A weird thing about living in #Massachusetts is constantly having other Americans tell you the life you live every day is impossible.
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@switch @Muse_Lux @andthisismrspeacock having moved from the UK where the NHS is free at the point of service to France where there is a complex mix of public and private I can honestly say the so called brilliant French system isn't that great. I'm not saying the NHS is the best, but decades of attack from private companies and the right have degraded both systems to their current breaking point.
@drajt this, so much. Mandatory employer's health insurance was and still is a bad idea. Before this, there were a few private insurance companies which had a few million clients each. So costs were evenly distributed amongst these million people. Now, each employer has its own insurance contract for its own employees. One expensive health procedure's cost for one employee must be paid for by a few dozens or hundreds employees. It's shit. @Muse_Lux @andthisismrspeacock
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@drajt this, so much. Mandatory employer's health insurance was and still is a bad idea. Before this, there were a few private insurance companies which had a few million clients each. So costs were evenly distributed amongst these million people. Now, each employer has its own insurance contract for its own employees. One expensive health procedure's cost for one employee must be paid for by a few dozens or hundreds employees. It's shit. @Muse_Lux @andthisismrspeacock
@switch @Muse_Lux @andthisismrspeacock apparently the French mutual medical insurance companies spend around 50% of their income on advertising and other customer retention things, and that's before you consider their staff overheads. It's very inefficient and wasteful, I'd much prefer higher national insurance and less bother.
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A weird thing about living in #Massachusetts is constantly having other Americans tell you the life you live every day is impossible.
"You can't tax billionaires, they'll leave."
We have been, and they didn't.
"You can't legalize weed, it will increase crime."
We did, and it didn't.
"You can't make public transit free, it will cost too much."
We did, and it didn't.
And on and on, and the lesson to learn is don't listen to the billionaire media professional whiners and just do what's right for your community AND IT WORKS! But I still have to listen to this stupid shit every day.
@andthisismrspeacock Relatives talk about the scourge of fifteen minute cities and I’m like, I live in one, it’s amazing, I can walk to like eight libraries, twenty banks/ATMs, thirty grocery stores, and a literally uncountable number of good restaurants within two miles. Why would you not want this.
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A weird thing about living in #Massachusetts is constantly having other Americans tell you the life you live every day is impossible.
"You can't tax billionaires, they'll leave."
We have been, and they didn't.
"You can't legalize weed, it will increase crime."
We did, and it didn't.
"You can't make public transit free, it will cost too much."
We did, and it didn't.
And on and on, and the lesson to learn is don't listen to the billionaire media professional whiners and just do what's right for your community AND IT WORKS! But I still have to listen to this stupid shit every day.
@andthisismrspeacock "you can't have an accent out of some movie"
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A weird thing about living in #Massachusetts is constantly having other Americans tell you the life you live every day is impossible.
"You can't tax billionaires, they'll leave."
We have been, and they didn't.
"You can't legalize weed, it will increase crime."
We did, and it didn't.
"You can't make public transit free, it will cost too much."
We did, and it didn't.
And on and on, and the lesson to learn is don't listen to the billionaire media professional whiners and just do what's right for your community AND IT WORKS! But I still have to listen to this stupid shit every day.
@andthisismrspeacock I dont live in Massachusetts, but this is relatable (for my state)
Self-fulfilling prophecies
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A weird thing about living in #Massachusetts is constantly having other Americans tell you the life you live every day is impossible.
"You can't tax billionaires, they'll leave."
We have been, and they didn't.
"You can't legalize weed, it will increase crime."
We did, and it didn't.
"You can't make public transit free, it will cost too much."
We did, and it didn't.
And on and on, and the lesson to learn is don't listen to the billionaire media professional whiners and just do what's right for your community AND IT WORKS! But I still have to listen to this stupid shit every day.
@andthisismrspeacock a couple months after Malta made public transit free nationwide (it's a small archipelago, so public transit includes buses and ferries), billionaire Peter Thiel applied for Maltese citizenship. He didn't care about the free ferry rides; I'm sure he has a fleet of yachts and speedboats for that. He wanted the EU membership rights. The reality is that billionaires want to be wherever quality of life is high. While they may be annoyed by the fact that socialist policies benefit people other than themselves, because billionaires are by definition selfish horder bastards, they value their own good life too much to go live where everyone else suffers as much as the billionaires think we peons should. It's idiocy to build policy around desperately trying to keep billionaire tax evaders in residence anyway. If they want to leave, excellent. Good riddance to their resource-draining asses.
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A weird thing about living in #Massachusetts is constantly having other Americans tell you the life you live every day is impossible.
"You can't tax billionaires, they'll leave."
We have been, and they didn't.
"You can't legalize weed, it will increase crime."
We did, and it didn't.
"You can't make public transit free, it will cost too much."
We did, and it didn't.
And on and on, and the lesson to learn is don't listen to the billionaire media professional whiners and just do what's right for your community AND IT WORKS! But I still have to listen to this stupid shit every day.
@andthisismrspeacock I'm not an ecopath by training, but I have been trying to read up on it, and it's still a bit unclear to me what the loss is if some of the previously un-taxed billionaires move away when taxes are imposed?
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@ApostateEnglishman @andthisismrspeacock The thing the rich mostly value is time. You can't buy time. People who run a multimillion dollar yearly tab on private jets for that extra time are simply not going to move somewhere inconvenient just because their taxes went up. In fact they may not even notice. Their accountant has graphs that go up and down based on market shifts by vastly more than a tax change.
I think you've hit the nail on the head.
The flip side, being poor, is miserable because, in large part, your time is not your own, and what little time you do have, is spent on stupid crap that wealthier people can bypass.
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A weird thing about living in #Massachusetts is constantly having other Americans tell you the life you live every day is impossible.
"You can't tax billionaires, they'll leave."
We have been, and they didn't.
"You can't legalize weed, it will increase crime."
We did, and it didn't.
"You can't make public transit free, it will cost too much."
We did, and it didn't.
And on and on, and the lesson to learn is don't listen to the billionaire media professional whiners and just do what's right for your community AND IT WORKS! But I still have to listen to this stupid shit every day.
Even if the billionaires left, would that not be a bonus?
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@andthisismrspeacock This needs to be repeated even in so-called “Socialist” Canada. This stuff worked so well(subsidize ‘the poors’, etc) during the pandemic the billionaires went full-court press(pun intended) to say it didn’t.
This. So much this.
Our government (US) was terrified of the George Floyd protests and what could happen if people weren't kept constantly scrabbling to make rent.
They chose COVID denial to protect wealth and power structures, and people are continuing to die and become disabled because of it.
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@andthisismrspeacock Relatives talk about the scourge of fifteen minute cities and I’m like, I live in one, it’s amazing, I can walk to like eight libraries, twenty banks/ATMs, thirty grocery stores, and a literally uncountable number of good restaurants within two miles. Why would you not want this.
@swachter @andthisismrspeacock
I also live in a 15 min city. Library, GP, dental , restaurants, cafes, everything we want within walking or bus ride -
@andthisismrspeacock "you can't have an accent out of some movie"
@guyjantic I dunno what yah tawhkin about guy
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@Muse_Lux
It's weird how the US is so much about keeping people down, yet Americans think it's the greatest country in the world.I've never understood.
There are a few categories where the US will be the best, but I don't think they are in the majority on categories good for their citizens / residents.
@andthisismrspeacock@human3500 @Muse_Lux Something I will never understand is not only not wanting nice things for yourself, but working so hard to make sure nobody else can have nice things, either.
Like the 15 minute city thing. If you want to live in a chipboard-and-vinyl hellscape out by the six lane arterial, fine! Why insist on fucking with the people who don't want that?
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@swachter @andthisismrspeacock
I also live in a 15 min city. Library, GP, dental , restaurants, cafes, everything we want within walking or bus ride@Christo_459 @swachter Idk sounds a lot like my snobby coastal elitist city where I can walk to the post office, hardware store, grocery, 7-11, liquor store, butcher, bakery, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Italian, Sushi, Sports Pub, half a dozen pizza places, barber, dentist, salon, some coffee shops, and a vacuum cleaner repair place.
And everything else I can get to on the snobby coastal elitist bus or train, which I ride, elitistly.
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A weird thing about living in #Massachusetts is constantly having other Americans tell you the life you live every day is impossible.
"You can't tax billionaires, they'll leave."
We have been, and they didn't.
"You can't legalize weed, it will increase crime."
We did, and it didn't.
"You can't make public transit free, it will cost too much."
We did, and it didn't.
And on and on, and the lesson to learn is don't listen to the billionaire media professional whiners and just do what's right for your community AND IT WORKS! But I still have to listen to this stupid shit every day.
@andthisismrspeacock
"You can't have public healthcare in a country as big as the US, it wouldn't work"
I'm Brazilian, we are the country closest in size to the US, we have public healthcare despite having fewer resources -
@andthisismrspeacock Relatives talk about the scourge of fifteen minute cities and I’m like, I live in one, it’s amazing, I can walk to like eight libraries, twenty banks/ATMs, thirty grocery stores, and a literally uncountable number of good restaurants within two miles. Why would you not want this.
@swachter @andthisismrspeacock Too many people. I've loved the cities I've lived in (NYC,DC, Portland,Seattle, among others) but more than half my time was spent alone (but not lonely) in my own space, decompressing from all the people.
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@human3500 @Muse_Lux Something I will never understand is not only not wanting nice things for yourself, but working so hard to make sure nobody else can have nice things, either.
Like the 15 minute city thing. If you want to live in a chipboard-and-vinyl hellscape out by the six lane arterial, fine! Why insist on fucking with the people who don't want that?
@andthisismrspeacock
I hear you on that. I've talked to people that don't want bike lanes because they can't bike to work. Why? Because there aren't bike lanes for them to ride to work (and they choose to live 30 km from work).It's madness. I am suffering so everyone should. Nothing should improve unless it improves for me first or all of us at once.
@Muse_Lux -
A weird thing about living in #Massachusetts is constantly having other Americans tell you the life you live every day is impossible.
"You can't tax billionaires, they'll leave."
We have been, and they didn't.
"You can't legalize weed, it will increase crime."
We did, and it didn't.
"You can't make public transit free, it will cost too much."
We did, and it didn't.
And on and on, and the lesson to learn is don't listen to the billionaire media professional whiners and just do what's right for your community AND IT WORKS! But I still have to listen to this stupid shit every day.
@andthisismrspeacock how come i am still paying for public transit in mass?
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@andthisismrspeacock how come i am still paying for public transit in mass?
@jacksparrow I am assuming you live in the #MBTA district since every other RTA as far as I know is free, in which case the tl;dr answer is 'racism.'
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A weird thing about living in #Massachusetts is constantly having other Americans tell you the life you live every day is impossible.
"You can't tax billionaires, they'll leave."
We have been, and they didn't.
"You can't legalize weed, it will increase crime."
We did, and it didn't.
"You can't make public transit free, it will cost too much."
We did, and it didn't.
And on and on, and the lesson to learn is don't listen to the billionaire media professional whiners and just do what's right for your community AND IT WORKS! But I still have to listen to this stupid shit every day.
@andthisismrspeacock Unfortunately, none of that "free public transit" was permanent.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_public_transport_in_Massachusetts
