I've already heard her saying I'm not friendly and I don't know who should I react.

I don't understand why we can't just do our jobs and go home.

Self aggrandizing people being gossipy and passive aggressive...sounds like grad school.

I guess we should just do nothing then.

The "argument" that something should be absolutely perfect to warrant taking any kind of action on it, has to be one of the dumbest possible ways of thinking about things.

Pretty sure he was about to do that, only to have republicans take it to the supreme court where it was struck down. I don't get why there's still this narrative of Biden being the bad guy because he can't just wipe out all student debt, and why some people keep framing that as his choice. I thought we all watched that SCOTUS case play out in real time.

Barbara Ehrenreich wrote a great book about this called Nickel and Dimed. She was a full time journalist and set out to get a job at a diner and find a place to live on the salary. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_and_Dimed

Matthew Desmond's books Evicted and Poverty, By America are amazing, well researched, easily readable books about poverty in the US. I can't recommend them enough. https://www.npr.org/2023/03/17/1158230630/poverty-by-america-book-review-matthew-desmond-evicted

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.

Used to be one in Citrus Heights. It was gross. Wouldn't expect any less.

This is a great metaphor for why psychiatry is pseudoscience

What I don't understand is how some states charge the same excise tax rate on stop smoking aids that they do on cigarettes and vapes. For example, California's is like 25% at least, and I think that's the lowest of the states with the excise tax on "tobacco." I thought the whole point of taxation was to get people to quit? But it's only on stuff like Zyn and One pouches, Rogue gum, etc. which are tobacco free, while Nicorette as a brand seems to be exempt from excise tax. Their products are exactly the same, but twice as expensive and work half as well. It's also counterproductive to have to go to vape shops to buy nicotine gum and pouches because California has made it impossible to get them shipped. Obviously getting people to quit is not the real goal.

And don't for a second pretend that "Biden is the only one that can win

Tbf he already won this same election once lol

I'm convinced these comments are from some foreign disinformation farm or whatever. No one can be this stupid.

I wish I were this naive

Clicked on "Department of Education" and this is the first sentence:

Federal education policy should be limited and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated.

The second paragraph praises Milton Friedman, someone who should be up there with Kissinger in terms of what a disgusting piece of shit he and his followers are. If anyone wants to know what's about to happen to the US, read Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine to see how it's gone when we've had our "free market capitalist" hands in other countries' business. It makes me physically ill. I hope all the gEnOcIdE jOE people understand what this place, and several other countries, will look like with trump in office.

I think the thing about whether someone's name is "ethnic" sounding having an impact on hiring has some research behind it, as well as other aspects of racial and ethnic discrimination. How much someone's name impacts other areas of their lives, idk.

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.