He’ll get back what he paid into the pension system, but not his pension.

I have some friends from here that moved to SC, who share my political beliefs (and yours) and we discuss the differences a lot. You’d be surprised the amount of weirdo trumpers here - there is a very vocal minority. But the stats don’t lie when it comes to voting, and the social policies usually follow.

My friends that moved there bought an absolutely beautiful 4 or 5 bedroom, 2.5 bath new house for the price of what you could get a 1 br condo in eastern Massachusetts (what I consider east of worcestor, around the rte 495 belt). The further west you go, typically the more house you can afford, the further East and closer to Boston, less. Southern NH, particularly southeast can be affordable cause it’s kindof rural and no major highways. But NH has high property tax.

All in all if you’re willing to be ~1.5 hr drive from Boston, you can find affordable homes with land, in my unprofessional opinion. Personally I’d just get a realtor to send you listings.

That statistical accounting may be true, but only because the current generation of firefighters hasn’t died yet. If I were to make an educated guess, I’d say that these statistics are likely to drastically rise in the future.

But firefighters exposure to carcinogens have drastically risen year by year, for a litany of reasons. For one, structural firefighting fear obv, increased exposure to hazardous materials, a switch decades ago to diesel powered apparatus from gasoline, the use of firefighting foams, and the biggest factor is the construction materials used in buildings and their contents. Studies of legacy materials (wood, cotton) vs what is seen now in home furnishings like polystyrene foam, plastics, and others have drastically increased the level of toxic gases - including hydrogen cyanide for one.

It may seem that since fires are less frequent that exposure would be lower, but the opposite is true. The environment inside structure fires burns hotter, and release more- and more toxic, carcinogens.

Not in this scenario

I was in vail last month I noticed the prices are high, I think a day pass at vail was 200+. I have the epic pass so I don’t remember for certain. The more popular mountains here - killington, Stowe, loon aren’t that high yet but they are approaching that level slowly.

The warm/cold cycles here kill the snow. The freeze/thaw. This winter has been a bit of an anomaly but it’s been crazy warm (50s and 60s some days with many 40° days) and very very cold days well into the negatives, with not much snow.

When it does snow a decent amount, alot of times it starts or ends as rain and ruins any powder. Even when it’s straight powder, it might be on top of a sheet of ice. Nonetheless when a good forecast shows up, we all lose our shit over at r/icecoast and there’s a battle between good and evil in the comments sections (optimists vs pessimists).

Long story short, you can get great skiing here, when you know where to look sometimes. When it’s not great, it can be good. When it’s not good, you’re still skiing. And the ski culture is overall pretty good once you know where to go. Especially for kids that are learning.

Oh god. It’s gotten worse in 20 years. It’s amazing how much less snow we get now than we did in the 90s and early 00s (climate deniers don’t @ me).

Personally I am a fan of wachusett though. It’s fine to go get some turns in. It’s been unseasonably warm winter this year, but normally it stays about as cold in Princeton as it does in North Conway NH, so their snowmaking is pretty good.

And you can go up north to VT, NH, ME for some pretty good ice coast skiing with the occasional 6-12” storm.

There’s plenty of great places to learn. I’d say it gets more expensive every year - especially since Covid, where the ski areas discovered how much people are really willing to pay.

Get a pass to a close mountain to make it affordable if you go a lot and keep your skills up and legs in shape, then make a trip up to Stowe or Jay for a storm, or head out west for some quality skiing.

Nothing is free.

Buy em don’t lease em

Not trying to be funny… not trying to get a laugh.. don’t want anybody to have the worst day at their job.. but

But it’s the adult sub, it’s not for kids

“I suggest you leave immediately.”

“Or what? You’ll release the dogs, or the bees? Or the dogs with the bees in their mouths and when they bark they shoot bees at you?”

Dunno why you’re being downvoted so heavily. This is the truth. Those of us that lead a healthy lifestyle pay disproportionally higher amounts into health insurance than we use, compared to some other people with preventable health ailments that are caused by lifestyle choices. It’s the same argument conservatives have against welfare. I go to the doctor less than someone who smokes, eats fast food, doesn’t exercise, doesn’t manage their health, yet I pay the same or maybe more for my insurance premium. If the entire nation was healthier, we’d have more money for other things. But it’s not a direct to your pocket equation, it takes time and more than a few intermediaries and variables for that benefit to be realized. It’s too nuanced to be explained or understood in a soundbyte so it will not gain main stream approval. People just hear higher taxes. I don’t drink that shit so it wouldn’t affect me, just like the higher cigarette prices or the ban on candy flavored vape cartridges didn’t effect me.