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joec.
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August 27, 2014 at 5:05 PM #777708August 27, 2014 at 5:07 PM #777709
poorgradstudent
Participant[quote=spdrun]
Most “growth” is fucking bullshit anyway. Unless it’s an electric car, are we really better off driving cars that are new vs 5-6 years old? Are we really better off having the latest and greatest iToy vs keeping our phones 3-4 years? Are we really better off with 2000 square foot houses vs 1000 square foot apartments and wasting energy with power dryers vs hanging laundry on a balcony?
[quote]
1. Yes, cars of today are both safer and more fuel efficient than those that are 5-6 years old. They also typically have lower maintainance requirements. Although there definitely is a sweet spot where the price of a used car is relatively attractive relative to it’s value, supply and demand generally keep used car prices in check to some degree.
2. The trend is definitely towards people keeping their phones longer. I remember five years ago when a one year old phone felt “old”, these days a 2 year old iphone still seems pretty current
3. I hate apartments, and as someone who has both line dried and used a gas dryer, yes, gas dryers do provide a higher quality of life.
August 27, 2014 at 5:23 PM #777710spdrun
ParticipantRegarding cars, anything made after about 2000 is pretty low-maintenance. Electronic ignition with coil-on-plugs, no cap, rotor, or wires.
If anything, modern cars with multiplexed wiring are getting harder to maintain and are less reliable. Witness the Chrysler “Totally Integrated Power Module” debacle recently. And I can’t even imagine what’s required to upgrade an entertainment system on a modern rolling iPad where those functions are tightly integrated with the car’s electronics.
They might be a few MPG more efficient, but building a car also costs a lot of energy. You actually save more energy keeping cars about 10 years, since energy cost of manufacture is significant.
Why does a gas dryer provide a better QoL, BTW? I grew up in a house with a clothesline, strung between a tree and the back steps. It was mounted on pulleys, so you could stand on the steps and hang an item, yank it a bit, hang, yank. Not slower than loading or unloading a dryer.
August 27, 2014 at 9:35 PM #777711FlyerInHi
GuestPaul Krugman’s prognostications on macro policy of USA vs. Europe have been so correct he deserves another Nobel.
High income and comparatively low cost of living is the USA. That translates to a lot of physical comfort (big comfortable houses), material comfort (tons of stuff). Maybe not spiritual comfort because of stress from lack of health care (now much better than before), lack of child care, high cost of education and less social connections.
Anyway, if, because of easy monetary policy in the EU, European banks end up buying US mortgage backed securities, then our mortgage rates might stay lower longer. I wouldn’t expect mortgage rates to jump anytime soon.
Potential problems in China? Maybe more money seeking the security of US markets.
Let’s check back in couple years.
August 27, 2014 at 9:43 PM #777712an
Participant[quote=poorgradstudent]2. The trend is definitely towards people keeping their phones longer. I remember five years ago when a one year old phone felt “old”, these days a 2 year old iphone still seems pretty current[/quote]
It really depends on the OS and OEM in term of updates. If you have iPhone 4, you can’t install iOS7, which means a bunch of apps are off limits to you. If your android OEM doesn’t give you an updated OS, you’re SOL when it comes to newer features. Even Google neglect their Nexus line after less than 2 years.August 27, 2014 at 9:44 PM #777713CA renter
Participant[quote=spdrun]Regarding cars, anything made after about 2000 is pretty low-maintenance. Electronic ignition with coil-on-plugs, no cap, rotor, or wires.
If anything, modern cars with multiplexed wiring are getting harder to maintain and are less reliable. Witness the Chrysler “Totally Integrated Power Module” debacle recently. And I can’t even imagine what’s required to upgrade an entertainment system on a modern rolling iPad where those functions are tightly integrated with the car’s electronics.
They might be a few MPG more efficient, but building a car also costs a lot of energy. You actually save more energy keeping cars about 10 years, since energy cost of manufacture is significant.
Why does a gas dryer provide a better QoL, BTW? I grew up in a house with a clothesline, strung between a tree and the back steps. It was mounted on pulleys, so you could stand on the steps and hang an item, yank it a bit, hang, yank. Not slower than loading or unloading a dryer.[/quote]
I love your posts regarding growth, but have to disagree about the gas dryer. You’re speaking as a single person. For a larger family, a gas dryer is a HUGE deal.
That being said, carry on with your great posts. 🙂
August 27, 2014 at 9:49 PM #777714Participant[quote=FlyerInHi]Basically if you compare the USA to Europe, we, in America, had economic stimulus and expansion without inflation, and historically low rates all the same.
Europe chose the path of austerity, belt-tightening, near zero growth and now a threat of deflation.
Our policies to exit the financial crisis have proven much better, period.
spd, growth means real per-capita GPD, money in people’s pockets. How people choose to spend their money is a totally different debate. In America, thoughtful people can choose to work less for less money but more time.
I don’t think Europeans would be too happy to find themselves, a couple decades down the road, with GDP per capita, a smaller fraction of ours.
GPD is also power in the world, the ability to influence the world to your own liking.[/quote]
We’ve had growth without inflation???
Gas has almost doubled since 2008/2009, along with the price of housing. Food costs have risen significantly. Healthcare costs have gone up even more. These are the things that REALLY matter in a person’s life, vs. whatever they are measuring in their garbage CPI numbers.
The only thing that hasn’t gone up? Wages. That “growth” has done far more harm than good as far as the majority of working people in the U.S. are concerned. The only thing the Fed has accomplished is the destruction of purchasing power of those who are on a fixed income/working people.
August 27, 2014 at 9:57 PM #777715GuestCAr, even with higher costs, our daily staples are still cheaper than the rest of the world.
If you read European papers, the debate is “what went wrong? Why is America growing but we aren’t?”
The problem in the EU is EU rules preventing deficit spending by governments and coordinated deficit spending across the Eurozone.
August 27, 2014 at 11:08 PM #777716ParticipantIt really depends on the OS and OEM in term of updates. If you have iPhone 4, you can’t install iOS7, which means a bunch of apps are off limits to you.
This is why closed ecosystems are vile and Stallman was right in vilifying Jobs in the end. Android is definitely less bad in this respect. I have a handset that runs Android 4.1 (don’t want to upgrade to 4.4 because of its asinine treatment of SD storage, so I’m holding out for the next version that is supposed to fix some of that), and I can run 99% of apps even though it’s a two-year-old OS.
Though I have to say that other than Maps and Talk, I don’t use a whole lot of Google apps.
August 27, 2014 at 11:11 PM #777717Participant[quote=FlyerInHi]CAr, even with higher costs, our daily staples are still cheaper than the rest of the world.
If you read European papers, the debate is “what went wrong? Why is America growing but we aren’t?”
The problem in the EU is EU rules preventing deficit spending by governments and coordinated deficit spending across the Eurozone.[/quote]
Brian, those are our daily staples. The fact is that we have been losing ground for the past 10-30 years.
Deficit spending can work, but only to a point; and it’s extremely important that the spending is directed at the most productive and useful things going forward. The militarization of our police departments, never-ending wars, etc. are NOT productive uses of our public monies.
August 28, 2014 at 8:20 AM #777719Participant[quote=spdrun]
It really depends on the OS and OEM in term of updates. If you have iPhone 4, you can’t install iOS7, which means a bunch of apps are off limits to you.
This is why closed ecosystems are vile and Stallman was right in vilifying Jobs in the end. Android is definitely less bad in this respect. I have a handset that runs Android 4.1 (don’t want to upgrade to 4.4 because of its asinine treatment of SD storage, so I’m holding out for the next version that is supposed to fix some of that), and I can run 99% of apps even though it’s a two-year-old OS.
Though I have to say that other than Maps and Talk, I don’t use a whole lot of Google apps.[/quote]BS, Android is 10x worse in this department. I had an HTC Thunderbolt that was stuck on 2.3 while Google was already releasing 4.1 at the time. In America, not only are we at the mercy of OEM implementing the upgrade but we’re at the mercy of the carriers allowing the upgrade as well. Most Android phones do not get upgrades, except for the Nexus devices. Even those get faded out in less than 2 years. even the Nexus devices, which is the best of the Android ecosystem in term of upgrade, gets spanked by iDevices.
As for being able to use 99% of the apps, I call bs as well. A lot of apps are starting to require 4.0 and above and yet majority of android phones are still running 2.3. This makes life much harder for the app developers, who can’t implement some of the newer api because there are still a lot of android phones that are still running old versions.
August 28, 2014 at 1:29 PM #777721Guest[quote=spdrun]When I read “growth”, I think “festering tumor.”
[/quote]“The most terrible thing about America is that there is no escape from the treadmill which we have”
Henry Miller’s The Air Conditioned Nightmare.I love the title, and I love air-conditioning, meaning human control over the our environment.
Miller critiqued money, capitalism and the American way of life back in the 1940s. Since then, capitalism and the fixation on growth has gone global.
August 29, 2014 at 10:12 AM #777731scaredyclassic
ParticipantGrow bone and muscle.
Ac went put at my gym. It’s warm.
10x better. Now I can sweat
…Gym ac is a nightmare.
Of course they will fix it..m
August 29, 2014 at 11:24 AM #777735Participant[quote=AN][quote=spdrun]
It really depends on the OS and OEM in term of updates. If you have iPhone 4, you can’t install iOS7, which means a bunch of apps are off limits to you.
This is why closed ecosystems are vile and Stallman was right in vilifying Jobs in the end. Android is definitely less bad in this respect. I have a handset that runs Android 4.1 (don’t want to upgrade to 4.4 because of its asinine treatment of SD storage, so I’m holding out for the next version that is supposed to fix some of that), and I can run 99% of apps even though it’s a two-year-old OS.
Though I have to say that other than Maps and Talk, I don’t use a whole lot of Google apps.[/quote]BS, Android is 10x worse in this department. I had an HTC Thunderbolt that was stuck on 2.3 while Google was already releasing 4.1 at the time. In America, not only are we at the mercy of OEM implementing the upgrade but we’re at the mercy of the carriers allowing the upgrade as well. Most Android phones do not get upgrades, except for the Nexus devices. Even those get faded out in less than 2 years. even the Nexus devices, which is the best of the Android ecosystem in term of upgrade, gets spanked by iDevices.
As for being able to use 99% of the apps, I call bs as well. A lot of apps are starting to require 4.0 and above and yet majority of android phones are still running 2.3. This makes life much harder for the app developers, who can’t implement some of the newer api because there are still a lot of android phones that are still running old versions.[/quote]
It seems like tablets are also making life tough for developers. I have a kindle fire and a Samsung Galaxy S4, and it’s fascinating for me to see which apps are only on one device, the other, or both.
I had an HTC Thunderbolt for something like 4 years. The physical phone had issues before I started feeling the fact that I couldn’t use all the latest apps. But I’m actually a fairly late adapter on technology due to cheapness. Let someone else pay full price at release, I’ll scoop it up 6 months later at a discount!
August 29, 2014 at 11:25 AM #777736Participant[quote=scaredyclassic]Grow bone and muscle.
Ac went put at my gym. It’s warm.
10x better. Now I can sweat
…Gym ac is a nightmare.
Of course they will fix it..m[/quote]
Why does AC provide a better QoL?
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