Absox
19d ago
This is the wrong take. From a less speciously confucian standpoint:
Pardoning Hunter sends the message that it's not worth sacrificing the interests of yourself or your family to uphold the institutions of law and order that sustain the United States.
As president of the United States, JB's duty is to uphold said institutions. As a leader, he's meant to set a moral example for other citizens. Perhaps following his example is most prudent in the present day, but I wouldn't call it moral by any means.
Absox
27d ago
I would say right now that there is in fact broad variation in competence in the medical profession. You can see from the average medical licensing exam scores of different specialties that the best MDs tend to go into opthalmology, dermatology, and neurosurgery, whereas the worst ones go into family medicine and psychiatry.
About a year ago I had a rather severe case of mononucleosis, and was sick for about a month. I went to my primary care provider after having a 102F fever for about five days straight, but all the tests they ordered were negative, including the test for Epstein-Barr (though that particular test has like a 30% false negative rate), and they weren't able to give me a diagnosis. After the fever dragged on for ten days I went to the ER, where the resident suspected a cyst in my liver due to elevated enzymes and ordered a CT, along with a huge number of other tests. The next day I was seen by an infectious disease specialist, who suspected mono. Eventually a more accurate blood test confirmed the diagnosis. My health insurance covered everything, but in total my ER visit and 1 night stay in the hospital cost the insurance company about $18,000. There was no intervention except to rest, so I chose to go home. The fever went away like two days later.
Hilariously, my friend who's an anesthesiologist and medical school professor gave me the correct diagnosis before I went to the hospital. He advised me to go to the ER just to be safe but suspected mono, despite the initial negative test result. We've collaborated on research and I know him to be exceedingly competent, but this episode just reinforces in my mind that there are significant differences in the competence of physicians.
There definitely need to be more residency openings to keep up with demand, but part of that problem is that Americans are just so unhealthy compared to other developed countries. Japan has an older population, about 3/4 as many doctors per capita, yet they seem to be doing somewhat better.
Absox
1mo ago
I was under the impression that any amount of alcohol consumption has overall negative impact, in that it raises your overall risk of cancer and other digestive and liver problems.
Absox
1mo ago
They've achieved daoist enlightenment and have aligned their desires with the will of heaven, and in doing so can accomplish their goals without effort.
Absox
3mo ago
On somewhat of a side note, but unlike the US department of state, which takes upwards of two months to issue passports, and sometimes multiple years to approve visa petitions, Chinese bureaucracy is considerably faster... I've gotten papers processed by the NYC consulate before in under a week.
Absox
5mo ago
in the United States, airlines aren't legally required to compensate customers for delays at all. I had a United flight recently delayed by eight hours and received a $15 lunch voucher and $100 in airline credit though.
Absox
7mo ago
New resident of California as of this year; was unexpectedly sent here by my work.
As far as I can tell, the workers live 2-3 to a room in rented houses, which is why many neighborhoods of East Palo Alto have 5-6 cars parked in front of 1000 sq ft (100 sq m) 3br houses.
I was in Asia over the holidays, and the food there is better (at least to my tastes), costs 1/5th as much even without counting taxes, tip, and the bevy of surcharges they add (somehow a prix fixe dinner advertised at $95 a head costs over $270 for 2), and much more conveniently located.
Honestly, I hate it here already and am looking to leave at the first good opportunity. Until then, I'm living well below my means to minimize my exposure to the 9-10% sales tax rates, driving a 20-year old car, maxing out my contributions to tax-advantaged accounts and investments in general, and trying to pay as little in taxes as possible.
A new buyer of said 3 million dollar home would be subject to property taxes in the ballpark of 40k a year. I almost wish we could level the entire area south of I-280 and redevelop it into a megacity with housing for 20 million people according to Chinese urban development practices just to spite the nimbys.
Absox
8mo ago
There's no shortage of studies on the subject, as a quick search of Google Scholar will show. There is even causal evidence from interventional studies showing that going outdoors reduces the prevalence and severity of myopia in schoolchildren.
This topic was of particular interest to the governments of Korea, Japan, and China a while back, as their rates of myopia are in the high 90% range; I believe it was their funded research that led to the development of interventions like peripheral defocus lenses, that would slow the progression of nearsightedness in children. Alas, about twenty years too late for me.
Absox
9mo ago
This website reports 213 trillion in unfunded liabilities, listing the US Treasury as its source, though I can't seem to find the exact source myself.
Absox
1yr ago
At least when I was applying for undergraduate admissions, only a few hundred kids a year were getting perfect scores on the SAT.
Absox
1yr ago
I mean without knowing what I did it's hard to say much on the topic, but unless we're talking about random and arbitrary tyranny in which the IRS makes an accounting error and insists that they're correct, and I somehow lose in court, I can't imagine owing more on taxes than I have in assets in the first place... You're really going to have to clarify how the average man can be fucked over by the IRS just like that.
Absox
1yr ago
I wouldn't say I have a greatly above average social network, but even if I somehow managed to bankrupt myself, at the very least my parents would let me move in with them...
Absox
1yr ago
The highest-IQ group chat that I'm in was formed years ago for a group project in one of the PhD-level math classes that I took back in grad school. Afterwards, we became friends, and the channel was repurposed for shitposting, and occasionally talking about research. Coincidentally, most of us ended up in the same city by one means or another, and the chat survives to this day.
Overall I think it's extremely hard to judge people, even in real life, until you've seen their work.
Fast and cheap is at least theoretically possible. A big chunk of healthcare is walk-in in China, where the life expectancy already exceeds that of the United States. Appointments with specialists are easy to get, with most wait times measured in days to weeks rather than months.
There may be some state subsidization going on, but the direct cost to the consumer, along with overall cost of care is much lower than in the west. Overall I admit not knowing how their system actually works.
There is something resembling health benefits by employers, but as far as I can tell it's literally just a health savings account that the employer contributes some money in every year rather than insurance.
If you adjusted for the life expectancy hit of air pollution, they'd be comparable to SK and Japan in longevity, so their public health actually seems to be effective. Big gains in the past decade as well.
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