor 2 Jahrendiscuss

Re: 2. The "gender war" is greatly exaggerated and much astroturfed. Marriage rates have been dropping for decades because Koreans in their 20s and 30s cannot maintain the economic expectations of their parents. (Korean norms require a condo before marriage, when the going rate for condos is 30x median salary. Young people usually start their careers at below-median salaries.)

The way the "gender war" appeared was that Yoon was more popular among men, and this was reported in the international news, then Korean news reporters reported on the international news, legitimizing the story of a gender gap.

This primed Korean journalists to look for further signs of conflict between the genders, which were then amplified out of proportion by international journalists looking for a story. Korean journalists see the international stories as more trustworthy, and now they report as if there is a gender war.

There is a heavy selection bias among journalists to look for spicy gender stories, where the actual participants are the fringe of an online "movement". The Korean press club doesn't seem to understand or account for these biases. In real life there isn't much "war".

hyeonwho4

vor 2 Jahrendiscuss

Ten to fifteen years ago a Korean opposition assemblyman was tried for being part of a conspiracy with plans to bomb train stations in the event of a conflict with North Korea. He was aquitted on the argument that he was ordered to by the opposition leaders. So the largest opposition party was found to be pro-communist and forced to be dissolved.

Not that this justifies any of the recent coup, but actual communist conspiracies were still happening in recent memory.

hyeonwho4

vor 2 Jahrendiscuss

There were videos of Assemblymen jumping the fence around the building, so it looks like the police were not letting assembly members enter.

hyeonwho4

vor 2 Jahrendiscuss

According to JTBC, the military has received orders to return to pre-martial-law activities.

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