Yeah that food court stop is the consolation prize to drain out that last $5 in the account.

Fully agree with this. Anything in the arts immediately comes to mind. Not just performing arts either - history, literature, and philosophy fields have a lot more uncertainty with income than others.

This is one of the reasons why I favor UBI and universal health care. I think there’s a growing deficit in overall creativity, leisure, and social engagement that the arts and other so-called lower-income jobs provide to society. And its not that people care more about money. You just dont have the option to pursue these jobs when your income level affects life or death decisions for you and your loves ones.

Death ambivalence? I feel like I’ve seen that term floated somewhere.

This is what you get when fuck with the pure equation.

Yep. And bad news just sells better.

I think the 2020 election and the pandemic are largely to blame for some spiraling plummets in our feelings about our system as a whole. Both of these events caused some pretty large divides in our government, communities, and even family and friend units.

War and human suffering were already there. Corporate greed and late-stage capitalism effects were already there, as well. We’re all just critically assessing everything together at this point because some of those divides removed a security net of reliability and trust.

That kid’s gotta be around 11 or 12 now. Wonder how he’s doing.

Who can blame them. Amongst many other negative factors towards being pregnant, giving birth, and raising a child, China also has the Elderly Rights Law where you legally have to care for AND visit your elderly parents. Defying this law can result in fines or jail time.

Additionally, China has been flip-flopsy in this matter and not that long ago, too. The article mentioned a lady who was fined for having too many kids under their 1-child policy and who is now undrrstandably pissed at seeing govt requests to have more kids. I’d feel a certain way too.

Same for online recipes. The content you want is never at the top.

Good point - and it’s an important distinction. Immigrants in the US usually have higher birth rates than native-born. Of course no one is allowed to emigrate from North Korea but that most likely contributes to their net decline.

To give some perspective, North Korea currently has about the same fertility rate as the US.

Per the article, North Korea’s fertility rate is 1.79 in 2022, down from 1.88 in 2014. Meanwhile, the US has been on a slow increase with its TFR over the last few years - 1.782 in 2022 and 1.784 in 2023. Interestingly, older women are contributing to the increase over younger women.

They might work in a place that doesn’t allow personal electronic devices (government, military, high-security site, etc.).

Are they a fire chief or something? See a firefighters emblem on the front plate. Barring an emergency still no excuse for parking like a dick though…

2nd option: “I saw who broke into your car. Call me at (leave fake #)”

Love these! We have one in my neighborhood and it’s pretty convenient to drop off my read pile in there.

This is a good synopsis of the complexity of the problem with a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

To add to that, the US stance since 1972 has been to abide by the One China policy. As such, the US recognizes that Taiwan is legitimately owned by China. I am doubtful that this will change with this POTUS or the next. However there is also the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) which allows the US to treat Taiwan in some capacity as in independent state. The TRA does include the sale of arms for which Taiwan may use to defend itself from aggressors, and the US does sell heavily to Taiwan. The TRA also neither includes nor precludes US military intervention in the event of conflict.

What’s interesting is that in 2022 Biden said that Taiwan can define itself however the fk it wants to - not his exact words. This is a big departure from our One China policy which states no, absolutely no independence whatsoever of Taiwan. So I think things are evolving a bit, but agree with /u/Puzzle_Sluts_4Ever that there’s a lot more at stake to the US than with Ukraine.

Love the name btw.

As a second thought it’s also probably a convenient excuse to get a little bit of military rehearsal in…

I have done foot flushing as well but only for the nastiest of public bathrooms. I get the ickiness feeling too at times but I generally try to be respectful to the general condition of the bathroom so it doesnt trigger a bad domino effect. Nothing more jarring than going into a nice bathroom and seeing a set of shoeprints on the seat. Then other people start doing the same if they know the seats been contaminated.

This is typical behavior for China to show its displeasure when Taiwan gets involved in non-China, independence-affirming things. Its so routine, that at this point it’d be more significant if they DIDNT provide some type of military response.

For me it’s the automatic toilet flashers. Not at home as I don’t expect it there, but it’s almost gotten me in those nice office or mall bathrooms that don’t have them. I wipe, get up, and walk away. Then walk back if I’m not distracted enough to NOT hear a flush.