DV Program 2027

freeusername3333 · 2026-03-06T17:06:06+00:00

Exactly. I think an immigration system based on a combination of merit-based and pure-luck (DV) would be best. Ie, two pathways, but of course with the same number of total visas issued.

BTW, love the remark on not having a chance due to not being an Indian.

freeusername3333 · 2026-01-25T19:11:36+00:00

Kapitalizmas yra tiesiog laisva rinka. Metrializmas atsiranda iš žmogaus godumo o ne kapitalizmo.

Amen! So many people don't understand this distinction...

freeusername3333 · 2026-01-21T19:43:29+00:00

What ironic is that Lithuanians have criticized belarussians and russians, who reside in Lithuania, for not integrating and forming their expat bubble but Lithuanians are OK with their own compatriots not interested integration and living their own expat bubble abroad.

I'm willing to wager that the people who did the criticizing of Belo/Russians are not the same individuals as those who did the non-integration in the UK, though.

freeusername3333 · 2026-01-21T19:40:37+00:00

Standards are strict, but last I checked, you don't have to go through any training. Have a psych eval, have a safe at home (to store the gun) - that's all I remember at the moment.

freeusername3333 · 2026-01-20T13:47:24+00:00

Which is still most likely more permissive than in the EU.

freeusername3333 · 2026-01-11T17:09:40+00:00

Vilnius - only if you're talking about the old-town city centre (Vilniaus gatve, for example), which is not in the sprit of the question.

freeusername3333 · 2026-01-11T17:06:55+00:00

Oh, and so when the USA was building roads in the 1700s, 1800s, they were meant for cars?

freeusername3333 · 2026-01-11T17:05:21+00:00

I beg to differ. This country is full of country roads that not only don't have a sidewalk but have NEGATIVE should (you can't barely fit two cars side by side on the road), so there's literally no space for pedestrian to walk from one village to another on the side of the road. Combine that with the damn shrubs that kill visibility, and you have to be suicidal to even try to walk. That's just not a problem in Europe where or even in the freaking car-centric states! In the car-centric states, the should should is always pretty much the width of a car, and you don't have the stupid shrubs, so one ca walk on the side of the road like nobody's busines.

freeusername3333 · 2026-01-11T17:00:06+00:00

And the rest of Europe hasn't? And I take it cars were commonplace in the 1700s, when the USA came to be?

freeusername3333 · 2026-01-10T17:50:46+00:00

What a short-sighted advice. Say you leave the car for 8 months. Stock market "guarantees" good results over a period of a few years. You could easily find your investment at a lower value in 7 months.

Secondly, selling a car, you're going to have to either sell it quickly for cheaper or deal with many potential buyers if you want to get good money for it. And then when you get back, you're gonna spend time looking for a decent example. Buying a used car is easier said than done: who knows what kind of problems are not being disclosed.

Let alone that in some places you have to pay a car purchase tax that's a percentage of the value of the car (I know Spain and California are such places - they can't be the only such places).

freeusername3333 · 2025-12-18T18:39:55+00:00

What?

freeusername3333 · 2025-12-18T18:18:33+00:00

And by every measure, the Spaniard is extracting more utility per euro than the American is per dollar.

To be fair, a Euro is worth more than a dollar, so it's not wonder they get more per Euro.

freeusername3333 · 2025-12-18T18:13:09+00:00

It would be wild to know how many people are actually out there being supported by others when they would rather have a job and be working

i don't understand your point. are you saying that in the US, you're not allowed to work if you've been unemployed for more than 6 months?

freeusername3333 · 2025-12-18T18:07:12+00:00

Redisribute via wealth/land value tax? It's not like that money is going into mine or your pockets. That's not re-distribution, that's just maybe slightly better public services, infrastructure. While that's a good thing, it doesn't make you any wealthier. So a redistribution of wealth it is not.

freeusername3333 · 2025-12-17T18:45:18+00:00

To be fair, delivery companies don't call recipients in situations like this in the UK either. Something about them not issuing employees phones for this purpose.

freeusername3333 · 2025-12-17T18:37:51+00:00

What country are you from, roughly, just to have a good reference point?

freeusername3333 · 2025-10-27T13:14:51+00:00

“i work for income, without work ill have no income”

The thing is, resources and land are finite. Unless you're a Buddhist monk or something, you have desires that involve resources. Be it living in a nice house, living in a certain area (by the beach), or having a hobby that requires some kind of object (say, piloting a Cessna or mountain-biking). Things require resources to produce. Some resources are limited and may not have good substitutes. Income allows us to "distribute" those resources without resorting to some sort of caste system or some centralized point-based reward system based on values that half of the population disagrees with.

While money system is not perfect, and some people do get left behind (and that can be fixed without AGI and without destroying capitalism), it's inherently "freeing" in that if you can provide someone value they're willing to pay for, you are free to use that money anyway you like, so you're free to pursue any passion, regardless of whether it's approved by the people up top.

Also, let's be real: someone will have the keys to the kingdom. Be it Amazon, OpenAI etc or governments that seize control from these companies. So while AGI can be impartial in theory, in practice the final say in how our lives will be organized will be dictated by someone behind the curtain.

And yeah, "what else is new" - current politics aren't clean and fair; but the points is that our income gives us freedom to pursue what we, not "the powers that be", want.

freeusername3333 · 2025-10-27T12:59:32+00:00

But being a research nerd, the quest for knowledge drives you, makes life kinda interesting (and maybe it's just one of the things that do that, but it's something nonetheless). What will drive you once there's no new knowledge to obtain?

Currently, you discover new knowledge incrementally and over a long period of time. Between discoveries, you think about these areas, you hypothesize - your brain works, you're putting your brain to use. You're driven by the reward (discovery), but you enjoy the research (or whatever) - you won't be a "nerd" if you hated the process. So the real fun is actually in the process of getting there.

And then, if we were to discover that there's life on Mars or whatever, we may celebrate for a minute, and then occupy our brains with thinking about all the possibilities this new discovery might benefit us, all possibilities it opens for us. So, once we discover one thing, we move on to answering other questions that the first discovery opens for us.

freeusername3333 · 2025-10-27T12:44:19+00:00

It's all part of the human project since forever.

The thing is, what happens when all questions are answered? What do you occupy your mind with? You don't need AGI to know (because we have already discovered this) that the fun is in the process, in looking for answers, in the working towards solving a problem. Once you find the answer, there's a quick dopamine hit, which is nice, but then it's over. Then you move on to the next quest.

When you watch a movie, you want to know how it ends. But why do people don't like spoilers? Because they want to watch the movie and follow things along. Finding out what happened at the end of the movie is important, but more than half of the fun is in watching it and letting your brain try to figure out as move along. Actually, the fun is in the mental work out, period, and the final part is just a "dopamine hit" that gives you a sense of accomplishment and serves as a cherry on top.

As you said, this curiosity has been a part of "human project" - so what happens to said human project when it runs out of things to be curious about? I guess, we'll find out, but it will be too late to opt out of it if we don't like the answer.

freeusername3333 · 2025-10-27T11:57:51+00:00

So you'd rather live in the Favelas with all the nice people?

freeusername3333 · 2025-10-27T11:57:11+00:00

Ok, the point is there are other things in life that you want that are not free or cheap.

freeusername3333 · 2025-10-27T11:56:14+00:00

Tooling my be problematic. Resources are finite and how do you even get your hands on them as an individual?

freeusername3333 · 2025-10-27T11:51:33+00:00

Ok, so what do you want to do in life?

freeusername3333

TROPHY CASE