Being born there, living your entire life there, your whole family and all your friends are there, you went to high school and college there so it’s easier to transfer to a CSU for grad school, and cheaper because you won’t have to pay non-resident fees, etc etc. The same reason people don’t move from other places. Besides, it takes a lot of savings to move, especially out of state, especially when you have to keep going back and forth to look at places. There’s also just not wanting to move. I am really not ok with being forced out of my home and away from my family because of bullshit like this.

And yes the weather really is that good - in Southern California.

It’s true, but perfection is still the enemy of progress.

I’d remind you that lots of doctors made a lot of money by unnecessarily prescribing Oxycontin that the spiraled into the opioid crisis.

Wait, so where were these insurance companies then and why weren’t they acting as “checks” on these doctors? It couldn’t have just been a minor oversight by the insurance companies either, considering it did spiral into a nationwide crisis.

Would still be a little difficult for people living in apartments. I always think about this when it comes to EVs, and owning “dumb” cars and maintaining them yourself, which I would like to do. My apartment complex has 3 or 4 EV chargers, which are assigned. So you would have to rent the apartment that comes with the EV spot, which I’m sure makes the rent go up by far more than it’s worth. And no way is there room to work on your own car within the assigned spaces. No guest parking either. I guess it’s just more stuff to add to the “cycle of poverty” list

Students were given the opportunity

Funny way to phrase that.

Sociologist Matthew Desmond has an amazing book called Evicted that talks about criminal act evictions and profiles people who have been the target of them. The book follows very low income renters in Milwaukee through years of their struggles to find and keep housing. It also follows individual landlords from the same neighborhoods. It’s technically an academic subject and is impeccably researched (the notes section in the back could be its own book) but it reads like a novel. It won a Pulitzer iirc.

He also just published Poverty, By America last year. I’ve only just started it, but it’s just as readable. He explains overly-complicated regulations and social services red tape in a way that’s concise and easy to understand, and he illustrates their consequences through his interviews with real people. His books should be required reading for every American.

I would not go to grad school. Especially not in the city the program was in. Unless you’re an MBA or in engineering or something ultimately pretty lucrative, I wouldn’t recommend Academia Extended Stay to any sane person who values their own time, money, and dignity.

If I had to do it again, I would have gone for a more specific skill. Not the skilled trades. I know everyone’s all about that now, but we weren’t all born to be electricians. Just something more specific like a counselor, Auto CAD, etc etc

parent plus,

We both worked, my job and hers gave us combined income

That’s so nice for you that you had other people to carry your debt burden for you.

While someone’s $50k of student loans could be “forgiven”, it means that year they will have an additional $50k worth of “income” on their taxes and will be taxed like any regular income would

Maybe one of the best examples of “the cruelty is the point.” Jesus.

I always feel cheated as an asexual/aromantic person. We shouldn’t be forced to live with roommates for the rest of our lives just because we don’t want to get married, which isn’t really a choice, it’s just our orientation like anyone else’s. It’s also so much harder when neurodivergence and/or social anxiety is an issue.

No one should be forced to get married or have roommates (or both) just to keep a roof over their heads. Everyone is entitled to have a little bit of privacy and comfort in their lives, especially if they work hard for it.

I can’t believe I feel like I have to justify the desire for a studio apartment with no roommates.

I know, I think this a lot when I’m on here. Especially the whole “don’t vote for Biden because Israel” thing. I just saw some comments saying that Trump would be better to have as president because he’s just dumber and wouldn’t be able to carry out any kind of war. I honestly can’t tell anymore whether a real person would actually say that.

I thought their whole reason behind repealing Roe v. Wade was about “letting the states decide.” Of course that was total bullshit, otherwise this wouldn’t even be a question.

Freight trains. The funny thing is that I was never really interested in them as a kid, only once I got into my early 20s. There’s tons of adults who love trains, but for some reason it’s still viewed as kind of a childish interest and I’m not sure why.

The last time I drove out to watch some I was kind of disappointed though. It’s been a long time, so I was actually surprised that out of hundreds of freight containers, 90% of them are now just giant Amazon logos, and the other 10% are giant Walmart logos. It kind of sucks. The engines make it worth it though.

Apparently a state of emergency needs to have been declared for them to actually do anything about price gouging directly.

I read about it when Southwest airlines went completely down for a week last year over the holidays and I was stranded somewhere. Other airlines had astronomical prices and car rentals were over $500 for one day. It was disgusting. But apparently there was nothing to be done.

They need to change the rules surrounding it because they’re not working. But any amount of government intervention in the economy gets conservatives screaming about “communism,” or socialism, or whatever scapegoat they’re using that day that they don’t know the actual definition of. And yet, if there’s no government intervention in the economy it’s “Biden’s not doing enough/Biden is personally raising gas prices every week” etc.

Of course there wasn’t a single peep from them when Trump was fucking shit up, other than those “this is Biden’s America” memes when Biden hadn’t even taken office yet and the photos were a year old. Nothing will get done about it as long as conservatives have any say in congress. But they’ll always be the one’s complaining and pointing the finger at “the libruls” while profiting.

You shouldn’t disturb other people whether they’re asleep or awake. Buying a pair of slippers or flip flops for indoors and not slamming doors and cupboards isn’t exactly a monumental ask at any time of day.

You must live below the people in the apartment next to me.

Why are people like this. Really. I want a serious, well thought out answer from people who act like this. I would be fucking appalled if I found out people had been losing sleep because of me. Or they weren’t able to concentrate when working from home, or had to get a bluetooth converter for their tv to connect headphones because otherwise they can’t even enjoy tv with all the stomping, banging, furniture moving, and door slamming. I would feel so fucking guilty and especially embarrassed for coming off as such an entitled piece of shit. I literally cannot comprehend that there are people who know they’re disturbing others, in their own homes, day and night, and they either don’t give a shit, or they get mad at the person they’re torturing for asking them nicely to keep it down. Or both. And yes I have brought it up with my landlord countless times. They could give a fuck. The next step is to contact the city and have them come in with a decibel meter or something. In my state, landlords must ensure “peaceful enjoyment” for tenants. But I’d have to prove it’s over a certain level, then deal with filing a complaint and/or civil court or whatever, so nothing ever changes.

This is one situation where I think an eye for an eye is perfectly reasonable, because after living through over a year of daily constant noise, I think my next door neighbors aren’t deserving of a single moment of peace from now on.

What it’s like being a TA

It’s hard to spend years getting a master’s degree and then to go work on a teacher’s salary. But then to be a professor, it’s another 6-8 years above and beyond a master’s to get a PhD (during which you’re making jack shit and aren’t allowed to work off campus). On top of that, higher ed is apparently ridiculously competitive and an insane amount of thankless long hours for a slightly higher shit salary than high school teachers. The whole culture around and within education needs changing. A lot of changing. It’s so disappointing.

When did this all or nothing way of thinking start in American culture? Has it always been like this and I’m just now noticing it, or is it much more prevalent now because it’s a side effect of a lack of critical thinking skills

Obligatory fuck psypost. The most click bait, sensationalized headlines for small sample correlational studies that almost always have a divisive basis, like “democrats are better at x than republicans,” or “men are better at x than women” or some shit. I got so sick of seeing it on the front page of reddit every single day because there were ten different subs reposting the same articles.