I spent $3,800 this year on gas, tires, and brakes for my 40-minute commute to generate revenue for the company. While the company can deduct vehicle expenses for a company van as an ordinary and necessary cost of doing business, my personal commuting expenses are not deductible. They argue that I am labor, responsible for my own transportation, and not the business itself. Therefore, the company can deduct the costs associated with moving products, but I cannot deduct the costs associated with moving myself to the product. The deduction applies where the business name is on the invoice; my commute is simply the cost of employment. They protect their assets, and they tax the driver.

Fun fact: Social security is the government forcing you to lose opportunities because some people back in the 20s were bad with their savings. THERE I SAID IT!!!

Correct me if I'm wrong people. I once explained to a friend that universal healthcare benefits small businesses, as they often struggle to compete with larger corporations on health insurance premiums. Mega-corporations, despite offering 10-15% lower salaries than small businesses, attract skilled employees due to superior health insurance benefits. You take this leverage away from a mega corps and people could afford to stay with the small businesses. The benefits of universal single payer health care are so great to every facet of society on so many levels it would completely upset this vulture eco system that turns pain into profits. Universal healthcare would be revolutionary.

Me: The doctor sent everything. Rep: I see the packet. Me: So why is the MRI denied? Rep: Medical necessity. Internal review. Not the physician, but an algorithm with a job title. I’ve been paying $480 a month all year, $5,760 in premiums. With another $3,500 deductible sitting there. Despite paying $9,260, my MRI was denied. The MRI itself costs $1,100, but I was blocked from receiving it, and they kept my payment. I just realized I hadn't purchased insurance, but rather a subscription to a reviewer who never examined my knee. After investing a five-figure sum, I was denied service at the door. This isn't insurance; it's a membership that can simply refuse coverage.

No one wants to say this out loud. Corporate nursing facilities are systematically draining lifelong family savings through elder care price gouging, which must end now. At Covenant Living, a facility for financially comfortable seniors. After a financial vetting, residents are guaranteed lifelong care, progressing from senior living to advanced care, memory care, and finally hospice, with each stage incurring higher costs. This system, which appears to be religiously affiliated, seems designed to deplete residents' life savings. I have been recently looking for caregiving options for my mother so she can remain in her home instead of going to a facility.

The last time US Treasury yields were this high, total US national debt stood at just $8.9 trillion. Today, US debt stands at $40.1 trillion. That's +$31.2 trillion more, or over 4.5 TIMES higher. This means every 1 percentage point in the average cost of servicing the debt now translates to ~$401 billion per year in interest expense. In 2007, the same 1 percentage point translated to just ~$89 billion. That’s an additional ~$312 BILLION in annual interest expense for every percentage point increase in borrowing cost. This is a vastly different situation than it was 19 years ago. The bond market matters more now than ever.

“They said you can’t tax the paper.” Unrealized gains. Buybacks. Offshore holdings. “It’s not cash.” I got mailed. 2018 Honda. Same rust. Same commute. Assessed value up. Excise tax up $450. No sale. No extra paycheck. Just a spreadsheet deciding my car got richer. That’s the difference. Unrealized is a shield when the asset is a portfolio. Unrealized is a bill when the asset is a Honda. The rule isn’t about whether the money is real. It’s about who owns the paper.

Lol. Why does this stain suddenly have a spine?

Trump's economy is $2.2B richer than the year before. Anyone who thinks he cares about anything else is delusional. He doesn’t care, and he thinks affordability is a “liberal hoax”, in his own words. At the end of the day, he's still President for another 28 months. Here is what I think about the art of the deal: The deal has already been made. The US gets the Americas, Russia gets part of Europe, and China gets everything in the south China sea. I am 100% Xi, Putin and Trump has such an agreement. They are all clearly telegraphing their "multipolar world with spheres of interest" worldview. The US President and whoever is controlling China should meet often in theory. What bothers me about this is that Trump is so out classed I'm horrified by what XI gets out of him merely by telling him he's pretty. And yeah, he loves the communist Xi bigly.

My coworker quit after four days back in the office. She was spending 10 unpaid hours a week in the car. About $400 a month on gas and parking just to sit at a desk and join the same Slack calls she used to take from home. And she wasn’t the only one. The people who could leave started leaving. Then the company had to refill the jobs with whoever lived close enough to make the commute work. That’s what an office mandate can become when the office lease is already on the books. The empty space costs millions. Employees quitting doesn’t show up on the same line. They didn’t miss the workers. They missed having an occupied lease.

There are two states in the US with state delivery fees (basically just additional taxes). Additionally there are are number of cities in the US with delivery fees. I happen to live in a place with both, to be fair the state delivery fee is small. The restaurant (or if you are ordering from a chain such as dominos, corporate) charge their own fee. Each of these show up as a separate line item on the bill. The last time I wanted to order a pizza for delivery, the pizza was $18 and after taxes and fees the total cost was $33 before tip. I decided I didn't want to spend nearly $40 after the tip, so I just didn't get pizza. DD and Uber Eats charges are outrageous.

LOOKS LIKE WE’RE HEADING BACK TO 1910s INEQUALITY. Same squeeze. No “free” land out west. LET’S DO THE MATH ON A $200,000 HOUSE AT $30 AN HOUR. $30/hour. $62,400 a year before taxes. Down payment: $25,000. After rent, food, loans, and everything else, I can save about $400 a month when nothing breaks. $25,000 ÷ $400 = 62.5 months. 5.2 YEARS. Except in 5.2 years that same house is already north of $250,000. Now $25,000 doesn’t get you in. HOW DO YOU HIT A TARGET THAT MOVES FASTER THAN YOU CAN SAVE?

NEW: DOJ now designating critics of data centers as potential “foreign agents,” warning that posting “anti-AI propaganda” may bring criminal charges.

Feed this to your brain: - psychology - evolution - new technologies - philosophy - some good podcasts - mathematics - science - anthropology - critical analysis - logical reasoning - international news - Espionage stories - great classic books - human morality - x articles - practice a habit And it will: > Rewires the brain > productive than 99% people > fresh thoughts > a complete human being

Unfortunately, you have to be extremely successful *by AMERICAN standards* to go anywhere else. Or at the very least have some type of investment nest egg that nets you at least 50k a year for a nice standard of life in the 3rd world. Note that while you CAN live on nothing in the third world, living in an unsecured neighborhood, in the cheapest possible housing with the native residents, it isn't really a safe option for citizens of the first world. That's a good way to get extorted, or kidnapped and ransomed, then killed when your family can't pay (they automatically assume anyone from a first world country is rich). If you want to go to the third world, you pretty much need to find the walled-off communities of expats to live safely, and this will require at least 50-60k. And ideally more. So the notion of "America has failed you, GO SOMEWHERE ELSE" doesn't really work for the average guy who've effectively became second class citizens in the US. nitter.net/MostlyGoatly/status/21…

JUST IN: Trump reveals he will discuss “Super Intelligence” with China’s Xi Jinping today.

lol. They’ve been “5 years away” from having a nuclear weapon my entire life. Should we let them have one, hell no, and no countries should have nuclear weapons... or at a minimum no new ones should. More owners = more risk of use. That said, the rhetoric he use is similar to Trump's, and he is presenting a false choice. What he is currently doing has little to do with preventing nuclear weapons (their ability is only mildly degraded) and everything to with looking like a big man who can blow stuff up. A short term degradation of Iran's program is not at all worth cementing Iran's determination to get a weapon for another full generation.

This!!! Not thinking of other angles, expectations, and goals of people who think different from you will burn you. I am not stating which one is better but just giving you another perspective. Renting gives you almost zero maintenance. You just live in it, pay, and call for them to fix the thing that broke. It gives you less commitment and you also get freedom to dissappear if you suddenly don't like the place or your life changes. Owning a home and wanting to leave immediately doesn't work immediately. Owning a home comes with its own benefits and what is cheaper depends on market, location, person living there, terms, etc. Too many factors but you can look up an analysis online because it's been done so much. The last perspective is that some people have the option to rent and they choose it for the benefits and others have no option and they rent due to necessity.

AAA says owning and operating a new car now costs roughly $12,800 a year. $35,000 car. 7% interest. $210 a month for insurance = $2,520 a year. $450 registration and fees. Gas taxed at the pump. Over $1,000 a month before I even get to work. Lender. Insurance company. DMV. Gas station. Tolls. Come to think of it, FIVE DIFFERENT HANDS IN MY POCKET. You’d think you’re buying a car, but it’s really just paying a lot for the privilege to use one.

I think the reason why older generations constantly misjudge the modern labor market is because: They remember making $7/hour as a starting wage. They ignore that $7/hr back then equals $19/hr today in real buying power. They compare their $7 entry point to today's federal minimum wage like it’s the same. Staring at unadjusted nominal numbers tricks people into thinking today’s workers are just lazy, when in reality baseline living costs simply outpaced the wage floor.