Every time I had issues with fraud it was with a cc. The fraud protection is just bandage for an inherently unsafe system that you are paying for yourself.
That being said, I do get that for US individuals it is completely rational to use cc's. I would do that too. If you are paying 3% Visa/MC tax anyway, then you might as well use their perks.
What smelendez is alluding to is the matter of who is liable while fraud is being resolved.
In the US, a charge on your bank card results in at least a hold on your bank account - money you can't spend on anything else until the hold is lifted. Worst-case, there can be significant fees associated with this (overdraft, declined payments, etc.).
For most of us, that's a much bigger problem than a debt we may or may not end up paying interest on.
From personal experience, getting a credit card company to quickly resolve fraud cases is also much easier than getting a bank to do the same, even when it's ultimately the same institution.
Places that used to be 32C in summer are consistently hitting 36C+. It absolutely sucks to be outside in those temps. You are running from aircon to aircon. Doom scenarios of unbearable heat is definitely true.
Germany had two sizable heatwaves this summer, of which one was so intense that for the first time in about "ever" ACs tripled/quadrupled in price (note this includes those on online stores where the shipping times would allow for trucking them in from all across central Europe)... I'm not referring to installation labor/technicians even. But like window units and similar ones that don't rely on HVAC technicians to take out the box and turn on.
This is just third world level of open corruption. If nothing is done against it, things will just get worse and not better.
First it will signal to all the lower level officials that corruption is ok. The next step isn't just corruption is ok, but it is expected. No corruption means you won't get far in your career.
The situation of [2] is crazy. Because both the author of [2] and the people using Ferguson’s model are wrong. And the author's advice in one of the last paragraphs of we just need better programmers is also wrong.
The issue is that pandemics are extremely fat-tailed in terms of fatalities [3]. You need to collect a shit tons of data to estimate any reliable parameters and no one has time for that. The only thing you need to know is: Is this a super contagious deadly disease? If yes, lock everything down! This is pretty much what they did in Asia, and countries like Vietnam had zero cases for months and was open while the rest of the world was closed.
How to decide a disease is deadly and super contagious? You need disease experts (who most likely also academics) who understand the nature of the disease, and not better modellers and programmers as suggested in [2]. The issue is that western countries will never let any expert to make that call, so a lot of convincing needs to be done through complicated modelling and real life suffering.
Western countries won’t let an expert make the call, because there hasn’t been recent enough pain and suffering to put it in recent memory the necessity for it.
After all, why suffer if it isn’t actually necessary?
Asia had recent experience with the first SARS, which had very real and extremely high fatality rates, so for them it was a relatively easy (not an easy) call.
For the west, when was the last time we had a real pandemic that actually killed a lot of people? Almost a century ago.
Somewhat ironically because the west listened to experts for a very long time.
Notably, the last time it had a major issue also coincided with a world war.
Cruelty is the objective, because the America is unwilling to enact the laws that will most effectively stem immigration. These are:
1. Make it illegal to hire undocumented immigrants.
2. Foreign specialists need to earn at least an x% above industry standard (to prove they are specialists).
These laws will obviously not fly among corporate donors. Trump will also never deport all illegals because of how much hospitality and agriculture rely on them. In the end it is all show and spectacle. That's what all the tactical gear is for.
The way it works in some countries in Europe is that you have to pay the foreign worker a minimum wage that is x% above industry standard for that role. No need to check if they have special skills. This will obviously not fly among corporate donors.
That being said, I do get that for US individuals it is completely rational to use cc's. I would do that too. If you are paying 3% Visa/MC tax anyway, then you might as well use their perks.
reply