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amrocha commented on Privately-Owned Rail Cars   amtrak.com/privately-owne... · Posted by u/jasoncartwright
Nevermark · 4 days ago
> You claiming that you “don’t have ideology” is exactly what I’m referring to. Yes you do. Everyone does, and every argument has an ideology behind it.

Ideology refers to groups of related ideas that people feel some kind of loyalty too, or priority for. For instance strong libertarians (who have trouble seeing the many limitations of their otherwise good ideas), strident capitalists, communists, etc.

I don't have any loyalty to any ideas beyond how much they make sense, and how relevant they are. Wherever you make sense I will readily adopt ideas from you.

> That’s why these resources are usually priced accessibly to the vast majority of the population. The goal is not to make money, the goal is to ensure the shared resource is utilized efficiently.

Here you do make sense. And it is true.

Public assets are often made available to the public, for private use, at their marginal costs. Which are much lower costs than a business or other large organization would be charged. Those organizations are expected to cover their share of both marginal and primary costs - which are much greater. But fees for the public generally only cover the marginal costs. I.e. if for potential clean up, avoid over booking (as you noted), or whatever.

Marginal costs provide a massive discount for individuals, but are not a subsidy either.

Perhaps that is the missing piece here.

The flexibility of the rail system to work with individuals is admirable. It provides enthusiasts the ability to renovate historically interesting artifacts and continue to give them life. Living connections to the past have a public cultural benefit. With harm done to none.

amrocha · 3 days ago
How can you be so sure that you’re evaluating ideas fairly? How can you be so sure you’re not biased? What if you have an intrinsic bias that you’re unaware of shaping every single decision you make? What if that bias was instilled into you purposefully by people who wanted their ideology to seem like the “rational” way of being?

You should be more skeptic of yourself.

amrocha commented on Privately-Owned Rail Cars   amtrak.com/privately-owne... · Posted by u/jasoncartwright
Nevermark · 4 days ago
> The fish is blind to the ocean. All of your arguments are soaked in the ideology of economic primacy.

Ok. I guess if you had any actual points you would have made them instead of poor sport poetry and blatant projection.

I don't believe in economic primacy.

Nor do I have ideology. I don't think any one way of looking at things can ever be complete. As I already stated.

It was you, who explicitly outed yourself as ideological, and are making ideological arguments instead of practical ones based on actual harm or benefit.

People or businesses pay to use public parks for events, public buildings, school buses, the list is endless. People like this. It is viewed as pro-sharing, pro-community. These options makes public asset more valuable to the public, help defray costs, and increase the good they generate for society. With any harm or mistreatment to anyone.

amrocha · 4 days ago
You claiming that you “don’t have ideology” is exactly what I’m referring to. Yes you do. Everyone does, and every argument has an ideology behind it. If you can’t see it, that just means you’re so used to it you’re blind to it, like a fish in the ocean. That’s a dangerous state of mind to be in, it’s very easy to manipulate the person that believes they’re objectively right.

You should look up dialectics, it sounds like there would be a lot of new material there for you.

And as for your park example, sure, I’ll explain why it’s not the same thing.

If it costs 10$ to rent a BBQ spot in the park for an hour, do you think that that’s how much it costs to provide that service? It most likely isn’t. Payment is used as a way to limit demand and to ensure commitment for utilization of a limited shared resource. That’s why these resources are usually priced accessibly to the vast majority of the population. The goal is not to make money, the goal is to ensure the shared resource is utilized efficiently.

Do you think that that’s what’s going on here with letting rich people buy access to public infrastructure? It’s not, this is a for profit operation. This service is inaccessible to the vast majority of the population, regardless of whether it’s for sale to the public or not. This is not about sharing a resource, it’s about letting rich people monopolize resources as long as they have the money to pay for it.

amrocha commented on Privately-Owned Rail Cars   amtrak.com/privately-owne... · Posted by u/jasoncartwright
Nevermark · 5 days ago
> It’s not an economic argument, it’s an ideological one.

I see. Other's shouldn't make economic choices based on economically created benefit or harm, but to submit to your ideology.

Yet, these were never public goods. And they are more available to the public now.

Reality doesn't conform to ideology. The latter only helps when it contributes to understanding, instead of limiting it.

amrocha · 4 days ago
The fish is blind to the ocean. All of your arguments are soaked in the ideology of economic primacy. From where I stand, it seems like you’re the one that refuses to understand the argument that doesn’t agree with your ideology.

And to be clear, I couldn’t care less if you own a rail car, but you shouldn’t get to use public infrastructure to operate it.

amrocha commented on Privately-Owned Rail Cars   amtrak.com/privately-owne... · Posted by u/jasoncartwright
jazzyjackson · 6 days ago
Lots of countries have rich dudes with private coaches.
amrocha · 5 days ago
That’s why it’s called an empire, it needs vassal states
amrocha commented on Privately-Owned Rail Cars   amtrak.com/privately-owne... · Posted by u/jasoncartwright
Nevermark · 6 days ago
You are confusing several things.

First, train cars are not a precious limited resource. Someone having a car creates no impediments to anyone else.

Second, nothing is being taken from a public sphere - these are one off historically interesting cars being maintained by private individuals at no cost to the public, instead of being scrapped by private companies.

So in fact, something that would be wasted is continuing to get use.

Third, many of these cars are being made available for use to anyone, not just their owners, to help cover their costs. More options for everyone is in fact, a real public good.

The world is full of injustice but it’s worth not confusing someone having something others don’t with someone using wealth to suppress or harm others.

There is nothing here to “fix”. No imbalance or obvious benefit here to justify repressing others. Overreactions to injustice are, unfortunately, a common source of injustices themselves.

I share your concerns for others, and also feel deep frustration with the status quo of increasingly unaccountable wealth-driven compounding of economic, political, social, health, educational and legal inequality.

amrocha · 5 days ago
I’m not confusing anything, I just disagree with you.

It’s not an economic argument, it’s an ideological one. Public goods should serve the public. No amount of money can change that.

amrocha commented on Privately-Owned Rail Cars   amtrak.com/privately-owne... · Posted by u/jasoncartwright
Nevermark · 6 days ago
Other than the cost of the car (which is going to hold its value for decades) & its fees, how is this anywhere near decadent if someone with some money likes to travel this way?

Wherein lies the harm?

People spend more on higher end RVs, burning more fuel, wheels & wear.

This is nowhere near the league of anything that travels through the air with a hint of luxury.

amrocha · 6 days ago
The privatization of the public good is the problem, regardless of how ecological or economical you rig your economy to make it look.

Dead Comment

amrocha commented on U.S. drinking rate at new low as alcohol concerns surge   news.gallup.com/poll/6933... · Posted by u/sfjailbird
amrocha · 6 days ago
Everyone is doing coke instead
amrocha commented on Teacher AI use is already out of control and it's not ok   reddit.com/r/Teachers/com... · Posted by u/jruohonen
ozgung · 21 days ago
These examples show that we have a serious social issue, and it's not limited to teachers. People misuse LLMs. We engineers understand that LLMs are products under development. They only work correctly under certain circumstances, and they have limitations and non-perfect evaluation metrics. Regular people (non-engineers) treat them as finished products or magic wands. They ignore the warnings in the page saying LLM can make mistakes. And there are billions of those people. This may create huge social problems that engineers can't fix.
amrocha · 21 days ago
Engineers are not uniquely immune to this phenomenon. Just look at all the commenters in this board claiming AI makes them 20x more effective.
amrocha commented on AI is a floor raiser, not a ceiling raiser   elroy.bot/blog/2025/07/29... · Posted by u/jjfoooo4
charcircuit · a month ago
There is a difference between pulling up a ladder and people choosing not to climb it.
amrocha · a month ago
It’s a very small difference. People would rather line up for the elevator than take the stairs. That’s just human nature.

u/amrocha

KarmaCake day1348May 27, 2021View Original