Sconrad122

Low income taxes. And our sales tax is typically lower than European VAT when the comparison is valid. But those generally go to the feds and the state, that do not fund municipal services, so municipalities have to collect the remainder they need through property taxes, typically on real estate and cars. And none of them fund healthcare, so we have to pay a company premiums for that. Basically the same for higher education. When you look at our total financial burden to receive the kind of services that are funded by taxes in other developed countries, we can be deceptively expensive, especially if you start thinking about the comparative quality of those services. But our income and capital gains tax rates are low, especially if you are very rich! I made myself sad

My city has a senior discount on property taxes, where seniors that have a net worth and income both below certain numbers pay reduced or as low as 0% of their regularly assessed property tax. I'm not sure how they verify net worth, but it seems like a good system to me as long as they have figured out a way to do that efficiently and effectively

There was no amount of flattery that was going to get Trump to oppose his Russian masters. The best thing Zelenskyy can do is make it clear that Trump is foolish for not backing Ukraine. It wins him points with European leaders who get to choose between backing Zelenskyy or following a fool and it increases the odds of getting a more favorable outlook from the US in 2-4 years as political tides shift (assuming the US continues holding a semblance of fair elections in the next 2-4 years)

Is sh.itjust.works not federated with lemmynsfw.com? Or maybe you use a Front page or Local feed. Here on world (no comment on the instance wars), lemmynsfw communities pretty regularly show up on my All feed. Seems like whatever they do with posts over there really makes the "Active" sorter happy, if you know what I mean

I don't understand, why are last two panels identical? Printing error?

Degoogled and upamazon'd. Don't expect a Foss-friendly environment, just a different flavor of enshittification. Also no source

It's about whether US will do the same throw under the bus routine with Taiwan I think. China would love to know that the US won't seriously contest an attempt to invade their neighbor across the strait

I'm not disputing your claim, but can you help me understand how paper straws are less usable/more hostile to people with disabilities? I'm struggling to see how the material choice would impact accessibility, but it seems like you have a pretty clear impact in mind

So many times depending on who you trace modern Brits to. Romans invaded the Celts. Saxons invaded the Romans. Normans invaded the Saxons. And that's just England. Wales and Scotland could probably come up with another dozen plus examples between them

Sure, sure, so just rephrase the statement. Many workers believe working in the office justifies 25% additional compensation (80 to 100% of what they are paid today). That doesn't mean workers shouldn't be paid more, it's just capturing the delta in compensation required to justify in person work

Unethical life pro tip, depending on whether respecting others' religious traditions is part of your ethics: no mass I've ever been to has checked identity before giving out communion. If you've got an hour to burn for a free tasteless chip and a sip of wine and backwash, just walk in with mild confidence, mimic others, and mumble along with the prayers, and people will probably just assume you usually go to mass at another time or are traveling. There's no Eucharist police that's going to tackle you halfway down the aisle and throw you in an inquisition dungeon because your papers don't check out

Instructions unclear, hid roadkill bear in Central Park