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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 2nd, 2023

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  • Taxes can go either way. It depends on how they were written.

    The tax code after the Great Depression allowed for massive expansion of public projects in the U.S. It was 63% for the top earners. During WW2 the top tax bracket was at 94%.

    When the boomers were all born the tax bracket was above 70% for the top earners. This high tax bracket is what fueled the creation of a large middle class, public infrastructure, schools, research, space exploration, and the massive military buildup and wars. It also acted as an effective anti-minopoly/oligarchy system because the tax system discouraged it.

    Then in the 80’s Reagan slashed the taxes for the top earners down to 28%. its never gotten above 40% since then. Most high earning companies have so many exeptions today that the real tax rate is often 0%.

    Because of it the infrastructure built during the 50’s-70’s is degrading and falling apart. Public services are declining and the middle class is shrinking as people become more impoverished.




  • A C-section will run you $60K easy. With the 80:20 insurance thats $12K owed by the parents. . With the federal out of pocket maximum being $9,450 for the mother. The baby also has a $9,450 out of pocket maximum. So the family will likely owe at least $12k before leaving the hospital

    $5K handout is seriously ignorant. It will cost a hell of a lot more to reverse the trend

    In order to increase the birthrate above replacement level here are a few things that need to happen.

    1. Free universal healthcare including dental.

    2. Rent control for all apartments locked to single income minimum wage.

    3. Ban on investment properties for single family homes. If the house is classified as single family, you can’t rent it out. It must be sold.

    4. Free childcare.

    5. Free education from pre-K to Graduate levels.

    6. Open immigration policies for countries with higher birthrates.

    7. Increase minimum wage to make it a livable wage.

    8. To pay for it all - Increase corporate taxes to 95% for more than $100million income. Increase personal taxes to 95% for more than 1 million in income.



  • I drove over 7K miles last month. I would much rather see traffic enforcement cameras than police cars sitting on the side of the road.

    Traffic cameras attempt to document actual behavior with real evidence in an impartial manner.

    Most cops are dumb, undertrained, and overpayed parasites on society who have violent and agressive behaviors. Then they sit on the side of the road being bored out of their minds all day. When an accident does occur they mostly stand around directing traffic while the paramedics, firefighters, and wreckers do all the work. Hell the most useful thing I have seen them do is remove debris from the road with a broom and dustpan.

    City I lived in had a serious issue with people running red lights at a few intersections. Many fatal accidents and pedestrian injuries happened because of it. They put in a red light light cameras on the worst intersection. The first month it generated over $350K in fines at $125 each. Around 2,800 drivers ran that intersection. Within 3 months the number of tickets dropped to under 20 per month. The number of accidents dropped respectively as well.


  • Ehh… As somebody who is old enough to remember before the standardization and consolidation of software, I disagree with you.

    A workforce that are trained in more software options makes them more valuable to the company. It pushes for constant innovation. It’s not efficient, but innovative processes almost never are. It also increases the difficulty to replacing experienced employees.

    The widespread adoption of Photoshop as the standard has depressed wages and increased job insecurity. I also suspect that the trend of simplification in designs is the direct result of this. Mediocre talented designers are selling boring easy to create designs to artistically blind CEO’s.




  • That’s okay, we can reschedule the 1 of the 60 TFCV meetings about theupcoming 5 TPS meetings, that so we can be prepared for the 2 SMR meetings in 3 and 4 months, which is needed for the the BRM meeting in 6 months. Then we’ll see if anything is decided at the BRM meeting. If not we’ll repeat the meeting schedule for the foreseeable future.





  • It doesn’t help that alternatives have been lowering their prices. For example Wine prices have been decreasing due to a large amount of over-production. When a can of fancy beer cost $7 and a decent bottle of wine cost $9-12, economics wins out.

    Oh and south central Washington (Yakima valley) is taking a beating on Hop prices. Most of those expensive beers have a lot of hops in their recipes. Add in they are highly dependent on immigrant labor and they are truly fucked for the next few years.



  • Few things:

    First off find out the age of the well and the pipes.

    The water is very soft and acidic (low pH). This means that if the pipes/well casing are slowly being disolved. That’s likely why the iron is high. If the pipes contain lead anywhere, they are also dissolving the lead.

    Only real solution = all new well and 100% plumbing replacement.

    If the system is not that old and the groundwater is contaminated , a filtration system is required. Look for a whole house filtration system.

    Either way it’s an expensive fix. I would get some experts out to diagnose the issue. Then require the seller to pay for the necessary fixes as a contigency on your offer.



  • I have a work phone and a personal phone. The work phone i answer calls from I known numbers all the time. My contact information gets passed around as part of my business. For a while I had scammers hitting my number 3-4 times per day. I answered and fucked with them every time. A little free stress relief through the day. Now I almost never get them anymore.

    My personal phone I have always screened all the calls. It still gets hit with scammers 2-3 times per week.

    I guess you are right. There is a list going around of numbers who waste their time.