Honestly at that point it might be worth mortgaging the home all over again just to get rid of that debt. Even at that admirable pace and taking today’s higher mortgage interest rates you’d probably end up saving $2000
We could very easily vote on most issues ourselves using the wide array of technology at our fingertips, with a similar or possible better sense of security than what politicians currently provide.
But the only way for that to happen is for politicians to make it happen, and who would vote to eliminate their own job? No one.
Hmm… I’m not sure I agree with this completely despite politicians obviously being problematic. At least at its core, the rationale is that the significant majority of people aren’t aware enough of all the contentious (or even mundane) issues in society, so we elect people we trust to make our decisions for us. I just checked Canada’s recent bills in Parliament, and the voter turnout for something like this would be almost nothing:
Bill C-16 - An Act for granting to Her Majesty certain sums of money for the federal public administration for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023
Obviously our current system is very easily corruptible and that needs to be addressed, but getting rid of politicians altogether wouldn’t necessarily fix our society, despite how terrible they’re making it right now.
Who would draft new legislation? I know it’s not just politicians that do this but their staff helps a ton. I just don’t see a good system of John Everyman drafting a bill that makes sense. That said I would like to see politicians get fixed cause the system is clearly broken.
Well, the second problem would be figuring out who curates the system. If you’ve ever voted on a referendum you’ll probably know what I’m talking about. You can make any proposal sound awesome/horrible if you leave out the right details.
If you’ve ever organized to resist a referendum you’ve probably also experienced the “we’ll just rephrase this and try again later” effect, wherein special interests just need to stubbornly keep pushing until the opposition voters get sick of participating in the polls.
I don’t think these are unsolvable problems, but they do inherently require setting up a representative beaurocracy of unelected technocrats – an apparent oxymoron. It’s gotta be someone’s job to run the machine and ideally you want them to be looking out for the people above all else.
So, how to play kingmaker? Well, if we take literal kings & elected representatives off the table, what remains is a model akin to academia, wherein credentials & seniority are prioritized above most else. It’s not a bulletproof system (none are), but if you squint hard enough the EU sort of exemplifies what this model could look like – just replace the delegates with smartphones, essentially.
By far and away calling my friend’s mom retarded when I was a stupid little kid. He was on speaker. If I could pinpoint the exact moment where my life started going off-track, it was then and there. But boy was I upset that his mom wouldn’t let him play guild wars.
I’m sure she’s forgotten it, and he probably has too, but the moment replays in my head at least once a month.
At least it was a learning experience. Now I never say anything about anyone that I’m not willing to say to their face.
When I was around 10 I was invited to hang out to my uncle’s bosses bbq party along with my cousins and the guy’s children where talking about going karting and then the guy says “What would they think if we told them you were under 16 haha” and I just blurted out “they would probably think she’s a mutant”.
Idk man I was 10 she looked grown up to me but I’m sure I gave that girl identity issues
18 Years have gone by and I still have flashbacks to that moment
Her bio: “crypto researcher & critic, software engineer, wikipedian”
She is follows the developments in the crypto/blockchain world and explains them to lay audiences (she thinks it’s horse crap and a scam). Right now, she writes near-daily updates on the Sam Bankman-Fried trial.
“web3 is going great” is her creation: @web3isgreat
This isn’t necessarily what you want to hear but why are you getting a Chromebook? I’m assuming it’s required for your school, in which case I’d get the cheapest one you can live with
This may be obvious to some, but for everyone else: A Chromebook is not a computer. It’s a giant Android phone. Unless all your problems could be solved by a bigger screen and keyboard for your phone, do not buy a Chromebook.
C’mon, it’s still a computer. It does exactly what most non-technical people need a computer to do. If all your tasks can be done in a web browser, it’s even kinda good at that. I worked exclusively in ChromeOS for more than 8 years and it was a pretty Mac-ish “no fuss, just works” experience.
That said, I myself would never buy one for personal use that doesn’t have Linux firmware. That will give a longer life and the other capabilities you probably have in mind.
lol, I get what you’re saying, but you’ve stretched the analogy well past its breaking point.
Maybe ask yourself, what does a typical student or healthcare staffer need day-to-day that a Chromebook doesn’t provide? Schools and hospitals are some of the biggest purchasers. I don’t think their CTOs would buy your argument.
What’s your definition of a computer? Chromebooks might not be your preferred computer, but they meet every definition of computer that I’m aware of, and I know plenty of people who love them. I know at least two people who run a business from them. They’re not for me, but they’re great for others.
A tomato meets every definition of a fruit, but if someone says, “Pick up some fruit from the store”, are they going to be happy when you bring back tomatoes?
I have $150k in mortgage debt on a house worth about twice that. Plus a couple more years car debt.
What really gets me is my health insurer severed relations with the county in May and I got hospitalized two weeks ago. So now I will owe the $8,000 out of network deductible. That pisses me off.
It grabs attention. Tell everyone the world is getting better daily, the long term trend of violent crime and war is actually trending downwards. We are making progress towards elimination of diseases, hunger and poverty. No one bats an eyelid. Say the world is verging toward WW3 and imminent destruction is here and everyone pays attention to you.
Its easy to be in a fatalistic mindset. Its easy to say its all going to shit, What’s the point? It’s difficult to be positive. Its difficult to take action. No matter how small. Its difficult to see the ultimate impact of small positive acts. But every small act can and does make a difference. At least to the person it benefits. Its even more difficult to face the fact that all the positive can be easily undone by one guy pressing a button. Its difficult to keep trying despite that fact.
You are human. That’s what it means. That entitled old bitch who clearly cannot (or just won’t) realistically estimate the space left on drifting doors. She clearly wanted to get rid of that poor mofo after she was done with him. Freezing and suddenly clear in her rich-kid mind she just didn’t want to spend her days in the backseat of damp old-timers and his breath was awful, all those rotten teeth of the working class.
This is essentially the same as me. I owe around £40k on a mortgage and my wife has student debt that she’ll never have to repay. Other than that zero debt. I don’t do debt and I like that I’m, more or less, debt free (mortgage doesn’t really count imho.)
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