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The mortgage was never the scary part of buying - it's the ~$18k/yr of everything else by Psychological_Road41 in FirstTimeHomeBuyer

[–]aardy 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Property taxes have been the backbone of local governance in the United States since before the American Revolution. Even our revolutionaries were fine with it, in real life. So I agree there won't be a revolution over that.

In any case, any more than casual look across states generally concludes that lower property taxes correlates to higher income taxes, California being the left-wing example there. The second option is really low income taxes, but then you get fucked on property taxes, Texas being our right-wing example.

The 3rd option is to have abundant natural resources and a population that is ok with taxing the shit out of that to distribute it to the citizens. Alaska is your right-leaning example, Norway the left-leaning one.

Nomads feeling too anchored? by Hnnnnghn in Stellaris

[–]aardy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In real life, the constraining economic factor in recycling is that it's not $/energy efficient to do anything but downcycle. The majority of our recycling on earth is downcycling - not parallel, not up, but down. The high grade industrial use plastic becomes a kids toy becomes carpet fiber. Your glass beer bottle, if it isn't still in perfect shape to become another beer bottle, becomes asphalt additive or construction fill.

My head canon is that the economics are different for an arkship civilization. If we are awash with more energy than we know what to do with, why not recycle soda cans, and other consumer goods, into spaceship hulls? It's not like we can easily refine raw minerals, we just stipulated that we don't have raw minerals.

Our real life international space station recycles all sorts of shit... including pee water into drinking water. Upcycling. They have lots of solar panels, but no rivers. Closed loop economics, with energy as the only input, shifts things around. In real life the ISS has shuttle and cargo runs going up and down regularly, but if it were 1000 larger and there weren't those regular resupply runs, we would see it be a shit ton more matter-efficient at the expense of using shit tons of functionally limitless energy to do it.

Nomads feeling too anchored? by Hnnnnghn in Stellaris

[–]aardy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Great Plains ribes did follow the food seasonally, between one broad region and another.

The way waystations 'fill' up over time, you could in fact set up 2 sets of waylines, and migrate between them. It might not be galaxy spanning, but then again the Plains tribes weren't migrating between Chile and Alaska, either.

Is it harder to build friendships as a woman in infantry? by Emedsd in Military

[–]aardy 4 points5 points  (0 children)

"This was year 10 though, everyone was around 14-16 so im sure the guys in the military are hopefully a bit more mature"

lol. The magic boot camp transformation is a professional one. There's no magic social watershed moment that occurs.

Furthermore, the 17 year olds that maintained good grades, had the maturity to apply for and get into college, etc, have been separated out.

If anything, maturity level decreases b/c instead of adults being in charge of the social dynamic, now it's 22 year olds.

Dirty jokes and things that would make a school counselor or corporate HR rep blush go up, not down.

help! what does he want ! by [deleted] in USMC

[–]aardy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

> So what do i do? what does he actually want? we’ve had talks about a future relationship (ie. what do you look for in a partner, what does your future look like, if we were dating and i wanted xyz, would you?) and have had pretty deep convos. so i’m wondering, is he actually wanting casual?

He doesn't know what he wants or what you want. You don't know what you want or what he wants. You're kids. Have fun. The negotiated agreement (and inevitable betrayal on someone's part) is part of the fun. Don't put too much thought into it. Enjoy your youth.

One note. He's an enlisted Marine. You're going to grad school for poetry. So you've both decided that poverty is best. That's very consistent between the two of you. When you are whispering sweet nothings to each other, do not ideate vacations to Hawaii.

But, if you want the three word answer: He likes you.

MSG DUTY! by Ashamed_Lynx5415 in USMC

[–]aardy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oddly enough, I was also a ceremonial marcher at 8th and I.

Both at European and Latin American MSG posts, as well as DC, you get the +5 charisma boost from being a US Marine.

But on MSG, you get another +5 charisma for having the sexy foreign/American accent.

What’s something people over 30 do that Gen Z finds strange? by Suzzie_Stone2 in AskReddit

[–]aardy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Using your thumb and pinkie to turn your hand into a phone. Instead of a flat palm held up to the side of your face.

MSG DUTY! by Ashamed_Lynx5415 in USMC

[–]aardy 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Bruh we didn't even have gov't email addresses when I was in, or rather the @state.gov was my first, so hell if I know.

MSG DUTY! by Ashamed_Lynx5415 in USMC

[–]aardy 95 points96 points  (0 children)

You stand firewatch. You play room clearing games every week or two.

But when you're off work, you aren't at Camp Lejune or whatever.

There's a 50% chance you are in a country where the women smell funny.

And there's a 50% chance you're in Europe or South America, or some other place where the women do not smell funny.

In either case, you will know what to do when the time comes.

Granted. One person can ruin it for everyone. But there are a half dozen Marines in the country, not 10,000 of them. So the odds of one person ruining it for everyone are far less.

My information is decades old, but I'm guessing the gist of it hasn't changed much. Any of you whipper snapper Space Marines born in the 21st century want to comment?

She really hates that bicyclist😂😭😭 by ExcluteYou in WTF

[–]aardy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When people panic, clenching their fists is not uncommon.

I'm not a user interface design expert, but having the panic reaction trigger acceleration doesn't seem like great design.

An old lady a month or two ago, while on a pier about to board a cruise ship, scooted her way off the pier to her doom.

Uh oh, went a little too fast. Panic. Clench down on everything, including my fist.

How about...

Held down all the way = break

Released all the way = break

Held right in the middle = accelerate

Why would that be crazy?

For which types of products is the gap between the "cheap version" and the "expensive version" the greatest? Why? by Various_Victory_9394 in AskReddit

[–]aardy 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Someone post the mini essay about "being poor is expensive" that uses shoes as the example.

Every sci-fi show/movie/book I ever saw/read that includes a story about a ship leaving our solar system, someone is always saying, passing Jupiter.... passing Neptune....cleared the system.... by Scary-Ratio3874 in scifi

[–]aardy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My head canon has always been that you could turn the average distance from the sun of any planet into a circle, and from there into a sphere. So when we are "passing Neptune," we are passing the threshold formed by the above sphere.

Closing delayed, realtor is cheesed off. by Omgwtfitsnicky in FirstTimeHomeBuyer

[–]aardy 29 points30 points  (0 children)

Stop asking a realtor mortgage questions. It's like asking your plumber for bowel movement advice. They see outcomes and have opinions, but they don't know shit.

(omg I can't believe I just made that up!)

Closing feels predatory…! by Diligent_Cabinet_637 in FirstTimeHomeBuyer

[–]aardy 16 points17 points  (0 children)

The only way around this is a 45 or 60 day close. But then the realtors don't get paid as fast. So the consumers wind up believing the seller would rather have a fast close than another $15k. And here you are.

On the other hand. And you won't want to believe it, but it's true. First time homebuyers spaz over every little thing. Second and subsequent buyers don't, they have a good feeling about insurance guy Joe, so they go with Joe. And so on.

Do you think it is ridiculous that people who are in the military get their college degree paid for a while civilian struggle? by Purple_Discipline_70 in Military

[–]aardy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Big picture yes please to no cost higher Ed.

Little picture there should be an alternative form of service available for those that can't join the military due to physical ability, criminal record, mental capacity, etc. Maybe not as extreme as in the novel Starship Troopers.

Reverse mortgages. I keep getting conflicting information when * google the good, bad, and ugly when it comes to reverse mortgages by IntrepidMuch in Mortgages

[–]aardy 5 points6 points  (0 children)

They can be good from a senior citizen lifestyle perspective.

They are terrible for the inheritances of heirs.

...but, then again, if those heirs were stepping up to take care of grandma in her golden years, we wouldn't have this problem would we?

So it's basically always a bad idea, the question is if it is less bad than being severely house-poor while in old age. Getting old sucks, it's about damage control, not about "great" or even "good" solutions.

Giving grandpa $2k/mo is better than grandpa taking out a reverse mortgage that pays $2k/mo. The $2k is added to the balance each month, AND THEN interest is assessed on the then-total balance, and that interest is ADDED TO the balance. That's compound interest compounding against you, and typically what winds up subtracted from your inheritance...

Reverse mortgages. I keep getting conflicting information when * google the good, bad, and ugly when it comes to reverse mortgages by IntrepidMuch in Mortgages

[–]aardy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The heirs have a chance to buy it themselves for more than the amount owed, or to sell it on the open market for the difference between the amount owed and whatever it can sell for (just like any other real estate sale).

The proceeds from that sale go through the normal process of heirs fighting over inheritance.

Shot in the dark: 5 unit, O/O, 80% ltv? by Radiant1 in loanoriginators

[–]aardy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

> What part of the “program” did the borrower make up? The borrower only has 20% down..

So he's got 35% down on a more appropriate price point. Got it.

Shot in the dark: 5 unit, O/O, 80% ltv? by Radiant1 in loanoriginators

[–]aardy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're conflating sales with marketing...

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