Nice article! I’ve read that during the great depresssion, those wealthy who managed to sidestep the crash, learned to keep a low profile. Jealousy is an integral part of human nature. A loud mouthed billionaire flaunting their wealth and success is far more likely to attract torches and pitchforks.

One thing that’s not mentioned in these articles is the effective average tax rate actually paid. Back in the 70s the top rate was 70%, much higher than today. The difference is in the allowable deductions and ‘loopholes’ resulting in the average top tax rate paid staying fairly constant over time. So just saying…

I was thinking about this 70% tax and what’s happened historically is they simply move to another country and become tax exiles. Why not offer an alternative; either pay 70% or do something for the public like build a community center, daycare facility, school, performing arts center, etc? This way it won’t generate…

Perhaps if the whole world decided that “violence is not the answer”, things would be better for everyone.

People consent to all sorts of things that they shouldn’t all the time.

The manager is an idiot. He should have given the owner $500 cash on the spot and gotten a signed release. Getting a bad rep in the car business can mean thousands in lost business.

As others have said, a handgun gives a (false) sense of security. If you have a gun and someone tries to break in, you’ll be more likely to confront them when you should be calling the cops. Then you find there’s two of them and they’re armed...oops. The other thing is guys who want to think they’re John Wick or…

I had to comment on this one. In SB, we lived in the ‘burbs’ for several years. We barely knew the neighbors on each side, forget about anyone further, and this was in a cul-des-sac! We move to NC and we get bottles of wine left on our doorstep with welcome notes and phone numbers. Neighbors came over offering to…

Yeah, California has it’s own vibe. Trendy, skeptical, manic and laid back all at once. I lived in Santa Barbara for 30 years and it’s a nice place, then moved to NC recently. I was honestly surprised at how much friendlier and helpful people are in NC.

Lol, there’s a difference. A game can be won. A scam is a game where you always lose.

I wouldn’t call it a scam. Life is more like a game where if you learn to play it well enough, you progress. That means if you cheat in just the right way, you progress. If you have the right friends, you progress. If you start out with a lot of money, you progress.  Never expect the game has your best interests at…

Well said.  Marketing can turn a mediocre artist into a star and the people will buy that shit.

If they said we won’t use or sell any of your data but you forfeit the 5% cash back, I wonder how many takers they’d get?  Probably very few.

Excellent summary! Instead of looking at it as a creepy invasion of privacy issue, I look at it as what it is. Marketing based on whatever information they have or can get on you. People with privacy worries can always use cash or maybe a gift card.

Being drugged and assaulted is a serious thing.  If you’re joking, it’s not funny.

My 19 yo son says he’ll get an electric car only if he can put an aftermarket exhaust on that spits and crackles on upshifts. Oh and it “must” be a manual.

Get a pilots license.  300 miles in a couple hours no problem. ;)

This ad wasn’t designed to attract men to their shaving products, it was to attract women customers. Men will view this ad in two ways. One, as it’s irrelevant/annoying to them because they honestly don’t act badly but it still feels like they’re being lectured to. Two, they think they have every right to act like an…

True, a reasonable password shouldn’t be super easy to guess. Password generators do have the more secure feature of creating a different password for each site/account though. Damn those hackers.

Bingo! I reuse passwords for throwaway sites all the time but my email password is completely unique and reasonably difficult to guess but not too difficult to remember.