Wealthy people pay almost all income taxes. The bottom 60% pay zero effective income tax or less. The 1% paid almost 40% of all income taxes in 2020.

Furthermore, given that prices for many products have sharply decreased since the 1960s, the purchasing power of everyone in the US has risen substantially. The only exceptions to this phenomenon are the areas with the most government involvement: education and healthcare.

I suggest you read this: Superabundance: The Story of Population Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet, by Marian L. Tupy.

Tupy is a South African who lives in Europe. He provides a pretty objective analysis.

Ranked choice voting is so bad for so many reasons. It's complicated, encourages back room deals between "opposing" candidates that aren't disclosed to voters, is hard to tabulate and is unpredictable, encourages gamesmanship by voting blocks, and enables more fringe candidates to win elections. It's so easy to corrupt it. This is a bad trend.

Super Bowl ads are so over-produced. It makes me grateful that money restricts these ad agencies from subjecting people to this stuff all the time.

All those new deans and administrators aren't free! I read somewhere that Stanford, for example, as more administrative staff than actual students.

Time to turn off the money faucet. Stop government backed student loans.

It's a Boston team, though. They were the Boston Patriots for 10 years. I think using Boston as the "home city" is a fair choice.

Banks aren't tricking anyone- they make it really clear in your statement what your interest rate is. These people are buying things they wouldn't otherwise be able to because they are using credit.

We live in a free society. People should be allowed to make bad decisions. And if one has any interest and an internet connection, all the information he would ever need is a few clicks away.

> It's a problem for the whole country. There are places with lots of high-paying jobs that are too expensive to live, and places that are cheap to live and don't have good jobs. And maybe you can luck into a situation that avoids that trend, but overall that's the trend.

There is, of course, absolutely no problem with the choice you made. But you have to understand that you did just that- you made a choice. And your perspective is one endemic to those living in NYC- there aren't the kinds of jobs I want elsewhere, therefore there aren't jobs elsewhere. You chose to have a career in a very particular field: publishing. This is not a high-paying field. You made a choice to earn less for a job you preferred.

There are literally 100,000s of unfilled jobs that pay more than publishing all over the country. With comparable experience, you could have earned more tiling floors or doing roofing. You could have been a sheet-metal worker, plumber, electrician, cop, welder... the list is long.

Personally, I cannot understand the appeal of living in NYC (as someone from Cleveland, having visited friends there many times). It's a fine place to visit. But have an acre of property on a street with a community center (with an indoor pool!), good public schools, and the rest... for less than the cost of a 1BD Brooklyn apartment. Really- my mortgage is around 3K/month. I don't understand it, but, then again, you probably don't understand why I'd want live in Cleveland, either XD. To each his own.

In Europe, the wealthiest people are wealthy mostly based on generations of accumulation and inheritance. In the US, the wealthiest people were mostly born to unremarkable families below the 7 or 8 figure range.

> Military Expenditure is black hole into which you pour money and misery emerges.

World peace exists because of, and not in spite of, US military spending. The last 30 -50 years are among the most peaceful in human history.

>"Many Vermont towns have strict zoning laws that establish minimum lot size to preserve low population density..."

Yep, that sounds about right. Vote for a socialist, but keep costs high and fiercely protect your own property and prevent others (the "wrong sort") from encroachment. Sounds familiar to some Europeans, I'm sure.

Does this include welfare benefits and public spending?

In the US, the poorest 20% or so receive free food, healthcare, subsidized housing, and other welfare benefits. In some cases, this also includes social security, pensions, Medicare, and other spending (e.g., senior citizens).