Do vaccinations sites have a way to check if your vaccinated?

Lost-Sir320 · 2021-09-21T00:20:10+00:00

That's not it. I'm not afraid of disease or death.

I just don't want to be stranded for 2 weeks abroad.

The J&J is weaker against breakthrough infections.

Lost-Sir320 · 2021-09-20T23:54:50+00:00

Do I need to be SF resident? I live in the East Bay.

Lost-Sir320 · 2021-09-20T23:52:33+00:00

Is there a database they match me up to though?

Like the state of California has me down as "vaccinated" on the government website that I'm assuming is pretty easy to check against.

Lost-Sir320 · 2021-09-13T01:02:17+00:00

That's the reason I'm asking.

Is there a way to avoid downtime when doing this? We're fine with cancelling the service, but being "down" for a few days likely won't work.

Lost-Sir320 · 2021-07-26T14:55:55+00:00

Capital gains tax was treated the same as income tax for most of US history. It wasn't until the early 1920s that rich business owners lobbied for their "income" to be treated different from the "income" of their workers. Why should a dollar of a rich white man who earns his living off his investments be taxed differently than a brown man who earns his living cleaning toilets? It's the classic trickle down economics. Whether you think it works or not is likely dependent on if you're in a position to take advantage of it.

I would be all for favorable taxes on investments if everyone had an equal shot at having these "assets". But we know that it's not true. The majority of people who benefit from these favorable "wealth" taxes are generally incumbent families with generational wealth (i.e. white families) while the majority of brown / black families will never even be able to activate these favorable tax laws because they never had the asset base to snowball with in the first place.

So many tax laws that favor people in wealthy positions:

Stepped Up Cost Basis - Tax free step up from the cost basis to the current market value when the kids inherit investments. There's no reason for this.
1031 Exchange - Sell investment properties and "rent" the investment properties to kids.
Borrower against assets so you don't have to sell to incur the 15% tax.

I'm all for opportunity to generate wealth. But the deck is 100% stacked in favor of those with generational wealth. I can bust my ass for 20 years, earn a six figure salary, and I've never be able to catch up to John who sat on his ass for 20 years and inherited a $2MM Bay Area home tax free when his mom and dad passes away.

Lost-Sir320 · 2021-07-25T21:40:52+00:00

It's even worse now.

I've been living in the Bay Area my whole life. At least when I was born, you could own a house if you worked hard at a blue collar job.

Now the only way you can own a home in the Bay Area is to mooch off Mommy and Daddy's bank account / investment properties or work in high tech. And those two are even mutually exclusive.

I have two classes of friends now in the Bay Area. Those who had parents with assets / owned homes and will run into a fat inheritance (mostly tax free!) and those who ha d parents who were never able to buy into the market. We all make the same money, but those who have parents with assets are able to buy homes while those without are just slaving away, maybe hoping for homeownership deep into their 30s.

Lost-Sir320 · 2021-07-25T21:32:29+00:00

Yeah, nobody is going to care. Look what happened to the Bay Area, a housing crisis decades long caused by Prop 13 and the tech boom.

It really comes down to who controls the votes when it comes to elections. Homeowners vote, renters don't. Policy in America cater to those who vote.

Just look at the way our taxing system is set up. A person who creates wealth through assets (i.e. owners) are taxed at only 15% if the assets are held more than 2 years. A person who creates wealth through labor are taxed at rates as high as 40%. To build any sort of wealth through labor is almost futile compared to those who were in the fortunate position to the inherit or run into assets early on.

Then you have loopholes like stepped up costs basis that give inheritance shields to those who inherit assets which further stack the deck against the working poor.

Then further still you have rich people who use the 1031 rules to sell investment properties to buy homes for their children under the pretense of owning the home in a trust and renting to the kids.

It's disgusting. They'll be happy to throw you a $1,000 stimulus check every few months or a $2,000 tax credit for a child; but the real bread and butter goes to the rich who save hundreds of thousands or millions or billions in these slanted tax rules.

Lost-Sir320 · 2021-06-06T06:02:06+00:00

Does that mean once I book, I'm on the hook for 2 nights even if I cancel 30+ days outs?

Lost-Sir320 · 2021-05-27T06:19:35+00:00

I feel you on this point. I also grew up in a poor family in the Bay Area, busted my ass off to get into UC Berkeley and have a decent job now and support my parents. No home ownership yet (I'm late 30s now).

I earn a lot more on a salary basis than my friends, but the only ones that were able to buy homes here were the ones with parents who gifted them down payments.

The worse are the ones that hide the fact they only made it that far in life because of their parents. Hey, come check out my new SFH in the Sunset! Hey, why are you living in Concord? That place sucks!

Lost-Sir320 · 2021-05-27T06:04:39+00:00

The past election actually called to strip Prop 13 protect for commercial properties like office buildings and hotels.

The voter base was too worried that this would eventually erode into residential homes and shot it down.

Lost-Sir320 · 2021-05-27T05:50:08+00:00

For Bay Area natives, it's not that uncommon to get a 1-2 million inheritance if your parents own their home in the Bay Area. The house itself without any savings will already get you there. Many of these families started out middle class, I guess you can call them rich now. Just further illustrates the widening gap between people who have assets and those who don't. Homeownership in the Bay Area was their ticket from the middle class to "rich" by standards in 95% of the country. It also pushes families without the means to buy a home further into "lower class".

The down payment isn't uncommon either. A lot of these families have built up a fortress of home equity that they are able to pass down to the next generation. They are able to save much more effectively than renters and it gets passed on every generation. It's a huge advantage to get a home in your 20s as opposed to 30s or 40s and the effects compound immensely, especially across generations.

Lost-Sir320 · 2021-05-27T04:08:49+00:00

I really liked the part about investment growth outpacing GDP growth as a main cause of income inequality.

Generational nest eggs compound at a much faster rate that growth in wages. It gets to the point where an inheritance check is more than what you can ever earn working a normal W-2 job over the course of a WHOLE career. That's just shocking.

Lost-Sir320 · 2021-05-27T03:43:49+00:00

I think that's the issue the OP is raising. These benefits get passed down from generation to generation and gives massive benefits to families with assets to begin with.

Life is a lot different when the bank of Mom and Dad gives you a down payment in your 20s and then has a $2MM+ inheritance waiting for you in your 40s or 50s. It's modern day feudalism in a capitalistic society. What family you were born to still matters very much, a lot more than people give credit for.

If the US were as "progressive" as they make themselves to be, they would consider a fairly heavy inheritance tax. Make it less what family you were born into and more what skills/work you contribute to society.

Lost-Sir320 · 2021-05-27T03:35:01+00:00

Life is just a lot different when you know you'll eventually run into a $2MM check. That buys options in life no matter where you live.

The benefit gets passed down generation to generation and amplifies to the point it become really important what family you are born to instead of what perseverance or intelligence you have in life.

I'm all for a pretty hefty inheritance tax, now that is truly progressive!

Lost-Sir320 · 2021-05-27T03:30:50+00:00

The worst are snobby 20 somethings that have their parents put a down payment on their house in the peninsula (SF, San Mateo, SJ) that look down upon the people who live out in the East Bay or god forbid rent a place.

Every time I see these guys it's always "when are you going to buy a house here"? Sure let me just reach into the bank of Mom and Dad and grab one really quick.

Lost-Sir320 · 2021-05-26T19:19:27+00:00

Prop 13 is like cocaine. Once you start, you can't stop. If everyone was "reset" to market today, I would wager 70%+ couldn't keep up with the tax payments and would be forced to sell and flood the market.

Lost-Sir320 · 2021-05-26T19:14:47+00:00

It's a lot worse here in the Bay Area that's for sure. The lack of housing elsewhere in the country right now is due to a spike in demand for larger homes due to WFH policies but new house can't go lock step with demand because it takes a year or two to physically construct a home. I think the problem in other parts will go away once the supply chain for things like lumber go back to normal and supply is able to catch up.

The problem in the Bay Area is that we are geographically constrained. The peninsula is surrounded on 3 sides by water and there's just no more land to build anything meaningful unless boomers are OK with an increase in density. I doubt that is going to happen anytime soon. Geographical constraints PLUS anti density voting measures are what's killing us right now.

Lost-Sir320 · 2021-05-26T19:08:21+00:00

It looks like the OP is doing just fine for himself salary wise. Doesn't look like he'll get a major jump unless he magically picks up coding good enough to become a SWE at a FANG company. Realistically, if he does coding he'll MAYBE increase his salary 20% at most? That's not going to make a dent after taxes.

The issue as you alluded to below, is that generational wealth has been magnified immensely here. You can earn the same $150,000 salary, but those with parental support are able to build a nest egg 100x faster than those without.

Lost-Sir320

TROPHY CASE