• halvar@lemy.lol
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    2 hours ago

    Why do we pay taxes before we pay for rent? If the government won’t provide housing at least they could be nice and not ask for their cut before we get that done.

    • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
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      2 hours ago

      This is killing me in a different way.

      Weekly pay for monthly bills.

      Most of my bills land between the 10th and 20th of the month, which means I have to set aside and reserve money from my other paycheques to cover that range.

      I am bad at doing so.

      • Bassman1805@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        If you can afford $9/mo, YNAB (You Need A Budget) is a great app for managing income and expenses that don’t necessarily align on a calendar schedule.

        I get that budgeting won’t make up for insufficient income, but if it’s actually the financial habits that are holding you back, this app works wonders for learning how to properly plan your expenses.

        If you’re into open source stuff and are willing to spend more effort tinkering, ActualBudget is the same concept, but lacks some QoL features (notably, auto-importing transactions from your bank/credit card statements).

  • uncouple9831@lemmy.zip
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    3 hours ago

    I know it’s fake and gay, but anon should be able to get “cheapest possible” internet at $45/mo and soft unlimited data on cell for $20/mo. Nationwide.

    Given their rent is the ridiculously low $750, the $90/mo in gas seems excessive too, although their insurance (esp if you assume <25yo given the source) is almost unbelievable. That’s like 2000s numbers, or super super rural which might explain the gas.

      • uncouple9831@lemmy.zip
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        2 hours ago

        Oh yeah the 750 I believe, it’s just super cheap. West VA makes sense. $90 for gas would make more sense to me in the western liberal states with high gas tax and even higher rent. Doesn’t make as much sense to me if your rent is 750.

  • Taleya@aussie.zone
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    22 hours ago

    Dog whistling bullshit. “Obongo”, “waahh socialised medicine is the reason i’m trapped in a poverty spiral” get faaarked

    • JcbAzPx@lemmy.world
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      1 hour ago

      The ACA is not socialized medicine. It is health insurance reform and only partial at that.

      Also, I don’t agree that “Obongo” is a dog whistle. It is so openly racist no one is going to miss it.

    • DamnianWayne@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      It’s 4Chan, “Obongo” is one of the more polite names they could say.

      Obamacare is corporate medicine, designed to give more money to the health insurance industry. Anyone in support of socialized medicine should not be a fan of it just because it’s marginally better than before.

      • freddydunningkruger@lemmy.world
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        23 minutes ago

        Democrats tried to offer a single payer option. However, EVERY SINGLE REPUBLICAN voted against it, and as a result, it was possible for two Democrats, Dick Durbin and Joe Lieberman, to vote against it and force the removal of Single Payer and the Public Option from the bill.

        And as a result, we get the BOTH SIDES SAME bullshit. Republicans stand firm and vote 100% against a bill, making it possible for 1 or 2 Democrats to derail it, and as a result, people get mad at Democrats as a whole and ensure Republicans keep getting enough seats to keep this strategy alive.

        What’s amazing is how well this works for Republicans. So many idiots in the world.

    • abbotsbury@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      Obamacare isn’t perfect and made some things more expensive for some people. Yes it helped others and overall I think it’s beneficial, but covering your ears and pretending that anon is blaming socialized medicine entirely is just inaccurate.

      Criticism, when factual, is good.

        • abbotsbury@lemmy.world
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          14 hours ago

          yes, which would make this specific criticism of Obamacare nonfactual, but anon is still not blaming socialized medicine like the person I replied to thinks

          • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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            11 hours ago

            Anyone using the word Obongo to refer to Obama does not make that distinction. Anything left of YOYO plans is socialized healthcare to them.

        • abbotsbury@lemmy.world
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          14 hours ago

          I know what obongo means, don’t know what “other side” discourse you think I’m looking for, but you seem to have made up your mind about what kind of strawman I am, so have fun I guess.

          • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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            5 hours ago

            I assumed you were acting like this was a fair and factual criticism of Obamacare, since you responded to someone calling it bullshit by defending fair and factual criticism.
            Since you also said you thought Obamacare was a net positive, I assumed you were arguing that we should be open to listening to criticism of things we approve of, or listening to the “other side of the conversation”, and just misunderstood what you were defending.

            I really don’t see this as a negative strawman, but I’m quite curious to know what you thought I was arguing against.

    • Jolteon@lemmy.zip
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      20 hours ago

      To be fair, the requirement to provide health insurance and other benefits for full-time workers is definitely one of the leading causes of the reduction in full-time jobs. If lawmakers were really putting the peoples’ interests first, they would have just said that for a part-time job the employer would have to provide benefits based on the fraction of 40 hours the employee worked (e.g. 20 hours is half-benefits).

      • Taleya@aussie.zone
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        17 hours ago

        Look I’ll be honest with you. As someone outside the US the idea that your workplace is responsible for your private insurance / healthcare is bug fuck insane and open to exploitation on a mind boggling scale.

        • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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          14 hours ago

          Look at it like this: in America, a sizeable portion of people think that your direct economic utility is a good measure of if you deserve to live. They’ll justify it by saying things like “they don’t think it’s governments place” to provide social services, and that it’s better handled through charity.
          If you don’t have a workplace you need to go for real American style socialized medicine: GoFundMe.

          (The history behind it is that before anyone was really doing socialized healthcare workplaces in the US started offering health insurance as a way to increase compensation during the WW2 wage freezes. Eventually it was so pervasive that it was a recognized form of compensation, and then it was the easiest way to dictate that everyone had insurance, since a lot of people listened to the fear mongering that was going on. “Nothing changes you just can’t get kicked off for developing cancer”. It also lined up with the beliefs of those who think that people who aren’t working don’t deserve support)

        • MrVilliam@sh.itjust.works
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          17 hours ago

          Not just open to exploitation; openly exploited. Disruption to coverage and questions about what could be covered differently are significant factors that cause people to choose not to take a job elsewhere.

          The trick is that health insurance can be bought directly, but it’s just so insanely expensive to do it that way so nobody does. Companies get a huge discount to buy bulk enterprise packages, and then their employees pay for a lot of it themselves. The portion that the company pays for is just an expense of labor, the same as salary, and offering better than the company across the street is an incentive to get better hires.

          The ACA basically was just “hey, you know that discount that companies are getting? Now do it for the state and we’ll offer it to everybody. And insurance companies will like it because people are given incentive to buy this because we’re gonna fine people for not being insured.” Pretty shitty deal, but at least people had the freedom to jobhop or become unemployed and keep their doctors.

          It’s cheaper and easier to buy a gun than to get an abortion in this shithole country.

          • LH0ezVT@sh.itjust.works
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            3 hours ago

            Classic US capitalism: Take a product, triple the price, and then offer a generous 50% discount if you sign up on unfavourable terms.

            But yeah, I guess I am preaching to the choir here.

      • Revan343@lemmy.ca
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        18 hours ago

        If lawmakers were really putting the peoples’ interests first, they’d pass socialized medicine

      • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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        17 hours ago

        lawmakers were really putting the peoples’ interests first, they would have just said that for a part-time job the employer would have to provide benefits based on the fraction of 40 hours the employee worked (e.g. 20 hours is half-benefits).

        Then shitty jobs would only give people up to 10 hours per week so they’d have to work 4 jobs to get close to 40 hours, and of course that quarter benefits wouldn’t cover jack shit. Quarter benefits and people working 4 jobs would also make it a 75% chance that any employee you hire and schedule at ~10 hours per week doesn’t accept the benefits thereby saving the business money

        Better solution would be single payer healthcare, i.e. Medicare for all, plus expanding social security to pay more than a starvation amount would also be ideal. I’ve also previously outlined the thoughts of expanding SNAP/Foodstamps to all, housing assistance vouchers to all and Social Security to all to effectively reach UBI based entirely off of existing programs that tens of millions of Americans are already on right now. Work becomes how you fund hobbies and a better lifestyle and economic downturns don’t hurt normal people as much

    • BanMe@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      It’s just an expression of the republican fantasy that a strong welfare state causes people to be lazy

      When in reality they make it so you have to choose.

    • MacN'Cheezus@lemmy.today
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      21 hours ago

      Ah yes, “I don’t care who pays for my benefits or how much they suffer, they’re probably racist dickheads anyways”.

      Very compassionate indeed.

  • jaykrown@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I hate to break it to you 4chan dwelling normie fucking stupid shit head, but that 25 hrs a week is not because of the Affordable Care Act. It’s because of greedy capitalist fucks who are squeezing you for every cent they give you to maximize profit margins well beyond what they need to for a healthy business model.

    • Tinidril@midwest.social
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      1 day ago

      It’s because of greedy capitalist fucks who are squeezing you

      A healthcare system that makes everyone dependent on employers really makes it easy for them.

      Medicare For All is about a lot more than just healthcare.

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      1 day ago

      Yeah that stuck out at me too. I love how the conservative media has thoroughly convinced the average dimwitted moron from flyover states that all of their problems are because of Obamacare and not because of the greed of their employer and the laws that they have enticed Congress to enact in their favor to prevent them from having to employ people full time.

      • the_crotch@sh.itjust.works
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        1 day ago

        Obamacare includes a minimum hour exemption and it should have been obvious to the authors of the bill that employers would cut hours to hit that mark.

        • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          4 hours ago

          If you think cutting hours to avoid providing benefits originated with Obamacare, then I’ve got a bridge to sell you

        • BeardededSquidward@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          23 hours ago

          You’re expecting people who are worth a minimum of 7 figures to consider the plight of people who struggle to maintain 5 figures. Companies were already lowering time employees worked to begin with regardless.

          • the_crotch@sh.itjust.works
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            21 hours ago

            I’m saying the ACA was a bad bill that was never intended to help anyone but insurance companies. We shouldn’t be shocked that it includes workarounds for other businesses. Of course it does. Obama and the others who passed it knew that when they passed it. Thats why they wrote it that way.

    • AppleTea@lemmy.zip
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      1 day ago

      It’s kinda both. The ACA was based on Heritage Foundation work that was done for the benefit of insurance companies. Not much consideration was put into the behaviors it would incentivize in employers.

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      23 hours ago

      Healthy businees model will not cut it these days. Infinite growrh or your investors abandon you.

    • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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      24 hours ago

      The capitalist fucks are swinging the whip. The 25-hour limit is the whip they are swinging. Both are a problem.

  • Fizz@lemmy.nz
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    22 hours ago

    If he wasnt stuck working 25 hours a week and was able to do 40hr a week he’d be living pretty well.

    Why is obamacare limiting him to 25 hours?

    • Ledivin@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      Their employer is a scumbag. Instead of being mad the actual problem, they choose to believe their exploitative employer, who throws their hands up and claims “it’s not MY fault you aren’t paid enough!”

      • papertowels@mander.xyz
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        19 hours ago

        Do you know if they get a second part time job and still qualify for Obamacare? If they can subsist on 25 hours a week, then adding another 15 would really help with savings.

        • qarbone@lemmy.world
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          18 hours ago

          If I’m understanding comments in other parts of this post, I don’t think Obamacare is cutting into his profit. His employer is making sure his hours are sub-full time, i.e. less than 40 hrs a week, to ensure they don’t have to provide him with healthcare, which is required by Obamacare.

          So getting a second job and qualifying for Obamacare are not part of the equation.

          • papertowels@mander.xyz
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            16 hours ago

            My impression from the rest of the thread is that his current employer is the one that wants to avoid Obamacare.

            So if he just finds a second job with another employer, he can at least be earning more money, instead of being capped at 25 hours at his current one. And since he already is able to sustain himself on the first job, the 15 hours of working can significantly boost his savings from ~$100/month to 4 weeks *15 hours per week * 7.25 (fed min wage) ~$500/month. Doesn’t solve all problems, but just finding a full 40 hours of work quintuples how much financial slack they have, which is very significant.

            • CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world
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              3 hours ago

              A lot of part time jobs are inconsistent and demand full time availability so there’s no way to have 2 at once without them inevitably overlapping.

              • papertowels@mander.xyz
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                3 hours ago

                Yeah that’s fair. When I was working multiple jobs I was lucky enough that none of them demanded full time availability.

              • papertowels@mander.xyz
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                3 hours ago

                Don’t feel great dropping personal info online just to prove a point. I’ve had 3 concurrent part time jobs in the past, but one was tapering one off, so it was only 3 jobs for a few months, rest was 2 jobs. I was lucky that I had a regular schedule for all of them so I could make it work.

                I mean, yeah it sucked, but so does only being broke and I wanted out of it.

    • lohky@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      Part-time employees don’t get benefits, so they limit you to just under what is considered full-time employment because they hate you.

      Isn’t being poor cool?

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        20 hours ago

        For similar reasons in my current independent contractor role I’m limited to working less than 32 hours per week, presumably to prevent claims of being misclassified as a contractor.

        Now as for why I’m an independent contractor and not a full time employee that’s down to freaking corporate politics following being laid off, leaving for another role and then being begged to come back because they needed my expertise and organizational knowledge (I’ve been heavily trained to pick up the torch for an employee who’s retiring in 2 years, which with the amount of undocumented nonsense and organization-specific decisions it would take a solid 2 years just to get anyone trained up on everything and I’m the only one with the technical and organizational knowledge in the organization right now) so in short they’d greatly reduce costs by bringing me on full time but the CFO won’t approve the job offer (and that’s literally the only stakeholder holding it back)

        • justaman123@lemmy.world
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          13 hours ago

          I hope you’re spending all your time looking for a new job (I know, I know, go down to the jobbie tree and just get a job, right). But if you can get any kind of leverage or safety net to walk away you might be able to get the job offer by threatening to leave. Best of luck to you

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            I absolutely have been, but holy crap this job market sucks. I’ve gotten so close on multiple interviews just to get passed up at the last minute (or scarier, they’ll announce they’ve decided not to fill the role at all!)

            On the upside, with this contracting gig I’m making more than I made when I worked for them full time while only working ~30 hours a week fully remotely so it’s not a bad gig at all. I’m just frustrated that my boss wants to get me a job offer, the CTO wants to get me a job offer, I have the director of safety saying he wants me to get a job offer, but the CFO just isn’t budging

        • lohky@lemmy.world
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          16 hours ago

          I worked for one of those for a while. Worked in their office, on their computers, on their schedule, but somehow I was still 1099?

          I just stopped showing up one day and let all of their maintenance systems fail. 🤷

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        1 day ago

        Putting it in context, it’s probably right. There are a lot of different swathes/classes of boomer, and the ones that would be able to do the listed in lines 7-10 are probably not the ones that were targeted for conscription in vietnam.

          • AppleTea@lemmy.zip
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            1 day ago

            It’s Korea that typically gets ignored in the US. In fact, that war does fall under the time-frame we’re looking at and wikipedia says about 1.5 million were drafted for it.

            • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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              20 hours ago

              Korea wasn’t legally considered a war for bullshit political reasons for far too long and as a result veterans and families of veterans were denied benefits they should have received after giving some or all for the country now fucking them over

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        1 day ago

        My dad was born in 49, he never had to fight in a war. On the other hand it would have been a hell of a ride for him to tramp to Woodstock from western Europe.

      • IronBird@lemmy.world
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        22 hours ago

        you could pay not to fight iirc, like straight up just pay to not go. didn’t even have to fake it via some bullshit doctors note like vietnam

  • Mulligrubs@lemmy.world
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    22 hours ago

    Those companies would be screwing you regardless, you can’t get a company to do anything but acquire profit without government to restrain them, otherwise they run the show and would own you as a slave. Only government limits their power, which would be absolute otherwise.

    Unfortunately, our government is now under the control of corporations and has been for some time (since at least “money is free speech” and “corporations are people” court victories), defeating it’s purpose. We used to break up monopolies and remove business licenses for unlawful practices! The good old days.

    Hmmm, if corporations are people, and they make and employ AI, that means AI is people or something. So that’s kinda neat.

  • djsoren19@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    23 hours ago

    The 4channer should just get another part time job so they can work 50 hours a week and not have any time to themselves, that’s the new American Dream

  • Korhaka@sopuli.xyz
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    1 day ago

    $115 a month phone/internet? Are US prices really that insane? My phone is £4 a month for unlimited calls/SMS and got an unlimited data SIM for a 4G router that costs £24/month.

    • GhostedIC@sh.itjust.works
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      23 hours ago

      Anecdotally: I’ve lived in the sort of place he’s describing and the internet was an overpriced monopoly. Farmers and people in larger cities both paid much better prices for better service. But the ISP had some deal where they had exclusive rights to run equipment on the power poles (or other companies needed their technicians present first or some bullshit which they would delay to the point of impracticality).

      At $115 he probably didn’t get the lowest speed and could have done like $60 for internet and $40 for phone but yeah, I can believe it.

      • Korhaka@sopuli.xyz
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        21 hours ago

        4/5G, fuck their monopoly. If people leave they will have to actually compete. It’s fine for gaming too, been using 4G for years without an issue. At some point I should upgrade my router to 5G though.

        • I Cast Fist@programming.dev
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          15 hours ago

          If people leave they will have to actually compete

          Assuming people even have the option for a speedy, uncapped 4G/5G, or one with a very high cap. USA is known for abusive pricing on bandwidth, like “every GB used over 50GB will be charged 10 dollars”

    • chefdano3@lemmy.zip
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      1 day ago

      That’s about correct, idk what everyone else is on about, but my phone costs me $70 a month, and my Internet costs $60, and those were the cheapest plans I could get. Not to mention that the reason my phone bill isn’t higher is because I had to buy my phone outright at $600.

      Shits expensive here, for no reason other than corporate greed.

      • piccolo@sh.itjust.works
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        1 day ago

        Phone service is only expensive because your paying for the privilege of priority. Go with MVNOs and its reasonable, just the service is slower in congested areas.

        • papertowels@mander.xyz
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          14 hours ago

          To add onto this, there are MVNOs for basically every carrier.

          Visible uses verizon, and their cheapest plan is $25/month, taxes and fees included. There’s currently a promo that brings it down to $19/month for 26 months.

          Mint and metro uses tmobile. Metro offers unlimited at $25.

          Cricket uses at&t, they also have unlimited phone plans in the $25-35 range.

    • papertowels@mander.xyz
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      1 day ago

      No, it’s definitely on the pricier side.

      $30/line is a common price for unlimited phone service.

      You can get home Internet for $40-$50/month.

      I think I pay 25 for Internet and 30 for unlimited phone.

      EDIT: in fact if you’re income limited there are cheaper government subsidized plans.

      • WoodScientist@lemmy.world
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        18 hours ago

        You can get home Internet for $40-$50/month.

        That’s more like $100/month once the temporary pricing ends and the bullshit fees are applied.

        • papertowels@mander.xyz
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          So the $40/month at mint isn’t a promotional rate, and the $50/month price at Xfinity says it’s good for 5 years.

          I mean you can find alternatives that do exactly what you’re talking about, but I feel the examples I provided are valid, sustainable prices for Internet.

      • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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        1 day ago

        Limited-time offer available to new MINTernet customers who purchase the 3- or 12-month MINTernet plan with any Mint Premium voice plan. MINTernet plan requires upfront payment of $75 for 3-month or $300 for 12-month plans (each equiv. to $25/mo) & AutoRenewal enrollment. Mint Premium voice plan requires upfront payment of $45 for 3-month, $90 for 6-month or $180 for 12-month plan (each equiv. to $15/mo). Combined equivalent is $40/mo. After introductory rate, standard rates apply. Taxes & fees extra. Fixed wireless gateway provided on loan; return of equipment required upon cancellation or subject to fee. Service delivered via cellular network; speeds vary & may be reduced during congestion after 1TB/mo for MINTernet. MINTernet service limited to registered address at time of enrollment & cannot be relocated. Premium “Unlimited” data may be slowed during congestion after 50GB/mo; video streams at 480p. Includes 20GB/mo. mobile hotspot. Not combinable with certain other offers. Terms subject to change; additional terms & conditions apply. See terms for details.

        It’s not actually as cheap as they say, and what you’re getting isn’t really worth the price.

        Regardless, when the thing being said is “wages are crap, things are expensive, people are trapped and can’t afford a future” it sorta misses the point to say that they could get substantially worse service for roughly half the price.

        • papertowels@mander.xyz
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          23 hours ago

          I appreciate you quoting all of the fine print, what is the actual gotcha you’re taking away from it? The biggest “gotcha” that in seeing is you have to prepay, which is mints while thing. The second gotcha I can see is that the free phone line they throw in is only good for a year? Which is fine. You’d go from $40/month to $55, still less than half of what was described in the post.

          Regardless, when the thing being said is “wages are crap, things are expensive, people are trapped and can’t afford a future”

          I understand that’s the point of the overall post, but I’m answering a question asking if internet and cell service is really that expensive in the US.

          It’s doing a disservice to pretend like it is when there are much more affordable alternatives. Not only is the typical market price cheaper than what is mentioned in the post, but if you’re on many government aid programs, you qualify for subsidized phone and internet. Pairing the two seemingly adds up to $25/month.

          How much do you pay for Internet and cell service that meets your needs?

          • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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            18 hours ago

            My “gotcha” was the bit I said right after the fine print: not as cheap as advertised in the long run and not a good value.

            The existence of a lower price for some people in some circumstances in some parts of the country doesn’t do much to address actual measurable statistics on us internet costs: Monthly Internet Cost: https://www.forbes.com/home-improvement/internet/internet-cost-per-month/

            My Internet is about $80 a month, and my phone is roughly $30 per line per month, $120 total because of regulatory fees and such. Looking at what mint typically delivers for internet they wouldn’t work for my requirements, purely for work and not considering I like my streaming to be good quality.

            • papertowels@mander.xyz
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              18 hours ago

              My “gotcha” was the bit I said right after the fine print: not as cheap as advertised in the long run

              It’s…it’s a promotion. I didn’t even mention it in my post, where I said internet can typically be had for $40-$50.

              After the promotion, the Internet still stays the same price, it’s the free voice line that you don’t get.

              I don’t think it’s much of a gotcha worth flourishing the terms and conditions over, but…sure, you’ve pointed out that additional discounts that were never factored into my initial comment expire, so the baseline offering goes back to what I mentioned in my post. $40-$50. This is also entirely avoiding the discussion of the government subsidized internet if you’re on SNAP, etc.

              • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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                17 hours ago

                It’s directly applicable when you say cheaper options are available and then link to a promotional offer where the pricing expires.

                Government subsidized free Internet is currently not a thing in the US because the government is actively hostile to most of the citizenry. We still have the program to get up to $9.25 off if you make less than $25k a year though. It also requires enrollment in a program whose funding is being cut, is kicking people off , and doing everything possible to reduce enrollment.

                Please read the rest of the comment I previously made where I linked to some actual averages for cost, because again: a lower cost existing isn’t the same as the average cost being low.

                • papertowels@mander.xyz
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                  17 hours ago

                  It’s directly applicable when you say cheaper options are available and then link to a promotional offer where the pricing expires.

                  Just to make sure we’re on the same page.

                  I said you can get Internet for $40-$50.

                  I linked a provider which provides a non-promotional rate of $40/month for Internet.

                  As a promotion, they’re throwing in a cellular line for free. This expires.

                  Does this somehow invalidate my claim of you can get Internet for $40-$50?

                  Government subsidized free Internet is currently not a thing in the US because the government is actively hostile to most of the citizenry. We still have the program to get up to $9.25 off if you make less than $25k a year though.

                  Yes. I never said it was free, just that it was subsidized.

                  Please read the rest of the comment I previously made where I linked to some actual averages for cost, because again: a lower cost existing isn’t the same as the average cost being low.

                  Sure - the average, non-promotional rate of $60 is still cheaper than what this post implies.

                  If we’re being real, in many markets (hello Xfinity/comcast) you’re oftentimes expected to be on a promotional rate more often than not. When I was living by myself, I could call Xfinity and ask for a promotional rate, and be told that I’d be eligible in x months, usually 2-4. If you live with others, you can swap who the Internet is under each year to always be getting a promotional rate.

                  In a country with a reputation of overconsumption, I think when someone asks with incredulity about the price of something, it’s valid to include the floor in addition to average/median/etc.

                  When discussing in the context of someone making little money, the floor is probably more relevant. Someone who’s barely making ends meet is not going to worry about splurging for the no data caps (fuck Xfinity) package for the streaming services he does not have.

      • Korhaka@sopuli.xyz
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        1 day ago

        Why would you pay $30 for unlimited data and then pay another $50 a month on top of that for a second unlimited data? Unless you are running a bunch of servers for people outside of your LAN, what is the point?

        • papertowels@mander.xyz
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          14 hours ago

          I’m laying out what I think are reasonable options that folks would want. Unlimited cell phone data for $30 paired with a steady, low latency cable line for $50 seems to be a combination that most folks could use.

          It’s definitely not optimized for saving money. You could save a lot of money if you wanted to focus on that. Helium mobile has a free 3gb/month plan, no credit card needed. For home Internet you’d be at the mercy of your local ISPs, but I’m sure there are more affordable plans that could be picked.

        • Alaknár@sopuli.xyz
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          1 day ago

          Don’t know about US, but where I live, the “unlimited mobile Internet” is always “fast connection up to X GBs used, then you slow down to a crawl where loading a text-only website takes three minutes, but you’re still technically not limited and can access the Internet” kind of deal.

          • Korhaka@sopuli.xyz
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            21 hours ago

            Not sure exactly what they go with but it’s never been a problem even downloading several big games from steam. I suppose if you want TBs a month you may want to look into the fine print.

            • Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              14 hours ago

              My cheap phone plan came with 10gb of data until they throttled the speed to a crawling pace. 10gb isn’t a lot to run for home Internet.

          • Korhaka@sopuli.xyz
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            21 hours ago

            4G can be home internet too, stick a regular SIM card into a 4G router. Probably 5G now but my setup is a few years old.

    • twack@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Yes, in fact that’s on the cheap side for unlimited with decent speeds for both services.

    • Wolfram@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Most ISPs and cellular plans charge out the ass for arbitrary data limits and faster speeds in the U.S. Some areas have decent ISPs not trying to nickel and dime you but not super common.

  • gramie@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    I just ran the numbers through a tax calculator for my province (Quebec). It says that on a salary of $18,000, I would pay about $1,200 for the pension plan and employment insurance. $0 paid for taxes, and I would actually receive a $4,000 as a tax refund.

    And, of course Healthcare is free, Quebec has pharmacare so prescription drugs would be free, childcare is about $10/day if I need it, and since my salary is less than $90,000/year, I would qualify for free dental care.

    There would also be a few things like the GST refund that would be about $500/year in my pocket.

    Canada is not paradise, but I sure prefer living here.

  • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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    23 hours ago

    This really puts to heart one of the issues with our current perception of minimum wage.

    People will look at that and say… Yeah but they can afford to live and not realize that we have made a slave out of the worker who can neber better themselves or get more.
    They have barely enough to have the barest essentials and tell them unironically to just better themselves or figure out how to be more productive and they can be rewarded while the reward just being a nicer endenturement.

    The american experiment was to get people to be able to grow and develop more because of the new efficiency giving more spare money amd resources to create more. When you have more spare money you can buy more things at the end of the day.
    Now its ablut how long can we keep it chugging along with nothing changing so the same people and same groups can keep everything as it is.

    This is no longer a wage that makes us all equal but gives us the right to fail of our own accord but makes it so that you must struggle to keep going at all.