It’s not just the traffic lights. The whole city is a confusing jumble of stroads, awkward/dangerous left turns across blind curves, narrow winding roads, and busy pedestrian areas. I see a lot of these intersections and think, this should be a roundabout or Left turns should be prohibited here. I hate to think of all of the excess deaths that happen each year from having a dangerous road layout.

Amen to that

When I lived in NYC there was just a 5 line section on the state income tax return form to calculate and add local income tax. The whole idea that some fucking company like Berkheimer gets a piece of the pie for no reason is really disgusting. I don’t know why PA is so obsessed with federating things soooo much with taxation.

For example, we have a nanny who we pay in PA. I have to pay: federal income tax, state income tax, local income tax (for both my taxes and our nanny’s withholding), local services tax, US and PA unemployment taxes, residency tax, school tax, real estate tax. And all of these taxes require me to have a separate account, often duplicate accounts at one provider.

It’s just fucking stupid. And Berkheimer already tried to hit me up for massive penalties for not filing a local income tax return prior to when we hired our nanny. It’s like, bro, my sole proprietorship wasn’t even registered with you idiots prior to 2021 but now you want money for 2020.

The only reason Berkheimer et cetera exist is because someone is politically connected and making a lot of money off of it. For example, when I had to pay my “residency” tax, it was 10 USD flat fee, but there was an unavoidable 3 USD “service charge.” Major bullshit my dudes! Need reform to put these companies where they belong, defunct and no where near PA taxpayers.

Not an expert but based on the training module on child abuse I just had to do to renew my license, no. They will not tell that daycare who you are or anything about your identity. Thanks for speaking up to protect kids.

When I lived in SWH, in the summer the sun was literally way up. Blinding sunlight at 4:50 am. People showed up to work at 7 and were gone at 3. People were basically following ADT, whatever the clocks said.

Not in PA lol. It’s not actually a poll tax, it’s just colloquially called that. It’s a flat tax that every single resident has to pay. Regardless of whether they rent or own their house or apt.

I agree with you about highway speed limits. I mean Jesus you could land a B52 on many stretches. But speeding in residential or pedestrian zones should be uniformly enforced. You going 40 in a 30 should lead to a consistent each and every time 50-60 USD fine. Because that’s the context where speeding is actually dangerous. Going 80-90 on a straightaway closed access road. Should be fine as long as your tires are rated for it. But speeding on residential backroads… not really safe.

Exactly. The poll tax in our county required a 3 USD fee on top of the actual 10 USD tax.

It would be so easy if it were uniformly enforced with time stamped photos and radar speed cameras. Instead the police treat spreading much like the lobster industry in Maine. Manage to maximize revenue. Don’t catch all the lobsters at once because they would be extinct. If they started 100% enforcement, revenue would quickly plummet.

Obviously biodiversity is good which limits this analogy. But speeding really is bad in some contexts. Speeding in residential or pedestrian areas really kills many many people every year. If they catch you going 45 in a 35 there should be a proportionate small fine, every time. Not 130 USD once in a blue moon or whatever but like 40-50 USD every single time.

But until there is uniform robust enforcement, Americans are going to keep speeding on residential areas with their big ass cars, and will keep killing or maiming tens of thousands of Americans each year.

This is honestly the level of quality I expect from time magazine these days lol

Yeah man. I felt fine until the day I realized I couldn’t climb a flight of stairs without stopping on the middle landing. As a previously healthy teenager. I was like… hmmm this is kind of fucked.