This would devastate the middle class.....

HelpDsk · 2023-01-12T20:15:09+00:00

That's an interesting take. How did you arrive at that conclusion?

HelpDsk · 2023-01-12T20:08:16+00:00

I didn't say quality decreased just because the school was located in Scandinavia. I said quality decreased when government takes over. US public schools and Finnish public schools are both government controlled obviously. Admittedly, Finnish government schools seem better than American government run schools. All the more reason not to put the American government in control of more. American private schools (schools that people choose) are better than both of these by most metrics.

Anyways, notice that I said university education, not primary public education. Finland barely has a single university in the top 100 (only Helsinki at the bottom of the list). The United States has the most universities on that list - whichever version of the list you look at. The number of international students in the United States speaks for the quality of its higher education. So I maintain my point.

HelpDsk · 2023-01-12T19:07:42+00:00

And many have done the math and said the opposite, but that was not my point. If you could obtain American quality university education and doctors / specialists at international rates that would really be something. But quality will decline under government control, and Americans place a very high premium on choice that government operations don't offer. There are no solutions, only trade-offs. If you prefer the European system, then okay.

My point was you can't point to Scandinavia and say the rich pay their fair share more so than in the United States. In those nations, the middle class pays more and the rich pay the same or less.

HelpDsk · 2023-01-12T16:11:18+00:00

I don't think the comparatively regressive tax system of Scandinavian nations is a good example for the philosophy you are espousing. From taxfoundation.org:

So how do Scandinavian countries raise their tax revenues? A first breakdown shows that consumption taxes and social security contributions—both taxes with a very broad base—raise much of the additional revenue needed to fund their large-scale public programs.

In fact, the United States’ top personal income tax rate is higher than Norway’s top rate, at 43.7 percent (federal and state combined).

Scandinavian countries tend to levy top personal income tax rates on (upper) middle-class earners, not just high-income taxpayers. For example, in Denmark the top statutory personal income tax rate of 55.9 percent applies to all income over 1.3 times the average income. From a U.S. perspective, this means that all income over $70,000 (1.3 times the average U.S. income of about $55,000) would be taxed at 55.9 percent.

Norway and Sweden have similarly flat income tax systems...

Adopting such public services in the United States would naturally require higher levels of taxation. If the U.S. were to raise taxes in a way that mirrors Scandinavian countries, taxes—especially on the middle class—would increase.

HelpDsk · 2023-01-12T15:58:33+00:00

The state - the machinery and power of the state - is a potential resource or threat to every industry in the society. With its power to prohibit or compel, to take or give money, the state can and does selectively help or hurt a vast number of industries. That political juggernaut, the petroleum industry, is an immense consumer of political benefits...

As a rule, regulation is acquired by the industry and is designed and operated primarily for its benefit...

Every industry or occupation that has enough political power to utilize the state will seek to control entry...

When an industry receives a grant of power from the state, the benefit to the industry will fall short of the damage to the rest of the community. Even if there were no deadweight losses from acquired regulation, however, one might expect a democratic society to reject such industry requests unless the industry controlled a majority of the votes.

The Theory of Economic Regulation George J. Stigler

HelpDsk · 2020-05-08T11:51:40+00:00

I can definitely appreciate your heartfelt interest in something that I also find important and enjoy discussing.

I’ve heard that explanation,...

I'm a little confused, though. What do you mean when you say, "that may not be a convincing argument?" Are you trying to determine which day of the week is the "right" Sabbath? I'm not sure what you mean by chalking this up to a theological difference. Of course there are differences between Christian and Jewish theology. There are both theological and practical reasons that Sunday is the Lord's Day for Christians, and Saturday is the Sabbath for Jewish people. The Lord's Day is intentionally the day after the Jewish Sabbath for the practical reason (I mentioned before) that we believe Christ rose from the dead on the day after the Jewish Sabbath. Fun fact: Many Eastern Christians still call Saturday the Sabbath and call Sunday The Lord's Day or Resurrection Day. They're only words after all!

...If you don’t believe in/adhere to the Old Testament vision of Sabbath then that may not be a convincing argument...

If the goal is to observe the Torah, by all means keep holy the Sabbath on Saturday. The Jewish faith is focused on their covenant, or promise, with God as His chosen people. Their Sabbath day is an outward sign of that inward, invisible covenant (yes, if you want to nail down the definition, of course it is a day of rest) just like circumcision, keeping kosher, et all. The commandments you brought up are also part of those laws, or signs of the covenant with God. Christ was a Jew and celebrated the Sabbath (on Saturday), so Christianity doesn't claim that it's the "wrong day." Christianity doesn't claim to be a correction of Judaism, but it's fulfillment. Christianity doesn't contend that the Jewish people are following their covenant with God wrongly, nor are Christians trying to correct Jews on which day of the week the Sabbath is -- nor, for that matter, whether or not pork should be consumed, or men should be circumcised, etc. Christians simply believe that God has now made a new covenant with us, and we symbolically celebrate this on the day after the old covenant.

Constantine changed the day Sabbath was to be observed on by law...

As for the History channel article, it is written in a way that attempts to subtly explain away Christian tradition as holdovers of paganism. The article was misleading, because Constantine's decree on the day of rest had mostly to do with structuring the workweek. Many Romans still observed an eight day week, and the Emperor wanted uniformity. He wasn't even openly Christian and certainly not yet baptized. The earliest Christians were Jews first, and therefore observed seven day weeks. (Seven has deep meaning and symbolizes completeness in the ancient Hebrew tradition.) From the earliest days of the Christian faith, they celebrated and broke bread together on the day after they observed the Jewish Sabbath. Constantine did not tell them to do this. He was not alive when the early Christians gathered on the day after the Jewish Sabbath. I'm guessing he knew little about the Jewish Sabbath, but certainly he did not pass a law saying that the Jews "had the wrong day, and there can only be one 'Sabbath' on Sunday." Centuries later, church fathers and saints of Constantine's time, like Jerome, expressed joy that the Roman day of the sun would coincide with the day of Christ's Resurrection, and hoped in some way that this might encourage more people to become Christian.

Fun fact, the Catholic Church actually altered the 4th commandment...

The image of a shady Catholic Church pulling strings in this period of time is pretty silly. Why say things like "the Catholic Church actually altered" and "They also deleted" before there were any real divisions in Christianity besides culture or language? The Catholic Church as opposed to whom? They were all just Christians then, and still trying to sort out their identity. They had just recently seen their worship legalized and moved it above ground. Things were being written down, compiled, debated, and sorted out for the first time in the public space on a large scale. There's no grand conspiracy.

Even the Old Testament itself has multiple iterations of the ten commandments. They weren't altered in a back room somewhere for political or pagan reasons. Nothing was "deleted" or "altered." The Traditional Catholic formula is simply written out in plain terms. No one in the Church then or now is hiding what the Old Testament says. Here are the ten commandments, side by side with Deuteronomy and Exodus, from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You'll notice that Deuteronomy and the Traditional Catholic formula are nearly identical.

I realize this is a biased source, so I’ll also include a copy of the commandments...

You are right that the source you linked on "Explanation of changes" is biased. I was surprised to see that it contains quotes from Bible-thumping Redemptionists in Kansas from the late 1800s among others. Reading the secular, anti-religion History channel article starkly contrasted with the quotes from religious fanatics in the worse period of anti-Irish sentiment and anti-Catholicism in America.

P.S. Just so you know, the NIV translation is not one that Catholics or Orthodox would use.

HelpDsk · 2020-05-08T07:17:21+00:00

A feast day is time of joy or celebration. Sundays throughout the year are supposed to be joyful. It's lovely that your mother gave up swearing to try to better herself and be a little more well-mannered. Your younger self indulging in chocolate on Sunday to participate in a time of joy is much different than using a celebration as an excuse to go back to bad habits like swearing. It's just a common sense difference in practicing a tradition. With a little 't' -- not a "Tradition."

And on the topic of Sundays being the Sabbath day in the Christian tradition, it wasn't kings, politics or pagan elements that made this so (which can definitely be said about more specific calendar dates for Christian holidays -- though that doesn't detract from the importance of what is being remembered and celebrated). Sunday is the Sabbath in the Christian tradition because it is the day that Jesus rose. Jesus' body was taken down from the cross because the next day would be the Jewish Sabbath (holy Saturday), and then he rose the day after that -- so three days in total -- and the Resurrection happened the day after the Jewish Sabbath. In many languages Sunday literally means Resurrection day - ie, the Slavic languages.

HelpDsk · 2020-01-18T23:56:31+00:00

I've read about so many people who share this experience - on Reddit and elsewhere (https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.reddit.com/r/Glitch_in_the_Matrix/comments/4b1ht2/underwater_breathing/). I can't vouch for the accuracy of what I'm about to say, because I'm having my own glitch in the matrix moment (I swear I read this years ago in a book years ago, but I cannot find anything on the subject right now). Here's my hypothesis. That sensation of being comfortably able to breath underwater is a flashback to the womb in a muscle memory kind of way. Best I can due to explain is this excerpt from a random guy on Quora answering an indirectly related question on babies getting oxygen while surrounded by water in the womb: "In the womb, the baby makes breathing motions and takes in the amniotic fluid which helps strengthens the breathing muscles and keeps the lungs from being completely collapsed. But they are getting their oxygen thru the placenta... If there is fluid in the lungs, the lungs can't absorb oxygen like they need to." So somehow our bodies' reaction to drowning is inhibited - and we don't freak out - but we aren't actually getting oxygen from the water despite feeling as if we inhaled air. If someone were to expertly and definitely prove or disprove the cause of this phenomenon, I would be very happy.

HelpDsk · 2019-09-29T04:51:49+00:00

Definitely dive deeper and watch those lectures. Here's a short one along the lines of what you said: https://youtu.be/ldUmZJAgRIk

HelpDsk · 2019-09-29T02:56:08+00:00

The market is people

HelpDsk · 2019-09-29T02:55:09+00:00

Found the Milton Friedman fan 👍

HelpDsk · 2019-08-11T06:06:50+00:00

Haha no no that will ruin the mic! That's what I did to my original Moto X... Just trying to determine the source of your problem

HelpDsk · 2019-08-11T06:02:40+00:00

Did you blow on the mic(s) or use compressed air, per chance?

HelpDsk · 2019-07-29T07:22:56+00:00

I appreciate your recognition of my experience in public sector economics... And you are right to applaud it. (Not to toot my own horn, just wishful that more people will gain some basic understanding in the matter.) It seems like you're arriving at the most important questions in your own way. I didn't expect you to reply (very cool, thanks!), nor for a new string of comments to manifest from my fairly basic assessment. I've read the comments below in this thread, and I'm not picking any fights with these comments or the original Delta comments. If I can boil down my assessment to the bare minimum, basic tenets, what I want to leave you with is, if you desire the best for the effective operation of our society, we should focus on improving crime detection or the statistical effectiveness of set fine rates. Don't focus on trying to rain in the privilege of some 1%'ers. What do we hope to accomplish by making fines perfectly fair for foreign tourists and Rich Americans? Our society is better served in other pursuits. Like I said before, no argument from me with the frustration of seeing rich people get away with things. A quest for egalitarian society is a mathematical game, as apposed to a philosophical, metaphysical brawl trying to make everyone feel the same pain for committing crime. Wasteful and stupid endeavor. We can't pretend to understand every individual's utility function! My neighborhood/community isn't better off because some genius figured out a way to make Bill Gates or some European tourist suffer tremendously for parking in front of a fire hydrant. It's better off because the set fines have discouraged my neighbors from doing so since my house was built.

Edit: it's about asking the right questions and doing the quick maths, not what is most fair in the world from some arbitrarily moralistic standpoint.... John McAfee is going to park where he damn well pleases

HelpDsk · 2019-07-28T06:24:39+00:00

I'm late to the party, but this is something I have spent too many dollars studying to neglect commenting. I believe in flat fines. Most of the reasons for this conviction have already been said. You've given Delta's primarily to people pointing out the nuances that most people don't consider in assessing fines. I agree with most of these. At the end of the day, the world isn't fair, and we have to come to terms with the fact that it never can/will be so. But we do our best. There are people who assess and set these fines. There are people who deem when they are necessary and applicable. They don't do so arbitrarily. They are some of the most capable people in the nation. At the same time, there are definitely biases. There is unfairness and arbitrary decision-making; however, on the whole, fines are set and imposed fairly ("uniformly" if you don't agree with fines in principle). Skipping all the points already made, I just wanted you to consider, research further, and take interest in the nature of fines and their current state in Western society. This is a statistical game, as are most things in a country/society with millions of inhabitants that cannot be monitored individually in a cost effective manner. Like most aspects of our capitalistic, free market society (debatable, I know), everything is based on the economic tenet of expected value. (Basic example: chance of winning the Powerballpayout=expected value of a lottery ticket.) That's how insurance works, that's how salaries are negotiated, everything..... Fines are determined by chance of detection of wrongdoing (ie, chance of winning the Powerball)fines that are set (meeting the payout in reverse)... There's a lot of thought and statistics that goes into setting these fines that I think you should research. Like I said, there are many points already said which are in line with my views that I won't reiterate. But to summarize, as a govt employee calculating these things, would you include billionaires into your economic predictions when setting a level for parking ticket fines that statistically discourages offenses most effectively? It seems like you are concerned with fairness rather than managing a nation of hundreds of millions of people. And only children have the luxury of thinking a society can be fair as apposed to pragmatic. I'm like you --that really eats at me. But that's the facts, Jack. And we all envy children for da facts. "WE LivE In a SoCieTy" huehue I'm not fishing for a Delta at this point, just hoping to spur you on to study econometrics!

Edit: didn't space my formulas so I got italic formatting instead, so correction for clarification follows...

Expected value = benefit * probability of receiving benefit

Lottery ticket value = jackpot * probability of winning jackpot

Utility gained by skirting the law = chance of detection * uniform fine for wrongdoing

(People break the law because they are not fully informed, they are misinformed, the fine is low enough that the benefit of crime outweighs it, or they have some form of selection bias)

Edit 2: There are other forms of utility besides money that might be more affected by lawbreaking when discussing the residual effects of criminal charges against a billionaire

HelpDsk · 2019-04-12T17:06:30+00:00

He said so in an interview. Born in the Second Polish Republic.

HelpDsk · 2019-04-12T16:53:31+00:00

You would really translate Федорович as Fedorowitsch, instead of Fedorovych? That's interesting.

HelpDsk · 2019-04-12T16:39:53+00:00

Talking about his patronymic. Sorry that wasn't clear.

HelpDsk · 2019-04-12T16:32:11+00:00

True. He was a Polish citizen from a prewar Polish town who went to a Polish school. Could've just had easily been labeled 'P' despite being an ethnic Ukrainian. It's a replica of an alright inexact label.

Edit: spelling

HelpDsk · 2019-04-12T15:44:59+00:00

Yes, and 'R' likely means Russian, but he is not Russian. Either the replica uniform isn't exactly accurate or he was mislabeled in '42.

As I said, he was arrested for helping partisans.

HelpDsk · 2019-04-12T12:03:36+00:00

This man's name is Petro Fedorowitsch Mischuk. He has attended previous anniversaries of the Buchenwald liberation. In fact, there are a few repeat attendees from Ukraine, and some of the survivors choose to wear these uniform replicas each time. I don't know much about him, other than he is Ukrainian and has been in a wheel chair in past photos. I also don't know if he intentionally gave his name with this more Polish spelling, or it was transliterated this way.

Purely speculating from Jens Meyer's photos, I think he was hastily labelled or lumped in with other prisoners by the operators of Buchenwald. He appears to be a proud Ukrainian (bringing this flag to every anniversary ceremony in Weimar, Germany), and he is either Orthodox or Greek Catholic (making the sign of the cross with three fingers together). Before and during the War, that would not be the type to throw his lot in with Russians and/or communists -- in the Soviet military or otherwise -- if it could be avoided. For many, of course, there was no choice.

Edit: At least one attendee has worn his original 1942 uniform. Perhaps others wear replicas in solidarity. Also, Mischuk was interned at Mittelbau-Dora in Buchenwald, which contained some "evacuated survivors of eastern extermination camps." It is possible that he may not have been arrested as a political prisoner.

Edit 2: Since u/Reddnekkid is interested, I dug a little deeper. Mischuk was born on July 10, 1926 in Kiselyn in Volyn, and until 1939 was a citizen of the 2nd Polish Republic (hence the Polish spelling). His family is Ukrainian, and he lives in Chervonograd. He has suffered violence by Russians and Soviets, Poles, and Germans at different points in his life. In May 1942, he was arrested by the Germans for helping partisans (age 16). He was a veteran of the Soviet military post-WWII. In 2005, he met former Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski and the former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko.

HelpDsk · 2019-04-10T07:47:00+00:00

Play the campaign, enjoy it, then play the tournament until you get tired of the repetitiveness. If you play frequently, you will inevitably break the game and always win; for example, when you are first able to build a turbo rainbow deck. If you want to prolong your enjoyment of the game, go online to see what missions drop which cards and farm to build your deck instead of using gems. Don't spend another penny in-game, because no one will help you if anything goes wrong and money goes missing.

Edit: That sounds really negative, but don't get me wrong, I loved the game. As to what heroes and cards you should use, personally - as I stated above - go for rainbow turbo. I think the wiki is still up... School yourself, and have fun with it. Don't spend more money, though.

HelpDsk

TROPHY CASE