Sorry just wanted to check: you don’t support deportation under any circumstances?

To be clear: I absolutely don’t agree with what ICE is doing and the abhorrent treatment of migrants in many parts of the world. I’m also not American so please keep in mind that context.

But what about someone who overstays a tourist visa and is then continuously committing violent crimes? After they’ve served their sentence, what should happen to them?

If you can’t deport them, then should they get a resident permit? Citizenship? If they don’t then they’ll just be in the country without the required documentation to work and reside there legally and will likely return to crime to survive.

I’m genuinely asking because though “no deportations under any circumstances” sounds admirable, I think you’ll quite quickly run into some big problems.

Not to mention how appealing a country with this policy would become for human traffickers. Then it wouldn’t matter if you’re a refugee or a gang member, just get across the border and you will never have to leave.

Again, fuck ICE and all brutal regimes throughout the world. I just think that abolishing any and all deportations would open up a whole other can of worms and there are surely better ways to protect migrants.

I’m not from the US. Do you know how much of your income tax goes to the health care system?

I live in the Netherlands and we actually have a pretty weird system of private insurance companies, but they’re not allowed to make a profit and it’s mandatory to have insurance. Anyway, my partner and I together pay about €300 per month, which actually doubled is about what you pay for 4 people (though for kids here it’s free).

Copay is not a thing here. The legal minimum deductible is €385 per year. You can raise it to max €885 and then you pay less for insurance every month. I have the max deductible, my partner has the lowest.

$4500 seems like an insane amount! I have never reached that or even gotten close. The government here sets the limit for deductibles and that’s always a big political discussion. There’s some talks now of removing the deductible altogether, though that would mean raising taxes elsewhere.

How do deductibles even work in the US? I had my appendix removed and here you then never pay anything because it’s like a life threatening thing. I think you do pay for things like medicine and the ambulance ride until you reach your deductible, but for things like going to the GP or life saving surgery it’s just covered.

And here if you’re not working or earn less than certain thresholds it becomes cheaper or free. But isn’t that similar in the US, like medicaid or something?

I pay quite a lot of income tax too of course which also partially goes to the health care system. I think it’s actually quite expensive here for people who have a reasonable income. If you don’t earn anything it’s mostly free but you still have plenty of health related costs like the deductible but also stuff that isn’t automatically included with insurance like dental care.

Last question: what do you mean by “max out of pocket $15000”? Is that like your combined max deductible for your family?

I think your questions are flawed because you’re working under the assumption that consistency and reason are relevant for these people to form an opinion.

It doesn’t matter their beliefs are contradictory and they don’t need to spin anything, they just think whatever Fox news / Trump tells them to think.

I like playing Civilization and feel attacked haha

Haha are you talking about the Jolla tablet? I was actually excited for it, shame it never happened.

A reasonably decent pizza (ie, not from a chain restaurant) in my town can easily set you back $50-$70 for a single, two-topping pizza - not counting drinks

Fucking hell, where do you live if I may ask? I’ve had dinner at Michelin star restaurants for less…

As we notice we’re getting older (I’m still sort of young, honest!), my partner and I like to remind each other that aging is a privilege. I really hope we get to grow old together.

Not American so perhaps I’m missing something, but doesn’t it make sense tips are taxed? It’s income, so why wouldn’t it be?

I just gave an example of running where it was about pushing, not if someone crossed a line. They even changed their decision after an appeal when other people looked at the same situation again.

And sports like football or hockey… Have you ever watched those sports? There are subjective calls all the time. It’s objective criteria, but a human still has to interpret things like handball, which depends on if your arm is in an “unnatural position” or not. Those are largely subjective decisions and there is controversy around them all the time.

With breakdancing they are of course also judging specific criteria:

The winner is determined by a panel of judges, who score each performance based on five criteria each worth a fifth of the point maximum

It’s really not that different.

Running has judges. Just the other day in the women’s 1500m (I think) a woman was initially disqualified for pushing someone. She appealed and the decision was reversed. It’s all about interpretation and subjectivity.

I can’t think of any sport that doesn’t have a judge or referee that has to subjectively interpret athlete’s actions and the sport’s rules.

Where I’m from a 36 hour work week is the norm. I work 4 × 9 hours and have every Wednesday off (plus I have like 9 weeks off every year). Some colleagues do work 40 hours a week and then save a day off every two weeks. A friend does this and he takes one fairly long holiday (like a month) and also a week or two off every two months or something.

And you can also take a sabbatical and be guaranteed of your job when you get back. A guy I know from another department took a year off to take a trip around the world with his girlfriend.

Yeah the search is not forgiving. One typo is enough to ruin the search results.

How well an area is mapped also matters a lot for search though. I now live somewhere that has all addresses in the country mapped from a government source. I didn’t before, and it’s so much easier now because at least I can just punch in the address and I’ll find whatever I’m looking for.

I think most countries with their own sesame street have slightly different characters. We don’t have big bird, we have the superior Pino.