Lauchs @ Lauchs @lemmy.world

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46

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1,412

Joined

2 yr. ago

(Champagne problems warning) Was goddamn great until I pulled a calf muscle playing soccer tonight and now probably can't ski on Friday and Monday, despite our mountains FINALLY getting a nice dump.

Admittedly, my problems are nothing compared to the children who mined the cobalt for my phone but godfuckingdamnit.

If we're entering a terrifying economic time where our biggest trading partner is doing crazy shit, a banker with Carney's record kind of appeals.

Given current economic arrangements... I dunno, I don't think a radical transformer can win, I don't want crazy populist bullshit (Left or Right) I just want someone who has basically progressive values (social/wealth inequality, climate change etc) who will keep my friends employed. I'll be fine regardless but my friends are starting families and while the largest economy on Earth is run by an unrestrained lunatic, I'd like some safety for them, as those are some cute kids.

Same idea as portfolio diversification. When I have time and few crises, yeah, some sexy stocksare fun. But the closer we get to crunch time, the more we move to safe assets.

Not having tik tok or instagram seems to count? I dunno if wildly popular social media counts though.

Jesus! At first I thought that was a bit of an oexaggeration (and I think it is a little bit, as how much of his additional weight is muscle etc) but I'm decently muscled and am slightly less than 30% his weight without much body fat.

Wow. That would be terrifying. I absolutely would not hang out in a lot of the sketchy areas I love.

Edit: Checked, our height difference and the average height difference for North American men n women is also pretty similar. That's a wildly, and increasingly appropriate image!

Fair. Admittedly, teenagers I think are some of the most dangerous drivers around (at least, God knows I was) so I suppose any job that disproportionately hired them...

Yeah, I'm not sure I've seen any of those in my lifetime. I'm Canadian and even Steven Harper, who would be almost a Democrat by American standards, wanted to go to war with the census for Reasons.

Broadly though, my understanding of Conservative values, peeling back the state, more self reliance etc is broadly unpopular to the many who think the state has a big role to play in social welfare from education to healthcare

If you could offer just rough ideas/goals, what would your sane, honest Conservative budget feature? Not looking to fight just genuinely curious. (No numbers obviously but like what would you want to cut. No vague "government waste" though please.)

Honestly, I'm just not sure deficit spending outside of wars/economic emergencies was a great strategy and instead, a time bomb Reaganomics left everyone else to deal with. I think that's the ridiculously outsized part of spending that would've been the best to cut. If I remember correctly, servicing the debt is now on par with American military spending...

Really? That seems odd just because there are so mamy jobs that involve driving under time constrains...

One of those lines that really stuck with me for awhile was True Detective Season 2.

"The fundamental difference between the sexes is that one of them can kill the other with their bare hands."

Never had it laid so bare for me before but on average, that's probably true which must be fucking terrifying. As a guy I've been in a handful of scraps but if I'd weighed 30% less and had a lot less muscle, those would have been really dangerous. (Except for that one kid who punched my jaw so weakly and drunkenly off target that all I could do was howl with laughter.)

I wonder... I remember reading a scientific article (or looking at a headline in the grocery checkout line, donn't remember which - Norm Macdonald) that noted that pizza delivery was one of the most dangerous jobs in America.

Presumably Uber mitigates some of that risk by having more info about their customers?

I'm equally confused. Maybe it's the confined bit? But it's not like having to flee your vehicle is ideal or even always possible. And as far as I know, taxis don't have ejector seats for the driver OR passengers (thanks Obama.)

Cool to know about, thanks!

Oh interesting, I wasn't aware there were actually examples of the Laffer curve working in reality! I alwats thought it was just a theoretical that conservatives had latched onto...

I don't know a lot of women clamoring to be in a confined space with however many random guys by themselves...

I was so confused, thank you for explaining.

Oh, a 10% drop is not super concerning. It's more "what happens next." The magnificent 7 have gone through the roof in terms of valuation since 2022... should those come back to Earth abruptly, it's not just tech bros who suffer.

Sure but that doesn't help the people who trusted their pensions would be safe.

Oh absolutely, it's just the VAT itself is regressive, not the overall tax system.

... Also bad for some people with 401ks and similar retirement funds.

A lot of of families unable to hire bespoke financial advice put their savings into traditionally safer index funds like the S&P500 which have been increasingly weighted towards those companies.

Those lost trillions of dollars of value represent a lot of lo "retail" that is to say, not particularly wealthy, investors. Also a fair number of pension funds are probably similarly exposed, think teachers, nurses etc.

No, EU member states handle taxes individually.

But, that ease of travel is one inducement. (Consider, as billionaire Spaniard learns the government plans to tax an additional 100 million euros. With no border, is moving a few km next door to Portugal worth a 100 million?

More meaningful though is business taxes/regulations, which are a large part of why Europe has lost so many Unicorns to the NYSE and why within America, Texas is kind of killing it in terms of business relocations.

I personally think it's a race to the bottom but those are the constraints that exist.