TurkeyChew

This is a pretty spicy take-- is it pure opinion and anecdote or are you slow-playing a link/data/further information? Just curious, because at first blush I wouldn't agree with this.

I take the opposite stance as you guys. "Immigrant loser" to me is a huge burn and insult. ESPECIALLY if the person is an American, but just ethnically hispanic or cuban or whatever. It's worse than a simple observational racial burn (e.g. white loser, mexican loser, etc.) because it's BOTH that and a political swipe.

That, my friends, is called a moral hazard. Kidding, kinda, but I do feel like there is an unintentional hypocrisy when the same student-loan-burdened folks decry someone else's selfishness for not wanting to pay more taxes and then when confronted with the unfairness of those who made sacrifices to pay their debts and miss out on exponential opportunity gains that they would hypothetically take advantage of, there is little more than a response of shrugging of shoulders and "sucks to suck, bro".

This thread brings the lulz for sure.

For the literally 3rd time. It is a roadmap to not be dependent on the government if you were born already not dependent on the government (i.e. "How Not to Backslide in America"). It's not a panacea to not being poor meant to be peanut butter'ed across all populations and it's not a "Hey poverty stricken people, here is a guide to getting out of poverty!". I'll say it one more time really loudly for those in the back: Just because it doesn't magically solve and guarantee really poor people from staying poor, doesn't mean there isn't merit and positive outcomes to an admitted heuristic statement and should be completely discarded as irrelevant. The worst case scenario is nothing worse further happens to your poor lot, the best case is you better your station.

All roads lead back to money.

FIFY I've proactively acknowledged that the SS concept is ableist and also agree that if you are already poverty-stricken (read: have zero economic privilege to begin with) it doesn't make sense. The point over and over again is that the SS is a basic table stakes approach to those who were privileged enough to a) not be born into poverty b) have adult parents with jobs and basic income/above poverty level income and c) not be born or develop disability to give themselves great odds to live a life not dependent on the government (entitlements, etc.). Those who are born into a privileged situation but not a lot of money, ignore those three precepts at your own peril as obviously it's not scripture.

Unless you are wealthy or have wealth/familial privilege. Which was my point. Plenty of felons can still be average earners through nepotism, etc. edit to add, also see that Henry made the same point. You can't have that heuristic quote without acknowledging there is privilege baked into it

Agree with you; money solves problems. If you are born with it, your table stakes are a lot easier. The point is that for the 80% of the population, ranging from poverty line and up-- do these basic things and you can be a self-sufficient American with a modicum of autonomy and comfort and barring unforeseen events like health or trauma, etc., you are likely to live a below-average-to-average life without being dependent on the U.S. Government. If you born with privilege, sure you can fail and fail and fail and do drugs and pregnancy and go to jail and be a felon and get a face tattoo and storm the capital on 1/6 and all these other really really poor life decisions, and still have the same expectation for an average to below average life without being dependent on the U.S. Government because of your privilege. I would actually argue the only thing that is "B.S." about that heuristic quote is that it might be "ableist" in that able-bodied folks have a privilege above and beyond all of those who are born with disability or have health issues that render disability which is out of their control which can necessitate a dependency on the government despite all best intentions and abilities and basic income-earnings, etc.

Because the ones that really do want to, sink their political careers by admitting it?

I feel like the "don't get hooked on drugs, graduate high school, and don't get pregnant or get your SO preg before 25" is just stating that by doing some basic table stakes things, you exponentially increase your odds of succeeding to being above the poverty line and being self-sufficient and not dependent on the government for day to day survival. Just like being born an American doesn't mean life will be perfect, by being born an American in the richest nation where like a $40k annual income puts you in the top 10% of the world, you have a better chance at not being abjectly poor. I think I read the average American income is like $45k these days (shoutout to Wharton grads), but I think that's the big idea: It's not a playbook that guarantees any success and it's not a blueprint to happiness, just a way to minimize risk and assure at least mediocrity. That said, sure there are pockets of American society where populations and cultures are horrible and not getting pregnant and not getting hooked on drugs and graduating high school might be a huge thing, but generally speaking it's not a heavy lift for most Americans.

Yang wanted to decriminalize too! Man we really missed an oppty in hindsight, didn't we?

I think trying to pile-on with a fake take is smarmy. Maybe it's not, but we do agree on one thing. Both of us think the other one does not know what smarmy or quick or probably a whole host of other things, is. Simpatico, we are.

There was an awesome platform led by a good guy that the Dems completely tore into and ate up even through the primaries and then the NY election who had an idea about this. Started with a U and ended with an I, but I'm horrible at wordle so can't remember....

That was AgwithKids. Keep up if you want to be smarmy.

How do you report someone following you around and harassing you @hayden_horn? I get she’s having a bad day on the other thread for being a child-hating monster, but no excuse to harass me in all other realms.

I wonder if it’s the fine print “up to $15/hr”

As of now, I hope this doesn't happen. Leaving Afghanistan (not to mention, in the chaotic way that we did) to deploy in Ukraine feels a bit "out of the frying pan and into the fire" to me. https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/24/politics/biden-troops-europe/index.html

Thanks for the explanations. I was going to scoff at unwashed masses for watching non-prestige TV reruns as a whole personality (e.g. Friends, The Office, etc.), but then I realized that literally the only thing I watch on Netflix is Seinfeld reruns. I am just another flavor of that demographic.

The first 45 seconds of this song alone is worth the price of admission when the speakers are maxed out:

Oh I didn't know that!

I don't know how it's happened, but Seinfeld (all 9 seasons) is still on Netflix which is awesome. I'd assume Peacock or Hulu or the original owner of the "masters" would have yanked them by now.

We've been trying to decouple chips and geography for years-- I think TSMC got a lot of government money to build in AZ recently as a way to hedge against China, but it's a day late and a dollar short IMO. As well as Intel failing.