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Comment Re:Drop test (Score 1) 375

I don't see how this is relevant unless your hobby is regularly throwing everything in your pockets down long flights of stairs.
I have never dropped a phone far/hard enough to break it, and I don't use cases. I buy a smartphone and then use it for years until it no longer does what I want (due new/updated software, not due to the phone breaking).

Besides, all the information on my phone is backed up. Most of the stuff in my wallet does not allow me to have a backup. For some of it, there are laws against having a backup!
My wallet may not break but it can be stolen or dropped down a sewer, and then it's going to be damn hard to replace everything that's in there (and the cash of course is just gone forever). If my phone is lost, stolen or broken I just type an email address and password into a new one and everything is there.

Comment Re:Cash (Score 1) 375

I lived without a bank account for years. I worked for cash or my salary was given via a check (with taxes already taken out), which I cashed at Walmart. I paid rent with cash and lived in places where utilities were included with rent.

Getting anything - a library card, my ID updated, etc. - was damn near impossible though. And years later I still have issues. ID can't be updated without a utility bill... utility can't be put in my name without a bank account... bank account can't be opened without an updated ID. My husband has to sign up for things (Bank account, PO Box, insurance, etc. etc. etc.) and then add me on.

Comment Re:Lost!? (Score 1) 375

If I want to buy an air compressor off the trading post, I'm going to rock up with cash because the guy selling it wont have an EFTPOS machine.

I don't know about trading posts, but I know at craft fairs and conventions it's becoming common for sellers to have a small credit card reader that connects to their phone. I use a Square Reader to sell at craft fairs and conventions. Sure, I have to pay a fee for each transaction, but it's worth it to sell to people that have already spent all their cash, or who didn't bring cash because they were dragged along by friends/family and didn't expect to see anything they'd actually want to buy, or that didn't expect to make such a large transaction. Basically I have a choice between paying the fee or not making a sale to these people; so I'm fine with taking the fee. It's not sustainable to have a profit margin so small that merchant fees are going to kill me, so I don't do that.

And really despite the fee, I prefer to take credit cards. I can't pay any of my bills with cash (and even before I could pay them with credit cards, that was the case). So I have to drive to the bank (costing gas money), during hours it is open, and deposit the cash. Being a one-car family, and with the bank being open pretty much only when my husband is at work, and my bank being very out-of-the-way, it's a total pain. Credit card transactions, on the other hand, go directly into my bank account.

Comment Re:I'm not sure what bothers me more, (Score 1) 613

The marketing manager of Proctor and Gamble can afford a nanny I'm sure. But the secretary that sits at the front of the building marking people off as they arrive for appointments - can she afford a nanny? The cashier at Dunkin Donuts, where many people like to stop for a coffee on their way to work? Sure, I'm the troll here @@

Comment Re:Be the Change You Wish to See in the World (Score 1) 438

No, school is a place to pass tests. And a place designed to churn out better factory workers while keeping the young people (what we now call children) - who were willing to work for less - out of jobs. Passing tests is not learning; it's memorizing the answers to the test (or, well, cheating to obtain the answers to the test).

Comment Re:Be the Change You Wish to See in the World (Score 1) 438

it could lower my home's value

Why is this relevant? If you want your daughter to go to school in the district, then obviously you don't plan to sell the house. Lower value would actually be beneficial to you, as it would mean lower property taxes. Or do you plan to sell the house once your daughter finishes school?

and lower the quality of my daughter's education.

So you believe the quality of education is based on the other students in the school? Or would quality teachers begin to leave if lower-income students started attending?

Comment Re:Be the Change You Wish to See in the World (Score 1) 438

The fact that we have so many students per teacher that the teacher NEEDS a test to assess that is a problem in my book.
If you have a small student to teacher ratio. and the teacher is actually having conversations with the students (rather than just lecturing), and talking to the teacher and to other students is encouraged, and all this is happening daily/weekly... it would be pretty difficult for a half-decent teacher to NOT know whether each student understands or not. Tests should be necessary only when a student changes teachers in a subject, if then. Cheating should be pointless, because tests should be used only to access what more the student needs to learn, NOT if the student is ready to leave the class, get a diploma or a certificate, etc.

Comment Re:Be the Change You Wish to See in the World (Score 1) 438

Though they died, their family went on. If you didn't own slaves in that time, how do you expect you'd make enough to survive? Their family still needs food, water, clothing, medicine etc.etc. so under normal circumstances the family would need to continue having slaves work the farm/plantation.

Today, if the breadwinner of a family dies, another family member has to earn the money a family needs to survive. However if the breadwinner "earns enough", this may not be the case; the family can just live off of what he earned.

Back then, a woman couldn't just go get a job at Walmart once her husband died. So yes, it was possible to NOT be able to afford something in the will, as wills were more of a means for a family to survive after the death of the head, vs a distribution of unneeded material items as it is today. Someone who still needed the slaves to work the farm so their family survived could not afford to free those slaves.

Comment Re:I'm not sure what bothers me more, (Score 1) 613

Why would a business change to more flexible hours when they could just hire someone that doesn't have kids or who has a spouse/nanny/etc. to watch their kids?

Most likely what would happen is that more people would hire nannies to take care of their children during the morning hours (resulting in MORE environmental damage because not only are the parents going to work, now more nannies are too), and families that could not afford a nanny would either have one parent quit their job or have "latchkey" kids. More laws would then be made against these latchkey kids, resulting in
- more families getting "assistance" (because one parent is then FORCED to quit their job)
- kids that are afraid to ask for help in emergencies (because asking for help makes it known that their parents aren't there).

And anyway, do you really want to arrive at a business and be told "sorry, we aren't open yet - Mrs. Employee's kids had different hours today"? I sure don't.

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