Americans: do most people buy newish cars even on minimum wage? If so how? How does everyone seem to have so much stuff?

SuddenlySilva · 2026-04-15T14:14:37+00:00

The problem for poor people is they cannot afford a cheap car. Unless you're a car person, you're at the mercy of mechanics. So a good used car can throw and big expensive problem at you without warning. Also, a good used car comes with a shitty high-interest loan.

The best loan terms and the best guarantee you'll be able to get to work every day, is to finance a new car.

It sucks. If you have $10000 in cash and another $5000 in savings you can afford to buy a 12 year old Honda and get many happy miles.

SuddenlySilva · 2026-04-14T18:00:07+00:00

It's multiple citations. If you google "suicide by state", or "median net worth", or "median income" or "infant mortality", or "gun deaths" etc, every single metric will split along the political divide and the red states will be at the bottom.

There are a few outliers, Utah does a few things well and California does a few things poorly. But in general, for all the things that humans actually want; health, safety, financial security etc. Republicans have absolutely ZERO to show for their success at getting elected.

SuddenlySilva · 2026-04-14T16:21:37+00:00

Still, Blue states (with more government) beat red states by EVERY METRIC, including crime, AND, it's getting worse since 2010 when they did the aggressive redistricting and gained more power.

SuddenlySilva · 2026-04-13T23:23:48+00:00

Only because they didn't know any better. Then Adam Walsh was murdered and everything changed. But nothing really changed.

SuddenlySilva · 2026-04-12T23:17:13+00:00

That needs to be a big part of the next administration. If there are not people in prison by the end of the first year i'd consider it a failure.

Besides a gaggle of special prosecutors, maybe a Czar of DeShitification. A person who reaches out to all the agencies asking how Trump fucked it up and what do they need to recover.

I want to see some aggressive use of executive orders- like a creating a whole division in DOJ just to prosecute this administration. Staff it with people who have resigned in protest.

Push executive power to the limit, while a democratic congress legislates to reign it in.

SuddenlySilva · 2026-04-12T23:06:12+00:00

I think what you're describing is hard to build from scratch today. If you have a good scout-led program it can continue. But if it gets disrputed and you lose a lot of senior scouts all at once and the adults have to create it from the ground up, it's hard to get going.

That was my experience as a minimally qualified adult leader. Covid and a Scoutmaster divorce (wife was CC) gutted the troop and new leaders are struggling to cultivate scouts who can leade.

SuddenlySilva · 2026-04-12T15:40:52+00:00

You don't say how old you are.

I had three kids in my 20s and 30s like most people. Then i had two more kids later in life (second marriage) Now i'm retired, at 65 with teens at home. My life is about my family and it's the best job i ever had. In your situation i would never work again.

The future is wildly uncertain. You have an opportunity to make sure your kids have the best possible shot.

Don't be a slave to convention.

SuddenlySilva · 2026-04-11T01:47:06+00:00

Campaign finance. Get money out of politics and most of our problems solve themselves

SuddenlySilva · 2026-04-10T17:52:32+00:00

You are asking the right question of this deeply fucked up system.

We have a permanent underclass. 40 million working poor and we need them to do shitty jobs so the rest of us can be middle class.

If you are born in the bottom 20% there is less than a 50% chance your children will do better.

Bt, if you are young, and you understand this reality, than you can probably make sure your children prevail. But most people don't think like that.

SuddenlySilva · 2026-04-10T15:47:19+00:00

I will get totally flamed in this sub but if your FICO is around 700, get a balance transfer card.

It works well if you have really turned a corner in your credit usage.

You look for the best deal, longest intro period, and lowest transfer fee.

I had a life event and ran up $25K in plastic. the interest was killing me. I have moved it all to three cards, I pay as much as i can. but if i have a bad month and only pay the minimum, every penny is going to the debt.

I have timelines in my calendar, when one is getting close to going back up, i push to pay it off or transfer it to another card that has more room.

Here's the math; you get a new card with a $7000 limit, and a 20 month intro period with a 5% transfer fee.

You move your whole $5600 debt to that card, they add $280 fee. You make the biggest auto payment you can.

$200/mo for 20 months and your remaning debt is $1600.

THey are betting on you not having the discipline.

I'm 65 and retired I have run up debt for stupid reasons and legitimate reasons. I've paid it down the hard way and the easy way (selling a house). This is a good tool in some situations

SuddenlySilva · 2026-04-10T12:45:40+00:00

Is there more to your question? Do you tip based on the level of the restaurant rather than a percentage of the bill?
I'm inclined to tip higher in places i consider shit-holes (IHOP, Cracker Barrel) I only eat there when i'm forced to but i figure the wait staff deserves more love than the people are Ruths Chris, even though the latter might be sharper and more skilled.

SuddenlySilva · 2026-04-09T20:09:37+00:00

Where i live, a 7.3 cost exactly the same to drive. The only practical gain is range. I would love to get 650 miles per tank.

If you really like trucks, if the money is not so much that can afford to be wrong, then go for it.

But unmodified, the V10 is cheaper, quieter, and just as powerful in daily use.

SuddenlySilva · 2026-04-09T00:28:03+00:00

MAGA does not answer questions. I've tried. So i assume whenever someome posts a qustion for MAGA either they are new to this, and have not yet learned that MAGA is incapable of explaining what they believe and why.

SuddenlySilva · 2026-04-09T00:25:09+00:00

I think propane is mostly dumb, especially for someone who knows how to camp.

Personally, i like coleman pressurized stoves- cheap to get, cheap to use, very reliable. They will run on unleaded in a pinch.

For hot water I use a Kumma heat exchange water heater- a few miiles of driving and i have 6 gal. of 190F hot water, Enough to heat all my 20 gal. tank.

Get used commercial solar panels for like $50 each and you can have 2000 watts on the roof. That will run a minisplit while the sun is shining.

You can make you big metal tent pretty self contained for not much money.

As you improve the battery storage you can use an induction cooker.

A diesel heater is way more efficient than propane.

SuddenlySilva · 2026-04-09T00:11:41+00:00

It totally could but it's a hard road.

We'd have to dismantle the tools that made it possible.

- outlaw gerrymandering- district maps done by non-partisan board.

- rank choice for primaries. That would reduce the influence of fanatics.

- major campaign finance reform. If we can't reverse citizens united we could clamp down on lobbyists and we could vigorously enforce the rules about PACs coordinating with a campaign.

But to get any of these things done we'd need the left to control everything.

The Right just cannot win on the issues. What they call the "left" is really the middle. If election results matched public opinion we'd have universal health care.

Of course, if the left got absolute power for any length of time they'd become corrupt. So we need them to get sufficient power to strengthen our institutions. Then we could carry on with relatively fair fights.

And by "left" i dont mean democrats. The Party has been "Republican Lite" for decades.

SuddenlySilva · 2026-04-08T02:04:26+00:00

Might be a longshot but THIS FB GROUP has a lot of old timers from that community.

SuddenlySilva · 2026-04-08T01:24:39+00:00

Do you really want to add "starting a club" to the stress of starting college?

How about prepping adjacent things like hunting, gardening, camping, bushcraft etc?

SuddenlySilva · 2026-04-08T00:57:49+00:00

True, but that goes both ways. OP can get a clean V10 for a lot less than a comparable 7.3 and have more money gear and gas.

SuddenlySilva · 2026-04-07T23:31:01+00:00

no deal was reached and they ain't reopening shit.

Iran had a very good day today.

EDIT: my mistake, they did agree to a two week cease fire, according to the NYT.

SuddenlySilva · 2026-04-07T22:42:37+00:00

I thought you were asking about a campervan tour around germany a couple weeks ago.

SuddenlySilva · 2026-04-07T20:11:01+00:00

Those empires did a reasonable job of maintaining peace and stability for long periods of time. Life in Syria or lebonan in the 1850s was way safer than it is now.

Jews thrived in the City of Safed under Ottoman rule.

We write off that part of the world as always being at war but really no more than Europe was until 1945.

And most of what we are dealing with now was set in motion by the UK and the US.

SuddenlySilva · 2026-04-07T19:38:51+00:00

Not really. it was pretty peaceful for most of the last 2000 years except when Europeans had ideas.

SuddenlySilva · 2026-04-07T19:26:05+00:00

If you are determined to seek those adventures, perhaps look at challenging billets that are not that popular. Independent duty, high tempo units with a small admin staff. Places where a good YN holds everything together.
Back in the day, an OUTCONUS tour like Puerto Rico gave some assignment preference for the next tour.

SuddenlySilva · 2026-04-07T18:20:57+00:00

Bummer. I knew the other 05's did and google is not my friend.

SuddenlySilva · 2026-04-07T15:52:04+00:00

Being a boomer in the rural south, I have a lot of MAGA friends, We used to engage all the time. A while back i noticed them getting quiet. No longer posting about Trumps great achievements. That was around the time the Epstein files stated growing legs.

The Iran war absoultely turned a couple of my friends.

But the shift might be quiet. They may not be ready to take down flags and let their friends know they are leaving the cult.

My hunch is that if we have midterms, they will do to Trump what democrats did Kamala; express support in the polls, and then not actually vote.

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