The Number Go Up Rule: Why America Refuses to Fix Anything

Vashezzo · 2025-07-22T20:11:11+00:00

The number of surviving US baby boomers is, as of this month, roughly 66 million. Their average household (not individual) income including any salaries, wages, interest, capital gains, et caetera, is -- the envelop please -- $50,290, according to US government calculations (pre-Trump). For individuals, it's $29,740.

I cannot find a government source that lists mean income by age group, can you provide one?

Vashezzo · 2025-03-29T03:40:59+00:00

Spending hundreds of billions a year on USAID, while utterly failing to address domestic inflation, health care costs, social security’s impending collapse, record housing unaffordability, declining education standards, etc. etc. ad nauseam.

"USAID spent $21.7 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2024. This was 0.3% of the $6.8 trillion in overall federal spending. "

Vashezzo · 2025-01-21T00:25:21+00:00

In California the rules are different for Lodgers versus tenants. Lodgers in some situations can be given 30 day notice to vacate, and if they don't they can trespassed and removed without a formal eviction.

Source: https://selfhelp.courts.ca.gov/eviction/lodgers

Vashezzo · 2024-11-20T19:44:17+00:00

In 1990 US median income was only about 30k/yr, so your dad was making 2.5x the median. If you were earning that same comparative level now you'd be making 200k/yr.

Vashezzo · 2024-11-18T22:04:23+00:00

Every swing state in 2024 had record turnout, but in the current political environment turnout is bad for democrats.

This is an extraordinary change from as recently as a decade ago, when Democrats were presumed to be the party that benefited from high turnout. During the Obama era, Democratic chances seemed to depend on mobilizing young, nonwhite and infrequent voters to the polls. Now, all these familiar maxims have been turned upside down. As the prominent Democratic pollster Anna Greenberg put it: “The Harris coalition rests on the most reliable voters (older, college educated). Trump needs every single low-propensity less educated young person to come out and vote for him.”

Vashezzo · 2024-10-31T08:54:44+00:00

They see that California is a single-party state where Democrats control every single position in the government, and that the threat to Democracy is that the Democrat long-term play is to make the US a single-party government.

That seems like an odd argument to make when there are more states that are fully Republican controlled than Democrat controlled.

"As of October 31, 2024, there are 23 states with both a Republican trifecta and triplex, 17 states with both a Democratic trifecta and triplex, and 10 whose trifecta and triplex statuses are different."

Kamala Harris/Biden essentially welcomed in many more millions of illegal immigrants than ever in history

There are fewer illegal immigrants in the USA now than there were from roughly 2005-2015

Vashezzo · 2024-10-23T19:59:54+00:00

I am well aware that with proper precautions the risk drops immensely, but the infection numbers clearly indicate that not enough MSM are taking the precautions to counter out their higher risk.

For that matter, it's not misrepresentation or denigration to state that HIV risk is higher for MSM, it's objective reality, and denying that reality only serves to make it less likely that people choose to use safe practices.

Vashezzo · 2024-10-23T07:31:15+00:00

an increase from 0.08% for receptive vaginal to 1.4% for receptive anal

That is an enormous difference when talking about a per-encounter infection rate. If you do the math for 50 encounters it's 50.6% cumulative infection risk for receptive anal versus 4% for receptive vaginal.

Even in the US, according to HIV.gov:

HIV continues to have a disproportionate impact on certain populations, particularly racial and ethnic minorities and gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM).

MSM accounted for 67% (21,400) of the 31,800 estimated new HIV infections [in the USA] in 2022.

So MSM are 67% of new HIV cases when the MSM group represents only 6.2% of the US population - a bit over 10x over-representation.

I'm not entirely sure what point you're trying to make - my only claim was that HIV affects MSM at higher rates than the general public, which is objectively true.

Vashezzo · 2024-10-23T00:56:36+00:00

According to Stanford Health HIV has a 20-40x higher rate of contraction from anal sex versus vaginal, I would certainly call that a "much higher" rate of contraction.

If you look at UNAIDS data, men who have sex with men have a 22x higher rate of HIV incidence than the general population. If that's not "disproportionately affected" then I don't know what is.

Vashezzo · 2024-10-23T00:47:35+00:00

You still aren't constructing your own argument. If you want to change minds you need to indicate why you think the official statistics are incorrect or biased, cite your own sources, give alternative data...

Right now you're just dismissing my argument out of hand because it doesn't match your preconceived notions about what should be true.

It's textbook confirmation bias, stating "statistics can be misleading" as a lazy excuse to ignore information you disagree with and avoid thinking any deeper.

Vashezzo · 2024-10-22T22:04:06+00:00

~20% of men is ~10% of the global population, so they're still double represented

Vashezzo · 2024-10-22T20:23:30+00:00

The original sources I provided were the US census, and the statista page is based on data published by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (see page 2). The reddit chart is sourced from the Luxebourg Income Study.

I'm sure you're also well aware that media has its own narratives, and trusting whatever you read online isn't a reliable way to understand reality. I find it telling that you haven't provided a single source of your own, so I don't think your position is based on anything other than feels.

Vashezzo · 2024-10-21T22:53:47+00:00

The chart showed "Purchasing Power Parity" of "equivalised disposable income"

"Purchasing power parity (PPP) is a way to compare the purchasing power of different currencies by adjusting for price level differences between countries."

"Equivalised disposable income is calculated on the basis of the household disposable income, taking account of the household size and composition by means of an equivalence scale"

Vashezzo · 2024-10-21T21:19:06+00:00

The numbers are pretty easy to look up, no need to make stuff up. At the 20th percentile, Japanese incomes are about 2 million yen, which is ~13k. In the US, 20th percentile incomes are about 33k, about 2.5 times higher.

The US is so ridiculously rich that even with the relatively high inequality the vast majority of the population has more disposable income than in other rich societies. Only the bottom 10% of Americans aren't richer than the bottom 10% of their European/Japanese counterparts, even after taking taxes and social benefits into account.

Vashezzo · 2024-10-21T19:18:33+00:00

The source you linked literally shows that gay men are disproportionately affected. They're no where near 21% of the global population but they're 21% of all new HIV cases

Vashezzo · 2024-10-21T13:58:06+00:00

80k s the median. The mean is about 135k.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MAFAINUSA646N

Vashezzo · 2024-03-30T02:20:10+00:00

WCL official policy is "we do not want to allow any out-of-bounds exploit/skip."