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Joined 11 months ago
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Cake day: July 28th, 2023

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  • What qualifies as “basic necessities”?

    I’m not sure minimum wage has ever been enough for most people to afford an apartment on their own.

    Certainly in the early 90s, even in a low cost of living area, I was working 2 jobs (one part time but a bit over minimum wage) in order to share a 500sqft, 1br apartment with a friend.

    And part of the problem with trying to set a level of basic necessities (or a ‘living wage’) is that you have to account for a TON of external factors.

    For example, nobody is building affordable, reasonably sized apartments or houses any more. They only want to build 2000sqft+ houses, or 1000+sqft apartments with all the trimmings and amenities. That certainly raises the cost of living.

    By way of comparison, my grandparents raised 3 kids in a 998sqft 2-story duplex. It’s wasn’t large but it was a good family neighborhood with a park across the street. And they had 1 smallish (for the era) car. So why does everyone need a bajillion square feet and 2 cars, including a massive SUV to raise their 1 or 2 kids these days? (2 cars I get with both parents working these days, but the trucks and SUVs I see many low income families driving is ridiculous).

    And is it fair for the minimum wage to have to be set to a rate that subsidizes the builders who choose to only build that bigger, more expensive housing.

    We definitely need changes in the way this is all handled, but it’s not a simple thing. To truly solve the issue will require significant changes in our social structure and philosophy.









  • Stevie Ray Vaughan.

    Sure, there are plenty of musicians who had a bigger impact on music as a whole, but NOBODY I’ve ever seen was more in tune with the universe than Stevie when he was playing.

    As far as I can tell, he didn’t actually play the guitar. He just acted as a conduit to channel music directly from the universe through a guitar. I don’t think he ever once had to pause and consider what to play next when he was improvising, it just flowed out of him non-stop.

    He had already started getting even better, having finally gotten sober, and it kills my soul every time I think about what else he could’ve given us had he not gotten on that helicopter.