UBI is meaningless without rent control. And while some landlords specifically exist to exploit the poor (and thus disproportionately minority groups.) others will price their units specifically as a method of social gatekeeping to ensure that only the “Right People” are allowed in their neighborhood.
Both have exceptional reasons to raise the average price of their units by roughly ~2/3 to ¾ the average UBI payment after it went into effect. First because without rent control literally nothing stops them. Second because capitalism within the USA currently requires an exhausted workforce barely scraping by to control social movements, and to keep the convenience economy from suddenly losing a large portion of it’s customers.
Simply put quality of life which could be guaranteed by UBI is directly bad for the capitalist economy which profits heavily from individual misery and fatigue. Fast food alone would have profits freefall in a world where everyone had the money, time, energy, and access to ingredients necessary to make healthy home-cooked meals on a regular basis. Landlords keeping rent high is crucial to the process, keeping people desperate simply for a place to live.
(via left-reminders)
Most of the reason why I don’t want children is because of how motherhood is portrayed. The glorification of martyrdom. The endless memes about always being exhausted and not having a life of your own. I even think that maybe, if I were a straight man, I would actually want to become a father. It seems more appealing. Does that make sense?
Nothing about motherhood seems appealing to me. I never want to lose my sense of self. I don’t want my identity to be mother. I don’t want our child to be the main priority in our marriage. I don’t want to put someone else’s life first, which I think is bizarre and unhealthy.
I don’t know if motherhood could work if you can make it a part of your life instead of your entire life. I have never met anyone who’s life wasn’t consumed by their child. Every mother I know is either a mom mom or selfish and absent. I don’t know if you can be in the middle.
I’m almost 28. I’m still young. I feel zero panic or urgency to have kids like many women my age. I feel guilty. I’m an only child and I want my parents to have grandkids. My fiancee wants a baby. Maybe in five, ten years I will suddenly want a child.
By all means don’t have kids until you are ready, if you ever are (and it’s okay if you never are). I had my first child 7 months ago, a little girl. Everything you brought up is a serious issue that so many mothers underplay. I think we are expected and almost encouraged by society to become nothing but that selfless “mombot” that loses her identity in her children. It’s something that I have been battling over the last several months. If anyone decides to have children, please remember that your identity does not disappear even though for the first few months it WILL feel that way. You have to dedicate time for yourself and for your partner. You have to evolve your sense of self to include motherhood as a PART of who you are, but not all of it. I see so many moms give up on their own goals and dreams when the baby comes. I see them close themselves off from friends and hobbies they enjoyed. Ugh. And a lot of the time those issues stem from financial troubles! I love my daughter to death but sometimes I wish I had waited until I finished my accounting degree so I could work from home, make good money, and still spend time with her.
Not to sound like a millennial freak or anything but working everyday and slaving away for an organization or company or person who doesn’t care about you no matter how “good” the pay or benefits or atmosphere is is not the way human beings were meant to live. Destroying ourselves from the outside in and otherwise is neither living nor surviving and it’s so disgusting we’ve been pushed into believe that it’s just the way life is. None of us ever have truly experienced what life is lol
(via pointesfourchues)
“Thus, the principal stages in the history of monopolies are the following: (1) 1860-70, the highest stage, the apex of development of free competition; monopoly is in the barely discernible, embryonic stage. (2) After the crisis of 1873, a lengthy period of development of cartels; but they are still the exception. They are not yet durable. They are still a transitory phenomenon. (3) The boom at the end of the nineteenth century and the crisis of 1900-03. Cartels become one of the foundations of the whole of economic life. Capitalism has been transformed into imperialism.
Cartels come to an agreement on the terms of sale, dates of payment, etc. They divide the markets among themselves. They fix the quantity of goods to be produced. They fix prices. They divide the profits among the various enterprises, etc.”
- Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism
(Source: jeffbezosdivorcelawyer)
Rand Paul being severely beaten by a former co-worker and longtime neighbor for disregarding neighborhood association rules about his lawn is absolutely the funniest fucking thing this whole year.
After a life spent being a heinous asshole what gets Randy’s ass beat is years of blowing his leaves onto his neighbors yard
imagine what kind of an insufferable prick you have to be for another rich retired doctor to drag you off your riding mower one morning and start stomping you out on your own lawn in broad daylight in front of the whole neighborhood
Imagine how grating you’d have to be, how needling and annoying and sniveling your presence would have to be, for a well-to-do doctor to finally say enough is enough and storm out of his breakfast nook to physically assault an elderly United States Senator
(Source: dreamofhircine, via perks-of-being-chinese)
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[Image description - a series of tweets by @EbThen that say:
I should’ve gone to bed before the Stephen Hawking news broke. Seeing a headline describing him as having “overcome” a “debilitating disease” to “publish books on the mysteries of the universe” is making me grumpy.
Stephen Hawking was an exceptionally privileged white English man who had access to the necessary supports to successfully navigate a world that puts little importance on making itself accessible.
I mean, he did pretty amazing stuff but it wasn’t amazing because he had ALS and used a wheelchair and AAC. Those are just things. The amazing stuff Stephen Hawking did was amazing because he thought and said amazing things.
Stop being amazed that a few Disabled people do awesome world-changing stuff. Start wondering why more of us don’t. It’s not because a wheelchair and AAC somehow get in the way of doing theoretical physics. It’s because a lot of us deal with ridiculously huge access barriers.
Also stop only valuing Disabled people who do awesome world-changing stuff. We don’t need to be supercrips to be worthwhile. Disabled people are allowed to be normal schlubs and not be treated like that means we’re failures.
When you write a headline that implies ALS, a wheelchair and machine-facilitated speech are natural and expected barriers to being a successful scientist, you’re telling on yourself. Those circumstances aren’t inevitable barriers to doing all sorts of science.
What’s frustrating is that we’re talking about a Disabled person who had so much opportunity and access to excellent supports and tools and people still talk about that like it’s tragedy. And I’m thinking how many folks I know could benefit from those things.
Ableism is so fuck exhausting]
What the fuck are you even talking about lol
(via chescaleigh)
new atheists deride religion as “primitive superstition” but when you hear their take on what religion is it’s clear they have the shallowest concept of it
Y'all are the ones with holy books about talking snakes and blood sacrifices, but go off I guess
see what i mean
I think part of the problem comes from the inability of some religious groups to accept the possibility of metaphor or allegory being used in religious texts.
