WigglyTortoise @ WigglyTortoise @discuss.tchncs.de

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2 yr. ago

There's lots of stuff that could be considered innovation that is intentionally stifled due to competition laws or security concerns.

I agree that some innovation can be harmful. I guess what I meant was "we should avoid disincentivizing innovation unless necessary." The way I see it, though, job lots from automation is both inevitable and fairly easy to fix (as you said, UBI), so there's no reason to try to stop it from happening.

Really, I think automation should be encouraged. It frees people from usually-undesirable jobs and allows them time to pursue different careers or other interests. As long as we have ways to deal with the unemployment I think it's a huge positive for people.

they should have to continue paying taxes for those roles because the newly unemployed will need government support.

I fully agree that there will need to be a tax increase to cover support for the newly-unemployed, but why not make that a general increase on businesses and wealthy individuals? If anything, this would be and incentive for automation as a way to decrease rising business costs.

Innovation has removed jobs before, and we dealt with it. I don't see businesses being taxed for using computers instead of human calculators. I don't see why this innovation is different.

I disagree. We shouldn't be disincentivizing innovation. Taxes on business and the wealthy should increase regardless of their use of automation.

You can do pretty much the same thing with Firefox: you sign in to Firefox to sync your passwords and browser settings, then (assuming you're talking about Google calendar, Gmail, etc.) You can sign into your Google account with one click. That's not really any less convenient.

Besides, I've hardly ever heard of anyone moving away from Firefox to Chrome, so I doubt the reason is any sort of convenience or design superiority. I'd attribute it to the fact that most people who already use the Internet (pretty much everyone) has already settled on a browser, with chrome-based browsers being the most common. So anyone new to the Internet will just choose the favorite as the default. This is especially true considering they most new Internet users are probably kids, so they're not aware of concerns about privacy, monocultures, DRM, etc. that would drive someone to pick Firefox.

Basically, it's not that Chrome is actually better than Firefox. I think it's that the market is growing, and the most common browsers will grow more quickly than Firefox simply for the sake of familiarity.

Did you look at the link posted? I've never seen a door handle like that, and I'm not even sure I would realize it was a lever if I saw it. It looks like a static part of the door to me.

I do agree that I'd probably end up pulling on it after some searching, but it wouldn't be the first place I'd go.

Not necessarily the creation of plastic--I agree that it's very beneficial--but the management of plastic. As we're seeing now, plastic can be very destructive to life when it's used and disposed of irresponsibly. The filter in this case is being able to use plastic for its good without letting its harmful aspects get out of control.

Do you think there should be cotton in our hearts too? Just because we wear something doesn't mean it should be inside our bodies too.

I buy a new one every January and lick it down throughout the year

I wasn't talking about the electoral college at all, more about congressional elections, which are already decided by popular vote within voting districts and states. If we didn't group voters by location (in this case state) no individual state would have representation in Congress, instead just having Representatives elected by the country as a whole through a proportional representation system. I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing, but it would be a major change from what Americans are used to, so I was curious about people's opinions on it.

How would you do it instead? Do you feel the same about federal elections, in which voters are grouped by state?