9-5 is definitely no longer standard, although traffic does get noticeably worse here after 8am.

That being said, what is their justification for 7-5? Unless you’re taking a 2 hour unpaid lunch, that’s mandatory overtime, which most companies aren’t super fond of paying.

I love it. It’s a shame it’s as abusive and shitty as it is, but I love it regardless.

Unfortunately, my body can’t support it. If it could, that’s what I’d be doing with my life.

Apricots. They’re available, but they’re always shitty.

I’d kill for apricots like you can get in the EU. Cheaper than here and they were delicious, not mealy and bland.

I work in somewhat high-level banking, and while I admit that I assumed a government institution would be better about this than private companies, this sounds very par for the industry.

Things are less fucked at lower levels, like operations or retail, but I’ve never heard of someone working in high levels of banking that didn’t have a laundry list of potentially actionable HR complaints.

I find his comedy to be more smug and condescending than humorous or clever.

Don’t really know anything else about him. Don’t care to either, he can live his life and I can live mine.

I’m covered for a couple of weeks. After that, I can either leave the city, forage for food, or steal some, depending on what the state of the world is.

They’re not actually worried about sharing power, they don’t want to be subject to additional federal regulation.

In this case, the issue is business interest in politics, not our weird toxic individualism.

Realistically, the easiest way is to rezone some of those areas to retail and office space, and to encourage high density construction.

Rezoning some of those buildings to low density retail and office space will reduce total traffic by allowing some people to have shorter commutes, instead of everyone jamming every highway out of town every day.

And as those buildings age and become more expensive, small sections of them can be knocked down and replaced with higher density buildings, as property values rise. Eventually the whole area with high and medium density, simply because that is what makes sense.

You can also establish commuter rail, where maybe there’s only a couple of stops, but they all go to wherever the jobs are. That will help ease congestion while property values rise enough for higher density development to make sense.

Because we already have a pretty terrible social safety net and few social services for a country of our size and development level.

Obviously reforms could be made to eliminate waste and reduce corruption in government spending (especially military spending…), but I think the relative amount of fat that could be trimmed is very small in comparison to the amount of money we would need to save in order to balance the budget and start paying down our debt.

I don’t think national debt is wrong, as it can be a useful economic tool. However, the total fiscal irresponsibility we have operated the US with since the 80s is a different matter entirely. Just limitlessly stacking debt out of a refusal to raise taxes will eventually result in a debt so large payments can’t be made, and default will become inevitable at that point.

I really hope we can get our shit together enough to reform our tax system, but it looks like it less and less every year.

It has never bothered me. I paid movers to get my shit up here, and they did. It is rare that an extra flight of stairs or two matters on your way to/from the car.

We couldn’t go anywhere. This continued well into the 2000s when I was a kid, and I had (mild) asthma. We only went out to eat when it was warm enough to sit outside, and I only ever went to take your kid to work day once.

Oh, and I remember riding in the back sear of my grandmothers car when she lit up and cracked the window. I stuffed my head under her seat so I could breathe marginally cleaner air until we got wherever we were going.

If you didn’t have asthma, it was just unpleasant and you put up with it. And probably burned your clothes after visiting a nursing home or bar.

This happens to varying levels during most economic crises. Basically it results in contraction of the economy as companies cut expenses, I.e. wages. Usually there is some consolidation so that fewer, stronger firms can survive the downturn.

Then things get better.

No. I’ve done it, and it is dangerous, uncomfortable, unhealthy, and often unsanitary. Plus it is illegal most places.

Beats the shit out of a shelter or the street though.

Volumetric measurements, like the imperial system, is largely in place due to tradition.

But no, most people do not own good food scales. They aren’t pricey (I think mine was $25), but they are very uncommon. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one in a store.

Careful my guy. If you haven’t seen it in a while, Dan Akroyd does blackface. I think overall the movie has a positive message that fits in well today, but how they delivered that message only really hits if you’re a white guy from a couple decades back.

My vote goes to trading places, because it had both aged incredibly well (a tale of class solidarity against evil eugenics-peddling billionaires), and incredibly poorly (a story about nondiscrimination with that damn train scene right in the middle).

I’d also like yo mention RoboCop and American Psycho because their satirization of American hyper capitalism has only gotten more accurate. It really is depressing that we have the exact same social issues that we did in the 80s.

Bed bugs in wooden furniture? Can’t you just leave it outside for a couple of days?

No, it isn’t universal. Teachers here quit trying basically as soon as smartphones became common.

For me it is equal parts paying attention in class, developing attention spans away from video crack tiktok/shorts/whatever, and generally encouraging them to do other things.

Trying to legislate this is…fucking stupid.

You don’t want your kids to have a smartphone? Fine. Don’t buy one. Kids dont need phones, bur if you’re worried about them being able to contact you, just get a dumbphone on amazon.