News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on A new Venezuelan ID, created with China's ZTE, tracks citizen behavior. Parent comment

Re:A new Venezuelan ID, created with China's ZTE, tracks cit... by walrus01 on Wednesday November 14, 2018 @12:19PM (#18451584)
It's hyperbole to say that Sanders is anywhere near the Venezuelan regime politically. He wants a single payer healthcare system like Canada. It's really hard to convey sarcasm in text, but I'll give it a try: Come and see the socialist dystopia that is modern Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal! It's a modern hellscape!
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:A new Venezuelan ID, created with China's ZTE, tracks cit... by beginningguava on Wednesday November 14, 2018 @12:30PM (#18451705)
Sanders and Corbyn from the UK both explicitly praised Venezuela when oil was at $120 a barrel. Sanders even said Venezuela was a place where the american dream can really be realized. When oil dropped and the whole thing fell to pieces they pretended that it never happened
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:A new Venezuelan ID, created with China's ZTE, tracks cit... by WillPostForFood on Wednesday November 14, 2018 @12:37PM (#18451787)
The Sanders quote was a misattribution, that has been recited so many times that looks properly sourced. Quillette has a properly researched defense of Sanders:

https://quillette.com/2018/03/10/sanders-venezuela-meme/

Corbyn, on the other hand, has explicitly and often praised Venezuela and Chavez. There are plenty of primary sources, e.g.,

https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/309065744954580992?l...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:A new Venezuelan ID, created with China's ZTE, tracks cit... by yongjik on Wednesday November 14, 2018 @01:33PM (#18452421)
That doesn't really mean much; Trump fucking praised Kim Jong Un. But nobody says America is going socialist because of that.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:A new Venezuelan ID, created with China's ZTE, tracks cit... by yters on Wednesday November 14, 2018 @12:25PM (#18451646)
People just want free stuff and forget they ultimately pay the bill.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:A new Venezuelan ID, created with China's ZTE, tracks cit... by mikeash on Wednesday November 14, 2018 @12:31PM (#18451717)
People just want a system that works, modeled after other systems known to work, instead of horrible brokenness.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:A new Venezuelan ID, created with China's ZTE, tracks cit... by yters on Wednesday November 14, 2018 @04:52PM (#18454393)
Could trying to fit a dissimilar country's system to our own result in a broken system?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:A new Venezuelan ID, created with China's ZTE, tracks cit... by mikeash on Wednesday November 14, 2018 @05:09PM (#18454569)
It could, but I don't see that as the likely outcome. Dissimilarities with other countries are greatly exaggerated, and government is better at getting things done than many people give it credit for.

It is possible that the result would still be broken, but it is certain that the result of doing nothing will still be broken.

We can either just keep things broken, learn from what others have done use those lessons to take our best shot at fixing things, or we can completely ignore the hard-won lessons of others and go for an untested and novel approach. Which is most likely to work?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:A new Venezuelan ID, created with China's ZTE, tracks cit... by yters on Wednesday November 14, 2018 @06:05PM (#18455072)
Maybe first figure out exactly what is broken and why?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:A new Venezuelan ID, created with China's ZTE, tracks cit... by mikeash on Thursday November 15, 2018 @02:47PM (#18462619)
Seems to me that this has been pretty thoroughly explored already.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:A new Venezuelan ID, created with China's ZTE, tracks cit... by yters on Friday November 16, 2018 @03:56PM (#18471897)
In that case it would be interesting to see the premise that gets us from "US' healthcare system is horribly broken" to "Canadian healthcare system is a suitable model."
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:A new Venezuelan ID, created with China's ZTE, tracks cit... by mikeash on Saturday November 17, 2018 @05:40PM (#18477743)
Things like cost per capita and outcomes lead you there pretty naturally. We pay a shitload more and don’t get noticeably better results.
[ Parent | on HN ]