volvoxvsmarla

German perspective, I don't know what is applicable to the US and other countries.

First and foremost: Removing sales tax on (basic) food. Sales tax in general hits the low income population much harder than any other tax. Lowering income tax when your income is low or non existent doesn't help as much as just to not pay an additional 7-19% on bread, milk, eggs, legumes, fruit, vegetables.

Build more affordable housing and capping rent pricing.

Increase social security and unemployment to boost the economy. Poor people don't save up. What they get they spend. Every 1€ they get will immediately go back into the economy, hence creating economic growth, which then will create more jobs that need to be filled. The stupidest thing one can do in times of crises when people are unemployed is to save to push them into non existent jobs. If jobs and income make people richer, then you have to provide jobs to begin with. A saving instead of spending economic mindset of the public is the worst thing you can do there, and this especially regards government payouts to low/no income individuals. Or, you know, invest in people.

Inheritance tax. Raise the limit of tax free inheritance, but after that limit is reached, tax much, much more. Nobody cares if you inherit a 2M € mansion. Hell make it a 10M mansion. These aren't the inheritances we should be worrying about, and making sure everybody knows it is not about their family's house being taxed away from them will hopefully increase support for inheritance tax.

I haven't had a single drink since I got pregnant.

Kid is 4 now. I am still sober. I planned on quitting and was cutting it down when TTC, only having some drinks on New Year's. But I had so many relapses in the previous years. I was scared that I wouldn't be able to stay sober throughout pregnancy, let alone motherhood.

It was the easiest thing to not have a drink during pregnancy, and it is still rather easy now. Even in dark, theoretically tempting times, it is so easy to say no. And I am incredibly proud. It is a miracle I made it out alive, let alone happily and free from fucking alcohol.

Why aren't Normies speaking up

I'm the most bland person you'll ever meet and I kept all my CDs and DVDs. I would never buy something only as digital/cloud format that I couldn't burn on a disc. It gave me anxiety from the beginning. I have multiple external storages with the same copies of photos and I still print the most precious ones out. I'll have music and memories if the internet ever breaks down, I just need a power generator.

I also absolutely don't see physical copies of books, music, or movies, as clutter. Booklets in CDs are to die for, and I think it makes for great room decor. If I burn a CD I usually make some collage artwork as a cover to accompany the disc.

Don't forget the pesticides that are so fucked up that the farmers end up infertile

I can't buy non organic bananas, I feel like I am castrating someone. But realistically probably organic also isn't that much better.

I have to admit being and staying sober is much easier for me if I frame it as "it's a period in my life where I want to be sober, I choose to be sober, that doesn't mean I have pledged to stay sober until I die", and allowing myself the idea of a future where I will drink again feels relieving - although I realize it will most likely not happen. So your sentiment with getting back on drugs at 60-70+ resonates with me.

Not everyone gets up at 7 am? Probably not even the majority. At least over here elementary starts at 7:30 and most people have their kids in daycare by that time as well. Moreover, time zones are big - so what might be a sunrise at 7 for you might be, depending on the relative location, a sunrise at 7:30 (or 6:30).

This is also why this is so immensely complicated. For some EU countries winter time would be better, for others, summer time. While they are in the same time zone. If you let every country choose what time they will pick or whether or not they will keep daylight saving you'll get a patchwork of relatively small countries all operating at different times. Imagine living in Luxemburg, it's 5 pm, in Belgium it is 5, in France 4, in Germany 6, in the Netherlands 4 again, then Spain hits you with 6 and Austria salutes you at 5. Have fun with that.

I am so awkward and clumsy at self checkout that I absolutely need the human interaction with a cashier, and I am faster that way. By far. The thought of not having cashiers is giving me anxiety

Sewing, mending, repairing clothes. I am really bad at it. Also knitting. I will never be able to understand wtf I am seeing.

Oh can I chime in with a question as well?

What is that "and then there's this fucking asshole" muscle? Because from the location that is exactly the asshole that got me hospitalized twice for intercostal neuralgia - once with an ambulance ride, highest doses of morphine (didn't ease the pain and made me very sick and whiny), and an x ray because they assumed I had broken a rib bone.

When I had my third attack I recognized it was that fucking thing again and that I could do nothing but wait it out for two days. I also realized there is a connection to emotional distress and it probably has a big psychosomatic factor. I hadn't had a big attack in years but when I get distressed I still get pain in that stripe next to my spine. It gets tense just writing this out and remembering.

I've given birth and with the biggest honesty and calm asked my partner to kill me during labor. The intercostal neuralgia was about 2% less painful than childbirth and I didn't end up with a cute baby afterwards so it's really not worth the pain. It's cramping up to a point that I think the muscle will rip, then it goes away. After a couple of seconds again, cramp, can't breathe, can't talk, gone. For days. Nowadays it's usually not that bad that I cannot breathe but WHAT IS THIS FUCKER and what can I do to strengthen it and, more importantly, to actively relax it?

Not wishing him dead isn't the same as tolerating him and his beliefs

Damn the replies to your comment are wild.

I agree with everything you say. I hate this man but I am not as petty as to think this is funny or that he should die.

Would you mind to elaborate that? I am genuinely curious and want to learn. I am not quite sure what you are referring to - being looked at with admiration or being talked about in a derogative way (the teeth comment)? I can't really wrap my head around and it seems like I am missing something.