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.

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.

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.

Allen Ertel, a Congressman from Pennsylvania, pushed to make student loans hard to discharge. Ertel was in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1977 to 1983. Despite stats showing less than 1% of federal student loans were ever wiped clean in bankruptcy, Ertel argued student loan defaults were jumping up. His convincing talk changed the rules, making student loans stick around after bankruptcy unless the borrower faced severe hardship.

This is from the first google result. Just like the other comments are saying, he altered bills that came decades after the original legislation.

But at least he’s doing something now. That’s more than conservatives can say, since they will do and say anything to make everyone else as miserable as they are.

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 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.

I vaguely remember MuchMusic becoming Fuse at some point

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.

If anything this narrative of “oh God just shut up” invalidates OUR feelings about being gaslit for trying to fucking help.

This entire comment is a whole new level of whiny misogynist cringe. This person is so incredibly worked up about a woman wanting to be supported and heard that if they weren’t such an asshole, people might actually feel bad for them.

What it’s like being a TA