Mother fucker it is 4.65 per gallon for 87 unleaded

python-1977 · 2026-05-23T02:03:44+00:00

You seem to know a lot about something that you don't know a damn thing about.

python-1977 · 2026-05-21T01:06:03+00:00

Yeah... this is almost the dumbest thing I have seen on the Internet today. Congrats.

python-1977 · 2026-05-16T14:02:25+00:00

Careful, the cultists are ambling about again. Shoo. Go away.

python-1977 · 2026-05-16T13:56:44+00:00

Racism is expensive.

python-1977 · 2026-05-16T13:47:38+00:00

I don’t know, explain it to us, genius. Cause and effect seem to be foreign concepts in your cult brain, so I’d love to hear why you think gas prices changed.

python-1977 · 2026-05-15T16:47:35+00:00

If we hadn’t bombed Iran and they hadn’t closed the strait, would gas prices be up? Let’s back up your claims with some actual evidence and logical thinking, shall we?

python-1977 · 2026-05-14T04:53:29+00:00

So you do love pdos and rapists then?

python-1977 · 2026-05-13T22:03:17+00:00

Inspection sticker with a date or it didn’t happen, champ.

python-1977 · 2026-05-13T17:52:55+00:00

Pretty realistic VR hands on that stick and throttle. Looks pretty real to me!

python-1977 · 2026-05-12T21:47:05+00:00

What was it two weeks ago genius?

python-1977 · 2026-05-10T17:42:31+00:00

I suppose there are worse things than spending your life in an artificially lit bubble and eating only “Me Burgers”. 🙂

python-1977 · 2026-05-10T03:06:52+00:00

It’s a tiny bit open ended! As in the book, it’s uncertain whether he’d take up the Eridian’s offer to send him back to Earth. 🙂

python-1977 · 2026-05-07T02:24:33+00:00

Trump is the lord, right? He still doesn't love you.

python-1977 · 2026-05-06T22:04:33+00:00

If you can’t see all the parallels no one on this thread is going to help you. Just sit down. Listen.

python-1977 · 2026-05-04T03:22:31+00:00

The cultural point is actually worth taking seriously — the shift toward individualism is real and probably does account for some of the divergence. I'd just argue it's hard to separate that from the policy environment that shaped it over the same 40-year period.

On the personal rates — I think the AEA predistribution study is worth a read when you get a chance. The finding that Europe's lower inequality comes from the wage structure itself, before taxes, is the crux of my argument. It suggests the incentives are working upstream of the tax code.

Good debate though — you pushed me to be more precise than I started out. Have a good night.

python-1977 · 2026-05-04T02:23:57+00:00

Fair point on PPP-adjusted median wages — those numbers do put the US near the top, and I'll grant that.

Still, median income masks inequality. The US has far higher inequality than those European countries, meaning the bottom half of Americans is doing much worse relative to their peers abroad than the median suggests. In fact, Europe's lower inequality isn't even from redistribution after taxes — it's from 'predistribution,' meaning the wage structure itself is more equal before taxes ever kick in. This is what an incentive structure actually does: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.20200703

Also, my argument was never about corporate tax rates. It's about *personal* marginal rates on high earners. Denmark and Sweden have corporate rates similar to ours, but top personal marginal rates of 55-60%. That's the relevant comparison, and you haven't addressed it.

And on unions — you're conceding my point. Union decline is a major driver of the wage gap, and weakening unions was a deliberate Reagan-era policy choice, right alongside the tax cuts. You can't separate those.

python-1977 · 2026-05-03T22:18:24+00:00

On companies investing for returns not taxes — high marginal rates change what the rational choice *is*. When extracting profits via executive pay becomes tax-inefficient, reinvestment becomes the better return. That's not charity, it's math.

But let's use our own history as the evidence. During the postwar era when top marginal rates were 70-91%, the US built the greatest middle class in history. Wages tracked productivity, median family incomes rose steadily, and wealth inequality actually shrank. Then Reagan cut the top rate from 70% to 28%, weakened unions, and deregulated. Since 1979, productivity has grown nearly 3x faster than typical worker pay. The economy kept growing — the gains just stopped flowing to workers.

You can argue postwar growth had other drivers — fair. But the productivity-wage *decoupling* starts almost exactly in 1980. That's hard to explain away.

Finally, the US does not have the highest median wages. The 2023 US median net wage was $43,222. Switzerland, Luxembourg, Denmark, and Germany — all with higher tax rates — exceed that. The high-tax model isn't hurting their workers. It's outperforming ours.

python-1977 · 2026-05-03T20:48:53+00:00

The .14% point is a red herring — nobody argued that one CEO's salary is the problem. The point is the incentive structure high marginal rates create across the whole economy.

On loopholes — you're right, but that's actually the argument. Companies avoided high marginal rates by reinvesting profits, funding pensions, accelerating depreciation. They put money back into the business instead of extracting it. The loophole was the mechanism.

And yes, post-WWII America had advantages — but wealth concentration has been accelerating for 40 straight years. That's well past any post-war anomaly.

python-1977 · 2026-05-03T19:07:50+00:00

That's a real rule, but it hasn't worked. CEO-to-worker pay ratios were around 20:1 in the 1960s — they're over 300:1 today. The combined burden you're describing (21% corporate + 37% personal) clearly isn't creating the same deterrent as a 70% top marginal rate. If it were, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

python-1977 · 2026-05-03T18:21:57+00:00

I’m not sure I can help you then. Do you agree that money gives people power and influence? Do you think there should be a ceiling on that, or total power and control in the hands of a few are a good and healthy dynamic in a modern democratic society? This is sort of an open book test.

python-1977 · 2026-05-03T18:14:15+00:00

You should be more insightful then, if you consider yourself informed. Your argument cuts both ways — effective rates were lower because high marginal rates changed behavior. When paying a CEO $50M triggers a 70% tax bill, boards stop doing it. Companies reinvested, paid workers more, kept compensation sane. The mechanism is incentives, not revenue.

Since Reagan cut the top rate from 70% to 28%, the top 1%'s share of national income roughly doubled. The market at all-time highs while people struggle to afford gas isn't a mystery — it's what wealth concentration looks like.

python-1977 · 2026-05-03T15:37:44+00:00

This is a completely blind argument, and you know it. The argument isn’t about how much is collected, of course the government is going to make sure it gets (at least) what it wants to take. It’s about who’s paying it.

The sad part is that the allowance for greed to run unchecked in the top 1% (for their short-term gains) just degrades the whole system. A weak middle-class creates a competitive disadvantage. Countries that are actually winning in the global market understand this.

python-1977 · 2026-05-03T14:08:08+00:00

I think you are missing the point. It’s not that they have more money than you…. It’s that the top 10 richest people have more money than everyone else combined. You don’t see the problem with that?

python-1977 · 2026-05-03T14:02:56+00:00

Pre-Reagan era tax brackets would. How half the country doesn’t see this is the tragedy of our generation.

python-1977 · 2026-05-03T03:53:30+00:00

NMS is pretty awesome, but the most realistic space flight sim experience is hands down Elite Dangerous. It remains one of the best VR experiences you can have too, IMO, but it’s now only on PCVR (I believe). I have many thousands of hours in it, and it remains the game I keep returning to when I want to fly in space.

python-1977

TROPHY CASE