michpoch

These professions are a core of the middle class. Maybe some of the most successful could be called upper-middle class, if they also had a large inheritance?

But a regular software dev or a GP is the perfect representation of a middle class - having enough money for comfortable life, travel, owning a house, new car, leisure activities and having money for investments.

If one can’t afford these (all at the same time) - it is not middle class. Middle class is not a “median - average salary class”, by a long shot.

> but that middle class and lower class Americans were much more likely to have Android devices.

An iPhone would be a very minor expense for a person from middle class (lawyers, doctors, sofware engineers…).

I imagine for working class or poor people Android vs iPhone could be a real concern financial though.

> For any expats, I was curious what your pathway was to getting overseas?

So... any expats? Or Americans moving overseas? Or people from the USA moving to EU countries? These will be wildly different scenarios.

For me it was signing a work contract in Switzerland and moving there from an EU country. The path to get that job was by finishing a good uni and having some work experience already while studying. Not sure this helps you much...

Yes, that’s seems rather low even? Plus that is basically almost included in their budget - 30 USD for electricity is already there.

> Also, while I agree that $40 is cheap to me, it's also an additional 10% on their budget.

They already have 30 USD per month for electricity in their budget. All year long.

> which is more than half the size of my suburban home)

How much space you need for a single person? 30-40 sqm (300-400 sqft)? That’s more than you need.

Sure, middle of winter night you might need a bit more heat, but then in June you’ll be using close to none.

At these electricity prices bothering with wood might not be worth it. If you get some, that’s nice, but otherwise just insulate the house well and you’re golden.

At 4 cents per 1kWh heating will not be an issue, even with regular resistive heater. It’s almost free electricity.

You could run a 1.5 kW heater 24/7 for roughly 40 USD a month. Just make sure the space is well insulated and not too large - but we’re talking about basic living, so that should be easy.

> No offense, but it kind of shows with every product by that company I've touched over the years.

You still have code review process which will be done by the owner of that space and someone with the language fluency.

> Until recently, Telegram operated without a clear monetisation strategy, funded largely by Pavel Durov’s personal fortune

Well, that is an extraordinary business model indeed

Right, but how do you track carbon in imported goods?

„Only” track imports?

It's trivial to implement auto fuel tax - it's already in place in most of developed countries.

Ok, let's assume you do. Let's tax all fuels 300% in the US. Now all manufacturing stops as your production costs are all over the roof. Everything is imported from countries that do not have these taxes.

What problem was solved here? None.

This is already done, in Europe most of the fuel costs are taxes.

Yes, if you apply the carbon tax only for the fuel at petrol stations. I am talking about realistic-to-implement solutions.

Right, but now you're talking about adding the tax to the whole economy, not just car fuel?

That's close to impossible to implement. You'd need to track production and usage of everything in an extreme detail. Plus tracking all purchases (items + services) to a given person. So complete state surveillance of citizens. Globally.

We don't differentiate these in any significant way. Do buses in your country pay different rate for fuel?

There are vans carrying 6 people on international routes in Europe, is this public transport? Private? Anyone can book it.

> Some uses are, impulse Craigslist and local furniture purchases, outdoor sports equipment, home garden projects.

Why would you buy a pickup for any of these activities? It'd be quite terrible? A van is a perfect solution.

> I live in a "city" in WV and need my truck all the time to get to rural areas

How rural are these areas? No roads?

The question is... how many farmers / ranchers need these pickups? There seems to be like an absolutely crazy competition for vehicles for a very narrow group of people.

Who will be buying all of these pickup trucks?

What makes a jet private? Should Trump's Boegin 757 count as one? What if an airline is flying a jet with no passengers? Cargo jets?

> since on average richer people will spend more on fuel

Why would you think so? People driving older cars, not being able to afford to fly - will certainly spend more money on fuel for their car.

So the US should drop the sales tax then?

> Just as a tax on consumption of up to 27% in Europe massively reduces Europe's consumption of US exports.

Same way it reduces the consumption of domestic goods? Seems like fair level?

> We also have VAT on imports.

And the US has sales tax.

VAT is paid on all products, it doesn't matter if it's domestic or imported!

Then they'll lose time for the same verifications to fail in the PR?

> I have team members who complain that installing and running pre-commit is too much overhead

Why do they have a say in this? This is up to tech leadership to set standards that need to be followed.

They need to be knocked out anyway because they're using fossil fuels or high amount of electricity for heating / cooling.

You change the planning rules and things change over time. We're not destroying peoples cars to replace them with EVs.

There's no tech we have currently that would work when people need to drive every day. You not only have fuel, you got tyres, you got the roads you need to maintain. Let's fix this at the core.

> I’ve had my EV for five years and the brakes are still pristine (regenerative braking saves mechanical brake wear)

What did you expect? I have original brakes with original brakepads in my 5 years old ICE van. I have original brakes (pads, rotors) in my 2016 motorhome.

> Every time I see a fossil fuel car sitting outside my son’s nursery, engine idling

Sure, so how much better do you think EVs are in that matter? 10%? 30%? The solution is to stop using individual transport, not to make it slightly better.