Hacker News: hx87

New comment by hx87 in "Behind Amazon’s HQ2 fiasco"

hx87 — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 16:28:50 +0000

Tax on land value only, excluding improvements. This encourages landowners to build to the limit of marginal construction costs, which benefits both the local economy and tenants.

New comment by hx87 in "Behind Amazon’s HQ2 fiasco"

hx87 — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 16:25:51 +0000

Companies can't grow faster than the supply of office space, which also has time constraints.

New comment by hx87 in "Can We Have Prosperity Without Growth?"

hx87 — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 16:13:50 +0000

The more important question is: can we have growth in economic output (which is what we actually want) without growth in economic input (which is purely instrumental)?

New comment by hx87 in "U.S. immigration policy has been a boon for the tech industry in Canada"

hx87 — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 16:07:52 +0000

In order to crack water, you need water, which is in short supply in the desert. Desalination + massive pumps and pipelines from the ocean would soak up any increase you get in price efficiency compared to batteries or even compressed air.

New comment by hx87 in "Anna Wiener on her book “Uncanny Valley”"

hx87 — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 18:15:33 +0000

I wonder what the breakeven cost would be of a monthly subscription to ad-free journalism on the quality level of the New York Times (or your preferred equivalent). Something like $200-300 maybe? If it were actually ad-free and zero-clickbait, 100% high quality journalism, I'd be willing to pay about that much.

New comment by hx87 in "Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?"

hx87 — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 17:54:30 +0000

When you are told something that is wrong, holding onto it after you learn that it is wrong is entitlement.

New comment by hx87 in "Nine States Face Economic Contraction, Most Since 2009 Crisis"

hx87 — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 17:03:18 +0000

NIMBYism is pretty much a de facto campaign against internal migration. It's not much of an issue in the fastest growing states, but certain states with hot economies but stagnant or declining populations, like Massachusetts or California, are affected by it.

New comment by hx87 in "Ultraprocessed Foods – A New Theory of Obesity"

hx87 — Wed, 25 Sep 2019 20:01:17 +0000

What factors influence the amount of calories used and taken in (not just eaten)? That's the question, and the answer is hardly rudimentary.

New comment by hx87 in "Ultraprocessed Foods – A New Theory of Obesity"

hx87 — Wed, 25 Sep 2019 19:55:16 +0000

> but in my calorie range

That's the difficult part--the insulin spikes from ultraprocessed food will make you hungrier and eat more as well as lower your basal metabolism. "Calorie range" is a moving target.

New comment by hx87 in "Ultraprocessed Foods – A New Theory of Obesity"

hx87 — Wed, 25 Sep 2019 19:51:00 +0000

When your basal metabolism is 4500 calories a day.

New comment by hx87 in "The diabolical genius of the baby advice industry"

hx87 — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 18:44:43 +0000

The extra bedroom is also optional.

New comment by hx87 in "97% of California Cities Failed to Meet State Housing Goals"

hx87 — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 18:42:00 +0000

Aesthetic objections to new construction are 99.9% bullshit. Otherwise things like vomit- and baby-poop-green vinyl siding, uniformly white windows with fake grills and little to no trim, McMansion-style hip-roof horrorshows and gables on top of gables wouldn't exist.

New comment by hx87 in "97% of California Cities Failed to Meet State Housing Goals"

hx87 — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 18:35:38 +0000

> The idea that a place like Beverly Hills is going to have to throw up a bunch of new housing to please CA congress

They don't have to do anything except allow private landowners to build higher if they wish.

New comment by hx87 in "97% of California Cities Failed to Meet State Housing Goals"

hx87 — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 18:28:03 +0000

Your house is worth what people are willing to pay for it. Developers are willing to pay a lot for it since a multifamily building can yield a lot more rent revenue than a single family house. The house is probably worth more in this scenario.

New comment by hx87 in "97% of California Cities Failed to Meet State Housing Goals"

hx87 — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 18:25:14 +0000

It's almost like they've never heard of orientation, shading, or SHGCs.

New comment by hx87 in "97% of California Cities Failed to Meet State Housing Goals"

hx87 — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 18:23:02 +0000

> The instant you sign a mortgage it becomes in your economic best interest to limit the supply of housing.

Not if you own the underlying land, or at least a portion thereof, and willing to build higher and denser and rent it out. For example, if I own a 1 story house, NIMBYism prevents me from building another story and renting it out as a separate unit for extra income. NIMBYism raises the value of my current property but lowers its potential value.

New comment by hx87 in "Let’s talk about usernames"

hx87 — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 18:12:42 +0000

Dashlane. Synchronization included, easy to use, works both offline and online.

New comment by hx87 in "Let’s talk about usernames"

hx87 — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 18:03:46 +0000

High quality speech recognition is ubiquitous in phone services these days so that isn't a good reason. Besides, if I want to set a 16 char password and am willing to enter that on a keypad, what's the problem?

New comment by hx87 in "On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality"

hx87 — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 22:23:26 +0000

> which means their descendants will not share your ethnic identity - it will be destroyed

Mixed and combined, not destroyed. Besides, where to draw the line? Should Calabrians and Sicilians not live next to each other? Cantonese and Hakka?

New comment by hx87 in "Amazon Sellers Brood as States Come Calling for Taxes"

hx87 — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 21:57:23 +0000

If you're poor, how did you come to own the assets in the first place?

If you became poor, then maybe you should sell the property to gain more liquidity, balance your portfolio, and transfer the property to someone with enough income to fully maintain it.