The thing that depresses me in rural America is how you have these gated communities with 50-100 McMansions on top of each other surrounded by sub poverty level broken down shacks for miles in every direction. And the people in the gated communities are oblivious to their neighbors.
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I think this pretty much nails it except I disagree that they are oblivious. To a McMansion dweller the people living in shacks are actually the thing that gives them a sense of status and self worth. They love it and wouldnāt have it any other way. Spend a day in a small town courtroom observing how the judge treats criminal defendants if you donāt believe me.
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And there are expensive apartments and restaurants right there too. Right in that area thereās an expensive store called āJust Food For Dogsā. People practically step over someone lying on the sidewalk to buy gourmet dog food.
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Yeah you get your electricity turned off. There are certain restrictions. If it is 100 degrees, in Texas, they canāt turn it off. But if they get a 99 degree day followed by 7 105 degree days, they will turn it off on that 99 degree day.
I also think if you have a past due balance you canāt switch providers. (Not really providers just dozens and dozens of front end sales companies selling the exact same thing). So if you get hit with one of these crazy bills I recommend switching providers before the balance becomes past due.
At that point they can sue you or turn it over to collections, but if you choose not to pay and are willing to accept the credit hit there is no real mechanism for them to collect in Texas.
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This week, a Vietnam veteran died in his truck with his last tank of oxygen because he had no power. He deserved better. The power grid is a very large and important machine, but it is also an ennobling tool, a guarantor of solidarity and dignity. The grid grants a certain kind of freedomāfreedom from darkness, freedom from cold or heat, even freedom from boredom. There is a freedom in knowing that anything you plug into the wall will turn on; there is a freedom, too, in knowing that your house will stay inhabitable and your pipes will not burst. Texasās system is built on the idea that the liberty of companies to buy and sell electronsāand the freedom of consumers to pay a $2,500 power billāis greater and more dear than any freedom wrought by consistent power service.
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Victoar covered all the welfare / food stamp stuff well. I will just provide an example to his food stamp benefit cuts. If you take in around $600 a month your food stamp benefits drop from $190isg to $15.
Obviously someone making $150 a week is just going to waste food stamps on lobster and caviar.
That is why this notion that itās super easy or even worthwhile to defraud the welfare system in the US is laughable. It is actually really difficult to just qualify for any assistance let alone get any assistance.
Stuff like section eight housing is in such a limited supply that it simply is not realistic for the average supper poor person to get it. If you do you probably spend years of work and more years on waiting lists.
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This is what these Mfers think is a solution.
Charging you $200 a month for ten years for one day of electricity.
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Fuck this hit me hard. Iāve thought about this with mom when were having strategic power outages in CA. Had an escape plan and everything. Couldnāt imagine if the roads were completely fucked, just gotta hope emergency services come to get you.
Running out of oxygen must be a super fucked up way to go. Just slowly suffocating. Fuck.
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Before covid microdaughter would often travel between LA and the SF area by bus and would end up at a bus station (or some of the bus lines donāt have stations and just drop people off on the street/parking lot) in the mission area a couple times as late as 2am where I would get her. Iāve had miscommunication and lack of communication which had me looking for her downtown. Believe me, Iāve thought about it.
eta: omg the amount of frustration that has happened because some people will not keep their phones charged!
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I kind of like the idea that only women can have guns and theyāre allowed to open carry in every state. Though that doesnāt really do much for most of the abuse which happens in the home, itās a start?
Iām not as anti-gun as most here. I think people should endeavor to find a life that doesnāt leave them afraid, but if they canāt, Iām not telling them they canāt have a gun whether they are a woman or a little old man. Also, some day, prions be damned, I may have to live in the woods and eat some deer.
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The first rule of the leftists who have guns club isā¦
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Thatās the whole point
Unless you go on holiday for 2 weeks and forget to take off the magnets & you have to ask ALL your friends for those electric fires that burn through watts like itās air, and run them for a week on full.
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My ex had a 100 gallon reef tank. The giant pump, heater and huge lights. (One neighbor was worried we had a grow house).
Next the house was a mirror image of ours, so our meters were across from each other.
Their little disc was lazily going around. Ours was literally humming zzzzzzzzzzz.
Upwards of $500 a month. I shed no tears when something got off kilter and everything croaked. It was damn pretty but obnoxious for a lot of reasons.
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In Ohio there are tons of companies constantly offering to fix your electricity rate at slightly above current market prices. Usually they are mega-corps like Columbia Gas or AEP or whoever, who surely instantly hedge the risks and earn a risk free profit, but my sense is there are lots of less sophisticated outfits doing the same thing. Would not be at all surprised to see the Texas version of these people get a bailout while individuals are told to pound sand.
Yeah but 95 percent of the people do not live in flyover country, or are you counting land and not the place where people actually live?
Itās very meta. There is only one set of power lines coming to your house. The business of who supplies power to the lines and who you are buying from is all worked out with accounting. Thereās no knowing who actually spat out the specific electrons that go in and out of your outlets. Most places in the US have a default (often the only option) to a major public (really means private) or municipal utility (really means public) who owns the equipment, but more and more places have options for who sells the energy.
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???
There are tens of millions of people that live in flyover country. It adds up.
I wasnāt necessarily counting land or people. I was just pointing out a huge percentage of the United States is not really enjoying anything like a first world living experience. In the cities that is due to poor schools, infrastructure, access to health care and widespread poverty. In the rural areas it is what I have already said.
The US is a fine place to live if you are in the upper classes. Its a semi-dystopian hellscape at this point for everyone else.
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