mhb

mhb

l’altro ieridiscuss

quite/quiet

mhb

3 giorni fadiscuss

OK. I was thinking you would be applying the chemicals in the pipe, but what you're saying makes sense.

mhb

3 giorni fadiscuss

Also:

  Last fall, for example, nearly 12 percent of first-year U.C.S.D. undergraduates were not qualified to take pre-calculus, a low-level class, up from only 0.5 percent in 2020. “The key problem is that many of the students coming in do not know algebra,” said Mina Aganagic, a Berkeley physics professor. More than half of entering Berkeley students who took a math placement test incorrectly answered basic questions (such as solving for x in x²> 4).

mhb

4 giorni fadiscuss

I don't really understand this. How much better are things for killing a specific plant than whatever you would use to kill a superset of the plants that might be there? Or treating with a few different plant species killers. And wouldn't those options cost less than the cost of this service?

mhb

5 giorni fadiscuss

The Darkest Clothing in the World:

https://youtu.be/N9VaJKIO1JA?si=UI36apNYUe5mlxWd

mhb

5 giorni fadiscuss

What's confusing you? Do you want Kim Jong Un to have a say in decisions affecting the US or how money is spent?

mhb

5 giorni fadiscuss

The UN is a terrible organization for that. It is a corrupt, morally bankrupt institution. Giving it any more power or legitimacy is not a net positive.

mhb

5 giorni fadiscuss

Sounds similar to the aspiration of randomly picking an out-of-the way restaurant in hopes that you are going to discover a great little hole-in-the-wall. Needless to say, I suspect any lack of regret in either case might be attributable to cognitive biases.

mhb

8 giorni fadiscuss

I've dreamed of a dishwasher for people who prioritize clean dishes quickly and quietly over the incremental savings from using asymptotically less water or energy. See also low flush toilets and clothes washing machines.

mhb

14 giorni fadiscuss

Why did they use CT before MRI?

mhb

14 giorni fadiscuss

You're the one who started talking about specific examples and I agree that that's irrelevant since different companies decide how to allocate the money they save by reducing labor costs. Which is actually a refutation of your general assertion that labor cost savings don't constrain prices.

Your argument is based on the conspiratorial belief that "corporations" are a monolith conspiring to allocate the savings from self checkout. You have not explained why each of them is not incentivized to use that savings to reduce costs to take more business from their competitors. Is your answer that the businesses are all colluding? You have also not explained why they are constrained at all in the amount they can raise prices. The drip theory makes no sense. This is all basic economics.

mhb

15 giorni fadiscuss

> So pointing out business models that don’t raise prices while not customer service, to counter the claim of “hiring more people will raise the prices for us”, is a problem how?

It's a problem because the business models are providing alternatives of what their customers value. You're arguing that because Costco, one of, if not the most successful retailers in the world, can do it why can't all stores? I can assure you every business wants to be Costco.

But also, I've been to Costco. And they offer what they want in quantities that they want. And it's often not what I want no matter how well they treat their employees. Also the checkout lines were very long.

Business 101? Take a step back. What you're describing is the feedback mechanism of the competition that drives prices down. Supply, demand, price. Econ 101. The reason prices aren't infinite is not because the evil corporations are conspiring to increase them slowly enough that customers barely notice. It's because, if they increase them too much, they will lose business to their competitors.

Apple has the ability to raise prices because customers value its ecosystem. But, OK. Why didn't they raise the price by thousands? Do you think people didn't notice the few hundred dollar price increase drip? It looks to me like people did notice. It's because at a certain price, it's worthwhile to hold your nose and use a different operating system.

mhb

15 giorni fadiscuss

Yes. If you create a straw man, you're very convincing. The real world isn't a static snapshot though. If people are unhappy enough with existing businesses, they will find alternatives or new businesses will see opportunities. Or you can move to a place with the type of businesses you prefer.

mhb

15 giorni fadiscuss

So what constrains the prices in supermarkets?

mhb

15 giorni fadiscuss

>In-n-out, Costco, Walmart

Congratulations. You've identified different business models.

> I still remember when all the fast food chains raised their prices together

If this is true, what force are you imagining constrains all the fast food chains from not having n times their current prices? Adjust n to whatever value is lower than your hyperbole trigger.

mhb

15 giorni fadiscuss

It seems like you are itching to offer your version of what should happen, so let's hear it.

mhb

15 giorni fadiscuss

Yeah sure. That's the logic that elects Mamdani. Maybe you're confused because instead of going down, prices increased less than they otherwise would have.

Economics happens on the margins where the reality is that store A reduces its costs and lowers its prices to compete with Store B. Or are you paying $100 for a jar of peanut butter?

mhb

15 giorni fadiscuss

Or the place could go to the extraordinary expense of putting multiple cards on the table with the codes.

mhb

15 giorni fadiscuss

Uh, the queues at the post office have never exactly been fast.

mhb

15 giorni fadiscuss

> It’s a form of free labor that somehow society is okay with.

It's very popular to say this in some places, but wouldn't you expect that the money that businesses are saving when they do this is passed along to the customer in lower prices? Since they're competing with other businesses?

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