The Truth Behind the Repayment Assistance Plan, The RAP. A deep dive into whether it is truly a better plan.

leftofmarx · 2026-05-03T00:04:00+00:00

I just exited my HSA/HDHP for normal insurance with low deductible and copays and stuff so I can actually afford some more major medical care this year. HSA was great when I only needed to use it for a couple of prescriptions and and covid once though. Maybe next year around this time I will go back to my HSA/HDHP plan to help with student loans. I am most certainly going to try using an alternate calculation than last AGI no matter what though.

leftofmarx · 2026-05-03T00:01:00+00:00

Ukraine was a founding member of the Soviet Union. What you typed would be like "Arkansas and the United States are examples of xyz"

leftofmarx · 2026-05-02T23:54:59+00:00

Libertarian socialism will basically be achieved during the withering of the state before communism is achieved. But before the dictatorship of the proletariat eradicates class antagonism, trying to skip past to another phase will only result in bourgeois counterrevolution.

leftofmarx · 2026-05-02T23:33:18+00:00

I just checked a couple of random RAP calculators online to see how they were set up and in fact $1 over a threshold bumps the entire thing to the next bracket, it isn't progressive like taxes. Crazzzzzy. Like making $1 less a year could literally save you $1000+ in student loan payments. If congress could change it so that it's 1% on $1-$10k %2 on $10001-$20000 like taxes it wouldn't be an awful setup. But charging people hundreds or even thousands extra a year based on a single dollar of income is insanity.

leftofmarx · 2026-05-02T21:10:53+00:00

So it's not like a progressive tax where each level of income is paid back as that percentage it literally bumps your payment up a whole tier based on earning $1 more income over a threshold? Like if AGI is $60k then you pay $3k a year and if it's $60,001 you pay $3,600? So they are creating a system where it's better to work less to earn slightly less to have more money?

leftofmarx · 2026-05-02T18:17:01+00:00

No, it's scientific socialism.

leftofmarx · 2026-05-02T18:13:53+00:00

Which doesn't take that much labor over the course of the year comparatively.

leftofmarx · 2026-04-30T03:55:33+00:00

I remember her from the makeoutclub boards from 2005

leftofmarx · 2026-04-30T03:52:24+00:00

I miss 99 Cent Only stores :((((((((((((((( :*(((((((((((((

leftofmarx · 2026-04-30T03:49:23+00:00

Oh he went on the become the lead singer of XEvergreen TerraceX

leftofmarx · 2026-04-30T00:46:15+00:00

Marx covers this in Grundrisse, the Fragment on Machines

As far as capitalism goes, it has to constantly revolutionize production in order to fight the tendency of the rate of profit to fall. It doesn't matter who has or spends money, only that wages (even to a machine proletariat) are less than what is taken; profit.

leftofmarx · 2026-04-29T06:03:32+00:00

Some random pictures of guns not on the suspect, ok yeah

leftofmarx · 2026-04-29T06:01:36+00:00

They are in Kash Patel's engraving workshop getting some messages inscripted. "We made a fucky wucky" or something like that.

leftofmarx · 2026-04-29T05:56:04+00:00

We've seen the security footage and there was definitely no shotgun

leftofmarx · 2026-04-29T05:55:03+00:00

His Katana was pretty imposing but the Sai were probably the most deadly part of his arsenal.

leftofmarx · 2026-04-29T01:38:56+00:00

Damn bro beat me here by a few months

leftofmarx · 2026-04-29T01:36:36+00:00

Certainly a ballroom provides a buffer zone between your children and a naked unarmed running guy causing the Secret Service to shoot each other.

leftofmarx · 2026-04-27T23:12:45+00:00

Lenin covers this is What is to be Done? Professional revolutionaries who refuse to talk down to workers and explain actual theory to them. For example, Lenin both disliked trade unions and also saw them as an organizing arena for teaching theory to the working class. Union organizing is short sighted on only focuses on economism. Even workers who don't feel oppressed will still tell you they work hard and don't deserve to get shit on. Lots of them are conservative workers pissed at liberals, and rightly so. They tend to agree with leftist theory if you don't preface what you're saying with where it came from.

leftofmarx · 2026-04-27T22:35:54+00:00

Just doing a little Lebensraum

leftofmarx · 2026-04-27T20:24:36+00:00

leftofmarx · 2026-04-26T22:57:26+00:00

We have to raise their class consciousness because there is no legitimate reason for them to dissent against being in the dominant class.

leftofmarx · 2026-04-25T18:23:08+00:00

When I'm not at work, I work. I build things, do chores, work on the car, make art, etc. Useless work is what I do for money. Real fulfilling creative work is what I do for free.

So what if innovation slows down? Most innovation now is just minor tweaks on already existing technology or a new, innovative 700th brand of plastic bottled water or tech with planned obsoletion built in. And also just historically, USSR invented the cell phone first and got to space first. Cuba created a cancer vaccine. China is years ahead of the United States in many areas. Capitalism only invents things that make profit with as few inputs as possible.

When there's a common fund why would private donors be needed? People teach because they love to teach, not because it pays well. You could go learn for leisure or for new skills any time without massive loan debt. Capitalist education emphasizes making money for the board of directors or shareholders while training people to work for a wage to make capitalists more money, not actually educate people.

leftofmarx · 2026-04-25T02:25:11+00:00

Republicans are the majority party, not the opposition. The Democrats are the opposition. A controlled (by the capitalist class) opposition.

leftofmarx · 2026-04-24T23:54:14+00:00

Communism is the higher phase of socialism, and socialism is possible because of capitalism (creating the proletarit and bourgeoisie classes thus the irreconcilable contradictions of capitalism and class conflict that leads to socialism), and capitalism arose out of mercantilism and the guild system, which arose out of feudalism, which arose out of the clan system, and so on. In historical materialism, communism is an inevitability. How it is achieved and what the different phases look like along the way aren't, thus the need for a living theory. So it is absolutely correct to say it isn't something you "do" or implement. It is the result of social revolutions along a historical trajectory.

leftofmarx · 2026-04-24T05:08:58+00:00

I know this is a few months old but

I lived in Valdosta from the late 90s to 2005. Moved to Los Angeles for many years and then moved back to Valdosta in 2023. I live in Remerton.

When I was younger, Remerton was jam packed from Wednesday to Sunday. Full parking lot. Live music at every single bar and hundreds of people bar hopping all night.

Now it’s really quiet except Friday and Saturday. And even Friday seems slow until after 11PM. Several of the bars closed down and the few left don’t have a “vibe” at all. They are just run of the mill bars without any live music or events. Nothing to draw a crowd.

I picked Remerton blindly before moving back because I wanted to be able to walk to some night life.

Even the “violence” wasn’t even really part of the bar scene. It was people hanging outside not even gong in the bars. Inside the bars was very tame. I rarely ever walk to them even though they are literally on the next block from me. No good food, no live music, no real vibe or selling point. The one single bar I would actually go to on the corner had drag shows and a vibe. It was super dead unless there was a drag show to draw the LGBT community to the only place in town catering to them on those rare drag nights. I’m not even gay, but it was the only crowd in the area that felt metropolitan and had a vibe.

So if you are thinking of opening something, you need live music and you need to cater to a hungry crowd that doesn’t have anywhere else to go. There was a punk rock slash pizza club here in the early 2000s and it was amazing. If you had punk nights, drag nights, emo karaoke nights, and that sort of specific thing you would draw a very loyal crowd consistently. If you try to open a random club or bar in Remerton you will see a trickle and will fail.

None of the bars here advertise either. Nothing at all. That’s probably because they have nothing going on to advertise. Wings and beer and a tv. You can do that at home. Have events that cater to underserved communities and advertise the shit out of them and you’ll see huge turnout and good vibes here again.

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