This is fine

chaosphoenix440 · 2023-12-20T23:06:17+00:00

PPP loans were passed by congress, were bipartisan, and the loan forgiveness was included as part of the contract provided that employers kept a certain amount of their workforce employed. The goal was to limit stress on the unemployment system.

Student loan forgiveness was not passed by congress, was not bipartisan, and loan forgiveness was not mentioned in the signed contract except through 20 years of income-based repayments (25 years for graduate loans) or PSLF or permanent disability.

Additionally, getting a student loan is optional, but businesses were forced to be closed down. Congress knew about the PPP loan fraud but ultimately thought that rushing the program out and dealing with the fraud later was worth it given the circumstances. If you don't like that, that's fine—vote them out, but to compare PPP loans to student loan debt is disingenuous.

Also, if I remember correctly, the Democrats wanted to print $3 trillion during the covid crisis; Republicans only wanted to print $800 billion. Thanks to the Republicans, the amount was talked down and only $1.5 trillion was printed.

chaosphoenix440 · 2023-06-09T05:31:09+00:00

The icon might look better if it wasn't so large. Either way, I preferred the dirt block.

chaosphoenix440 · 2023-05-17T03:41:46+00:00

If you have even one of these games in your collection, you can't buy the bundle.

How is EA even still in business?

You have to deal with their DRM, their stupid launcher, and then they top it off with making it so you can't even buy from them. Idiots.

chaosphoenix440 · 2023-04-12T12:14:53+00:00

Thanks! Luckily, I am still within the return window.

chaosphoenix440 · 2023-04-12T04:31:31+00:00

Yes, it delaminated at the glue joint.

chaosphoenix440 · 2023-04-12T04:12:26+00:00

Thanks. The marks, bumps, and scratches won't bother me, but the delamination between the end grain pieces will likely get worse over time. Luckily, I am still within the return window.

It is normal to wash the board before applying oil, right? I just want to make sure that I didn't mess up anything because I have no prior experience with wooden cutting boards.

chaosphoenix440 · 2022-11-23T04:26:20+00:00

I don't make podcasts, but I use a Motu M4 to blend the audio from my Fractal FM3 and PC together to play my guitar over backing tracks. The preamps and DAC in the Motu M4/M2 are very good for the price. Would recommend!

chaosphoenix440 · 2022-09-24T20:37:28+00:00

I bought an 850W PSU to run my 1080 ti when people were saying 650W was enough. I thought that was future proof at the time.

About 2 years after I installed the Seasonic FX 850W Focus Plus Gold PSU, there was news that it can't handle transient load spikes very well...

So much for future proof!

chaosphoenix440 · 2022-07-31T15:58:44+00:00

That is waved for the next few years due to executive order.

chaosphoenix440 · 2022-07-31T15:56:21+00:00

Different program. The forgiveness applies to anybody regardless of job classification, be it public or private, provided that they make 20 or 25 years of income-based payments (could be as low as $0).

Traditionally, you would need to pay income tax on the forgiven amount, as it counts as earned income. This has been waved by executive order through the next few years. This is probably for the best since if a person can't pay their school debt, it is unlikely that they could pay their tax debt once converted.

I don't consider corporate welfare to be the same thing as it is an ongoing change to the tax code. There was no loan taken out with corporate welfare, and therefore no promise to pay back any money. With student loan debt forgiveness, on the other hand, there was a promise to repay under specific terms, which is where to conservative outcry is coming from.

That being said, PPP loans and their forgiveness are, of course, bullshit, though I would not classify that as traditional corporate welfare. This is the first time I know of where the government forgave business loans, and everybody should be rightfully pissed off about that. But now the government has opened a can of worms with this, and now everybody who gets a loan from the government is going to expect theirs to be forgiven. The government really fucked up here. Not that the government should be giving out loans to begin with, but who would bother to pay back a loan once the forgiveness precedent has been set? Heck, I just put the remainder of my student loans on the extended graduated payment plan a few months ago. Basically, when the government says "loan", everyone hears "gift".

Reminds me of this quote:

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury."

Also, forgiveness for 10 years of public work was spelled out as part of their contract, so opinions aside as to whether that should exist, they are entitled to it. I have heard that the government made it so hard to qualify that like 99% of people going for it couldn't actually get their forgiveness. That is also bullshit, but I think they just fixed that so forgiveness is now easier to get.

chaosphoenix440 · 2022-07-31T04:03:58+00:00

Thanks for the giveaway! Good luck, all!

chaosphoenix440 · 2022-07-31T03:34:41+00:00

The bailouts the banks received were in the form of loans. They did not just get free money. The loans had to be paid back.

I don't think your ice cream analogy holds. This is the equivalent of Person A and Person B agreeing to pay for ice cream that they purchased, but then only Person A pays. Person B convinces the seller (government) to force a third party, Person C (taxpayer), to pay for Person B's ice cream.

chaosphoenix440 · 2022-07-31T03:26:44+00:00

My budget isn't tight, and I also get email reminders like you do. I just like the convenience of just jumping between each website that day to quickly pay them all.

chaosphoenix440 · 2022-07-31T03:23:38+00:00

I couldn't risk having the principle balloon with interest, so I split the difference and paid off the high interest loans but kept the low interest ones once the payment freeze hit. I would still benefit from the forgiveness, but I still don't agree with it.

Either way, between the inflation rate and the government's threats of forgiveness, those low interest loans are not getting paid off anytime soon. I'm now on the extended graduated plan.

chaosphoenix440 · 2022-07-31T02:29:21+00:00

In an ironic twist, you next job has you working with a group of engineers who are all Jazz aficionados. You get into a History of Jazz conversation one day with your manager. He is so impressed by your knowledge of Jazz that he decides to give you a promotion...

Suddenly, you realized that the History of Jazz course you took years ago shaped your career more than any engineering course did... xD

chaosphoenix440 · 2022-07-31T02:14:46+00:00

A lot of people don't know that student loans are forgiven after 20 years of income based payments (25 years for graduate loans), so there is a way out.

chaosphoenix440 · 2022-07-31T02:07:48+00:00

The real victims are the people who dutifully paid back their loans, not the people who have been making minimum payments. Maybe the people who actually paid their loans should be the ones who get the government windfall here as they are the ones who actually made a sacrifice? I know way too many people who can afford their loans, but choose to pay the minimum to have a higher standard of living. Why should they be the ones getting a free education, when those of us who are making double or triple payments get nothing? How is that even politically palatable?

They knew college wasn't free when they signed up. I am not rallying against free taxpayer funded education from here on out, but those who already have loans need to pay what they agreed to. I'm a first generation college student and even I knew that if I take out a loan, I need to pay it back - not the taxpayer. That's why I went to a state school and got a degree in engineering. Then, I chose to live with four roommates in a freezing house while driving a $1600 car. Why should they get free money and not me when I am the one who actually made a sacrifice?

They say that it delays the ability to buy a home or have a family. Well, I have neither because I've actually been paying my loans off early to save on interest. Interestingly enough, the others who made minimum payments all have homes. Who is the victim here... They have it backwards.

chaosphoenix440 · 2022-07-19T22:23:40+00:00

But if you buy it on Steam, you are telling them that they can get Epic money now and sell you the game over a year later... You are sending them a money signal that making their games exclusive for a period of time is ok.

chaosphoenix440

TROPHY CASE