Dr_Douchebag's recent activity

  1. Comment on Green New Deal doesn't include nuclear. Good? Bad? What do you think? in ~enviro

    Dr_Douchebag
    Link Parent
    Yeah free markets definitely exist. Just called the black market. I view it as a gradient. The closer we are to a free market the better. It's but an on or off thing

    Yeah free markets definitely exist. Just called the black market.

    I view it as a gradient. The closer we are to a free market the better. It's but an on or off thing

    1 vote

  2. Comment on Green New Deal doesn't include nuclear. Good? Bad? What do you think? in ~enviro

    Dr_Douchebag
    Link Parent
    There should be no energy subsidies. Fossil fuels or green. Its simple

    There should be no energy subsidies. Fossil fuels or green. Its simple

  3. Comment on Green New Deal doesn't include nuclear. Good? Bad? What do you think? in ~enviro

    Dr_Douchebag
    Link
    Very bad. To me the fact that they intentionally do not include nuclear is a clear indication that this bill is not really about the betterment of humanity but instead about controlling an...

    Very bad. To me the fact that they intentionally do not include nuclear is a clear indication that this bill is not really about the betterment of humanity but instead about controlling an industry like energy and subsidizing whoever the people in charge want to funnel money to

  4. Comment on Good Firefox extensions? in ~tech

  5. Comment on Good Firefox extensions? in ~tech

    Dr_Douchebag
    Link Parent
    Great list except you forgot NoScript

    Great list except you forgot NoScript

    2 votes

  6. Comment on What have you been playing, and what do you think of it? in ~games

    Dr_Douchebag
    Link Parent
    FTL is a spectacular rogue-like game that's extremely difficult and makes you feel like Picard

    FTL is a spectacular rogue-like game that's extremely difficult and makes you feel like Picard

    6 votes

  7. Comment on Are there any scientists on Tildes? in ~science

    Dr_Douchebag
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    You're putting a lot of words in my mouth. All I said was that if you're an np and you want to practice without doctor supervision, you should become a doctor and you shouldn't get a degree like a...

    You're putting a lot of words in my mouth. All I said was that if you're an np and you want to practice without doctor supervision, you should become a doctor and you shouldn't get a degree like a doctor of nurse practitioner so you can call yourself a doctor to people who don't understand the difference. If you're getting your PhD to do research that's great but I've met many who get it then just go back to clinicals and call themselves doctors to patients

    3 votes

  8. Comment on Are there any scientists on Tildes? in ~science

    Dr_Douchebag
    Link Parent
    The training is not comparable which is what bothers me and makes me think some people are just trying to do the easy route, otherwise they'd go to med school and more importantly residency which...

    The training is not comparable which is what bothers me and makes me think some people are just trying to do the easy route, otherwise they'd go to med school and more importantly residency which is where you really learn

    2 votes

  9. Comment on Are there any scientists on Tildes? in ~science

    Dr_Douchebag
    Link Parent
    I agree, nurses can make great Doctors when they go to medical school. The experience is invaluable. I know many docs that were an RN first who are fantastic

    I agree, nurses can make great Doctors when they go to medical school. The experience is invaluable. I know many docs that were an RN first who are fantastic

    2 votes

  10. Comment on Are trade wars good (and for whom)? in ~talk

    Dr_Douchebag
    Link Parent
    It makes sense logically but I'm glad there is also coorborating evidence

    It makes sense logically but I'm glad there is also coorborating evidence

  11. Comment on Why did you choose this username for your Tildes account? in ~talk

    Dr_Douchebag
    Link
    It's the nickname my highschool friends gave me after I got an MD

    It's the nickname my highschool friends gave me after I got an MD

    1 vote

  12. Comment on Are trade wars good (and for whom)? in ~talk

    Dr_Douchebag
    Link Parent
    Trade wars increase the cost of goods that could be cheaper obtained globally. A tariff on steel for example helps out the nation's steel industry at the expense of increased cost of steel for...

    Trade wars increase the cost of goods that could be cheaper obtained globally. A tariff on steel for example helps out the nation's steel industry at the expense of increased cost of steel for everyone else in the country including other goods within the country made from steel.

    It hurts the majority to help a privileged few

    4 votes

  13. Comment on Are trade wars good (and for whom)? in ~talk

  14. Comment on Let's discuss politics in ~talk

    Dr_Douchebag
    Link Parent
    Well I guess I misunderstood you but yea the government sucks. Have a good weekend too

    Well I guess I misunderstood you but yea the government sucks. Have a good weekend too

    1 vote

  15. Comment on Let's discuss politics in ~talk

    Dr_Douchebag
    Link Parent
    Private companies can build ships If they're hostile we don't need to trade with them but that's for any private person or business to decide. We need a volunteer militia and a gun in every home...

    Private companies can build ships

    If they're hostile we don't need to trade with them but that's for any private person or business to decide.

    We need a volunteer militia and a gun in every home so that if anyone invades, anyone could be a threat.

    Let's be neutral and free

  16. Comment on Let's discuss politics in ~talk

    Dr_Douchebag
    Link Parent
    Our military should only exist to protect our country. We do not need to be world police. The real reason our military is so big it a combination of coorporate welfare and us using force to invade...

    Our military should only exist to protect our country. We do not need to be world police. The real reason our military is so big it a combination of coorporate welfare and us using force to invade other countries to take resources which is also wrong

    well we'll have citizens volunteer to get training and fly planes, drive tanks, man artillery, etc."

    Not sure where you're from but I'm from the south and people would gladly volunteer for this. It's not what we go now. Now we spend $8T a year on a massive corporate welfare military industrial complex to steal other countries oil

  17. Comment on Let's discuss politics in ~talk

    Dr_Douchebag
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    They would not have the monopoly of force so they would not If the current trusted (wouldn't necessarily be one, why does windows exist when everyone can use Mac) started doing a poor job that's a...

    However, your regulating entities would become a de facto government

    They would not have the monopoly of force so they would not

    It would be practically impossible to start a new one because no one would trust an unproven regulating agency

    If the current trusted (wouldn't necessarily be one, why does windows exist when everyone can use Mac) started doing a poor job that's a great opportunity for a new business

    There might be a few companies that regulate different markets, but there will be one trusted company that ends up regulating more than 90% of a market

    How would you know this? Without government regulation "monopolies" only exist through efficiency and these are usually temporary at best. Long term monopolies always have government involvement.

    I see with the idea of regulating agencies is what stops companies from faking their logo on their products

    Why hasn't Rolex gone out of business due to fakes. Wouldn't be hard to go to the official regulator source and see their grade

    However, the company that is faking regulator approval can simply pay news outlets to spread hide these stories and instead tell stories praising them.

    But you could still go to the official source and see and if a company got caught faking it, it would destroy them

    one other difference I see is that the vast majority of UL's underwriting is for products whose failure does not kill anybody. This is vastly different to other industries, such as food, where a diseased product that is not caught can have devastating effects.

    A) defective electrical devices can definitely kill
    B) companies and the regulator company have inventives to not kill consumers especially in this day of information
    C) I fail to see how a private company with its business and reputation in the line would do a worse job than the government monopoly. FDA revokes drugs all the time that are approved but later deemed dangerous. You can't sue them though and they can't go out of business

    1 vote

  18. Comment on Are there any scientists on Tildes? in ~science

    Dr_Douchebag
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    Eh I dunno. You'd definitely be the old one in the class and it would basically be 7-8 years but there were 40 year olds with us in residency and med school. I do think if being a doctor is your...

    Eh I dunno. You'd definitely be the old one in the class and it would basically be 7-8 years but there were 40 year olds with us in residency and med school.

    I do think if being a doctor is your goal you should go there proper route though. That's not to say I don't have the utmost respect for nurses but I know NPs and they get about 1/10th the training docs get in the same field time wise and I can only assume quality wise as well (but that is not subjective)

    3 votes

  19. Comment on Let's discuss politics in ~talk

    Dr_Douchebag
    Link Parent
    Great question. Even if you assume there is no incentive for companies to not get their customers sick (hint: there is) I feel like the big thing people miss is that no government regulations does...

    Great question. Even if you assume there is no incentive for companies to not get their customers sick (hint: there is) I feel like the big thing people miss is that no government regulations does not mean no regulations. A regulating agency is a business like anything else.

    Check out the underwriters laboratory for example. They're basically the FDA for electronics. They're a private company and you see their stamp on pretty much everything electronic you buy. They're cheaper, more efficient, much better track record and can be sued if anything messes up and another company can arise if they start doing poorly. This cannot happen with the FDA, hence the corruption and inefficiency.

    Pretty much everything the government does can be done better and cheaper privately. The government afterall is nothing but the biggest corporation in the country that forces you to buy its "annual public service subscription plan". If you don't men with guns will come to your house and force you to live in a small concrete box. Not only are you forced to buy it but in most services it offers it will prevent any competition through violence. Oh but every 4 years you get 1/350,000,000th of a vote for the CEO between 2 candidates forced upon us so it's fair... This service is totally worth 30-60% of your money...

    Problem with the government is they're basically just a corporation that has a monopoly on violence and can force monopolies through violence. This is why they are so corrupt and inefficient because they can use violence to remove competition.

    The government has monopolies or at the very least vast subsidies on many businesses in the us. If the government had a monopoly on food production and distribution I wouldn't be advocating that people starve, I'm saying that maybe the government shouldn't be the sole entity in control. Now replace food production with regulation and you get my point.

    If you take the non aggression principle (it is immoral to initiate violence against another person unless in self defense) and extrapolate it out you'll come too the conclusion that not only is government a leach and inefficient drain on society but it is also immoral. The only real political/economic system that has been shown to work is capitalism because it promotes competition and decentralization through non violent means which helps society

    1 vote

  20. Comment on Let's discuss politics in ~talk

    Dr_Douchebag
    Link Parent
    OK well, casual (but persuasive) evidence relating economic freedom and economic growth abounds. After World War II, Korea was divided: South Korea fostered a market-oriented economy, while North...

    OK well, casual (but persuasive) evidence relating economic freedom and economic growth abounds. After World War II, Korea was divided: South Korea fostered a market-oriented economy, while North Korea maintained a centrally planned economy. As this is being written, many citizens of North Korea are starving because their economy is failing, while South Korea has one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Similarly, after World War II, Germany was divided into East and West Germany, and again the one with the market economy prospered while the one with the centrally planned economy fell behind. Less than a decade ago, East and West Germany were central players in the cold war that threatened to erupt into World War III. East Germany eventually surrendered to West Germany without a shot being fired, because people in the East wanted to have the advantages offered by West Germany’s economic system.

    The former Soviet Union took the production-function model of growth very seriously, so the late empire provides an especially compelling example of the model’s limitations. It invested heavily in physical and human capital, producing a highly trained and educated work force. It also invested heavily in research and development, placing great emphasis on science and engineering. By increasing the quality and quantity of its capital and labor inputs, and creating technological advances, the Soviet Union, according to the production-function approach, should have had one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. Instead, it serves as an example that growth cannot be created by increasing inputs into the production process alone. More inputs lead to an increase in the value of output only when combined within an environment of economic freedom.

    In light of their recent prosperity, it is easy to forget that nations like Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore were poor only a few decades ago. Nations that shunned the market system in favor of central economic planning, like the Soviet Union, China, and India, had economies that languished. Now that those formerly socialist countries are moving toward economic freedom, their economies have started to grow. The casual evidence is so clear that there is now a worldwide movement toward more economic freedom. Yet, as compelling as this casual evidence is, it still leaves open the question of what, exactly, the components of economic freedom are, and how much effect they have on economic growth.

    A number of recent academic studies have helped shed light on this issue. The most in-depth examination of economic freedom is a study by James Gwartney, Robert Lawson, and Walter Block, Economic Freedom of the World: 1975-1995, published in 1996 by the Fraser Institute. They develop a good numerical measure of economic freedom and show that it is strongly correlated with economic growth. Other academic studies have produced similar results, providing evidence that an environment of economic freedom will attract the inputs necessary to produce economic growth. Those studies examine many other factors, but conclude that the key ingredient is economic freedom. After a century in which the theory of economic growth had moved steadily away from the ideas of Adam Smith, economists are now returning to them to show how economic freedom is vital to prosperity.

    Where's your evidence? Or logical defense? Or... anything?

    1 vote