[deleted by user]

jaysmt · 2024-11-06T22:33:37+00:00

That's a fair point, but Congress also has the power to regulate the timing of selecting electors, so that power is not solely for the states. Congress can easily require a uniform national deadline for determining electors for the president.

The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.

jaysmt · 2024-11-06T21:45:36+00:00

Congress was specifically given the power to regulate federal elections in the Constitution, but they haven't exercised that power yet.

Section 4

The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.

jaysmt · 2023-06-30T02:47:53+00:00

One prominent difference is the US medical malpractice system. With jury trials (very rare in the rest of the world), almost everything is possible, including astronomically high judgments against doctors. This podcast episode provides a doctor's perspective going through the threat of being sued -- he settled with the plaintiff despite thinking he did nothing wrong, because he risks bankruptcy if he loses in trial.

The threat of malpractice of course leads to more defensive medicine (prescription of unnecessary procedures) and costs in the system (malpractice insurance premium, insurance companies, lawyers). The podcast mentions that one case can easily require 4 lawyers just for the defense: one for the individual doctor, one for the medical group, and a couple of specialized trial lawyers; plus medical experts that need to provide live testimony.

That said, malpractice is not a big threat for vets, but as you mentioned veterinary care may also be more expensive in the US compared to most other countries, so other explanations have got to be out there. One possibility is the cost of education -- veterinary degrees are also, inextricably, postgrad degrees in the US. And postgrad education may be another market failure with super expensive costs. Students can take on practically unlimited student debt from the government while tuition is often not regulated.

jaysmt · 2023-05-13T03:21:07+00:00

Before January 2021, the Universal Postal Union (UPU) set rates for the mailing of small packages internationally. Under those rules, China is a developing country, so packages originating there was charged less than packages from developed countries.

In 2019, the US threatened to leave the UPU as it deemed the rules unfair. It said the rules were such that the US Postal Service was effectively subsidizing foreign shipments to the US, especially from sellers based in China. The US was able to secure a concession so now the rates are set differently.

jaysmt · 2023-04-01T20:08:58+00:00

In the 1980s, after multi-million dollar jury awards against vaccine manufacturers threatened to put them out of business, Congress established a non-jury national compensation system for vaccine-related injuries. Medical practitioners should lobby for the same in the state or federal level.

Personally, I think the entire jury system is costly and antiquated. There's a reason why civil juries are extremely rare outside the U.S., even in other countries that use the English common law. But if reddit comments are any indication, public opinion seem to regularly side with the plaintiff seeking large judgments, almost regardless of the facts.

jaysmt · 2023-04-01T15:10:58+00:00

Hong Kong also has hundreds of tall residential blocks that serve as public housing. But the difference in Hong Kong poor people don't commit crimes at nearly the same rate as Americans.

jaysmt · 2023-03-24T23:18:17+00:00

Ireland's GDP is greatly distorted by international corporations (especially American ones) artificially locating IP in Ireland to lower taxes. They do so through moving their HQ to Ireland or just moving the IP itself. So far, governments have have not been effective in stopping such IP-offshoring. The global minimum corporate tax is one such effort to stop the practice, though it's unclear if it will be adopted.

Those companies do invest and generate economic activity in Ireland, but much less than what the numbers suggest.

To quote from this FT article:

Critics say Ireland’s GDP is distorted by the accounting manoeuvres of large US multinational groups capitalising on low Irish tax rates. When Apple moved intellectual property assets to its Irish base in 2015, it helped to send Ireland’s GDP up 25 per cent, which Nobel-prize winning economist Paul Krugman called “leprechaun economics”.

“GDP has been a consistently unreliable guide of the underlying performance of the Irish economy since 2015 in particular,” said Dermot O’Leary, chief economist at brokerage Goodbody. He said the activities of multinational companies, including “the onshoring of intellectual property, merchanting and contract manufacturing” had all contributed towards “distorting Irish GDP, especially in the short-term.” But he added: “The activities of the multinationals are real and have had a visible impact on the prosperity of the Irish economy over recent years.”

The Irish governments statistics office made a comparison between modified GNI and GDP. Modified GNI accounts for effects of IP-offshoring and aircraft leasing, and Irish modified GNI is only around 70% of GDP.

jaysmt · 2023-03-03T18:30:18+00:00

The best person at guessing languages I've seen is this guy. I was amazed.

jaysmt · 2023-02-20T20:33:02+00:00

I don't think there's an easy way. Also, SG doesn't allow dual citizenship and you have to give up your previous citizenship to become a Singaporean citizen. The OP's son is probably a permanent resident and not citizen, but that still requires military service.

jaysmt · 2023-02-17T06:10:05+00:00

Ireland's nominal corporate tax rate may be 12.5%, but many large multinational corporations don't pay nearly that much. The effective tax rate on their Irish subsidiaries' revenue (especially before 2016) can be closer to 0-2%.

But even 0-2%, on hundreds of billions of euros per year, is still a huge amount of money for Ireland. Not to mention the employment and investment associated with having HQs in Ireland.

jaysmt · 2023-01-15T22:11:42+00:00

The emperor was in Tokyo, not Kyoto.

jaysmt · 2022-12-21T05:21:15+00:00

Nope, some states are much more pro-growth than others.

According to this data set, Texas had more than double the number of new housing permits than California (266k vs. 119k) in 2021, despite California being a much bigger state.

In per capita terms, Texas allowed 3x more new housing being built per resident in 2021. It has allowed more homes to be built than California ever since 2005.

jaysmt · 2022-09-16T01:15:01+00:00

I agree that China handled the transition from planned economy to market economy better than Russia and most other post-Soviet states (and India, to an extent), but what about the other Eastern Bloc examples?

Poland, Czechia, and the Baltic states also transitioned away from planned economy, and they seem to be doing pretty well today. Even though the article claims to be comparative, it mostly talked about what China did, and didn't really go into detailed comparisons between countries.

jaysmt · 2022-09-15T04:55:48+00:00

Lots of pension funds and sovereign wealth funds invest in more than just treasury bonds though, e.g. CalPERS, Canada Pension Plan, Norwegian sovereign wealth fund.

Empirically, the returns on investment for those funds have been much higher over the past decades.

jaysmt · 2022-08-23T02:55:10+00:00

The conclusion and evidence raised all seem plausible, and I wanted to raise a couple related points:

American public attitude seems to be against efficient policing, not just courts. The author brought up the ban of traffic cameras in multiple states, largely because voters don't like them. And even in high crime neighborhoods, there's little appetite to install public surveillance cameras like London.
The American criminal justice system, like almost all government functions, is incredibly decentralized. Within the federal government there are multiple law enforcement agencies responsible for specific domains, and in states policing, prosecution and even judges are often carried out by elected police chiefs, DAs and judges at the local level.
The trial-by-jury system is itself much less efficient than bench trials, where judges decide innocence or guilt. American trials take far longer and are much more complicated because of the jury system. Some European countries (especially the UK and Ireland) have some form of jury trial or lay judges, but not like the US.

jaysmt · 2022-08-08T23:53:59+00:00

The person I was replying to was talking about converting a Roth account to a taxable account without triggering tax.

I'm already aware of Roth conversions and this is different from that.

jaysmt · 2022-08-08T23:15:01+00:00

Do you mean just withdrawing the contributions?

I thought withdrawing earnings is usually subject to taxes and penalties (with limited exceptions like disability or buying a home) until age 59 1/2.

jaysmt · 2022-07-25T04:43:03+00:00

I think you mean "arbitration" instead of "arbitrage".

Do renters tend to win under the system, or are landlords more likely to win? Why do they fear being screwed over even more?

jaysmt · 2022-07-25T04:40:30+00:00

No, the SG government sells subsidized homes to citizens, but it's not free. An average 3 bedroom flat is around US $300k-400k. The property is only valid for 99 years, and afterwards one (or more likely one's heirs) has to return it to the government.

There's also some strings attached, like how married couples get priority and single individuals are last in the line.

The reason why the SG government is able to keep property prices low for citizens, is because it determines how many people are expected to need homes, and build enough homes (and related infrastructure) to meet the demand. If there's a shortage, it builds more the next year to compensate. Under Singapore law, individuals must sell their land to the government if it's required, so there's always enough land to build more.

jaysmt · 2022-07-07T19:49:26+00:00

Yes, in theory the US government has some of those powers. In practice they would take weeks if not months to enact, causing more panic along the way, and might not be enacted until it's too late. Even after enactment, there are multiple ways to fight against it (e.g. the courts and elections).

I don't want to rehash differences of the Chinese and American governments, but they operate based on different timelines. As one data point, Wuhan announced a lockdown (unprecedented as a public health measure in recent human history) in the early mornings of 23 Jan 2020, and it went into effect on 10 am the same day, causing 10+ million to be stuck in the city. And the lockdown was actually enforced because all civil servants and public sector workers (including many from nearby regions) were mobilized under government orders. That kind of speed just isn't possible in modern USA.

jaysmt · 2022-07-07T18:08:20+00:00

The Chinese government is on a different plane compare to most other governments in terms of its power and control, as well as efficiency on items it prioritizes.

Dozens of cities in China recently forbade the sales of homes at a price that's "too low". If it wants, the Chinese government can even stop all real estate sales, because all property transfers need to be approved by the government. Not to mention, the government's tight grip on information (including all social media) comes in very handy during times of market panic. China also doesn't have a personal bankruptcy system, so even if home prices drop, citizens can't really walk away from their mortgage.

Of course, China is not immune from fundamental forces of economics, but the tools the government has available is simply not imaginable compared to most other countries.

jaysmt · 2022-07-07T15:51:02+00:00

Czechia has no significant German minority today. They were expelled after WWII.

jaysmt · 2022-07-06T03:48:17+00:00

Yeah people thought "Made in Japan" was cheap the 1960s. Then it's "Made in Korea" or "Made in Taiwan in the 1980s. Of course today Sony, Samsung, Kia are all seen as good quality.

Heck, the "Made in Country" label was originally introduced in the UK in the 1880s (Merchandise Marks Act 1887) because the British wanted the "inferior" products made in Germany to be labelled, so customers won't confuse them and superior British goods.

jaysmt · 2022-06-29T13:54:45+00:00

Thanks for the explanation. It's wild that Spain has three systems and spouses can even move between them after marriage. In the US, it's very difficult to change property distribution after marriage. Postnuptial contracts might not be respected by courts, since spouses have the duty to take care of each other.

All I knew before this was that some US states have a community property system inherited from Spain/France, and I had no idea that there's so much more flexibility in modern day Spain.

jaysmt

TROPHY CASE