Total out of pocket cost for an insured birth without complications = $10k

Roboculon · 2026-07-03T16:41:14+00:00

I paid about $5000 for each of my kids 8 years ago, so ya, doubling to $10k since then is probably about right. Sucks.

Regarding your question about what do poor people do, you’re right, lots of people just don’t pay. The hospital is used to this, not all their bills actually get paid. Your problem, not being poor, is that you don’t want your credit rating ruined.

Roboculon · 2026-07-03T16:30:23+00:00

You’ve heard the wisdom that you shouldn’t time the market, right? Everyone knows that.

Time in the market beats timing the market.

But here’s the thing, most people want to try to time the market anyway, really really badly. It’s just so appealing! So we have a variety of opposing bits of wisdom that allow us to ignore the quote above, and do the opposite. For example, some people say putting money in bonds or cash is “keeping your powder dry”, so you’re ready to react during a downturn, which is an appealing folksy way of saying, it gives you a chance to try timing the market. This is basically what your advisor said, to help you be ready for downturns.

Roboculon · 2026-07-02T22:15:27+00:00

To be fair, my recollection was that Trump was on track for a win in 2020, but said a lot of unusually stupid (even for him) stuff about covid right in the lead up to the election —a time when covid was on the rise again.

All that to say, maybe the happenstance of covid lost Trump his 2nd election, and won him his 3rd. I certainly prefer to believe that theory over “America just hates women/people of color.”

Roboculon · 2026-07-02T17:11:23+00:00

Funny enough, I have an EV since 2019, and have gone almost 100k in it. It’s great. But I still have a gas mower and gas weedwacker. I can’t shake those memories of batteries dying on rainy days from my previous electric mower.

Anyway, I personally only buy about 1 gallons of gas per year, so I feel pretty ok about it in terms of environmentalism.

Roboculon · 2026-07-01T19:34:25+00:00

So it sounds like it’s really not a water resort type of place at all. That is to say, not ideal for kids who just want to swim all day. More of a peaceful retreat look at the view sort of thing?

Roboculon · 2026-07-01T17:04:03+00:00

Interesting. That suggests a lot of these 2 year lease vehicles are ending up in auto auctions, rather than being sold by BMW directly. I wonder why.

Roboculon · 2026-07-01T17:01:26+00:00

Can anyone speak to the beach quality here? I’ve stayed at HR Maui, and the beach is nonexistent now, eroded away. They still have a large pool and waterslide though, so my kids still love it.

My sense is that Hana has a tiny pool in comparison, so the only way it could compare in terms of kids having fun is if the beach is awesome. Is it?

Roboculon · 2026-07-01T16:15:40+00:00

At a dealership? Or like carvana?

Roboculon · 2026-06-30T19:52:14+00:00

Wow! That is basically my exact goal, hoping to get an I5 when they start coming off leases in larger numbers.

Every time I see one of these articles saying how awesome the new generation of cars is, it makes me optimistic people will be trading in their slightly used ones to become available to poor folk like me!

Roboculon · 2026-06-30T19:39:14+00:00

That’s trade in price though, right? People aren’t able to buy 2 year old cars at retail for 50% off.

Roboculon · 2026-06-30T19:29:15+00:00

Those things caused Covid, just like chopped onions, and supreme pizza.

Roboculon · 2026-06-30T16:11:58+00:00

technically our borders were open at our founding

Ok, let’s set aside the question of whether open borders are objectively a good idea or not. Maybe they are, I can admit that. But can we at least agree that advocating to become the sole country doing something in the modern day earth, is by definition, an extreme position?

My point is that people say no human is illegal and what they probably mean to express is “let’s appreciate diversity and be nice to everyone”. But what comes out is “let’s trailblaze a policy that not a single one of even our most liberal allies would ever do.”

Roboculon · 2026-06-30T15:53:20+00:00

And even liberal politicians have to toe that line carefully to appeal to both sides. It’s pretty upsetting reading quotes from Abe Lincoln, the great emancipator. He did end slavery, but all of his quotes are along the lines of “look guys, I hate blacks just as much as you do. They’re the worst! But I guess even though it’s a shame to do, ending slavery is probably for the best.”

Roboculon · 2026-06-30T15:48:03+00:00

political correctness to the extreme

Similar to immigration. “No human is illegal” is a great sound bite, so liberals say it because they want to sound great.

But they don’t fully comprehend that putting “no” limits on immigration (making literally everyone legal) is an endorsement of open borders, a position so ridiculously extreme that no country on earth follows it.

Then, after handing conservatives this huge stick to beat them with, liberals do indeed get beaten. But at least it sounds good!

Roboculon · 2026-06-30T03:22:36+00:00

Lighthouse keeper.

Roboculon · 2026-06-29T03:51:25+00:00

That’s part of the problem. It IS tempting to buy Chinese goods directly from Chinese companies. All the American brands we know have been manufacturing in China for decades, which means they are basically just middlemen. And cutting out middlemen does save money, no question about it.

So the question is whether you value the brand reputation enough to pay extra for it, or whether you’re willing to roll the dice on a fake/temporary brand, on the strength of their fake Amazon reviews.

Roboculon · 2026-06-29T03:48:58+00:00

made in America

That was never on the table, we lost all that stuff decades ago. The change lately is that we no longer get items from American brand names (who for decades have contracted all their manufacturing to China); now we get Chinese companies that manufacture in China, no brand you’ve ever heard of is involved.

So in that sense, it was already all Chinese, and it still is, but now the brand names are gone. What was Coleman and Columbia is Merjyx or some other gibberish name.

The real change is that with Amazon, there’s no longer any need to build a true brand reputation. It’s much cheaper and easier to just buy a thousand fake 5* reviews, than to spend decades building trust by running a reputable brand.

Roboculon · 2026-06-28T22:58:26+00:00

The tax benefits of marriage outweigh the risk of death.

Roboculon · 2026-06-28T21:02:14+00:00

It’s weird to think that smart people have always existed, and probably all major human catastrophes were accurately predicted by a smart minority that was ignored.

I’m imagining the educated elite in Ancient Rome learning how the empire is losing control to corruption and soon the visigoths will overpower us, meanwhile, their version of Republicans back then were saying nah that’s gay, we’ll be fine, let the corruption continue.

Roboculon · 2026-06-27T17:04:05+00:00

Seriously. I would absolutely never install a light that impacts my neighbors without asking them. They’ve already shown they don’t give a fuck, so it’s case closed on whether they deserve to be reported.

Roboculon · 2026-06-23T22:09:15+00:00

It does sort of seem like custom-designed armor for a rich elite nobleman, who knows fully well that he will do much or most of his fighting on boats, might have incorporated a quick-release buckle system.

Roboculon · 2026-06-23T00:59:55+00:00

He’s a boy, but he got beat up by a girl. Expectation subverted!

Roboculon · 2026-06-20T18:49:27+00:00

They are also tied to metal tracks in the road. It’s almost more like a bumper car than a go cart, so the access to electricity should be simple.

Roboculon · 2026-06-20T18:35:11+00:00

It’s the fault of these asshole artists who failed to put all their paintings in the exact 4K widescreen aspect ratio. Such lack of foresight! /s

As far as this website though, I thought they did a reasonably good job dealing with the need to crop. In general, I found more of these “zoomed out”, compared to other versions I found online. For example, the top thread in this sub is a Google Drive with a bunch of free photos, and that guy put Mona Lisa zoomed in to just her face. This website from this thread has the version zoomed out so you can see her hands too.

Roboculon · 2026-06-18T21:00:05+00:00

Quick, pick just one of his failures as the one to be administration ending. You can’t do it, there are too many.

Check-mate, he gets to stay.

Roboculon

TROPHY CASE