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Aves Maria! posted:"hey i'll give away half of my wealth at some future, undefined date" is supposed to please anyone in lieu of philanthropic action? It's catchier when they just say "Believe me, folks!"  Guess it's dog time. Edit, sorry, that was way too big Spun Dog fucked around with this message at 20:05 on Dec 29, 2017 |
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Dec 29, 2017 20:00
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bird cooch posted:Public transport is good, and works great in densely populated areas. We need more of it. Buuuut if you look at this map of the United States you will find that the densely populated portions are spread far apart. Never said I wanted to get rid of cars. Business interests have been trying to cripple (and have succeeded as much as they can) the notion and execution of public transport for decades. In plenty of other countries you can travel very easily by rail, bus, ferry, etc run as public transit well into the country. I was able to go from Geneva (urban) to a small french restaurant, half way up a mountain, 30 min outside of St. Genis Pouilly (most definitely not) on public transit. Simillarly hopped buses up to the Chartreuse Mountains as well. This poo poo is doable with correct, societally focused, government backing, which is something that a full half of our ruling body is actively opposed to.
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Dec 29, 2017 20:00
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Koalas March posted:I'm very active in my political community. I volunteer. I started a campaign in my sub to help other posters both financially and with mental health and trauma. And I'm a black person living in poverty in America so I'm fighting the loving system just by existing and you can back the gently caress off.
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Dec 29, 2017 20:00
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Vladimir Putin posted:It’s well known during the USSR that proper allocation of capital was a huge challenge that nobody could solve. Central planners pumped out millions of small arms to further government policies that eventually flooded every non-aligned and aligned nation. Meanwhile the populace was starving at worst case and couldn’t buy furniture because there was literally no supply. See also the case of China where this also happened. What happened to the example of Africa, a current modern example? You're maligning a system that isn't good or bad on its own. Neither the USSR or China's economies were operating in a vacuum.
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Dec 29, 2017 20:01
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Kilroy posted:forget it km, it's bird cooch Ah fair enough. I'm looking at my screen like, pretty sure I'm a member and #2 of my local Dem club and am giving a speech to my entire district next month but y'all wanna act like I don't poo poo lmao
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Dec 29, 2017 20:02
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Kaal posted:So basically there's no pleasing any of you. There is nothing to be pleased about at this stage in the game. Especially not a guy with more money than all of us put together will ever see in our collectives lives. Period. Full stop. who gives a poo poo about what he does with that money when we live in a society that's ok with children starving while people make money by having money and convince society that they did something to deserve that money.
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Dec 29, 2017 20:02
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Kaal posted:Elon Musk has publicly committed to giving away at least half of his fortune by the time he dies. Oooooh wooooow I'm so impressed woooooow what a brave man, only surviving on 20 billion dollars for the majority of life, and then at least 10 billion right before he dies, and then his kids(I assume) will inherit only a measly 10 billion dollars? How will they make it? Well, that's not a concern for the great Elon Musk the brave man who committed to one day giving away money that he doesn't need in any way and is only hoarding because he is a monster who doesn't care about the suffering of other people in any way. What a great man
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Dec 29, 2017 20:03
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Koalas March posted:I'm very active in my political community. I volunteer. I started a campaign in my sub to help other posters both financially and with mental health and trauma. And I'm a black person living in poverty in America so I'm fighting the loving system just by existing and you can back the gently caress off. Can I get in on this? I'm a black trans woman who volunteers with Food Not Bombs. You may remember last year when we fought the mayor and city council because they didn't want us feeding the homeless to close too the College Football National Championship game.
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Dec 29, 2017 20:04
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enraged_camel posted:We don't build more regular trains because the overwhelming majority of US landmass doesn't have the population density required to support it economically. This really isn't addressed by Hyperloop when you consider that whatever issues it solves by being purportedly faster or less intrusive than conventional transportation is offset by the fact that it would be very expensive to power and maintain such a system.
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Dec 29, 2017 20:05
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LtStorm posted:What happened to the example of Africa, a current modern example? Yes I'm still waiting to hear about these modern African nations that have command economies
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Dec 29, 2017 20:05
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Why is it that when someone says "capitalism is flawed" some mouth breathing binary nitwit enters the thread like Wimpy from Popeye and says "ah yes, but you see COMMAND economies are loving terrible so I guess we'll have to live with capitalism! Hamburger." As if there were only two ways to be.
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Dec 29, 2017 20:05
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enraged_camel posted:Every new technology, when it is first made available to the public, is accessible mostly by the rich. Over time it becomes cheaper. You can tell someone is just trying to justify a personal grudge when their best arguments are stuff that applies literally to everything. "did you know that the owner of the company is a capitalist????" "Did you know that products cost money and thus can be bought by rich people!???". Like it's not wrong but it's not any sort of argument why this one thing is bad any more than literally any other product that exists on the planet earth. But there is no real argument so people only have the go to true about everything ones.
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Dec 29, 2017 20:05
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Draynar posted:To be fair pretty sure that's not how net worth works. That's not his liquid income. That is value of his businesses and any property etc he owns. So he'd have to sell all his businesses to actually have that kind of cash. If anyone is interested in having a somewhat less garbage-fire take on Musk, remember this. He is something like #139 in the list of richest people on the planet. So basically he has control over something rather less than half a percent of the planet’s ‘discretionary wealth’ - the stuff that could be spent on paying people to work on developing practical or technological solutions to current and future problems. Musk stands out in the list of rich people because he is one of the perhaps 5 to 10 people on the top 500 who actually has a plan to do something with his allocation of money, rather than blindly making more for its own sake. Maybe you could second-guess his choices. But a better question is asking why only like 0.5% of the world’s budget is in the hands of people even attempting to make them? Imagine what could be done if instead of 99.5%, only 50% of that budget was lost to inefficiency and corruption?
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Dec 29, 2017 20:06
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enraged_camel posted:Every new technology, when it is first made available to the public, is accessible mostly by the rich. Over time it becomes cheaper. Hyperloop is literally just a train in a vacuum tube. It doesn't solve any problems a train doesn't already solve. And there's plenty of areas that are vastly underserved in regards to public transit, especially southern California
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Dec 29, 2017 20:06
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Koalas March posted:Ah fair enough. I'm looking at my screen like, pretty sure I'm a member and #2 of my local Dem club and am giving a speech to my entire district next month but y'all wanna act like I don't poo poo lmao Also sometimes you're just trying to stay above water and that's fine. I'm not gonna look at a homeless dude complaining that capitalism sucks and throw "And the gently caress are you doing about it" at him. Bird Cooch's rep notwithstanding, that tactic is used far too often around here and in the real world, and there is never a satisfactory amount of "work" you can be doing to satisfy the person asking that question. Some people just trying to live, loving let 'em
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Dec 29, 2017 20:07
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Which billionaire wants to make it so people can full on gently caress robots? I'd like to support them, as a robot fucker in the making
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Dec 29, 2017 20:08
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Owlofcreamcheese posted:You can tell someone is just trying to justify a personal grudge when their best arguments are stuff that applies literally to everything. "did you know that the owner of the company is a capitalist????" "Did you know that products cost money and thus can be bought by rich people!???". Like it's not wrong but it's not any sort of argument why this one thing is bad any more than literally any other product that exists on the planet earth. But there is no real argument so people only have the go to true about everything ones. Maybe instead of a personal grudge, people are getting fed up with being told to make do with next to nothing as the rich become more obscene about their avarice. Seems to be a common sentiment lately.
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Dec 29, 2017 20:08
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*yelling to a man screaming for help as he is stabbed repeatedly* "Yeah well what are YOU doing to stop crime???????"
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Dec 29, 2017 20:09
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Spun Dog posted:Maybe instead of a personal grudge, people are getting fed up with being told to make do with next to nothing as the rich become more obscene about their avarice. It's almost like inequality is on the rise and making the obscene avarice of the rich even more evident! You know, like in the 1920s.
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Dec 29, 2017 20:10
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Kaal posted:Elon Musk has publicly committed to giving away at least half of his fortune by the time he dies. Dude just recently decided to launch his loving sports car into Mars orbit so I'm a more than half sure that Musk means he's going to put a $10 bil gold brick on a rocket and launch it at Mars to kick off some loving John Carter branded One Piece race as he fucks off this mortal coil.
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Dec 29, 2017 20:12
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Koalas March posted:Actually helping the poor?? Like real world stuff that helps right now. Koalas March posted:I'm very active in my political community. I volunteer. I started a campaign in my sub to help other posters both financially and with mental health and trauma. And I'm a black person living in poverty in America so I'm fighting the loving system just by existing and you can back the gently caress off. I volunteer as well. Probably 10-15 hours a week. Things like serving food at shelters, reading books to underprivileged kids, building habitat for humanity type stuff, etc. And you know what? Even though I can see that my efforts help those people, I also recognize that at the end of the day the help is just short-term: I'm basically treating the symptoms of large-scale systemic issues, and it's as effective as using band aids to treat a gut wound or using buckets to throw out water when there is a massive hole on the hull and much more water is coming in than I and my fellow volunteers can hope to handle. At some point someone needs to come in and address those bigger, systemic problems, and you can't do that just by throwing money at them. IMO society needs both types of people: those who are present-focused and those who are future-focused. Obviously people who are suffering now will respect the former group more because their needs are more immediate, and they will call on the latter group to stop daydreaming and fantasizing and join the former. I disagree with that though, because while we need to address our current issues, we also need to make progress as a society and technology has proven to be a very reliable tool to make that progress.
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Dec 29, 2017 20:12
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Owlofcreamcheese posted:You can tell someone is just trying to justify a personal grudge when their best arguments are stuff that applies literally to everything. "did you know that the owner of the company is a capitalist????" "Did you know that products cost money and thus can be bought by rich people!???". Like it's not wrong but it's not any sort of argument why this one thing is bad any more than literally any other product that exists on the planet earth. But there is no real argument so people only have the go to true about everything ones. maybe people wouldn't have to continually tell you this if you didn't confuse what is ultimately a capitalist venture for altruistic behavior. elon musk is indulging his own sci fi fantasies, he is not actually helping the world in any real way. billionaires are bad, elon musk is a billionaire, elon musk is bad. the end.
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Dec 29, 2017 20:13
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botany posted:most of you are completely missing the point with respect to musk, gates and humanitarian spending in general.
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Dec 29, 2017 20:14
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enraged_camel posted:At some point someone needs to come in and address those bigger, systemic problems, and you can't do that just by throwing money at them. what you're describing is precisely what elon musk is not doing. he is throwing money at cool-sounding futuristic nonsense that doesn't solve the basic problems ailing our society.
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Dec 29, 2017 20:16
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Tarezax posted:Hyperloop is literally just a train in a vacuum tube. It doesn't solve any problems a train doesn't already solve. It goes much, much faster than a train-on-rails can possibly go. Much faster than the fastest train currently in operation. About two to three times as fast. That is a dramatic difference, a big enough one to make people prefer it as a mode of transportation over airplanes. Not only that, but it would have a massive economic impact as well. If one is built between LA and SF, that would mean that people who work in SF could live in LA, and that could go a long way towards solving SF's current housing issues for example.
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Dec 29, 2017 20:17
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enraged_camel posted:We don't build more regular trains because the overwhelming majority of US
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Dec 29, 2017 20:17
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Aves Maria! posted:lol, congrats you found the one charitable organization that helps literally no one Yes, making sure that AI advancements are open source and available to everyone is truly a bad thing(tm).
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Dec 29, 2017 20:18
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botany posted:most of you are completely missing the point with respect to musk, gates and humanitarian spending in general. 
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Dec 29, 2017 20:19
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botany posted:diseases being eradicated with the help of billionaires is a symptom of a hosed up society. these people are doing what governmental agencies ought to be doing. the fact that it takes private donations to get it done is a sign that your whole system is hosed up, and the fact that individuals own enough money to have an impact on a global disease is a sign that your whole system is hosed up too. This yeah. No one should be able to accumulate a billion dollars of personal wealth. Wealth should be taxed if not used. Money should be like a hot potato, you have it and you want to throw it to someone else or be the one getting taxed when the music stops.
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Dec 29, 2017 20:19
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Aves Maria! posted:what you're describing is precisely what elon musk is not doing. he is throwing money at cool-sounding futuristic nonsense that doesn't solve the basic problems ailing our society. I think air pollution qualifies as a "basic problem ailing our society" and approximately 25% of it in the USA is caused by cars. Aggressively developing electric cars and making them cheaper and cheaper goes a long way towards solving that problem IMO.
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Dec 29, 2017 20:19
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Spun Dog posted:Maybe instead of a personal grudge, people are getting fed up with being told to make do with next to nothing as the rich become more obscene about their avarice. Maybe, but people sure seem to pick and choose what industries they seem to apply it to. Seems weird too that people are very angry when space travel is done by a private guy that makes money off it, but also get mad if we socialize space travel and research it collectively. Same with physics or engineering or whatever. Like if something is science related it needs to answer for all the sins of the human race before it can be allowed to exist in a way that no one applies to any other type of industry. No one should make money off science but also no money should be spent collectively on it. It simply should not exist until humanity has already perfected itself.
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Dec 29, 2017 20:20
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Xae posted:Yes, making sure that AI advancements are open source and available to everyone is truly a bad thing(tm). it's not a bad thing, it's that it does nothing to help anyone who is currently alive. it's fantasy indulgence
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Dec 29, 2017 20:20
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https://twitter.com/fmanjoo/status/946807418809233408
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Dec 29, 2017 20:21
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Chilichimp posted:Why is it that when someone says "capitalism is flawed" some mouth breathing binary nitwit enters the thread like Wimpy from Popeye and says "ah yes, but you see COMMAND economies are loving terrible so I guess we'll have to live with capitalism! Hamburger." 
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Dec 29, 2017 20:21
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Elon Musk is just another person. He’s not a saint. That’s all you really need to know. He’s behaving in the manner you’d expect a person to behave.
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Dec 29, 2017 20:21
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enraged_camel posted:It goes much, much faster than a train-on-rails can possibly go. Much faster than the fastest train currently in operation. About two to three times as fast. I don't see how even theoretically they can get it to throughput levels where it would make a difference. You can only fit so many people per car and only so many car-pods can go through the tunnel at once. So the ticket prices are going to be very high, because demand is going to waaaaaaay outstrip supply. Plus with each new dug tunnel you're increasing your sunk costs. I mean yes Elon Musk could live in LA and work in SF but this isn't solving workaday people's problems. It's solving the problem of how to dig large scale tunnels cheaply (which helps with mars colonies but not us so much directly).
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Dec 29, 2017 20:22
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enraged_camel posted:I think air pollution qualifies as a "basic problem ailing our society" and approximately 25% of it in the USA is caused by cars. Aggressively developing electric cars and making them cheaper and cheaper goes a long way towards solving that problem IMO. in the same way that lunchables go a long way towards solving the problem of hunger, sure.
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Dec 29, 2017 20:22
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Vladimir Putin posted:Elon Musk is just another person. He’s not a saint. That’s all you really need to know. He’s behaving in the manner you’d expect a person to behave. False.
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Dec 29, 2017 20:23
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If I had Elon Musk money I would throw a year long rave but only for poor people to attend.
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Dec 29, 2017 20:23
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gently caress gamers.
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Dec 29, 2017 20:24
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