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Joined 9 months ago
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Cake day: September 26th, 2023

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  • Entirely valid question, that as a USian, I might just be qual to answer. The ratio between them varies by individual, but it boils down to a core American exceptionalism that’s taught actively from very young; some ridiculous blather about how having founding docs / written constitution makes our rights safer even in context of significant social change; and my personal least fave, the idea that if one didn’t directly and proximately earn something through capital or wage slavery, they just aren’t working hard enough and therefore shouldn’t have it.

    Those things are at the core of a very large group of American voters’ opinions, and all are fatally flawed.

    Of course, as a child of the very early eighties, growing up it was still (at least conceptually) possible to buy a house and a car on one income, within relatively recent history. As it absolutely should be.

    Kicking that exceptionalism thought process is quite the struggle (as is the rest), even for those motivated to do it.

    Civilised world has mostly lower paid docs (relative to us) but also mostly some sort of universal care. I’d gladly accept NHS-level wait times, if it meant that I could take the $2k a month that my emp and I together now pay for insurance (just 2 adults) - even if taxed to support that sort of system, that is real money.

    Things are bettter than they were in my lifetime, even though ObamaCare was basically a typical American “personal responsibility” solution, just with subsidies to avoid actively excluding only the less financially well off.

    Used to be that you had to have continuous coverage in order to get a new cost, or pre existing conditions weren’t covered under a newer policy even if one could buy one privately (you really couldn’t, practically).

    Healthcare before ACA was a sanctioned and mostly very profitable betting operation for large carriers because the risk pool for each individual policy was large, and there were max amounts and sometimes lifetime total limits that could be paid.

    By comparison, what we have is pretty great for folks who lived thru that era, but… Hot garbage compared to many other developed nations.

    We’re a nation full of people literally trained to think our system is the best in the world. Helluva barrier to overcome, all the more so when the ACA did actually make things better.

    Mild sidetrack but the only reason to assume by default our system might be better is the education (indoctrination) we receive early and often, and consistently.

    Always appreciate a comment that makes me question why/how I made some assumption.



  • Thought they charged something to put $ on temp card, via EFT though I may well be wrong.

    Don’t recall the org name I conflated w them anymore u fortunately.

    And from where I sit, yeah they pay me to some degree - the acct costs me nothing, and it’s got a handful of the usual “edge case” insurance benefits and such most debit cards don’t.

    Not real useful to me, admittedly, but I do receive something.

    That, and they reliably post direct deposit exactly 48h early, plus or minus fifteen minutes. Ability to plan my life around when exactly my check will show up has value. Seems to be very much a “best effort” basis to post early w/ most banks.

    Lots of that stuff is useful because of my individual habits and patterns of spending I’m sure, might well not be for you.

    Will check out privacy, now I’m kind of curious if there is something even more friction free for my scenario.






  • Things are no better stateside. To get social security disability takes years, and a lawyer who will take a portion of your back pay settlement when finally awarded.

    And of course one can’t be earning money during the process.

    Even with private short term disability coverage through employer, while it was more efficient than that, I still barely had the strength to get through it just to get partially paid for 10 hrs a week for a few months, in hopes that I can regroup, get things back together, and be able to make it through forty hour weeks.

    Since that’s an external company, and our HR and payroll is a different external company, now I have to stay on the latter to make sure a) they get the memo and b) I actually get the pay in question.





  • “Almost unbreakable keys” - I’m not up to speed on what this race entails, relative to the current state of affairs. Does “almost” mean “any gov agency w/ a budget and quantum computers” can break it, it is it an actual step forward from the status quo?

    A question worth asking, in context of article.

    There’s not a ton of stuff I demand to be secure, full stop, but SSH and comms w/ my wife are among them. I need to dive deeper, and understand the actual risks.






  • Teams is bloated garbage.

    I miss Slack, though circa several years back. “Just worked,” on most any platform, without the BS or “help”.

    Wouldn’t like it now, I’m sure, but haven’t had a chance to use it since I started working for a co who is “all in” on MS, including foisting AI on us.

    I am capable of drafting an email or message, bitches. If I am concerned about tone, etc., I’d prefer to employ an actual human I have a close relationship with to review the same.

    I have zero desire to be constantly corrected, and there are certain niche scenarios where very minor errors are actually endearing, and indicate enthusiasm.

    “Bob, I saw the posting for your role, can you tell me about your avg day?” is effective because it’s honest, coherent, and just excited enough that you made a minor error that slipped through.

    When Bob gets 25 of those emails and they all look the same because AI, it’s much harder to make the connection.



  • Cnet? Yeah, no.

    The whole premise of how I use virtual cards is to separate - and block, as needed - charges from a given source.

    If I use a physical card, it’s because I’m physically in a store and want to choose who charges my card, and when.

    This is a step towards making it easier for random things to charge cards unexpectedly, and towards making it harder to dispute charges.

    “You were there, per the thumb|face print. Therefore, you must have authorised it.”

    That’s a sea change in how questionable charges/questionable disclaimers are handled.

    Nope. I absolutely demand that protection, and if I lose it I’m taking my cash out of your bank ASAP and using that, suffering with change be damned.