Blowing the Whistle on the Mortgage Bubble

Re:Blowing the Whistle on the Mortgage Bubble by deveac on Friday January 25, 2013 @10:04AM (#5115699)

>"The problem of socialism is that at one point you run out of other people's money". And that's where we're arriving now.

Ugh. I try my best not to be snarky on here, but here is the wiki explaining what socialism is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism

Don't worry, you don't have to read past the first sentence to reveal your complete and utter misunderstanding of the term.

The trend, over the years, has been overwhelming in favor of private ownership of the economic means of production. You're going to need to come up with another word to decry what ails you policy wise if accuracy, not dogma, is your goal.

PolySci 101. It ain't that difficult. Do I really need to GTFY on HN?

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Re:Blowing the Whistle on the Mortgage Bubble by 1123581321 on Saturday January 26, 2013 @12:17AM (#5119350)

I wish you wouldn't have been snarky. The next time you write a post like this, I suggest explaining what is socialism in your post, how it differs from what the person described, and providing them with a word that better fits what they were saying.

Also, I don't see why if using the correct word is called "accurate," then using the wrong word is called "dogma" instead of "inaccurate." Your implication was that someone who uses the word socialist when they mean to use another word isn't thinking for themselves, I suppose, but you don't actually have any reason to think that, and even if you did, you would still want to stick to educating them instead of snarkily insulting them.

Finally, I'd like you to imagine what Hacker News would be like if people corrected technical ignorance with "CS 101. It ain't that difficult." It's a completely unhelpful thing to say. If you believe someone should actually take a 100-level political science class, then please be helpful and suggest a free university course.

I do believe you meant to help so I hope you'll incorporate these suggestions the next time you correct a political post.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Blowing the Whistle on the Mortgage Bubble by deveac on Saturday February 02, 2013 @01:01PM (#5156714)

>next time you write a post like this, I suggest explaining what is socialism in your post

I believe linking to the wiki and clearly directing him to the exact place in the wiki (the first line) communicates the information very effectively. Barrier to entry is zero and if he wants to keep reading he can go more in depth.

>I don't see why if using the correct word is called "accurate," then using the wrong word is called "dogma"

Using the wrong word is not, by definition, dogma. Dogma was inferred from other verbiage in his post, and is my opinion and the impression I got from his language.

>I'd like you to imagine what Hacker News would be like if people corrected technical ignorance with...

See above, -I don't really think this was technical ignorance. Of course I could be wrong, but that's not the premise I'm working with, or the impression I got. Hence the snark.

But as I already mentioned, I shouldn't have bothered to reply at all to what I saw as a dogmatic post. I think there's and adage about what to do when you're coming up short with niceties that applies here...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Blowing the Whistle on the Mortgage Bubble by davidw on Friday January 25, 2013 @10:19AM (#5115780)

> PolySci 101. It ain't that difficult. Do I really need to GTFY on HN?

Best just to flag all political articles and rid them from the site, as they pretty much inevitably end up with discussions like this.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Blowing the Whistle on the Mortgage Bubble by logn on Friday January 25, 2013 @10:31AM (#5115833)

But at the same time we vote up articles complaining that we as engineers should stop making cat video websites and focus on important problems. We flock to advice blogs to find good startup ideas that solve people's problems. This article is food for thought IMO. I'll take a 15 page article detailing inefficiencies/fraud in banks (of which many of us are employed in IT) over a 3 paragraph blog summarizing an 8 paragraph blog on weak typing.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Blowing the Whistle on the Mortgage Bubble by deveac on Friday January 25, 2013 @10:26AM (#5115811)

I'm sort of embarrassed that I even replied to it.

Edit: The comment I mean. OP's article isn't overtly political in any way. It was incredibly interesting. Even just for the insight regarding the mechanisms of QA on a purely physical level. I never imagined underwriters jetting around the nation, going into box filled hotel rooms to get busy underwriting. Learn something new every day.

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Re:Blowing the Whistle on the Mortgage Bubble by sageikosa on Friday January 25, 2013 @03:25PM (#5117431)

http://mises.org/daily/6277/Socialism

Much better read

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Re:Blowing the Whistle on the Mortgage Bubble by notahacker on Friday January 25, 2013 @05:39PM (#5118129)

Reading tracts on socialism by Mises is similar to learning about capitalism from Marx or mainline Christianity from the Church of Latter Day Saints. I'm not the biggest fan of Wikipedia social science articles, but on the whole I'd still see it as a better starting point than someone beating straw men to death in order to promote their own fringe agenda.

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Re:Blowing the Whistle on the Mortgage Bubble by sageikosa on Saturday January 26, 2013 @07:42AM (#5120222)

I had no agenda, except to provide a better reference point for defining socialism than Wikipedia. From my experiences, most people have never heard of von Mises, so may not even be aware that definitions and criticisms of socialism may extend beyond how it is categorized on a site whose goal is collective ownership of information.

Of course, not many people understand that psychology (for price tolerance) and sociology (for price determination) are not the same thing; so trying to understand why any old "economic system" won't do, and why society's governing structure cannot just be changed like an operating system.

[ Parent | on HN ]