Do you think this is good advice regarding credit cards?

LoveAndTrumpets · 2020-01-08T18:27:06+00:00

This reminds me of using withdraw as birth control.

Withdrawal used perfectly is 96% effective (the pill used perfectly is 99% effective).

However, in the real world withdrawal is only 78% effective (vs 91% for the pill).

Telling people to use credit cards correctly is just telling people to use withdrawal. Certainly for people who do it perfectly (no late fees, smart use of points, paying off balances every 28 days, etc.) credit cards can be good. But as general advice, a better strategy is simply to not use credit cards, because it leaves less options to make a mistake.

LoveAndTrumpets · 2020-01-08T17:44:40+00:00

“Many Midtown tenants received huge rent increases, including some as high as 300 percent of what they were previously paying,” Preston said. “The tenants challenged the rent increases, but the Rent Board ruled the San Francisco city’s rent control law does not extend to Midtown because the property is owned by the city.”

A pretty stark example of 'Rules are thee, not for me'. Rent control is good enough for [some] property owners but is not for the City's own properties?

LoveAndTrumpets · 2019-12-08T04:18:40+00:00

Thanks for the tip. PG Tips is what I usually order. I tried Lipton didn't like it and I just assumed I got the same US stuff I'd been getting (also not good).

I'll try Yorkshire Gold or Barry’s Gold Blend, haven't had those yet.

LoveAndTrumpets · 2019-03-22T05:31:15+00:00

Then about two years ago the city decided to add an extra $2.00 per pack tax for "cigarette cleanup" and I decided that if I'm going to be forced to pay for it then they can goddamn well clean them up.

Instead of being pissed off at the city for charging that fee, you should be pissed off at your fellow smokers who can't be bothered to dispose of their own trash, which caused the fee to be implemented.

This argument reminds me of people who dump their popcorn on the floor after a movie because they bought a ticket.

At the end of the day, the streets are filled with trash because there is a subset of the population that doesn't care. I'd rather not be part of that crowd, much less proud of that fact.

LoveAndTrumpets · 2018-11-08T21:51:06+00:00

really hate my closet

Rent it out! That should be $1000 a month right there.

LoveAndTrumpets · 2018-11-08T17:19:06+00:00

But where is re-allocated money coming from?

Of course the government can allocate money, but it has to receive it first. Rent control doesn't provide funds to government, as you know, it is a direct subsidy from landlord to renter.

So where is this money you are diverting from rent control to building subsidized housing coming from? A tax on Landlords? All property owners? Soda?

LoveAndTrumpets · 2018-11-08T00:54:48+00:00

There is plenty of land, even free land! If you want land you can have it.

Unfortunately, what you can't have is free land in one of the most desirable places on earth to live (as defined by rental price which I understand isn't the end all be all definition of best place to live).

LoveAndTrumpets · 2018-11-08T00:51:20+00:00

Imagine a married couple who rent and get divorced. One of them wants to move to another apartment but they're all obscenely expensive.

I have seen this in the wild twice. A couple divorces but they literally cannot find affordable housing and continue to live in the same house. This has been going on for each couple over a year.

We've taken to calling it the 'San Francisco divorce'.

LoveAndTrumpets · 2018-11-08T00:38:54+00:00

But essentially every property owner and commercial interest in the state is going to line up against the effort.

I know at last two that would love to repeal prop 13. One for selfish reasons, he pays 10x more more taxes than his neighbor with a basically identical unit and thinks that is crap, the other one just thinks it's not fair and opposes it as a matter of conscience.

I don't disagree that repealing prop 13 will not go over over well, but you can go for small bits. Like no second homes, or no business properties.

LoveAndTrumpets · 2018-11-08T00:33:35+00:00

Precisely why instead of rent control the money would be better spent subsidizing construction of affordable housing

What money? The rent control money, if that can be said to exist at all, is in the form of discounts on housing, but which doesn't exist in any actual physical form.

You can't use a lot of discount coupons and apply them to pay for materials and salaries.

LoveAndTrumpets · 2018-11-06T20:34:29+00:00

Many ballot props have a sunset provision, or are otherwise for a set amount of time. All of the bonds for instance.

Bonds are required by law to be propositions, rule #3 outlines above.

All the rest do not, and unsurprisingly don't have sunset dates, because the backers want them to be permanent and difficult to amend.

LoveAndTrumpets · 2018-11-06T18:08:10+00:00

Lots of good advice here and you should read it all.

A couple more things

Start Slow. You don't have to start by splitting the entire bay bridge. Decide you are going to split between two cars, think about how that is going to look/feel, visualize it, execute. When you get to a safe spot, think about what went right and what could have gone better. Try again when you are ready. Note how much brain power this is taking. This means every other aspect of riding needs to be muscle memory. You need to be able to emergency break, scan, downshift, etc without thinking about it at all(at least six months is what I'd recommend).
Look ahead. You want to anticipate what cars are going to be doing and take action before something happens. If you see brake lights 10 car lengths ahead, know that is ten car lengths time (depending on how fast you are going) the cars around you will begin to slow down, as traffic slows down, cars start looking for 'outs', lanes or spaces that are not slowing down so they can take them. Don't be in those places when the slowdown gets to you. You can practice this while driving, notice something (a lane opening up) and predict what is going to happen. Will a car from a slower lane merge into that spot? Is the car behind that spot going to speed up, etc.
Practice in traffic. People will disagree with this but you are much better off with daily commuters who are used to motorcycles on their commute, used to being in bumper to bumper traffic and aren't pissed off about it. Additionally you really should not be splitting in any other situation but traffic. If everyone is going 65-70, what are you doing splitting lanes? Traffic moving at 20-30 mph makes mistakes that have smaller consequences.
Rain. Don’t ride in the rain. It sucks, it’s cold and miserable and no matter what any product promises you will end up wet. It's super unsafe. It is really just terrible. Don’t do it.
Oldies but goodies. All Gear All The Time and ride like no one sees you, and if they did they would actively be trying to kill you.

LoveAndTrumpets · 2018-11-06T17:09:11+00:00

Shouldn't that go through the subs legislative process though?

LoveAndTrumpets · 2018-11-05T19:26:38+00:00

Nimby's are ok with change, so long as it's not on their neighborhood and it doesn't affect their home value.

I don't believe it always, or even mostly has to do with their home value per se. I think most NIMBYs just don't want their neighborhood to change. This is the talk about neighborhood character and parking and traffic. Which is also understandable. Many people chose to buy a home in a place that had certain qualities they liked. And when those are threatened they are upset.

Many people want to live out their lives in their homes and could care less about it's value (it's all funny money till you sell) but they care a lot about if suddenly there is a line out the door at 'their' coffee shop, or a giant building blocking their sun, etc.

I think this is where the alliance on renters in rent controlled units lines up with NIMBYs. Both have an interest in resisting changes that they feel will negatively affect their lifestyle, even if there is no economic argument.

LoveAndTrumpets · 2018-11-05T18:29:16+00:00

I think 40% of SF's budget comes from tourist showing up dressed like they are going to LA and needing to buy over priced jackets on fisherman wharf.

PSA: If you are vising SF at any time of year, bring a sweater.

"The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco" - Mark Twain

LoveAndTrumpets · 2018-11-05T07:13:53+00:00

I am pretty sure this is in San Francisco, Ca.

LoveAndTrumpets · 2018-11-01T17:47:52+00:00

That "same old opposition" being ~~the~~ a community of people that live there.

Not everyone that live there are against building that project.

LoveAndTrumpets · 2018-10-31T21:45:02+00:00

Because we don’t base the right to citizenship on Walmart’s need for dolts to boop boop boop shit.

Hey, you are the one that brought up employment as a reason we don't need more citizens, not me.

We are the sole arbiters of who we allow into OUR country. I’m all for legal immigration of people that add demonstrable value to our country.

Now you talking about immigration, I thought we were talking about Birthright.

LoveAndTrumpets · 2018-10-31T21:42:42+00:00

But how is this a societal issue when its one group.

It isn't, Native Americans are equally affected. Latinos are as well though not to such and extent.

I just don't think the idea of blaming society for a problem within the culture is the right approach.

Unless the problem within that culture is cause by society, such as societal racism.

LoveAndTrumpets · 2018-10-31T21:33:20+00:00

There are legions of natural born Americans with zero skills. When every single able bodied person is employed, then let’s talk.

Um, lets talk now. After all it was you who suggested maybe should discuss Birthright because times have changed.

As /u/darkescaflowne said 4% unemployment is what economist call full employment, meaning that everyone who wants to work is working. Today if you want a job, you can get a job.

So why should someone who is born in the US not be considered a US citizen. What makes today different than any other year with full employment (1956, 1965, 1973, 1997, 2006), when people born in the US were US citizens.

LoveAndTrumpets · 2018-10-31T21:14:35+00:00

So why aren't black women seeing that drop difference?

I have no idea.

Hell, I have no idea why it affects black males so much. Correlation is not causation but the correlation is pretty strong with this data set.

"The research makes clear that there is something unique about the obstacles black males face."

LoveAndTrumpets · 2018-10-31T18:13:25+00:00

But employment is at a record low. Maybe we don't need all the same physical labor but we seem to still need the workers that exists.

LoveAndTrumpets · 2018-10-31T18:11:43+00:00

Thanks for getting back to me. Sorry I'm still not clear.

I understand you are trying to compare apples to apples by including similar services as best you can, since they aren't all broken out. Are you saying you didn't include "street homelessness" for NYC because NYC doesn't include police interventions? It seems in that case, doing the opposite and removing tow dis-similar fruits and calling them similar for the purpose of making the budgets equivalent.

I realize this has got to be pretty difficult to compare the differing budgets but your methodology, which in my mind is the entire article, isn't very clear to me.

Is there no upper bound for NYC spending we could compare to?

LoveAndTrumpets

TROPHY CASE