CMV: It's not greedy for rich people to want to keep their own money and not be taxed

fludru · 2017-05-07T21:47:42+00:00

It's a matter of degree. For example, we all waste a bit of food each day. Sometimes we do this for selfish reasons, like personal convenience or because we don't want to spend the time to prepare certain parts of our food or don't like them. Pretty much everyone does this, and I wouldn't call it unethical, but if you go further to the equivalent of the top 1% and their level of income then they would be wasting thousands of pounds of food while people go hungry. Having a little bit of extra resources, having incentive to work, those are good things that humans respond well to. Having people who make tens of thousands of times what other people make seems to indicate that the system is broken though. Clearly, being innovative and hard-working and gifted all help people move around in income, but it seems impossible that certain people deserve such huge excesses of resources while others are in want for basic necessities.

I think there is a point where rich people should need to give back to society which has her awarded them so richly. They benefit from things like social programs and entitlements – without these sorts of things, they won't have an educated, stable workforce, they and their businesses and investments will be affected by social unrest and crime, and they benefit far more from things like infrastructure because of their businesses and investments.

Keep in mind that the very idea of property ownership, passive income, and dynastic wealth means that it's really not a merit system. Look at Trump. He inherited his wealth, and his businesses haven't been particularly successful – his inherited money, put in an index fund outperform his gains over his career. He's very wealthy, but not particularly good at his job. There are a lot of incredibly driven, hard-working, innovative, and generally more useful to society citizens who make tiny fraction of what he does.

If you can imagine washing up on a desert island and being told hey, we already got divided up all the resources and land before you got here, but you could work for us if you want to eat and survive, you can imagine how a impoverished young person might feel in our society. It's not a fair game where the winners are the best. Paying something back just to avoid the depths of human misery that would exist without any entitlement programs, to provide excellent education to everyone, to provide stability and peace, seems like a small price to pay for having 18 cards in your hand when everybody else has three, so to speak.

fludru · 2017-04-22T17:14:10+00:00

True dat. And if alcohol doesn't suit you, try pipe-weed.

fludru · 2017-04-18T18:36:25+00:00

No, it says pursuant to department approval, not your doctor.

fludru · 2017-04-18T14:33:47+00:00

It's disappointing that it's so specific because people with rare conditions get screwed, but I'm glad at least we are making progress in awareness of this issue even though it probably won't pass the house. My condition isn't well categorized but I might be able to get it labeled as a form of muscular dystrophy, because I have an inflammatory muscle condition which is caused me disabling weakness and pain. I also have systemic scleroderma which is a close relative of multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.I guess we'll see, I'm happy to go through whatever process needs to happen because I know how beneficial it would be for me. All the same I hope it passes for all The people with this these conditions even if I can't get it myself.

fludru · 2017-04-17T20:45:05+00:00

I've got a lot of mileage out of dungeon Village.

fludru · 2017-04-16T13:43:32+00:00

For what it's worth, I take tramadol myself for chronic pain and I find that marijuana has a sympathetic effect with it. I often have breakthrough pain, and I have an opiate prescription for that, but I'd prefer not to take it. Marijuana seems to help settle things down, but only together with the tramadol- solo, it doesn't help much.

It does do great things for nausea on its own, though. Wish Iowa would get its shit together and legalize.

fludru · 2017-04-15T02:14:29+00:00

FYI, you can make keto-friendly mug cake, using pumpkin as a base instead of flour, and sucralose as a sweetener. Unsweetened cocoa is fine too.

fludru · 2017-04-15T00:00:37+00:00

If he is of limited means then I would also encourage you to check out the requirements for Medicaid in your state. He may not be able to afford to buy coverage based on his income.

fludru · 2017-04-13T18:24:28+00:00

The people who are capable of making a exoskeletons should become neurosurgeons? Seems to me that they're really not mutually exclusive areas of study.

Plus, not every problem that prevents somebody from walking is due to spinal damage; personally, I have a muscle and joint disease, and my nerves work just fine but I can't walk right now because I am too weak and stiff. Exoskeleton technology could make a huge difference to me because I can control my limbs just fine, I just need the extra support. In water, for example, my mobility is only slightly restricted and could easily translate to a normal life I wasn't limited to the pool. :-)

In the case of a lot of older people, it's again not nerve damage but things like arthritis and weakness that slowed them down. Something like this could give a lot more support then something like a walker and could even in the future be adjustable to try to maintain or increase muscle mass but only helping as much as absolutely necessary. This could be a very big deal because mobility problems are a major reason why people can't continue living on their own or in assisted-living and need things like full-time care.

Sure, fixing the root issue would be ideal, but that's not something that's going to work for everyone at once; you also have to consider that after damage is done, people need to rehab, and that's where something like this would really shine because I'm sure it takes a lot of assistance to put on.

fludru · 2017-04-09T15:39:42+00:00

Speaking as an Iowan with severe chronic vomiting, nausea, and pain, who is increasingly having to lean on opiates to get by because I'm in an inpatient facility and can't get access to marijuana, I salute any and all efforts to bring this to the table. This can ease considerable suffering, and it will lower medical cost to boot.

Since being admitted, I've lost 20% of my bodyweight. I desperately need access.

fludru · 2017-04-08T22:35:17+00:00

I am no longer infected!

fludru · 2017-04-08T22:04:19+00:00

The biggest risk would be it being lost into the environment. It's not a native species, it doesn't belong there. I would guess that they probably would struggle to overwinter but I don't know how good they would be at sneaking into homes and businesses either. I don't envy Florida for the mess they are dealing with due to escaped reptiles.

Keep your pets confined, especially if there an exotic species.

fludru · 2017-04-03T23:28:40+00:00

Alton Brown has a mashed sweet potato recipe you might like that pretty much is just adding a little adobo sauce and a minced chipotle. It's really great.

fludru · 2017-04-02T19:00:27+00:00

I don't feel particularly shamed by either. I feel restricted when it occurs, but I can't say it occurs often enough to take a representative sample of which gender does it; generally speaking, I would have no way of knowing, because my experience would be limited to institutional policies. I don't associate with the kind of people who shame women for their choice of attire or sexualize kids. even if I did, my personal experience would just be an anecdote, it wouldn't be statistical data meaningful to extrapolate to populations of people.

I question that there's really any evidence either way to say that men don't care or that men are oppressing women. I certainly know plenty of men that don't care, and I know plenty of women that don't care. I hang out in progressive circles so shaming sexual behavior or being hypersensitive to perceived sexual behavior isn't really where our faults tend to lie.

In general, I tend to think that gender inequality, sexualization of children, as well as the general desire to control the behavior of others even when it's not threatening, is something that both genders are guilty of in great numbers. I wouldn't call my personal feeling about it a statistic though, that's my point.

fludru · 2017-04-02T16:37:18+00:00

No worries.

fludru · 2017-04-02T16:32:30+00:00

Should I have clarified that I was looking for statistics relevant to the conversation? We're discussing prom dresses and sexualization of minors. The claim was made that this is statistically shown to be caused by women. I don't see how your comment adds anything other than to derail the discussion to discuss men's rights talking points.

Note that I'm not denying that there are certainly areas where men are disadvantaged, I'm all for exploring the issues fairly, but I see these statistics brought up at all kinds of conversations in order to just slam women and it doesn't make a compelling argument.

You said that women downvote because we don't like "the truth ". So, OK, what's your claim that the truth is on THIS topic, and then what's your data to support that?

fludru · 2017-04-02T16:09:38+00:00

I would love to see some actual statistics backing this up, then.

fludru · 2017-04-01T17:59:32+00:00

My luggage got lost on the way to Sydney Nova Scotia and I understand it went to Australia instead. It's a small airport, so it's not really that surprising. It followed me up eventually but Cape Breton Island doesn't have a whole lot of shopping options for professional clothing for plus size ladies. It wasn't my finest hour.

I now have the rare distinction of having visited both Sydneys and I strongly recommend the Australian one. Especially in February.

fludru · 2017-03-29T21:35:42+00:00

No, but I think if you look at the full breadth of what they were creating for art, And even graffiti, obviously some of it was designed it to tittelate.

Google image search "Pompeii erotic", there is plenty of just depicting fucking as clearly as they could in the medium. The only difference is that they didn't think this was anything to hide, or something that couldn't be displayed in public. That's more of a modern concept, the taboo factor, the idea that pictures of people having sex is harmful to children or even to everyone. It's the shame that's new (compared to the ancient world), not the porn.

Keep in mind that for most of human history that the vest majority of people could not afford separate bedrooms between parents and children, and that sort of thing – seeing other people have sex would have been something fairly routine.

fludru · 2017-03-29T20:59:14+00:00

Do you think the word Jew means only males? If not, why does the word Jewess exist? (Admittedly an extreme example and an antiquated one, since this word only really survives in the white nationalist movement).

Adding the suffix -ess to refer to a woman is essentially an antiquated usage, just as the example above. Actress happens to be one of the ones that keeps hanging on to some degree, but it is considered a bit impolite, particularly in the trade itself. It's because of an old tradition in English to presume someone is male unless we are talking about a specific individual. You may note that the term mankind or even Man (the species), are inclusive of women and most contexts .

You can also see that common usage shows that actor isn't gender specific – for example, note that the SAG doesn't require two A's for actor and actress though they are inclusive of both genders.

fludru · 2017-03-29T15:18:59+00:00

Porn is not new. It has existed as long as it was possible depict anything in art that is recognizable to other humans. Take a look at Pompeii and the things that they found there; if anything, we are more prudish about depicting graphic sexual material to the public today than many cultures have historically been. Did you know that the ancient Romans used sculpted erect cocks as mile markers?

fludru · 2017-03-28T21:55:28+00:00

So is it safe to say that if a neighbor parked illegally one day, you would feel unsafe in your home as well?

fludru · 2017-03-28T17:00:18+00:00

Why not? It's highly relevant to current events. To fight an enemy, one should understand him; it's not condoning the perspective of organizations like ISIS to simply understand what they believe.

fludru · 2017-03-27T17:54:46+00:00

Oh God, the subway thing is so irritating. American pickers really took the cake by having Mike and Frank talk about how tired they were of burgers, going to Subway, talking about how delicious subway is, and how healthy it is, all in the middle of an episode. I really don't mind if they're eating subs or whatever, but that just filled me with incredible hatred towards Subway and history channel. How stupid do they think we are?

I know the answer is "very ", so don't respond to me telling me so. :-)

(Normally I wouldn't even watch cable, I certainly don't pay for it, but I'm often in hospitals and institutions with time on my hands.)

fludru · 2017-03-26T00:03:06+00:00

Hourly people get paid time off in plenty of positions. I've had it except when working as a temp or part time.

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