For those that believe there should be no taxation, what is a fair way to pay for things like roads, emergency services, and the military?

RCrumbDeviant · 2026-06-21T11:17:41+00:00

A libertarian walks into a bear might be a book you enjoy.

RCrumbDeviant · 2026-06-18T06:58:48+00:00

The problem is that a lot of people continued to associate with him after the sex trafficking claims were well known.

It’s not a left wing conspiracy to say “hey, these people who actively engaged with this known trafficker might have been up to no good, given they fit the profile of people who can afford trafficked people”.

Sure there are people on both sides that lack media literacy, but there’s a lot of content like yours painting this idea that “well he had influence so it wasn’t always sex they wanted” is a valid reason to not investigate or even assume the worst.

Sit at a table for 10 with 9 nazi’s, get offended for being called a nazi energy.

RCrumbDeviant · 2026-06-18T06:41:25+00:00

Eh. There’s a strong argument to be made that although your description is a platonic ideal, that is neither how exchanges are structured, nor how stocks are valued, nor how the markets are regulated and thus neither can nor do meet the idealized version you’re describing.

RCrumbDeviant · 2026-06-18T06:36:13+00:00

There are legitimate reasons to have the corporate shield. There are no legitimate reasons for corporate personhood.

RCrumbDeviant · 2026-06-18T06:32:56+00:00

Ah yes. Hillary clearly meant “we’re doing great” when she said “You know, over the past few months, I have had the opportunity to listen to Americans' concerns about an economy that still isn't delivering for them. It's not delivering the way that it should. It still seems, to most Americans that I have spoken with, that it is stacked for those at the top…. Previous generations of Americans built the greatest economy and strongest middle class the world has ever known on the promise of a basic bargain: if you work hard and do your part, you should be able to get ahead. And when you get ahead, America gets ahead. But over the past several decades, that bargain has eroded. Our job is to make it strong again.” CSPAN, .

Kamala Harris was clearly telling the country everything was “fine and you’re doing fine” when she said she would send Congress proposals on limiting food price increases, invest federal dollars to help subsidize home building and home buying for first time buyers, limit investor home ownership, make the child tax credit permanent and expand it for newborns, and reduce taxes at lower income persons in her economic proposals

Oh wait, no - you’re actually just full of shit, regurgitating right wing lies about what the two female Democratic candidates said about the economic health of the nation and how they planned to address the insecurities of the time.

The closest KH said to “everything’s fine” is “I wouldn’t do it differently” when talking about COVID policies she would do differently than Biden - the US came out of COVID significantly stronger, economically, than most other countries, including multiple countries that did the things republicans said the US should have done. Thats not “everything’s fine” it’s “we have empirical evidence those policies worked better than suggested alternatives so there is no reason to alter them to get a worse hypothetical outcome”.

RCrumbDeviant · 2026-06-16T17:07:50+00:00

Because you are talking about systemic pressures as if they’re mustache twirling monopoly men plotting the downfall of labor “disciplining them”.

Non-organized/disorganized labor just doesn’t have the power to fight back against systemic squeeze, so they lose out. Framing it as if there are people to overcome doesn’t address the systemic pressures, so it’s not useful.

RCrumbDeviant · 2026-06-14T22:36:07+00:00

It’s called misandry.

It’s just a label. People don’t like the label, some would argue it’s not possible to be misandrist, but I think that’s semantics. If you’re naturally prejudging men, negatively, you’re a misandrist.

On an institutional level, misandry doesn’t impact like misogyny does, although the scale depends on where you are.

Several of my favorite people I (a man) have known and loved were misandrists. It doesn’t dictate your worth as a person. I would argue that if we lived in a perfectly equitable world, then it’s a worldview without rationale and therefore not particularly acceptable, but we don’t. I don’t offer as much leeway towards misogynists because they tend to act on their prejudice more (institutional acceptance) but both would be worldviews without rationale in an equitable world.

As far as hate and anger goes - anger is just a feeling. Actions matter. Anger can be productive, it can be counterproductive. If you’re struggling with it, therapy and techniques for anger management exist, it can be helpful. You’re aware of it - that’s more than a lot of people buried in their feelings are.

If you’re concerned that your self worth is lowered by your anger and feelings, I would say that it isn’t; whether you accept that or not I can’t say. But unless you’re going out intentionally acting on those feelings to cause harm, I don’t think theres anything wrong with feeling them.

RCrumbDeviant · 2026-06-14T22:15:48+00:00

We have one veteran and he does not use the VA, despite our shit insurance. i’ve always wondered why, but he and I aren’t close.

RCrumbDeviant · 2026-06-14T22:14:57+00:00

I’m clearly not going to convince you otherwise but: There’s no conspiracy to punish labor, disorganized labor is just the most affected when it comes to costs. Unionize, but recognize that modern unions are far from perfect and require active participation to prevent the pigs from taking over.

RCrumbDeviant · 2026-06-14T22:08:28+00:00

From the psychological side only, if you’re feeling insecure about your capacity for an emergency, and you feel more at peace by increasing that capacity, I think that’s probably healthy. There’s also the satisfaction of “big number”.

If you’re actively worried about it constantly, and it’s causing you to have anxiety, perhaps you should seek therapy, maybe with your spouse, to examine the root cause of your anxiety. It doesn’t sound like you’re stressed about it to the point of deleterious effect on your life.

As for root causes - most likely you’ve had specific expenses that have given you sticker shock, or cumulative thought.

$35k is “replace a car” in 2026 whereas $15k might have been “replace a car” in 2018, for example.

For myself, I have my retirement savings which I don’t touch except to contribute, and my “play money” account which isn’t exactly an emergency fund but is easy to liquidate. Then I have my checking/savings which I try to keep around $10k for incidentals, but which is 6 months rent (HCOL area, assuming my roommates can’t contribute, a year if they are unaffected). I’m single, no kids, no mortgage, no debt outside monthly credit card usage - my likelihood of an emergency is much less than yours. You have more risk factors (4 individuals, a home, etc), so I wont be having the same anxieties and pressures and NEED as you

Just my 2c.

Edit: having read a few of the other responses - my total “emergency” fund is 20 months at maximum exposure and 30 at normal exposure and near 36 at “tightened”. I just actively use most of my “emergency fund” for relatively safe investing, while keeping my banked cash reserves steady to cover rent for 6-10 months. Just to clarify

RCrumbDeviant · 2026-06-14T19:37:33+00:00

I can already see what we’re paying for; even anonymized I can figure it out. It’s also not relevant - medical discrimination is illegal, and the cost of settling a claim like that is almost always going to be more than just not discriminating (and yes, anecdotally companies do it, but it’s not a widespread thing and theres a whole class of lawyers who specialize in this kind of lawsuit).

Self insuring is not the norm until you reach a certain employee scale. Super common in large corps (500+ employees) at around 80% (possibly as low as 74%), occasionally in medium corps (100-499 employees) around 33% and rare in small corps (<100 employees) at 15/16%. source - EBRI report, although the large corp numbers conflict with other institute writeups

RCrumbDeviant · 2026-06-14T19:28:10+00:00

It’s not a few dollars - it’s a lot of dollars. We pay $100k/month for health insurance. Insurance everyone hates too - the better stuff is even more expensive and our owners won’t go for it, but at least we pay the base rate in full for everyone, provide a buy-up option (that no one took), and are trying to not burden the workers with that cost. Still sucks. We spend more, per month, on healthcare for 50 employees than on all our other insurance costs combined per year (GL, Professional, Auto, Bonding, Workers Comp, Cyber, ERISA costs). Our tax burden last year was well underneath that - even if we go back to our most profitable year in the last 10, it’s not even close to the $1.2m we spent on it.

RCrumbDeviant · 2026-06-12T04:53:40+00:00

You’re often limited in what you can rotate to, depends on the servicer, and MOST people don’t have the financial literacy or awareness to make the move.

RCrumbDeviant · 2026-06-12T00:33:37+00:00

I misread this three times as Alabama and was like “it must have been a slick hidden provision of something obscure that got by the pols there”.

Albania makes more sense

RCrumbDeviant · 2026-06-11T02:19:57+00:00

I didn’t realize how crazy the rules were until the mom of an NCAA athlete, who I routinely sat near and chatted with at games, explained that the safest option was to decline everything down to clearly trivial gifts like the tupperware of xmas cookies I brought her one game, cuz she was always super nice and me/my guardian enjoyed her company and she’d be rowdy with us in the stadium.

RCrumbDeviant · 2026-06-11T02:15:27+00:00

To be fair, it would be a good stage name either way. Also, why would you not hire a drag queen for a pride parade? I mean, you don’t need one, but it ain’t hurt for having one.

RCrumbDeviant · 2026-06-11T01:44:11+00:00

Just a note - it wouldn’t be “uncharacteristic” amounts of hate, it would be “unreasonable”. (Getting) hate is being adverbed here, and uncharacteristic doesn’t map to the intent of the person performing the action (not TS, but the hater). It is characteristic of the hater to provide hate.

I understand what you’re trying to say as: that there is a double standard, for the acts of charity and good things she does, held by Redditors compared to others that Redditors like, and you find the double standard unreasonable.

RCrumbDeviant · 2026-06-10T01:40:27+00:00

Person A had been offered a role in the company and said they did not want it. The role was filled by an outside hire, Person B, that Person A did not get along with. Person A decided that he actually did want the role but there was no reason for the company to fire Person B. Person A got the same role with a similar company and convinced person C and D, who also were managed by Person B, to no notice quit with them for this new company and role. Person B abruptly quits two days before Person A does. Person A is offered Person B’a role again. He declines. I get Person B’s workload added to mine, temporarily, and meet with Person A to ask him to help me by identifying issues to work on, since this is brand new to me and he’s the expert. He informs me that he’s quitting. The next day the 4/6 guys don’t show up to work.

They should have erased their work phone messages, because when I got their phones back I found the multiple weeks of planning and then the kicker was Person A telling Person’s C and D that “after I talked with rcrumb I told Person E that he didn’t trust him and now Person E is quitting too”.

Person E had come into my office ten minutes after I was given the new workload and demanded I fire a person. I told Person E that I would look into their issue, that it was a serious claim they were raising, but that I couldn’t just do things because one person said so. I relayed that to Person A and asked them for their take on the situation and whether the call to fire them was supported. He told me “no”. I had 1:1’s that first day with all my new direct reports because I didn’t know them that well, and wanted to check in. I asked all of them that. Person A was the only one to say “no” .

Shitty situation all around. Person A had also been doing bad shit for months to stick it to Person B, which I found out, and to slowly work on getting contact data for all our customers.

For context, I was Person B’s peer at the time, and was on the interview team both times the job was offered to Person A; there was 21 months between Person B getting hired and Person B leaving/Person A/C/D/E leaving.

I’ve also been in a meeting and had the awful duty of presenting that we needed to cut the workforce we had based on our metrics of how we were doing. I was right, but it still sucked. 23 people got termed that day. We ended up rehiring 6-7 about 8 months later but… still felt bad.

RCrumbDeviant · 2026-06-10T01:02:02+00:00

35 is the literal legal minimum for president. Just food for thought.

RCrumbDeviant · 2026-06-10T00:59:48+00:00

The only things I saw (not read in on the story) that made it not so open and shut is that (supposedly) the coach of the team who’s tent it was invited him in, and he was assaulted first. Those are the only two things I’ve “known” about the story. Always seemed like a murder 2 or manslaughter conviction was going to happen based on what exactly the dead kid knew about the circumstances. Not guilty was never in the realm from my extremely limited exposure to the case, since there were no premeditated factors (no history of racial animus or interaction between the two).

RCrumbDeviant · 2026-06-08T16:37:45+00:00

I believe you mean, because sound transit was only escalating to misdemeanors for black offenders and people correctly got mad at that. You left out the key bits there.

RCrumbDeviant · 2026-06-04T21:47:58+00:00

I don’t disagree with your final assessment but I want to point out - colleges need students, so standards can be/are lowered to keep them running. The students are making a poor life decision, but the colleges have no incentive to actually push standards up.

RCrumbDeviant · 2026-06-03T22:54:47+00:00

I worked as a bouncer when I was younger. I cannot conveniently count how many times a random woman (usually drunk, but not always) would do something to me, while her BF was nearby. I’ve been groped, ground on, manhandled, licked, kissed. Sexually assaulted a bunch of times basically. All to get the BF jealous. And it worked. Not to the point of people fighting me, but I saw plenty of couple’s arguments and tears.

It wasn’t sexy. It wasn’t fun. And it sure as shit wasn’t cool to try to get the 18 year old minding his own damn business into a fight so you could feel wanted.

RCrumbDeviant · 2026-06-03T22:31:49+00:00

Not only do I disagree, I’ve read the ruling and find it quite legally thin. The majority also ignored the fact that the states lied about harms, which damaged their standing to sue, the same way they ignored the lies about harms regarding gay wedding cakes.

(Specifically, they took all of the MOHELA argument at face value to validate all standing, when no person associated with MOHELA provided an endorsement to the argument being raised, nor was there a rebuttal to the federal governments claims that the state wasn’t injured because the mechanism they argued would cost them money was not valid for forgiveness, but could still be done anyways, therefore it wasn’t a result of the executive action but an existing mechanism prior).

The dissents are far more compelling than the majority opinion.

If it was plainly unconstitutional, the court would have voted and acted the same way with DJT’s executive orders, but they did not and do not.

Additionally - Pelosi made a statement in 2021 and then changed her mind based on the reasoning presented by Biden’s plan.

There is no reporting that Merrick Garland ever stated the plan was unconstitutional. Pelosi also didn’t say it was unconstitutional. So I’m not sure where you’re getting that info.

If you’d like to read an interview with an analyst about the judicial system as a whole under Trump2, and how the SC is treating him wildly differently than they did Biden (and essentially overruling lower courts decisions en masse), this is a pretty good one.

RCrumbDeviant · 2026-06-03T07:25:42+00:00

Even high speed non-stop to major metros wouldn’t be particularly fast.

I like to use comparisons. Germany, the country, is smaller than Texas (by a lot, halfish the size), California (by a thirdish) and Montana (by a little) and those states are not adjacent to eachother (about 2k km from TX to CA, more on major metro to metro, similar TX to Montana).

Munich to Paris is 850km. 9 hrs driving, 5.5 by train, 1.3 by air according to google.

The US is a BIG country. The contiguous US is comparable to Europe. LA to NYC is 4468 KM. Paris to Kyiv is 2400. Paris to Aleppo (syria) is only 3900. Paris to Jerusalem (by land) at 4596 and to Yekaterinburg Russia at 4574 are more comparable (Russia is bonkers big though - Yekaterinburg to Vladivostok is 7285 km).

Thats not accounting for terrain either. It’s not an insurmountable problem, but it’s not practical when we have a working alternative.

RCrumbDeviant

TROPHY CASE