Achilles

Well said

I know one of the arguments that I heard and found persuasive is that wealth taxes incentivize the rich to get better at hiding income. Which isn't to say that I don't think it's a fight worth having. I just don't think it's the silver bullet solution that some people (Bernie, Warren, AOC) seem to think that it is. The country of Greece is probably a good case study here. Anyway, to piggy back off of the comment @Gromnir made, thank goodness I don't hear libertarians trying to pull that "flat tax" bull**** anymore

Best to assume you're referring to Congresswoman Greene or...?

It was set in 2019

A whole new generation of Yang memes

That's fair. To be honest I probably spent some time in that headspace too.

You left out the "when able" part, but yes. Obviously if you're still scrapping along to get by, then you're in no position to help others. The best thing you can do is not be a drain on limited aid resources by continuing to provide for yourself.

Agreed. It's easy to judge if you've never been there.

I don't think those that get lucky owe apologies to those that don't either. I do think there's a case to be made that those who do make it out *should* have enough self-awareness not to **** on those that don't and, when able, probably have some sort of obligation to help those that weren't as lucky as they were. Kant and Rawls probably have words worth reading the subject

https://firstquarterfinance.com/ebt-cash-back-rules/ Not sure how credible the source is, but it was the top search result when I looked

Yep. Some people make it out via a combination of luck and hard work. Kudos to you

Great-grandfather built a homestead with his brother which was then passed on to my grandmother who sold it upon his death so that she could live her best life in a rented beach-side condo in SoCal. So yeah, one ancestor for about one generation. Everyone else in my family worked for a living and died poor.

Ah. Another sad case of someone coming from generational wealth who truly has no idea how the other half live. Makes sense.

My understanding is that you can use EBT to get cash back if you are also on a cash relief program. You cannot if you only have SNAP (which is what we were discussing). Not an expert on the subject though, so I may be mistaken.

hehe. You ever try to buy a house? Or raw land? I'm guessing no.

It's not "just money". You can't use it anywhere like cash. You can only use it to buy food. Which isn't to say that there aren't grey markets where people barter their food assistance for cash so they can buy things like tires.

I seem to recall that the presence of a Whole Foods in your zip code was a good indicator of whether or not you were anti-vax

I'm old enough to remember when the boogeyman was "the neoconservative establishment". It's cracking me up that many of the key figureheads are the same people. Too much to hope that someday people stop looking for cabals and learn how to have better conversations about policy?

Simon Winchester's new book

First time hearing about Samurai Cop. Did see Blind Fury an embarrassing number of times. Does that count?

Knives Out was great...once