partial_accumen

partial_accumen , 10 days ago to lemmyshitpost in Jenkins.

You can even see the stylized product icon with the simple facial features with the little square mustache. People in that timeline unironically refer to that CI tool as “The Final Solution” in CI.

partial_accumen , 10 days ago to news in SEC Poised to Seek Enforcement Action Barring Elon Musk From Holding Executive Positions

This might actually save Tesla as company.

partial_accumen , 10 days ago to news in The IRS wants to end another major tax loophole for the wealthy and raise $50 billion in the process

I, uh… think we got off on the wrong foot. I don’t see spending or taxation as a bad thing.

I came from your first post as you being anti-taxation (under any circumstance). While I don’t agree with that position (because I like a society that pools our resources for all of us to benefit), I do understand it. Your statement quoted here confuses me even more.

I mean, peep the @midwest.social, for a hint. And I did specifically say that I wouldn’t recommend any terms to replace “raise” and “revenue” that have a negative connotation, such as “deactivation” or “destruction”.

I took that as you want synonyms for “destruction” that don’t sound so negative. That sounded like whitewashing to me.

I will quibble with this:

The spending of a tax dollar is the beginning, not the end, of the benefit.

The spending is the beginning, yes – but not a tax dollar.

Governments don’t need to tax first, in order to spend second. It’s the opposite. That’s why “raise” and “revenue” are such terrible terms. Because they prime you to think that taxes are how we pay for things.

Those words don’t make me think how we start paying for things, but rather how we sustain paying for them.

We pay for things by just paying for them. The government spends dollars into existence.

To make this a truthful statement, you’ve got to skip 4 or 5 very important steps. Stable governments don’t spend dollars into existence to begin with. That ability is the product of a long set of other actions over decades before a government can do that. “Spending dollars into existance” is NOT Step One, as it appears you’re presenting it here. Its the product of strong national monetary policy, a stable government, and the issuing of governments bonds.

Taxation is just there to incentivize economic activity to chase those new dollars and keep a stable value.

The is a huge oversimplification. You’re handwaving away mountains of effort of government just ensuring that stable value.

If you view taxation as necessary to gather the funds to do something, you can have a bunch of resources just sitting around doing nothing and never be able to utilize them because you can’t gather the funds without destabilizing the economy. But if you can just spend the money into existence, you can go ahead and increase the utilization without taxing first and then adjust taxation as needed from there on out.

I don’t mean to be insulting, but this sounds like a very naive view. Yes, in the short term a stable government and perform deep deficit spending to accomplish important short term goals (national defense from being invaded, disaster relief, etc) and its the right choice irrespective of the consequences of that deficit spending because there is an immanent and existential threat to the nation. However, it is an extremely rare government that can deeply deficit spend without dire short term and long term consequences. “Adjusting taxation as needed” ignores all the realities that increasing taxes anywhere will cause economic reactions. Some of those reactions may be “worth it” but the government has to plan for that to happen and be willing to accept that consequence. Nothing in your post addresses any of that.

And it turns out, this is how money has always worked. Taxation has always been a cleanup step to keep the spending productive, not a prerequisite to enable the spending in the first place. The myth of tax as revenue is relatively new.

HUGE citation needed here. Prior to the use of fiat currency, there were hard limits on the amount of money in circulation. This alone was barrier on spending (and growth). Let me make it clear, the abandonment of the gold standard was good thing.

partial_accumen , 10 days ago to news in The IRS wants to end another major tax loophole for the wealthy and raise $50 billion in the process

Government spending does not require taxation if deficits are an option.

Unless the government has revenue from some other channel besides taxation (import tariffs or fees on government services like passports perhaps), deficit spending is rarely ever possible in perpetuity. So what other option are you referring to for long term support of a society without taxation?

In that sense, spending is decoupled from taxing and the multiplier effect is not dependent on tax revenues, so I’m not sure that addresses OPs statements.

You are defining an extremely narrow use case, which is possibly factual, but so far removed from any part of the discussion that I agree with you that your point doesn’t seem to address anything the OP is asking about. The Multiplier Effect is often referenced with deficit spending, but there’s no requirement I’m aware of that it ONLY requires to deficit spending.

partial_accumen , 11 days ago to news in The IRS wants to end another major tax loophole for the wealthy and raise $50 billion in the process

But I would expect it to be something that conveys a sense that the money is being decommissioned rather than mobilized, or annihilated rather than gathered.

We have those already in economics and government spending when money is actually being decommissioned or destroyed. Quantitative tightening is one. That is when currency is being removed from the economy raising the value of each dollar remaining in the economy. However neither that or any other destruction method of money is whats happening here. That you’re choosing to see the action of taxation and spending of tax revenue as negative is more of a reflection of your personal preferences or politics.

But the sense of deactivation or destruction is usually a negative feeling, so I would want to find a word that puts a slight positive spin on it. This is a happy conclusion to the money’s journey. Its task is done and the inflationary pressure associated with its work is now relieved.

You’re not telling the whole story with that, and even worse, leaving off the most beneficial part of spending of tax revenue. You’re missing the Multiplier Effect. The reason spending of tax dollars is a good thing besides the obvious benefits to society of working roads, fire departments, education, and food supply guarantees, etc, is that each $1 dollar of taxes spent get spent again and again by those that receive it. If $1 of tax revenue is spent on building a road, that $1 goes to pay salaries of workers that then pay for food, which the store and eventually the farmer receive a portion of to feed their families and expand their businesses, which goes into pay other workers. Also each time this $1 is spent it is taxed, so a portion of that revenue drives more spending on society.

The spending of a tax dollar is the beginning, not the end, of the benefit.

partial_accumen , 11 days ago to news in The IRS wants to end another major tax loophole for the wealthy and raise $50 billion in the process

What words would you use in their place?

partial_accumen , 11 days ago to technology in SpaceX's Starlink May Be Keeping the Ozone From Healing, Research Finds

Its good to keep an eye out for new sources of pollution, but the possible ozone depletion from satellites burning up is a tiny tiny fraction of what we’re doing on Earth right now for pollutants.

partial_accumen , 11 days ago to aboringdystopia in More parents are taking on debt to pay for Disney vacations as prices soar

Wouldn’t be an issue if people got paid properly for their work

This is one place where that actually wouldn’t fix this problem. There is finite capacity at the parks. Disney keep raising the prices as a a disincentive to go. People keep paying the higher prices. source

If everyone was paid properly, that would mean even more people going to the parks.

partial_accumen , 12 days ago to news in Trump floats eliminating U.S. income tax and replacing it with tariffs on imports

If you get a bonus, that might be taxed withheld at 50% because payroll is too lazy to figure out your taxes. You get the remainder back when you file your taxes. (Note this may mean you owe $200 at the end of the year instead of owing $1000. That still counts as you “getting” $800.)

One very slight correction in bold.

partial_accumen , 13 days ago to world in Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic

I would have liked it to end sooner, but there was a lot to undo that first year.

partial_accumen , 13 days ago to world in America’s assassination attempt on Huawei is backfiring

Go on. Complete your thought.

partial_accumen , 13 days ago to news in No, a Remote Amazon Tribe Did Not Get Addicted to Porn

You’re underscoring the reality we now know. I’m not disputing that. I’m saying the whitewashed view that a good chunk of America isn’t also “hot blooded” and “sex obsessed” is the implied lie from the christian community.

partial_accumen , 13 days ago to news in No, a Remote Amazon Tribe Did Not Get Addicted to Porn

Err, I’d argue that lots of the rest of us have “unquenchable sexual appetites” and in that way it would be completely normal for a number of them too as well.

partial_accumen , 13 days ago to world in Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic

This was bad policy by the USA. The Chinese vaccines weren’t as good (lower efficacy) than others available, but they were much better than nothing. Where there was no availability of better vaccines, this discouraged people from getting any protection. People died because of this stupid program.

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The military program started under former President Donald Trump and continued months into Joe Biden’s presidency, Reuters found – even after alarmed social media executives warned the new administration that the Pentagon had been trafficking in COVID misinformation. The Biden White House issued an edict in spring 2021 banning the anti-vax effort, which also disparaged vaccines produced by other rivals, and the Pentagon initiated an internal review, Reuters found.

Why is there zero surprise this was done by the Trump administration and undone by Biden?

partial_accumen , 14 days ago to technology in The cement that could turn your house into a giant battery

Power density doesn’t always matter. There are applications where space is abundant, but regular maintenance is prohibitively expensive.

In my quick example of a remote monitoring station, it may cost $10,000+ to send a helicopter out to change the 12v car battery when it dies from exposure to extreme temperatures in 5 years or less. If something like this supercapacitor can last 20+ years without every be visited, it would be more cost effective.