Thursday, September 27, 2018

Apple says that they charge so much because they make the best phone.

Apple wants to make the best so that they can have the most margin. It probably costs around $350 to make this phone, and maybe $400 for the maxed out models, but Apple screws the customer on price anyway. They could charge $750 to $800 for any of these phones and be doing well.

This is deliberate. Apple will continue to do this only as long as people are willing to throw their money away. If nobody bought the XS Max, with the ironic name, Apple would be forced to offer discounts and be more reasonable in their pricing structure.

I am still happy with my iPhone 6+, but these prices are so insane that I will not buy the latest models. I could be just as happy with a cheaper 1 to 2 year or model, or a different brand. There are $500 phones that people can be just as happy with.

A dollar per day will not pay for this phone in two years. Maybe three years, but some models would take four years.


Friday, September 7, 2018

Midterm Elections

The typical turnout for midterm elections is about 40%, so the side that wins will be the one that can get more of their people to the voting booth.

I'm predicting that both sides will have above average, if not record breaking turnout.

  

Sunday, September 2, 2018

The Truth About Untruth | Postmodernism Exposed


I thought that this long video is a very good critique of Postmodernism, until the end when he brought up race and IQ, which is one of his favorite topics.   I think that the following video is a very good counter to this prejudice:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE9jiPyLYZA

In response to Stefan Molyneux's video I wrote the following:

I would love to share this extremely good presentation, but the moment you bring up race and IQ you make it unpresentable, because others will dismiss you as a racist.  In fact, claiming that one ethnic group on average is significantly smarter than another is still racism.  David Duke said the same thing.  Like you, David Duke said that he was for European culture.  Where is the difference between the two of you?

You may think that this is based on sound science, but there are many reasons to think that this is questionable.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE9jiPyLYZA   Even if you could refute some of the things in this video, I think that we can't adequately test for culture and environment.   It may never be clear, or maybe it will more clear in 50 years, because as people rise out of poverty some or even all of the discrepancies will disappear, which is shown by the Flynn Effect.

Because of this, we put too much faith in IQ scores.  It is true that IQ scores are a great predictor of success, but we have a chicken and egg problem.  Successful people produce environments for their children that lead to financial and academic success.  They instill ambition and work ethic in their children, which by itself might account for the higher scores by Asians and Jews.  Environment and values will affect IQ scores.