Yes, but realistically most Americans do not live in a place where that is possible.

Pretty sure it’s historic. Same was that x-mas is used for Christmas. I think it’s related to the Greek alphabet or something? Idk I’m feeling disinclined to actually Google it but I definitely even grew up calling it x-mas.

This is the actual answer, along with decades of right wing propaganda pumped into our ecosystem after Citizens United.

We have been cooked for a while now. Some people see it, but it’s not the majority, not by a long shot.

An interrobang‽ In the wild‽ Thank you for that!

I’m in this boat too. Most of my online friends I only really get to talk to via discord. Not sure what I’m gonna do, because they won’t end up budging.

I also worry home prices will jump to eat up any monthly cost differences, too. Like okay your 50 year mortgage is $100 less a month but we increased the price of the house by $50000 so unless you’re already a homeowner (and plan on renting next) then you’ll be further priced out of the market.

But won’t the rate be higher, like 30 year rates are higher than 15 year rates? I don’t know much about economics but I remember that being a thing when I was looking at mortgages. I assume it has to do with long-term risk for the lender.

Also, how many people actually stay in a home for 50 years without moving? I know my earlier house payments had a larger portion going to interest (I assume this is a math thing?) than my more recent payments, therefore you build equity really slowly at first, meaning you’re not building enough equity to even cover the costs of the ownership or the cost to sell unless you stay in place for a long time.

I’m just a dummy but this feels like a scary thing and not a good thing.

If you’re able to get sterilized (and obviously want to) please do it. It was less work than I thought it would be (with the proper planning) and it’s a huge weight I don’t have to worry about any more.

I don’t think that’s a terrible idea for politicians. Let’s see who bought them.

I find this is also a great way to decide if you even need it. I have a tab on my phone for stuff to buy. It collects so much crap I eventually deleted because the desire was fleeting.

I keep a paper list of large ticket items that I actually need so I can save up for them over time. I spend a lot of that time while saving shopping for the best option. I saved a lot while furnishing my house by buying secondhand because I had weeks and weeks to shop around.

Sometimes adding things to my online cart is enough of a thrill that I don’t even think about the fact I didn’t check out until the website sends me a coupon lol. Then I deleted it anyway because if I didn’t go through with it then I don’t really need it!

This is so so true. I cancelled prime ages ago so I don’t get fast shipping at all, and I only get free shipping if I spend over $35. Even in the cases where I decide it’s worth buying the thing on Amazon, I’ve got to wait to need more than $35 worth of stuff. Surprise surprise most of it just gets deleted out of the cart anyway.

That being said, I have only been able to find filters for my vacuum on Amazon (some no name brand I bought off there a few years ago) so they’ll still get some money out of me, but most stuff I can just ignore now. Next vacuum will be a big brand name so I can avoid that, but it will be a while before there’s a next vacuum, hopefully. Because in my mind it’s more ethical to keep using the old one as long as it works even if some more $ goes to Amazon vs buying a whole new item I don’t actually need yet.

The missing reason is that you should just buy less anyway and if you avoid Amazon it is slightly harder to just buy stuff.

That being said, if you need it cheap, quick, and you cannot source it locally, just buy it on Amazon. There is no ethical consumption under capitalism. You are not guilty of a moral crime by using them when the need exists.

They go so far over budget because of lawsuits, usually. Vogtle was announced in like 2011 and didn’t even get to break ground until 2017, then got caught up in even more lawsuits, if I recall correctly. And while conventional nuclear plants will probably always have huge upfront costs that take 30 years to offset, SMRs are darn close to a full reality and those will be a lot cheaper, and will get cheaper over time, like solar panels did.

There’s a plant in Phoenix Arizona that uses city wastewater to cool the reactors, so they can hold up to hot dry climates just fine if designed to do so. (Fun side fact, the plant has to clean the rad waste out of the water before they use it - the rad waste from medical procedures that get into wastewater would be enough to exceed their allowance of acceptable release).

I’ll give you the waste issue, but it’s 100% a matter of politics. You’re going to have to convince a state to take it on and none of them will. But on-site cask storage isn’t the worst option. It’s worked for a long time. There’s also a lot of research going into other stuff we might be able to do with it. (In fact, waste isn’t an issue in France because they already recycle it; the US doesn’t because some of the recycled materials could be used to build bombs).

By footprint (in terms of land and waste) nuclear is the best option still. It’s still the most stable output (save perhaps geothermal, but you can’t do that everywhere) One day we might have batteries good enough to make that less of an issue but right now it’s probably not a good idea to abandon nuclear.

The fallout will just give you cancer in 10-20 years as long as you wait to go outside for a week or so. Assuming you’re far enough away that the blast doesn’t kill you, stay as underground or as much to the center of a building as possible for that first week and something like 95% of the rad stuff will have decayed.

Sure some people will get enough dose to die, but more people will get sick and recover. Radiation is not like the movies.

While this is indeed a list, it pales in comparison to what you can do in or near a large city.

I enjoy a ton of things on your list but there’s stuff you just can’t easily do outside of a metro area. Especially stuff you need a specialized teacher for.

If the job requires you to be at your desk then presumably that means you have work to complete. Judge people for what they get done, not how often they mindlessly move a mouse and this wouldn’t be a problem!

To be completely fair to them, a ton of the delay was over lawsuits. I mean, you’d definitely end up dealing with those regardless of where you put upa NPP, but just giving them that small benefit f doubt there.

I’m a customer of theirs, paying the stupid fee. They got all celebratory about getting to the end and now the bill has to be paid and oh look, it’s the customers paying. Joy.

I work nuclear industry adjacent, so I guess it’s job security. And with that disclaimer I’ll add this:

Building new plants is definitely going to take too long. If we get small modular reactors that will help. Same way if we get better batteries for solar and wind storage or new tech in geothermal. The simple point is that we are 50+ years behind. We gotta try anything and everything. It’s our only hope at this point. And no matter what, it’s going to cost. Money, land, your view from your backyard. People aren’t willing to sacrifice anything to get it done, and that’s how it’s going to end for us if we don’t change. And that’s true for literally every problem we have. Nimby-ism will be the death of us.

Too bad those of modest means can’t afford their own generators. But screw them right? Should probably have been born richer.