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Joined 4 months ago
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Cake day: March 10th, 2025

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  • Just an add on to your thread. I use Netshare to hot spot my data from my phone to devices. It lets you avoid the data limits on sharing mobile data so I don’t have to pay extra.

    I’ll also admit that I’m a little older and maybe I’m saying something that everyone else already knows about.




  • Oh boy. You struck gold here.

    The US Constitution is the highest form of trade pact. That is all the federal government exists for, is to facilitate trade. Catching murderers, building roads, investing in education, stopping infectious disease… All there to keep us working, buying, and trading goods and services because without that whole segments of society starve and start wars.

    I love how dumb the anti-taxation argument is because they have zero idea that they wouldn’t have any money, or jobs, without the government doing what it does with all that tax money.

    Also, never forget that when you work for a wage you are selling your time. Looking at it that way changes how you feel about your life and job. It is 100% a choice that you make because the trade is worth the pay. If not, make yourself more valuable and get out. (It would take too long to explain how that works with disabilities and government aid).



  • That’s why an oligarchy is NOT the same thing as capitalism. You cannot have a free market if an oligarchy exists. Additionally, the four foundational principles of capitalism are:

    1. The right to own property and work for your own well being.
    2. The right to own the profits of your labors, after modest taxation.
    3. Laws and regulations to prevent corruption.
    4. The enforcement of those laws and regulations.

    Edit: wow, the spelling errors sure make that seem crazy as hell. Fixed.



  • Bleach, actually. A small amount of bleach added to spoiled milk makes it taste brand new. The government actually suggested this in a few countries for a while.

    Plaster in flour was common enough that after the miller, the middle men, and then the baker all added a cut, there were loaves being sold with less than 20% flour in them. The result was mass malnutrition.

    Also, and this is a spicy one but backed by basic economics, regulations are a required element to capitalism. The notion that deregulation is pro capitalism is a misinterpretation of the idea that markets are self regulating. A free market is one that is free of corruption and unfair business practices. Which cannot exist without regulations and the enforcement of those regulations. All our current economic woes are the result of straying away from proven economic theory (mostly deregulation) to the right allowing the corruption of the marketplace and emergence of a strong oligarchy.






  • Excellent analysis. I often remind people that every economy that has allowed the wealthy to rule unrestrained for long enough has undergone a socialist revolution, which resulted in horrible conditions. The only exception was England, which adopted a new economy invented by Smith (capitalism, the most misunderstood/misrepresented economic concept on the planet right now). We don’t have capitalism in the US, we have slid back to what it replaced, which is a class system ruled by autocracy and oligarchy.

    I think people often fail to understand just what they are asking the wealthy to give up. Yes, they should give it up, and never should have gotten it. But they have the power to prevent the government from taking it away from them, and that blinds them to the dangers of revolt. For them those changes would feel similar to how the average person would feel about inviting a random homeless person into their home. Sure, most of us could make that work. We probably have the room even if it is a squeeze, and it might even benefit us if they help around the house (my parents used to take in homeless people and give them off jobs in the hotel I grew up in. They usually stayed for a few weeks to a couple of months. They paid for their room and board, gave them free meals at the restaurant next door, and an hourly wage). But most of us will never do that (including me) for a number of reasons. Same with the wealthy. They could give up their profits, they definitely have enough to never need another dime. But the concept is so abhorrent to them they will never even consider it.



  • I would suggest considering completing the licensing before moving. I have seen just way too many times when people jumped the line in similar ways and it ended up biting them in the rear eventually.

    You may end up wanting to return in a couple of decades. Or it could streamline something if you move again to another country. Or you could end up being needed while traveling. Or being offered a position that needs that license for some online work without ever moving back. You could have a death or illness in the family that forces you to return. Or any of a million other reasons that you would want that, and not getting it now could mean eliminating options in the future. I knew a guy who’s wife was a doctor in another Mexico for years before immigrating to the US, and she had to start over from scratch. Just something to consider.