Comment Re:Wonder if he can make it funny again. (Score 1) 29
Even beyond politics, there simply isn't anything sacred or earnest any more to parody. If nobody is building it up, you can't tear it down.
Well, yes, there are trades. But the data shows that non-degree workers *as a whole* are earning about 25% less than they were in 1980.
You probably don't know any trans people personally. I grew up with the same beliefs about transgender people you have, until I actually got to know some of them. As impossible as it is for us to understand and as nonsensical as it appears to us, it's clearly not something most trans people choose.
It's OK for people to be different in ways we don't understand. Nobody has a duty to make sense to *us*. In any case, only about 0.6% of the population identify as transgender. Even if you completely outlawed gender reassignment surgery an gender-affirming care, it wouldn't budge the fertility needle even assuming trangender people decided to have children -- which they won't.
Of course, there's a counter example for any theory about people in general, so there's probably someone out there who chose it as a lifestyle. But that's just not the norm.
Also, employment is a lot less stable than it used to be. When I entered the workforce in the early 80s it was still common for people who were retiring to have worked for the same company all their lives. Young people now live in a gig economy; if they *do* work for a company, often they don't know how many hours they'll get from week to week.
And while things like TVs are cheaper than ever, essentials are often far more expensive. Median rents for a studio apartment in the US were about $250 when I got out of school; today they're $1200. If you have income twice the poverty rate and you follow the advice we were given back then to spend no more than 20% of your income on housing, you'd be looking to pay $483/month in rent. In most of the US even if you have roommates you'll be spending over $1000 per month.
Today it's more economically important to have a degree than ever. While wages for new college graduates have increased only modestly, wages for non-college graduates have dropped since the 1980s. Let's say you're thrifty and decide to commute to a state college. Your four year costs have risen from $3,200 to over $44,000. So families in their prime reproductive years are burdened with debt; it takes years to overcome that and to raise.
We often take poor families to task for being irresponsible and having children they can't afford, but the fertility rate in families below the poverty line isn't that high and it's remained steady for decades. What's happened is that the fertility rate at 200% of the poverty line has crashed.
Most women, with access to contraception and abortion, are doing what we told them is the responsible responsible thing. But if they *all* did it, it would be a demographic catastrophe.
Even totally ignoring the environment, Californians bought 13.6 billion gallons of gasoline in 2022. At a cost of $4.50 that's $61.2B per year on gasoline, every year, forever, until we invest in other options. $20B towards kicking that habit - permanently - isn't necessarily unreasonable.
Of course there are some recurring costs to maintain the grid (though a non-upgraded grid might be higher or lower, I don't know), and other costs to electric switchover such as, obviously, generating clean power.
But simply saying - "Ooooh, $20B, big number!" is more misleading than informative.
It works out to $638/per registered car.
Now (yes that is also Mr T!)
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/2...
What comes across overwhelmingly to me here is a sense of panic. There doesn't seem to be any confidence that they can build something unique. He's totally focused execution - on catching up with whatever somebody else released last month.
One human pyromaniac with a bic lighter can probably do more damage.
I'm planning on replacing one of my cars with one.
I'm picturing a robot powered dog sled.
At least I think we can all see the monorail does have decent ridership, and the extra-wide sidewalks of the strip are relatively crowded, much moreso than typical in the US other than exceptional places like NYC.
8 Catfish = 1 Octo-puss
