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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 15th, 2023

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  • Honestly, this story doesn’t need to be covered as an opinion piece. The facts that we know at this point are damning enough. There are plenty of articles that cover it better: https://www.npr.org/2023/08/14/1193676139/newspaper-marion-county-kansas-police-raid-first-amendment

    The paper didn’t initially publish anything. They were following-up on tips and doing some very basic journalism. They opted not to publish some inflammatory stuff because they were worried they were being used in a domestic dispute. The paper only published a story to defend themselves after they were accused of a bunch of stuff by the restaurant owner. Then the raid happened.

    I hope everyone involved in authorizing/executing the raid gets absolutely brutalized by the legal system. They shouldn’t hold the positions they have because they’re clearly not qualified and the paper deserves significant compensation. The founder of the paper died the day after the raid; she was 98 and it’s very likely that the trauma of being raided by the police contributed to her death.



  • You are well within your rights to pay for that since it fits your family’s needs. But, describing it as saving money glosses over that it’s a result of a change in the terms of service. Netflix used to gloat about not caring that people were password sharing. They backtracked on that pretty hard.

    I cancelled Netflix after they cracked down on password sharing because I’m a home of 1 screen. If the only option for 4k viewing is a 4-screen subscription that I can’t share, then that’s a ripoff as far as I’m concerned. If they’d offered a cheaper 4k, 1-screen subscription option I would have considered sticking with that. Ultimately, I probably would have cancelled as soon as the strikes happened just to support the creators, but that would be a separate decision from the password sharing stuff.





  • I’ve been using Mint for years and it serves my needs. It’s kind of slow, they push advertising at you, but I got everything setup years ago and making slight changes to my budget categories takes no work at all. Syncing with my accounts is necessary because I definitely wouldn’t put the time into software that requires any amount of manual importing. I login at least once a month to see how my wife and I are doing with keeping to our budgets, but that’s about it.

    Day to day, keep an eye on our shared credit card and checking account. We’re lucky enough that we don’t live paycheck to paycheck so I don’t feel the need to track everything with a magnifying glass. That being said, Mint has been invaluable to set ourselves spending and savings goals and has made it easy to track progress on both. I’d be interested in a FOSS alternative so I could stop using an Intuit product, but haven’t yet seen anything that is better for my needs.


  • I think the initial divergence in our thinking is how we define a person’s fair share. The U.S. has this pervasive myth that individual perseverance leads to achievement. That is, if you work hard enough then you can get rich and that’s the result of your own efforts. I’m not trying to discount the hard work that many people put into their success, but the reality is that they are benefiting from so many different things that they have no direct control over. The family you’re born into, the physical location where you’re born, your race/ethnicity, etc. These are all more significant contributors to success than individual effort.

    A prosperous society supports all its citizenry in some way, but some people need a lot more support than others, and it’s through no fault of their own. People who are individually more prosperous should expect to contribute a proportionally greater amount to support society because they’ve already reaped the benefits of that society themselves.


  • If the wealthy put in a significantly larger amount while working they will be entitled to a proportionally larger about of withdrawal later.

    Why?

    The wealthy put in more money towards taxes that go to other things which everyone benefits from equally. The wealthy don’t get better roads just because they pay a higher tax rate. Why should they have uncapped benefits from social security? Retired folks being able to live off social security is a benefit to all of society, it’s not meant to keep people at a high income with no other inputs. The wealthy can benefit from social security just like everyone else, and payouts should be capped, but they’re currently benefiting from society at a greater rate pre-retirement so that should be reflected in their contributions today. If they want to be wealthy in retirement, then they have the means to invest and supplement their future social security earnings.

    Edit: I just realized some of my statements conflicted a little. My point is just that tax contributions are not expected to deliver a 1:1 benefit to the contributor for the service that is collecting tax. You don’t put in $1 towards roads and get $1 back of road use, or $2 towards schools and get $2 of education back. We all contribute for the betterment and support of society at large. The wealthy can afford to contribute proportionally more. They are getting the benefits of their taxes back in greater proportion than the rest of us by way of their wealth, they do not make that money purely off individual effort. Supporting retirees ensures they are not a drain on society’s resources and it’s important that the wealthy contribute enough to make this possible.


    • Take time off (PTO, sick days, etc.); you need to plan time off and also recognize when your body/brain just need a break for a day
    • Recognize your limits; it’s okay to say that you can’t take on additional tasks
    • Have mentally stimulating and mentally relaxing hobbies; zoning out and watching TV for a bit is good, but you also need non-burnout things to do that make your brain work a bit
    • Exercise; physical activity is so incredibly important for health and happiness, it doesn’t have to be going to the gym, but you need to be doing something active regularly

    Some of these things are easier if you’re lucky enough to have the right job. Don’t be afraid to change the main contributor to burnout by seeking out a new job that works better for you.


  • undefined_one> It’s the same principle.

    It’s really not. The system is broken and student loans are extortionate. Borrowers were promised something that was not delivered.

    I paid for my loans, too, but I don’t think the next generation should suffer because we bought into a broken system. It’s been shown that student loan forgiveness will have a hugely positive impact on the economy. I’d much rather we make decisions that benefit society as a whole versus holding on some misplaced idea that it’s more important we punish a group for believing the lies they were told.

    Also, “most entitled generation ever” is such bullshit, pure and simple. Wage gap, American Dream© being a lie, housing crisis, etc., etc. This generation was led to believe they had a future, but they just can’t afford it.>