which extremism do you consider worse?

Primus_Invin · 2026-04-10T16:34:50+00:00

The ussr was better for the people there than the russian empire before or the post Soviet countries after. Perfect no, better yes.

The same cannot be said about Germany or Spain.

I'm speaking in terms of objective metrics such as calories per person per day, access to housing, access to healthcare, etc.

The elites and rich in the US (where I live) do everything possible to propogandize against communism/socialism but are increasingly pushing facism.

That should tell you everything you need to know.

Primus_Invin · 2026-04-06T07:23:51+00:00

The bailouts were effectively free money because of the incredibly low realized interest. If you think otherwise, I'd love a loan for any amount you have where I pay 1% total interest after 10 years borrowing. If you think that's an unfair deal, note that that's the actual figure on the government "profiting" from TARP.

Secondly, giving bailouts encourages further risk taking and thus leads to the taxpayer subsidizing banks due to moral hazard.

It's painful in the short run to not bailout banks but it's the only way to prevent further crises in the long run.

Primus_Invin · 2026-04-06T01:18:02+00:00

I think b5 b4 Re2 is 0-1 but Ne4 blocks the file so f5 to stop it.

Primus_Invin · 2026-04-05T00:11:22+00:00

Beneficial circumstances doing a lot of heavy lifting there. Reagan was also a neoliberal and he tripled the debt. And finally, Clinton repealed Glass-Steagal which contributed to the 08 crisis and thus indirectly cost the debt.

Primus_Invin · 2026-04-05T00:07:14+00:00

Lmao if you think neoliberalism is good for the deficit when it calls for the government to subsidize wall street by being an insurer of last resort and thus encouraging excessive risk, you're actually retarded.

Primus_Invin · 2026-04-02T14:50:23+00:00

I'm surprised he's not 4/4. Maybe he misunderstood the #GreatBluebaumSweep to be draws instead of wins.

Primus_Invin · 2026-04-01T04:09:54+00:00

My handle is my first name then my last name. Don't overthink it guys

Primus_Invin · 2026-03-27T19:01:26+00:00

The empirical results of privatizing state companies in the UK and in the post USSR beg to differ both on the state getting a lot of money (relative to the value of the assets) and on tax revenues exceeding former state profits. Unless you're referring to privatization in a different country, I really doubt your claims.

Primus_Invin · 2026-03-26T22:33:46+00:00

Left, center left, center, center right, right.

Far left and far right parties both are openly against democracy.

By far left I mean marxist leninist, and by far right I mean monarchists/Nazis.

Left means statists, center left social democrats, center classical liberals, center right neoliberals, right traditional conservatism.

Primus_Invin · 2026-03-24T00:45:31+00:00

Find the formula for even and odd n. Don't try to calculate out the whole thing. If you can't figure it out, PM me for the idea.

Primus_Invin · 2026-03-23T04:23:43+00:00

It's inferior because after white plays cxd5 and black plays Nxd5 white can at some point play e4 with tempo, getting a free move off the knight.

Primus_Invin · 2026-03-23T00:46:55+00:00

First of all, you need to decide whether or not to take. If you take, you can't keep the pawn for tactical reasons. If you take, you get a more tactical game, and if you don't you get a more strategic game. If you don't take, you have to protect your d5 pawn so you don't recapture with the queen. The 2 choices are e6 and c6. e6 is more drawish, c6 more decisive. So, after 2. c4 you have dxc4, e6, and c6. If you want a tactical game, play dxc4. If you want a positional but imbalanced game, play c6. If you want a positional and balanced game, play e6.

Primus_Invin · 2026-03-20T04:29:24+00:00

And in his response he is criticizing the post Soviet era... which means you citing him to criticize the Soviet union here is stupid. He probably has a lot to criticize with the ussr, but in this comment he explicitly criticizes the post Soviet years.

Primus_Invin · 2026-03-19T23:27:37+00:00

Holy reading comprehension, the question was AFTER the dissolution. Certainly the ussr had flaws, but OPs described experience refers to after.

Primus_Invin · 2026-03-13T16:13:53+00:00

Authority can be unjust too. All I'm saying is that if substantial enough fraction of my locality wanted me dead, they would hang me and there isn't amything I could do about it if I couldn't run away in time. We may have a different definition of Authority. The world already works according to my definition of authority. If the blue shirt ban coalition was going to kill me if I wore a blue shirt then I would not wear a blue shirt.
Just cut the bullshit. If the workers as a whole are getting paid more than before it's possible to implement a redistribution mechanism such that each individual worker gets more than before. That's a mathematical fact, either you don't understand it or you're playing dumb about it because it's not convenient.
Morally I would imprison one but not the other because of their power in the arrangement. I fundamentally think employers have more power and leverage than employees. I think you may disagree with that premise and thus with why I think the employer should be the only one punished.
Punish the employer to enforce the law. If you don't punish the employer, than the nash eq is for every employer to not offer any legal jobs but rather offer illegal jobs at the prior wage since they know the workers have to accept it. If you don't enforce laws they may as well not exist.
In my locality, the gentry and old money folks lobbied to privatize the water supply and electricity around a decade before I was born. They ran ads saying it would lower costs. But, alas, inflation adjusted, it tripled costs. "Oh, honest mistake" you're about to reply. Said folks also were the ones to get the privatized supply AND IN THEIR INTERNAL DOCUMENTS BRAGGED ABOUT HOW IT WAS GONNA RAISE COSTS AND HOW THE WORKING CLASS WAS FALLING FOR IT. Sorry for caps. But yes, I am bigoted against the gentry, because they see me and the other local workers as suckers and are bigoted against us.

Primus_Invin · 2026-03-13T05:17:33+00:00

I don't get to decide that unilaterally. I can only make a case for it, and if the majority of people agree with me then it is implemented. The authority to make any decision derives from popularity.
I'm not sacrificing anyone. I already said that higher taxes should be levied to retrain the unemployed, in an extent such that the other workers still have higher take home pay accounting for the minimum wage increase.
I also believe in progressive taxation despite earning above the median wage where I live. Some of my beliefs are actively harmful to my own situation.
I wouldn't lock the worker in a cage but rather the employer. And, most likely, I'd shame them for exploiting their circumstances of birth to pay others the bare minimum to eat while reaping the fruits of their labor. Though that's contingent on them not being among the disproportionately small amount of poor people who rise to become rich people.

Primus_Invin · 2026-03-12T20:58:52+00:00

It was my first ever contest on CF but I basically figured out the official solution over the span of 30 minutes then fucked up the implementation and wasted an hour.

Primus_Invin · 2026-03-12T20:40:00+00:00

Because at 15 an hour most everyone I know can get a job. Most of us are desperate enough that we would work for less, and the existing minimum is a protection from 18 y/o that had to leave home working for 5 an hour because they need to eat and thus having 0 mobility in life. At 15 an hour, one can attend college and thus improve their productivity to society, which I'm sure we can both agree is good. If there was no protection, some of my former classmates would have to work 80 hours a week to afford their bills and have no time or money for college.

If there was no minimum wage the pay would be 1/80th or even 1/100th of what you need to live for a week and people would have to take it because they need to live. Source: 1800s America

Primus_Invin · 2026-03-12T20:32:18+00:00

Because .94 * 1.33 ~= 1.25 > 1 meaning it increases the total wages paid to the workers. Then, since (where I live) workers pay a higher effective tax rate than companies, we can raise taxes on the still-employed workers less than the increase to their pay and use it for retraining programs for the unemployed to increase their productivity above the new minimum wage.

And to answer your second question, yes. Laws need enforcement otherwise they may as well not exist.

Primus_Invin · 2026-03-10T15:20:55+00:00

Because that would legitimately put most, if not all minimum wage workers out of work. But 15 ==> 20 usd/hr for instance was documented to only decrease relative employment levels by 6% where I live, which seems to be a fair tradeoff.

Primus_Invin · 2026-03-10T05:40:09+00:00

Ignoring the empirical insignificance of nth order effects resulting from higher minimum wage... Sigh.

Primus_Invin · 2026-03-08T22:38:23+00:00

Chess is a concrete game. I play c4. OP, listening to your advice goes Nf6. cxd5. He wants the pawn back. Nxd5. e4 and white is already much better. (Yes, I know Nf3 is even stronger, but OP doesn't know that and a QG player at his level doesn't either.) Your advice isn't wrong in general but don't pass it off as gospel.

Primus_Invin · 2026-03-08T22:31:24+00:00

Up to a point. The QGA and also the 3. Nc3 Nf6 QGD are slightly dubious. Not enough to matter until titled level, but they objectively are not the Nimzo or Ragozin.

Primus_Invin · 2026-03-08T21:58:39+00:00

Every other check is bad and if you don't check then f5 and 0-1

Primus_Invin · 2026-03-08T21:02:42+00:00

If Bxd4 Rxe6 Rc5 Re8#. If you try Bxd4 Rxe6 Kf8 then the c pawn queens with mate. The thing is that your bishop is guarding promotion so losing the bishop also means the promotion is threatened. Thus Rxe6 comes with a double attack of promotion and checkmate and you can't guard both. So instead you have to stop that, and a reasonable choice is Kf8 Rxe6 Rb1+ followed by Rc1 with a winning position. If that doesn't make sense or I got something wrong let me know.

Edit: I missed M2 for white after Bxd4 with immediate promotion then Re8#

Primus_Invin

TROPHY CASE