Not in the US, but it would make more sense to spread it out over multiple years to avoid the tax.

I once read an article many years about how arsonists were burning expensive cars in Berlin. The journalist indeed reported that they would light barbecue starters under the tires.

If I recall correctly, they would even place it a little bit further under the car (i.e. not the outside) so that any passerbys wouldn’t notice anything until the tire was properly burning.

This was before Tesla’s though, which have a sentry mode

With the more recent cases, I have read that they smash the windows and throw Molotov cocktails inside, but I think that would draw a lot of attention and make alarms go off.

On the other hand, I think this method might have less risk of the sentry mode filming.

I agree, except that I wouldn’t classify Israel as a top intelligence power.

Their dependence on the USA is immense.

For European purposes, Egypt (Suez) and Turkey (both Bosporus and the land link to Asia) are the most important regional allies. Both or very populous and could become a new source of cheaper labour, now that Eastern EU countries are becoming more expensive.

Iran, Iraq and the Gulf countries are important as long as we can’t have Russian and/or American fossil fuels. But even then, Turkey and Egypt are the broker between us and them.

We will have to see.

Apple can charge $400 more, but if Samsung doesn’t, then they will lose market share.

And the EU is still one of the worlds three biggest markets.

So I am not really concerned.

And worst case, I switch to a Fairphone, which might not be bleeding edge, but it is still a better phone than my previous gen flagship Samsung or the flagship iPhone that came before it.

I see it as just running 2 years behind.

Economic mobility is usually determined by things like IQ, EQ and other marketable skills. So I don’t really know if your proposal is the right way to measure it. But such data would at least give some insight.

In the USA, most research I have seen says they have low economic mobility, because the rich have access to the best schools, etc.

But still, it’s not zero. Both JD Vance and AOC are examples of economic mobility.

One of them still fights (or appears to fight) for the class they came from, the other is successfully recruited to serve the interests of the ruling class.

Were they born in 1908 (and ignoring race and gender for the moment), then probably both of them would have been leaders for the working class.

True, but nowadays most people don’t work in factories.

The modern equivalent would be the cashiers of Walmart and the baristas of Starbucks.

Also, when it comes to Russia, Ukrainian intelligence is top notch due to historical ties.

But TBH, I do think Europe needs to find a way to make peace with Russia and with the Middle-East, specifically Turkey, Egypt and Iran.

They are our direct neighbours. The cold war idea that we could have a powerful friend across an ocean, while having strained relationships with our direct neighbours just isn’t going to be a good strategy going forward.

Correct, but there is a lot of nuance.

Indeed, when things get bad, the public is willing to take risks. When everything is good enough, they don’t revolt.

However, successful revolts do require intelligent and capable leaders.

What the rich have realized, is that if they ensure smart and skilled kids get picked out of the drudgery and get comfortable working for the rich, then the exploited class will not really have anyone to lead them.

Put another way, in 1908, every factory had a few leaders working at the lowest levels. And they are the ones who spearheaded strikes and such.

Nowadays, society is really stratified in terms of skill.

Anyone who grew up poor, but had talent to organize, probably ended up in some kind of middle management or professional job and makes 2x the average.

Convincing these people to have class solidarity is difficult. Only a few of them actually see the bigger. Those tend to become middle or upper management or politicians, making 3-5x the average workers salary. And of those, only a very select few are willing to fight for the common man.

So yeah, the rich engineered a system that they can control. To actually change anything is going to be very difficult.

I consider myself someone who is always in search of truth.

When I realized evangelical Christianity has some hardcore lies and hypocrisy, I left it.

I did eventually find my way back to a more traditional version of Christianity that is interested in truth and love.

I agree with this take.

We are wired to find the next problem and to solve it. Enjoy our work for a short while and then start looking for the next problem to solve.

Whether it is cultural or genetic, I don’t know, but it’s definitely very deep in our western psyche and it will not be going away any time soon.

The main problem I see is that a lot of people in Western society nowadays use complaining as a substitute for action, and so problems don’t get solved, but people convince themselves that they took action by complaining.

I think that they were winning before they invaded the Soviet-Union.

In an alternate timeline where they kept the alliance with the USSR, I think they would have won.

The USSR had resources while Germany had engineers and technology.

And without an eastern Front, they could have held off the allies on the western front.

But they got cocky, paranoid and greedy.

And I am glad they lost.

My (great)-grandparents were part of the Dutch resistance during WW2. Along with a full 1.5% of the population.

Most people will not do anything, even if they are literally rounding up people for a genocide.

On the more positive side, a lot of people will support the resistance in small ways.

The number of people who actually, whole heartedly collaborated with the Nazi’s was quite small.

Even some of the German soldiers stationed in their village would turn a blind eye. Some of them realized they were on the wrong side and they just did the bare minimum of what they needed to do to not get in trouble and not get killed.

Sure, but those are relatively small potatoes.

And if a single person does it a lot, then the tax authorities can easily examine their spending and prove that they are spending more than they are officially earning. And then they can apply punitive measures.

It is, but it’s also a very efficient and difficult to evade tax. For many EU countries the VAT revenue is equal or larger than the income tax revenue.

Most Europeans don’t mind it. You can control your spending, so VAT doesn’t hit us in inconvenient ways, like for example, taxes on cars and property.

European countries compensate poor people with good social programs. So in the end, poor people are getting more benefits than the VAT they pay.

Also, having been on the other side of such a situation: it’s not cool to pressure or guilt trip your guests. Either be hospitable and let them do whatever they want, or don’t invite them.

If people aren’t hungry, then they aren’t hungry. Maybe they are on a diet, maybe they misunderstood OP’s intention and ate beforehand. Maybe they are recovering from something and don’t want to eat too much.

And as for the two that did not showed up. It’s a good practice to reconfirm the night before. Sometimes people forget. Sometimes life gets in the way.

If they did reconfirm and still didn’t show up and did not have a good excuse, then I would start looking for better friends.

Hope OP has better success next time. I do understand that the situation sucks.

But it’s also a situation that, in my opinion, is preventable.

I agree with this take.

AI will definitely make some white collar jobs way more productive, and thus change the nature of that work and reduce the number of people employed in those jobs.

A good example is translation, where translators are now mostly reviewing translated texts instead of translating from scratch.

This means the ability to read fast and take on the role of editor is what remains important in the remaining jobs for translators.

Because they manage to attract investment.

As long as investors are willing to give cash in exchange for equity, a company can operate on that cash and run at a loss.

Yep, but nowadays they are losing popularity. I don’t even know if you can still find them.

No more billionaires, but everyone can be a millionaire.

The shortest path to equality is to greatly reduce taxes on the middle class and increase them on the wealthy.

It puzzles me why leftist parties don’t all embrace lower taxes for the middle class.

The humiliation of losing to a black woman.

The past months the mood in America has been: not these two old geezers again.

I am honestly optimistic that it’s going to be a landslide for the Democrats without Biden. Americans are just sick of Trump and they didn’t want Biden to run again.

So the Democrats are giving the people what they want, while the Republicans are trying to force feed them something they don’t want.

Let’s see how this plays out.