Rhaedas

Yes, there is a low unemployment number. As with the rest, you haven’t validated that it’s a good measure of the current state of things. It’s arguably never been.

Yes, definitely increased some. Where’s the rest of the data, such as part time or unemployed, or even population growth? Like I said, a single number means not so much without context. But it’s an impressive graph.

Curious what shift there has been in full time/part time numbers. Full time wages going up is great for those who are experiencing it, but if there are less actual full timers, is that an improvement?

The art of a good statistician is to make sure what their numbers are saying is an actual reflection of reality. I’m not saying this graph is falsified, I don’t know. But numbers can be made to say anything. I learned this years ago in arguments about what “unemployment” meant. It’s much more complex than a single number, but a single number is used in the media because it’s easier to paint the picture wanted.

The issue isn’t the prices. It’s that the prices go up but income doesn’t. Get out the pitchforks, but let’s go after the real villains.

If it looks to potentially reduce Republican votes, then Republicans will just compensate by more effort trying to restrict certain demographics and areas from getting their vote in. They never have been supportive of everyone getting a chance to vote, it skews things towards the left. Anyone still remember when Karl Rove lost his mind on live TV because he knew what the numbers should have been had everything gone to plan, and liberals getting more votes was inconceivable to him.

Wages not keeping in step with inflation is exactly why everything seems so expensive. $30k of today’s money is the equivalent of less than $10k in the 80’s, and cars were more than $10K then except for a few that ended up being examples of “you get what you pay for”.

I should probably state that as “wage increases being suppressed”.

Same here. When I stop at a stop sign and there is a car behind me, I routinely take bets in my head to see if the next car just goes through it. Most often they do. Running red lights is another…if you are at a red light waiting for it to change to green, always wait a split second before going and also give a glance both ways. Don’t assume because the light is good there isn’t someone trying to beat the red. Or just going through an obvious red because they’re more important than everyone else in their head. I’ve gone through many a yellow light thinking to myself that I really cut it close, then I notice one or even more people have followed me through the intersection. Boy they get upset too if you actually stop for that yellow.

Regulatory measures shouldn’t be relaxed because people aren’t following them, they should be enforced better. Of course how to do that in many situations such as this is the question. Other things are similar, like group speeding or smart phone use while driving.

A fleet/company car. A Chevette. I pressed the accelerator to the floor, the engine went “huh? you want what?”

Guess no one at Microsoft realized people use computers differently and more options is always better than one. Or they intended to have the option and either forgot to include it or it was buggy. Either way it was #2 on my “how do you disable this” list, and I had to deal with it for a while. I get how grouping can be good for some things, but when you want to be able to bounce between various windows and some happen to use the same app, it was a pain.

Even the small things. When work upgraded to Win11 overnight and I logged into the Start being in the middle, I almost lost it. Yes, I could fix it, and a few other things, but I had a moment.

That was disappointing, when you grow up thinking your parents are progressive and then as old age and its symptoms happen their guards drop and you find out that they always had some racist tendencies. I guess credit to them suppressing them for so long.

Emphasis on “plastic is often not”. Only PET (#1 on the symbol) can truly be recycled into new material, and usually it’s tossed in with other materials and contaminated enough to make that not possible. There is the reusable path, where plastics are remolded into other purposes, but that’s not “really” recycling and likely ends there for that form to eventually degrade and be trashed.

So just make more things with PET and recycle better, right? I’m guessing there’s limitations on what PET can be used for given its characteristics vs. other plastics, and it is still cheaper to just get new material for new PET rather than recycle. So of course companies are going to go that route.

The interesting thing that I learned not so long ago from the YT channel Climate Town is that people see the triangle symbol with the plastic type number inside and assume it’s recyclable, since that’s the recycle symbol. But it’s not that symbol, it’s just designed similar to give that impression.