The wheel.

Thank you for the expansion.

It is such a dark realization that what causes so much quality of life increases is not productivity or technology but legislation and policy.

And that’s how we got Prosperity Gospel: rich folk trying to justify their lazy asses hoarding wealth and complaining about the people who actually do the work wanting fair compensation for their time and effort.

how expensive it is to be poor

For anyone that needs the read, Terry Pratchett said it so well it is an economic theory now, the Boots theory.

The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. … A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. … But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.
This was the Captain Samuel Vimes ‘Boots’ theory of socio-economic unfairness.[4]

From Men at Arms by Sir Terry Pratchett

Also, a history of “people don’t want to work” bullshit going back to 1894: https://thunderdungeon.com/2024/07/14/nobody-wants-to-work-anymore/

Imagine going from democratic government to a monarch like western puppet with foreign backing out of no where

We’re living that now in the USA. Oh how the turns are tabled.

There is a similar alternative history book, The Years of Rice and Salt, that explores the idea of what if the black death killed 99% of Europeans instead of 33%; Europe repopulated by Muslim pioneers, the indigenous peoples of the Americas forming a league to resist Chinese and Muslim invaders, and a 67-year-long world war being fought primarily between Muslim states and the Chinese and their allies.

I was not expecting a compliment on my manscaping when I went in for my vasectomy.

Edit to add: I did not shave for today’s colonoscopy.

Have you seen the movie Serenity? When they’re out in Reaver space, remember the radio chatter?

That’s what it would sound like.

Got to get that extra creamy.

That’s not Walmart, that’s on the dairy farm and the FDA not doing proper inspections.

Canada

Dialects, too.

Saint Louis Public Radio has a show titled Code Switch which is about discussing racism and derives it’s name from the behavior.

Ding ding ding

We would also have accepted capitalism, avarice, or pathological financial hoarding.

Thanks :)

Oh come now, surely we can think of one reason.

There are some companies making them for sale.

https://www.paragonjackets.com/product/camera-shy-hoodie/

The Camera Shy Hoodie works.

Might not cause damage but there is the Camera Shy Hoodie: https://www.macpierce.com/the-camera-shy-hoodie

Instructions for how to DIY provided, so it doesn’t have to be a hoodie.

The oak, cherry, birch, and maples will likely outlive my house but will be outlasted by the 2k, 1.2k, 1.5k, 430, and several under 50 lbs boulders.

Many people do not research the plants and trees they plant in their yard.

Sometimes, even when you do the research, you end up planting wisteria that sneaks under the siding, climbs, and pops out the chimney in the space of one season.

Love the stuff and making fall/spring wreathes from the trimming, but you have to watch it closely or be prepared to repair where it goes.