[wtbob]

sctb, I honestly don't understand why you are threatening to ban me.

It's not an ideological talking point that people who die earlier due to health problems don't cost extra in pension funds. It's just a fact: if someone dies at 55, he won't cost a pension system which starts paying out at 65 a penny. fpgaminer posted much the same thing.

Nor, I think, was my aside about taxes being enforced with violence an ideological talking point: it's a fact that any law is ultimately enforced with violence. I honestly don't see how mentioning a social cost in the context of cost-benefit analyses could be considered a violation of any of the HN guidelines.

I'm not trying to derail or be argumentative; I'm honestly trying to understand how a fair moderator could threaten me with a ban for my comment.

[sctb]

The issue is the same as before: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13911550. I appreciate that it's not your intention to derail, but the effect of these comments is predictable and we need commenters to be mindful of that so that we can have the kinds of discussions—thoughtful, informative—that we're after here.

[wtbob]

Would you please be so kind as to update https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html to indicate 'ideological talking points' the staff believe prevent thoughtful & informative discussion?

Otherwise I feel that there's a loaded gun pointed at my head and any random statement is likely to set it off.