133arc585

joined 2 years ago
[–] 133arc585@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago

Indeed, it is from a year ago. And it was posted 10 months ago, and every other comment in this thread is from 10 months ago.

Did you think this was just posted? What point are you trying to make?

[–] 133arc585@lemmy.ml 9 points 2 years ago

A global average of 17c doesn't even mean it's necessarily 17c anywhere in the world. That's not how averages work. It could be 0c in half the world, and 34c in half the world, and the global average would be 17c (and yet it would be 17c nowhere).

The point of global averages is to identify trends, which are not isolated to a particular region.

[–] 133arc585@lemmy.ml -1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

Water is a "chemical solvent". So is alcohol (ethanol), which is in nearly every cough syrup.

In fact, the solvent they used is extremely closely related to commonly used and acceptable solvents, namely propylene glycol (and polyethylene glycol), which you likely consume often. The issue is that (di)ethylene glycol has most of the useful chemical properties here, while generally being cheaper. This has happened often in the past in fact: products meant for human consumption that called for propylene glycol have had that replaced by (di)ethylene glycol as a cost cutting measure and that has lead to cases similar to this.

The real problem is cost cutting without safety checks and oversight, not "chemicals". The article even says as much:

It advised regulatory agencies to increase surveillance and diligence within the supply chains of countries and regions likely to be affected by the products.

[–] 133arc585@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I don't think Google engineers are living paycheck to paycheck,

The median total compensation for a Google employee in 2022 was $279,802. The highest-paid software engineers can make up to $718,000 a year in base salary, although most reported making between $100,000 to $375,000 in base salary. They can also receive bonuses of up to $605,000. This would put them in the top 1% of earners in the country.

Google Software Engineer Salaries, average compensation by level:

Level Total
L3 (Entry Level) $192K
L4 $268K
L5 $372K
L6 $543K
[–] 133arc585@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 years ago

That's a weirdly reductive and frankly useless way to frame the situation.

First, a paid firefighter and paid social worker are making the world better, just as much as a volunteer firefighter and charity worker. I'm not sure why you made the distinction.

Second, it's not a dichotomy between making the world better and worse. There are things that obviously are bad, and there are things that obviously are good. But there are also things that are almost entirely neutral, or somewhere in between. It's not an all-or-nothing situation: things can be degrees of good and bad.

If you insist on making it relative: these people are currently doing something more bad than what they were doing before. Whether you think what they were doing before was good or bad doesn't really matter. What matters is that this new thing is bad. And that's the problem.

I find the defense of someone doing active harm under the guise of "their job" to be shameful.

[–] 133arc585@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 years ago

You've come in to a three year old thread only to not say a single true thing.

China is a socialist country, and has been for a while now. The only reason you think any inkling of capitalism being present somehow means they aren't socialist is because you aren't using the right framework to look at the situation. You think it must be either-or, when a socialist country can take advantage of aspects of a capitalist system. There is no class of capitalists, and there is no reliance on or subservience to investors. It doesn't have the characteristics of capitalism: it is not an economic system based on private property. The use of a market economy also doesn't make it not socialist: the basic economic system is socialist, and a socialist market economy plays a role in the allocation of resources and distribution[^1].

There are other political parties in China, and they're permitted. The fantasy that only one party is permitted to exist is just that, a fantasy. From what I can tell there are currently at least 8 political parties, and there have been many others in the near past. Also, the fact that most people support one party is not evidence that people are forced to support it; it's evidence that that party serves the needs and desires of its people. People support the party because it benefits them.

Your comment just reads as ignorance. If you are actually curious about China, and aren't just going to sling talking points you've heard from Western sources, there are plenty of resources to help you learn about it. If you don't bother to put in the effort, then don't try to offer up what you think must be true.

[^1]: Boer, R. (2021). "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics".

[–] 133arc585@lemmy.ml 17 points 2 years ago (2 children)

They do chain them up and work them, they just don't pick cotton anymore, they build military equipment, staff call centers, and build furniture, producing products worth $11B a year with no pay[^1].

[^1]: Before someone says "but they do get paid!", no, they do not. Not only is the minimum wage ($7.25) already unliveable, they make only about 13 to 52 cents an hour. Some states literally don't pay them at all. And those that do: that's not pay, that's legal loophole games. And that 13 cents an hour? Most of it goes to "taxes, room and board expenses, and court costs". That's right, they have to pay to be slaves.

[–] 133arc585@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Bro it’s their job

Do you put any blame on the people who came up with this idea? With executives who steer and determine what is going to be implemented? It's also just their job. My point was (and is) that doing bad things because it's your job is not different than doing bad things that aren't part of your job. And the point I made and I'll reiterate is: ideas are just ideas; its the engineers who are implementing the ideas and making them reality. No one at the company is innocent, and that includes engineers.

If my job was asking me to do evil things, I'd not be comfortable working that job. It's the same nonsense with Facebook: you know you're working for an evil company, which is destroying the social fabric around the world, and yet you don't judge yourself for contributing to evil because it's your job. It's inexcusable.

[–] 133arc585@lemmy.ml 29 points 2 years ago

I have an idea about why they'd come to a weird conclusion like that:

A "hot" topic like that might have outsized participation. That is, a single post about the topic may have a huge number of comments compared to an every day post. They don't have methodology to differentiate between a rare-but-popular topic and an "every day" topic.

Just another example of how their poor methodology allows poor conclusions.

[–] 133arc585@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

a lot of your food is just really unhealthy. I know from the keto subs that many basic ingredients have added sugar for no good reason, and that’s not even going into that whole HFC thing.

That is true. It is possible to eat only healthy options if you make a concerted effort to, but if you casually just eat what's convenient, or eat at restaurants, you will be consuming astronomical portions and really wacky macro ratios.

People in the USA make the "well unhealthy food is cheap" argument which is only partially true; the more accurate claim is "convenient food is unhealthy". I spend significantly less money on healthy ingredients and make my own food than someone who is buying convenient microwavable and prepared meals; but, it takes me a decent amount of time each day to cook versus a minute watching a microwave. I think cultural aspects of being overworked sneak in to this situation as well: when you have so little free time, and have worn yourself out at work, unless you really enjoy the act of cooking, you are likely to just reach for convenience rather than putting in effort to cook something healthy. Then, you have the interaction of eating unhealthy foods to self-soothe as a method of coping with the reality of being overworked.

There are a lot of moving pieces but, all else being equal (that is, the population eats the same things and keeps the same activity level): the healthcare system in the USA could have a lot less waste and overhead (read: siphoned profits) and thus be a lot less costly to interact with.

[–] 133arc585@lemmy.ml 35 points 2 years ago (8 children)

The engineers are writing up the spec, implementing the prototype, and will eventually be responsible for the rollout. The engineers are as much at fault as whoever thought up the idea. Without the engineers being complacent, the idea would be nothing more than an idea.

"Just following orders" has never been a good excuse for doing bad things.

[–] 133arc585@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Silence trimming is something you need to be careful of. If you listen to any comedy podcasts or storytelling, silence (pauses) have meaning and value. If you just listen to news or talk podcasts, its pretty nice to have. I have it turned on or off for selected podcasts, and it tells me it's trimmed over 1 full day of silence from my listening.

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