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@unconfirmedsourcesDOTgov@lemmy.sdf.org
- Comment on Announcing the Ladybird Browser Initiative 1 day ago:
The website makes it sound like all of the code being bespoke and “based on standards” is some kind of huge advantage but all I see is a Herculean undertaking with too few engineers and too many standards.
W3C lists 1138 separate standards currently, so if each of their three engineers implements one discrete standard every day, with no breaks/weekends/holidays, then having an alpha available that adheres to all 2024 web standards should be possible by 2026?
This is obviously also without testing but these guys are serious, senior engineers, so their code will be perfect on the first try, right?
Love the passion though, can’t wait to see how this project plays out.
- Comment on The Washington Post Wants You To Think the Economy Is Awful #45,706 1 week ago:
Someday I’ll stop feeding the trolls, but apparently today is not that day.
Alright, first up, do a quick Google for anecdotal fallacy and consider whether you may have inadvertently fallen into that.
Second, you seem to simultaneously be arguing that the government is somehow omnipotent and impotent at the same time - which is it? Either the government is carefully manipulating the economy to hit the numbers we’re controlling for or they don’t have a clue how to calculate inflation but I can’t see how they could do both simultaneously.
Third - calculating inflation - how do you think we should be doing it? You state that the government is pretending it is lower than a true reflection of reality but don’t seem to have a perspective on why that is. At one point you’re suggesting that it’s high because fast food prices went up, then you go on to say that things would be better if we measured it like we did 35 years ago. What are you proposing, exactly, and how would your proposal leave us better off?
Let’s say for a moment that I agree with you and the “official numbers” are bullshit. How, exactly, would you like policymakers to make decisions if they have no data upon which to base their decision? Should we expect our leaders to simply rely on their gut instinct?
Not going to comment on crime stats, but I can’t stop myself from asking about, “They change the inflation numbers so inflation stays down.” what do you mean by this? Do you think that the BLS publishes an inflation figure and the entire market economy shifts to conform to that number? I simply can’t.
Regarding housing - yes, we don’t have enough of it. This is something people are running into all around the world and it isn’t unique to the US. I’m certainly not suggesting that it isn’t something worthy of being addressed, but what does it have to do with the Washington Post?
- Comment on The Washington Post Wants You To Think the Economy Is Awful #45,706 1 week ago:
Not at all, I don’t know you, but I’m fairly certain you could understand it if you took the time to. The point I am making is that there is a disconnect between the way that policymakers view the economy (robust and steady growth) and the way that journalists have been reporting on it (doom, gloom, impending disaster).
I retrospect, my initial argument was fairly tinfoil hat. Another explanation could be that fear and anger brings eyeballs and since WaPo, in addition to many other legacy outlets that still regularly print on physical paper, is effectively underwater from a business standpoint, the editor may feel that sensational headlines are important for growth. Their new CEO has pedigree as a Murdoch crony, and this tactic is in line with the way that outlets on the far right have gotten engagement, so it isn’t difficult to imagine mandating a similar strategy.
As the OP explained in their piece, “major metrics” are showing the opposite of what you, and outlets such as WaPo, are suggesting. We have seen several “major metrics” trending in a positive direction such as real wage growth and unprecedented levels of employment. Sure, the economy isn’t perfect for everyone, but where we’ve identified gaps, in some cases thoughtful policies, such as income-driven repayment plans for student loans, have been introduced.
Yes, housing costs are too high. This is ubiquitous throughout the developed world. Yes, too much wealth has been redistributed to the ultra-wealthy, and this has detrimental effects throughout the economy. But to suggest that, “the economy is tanking”, without providing any argument to support it other than “major metrics” doesn’t resonate with me at all.
- Comment on The Washington Post Wants You To Think the Economy Is Awful #45,706 1 week ago:
How surprised should we be, really, when a media outlet owned and operated by one of the richest people in the world is advancing the narrative that the existing status quo is detrimental to the average person during an election year?
To be clear, an individual’s anecdotal experience in the economy will not match up perfectly with the data. Yes - the prices for food and housing have increased faster than we would have liked. However, policymakers are only able to account for a small adjustment in policy recommendations based on anecdotes.
At the national level - in Congress or at the Federal Reserve - large volumes of data are necessarily collected and analyzed to create an aggregate picture of the economy. Individual policymakers are encouraged to argue about the best or most accurate measures to use, and different leaders will point to different measures as evidence to support their proposals, but ultimately these are the drivers of economic policy.
While yes, I would support prices returning to 2019 levels, I’ve studied enough history to understand that this is not the nature of a market economy. We can stand around all day bemoaning the state of things or we can accept the situation as it is provided to us and figure out the path forward.
I see the types of articles highlighted by OP as bad-faith reporting on the economy with the goal of increasing pessimism about the economy more broadly, riling up our Keynesian Animal Spirits to expect bad outcomes, rather than pointing out the good policy measures and reasons for optimism like the OP did.
- Comment on Meta spent $4.3 billion on its VR division in three months, and made *checks figures* $440 million in return 2 months ago:
You’re right, it’s not an insurmountable obstacle, I think I was just feeling petulant about seeing another product with a sign next to it saying basically, “you must be this invested in the Apple ecosystem to ride”.
Let’s be real though, it’s already a better option than what Apple is offering for $3500, so I’m sure they will get some traction before being bought out.
Lastly, because you underscored the point I was making, fuck iPhones.
- Comment on Meta spent $4.3 billion on its VR division in three months, and made *checks figures* $440 million in return 2 months ago:
This requires an Apple iPhone XR or newer, as the face scan utilizes the TrueDepth sensor.
Am I wrong in my reading that this hardware product is only available for people who already own and use an iPhone XR or newer? It seemed neat until I got to that bit…
- Comment on US rate setter tells BBC 'no hurry' to cut interest rates 2 months ago:
Seems like the media conglomerates are all chomping at the bit to see interest rates fall. shocked pikachu
The Fed has been clear about this since the beginning - interest rates are their primary mechanism for combating inflation. Since inflation has been persistent, we should not expect rates to come down in the near term, and frankly I don’t think that is a bad thing.
Investors now need to be more careful about where they put their money, since money isn’t free anymore. Yes, this means that the internet is being enshittified, but my hope is that it also means that the services that stick around will find a sustainable business model that consumers will find to be more consistent and reliable.
- Comment on Tesla Owner Calls Police on Rivian Driver Using Supercharger 2 months ago:
This is really just stereotypical Tesla driver behavior. They are far and above the most entitled drivers.
FTFY
- Comment on AI Has Lost Its Magic 2 months ago:
Lemmy has a tagging system, definitely recommend tagging this user so you get a warning that they might be wrong but don’t want to educate themselves, then you can just ignore them and move on with your day.
- Comment on US employers added a surprisingly robust 303,000 jobs in March in a sign of economic strength 2 months ago:
I’ve been in a labor market where there is plenty of labor and not enough jobs, and this is not that. These are good questions though, so let me take a swag at addressing them.
How many of those provide a livable wage?
We don’t know, that data isn’t collected as part of this exercise.
Aren’t just already-employed people picking up a second job?
Possibly, but again those situations wouldn’t be captured by this report, as this treats employment as a binary condition: employed/unemployed. If you already have a job and you pick up another, that doesn’t change your employment status.
Union labor?
This isn’t a full question. I’ll assume you’re asking about the proportion of union jobs that were created, I’m certain that some union jobs were created, but again, that data isn’t collected for this exercise.
This isn’t necessarily the feel-good story it seems.
That’s probably for the best, macro-economics isn’t intended for individual feel good moments. The article doesn’t necessarily make me feel ‘good’, but it acts as an indicator that on a macro-economic level US economic policy is functioning to the extent that 96% of Americans who want a job are able to find one.
Since I already have a job, this does not change much about my situation. However, it does give me some small amount of faith that the technocrats that we’ve empowered to create policy that enables conditions like these to exist are not completely out of touch with reality.
Politicians and policymakers are beholden to vast numbers of people, and economics is only one component of the issue set they are asked to decide on. You’re asking good questions as an individual citizen, but if you need to decide on a policy for 100k people, it becomes much more difficult to identify the signal from the noise if you go into detail with reporting. That’s why we collect data and publish broad economic indicators like the employment rate or GDP.
Solving for issues like underemployment and union membership are certainly relevant and admirable, but they’re not the problems that the employment rate statistic was created to shed light on, so it is both understandable and expected that you’ll be left wanting for more if those are issues you’re working to solve and this is the report that you read.
- US employers added a surprisingly robust 303,000 jobs in March in a sign of economic strengthwww.politico.com ↗Submitted 2 months ago to economics@lemmy.world | 3 comments
- Comment on Teslas Can Be Stolen by Hijacking WiFi at Charging Stations, Researchers Find 3 months ago:
Yes, that was the “phishing” bit.
- Comment on Passkeys might really kill passwords 4 months ago:
So if you lose access to all of your devices, you’re completely locked out of everything until you’re able to get a new working phone activated on a trusted phone number? The trade-off of inconvenience for security here just doesn’t seem worth it to me.
- Comment on Skyrocketing bluesky engagement since opening to the public 4 months ago:
Nah I don’t think so.
- Comment on Skyrocketing bluesky engagement since opening to the public 4 months ago:
Bluesky is supposed to be Twitter 2.0 - Jack Dorsey, who co-founded Twitter, is on the board for Bluesky and was supposedly very involved in building the platform. So in theory it could be a lot of things that Twitter wished it could, or it could just be bad like most other socials.
Either way if you have an interest in the tech world it’s probably worth keeping an eye on.
- Comment on Fear Mongering About Range Anxiety Has To Stop — CT Governor Calls Out EV Opponents 5 months ago:
Yes, we should invest in trains, but this is not a short or even medium term solution. It’s also horrifyingly expensive in many parts of the US, and broad public support simply isn’t there. So in the mean time we need to adapt using the infrastructure that already exists.
- Comment on Fear Mongering About Range Anxiety Has To Stop — CT Governor Calls Out EV Opponents 5 months ago:
Where are you located where there is perfect charging station maintenance for the previous 10 years?
I’m not saying it isn’t possible that you’ve never encountered a broken station, but I’ve had an EV for only a few months now and encounter malfunctioning stations on nearly every trip to a DC fast charger. It usually isn’t that every single station is broken, but if there are 4 stations, 1-2 of them will be out of service.
- Comment on Nvidia CEO Foresees AI Competing with Human Intelligence in Five Years 5 months ago:
Okay so it seems I struck a nerve, sorry that wasn’t my intention. I pointed out my different background to illustrate why I might have a different perspective than you.
Until now, I’ve never heard of a situation where an automation tax has been implemented, so a case study would be a great way for me to understand the circumstances that led to it working. I’ll look into Pågen when I have a chance, since that seems like it could be a lead.
Capitalism certainly isn’t the end-all solution, but arguably it’s one of the best systems we’ve come up with so far.
I think that we in the US don’t have nearly enough regulations to rein in the negative aspects of capitalism, but the most popular argument against further regulation is that it stifles innovation, and that’s scary enough to people that we aren’t taking enough steps to get ahead of it.
Also… Trump University 😂😂😂
- Comment on Nvidia CEO Foresees AI Competing with Human Intelligence in Five Years 5 months ago:
It’s surprising that your education in business did not include a section in economic efficiency. My American business education really leaned in on that concept, so maybe that’s where our views diverge.
Having said that, your argument isn’t compelling. Your entire counterargument is, “Your example is not reality”. Can you provide a case study or a real life example of your suggestion in practice?
- Comment on 4-year campaign backdoored iPhones using possibly the most advanced exploit ever 5 months ago:
- Comment on Heat pumps can't take the cold? Nordics debunk the myth 7 months ago:
Based on context, I’d assume that the loss of efficiency of the batteries in the cold led the vehicle to over-estimate the range of the vehicle. If the car says it has 50 miles of range and the next DC charger is 40 miles away, I could imagine a situation where I’d get 30 miles down the road before the range estimate shows that there’s actually only 35 miles of range because you wanted cabin heat.
EVs are weird in lots of ways when compared to ICE, and we’re still figuring out lots of the problems that need solving.
- Comment on Ford Delays $12 Billion in EV Investments Due To UAW Strike Impact and Slow Consumer Demand 8 months ago:
Affordable? Are you in the market for a new Ford vehicle? What does your budget look like?
If you’re in the US you can get into a Chevy Bolt for like ~$20k after the federal tax incentive, plus any state incentives that would apply in your situation.
If you’re talking about Ford specifically, they’re not going after the budget market because they’re trying to play to their strengths - the F150 and Mustang. Neither of those brands are typically associated with being cost conscious, but the F150 has been the best selling vehicle in the country for 41 years now. The F150 Lightning is priced comparably to the gas powered option for similar features, and the Mach-E is right in line with the Mustang GT, which makes sense because let’s be honest, nobody buys an ecoboost Mustang expecting to enjoy it.
- Comment on More Than 80 Percent Of Americans Can’t Afford New Cars 8 months ago:
I’d argue that Amsterdam isn’t a great example, as the infrastructure of that city was largely built before the advent of automobiles, then converted to support a more Americanized design that was vehicle-centric, before finally realizing, “Hey, we’re Dutch, not American, we need more space for our bicycles!”
If we’re discussing American infrastructure designed in the 20th century, it seems to be pretty difficult to convert because the physical structures of both the transportation infrastructure and the destinations people want to visit are not built densely enough to make going without a car a top tier option for most people.
I mean this broadly, not to say that there aren’t opportunities to start moving this in the other direction, but emphasizing that changing the focus to downplay the importance of vehicles will be neither quick, cheap, or easy.
- Comment on How do i stop this kind of pop up from ever appearing again? Win10 10 months ago:
Neat, somehow I missed this feature up til now, thanks for the heads up!