There’s no way 10 years of tax credits beats 10 years of investment returns, even if you’re investing in low risk Vanguard funds. At best you’re breaking even.

If home value appreciation is that anemic you really shouldn’t be proud of owning. Unless your home’s appreciation beats the market you’d have been better off renting and investing what you would have spent on a down/closing costs. Hell, if it truly only appreciated $5k in ~10 years you’re actually losing money,…

You’ve hit the nail on the head for why the right protests about being called racist so much. But I don’t think it’s nearly as emotional an issue as you do. Their politics is defined by doing to others what “racist” does to them: placing other people in a box that disqualifies them from having to be taken seriously.…

Your labor is nearly always worth more than what they’re paying you. The difference is where the profit lives. If they paid everybody exactly what the value of their labor was there’d be zero profit.

MSG really isn’t that bad for you. The health scares conjured up around it are mostly cover for racism: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-msg-got-a-bad-rap-flawed-science-and-xenophobia/

He’s got a long, storied history of being so committed to taking “the middle ground” and “reducing conflict” in the name of civility that at this point he’s basically an unwitting ally of bigots. Like, his classic move is getting himself in the middle of fights between targets of bigoted bullshit and the bigots and…

Boogie2988, is that you?

I’m not looking for the show to confirm my biases about tech. What I’m looking for is nuance. For instance you agree that Nosedive’s take is a little simplistic. I agree. I also agree it’s a pretty good episode all told.

I agree with you that that’s what a lot of Black Mirror episodes want to be. But unfortunately a lot of Black Mirror just isn’t very good and does fall back on lazy anti-tech tropes. Sure, Striking Vipers (and San Junipero and Hang the DJ and USS Callister) doesn’t demonize the tech itself, and just presents an…

You forgot the third tier that is true of almost every “successful” FIRE adherent: “Be privileged.”

I think both “what if phones but too much” and “the people are broken, not the tech,” can be true at the same time. Your curmudgeonly uncle who says things like “People don’t just talk anymore, it’s all text text text” isn’t necessarily criticizing the technology. He’s criticizing how people interact with it. But it’s…

Luckily it’s called the Congressional Medal of Honor for a reason. Congress awards it, not the President. To get that award he’d need a totally complicit Congress willing to either rubber stamp it or roll over on it for fear of “activating his base.”

No, that’s not how it was designed. Senators were originally chosen by state legislatures, because senators were supposed to represent the state itself, not the citizens of that state. The 17th amendment changed that just about 100 years ago is all.

Oh, trust me, I was not trying to defend the Muskophile. I’ve been a Musk-skeptic for years. The Boring Company is either a scam or the most obvious example of Musk’s ignorance and hubris yet.

Frequent is a bit of an overstatement, unless you count literally every seismic event and not just the ones with enough power to do damage.

The extra room was not something I had considered but makes perfect sense, thanks for the insight! A lot of your other points were definitely ones I’d considered but discounted for personal reasons (e.g. all my suit coats are too tall for a standard carry-on so I never bothered looking for one that fit). The extra…

The extra room was not something I had considered but makes perfect sense, thanks for the insight! A lot of your…

What issues do you see with four-wheeled bags? I’m a multiple status holder and I think one of the best upgrades I ever made was to a four-wheeled bag over a two-wheeled one. But I have noticed that flight crews prefer two-wheels, so I’m willing to be convinced.

What issues do you see with four-wheeled bags? I’m a multiple status holder and I think one of the best upgrades I…

It’s still sexual battery. He should be arrested. Whether he would be...

Arguably the “race to the bottom” in the airline industry has been a huge boon to the consumer. Prior to deregulation airfare was prohibitively expensive, hence the term “jet-setter” for a wealthy Yuppie type who could afford to vacation or even live bi-coastally.

But you said it yourself: she already had the rest of Westeros except for King’s Landing. Sure, the other houses were depopulated and unable to lend her support, but the Lannister forces were also tied almost exclusively to KL. It sure seemed like Dany had the run of the continent except for the area immediately…