Andrew Flicker

Nerd: Spends his work-hours hip-deep in stats and math models, and his free-hours buried in books and computer games.

[Andrew Flicker @aflicker]

@DavidSchweikert Arizona gdp growth rate is 9th in the country, better than the USA overall. Wage growth rate also better than the USA average. Not sure what you mean here?

[Andrew Flicker @aflicker]

We've also set up a society that, for most (not all) cases, if you are desperate for income, or health care, or food, etc., - it's easier to obtain legally than illegally. Most criminals have poor foresight / impulse control, not just raw want.

That means helping them is also about helping them structure their lives, provide good guidance, mentorship, etc.- look at the work that Baltimore has done lately in reducing violent crime. Income support alone isn't much help.

[Andrew Flicker @aflicker]

@smolbizco @cremieuxrecueil Probably around 3-5k.

[Andrew Flicker @aflicker]

@KWamlo @paulg @JonHaidt Specifically, it was answering "at least once in the past year" to any of the following:

[Andrew Flicker @aflicker]

@Dljokl @mattyglesias Living in Germany, it does sometimes feel like the demand for asparagus is infinite, ha.

[Andrew Flicker @aflicker]

@hyperdiscogirl I got Walter White. That seems ominous.

[Andrew Flicker @aflicker]

@FrxgHat @Noahpinion He didn't suggest the 3rd time was the charm, merely that enough times and it'll happen. Still arguable, but more defensible than "it'll be this time".

[Andrew Flicker @aflicker]

The $250 is attempting to draw on the symbolism of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Still a terrible idea- we should stick to honoring those safely dead and "judged" by history.

I do think $250 isn't a bad bill size- I wish we'd get rid of the penny, nickel, and dime (a quarter now is worth what a penny was in 1945, worked for them), replace the $1, $2, and $5 with coins, and add something like $250 or $300 as a new "top-end" bill.

[Andrew Flicker @aflicker]

@morajabi @paulg @grahamscheper Apparently! I've seen them as decor in hotel *lobbies* several times, but never a room, personally.

[Andrew Flicker @aflicker]

@p_millerd Oh, got it, this is showing the path of the entire cohort over time, not the growth of people of that age. I'll blame it on trying to read charts before my coffee, thanks!

[Andrew Flicker @aflicker]

I've always thought it was interesting if people were "offered" a lump sum payment on house/land purchases, where they'd never pay any property taxes ever again on it. Unfortunately, govs would absolutely set the wrong prices on this, plus there's no trust in any direction that the bargain would hold.

Example: If current property tax is $10k, the government should be roughly indifferent between collecting that (and its inflation-adjusted increased amount every year), or a lump-sum one-time payment now of around 350k.

[Andrew Flicker @aflicker]

In 2023 he wrote an article supporting "raise taxes on the rich, drop student loan forgiveness, rollback the 2017 tax cuts". Rolling back 2017 tax cuts and dropping all forms of student loan forgiveness / repayment assistance plans would probably cut the federal budget by around 30%.

[Andrew Flicker @aflicker]

@TheSpeculator0 I have that experience in reverse in Germany. All winter, comfortable in sweaters and my wool coat, and then I step inside a grocery store or office and it's 28C. Why do Germans blast the heater so much?!

[Andrew Flicker @aflicker]

@KelseyTuoc @emmma_camp_ My top years were around 300... Most of them pretty short and easy reads, ha! Nowhere near as hard as 50-60 complex, long novels would be.

[Andrew Flicker @aflicker]

A few weekends ago, I chipped a tooth (on Saturday evening). Got an appointment at a dentist just down the road that I'd never seen before, walked over before work Monday mornings, filled out way too many forms (Germany, lol), but was seen by a pleasant doc that made a quick emergency repair.

Walked to the grocery store on my way home to pick up the next few day's cooking supplies. I'll miss this urbanism I'm back in the States, even if I miss a lot of things about the USA now, too.

[Andrew Flicker @aflicker]

@Watchman_motto Looks like a disguised pump house to me, but could be lots of things.

[Andrew Flicker @aflicker]

@paulg Very good new essay from Kriss on this: https://t.co/xLZ3W3G97W

[Andrew Flicker @aflicker]

@robinhanson I think in the middle point "above" money, in the 40s- it might be "stable, long-duration happy marriage"!

[Andrew Flicker @aflicker]

@mattyglesias @AaronBergman18 Yeah, this isn't a real objection. I'm in a German apartment without AC- I can't install a window unit. But I *can* buy a portable AC for 150 euros from the local Bauhaus and vent it outside with no issues.

This is more a cultural / elderly problem, not a real economic one.