Otherwise buy some glass beads and get your ass on etsy

Or Onlyfans

Uh no, I don’t make any stops on my 1800 mile road trip.

Sure bud

I get where you’re coming from, but I don’t think it holds up the way you’re framing it. Pinning the root of their trouble on a decision made in 1994 is a bit of a reach. You’re talking about a 30-year-old choice—one that may not have panned out financially, sure, but let’s not act like anyone who steps off the traditional path is just writing themselves into a future of failure. People take risks. Sometimes they pay off, sometimes they don’t. That doesn’t make someone reckless or undeserving of support three decades later. You’re applying hindsight like a hammer, and it oversimplifies everything that likely happened in between.

And honestly, the “$200k job to start a band” line feels a little too convenient. Maybe he quit for health, burnout, family reasons—we don’t know. Framing it as a dumb, selfish move is an assumption dressed up as fact. Life’s not a spreadsheet. People don’t always make optimal economic choices, and pretending everyone has the foresight, stability, and circumstances to do so just isn’t realistic.

As for the $37,000 car—yeah, that’s not ideal. But again, you’re pulling one purchase out of what’s probably a complicated financial picture and using it to write off their entire decision-making process. Have you priced reliable vehicles lately? Even used ones? You don’t know if that was their only option after a breakdown or if it was financed under pressure. It’s easy to diagnose “bad choices” from the outside when you’re not in the thick of it.

And about “doing what you have to”—I agree in principle. Life is about hard choices. But let’s not pretend that “just move to a cheaper state” is some silver bullet. Moving costs money. Leaving behind your doctors, your social support network, everything familiar—that’s not nothing. It’s not just a matter of pulling up Zillow and hopping a U-Haul to West Virginia. The fact that you think that’s a simple fix kind of underlines how disconnected this solution is from the reality of aging in poverty.

You say they have no Plan B. That’s fair, maybe. But they also don’t have many cards left to play. Working at 81 isn’t ideal—but it’s what they’ve got. And instead of asking “why didn’t they plan better 30 years ago?” maybe ask why we expect any 81-year-old to be keeping a job just to afford rent. That’s not a personal failure—that’s a systemic one. The fact that they’re still working shows grit. The fact that they have to shows a breakdown in the system we’re all supposed to be able to rely on someday.

You’re focused on their past decisions like they were filling out a retirement strategy on a clean whiteboard. But most people aren’t living with that level of control, especially over decades. You don’t know their full story, just some snapshots, and you’re building a moral framework around it. That’s fine if you want to play armchair financial advisor, but don’t pretend it’s empathy.

And yeah, they’re in a bad spot. But treating them like a cautionary tale instead of real people facing a brutal system isn’t going to help them—or anyone else headed in the same direction.

I would argue that they were in fact victims of circumstance. The 2008 mortgage implosion seems to be the root of their troubles. I doubt they thought they were making subpar choices in the aftermath. Putting the blame on them really shifts focus from the elephant in the room, that our society should provide a baseline level of dignified existance for the elderly and infirm no matter the quality of their life choices.

Suggesting they move to west virginia because it’s cheaper is a ridiculous idea that only someone who lacks life experience would propose. I’m calling out a kid, aren’t I?

Your writing is too verbose and lacks tact.

Why is it that every comment chain about an unfortunate event has at least one callous person who is obviously victim blaming but trying their best to downplay it?

I’ll ask you directly, why are you doing this, partial_accumen? Are you trying to convince yourself that this couldn’t happen to you? Are you perhaps trying to convince yourself to stick with your soul-sucking yet decent paying job? What’s your motivation?

Why are New Zealanders being detained?

You ignored the question

Then what is it?

Seriously why even bother studying the health effects of zero G? Figure out how to build a spinning craft instead and don’t worry about health effects.

I’ll let you think about that.

No. I do not think that and frankly I find it absurd you’re asking. Do you think the US government is perfectly airtight? This information was allegedly sitting on someone’s desk in the justice department.

Because they have intelligence assets in the US government

I know it’s the onion, but really, wouldn’t several countries have a copy of the list by now?

You’re calling me a bot? In whay sense of the word? Can you find something more recent? Here’s what I’ve found. This metaanalysis from 2020 concluded there was an association. However, this comment points out several flaws in their metaanalysis.

So I guess we don’t 100% know for sure? If that’s the case then I’d guess the effect is very small or nonexistant.

There isn’t a peaceful rabies death

I’m pretty sure this study from 2007 has been refuted

but to blame the entire state if the country on the bombing campaign of the 1950s is to…

Nobody said that.

If you read the previous comment more closely you’ll realize that the commentor wasn’t comparing today’s NK to Gaza, but Korea during the Korean War to Gaza. That is a reasonable comparison, as nearly every standing structure was bombed.

If they’re proper student loans then interest doesn’t accumulate while you’re a student.