Sconrad122

@Sconrad122@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨This has happened to me⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Depends on whether you are buying insurance in the general marketplace or through your employer. The general marketplace might have several dozen options depending on your state. An employer might offer 1-6 options, the selection of which will be different per employer. They vary not just in level of benefits/cost but also where the risk/cost is (high deductible plans mean cost is paid largely as you use medical services. Traditional plans will tend to weight more of the cost in your monthly premiums for a generally more narrow band of potential total out-of-pocket costs, although there are plenty of exceptions to that rule). Different plan structures will also have different methods available for you to cover co-pays and deductibles with money that you put in tax-advantage accounts like HSAs and FSAs. Different employers will have different selections, so one company’s “basic” option might have coverage more in-line with another company’s “normal” option. They will also have different rates depending on the size of the company and the amount the company contributes to the plans, so a comparable pair of plans in terms of benefits could easily triple or more in price between the two of them if they are offered by different employers. Different companies will have different open periods where you can select your coverage for the year (also the time when coverage prices and benefits can be changed by the provider, so you have to pay attention even if you like your current plan). These open periods can range from a month-long with a month’s worth of notice to review the plan options for the next year to a week long with no prior notice (and that week is often scheduled right around the holidays when folks have lots of other thimgs going on). It’s a mess here, do not let your government do anything that makes your system more like ours

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Choose one before starting the game...⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Yes

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Google’s healthcare AI made up a body part — what happens when doctors don’t notice?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m using the term to train my own AI so IP laws don’t apply to me

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Age verification and the enshitification of streaming will help reduce the decline in computer literacy in under 18s⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  www.edweek.org/technology/…/12

  It is difficult to find data comparing Gen alpha/“smartphone generation” to other generations, largely because definitions of cputer literacy and methods for assessing it have not remained stable on that time scale in the face of evolving technology

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The signatures are still coming and it's already making an impact⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  So you’re telling me that this could disrupt the anti-cheat industry, which is currently responsible for a lot of the Windows platform lock in the gaming industry and is tied to a lot of potential security vulnerabilities because it goes to a much higher level of privilege than a reasonable user would expect a game to need? I already wish I was in the right geographic area to sign, you don’t need to sell me on it twice!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨"You can't just have Geralt for every single game" says his voice actor, and if you think The Witcher 4 making Ciri the protagonist is "woke," then "read the damn books"⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Just open YouTube in incognito mode and search a game title probably works. YouTube’s algorithm loves serving up manosphere style content like that like my dog loves eating my other dog’s poop. It’s disturbing on both fronts

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Who needs retirement when you can buy an asset that loses value over time?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Bathtub curve

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Owing your home today is nearly impossible, but even if you did the ever increasing property taxes will bury you⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Low income taxes. And our sales tax is typically lower than European VAT when the comparison is valid. But those generally go to the feds and the state, that do not fund municipal services, so municipalities have to collect the remainder they need through property taxes, typically on real estate and cars. And none of them fund healthcare, so we have to pay a company premiums for that. Basically the same for higher education. When you look at our total financial burden to receive the kind of services that are funded by taxes in other developed countries, we can be deceptively expensive, especially if you start thinking about the comparative quality of those services. But our income and capital gains tax rates are low, especially if you are very rich! I made myself sad

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Owing your home today is nearly impossible, but even if you did the ever increasing property taxes will bury you⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  My city has a senior discount on property taxes, where seniors that have a net worth and income both below certain numbers pay reduced or as low as 0% of their regularly assessed property tax. I’m not sure how they verify net worth, but it seems like a good system to me as long as they have figured out a way to do that efficiently and effectively

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨John Oliver promoted alternatives to big tech in last night's episode, including Mastodon and Pixelfed⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Is sh.itjust.works not federated with lemmynsfw.com? Or maybe you use a Front page or Local feed. Here on world (no comment on the instance wars), lemmynsfw communities pretty regularly show up on my All feed. Seems like whatever they do with posts over there really makes the “Active” sorter happy, if you know what I mean

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Only 22 countries have never been invaded by Britain⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  So many times depending on who you trace modern Brits to. Romans invaded the Celts. Saxons invaded the Romans. Normans invaded the Saxons. And that’s just England. Wales and Scotland could probably come up with another dozen plus examples between them

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨OLED displays with up to five times better lifespan may be on their way sooner than you think, thanks to a manufacturing breakthrough⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t know your circumstances, and it’s your money to do with what you like, so I’m sorry if this is unwelcome or inappropriate advice, but if you are living paycheck to paycheck, there are probably better priorities for your money than the newest generation of OLED monitors. Which is basically what you are saying, but I know how easy it is to fall into the trap of “keeping up with the joneses” on internet comments, and someone reading the comment and then buying a new generation OLED monitor at the expense of building their emergency savings because they can “afford” it without some serious thought and reflection on what that decision means would be tragic

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Singapore Approves 2,600-Mile Undersea Cable to Import Solar Energy from Australia⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  12x GW*km at 9x the price is better than 1:1 performance/cost scaling. Obviously labor price and other factors make it not apples to apples, but that doesn’t seem like an awful scaling price premium