Yeah for what I’d pay for a burrito at Chipotle I can go get a burrito at a local place instead. I am not a chain restaurant person anyway, but the prices are equivalent now, there’s kind of no point to them.

I do actually go to Panera sometimes because it’s across the street from my work, it’s so expensive but do feel like I get some nutrition at least. And there is no local bagel place so I get those there sometimes too. But my kids who used to eat more junk food from chains are meal prepping their lunches now to save money, with no input from me they just got tired of it. I don’t think they’d go back now they are used to making food that they like.

Inheritance absolutely widens inequality, all unearned income does. Here in the US I’m pretty sure most of that money will land in the pockets of long term care providers though. People expecting a bailout when their parents die may be disappointed.

And I’m sure that $ won’t mostly end up in the hands of the aides actually DOING the care, that would help inequality. No, it will go to execs and owners and make it even worse.

Ooh a debutante. Does he get a fancy dress and a coming out party? How exactly do you get jumped into that club?

Kind of. I was a teen in the 80s and had kids in the 90s and 00s. The 80s were hard, the economy was not great, where I live you can always get a job (even now, and even back then) but to make rent we had 6 people working the minimum wage jobs. 3 couples in one house.

I did buy a shitty house cheap (there don’t seem to be any of those anymore) but then we had 4 people living on 15k a year, could not maintain a house, could not improve much because the insurance was so high.

Downtown was dead, Ybor was dead, there was blight and violence, so much violence and crime.

Now it seems everything is fancy and safe and pretty and so expensive. Downtown has apartments but out of reach on a regular salary, you still need 6 minimum wage workers to rent a house.

As Hayes Carll says in his American Dream song: “Nothing changes, even when it wants to.”

Our independents are conservative mostly, signs in front about Jesus and probably don’t even traffic in contraceptives.

Oddly, best pharmacy near me is Walmart. Not kidding. The pharmacists are so good, didn’t even blink when my trans kid got T, they will call to try to get the doctor to modify prescriptions to include or exclude generics for the best cost, they do immunizations (I get mine there not at the doctor, usually, much easier to schedule) & when Adderall was sold out everywhere they found it for my kid who needs it, when estrogen was sold out everywhere they found it for me. They can always quickly get my vials of injectable sumatriptan, other pharmacies can’t. The combo of ridiculously powerful market share, mostly not affluent customers, and very good pharmacists who have been the same people for 15 years now, we got lucky.

Yeah I wish only for a few things that need a bigger base, sub for my city on Reddit was so helpful, and I miss Normal Nudes and Naked Progress, the NSFW stuff on Lemmy is more onlyfans girls & AI stuff, Reddit had such a massive reach they had everything, more people means more niche stuff.

Overall though? So much nicer here. And I am not sure you can have both, it’s probably nicer because it’s smaller.

Clone Wars

Mississippi Goddamn.

I think it’s systemic for sure; but also true that the only thing you can directly control is your own choices, so maybe this is a sort of hopeful take?

But like, what sort of choices are gonna lead you out of poverty, if you land there? I got out with school and then job, but does that even work anymore? Crime, maybe but that would take so much intelligence to pull off it is usually the realm of the already rich. I know a guy whose sister did topless dancing and was so good at saving the money she bought a house with it, and went to school after that, but that seems a one-in-a-million story.

I do think individual choices can send you TO poverty, but can’t really see how they can get you out, it’s more luck than choice.

That one doesn’t help them, though. I just mean the dogs are all scratching up everyone’s floors, but then they declaw the cats? I can get a couch cheaper than getting the floors refinished. And puppies CHEW stuff too. Our dogs have done more damage than our cats.

We would never consider it because we had kids and dogs and the cats needed their claws. But yes it should be banned. We don’t declaw dogs.

I wish we’d trained them to sit still to have them trimmed, as now the kids are grown and dogs not puppies either, but it’s no big deal. Just don’t get expensive furniture.

Sure, but we also drank in parking lots because there was nothing to do, had guys physically grabbing at us instead of just yelling stuff, got bullied in school more, and the violent crime rate was something like 10x what it is now. Oh, and our friends were dying of AIDS as well. And the bay was polluted, and downtown was so dead we could walk around it like a ghost town.

I will never understand nostalgia. There are good things and bad things about every time. But even with the fuckers trying to pull us backwards now, there has been progress.

No. Boobs are luck or money. Ass is work, dedication, commitment.

I just hope we don’t slide into another Prohibition, honestly. Between people who don’t drink because health, and the social conservatives who want a fundamentalist theocracy, we are squeezed.

For me, it’s money - I finally have a good job AND a husband with a good job, and over time have accumulated a collection of booze to use for cocktails. And if we want to go out for a drink it won’t bankrupt us. I practice moderation, one drink 3-4 times a week but never more than one, plus two months off each year, and really like that much drinking, feel good physically.

Weed is like that for me, I can’t find the high at all, just feel stupid and tired and annoyed. It is so unpleasant. Tried a few times over the years and nope.

This would then apply to all religions, correct?

She is so messed up. Religious marriage is separate from state licensing of relationships. Religion can discriminate away, but the state serves all its people.

She can’t argue she was acting on behalf of the state, and literally says it was based on her personal beliefs how can she then argue she has no personal liability?

I think that firing her would have been the better answer though, if she won’t do the job then fire her and hire someone without a conflict.

Yeah, no. I don’t want to divorce but this would force my hand. We were two separate -for-legal-purposes-households living in the same house before, can be again.

Those who disregard history will be doomed to repeat it.

By that standard, I ought not be able to use the card to buy booze (might give it to a minor or use for a Molotov Cocktail) a gun (obviously could use for crime) , and probably a million other things they let people buy with cards.

Not just couples. I was aghast to learn that my fellow parents at work track the location of their teenage kids. All of them, except me. What the fuck? If I want to know where they are I text and ask.

What’s more - half of them also have it turned on in the other direction.

This is crazy to me. I want my kids to grow into adults and I’m not going to surveil them all the time. I think a kid of teen age has some reasonable expectation of privacy. We are close, I have a good relationship with my kids but not THAT close, I don’t need to know if you stopped at Wawa on your way home.

Humboldt Fog is the best cheese I’ve ever tasted, and it’s from the U.S. Cabot Cheddar I would compare favorably to other cheddars, we have some good cheeses here.

Parmesan though? I would just buy less & still get the reggiano. Sometimes I just stand by the display and smell it, it is so good.