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scoobford @lemmy.zip
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Comments 406
GE Appliance plant, 90% union in "right-to-work" state, approve strike by 98%. 60% have to work second job, health care plan too expensive for 30%, most don't make enough for one-bedroom in city
  • I'm surprised things are that bad in a union plant. I live near a GM auto plant and the waiting list for employment is months or years long due to the compensation they offer. The main reason I don't work there is I can't afford to spend years of my life working minimum wage and waiting to be noticed by the Union.

  • To Americans: How far apart is everything in the US?
  • I live in DFW, a large amalgamation of two cities and a bunch if suburban sprawl in Texas.
    I live in a neighborhood that is considered extremely walkable, as I am directly across the street from a university and less than a mile from city hall.

    Here are my walking distances:

    • To the nearest convenience store: 1.8km
    • To the nearest chain supermarket: 4.3 km (They have a monopoly though, so unless you can afford whole foods, the closest good one is like 22.5 km)
    • To the bus stop: Lol, we don't have busses. A neighboring city does, so I guess 29 km?
    • To the nearest park: Nearest park is 2.8km. Nearest public space is only 1.5km because I live right next to city hall.
    • To the nearest big supermarket: 8.9 km to Walmart.
    • To the nearest library: 1.5km, again, I live right next to city hall.
    • To the nearest train station: 16km, unless you mean one for intercity travel. We don't have one of those because Amtrak is slowly being killed.

    Straight-line distance to Big Ben: we don't have a Big Ben, but we killed JFK and that's 34km away.

    Bonus fun fact, I commute 42km each day. This is considered far by most people here, 32km would be much more reasonable.

  • What was the conversation surrounding drugs and sex like in your home growing up?
  • "I don't really get why people get so up in arms about discussing it, but Sex is fun. Be careful though, those swimmers are persistent little fuckers."

    "Drugs feel good and you think everything is fine until one day you look up and realize it all went wrong years ago. I can't stop you, but I really hope you'll choose not to try them."

    I think both worked out well. I'm sex positive and I generally avoid drugs because it just isn't worth the risk of finding that one substance that totally ruins my life.

  • How serious are you guys when you talk about punching nazis?
  • I think it varies a lot by the user. I think (hope) most people are just joking, but I'm sure we have a number of people who aren't joking.

    But also keep in mind we absolutely have propaganda bots and trolls here. They're quite good at directing the hivemind, even without the assistance of complete loons.

  • What. the. hell?
  • This is all riot control gear. US universities usually have their own police departments, so by extension they usually have their own riot control gear as well.

    You wouldn't use any of this stuff in war. It isn't designed to kill people (although it can and will, especially if used improperly).

  • Are adults really not supposed to financially helps their old parents?
  • It depends. I think it's definitely less common here because it just isn't needed most of the time. Even a working class retiree should have a pension or 401k, social security, and some kind of savings from their life as a working adult.

    To require the support of your children, you'd have to be unable to work, not entitled to substantial amounts of social security, not have paid into a retirement plan, and not have saved any money from when you did work.

    I know a couple of people who support their parents, and they either spend their ENTIRE lives in poverty making sub-minimum wage (which is pretty uncommon), or they just straight up blew all their money because they assumed their kid would take care of them. I don't have a lot of sympathy for the second category.

  • Is it me or is everyone in hexbear insane?
  • Many of them, yes. They're among the most radical of the leftist instances, which means that they attract a lot of propagandists and tankies. They have some perfectly reasonable people too, but you know, vocal minority. Its the main thing most people notice about those instances.

    Many people block hexbear, Lemmy.ml, and lemmygrad for these reasons.

  • Woman caught driving with suspended licence ... for the 3rd time this year
  • While I agree with you in principle, work may not be that easy to come by.

    I used to live ~6 miles from the nearest business. If I had to pick between endangering other people and being thrown out on the street, the choice is obvious. I imagine most people will make the same choice when it comes down to it.

  • What has your experience been with a credit union?
  • Hey, I'm a banker. Obviously, credit unions are smaller businesses than a large bank. If you haven't used a small bank before, note that it is different.

    But the biggest thing that I can think of you may not expect is that credit unions are not insured the same as a bank. Some may be insured adequately for your needs, or they may not. Do your homework.

  • What kind of laptop should I get?
  • What is your budget and needs? Used thinkpads from a certain time period are very hardy, but they're getting old enough now for performance to be an issue for anything beyond basic web browsing and word processing.

    Framework also makes laptops with the explicit goal of being more repairable. Even if you decide not to work on it yourself, it would be trivial for a repair shop to fix most things that could go wrong.

  • How much do Americans actually pay for healthcare?
  • Yes, but if they refuse coverage you can appeal, ans if they refuse to honer the details of your policy you can sue or report them to regulators. Not that it isnt a problem regardless.

    And the in network facility/out of network doctor loophole was patched recently under the Biden admin :)

  • How much do Americans actually pay for healthcare?
  • It is true that nobody pays the cartoonishly high bills that you see posted online. It is also true that we spend way more on healthcare than basically anyone else.

    My company offers very good insurance. Anything "in network" is free after the first $3000 every year, and the monthly premium is around ~$330. Note that this is a company that intentionally offers very good health insurance so they can be less competitive when it comes to salary and time off. I'd say in a given year, I spend around $7,000.

    But really, one of the biggest practical issues with our healthcare system is its opacity. Most people are unable to figure out what most things will cost them before they consent to care.