With the Gini index, mean household means nothing. What the median US household is worth is what means anything. If only one household had all wealth, its vicissitudes and upswings would change the mean - but not the unknown median.
Readit NewsLindeBuzoGray commented on The standard American household is now a millionaire, according to the Fed fortune.com/2023/10/24/st... · Posted by u/tempsy
You don’t see a difference between a military fighter being held in his enemy’s prison and a civilian being held hostage in a tunnel?
Most of the Gazan prisoners are soldiers, policemen, army reservists. The ones scooped up by accident are being released - two on Friday and two before. Hamas has asked for a brief 24 hour ceasefire to release prisoners but Israel has refused, prolonging the imprisonment.
Ahmad Sa'adat is a "military fighter"? At the age of 70? He has been in Israeli prison for years.
I didn't really want to engage on HN as I think this whole post doesn't belong here (politically charged content is something this site generally avoids), but I will highlight the issue here. If you jump in to advocate support of Palestinians / Gaza, but didn't express any support for Israelis / Israel when Hamas (the elected and still popular government of Gaza) murdered over 1000 civilians, you're not an unbiased supporter that just wants peace. You have ignored the catalyst of the current episode of this conflict, which was an incredibly, obviously evil act against Israeli and foreign civilians, by Hamas, and widely celebrated in Gaza.
The worldwide attacks on Jews and synagogues, the chants of "Gas the Jews" and "From the River to the Sea" (which is a call for genocide of Israelis), the open calls from Palestinian terrorist groups calling for attacks on Jews worldwide, make it clear that antizionism is inextricably linked with antisemitism (as does the actual history of the conflict).
> Hamas (the elected and still popular government of Gaza) murdered over 1000 civilians
Israel killed over 1000 Palestinians from 2018 until before Operation al-Aqsa Flood. There's nothing really unusual about it from.that context. And Israel us currently massacring civilians in Gaza every day.
> the catalyst of the current episode of this conflict
Israelis murdered people on an aid flotilla a few years ago, and are evicting West Bank Palestinians from their homes with settlers, as the Israelis parade around the al-Aqsa mosque.
The palestinians opposing hamas are extremely quiet. In Sidney the crowds flying palestinian colors chant "gas the Jews" and in Montreal "from the river to the sea". Making the distinction between terrorists and civilians without also acknowledging the specific behaviour of these groups of supporters is another fine line which might land one square with pro-genocide folks if not careful.
Some Israelis are saying similar things but they are cabinet ministers, not random people in a crowd.
This is totally incorrect for the case of the Hamas and is overused as a statement. It gives a terrible name to actual freedom fighters.
The Hamas isn't an organization with freedom as its goal. It's goal is strictly holy war (Jihad) and it considers the Palestinian children it kills along the way as martyrs. It has been a cancer on the people living in Gaza and has physically stopped the peace treaty (Oslo accord) from proceeding.
Israel had a role in creating and incubating Hamas directly, as senior Israelis have admitted.
Haaretz recently printed how Netanyahu also was encouraging Hamas as he wanted war and west Bank settlement, not to make deals with Fatah.
> And since when does Israel avoids civilians?
Always? They have been very clear about trying to avoid civilian casualties. Saying they are not always successful doesn't prove anything when you are fighting an entrenched enemy that is using human shields.
Around the guard towers and military outposts surrounding Gaza, Israel had villages and concert venues - Israel's human shields.
Remind me which freedom fighters target civilians?
I am watching Israel carpet bomb Gaza right now, I see Israel targeting civilians.
Those “freedom fighters” are still holding 200 Israelis hostage.
How many thousands of Palestinian prisoners has Israel been holding for years?
LindeBuzoGray commented on The Techno-Optimist Manifesto a16z.com/the-techno-optim... · Posted by u/packym
> Markets prevent monopolies and cartels.
A lot of the optimism seems to rely on this statement and...I'm not convinced? But I also admit I'm not well informed on the topic. Does anyone have suggested reading on 'market discipline', as they're calling it?
I mean, the first person on their "Patron Saints of Techno-Optimism" is Jeff Bezos, who is actively dealing with an antitrust lawsuit from the FTC regarding Amazon's frequent and regular push toward monopoly power.
Right. Land and air telecommunications are almost totally controlled by Verizon and AT&T. They are also some of the largest cable companies, although Comcast is a competitor. Although Comcast owns NBCUniversal, and we can start getting into the media monopoly.
We can go through business by business and see the rise of monopolies and oligopolies. Universal owns half of the US music market - Universal, Sony and Warner own over 80% of the US music market. Accounting is done by the Big Four, advertising by its own Big Four.
Just down the line - consolidation, oligopoly, monopoly. That is what markets produce. Standard Oil reversed its breakup into ExxonMobil, as did the Baby Bells into Verizon and AT&T. Even the government intervention into the monopolies gets reversed.
LindeBuzoGray commented on The Techno-Optimist Manifesto a16z.com/the-techno-optim... · Posted by u/packym
> Markets
> We believe central economic planning elevates the worst of us and drags everyone down; markets exploit the best of us to benefit all of us
> We believe central planning is a doom loop; markets are an upward spiral
There's many things off with this. The USSR from the 1920s to early 1950s had enormous economic growth - particularly in the 1930s when so-called free markets in the West had collapsed, by the 1950s and early 1960s it was sending satellites and men to space - before the West. Also, the PRC had enormous economic growth from the early 1950s to late 1970s (and afterward as well).
Also, the US economy is centrally planned. Billions are flowing to military contractors for Israel right now as they were to the Ukraine before - the US is pumping over $800 billion (really over a trillion) this year into this centrally planned economy, and it also de facto plans for the giant medical sector. The Internet we type on was built over decades with government money.
But most importantly, as these are more minor issues - it is a false comparison. The Soviet Union had markets selling radishes for rubles, just like the US does (for dollars). So both had markets.
The difference is the USSR from the 1920s to mid-1960s made production decisions based on the general welfare, the desire for a space program etc. Workers on collective farms made their own decisions, with perhaps some government quotas. In the US decisions are made to benefit the heirs who own companies as opposed to the workers who do the work.
But that is a minor point. The point is that both had markets, little different from one another. But the distribution portion of the economy for the US is compared to the centrally planned production if the other economy. It makes no sense. The US production controlled by and for the benefit of heirs is unmentioned. The USSR-like market identical to to the US market is unmentioned. We compare US production to USSR-like distribution. The comparison makes no sense. Purposefully.