I'm not American, but I pay a few hundred dollars a year for the premium health insurance plan at my company. I also pay tens of thousands of dollars more in taxes to grant me the ability to wait for 72 hours in an ER hallway whenever I can't wait weeks for an appointment because urgent care isn't a thing.
My take home would triple if I lived in the USA as a new graduate because of things like favourable treatment of stock grants, less income tax, and the fact my salary would double.
I'm sure the $80,000 extra dollars is enough to pay for the healthcare premiums and daycare. My effective hourly rate would be high enough that going from a 72 hour wait to a few hours would be worth the thousands of dollars in ER bills. If I worked for the government or another lower paying profession it would not be good, but I am a well-compensated software engineer.
There's a reason why 90% of Waterloo immediately moves to the United States after graduation.
My apologies. I thought $10/day daycare was universal in Canada. I guess my broader point was the difference in disposable income between U.S. workers vs. other countries becomes a lot more nuanced when things like healthcare, childcare, retirement, and taxes are taken into account.
> I'm sure the $80,000 extra dollars is enough to pay for the healthcare premiums and daycare.
You're probably right. That said, SWE compensation in the U.S. has been quite an anomaly compared to the vast majority of American labor, especially in the last 5-10 years. I don't think those who are comfortable right now are thinking far enough ahead about what they'll do if that changes, or perhaps when that changes. If this AI hype has taught me anything it's that those with capital cannot wait to start trimming their pesky engineers with those high salaries. And maybe that's always been the case, but seeing them go full mask off hits different.
Unrelated, I like your website. It's simple and the color scheme is aesthetically pleasing.
> My apologies. I thought $10/day daycare was universal in Canada.
In my understanding, it exists but it's vaporware and not really accessible.
> That said, SWE compensation in the U.S. has been quite an anomaly compared to the vast majority of American labor, especially in the last 5-10 years.
The discrepancy isn't an anomaly for Canadians in high-income fields, like law, medicine, or finance. As a rule of thumb, the USA pays twice as much but expects more productivity and less stability. I'm entitled to minimum vacation, I can't be fired at will without huge severance packages, I get lengthy parental leave, etc.
> If this AI hype has taught me anything it's that those with capital cannot wait to start trimming their pesky engineers with those high salaries.
This is the goal, but I see the opposite.
The engineers with the capacity to use AI to replace many others are extremely rare at my company since it requires breadth of knowledge to step in when you realize an LLM can't solve a problem itself, reading comprehension to understand the copious amounts of code/English the AI wants you to review, and extreme paranoia because these things lie constantly.
Otherwise, you end up in an AI delusion loop. The AI tells you it is fixing the problem but due to some fundamental misunderstanding it is unable to accomplish the task and lies to you about its ability. This ends when you are sufficiently fooled to approve the code or when you give up.
I think we're seeing signs of this as companies start replacing SaaS products.
> Unrelated, I like your website. It's simple and the color scheme is aesthetically pleasing.
Thank you! I'm attempting a blog with simple interactive components to ensure people use the site instead of summarizing it with AI.
> "I tried to trick an LLM and I did" is not exactly a noteworthy achievement at this stage in AI technology.
I agree it’s not surprising and I would also agree it’s not noteworthy, if the CEO of OpenAI wasn’t still making public statements like this:
People talk about how much energy it takes to train an AI model … But it also takes a lot of energy to train a human. It takes like 20 years of life and all of the food you eat during that time before you *get smart*.
Precisely. In fact I remember a story similar to this, so I Googled "did Sprint get sued for using 'unlimited' in their marketing?" Lo and behold, yes, they did. And for good reason.
It would be an understatement to say I am ashamed to work in the same industry as many of the commenters here do--commenters who are completely ignorant of antitrust law and why it exists, or for whatever reason, are completely unconcerned with the absurd market power these mega conglomerates (ab)use.
> The one where he specifically told people to protest peacefully?
I know the rules say to assume good faith but I don't see how anyone can do that given what you wrote. I'm really struggling to understand how that is your main takeaway from all the events that transpired that day.
But rather than rehash that maybe it's better to focus on current events. What are your thoughts on Trump, the first day assuming office in his second term, issuing a blanket pardon for all of the crimes his supporters committed that day in his name? Why would Trump who just wanted people to "protest peacefully," pardon those convicted of... beating officers with a flag pole, stomping on officers' heads, and crushing an officer in a metal door frame using a riot shield?
I do agree with you on one thing though:
> it's like they're living in another world
It truly saddens me to see so many people living in completely different realities. But I honestly don't think it's me or the person you're replying to that decided to relocate.
From all the evens that transpired that day? Trump directly told that crowd to peacefully protest. I don't know what more he could have done (on the day of). It was supposed to be a protest. It turned into a riot. The media didn't call it an 'insurrection' that first day, by the way. Or the second day. It wasn't until the third day that I heard NPR use it sometimes, other times they used the word riot. Was it a good thing? Hell no, it was despicable. Was it Trump's fault? Tangentially, sure, but he absolutely didn't call for them to do what they did. Could he have handled it better once it did? Sure. But keep in mind his administration suggested that the national guard be deployed to keep the peace and was turned down. How do you take that fact and the fact that he explicitly told them to peacefully protest and make it about him, not the protesters themselves that got out of hand?
I'm not a fan of Trump, and I certainly don't think that blanket pardon was appropriate. Neither was Biden's pardon of those close to him for any crime they could have possibly committed.
For what it's worth a lot of those people did get pretty ridiculous sentences for what was effectively a riot. Some probably deserved it, many did not. Compare their sentences to those that happened during 2020 riots and you'll see a massive imbalance.
> I don't know what more he could have done (on the day of).
In the first year of his second term Trump has repeatedly nationalized other states' national guards, against the judgement of those states' governors. He also threatened to deploy one state's national guard into "blue states" the President has personal grievances with. Let's not get into the why because the why is clearly not relevant to your comment, "I don't know what more he could have done."
Once again, you're either not responding here in good faith or you need to take a long honest reflection at how you came to that absurd conclusion.
> But you don’t understand. There won’t be any science if he is taxed because then he will leave and take all the money with him.
It's sad how many people truly believe this. Intelligent people, including tech workers, many of which have mistakenly convinced themselves they're not part of the working class.
The DOW is at 50,000! 50,000! If you get this reference (and even if you don’t), there are many alternative actions he could have taken, including not acknowledging this at all.
> Private citizens on the street confronting law enforcement
What actions are you alleging qualifies as confronting? Be specific. Unless I have a wildly different definition of confronting, everything I've read and every video I've seen from different angles shows the opposite.
(This is setting aside the fact that having a concealed carry permit and carrying a legal firearm is not a death sentence in this country.)
The friends I know with concealed carry tend to keep it on them to feel safe, and partly just out of habit / feeling fulfilled in exercising their 2A right.
Not related to this situation, but in the city I live in, it's better to keep it on your person than in your car because kids are breaking into cars precisely because they know people from the suburbs visiting downtown might have one in their glove box.
Yes, I would, for the same reason I refuse to say anything at the border other than "I'm an American citizen," and for the same reason I refuse to say a word to the police during a traffic stop other than "I reserve my fifth amendment right to remain silent."
Rights aren't rights if you don't get to actually use them.
Right now Americans are learning the lessons of the black panthers: constitutionally protected "rights" are only rights so long as your flexing of them isn't inconvenient to the State. We've been shouting this at McMilitias for decades now.
Have you considered why? It's telling that you haven't answered my question: How exactly did the victim confront law enforcement?
I can't speak for everyone here but frankly, I find these "Would you do X?" questions irrelevant and I struggle to see a good faith reason for asking them. I can think of many bad faith reasons, for example shifting blame to the victim to remove focus from the border patrol agents' actions. Or a more charitable interpretation is you view this as a simple matter of cause and effect: if he didn't bring a gun he'd still be alive; or perhaps, if he stayed home altogether he'd still be alive. Is that your motivation for asking these questions?
Setting aside the fact that no, we don't know those things to be true, I don't think that interpretation of your intent is much better. But you also haven't been forthcoming with why you're placing so much importance on these questions.
