Hacker News: fblp

New comment by fblp in "How to convert between wealth and income tax"

fblp — Fri, 22 May 2026 21:02:10 +0000

This grossly simplifies things.

In the US the max federal tax rate is 20% on capital gains, that is the gains realized when you typically sell an asset. The max tax rate on ordinary income is 37%. Some states don't tax at capital gains at all. Others make also tax capital gains.

There are a myriad of loopholes to defer and minimise capital gains ranging from QSBS (first 10mil in small businesses) to trusts to foundations to offset losses. Billionaires are incentivised to hold their assets and let them accrue rather than deploying that capital.

Yes, you could argue that billionaires have earned his billions. But could you really argue that the tax system should be configured to reward them for sitting on those billions and those gains should be taxed at a rate lower than someone working every day to earn 200k in wage income?

The economy has a fundamental division between those who earn income off the gains on assets, and those who earn an income on wages. Wealth taxes help level the playing field by those who already have a tax system in their favor.

Trickel down economics does not work when you earn more holding on to what you have.

New comment by fblp in "They Said It Would Cost $54M. We Said "No Thanks.""

fblp — Thu, 14 May 2026 12:23:27 +0000

I wonder how much of the needs satisfied by this software in Alberta is also needed by other states? Yes, it's great that they saved money and built what they need so quickly, but a catch with govt is that they build out these proprietary processes that need more bespoke software.

New comment by fblp in "Googlebook"

fblp — Wed, 13 May 2026 03:11:20 +0000

Yes, they could have done a chromebook or pixelbook variant. No sane reason for a third brand that dilutes the other two aside from internal google politics/promotions and to show shareholders.

This does nothing for the customer and you can see a brand called Apple which has been successful with the Air, pro and neo under one brand.

New comment by fblp in "Googlebook"

fblp — Wed, 13 May 2026 03:07:03 +0000

Also product managers. Google has a chromebook brand that will a strong. It feels like someone split off the hardware and software under a different brand to get a promotion...

New comment by fblp in "DeepSeek v4"

fblp — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 03:53:35 +0000

There's something heartwarming about the developer docs being released before the flashy press release.

New comment by fblp in "ChatGPT Images 2.0"

fblp — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 04:13:56 +0000

Did it correctly follow the instructions? Don't know my pokemon well enough.

New comment by fblp in "Fulu bounty for Ring Camera jailbreak reaches $23k"

fblp — Sat, 18 Apr 2026 07:39:50 +0000

Surely someone will jailbreak it now that they've allowed hardware modification:

"2026-04-07 We've replaced the requirement that there be no replacements of the original hardware with a rule that no more than 2 components may be added to, or replace components on, the original circuit boards."

New comment by fblp in "Google broke its promise to me – now ICE has my data"

fblp — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 20:19:42 +0000

Has Apple done this? Trying to figure out a safe place to store photos in the cloud without having to self host.

New comment by fblp in "Someone bought 30 WordPress plugins and planted a backdoor in all of them"

fblp — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 20:51:40 +0000

Hear me out. Mergers and acquisitions that substantially lesson market competition can be blocked by governments, or even require approval in certain jurisdictions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mergers_and_acquisitions

Maybe mergers or acquisitions that substantially impact security should require approval by marketplaces (industry governance), and notification and approval by even governments?

New comment by fblp in "DOJ Top Antitrust Litigators Exit After Ticketmaster Accord"

fblp — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 05:05:58 +0000

FTA: No merger challenged since January 2025. This means that dozens of mergers that would typically be anticompetitive bleed consumers for money (think vet and dentist rollups) will happen unchallenged.

New comment by fblp in "Claude mixes up who said what"

fblp — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 12:51:06 +0000

I've seen gemini output it's thinking as a message too: "Conclude your response with a single, high value we'll-focused next step" Or sometimes it goes neurotic and confused: "Wait, let me just provide the exact response I drafted in my head. Done. I will write it now. Done. End of thought. Wait! I noticed I need to keep it extremely simple per the user's previous preference. Let's do it. Done. I am generating text only. Done. Bye."

New comment by fblp in "Newly created Polymarket accounts win big on well-timed Iran ceasefire bets"

fblp — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 05:36:47 +0000

Thank you for the thoughtful analysis. I'd echo that the deregulation and corruption of these markets has two impacts: 1) less "legitimate" (non-corrupt) capital flowing to these markets which may ultimately reduce the liquidity and value of the asstrs. 2) more speculative deployment of capital, which means that capital is used for making bets rather than uses for productive purpose (such as investing in legitimate investments that are productive for the economy.

Why would a insider invest in legitimate, productive investment when they can make outsized gains in betting markets or corrupt futures markets?

And yes, long term this will massively taint the US financial power and make economies like the UK more appealing.

New comment by fblp in "US cities are axing Flock Safety surveillance technology"

fblp — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 01:55:08 +0000

Axon seems to be the defacto standard for body cameras but I don't know much about them...

Want to know capitalism's endgame? Just look at private equity

fblp — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 12:08:41 +0000

Article URL: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/apr/07/capitalism-endgame-private-equity-captured-nurseries-care-homes

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47673980

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by fblp in "Sam Altman may control our future – can he be trusted?"

fblp — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 01:47:14 +0000

Got it! Any recommendations on who to subscribe to? Any personal links for you?

In developer communities often you can support individual developers or groups through a monthly subscription / donation on their github page or similar.

New comment by fblp in "Sam Altman may control our future – can he be trusted?"

fblp — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 22:16:08 +0000

Hi Ronan appreciate you being here. what would help you and others continue to do journalism like this? (including commenting on HN?)

New comment by fblp in "The Australian government has announced gambling advertising reforms"

fblp — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 23:50:51 +0000

Yep it's hard to build a large liquid market for both sides of the bet without a central platform being legal. Look at polymarket as another example of things that people wouldn't bet on if a (legal in some countries) platform didn't exist.

New comment by fblp in "Miscellanea: The War in Iran"

fblp — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 02:20:09 +0000

Of those options I'd guess Hedgseth as he seems to be the one cheering the war and also using Christian rhetoric. Trump has also suggested he may have relied on Hedgseths advice to scapegoats Hedgseth in recent days..

New comment by fblp in "The American Healthcare Conundrum"

fblp — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 23:24:52 +0000

Thank you for doing this analysis! I'd suggest adding some charts to better represent some of the issues you've found!

New comment by fblp in "Trump's global tariffs struck down by US Supreme Court"

fblp — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 17:22:32 +0000

They do make more money the more pervasive tariffs are though as more people would buy tariff related financial products.