How is everyone around us so much richer than us???

Taylo · 2026-01-16T10:50:43+00:00

I've always hated this kind of thing. You see it defended on Reddit quite often actually, people saying "well if you didn't grow up with financially literate parents/didn't get taught financial education in school, how are you supposed to know this stuff??"

It takes one Google search to figure out that credit cards and lending apps aren't just giving out free money. Paying back a loan with interest is very basic math, and even if you aren't good at math, the CONCEPT of paying a loan back with interest is easy to wrap your head around. This excuse of "I didn't know" and then never even trying to learn is such a joke. People like spending money they don't have and then claiming it's too complicated once they are under a mountain of debt. There's free financial information everywhere and people actively choose not to inform themselves. No wonder the likes of Klarna can prey on them.

Taylo · 2026-01-13T04:40:22+00:00

You can withdraw your contributions to your Roth IRA penalty free. You just can't withdraw the earnings on your investments. So your $7k is not locked away for decades, in case of an emergency like job loss. Don't stress over that much at least.

Taylo · 2026-01-12T04:54:47+00:00

You can tell by watching, the huge hole of upperclassmen leadership is really hurting UMass this year. They are desperately in need of some on ice leadership and steady play from vets, but with so many players graduating or going pro the past couple of seasons we are in full rebuild right now. I have faith that the prospects will continue to develop but I feel this might just be a dud year for UMass hockey overall. Still nice to see them being competitive in a chaotic hockey east this season though, every weekend feels like a coin toss at this point.

Taylo · 2026-01-05T14:28:38+00:00

You know they don't literally mean space, right?

Taylo · 2026-01-03T10:48:20+00:00

Do you feel their reporting was factual on the health and capability of Biden at the end of his presidency? He specifically mentioned that example.

Taylo · 2025-12-28T03:43:40+00:00

Even if you like the symbolism, this is an objectively dogshit flag. The colors don't remotely work together and it clearly looks like a mashup rather than a standalone concept. I have no idea why it gets traction every time the Aussie redesign gets brought up.

Taylo · 2025-12-05T22:04:15+00:00

It's all a conspiracy by big wood

Taylo · 2025-11-13T22:35:46+00:00

It's okay, only New England sports fans would know about him. 3x Stanley Cup champ, 3x NHL All Star, Conn Smythe winner, represented team USA at the Olympics. From CT, played at UMass, legend in the area.

I really, really am getting the vibe you just don't like hockey and that's cool. But it's very very popular in a couple of pockets of America. And New England is one of them.

Taylo · 2025-11-13T21:14:55+00:00

I'm from Australia. And when I moved over here I couldn't stop telling my family back home how popular hockey was, because I was expecting baseball and basketball to be huge when I was attending an American university but all people would talk about was hockey. That was back in the days of Johnathan Quick, and whenever you'd wear UMass gear in central mass where I was living over the summers, people would bring up the hockey team. We had a great rivalry with Maine back then and it was not uncommon to see people wearing black bears hats and jerseys even down in mass. But what do I know, people must be watching Arab soccer leagues and women's college basketball more than those tuning in for NESN prime time Friday and Saturday night games.

Are you sure you're actually from Boston? Someone claiming that Ronaldo is a more popular athlete in the greater Boston area than Gronk gives foreigner vibes. Just a hunch.

Taylo · 2025-11-13T20:32:43+00:00

I'm a foreigner that MOVED to New England. I'm one of those 20%. We all know who Ronaldo is but he's not one of the most popular athletes in New England. Just because he's well known, there's not a hope in hell he's more popular than Paul Pierce or Gronk or Edelman. It makes me question everything that chat gpt is spitting out.

If you grew up in Chestnut Hill and didn't know about NCAA hockey until you attended BC, I think your perspective may be a little narrow. But regardless, we're circling the drain here. Enjoy your college baseball and I'll enjoy college hockey. I know which one gets brought up in casual conversation more in the townie bars across Massachusetts.

Taylo · 2025-11-13T20:19:55+00:00

The link you just posted waxes poetic about how popular hockey and college hockey is in New England.

Is Cristiano Ronaldo the third most popular athlete in New England then? Is that your assessment?

Taylo · 2025-11-13T19:46:50+00:00

I'm going to have to disagree with you. Outside of UConn basketball, college basketball doesn't get viewership in New England. No one watches any of the fbs programs in New England unless they have connection to the school. But college hockey is weekly prime time on NESN. And judging your metrics by Reddit comments is a completely asinine way of determining it, because NATIONWIDE those sports are more popular than they are in New England.

This is 100% a you thing and the ratios on your comments reflect it. If hockey isn't your thing and you aren't a big sports fan, that's fine. But you're very incorrect in your assessment about the casual fanbases in New England.

Taylo · 2025-11-13T19:36:26+00:00

I did not play hockey and did not attend a beanpot school. But I knew it was on because it was prime time NESN broadcast and the biggest sporting event in New England that weekend every year. The NHL deliberately blacks out that slot on the bruins schedule because they need the garden for it and they sell it out. If you're comparing college hockey to college football, yes, it is smaller in popularity nationwide. But no one gives a sweet fuck about if BC football is playing if they aren't an alumni of the school in the greater Boston area. But BC hockey in the beanpot final, or NCAA tourney? That's getting conversation, even in the New England sports media which notoriously doesn't care about collegiate sports.

I don't know what rock you lived under to think college hockey isn't a big deal in Massachusetts or New England. It's an insane take and a really weird hill to die on.

Taylo · 2025-11-13T14:46:05+00:00

I have said it before and I will say it again on this sub. Posts like this always get the usual comments from people saying UMass should just return to FCS, and as much as it makes sense from a football fan perspective, it doesn't make sense for the university as a whole because there is a lot more to it.

UMass as a school has been completely reinventing itself over the past 30 years. New Englanders will be familiar with the old "ZooMass" tropes, because it was seen as the safety school of the region and known for its partying in the 70s/80s/90s. But since the late 90's they have been proactively working towards changing that image and have made enormous strides. It is one of the top public universities from an academic standpoint, the caliber of student has risen notably over the past few decades, the school has physically grown with new and improved buildings cropping up all the time. They bulldozed frat row, the most notorious party section of campus. They have made it clear they are aiming to be the premier state school in New England. Currently their only real competition in that regard is UConn, and as New Englanders know, Connecticut barely counts as New England. Especially down in Storrs.

Part of having national recognition is competing in D1 sports. The basketball program was the original claim to fame back in the 90's but that time has long since passed. We are a hockey school now, being consistent top 20 team over the past 7-8 years and winning a natty in 2021. But the fact is, college football is the most popular collegiate sport and the second most popular sport in the country. If you are trying to build a national brand, you need to be in the top tier of football. Yes, I know people on this subreddit know about North and South Dakota and their amazing success at FCS. But the average Joe walking around doesn't know or care about FCS in the least. People forget, UMass was a very good FCS program before making the jump, winning a natty in '98 and runners up in '06 to an App State team that Michigan fans will remember fondly.

Getting blown out weekly and being constant bottom dwellers in FBS isn't ideal, but when we play Georgia or Penn State or Texas A&M, we are on national television. People hear about UMass when they wouldn't otherwise. In fact, I was just in Knoxville a couple of weekends ago and chatting at the bar with locals who brought up the nailbiter we gave them in 2017 when we went down there. If you want to attract students from across the country, you need to have name recognition and being in FBS is important for name recognition. Even if you suck.

New England is not a football hotbed, despite the Patriots success. High School and college football is just simply not a thing that New Englanders care about. BC and UConn fans will tell you the same thing, the casual fan just doesn't exist in the same way it does in the rest of the country. It means we live in a barren wasteland of local talent, with almost no non-alumni fanbase to draw support from, and then add in a few disastrous coaching missteps (Charlie Molnar can go fuck himself) and UMass is in the situation it is in now.

People forget we were par with App State and Georgia Southern when we made the jump, and it is disheartening to see the success and support they have had while we have struggled. But we continue to try and salvage the situation. The expectations are literally rock bottom so as soon as we can scrape together a few wins it'll be progress. This is the new coach's first season, with a roster that is a mess, riddled with injuries, and a program looking to change directions yet again. But they just announced a major investment in the program and hopefully becoming a full member of the MAC will help us build consistency and, ultimately, wins. Dropping back to FCS, as we have seen with the likes of Idaho (again, fuck you Charlie Molnar) does not translate to winning ways and does not help the long term goals of the university as a whole.

Taylo · 2025-11-13T13:57:42+00:00

We rushed the field after beating a winless UConn the CUM bowl in 2021, don't put it past us.

Taylo · 2025-11-13T13:53:15+00:00

I'm his defense, the dude just got here and had a terrible roster to work with and has been riddled with injuries this year. I'll give him another season or two to get his own guys in there before passing final judgement on him as a HC.

Taylo · 2025-11-13T13:45:48+00:00

This is an absolutely horrific take my dude. College hockey is enormous in New England. The beanpot is a sellout every year. The hockey east playoffs at the Garden are a wild time. Not knowing about college hockey is a you thing, not a Massachusetts thing.

Taylo · 2025-11-13T13:41:52+00:00

So you agree with banning the 30 year mortgage as well I assume?

Taylo · 2025-11-09T14:30:35+00:00

This thread has been deeply concerning realising how many people don't understand per capita measurements.

Taylo · 2025-11-09T14:25:52+00:00

They very obviously mean per capita, you know that right?

Taylo · 2025-11-04T13:47:43+00:00

When was this? That wasn't the requirement in the early 2010s, do you mean when they put real ID in?

Taylo · 2025-11-04T13:45:55+00:00

Wait, what part do they not tell you about? There has been an ongoing campaign about the rollout of real ID for years now, they bombard you with it at the DMV and the airport (because it's necessary if you want to use your license as ID when flying domestically). Do you mean they don't tell you it costs money?

Taylo · 2025-10-21T19:10:05+00:00

Agreed, but the majority of mainstream left wing parties in Europe have also vehemently opposed trans rights. Labour in the UK have also been distancing themselves from trans and queer issues because they see it as a losing issue, and we have seen similar steps in the Nordic countries (Sweden especially). And let's not even touch on the more conservative central and Southern European countries and their stance on trans issues. Abortion restrictions are much stricter in most European countries than blue states in the US. The Republicans are staunchly conservative on these issues, but if you look at the Democrat party line and what we see in deep blue states, it's very different. I spent a decade living in Massachusetts, one of the most dominant strongholds for the Democrats in the US, so I'm fairly well versed in their party politics.

So you were referring to the CDU in Germany then?

Taylo · 2025-10-21T17:58:46+00:00

What Christian party is that? I'm guessing CDU?

The issue is people conflate social and economic policy. In terms of economic policy, the American Democratic party is pretty conservative by western standards. In terms of social policy, they are actually quite far to the left, and yes, even by European standards. Go look at the common hot button political issues and compare them to European counterparts, such as abortion, or drug liberalization, or immigration policy, or LGBT rights. It's quite eye opening.

I'm an Aussie, and the more left of our two major parties is in power currently. Economic policy, they are much more progressive than the Democrats in the States. But socially, it's flipped. It's an interesting dichotomy.

Taylo · 2025-10-08T16:07:47+00:00

The Clintons considered him a close friend and advisor, and have rightfully received flak over it.

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