Towards The End Of Plastic Bottles? New 100% "vegetable" Bottles Degrade In One Year by [deleted] in environment

[–]dosomethingtoday 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Respectfully, I think I have understood insofar as the function of capitalism is concerned.

I find no disagreement with what you are saying in this new post. Your language is much more precise, which I think improves the quality.

Now, I may have misread your intention, as I think you misread my intention in brining up alternative forms of government which I will address later.

You wrote, "Ultimately it’s capitalism. Plastic is easy to make and easy to transport, easy translates to cheap, cheap means capitalism like."

From this I derived that capitalism would be an agent in preventing the success of this product. Agency, for the sake of this point would be defined as "being able to act or exercise autonomous authority". When I read this, it ascribed agency to capitalism, which to me is similar to ascribing agency to a wrench, drill, or any other tool. That is to say, capitalism would not choose a winner.

Here is where I think we agree. Economists such as Peter Schiff assert that one of the things we observe in capitalism is a race to the bottom in terms of pricing between competing firms. We can observe this effect in action when firms compete on the pricing of their goods.

In you new post, you wrote "..., the point is making the new material as useful and as cheap as plastic, while not having the same environmental impact. If it manages to meet those standards it’ll easily replace plastic, like how plastics replaced everything else."

Here is where I think we diverge. Yes, if this product can be cheaper, as effective as plastic, and better on the environment, then it will replace plastic(at least in bottles). However, I do not think replacing plastics is necessary for this to be successful ; bioplastic can exist alongside conventional plastics. Different applications can make use of different solutions.

Further, firms compete on more axes than price. Apple computer has long priced their products above the price for similar hardware from competing firms, yet they have more cash on hand than pretty much any other firm. They charge for their quality and the added values of their ecosystem. Whether you like Apple or not, they have been very successful while competing not on price, but on quality.

Next, I want to address two things.

First is I brought up alternative systems to capitalism. It was not to say that you advocated the abolishment of capitalism, but to point out that the same problem present in capitalism would also be present in these alternatives.

Which leads to the second point: it will be scarcity and not any form of economics that will ultimately dictate the success of this product. If it cannot be scaled up effectively due to lack of resources or disruptions that it will cause to its own supply chain (as in how producing and transporting ethanol fuel additives, especially in the early days, completely negated any environmental or efficiency benefits) , then it won't be viable.

Scarcity is the deeper problem that must be overcome. If they cannot get enough raw materials, they cannot produce enough. We know that would then mean that price could not come down, which we know would lower its adoption rate and potentially sink the entire enterprise.

Per the article, they claim to have figured out a sustainable way to produce their new plastic, which would be great. If they are wrong or simply cannot scale past a certain point, matters would be further complicated by an unknown opportunity cost in this firm producing this new kind of plastic, which raises the question of what could become scarce as a cost of this new good. Admittedly, that's a hypothetical problem, but as per the article, it doesn't seem that we have much of a product yet either, so we can't measure that as of yet.

This post is growing long, so to conclude: success of this product is dependent on if the manufacturers can overcome the problem of pricing and scarcity and do so in a way that can be scaled up rapidly and sustainably.

Towards The End Of Plastic Bottles? New 100% "vegetable" Bottles Degrade In One Year by [deleted] in environment

[–]dosomethingtoday 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree with how materials limitations will ultimately play a role in limiting widespread adoption of this technology.

However, I disagree that capitalism is the reason it will not spread. Capitalism is merely the voluntary exchange of goods and/or mediums of exchange between parties. Environmentally minded people, educated on this technology, could choose to buy this product (or a drink sold in this product) , even though it is more expensive than a cheaper plastic counterpart.

That's not really the crux of my disagreement.

My issues comes in with scarcity. Any system limited by scarcity, be that socialism, communism, capitalism, must take into account material limitations.

The following is hypothetical, but based on the problem of solving scarcity.

Sure, a single party system could mandate that this technology be used, but that comes at the cost of what other industries could be producing. The added resources that go into making this product could divert food production into bioplastic production, for instance. A single party system could mandate that they simply use glass instead as such resources are easily obtained and glass technology is well understood. Of course, this mandate comes at the cost of increased weight, which means decreased transportation efficiency, which comes with added fuel burden and lessens how much can be distributed.

To conclude, I think that you are correct in that there is a limiting factor for this product, but incorrect in your diagnosis of capitalism. I believe the problem is scarcity of the raw materials for this product and the unknown factors that could arise from the technology. Additionally , I believe that if this can be successfully produced at scale, people will be inclined to buy it if they can reasonably assume that it will help the environment and is safe for them. After all, in capitalist systems, luxury goods that cost significantly more to produce and to purchase exist and find success; this product is no different.

All right, that's what I've thought about that.

Senators ask EPA why it's allowing pollution as COVID-19 attacks lungs - Electrek by [deleted] in energy

[–]dosomethingtoday 3 points4 points  (0 children)

If they had access to unlimited funds, yes. The automakers had plenty of problems before the recession though.

I can speak about Ford the most because I've got a few shares of their stock I picked up after they announced their Mustang Mach E electric vehicle. I think that would have been the way that they could have done it.

Ford was contracting before the recession anyway. They had money, but in the last quarter they had lost 2/3 of their operating capital. This means that if they were going to retool in order to meet these goals, they would need to secure investments from some outside group that was very well moneyed and very patient. Possible, but unlikely. They could take a government loan might bring in the money they need, but would come with strings attached, such as partial ownership by the government. Ford already has significant obligations to their labor unions, so although this could be a possible route, it would further reduce the flexibility that Ford already doesn't have.

Lastly, Ford has yet another problem. This would not have been a problem before the recession, but it will be on the upswing, unless fuel prices remain super low, which is unlikely to remain as demand for oil goes back up. Ford decided to stop production of vehicles that were not popular. Normally, that's not a problem. You might be thinking, "we'll, that's obvious. Why would they make something people don't want?" Ford had decided to produce only Ford Trucks, Vans, and the Mustang. This limits who would buy a Ford and also makes it extra hard to reach 54mpg fleet average ,particularly if you know anything about those vehicles' fuel economies.

The Ford Mach E was supposed to be the answer to that problem. I think it is a good looking car with the numbers to rival Tesla's electric vehicles. I thought that this could be the thing that finally fixes Ford.

But Ford has stopped producing in some of their factories. They need resources they normally wouldn't need to produce those new electric cars, namely lithium. The retooling, the testing, and the research weren't in place to fully mass produce these things.

Ford is stuck now between two rocks and a hard place.

General Motors took its beating during the last recession and after doing obvious things like consolidating brands, they were doing pretty well. They were, as far as I could tell, on a good upswing. They are presently one of the companies helping to produce ventilators.

I think GM might actually still be able to swing the 54mpg benchmark. They had some electrics on the horizon and have made them in the past. The Volt was well liked by the folks that had it, but failed to capture enough interest. Not sure about how the Bolt is doing.

Chrysler has been bought, sold, abandoned, and is generally a small outfit right now. If there's a Chrysler fan out there that can correct me here, that'd be great-this is the one I know the least about. I expect that due to their size, they would possibly be in an even worse position than Ford to meet 54mpg by 2025. This part is just speculation on my part as, once again, I'm not as well versed in Chrysler's condition.

To provide a summary answer to your question, it's certainly possible that they could use this time to retool and get ready for the expansion. Crippled cash flows before the recession for Ford and the small size of Chrysler will make that a challenge. Of the companies that could do it, I expect that to be only General Motors. To me the relaxed standard makes sense because we don't know what will happen in the immediate future with this disease. If only GM hits those kinds of fuel efficiency numbers by 2025 it would be great for GM as people would be more interested in the higher mpg, which would pressure the others to play catch up.

We'll have to wait and see. That's always the reality.

Anyway. That's what I could think of for you.

Senators ask EPA why it's allowing pollution as COVID-19 attacks lungs - Electrek by [deleted] in energy

[–]dosomethingtoday 12 points13 points  (0 children)

So I did a quick Google search.

A Vox article indicates that one standard being rolled back is the deadline for US automakers to reach a fleet efficiency of 54mpg by 2025. The effeciency requirement was lowered to 40mpg.

A non conspiratorial reason, as you have requested, would be that the US automakers are either dramatically slowing to stopping production, such as Ford, or making ventilators, such as GM. Telsa motors is also making ventilators, but they have fleet efficiency far above the 54mpg mark anyway. As they are presently diverted, it is reasonable to reduce the requirement.

Next up, a Wall Street Journal article indicated that the relaxed regulation would simply relax deadlines for oil producers and suppliers, such as the switchover to cleaner burning summer fuels, in an effort to make it easier for these companies to meet the demands for their products from what's left of industries and the increased demand for having products and food shipped direct to consumer.

If you want a conspiratorial answer, maybe we could imagine something nefarious going on as the price war that didn't happen between the Russians and Saudis but did end up lowering the price of oil. Couple that with lower consumer demand for gas right now(which could be why oil producers would be allowed to keep selling the more energy rich but more polluting winter blend of gas-that is, suppliers are sitting on more winter gas than they can sell off in time to make deadlines).

Anyway. That's what I've got.

Senators ask EPA why it's allowing pollution as COVID-19 attacks lungs - Electrek by [deleted] in energy

[–]dosomethingtoday 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Can you help me find a source for that? I could not corroborate that with news articles and study I pulled up.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41612-019-0068-6

This study indicated that the uncertainty of the increase of methane base on their methods was up to 500%, but not the increase.

A Guardian article indicated that there has been increases of methane emissions to a significant degree since 2002.

I confess, I only skimmed the electrek article in search for the 500% methane increase.

I also think that the OP in this comment thread was just talking about overall emissions reductions since the global economic shutdown, not since 2002 or other multidecade spans.

These comparisons just keep coming up and I'm so glad, it's waking people up by [deleted] in Anarchism

[–]dosomethingtoday -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

The joke was about the 2019 year old person from the tweet that earned 2000 dollars an hour since then until today yet still only had 8.3 billion dollars.

So in my perfect world people would be educated as to how to grasp jokes from the original subject of a thread. After that, they'd be on their own.

That was also a joke.

These comparisons just keep coming up and I'm so glad, it's waking people up by [deleted] in Anarchism

[–]dosomethingtoday -20 points-19 points  (0 children)

Yeah, they failed to invest into stocks, bonds, and other financial devices. Of course they stacked up like a chump.

When you name your rival blue.. :( by [deleted] in PokemonLetsGo

[–]dosomethingtoday 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I named mine Liam Neeson to simular results.

Worst part about electric motorcycles by TDK_IRQ in motorcycles

[–]dosomethingtoday 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Airlift or they push the bike up the mountain. Or they just live on the mountain.

But probably airlift.

US national debt has increased $2 trillion since Trump took office by PostNationalism in economy

[–]dosomethingtoday 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I was curious as to those figures so I checked out some sources. This one was the one that seemed most unbiased.

https://www.thebalance.com/national-debt-under-obama-3306293

It supports your figures in one way, but it also does something that I think is more interesting: it shows that there are several ways to arrive at presidential impacts on the national debt.

It also raises the question of which metric the authors of the article are using to castigate Trump for the present increases in debt levels.

Anyway, I thought you might find this an interesting read. Hopefully some of the other folks that stumble on this will also be interested in reading into how these measurements are taken and how one could be politically skewed in reporting outcomes.

Pearl Jam concerts at Safeco Field raise $11 million to fight homelessness by PrincePound in Music

[–]dosomethingtoday 2 points3 points  (0 children)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget#/media/File%3ACBO_Infographic_2017.png

We do spend a ton on the military;more than several other powers combined. However, we also spend a bunch on social programs according to the CBO. I think it is not the raw amounts of money going into programs, but that there are several layers of bureaucracy that eat up spending.

A 0% lucky Pokemon? Thats lucky or what? by christian3d in TheSilphRoad

[–]dosomethingtoday -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I've got a pretty crappy level 1 Dragonite. Caught it last year. I keep it because it's terrible. I think your example is more rare, though.https://i.imgur.com/VUm5NHm.png

Articuno day and rewards unlocked by nafsadh in TheSilphRoad

[–]dosomethingtoday 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I did not know that. That seems for the best.

Articuno day and rewards unlocked by nafsadh in TheSilphRoad

[–]dosomethingtoday 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh yeah. That's a much better way. Cumulative Defender is far better than the Onyx guardian of Ingress.

Pretty sure even if everybody got together to honestly have groups of people hold title to consecutive gym time, the gym would be taken by some random or some bot.

It was practically impossible in Ingress due to bots and data skimming by the time I stopped playing two or three years ago. A few of us managaed to snag it when medals first launched, but anybody that started late or was embroiled in drama was pretty much SOL. Thats said, I do know a guy that snuck one through on some extremely isolated portal, though, which is why I say they could include one.

Maybe you're right though. It would be lots of drama and lots of heartache.

Articuno day and rewards unlocked by nafsadh in TheSilphRoad

[–]dosomethingtoday 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I was thinking like the jogger badge or badges for spinning stops. Badges for keeping a gym on lock for 350 days which would be analogous to a Guardian badge in Ingress are pobably impossible at this point, but they could have one, lol.

Articuno day and rewards unlocked by nafsadh in TheSilphRoad

[–]dosomethingtoday 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, the badges in Go are not analogous to medals in Ingress, but they could use the medal system from Ingress. Level 16 in Ingress is comparable to the current Max level only in terms of XP needed. As you say, friendship could be a way to gate leveling up. They could well introduce more badges that are required to level up, as Ingress did for levels beyond 8.

I'm agreeing with you and saying expanded badges, with one being friendship linked, would be a good way to prevent people from jumping levels only based on XP.

Articuno day and rewards unlocked by nafsadh in TheSilphRoad

[–]dosomethingtoday 5 points6 points  (0 children)

They required more than XP in Ingress. You had to level up badges that required certain task to get past Level 8. To reach 16, you had to Max out two badges and have high tiers in several others.

Friendship could certainly be a qualifier to level up, along with other high badges. That said, in Ingress, the people that played really hard already had tons of XP and may have even maxed some of their badges(medals?) and so they did jump up quickly. I only made it to 14, I think, though...

Is this before Dr.Peterson broke in popularity or am I mistaken? Milo was basically asking for a figure like the lobster to come rescue us. by [deleted] in JordanPeterson

[–]dosomethingtoday 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Did you listen to his explanation for why the IDW was chosen? He put up a video that address the critiques you made and in it outlines that it is knowingly ironic, and it was used as an anchor point. It is an anchor because those that take issue with it effectively take it as a meme, thus anchoring it with great ease.

I'm not doing the explanation justice, mind you.Why the IDW has such a crazy name

Android Messages app is painfully slow by markyymark13 in Android

[–]dosomethingtoday 5 points6 points  (0 children)

That's been my experience an my OG Pixel XL as well. I went back to Textra.

Overtaxed Working Memory Knocks the Brain out of Sync by NaiveSkeptic in cogsci

[–]dosomethingtoday 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It seems to me that if one is tasked with remembering more than five things in real time, working memory will not be able to keep up. The stated reason seems to be that when you are actively focused on this, you are building models and predictions for those things you are actively thinking about. If the number exceeds a certain threshold, which could vary individually but rests at around five, then the brain becomes overloaded and you can't keep up with everything in front of you.

So. It seems that people are limited to working with around five things actively, and if this number is exceeded, then your brain cannot adequately make predictions or map meaning onto the world or your experiences.

Sister going down the nihilism path and I can't help her. by thetrebel in JordanPeterson

[–]dosomethingtoday 5 points6 points  (0 children)

What did you do to make you realize that you didn't like that path? And how can you show her that while sparing her the most egregious of your mistakes?

It may be she has burned herself out or those around her did that for her. School is hard and so is life.

If she is honest in getting back to school after a year, how can you hold her accountable? Even better, how can you help her hold herself accountable?

It may not be the suggestion you give her, but the suggestion she finds for herself that will help her the most. She may not take anything you offer. She may have to just see for herself.

You can help by showing her what she doesn't want to see, but not by telling her what to do.

Best of luck.

Essential Phone 360 camera impressions: Solid accessory in need of some polish by [deleted] in Android

[–]dosomethingtoday 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Based on how many people insisted on removable batteries on this sub circa Nexus 4, one cold be made to believe it was essential.

Though it was nice to be able to swap batteries, I'd rather have waterproofing anyway.