I looked at my paycheck (US) vs. one of our Swedish colleagues when I was doing our payroll, and yes, the tax was about 45%, my federal withholding is much less but once you add in the deductions for 401k (unsecured pension scheme) and health insurance (that doesn’t cover anything except annual wellness until we pay in 8,000 USD) and social security (the fed pension being paid now to old people, and their healthcare) my deductions also leave about 55% of my pay for net pay.

The part I object to most in terms of cost here is the healthcare - my deductions may mirror the Swede but I don’t think they also have to cover the first 8k of cost out of pocket.

(Edit - it was Sweden not Denmark)

I don’t mind really, just wish it was used for more things that helped society. And it needs to be a little more progressive, though it is the most progressive of the taxes we have here.

My ex MIL, who literally used WIC and welfare when she was a single mom, and leveraged that into a nursing degree, rails against welfare now and doesn’t want her taxes going to that, doesn’t want to pay. Not even in a pull the ladder up after herself way, she just refuses to admit she benefited from it.

What a nice tail your cock has!

I had a Scottish boyfriend, he visited me in Florida in the summer and I remember him saying "mind you, the heat does make ya horny, don’t it?’ (about himself) so I guess I buy it.

I don’t get this. Not even high school girls find high school boys attractive. How could a grown woman? And what’s with the language, the word is raped or sexually abused/assaulted, 16 year old here is assumed unable to consent to sex with any adult.

My kids call me Mom, step kids call me by my first name.

Oh and sometimes mama, in Spanish.

You know, when I got my current job, the people in my department said"we tried to find your Facebook but couldn’t" and I said 'yeah that’s because I don’t have one."

13 years later, still don’t.

Though honestly even our work teams chat would probably be too spicy for these motherfuckers. They just want a pretext to keep out anybody. Like some law impossible to follow, that they can selectively enforce.

The wasted space bothers me more. If I am bringing milk for my own coffee, I decant it into a small container. If bringing lunch that needs refrigerated, I take it out of the insulated lunch bag before putting it in the refrigerator! I see huge insulated lunch bags in there, are you literally insulating it against refrigeration, and do you need to take up a cubic foot for your sandwich and apple?

Not arguing with anything but your numbers. Gross pay is not net pay. My net is 60% of my gross with family health insurance taken out , and taxes (but mostly health insurance).

So that could be closer to 5k a month, let’s say 6 to be generous. Rent here for anything that will fit a family is close to 3k. Another thousand on top for student loans, then electric bill, car insurance or transit $, more people means more food, I can see it might be tight.

Still not anything to really complain about money wise but legit IMO to complain about student loans in general. Education from K through university or trade school needs to be free for students, the economy would work better.

I love it, for real. Short winter days suck, especially after going back to standard time. Having light in the evening is wonderful.

I always figured bi (or pansexual) was the default setting for humans. Most guys at least are flexible, if there is not a woman around any port in a storm, and if you weren’t raised with any conditioning it seems more normal to love individuals, not categories.

Local community radio, monthly.

A little towards anything I read or listen to, not often but as I can I do.

Towards disasters if work is doing a fundraiser, we have a charity arm and I know where the money is going as I work in accounting.

Directly to people, again as I can. This is the biggest $ category probably. If I have cash I will give it, don’t think about trying to sort out who “deserves” it, that’s not something I can or will do. Will pick up an extra meal occasionally if there is a homeless person around. And have given space in my house occasionally, though at least once did not when I really should have, there is an occasion I regret not offering that to someones I know - I think it would have helped them get back on their feet much faster but I was worried for my safety (from my ex not the people who needed).

I don’t consider myself generous in light of what I have, but still digging out from being poor myself.

Wow, his view of what makes someone your child is the absolute opposite of what I believe. Any child I raise is “my child”. Anyone who considers me their mom is “my child”, no matter who their biological parents are.

And, thankfully I’ve never been in a position to have to give one up for adoption but if so, I would say the parents who raised them are the parents, not me.

I really don’t think he’s their dad. If he wants to be a mysterious benefactor who gives them money because their moms used his sperm, that’s not an awful thing to do, but saying they are his children is lunacy.

I sure hope he doesn’t have any stepchildren, as presumably they’d be left out of this largesse.

They are not corporeal so why would they care what your body looks like? To them it is just some envelope holding you, right? Your soul I don’t think would have race, or sex, those are embodied things, skin tone being the most superficial of all.

Fennel too- I always thought the white part was below the earth, like an onion. But no, the whole fennel sits on the earth, on a tippy root that’s underground.

This happens to us - if I cook dinner for everyone, two of us eat, if I cook dinner for two of us, everyone wants to eat. If I make enough for leftovers, nobody takes them to lunch. If I don’t make enough, they ask why there is not enough for lunch.

Things that help on your question though -

Canned beans, canned tomatoes, canned coconut milk, canned pumpkin, jarred spaghetti sauce, spices - a lot of our staples are not perishable.

Do you live where you can stop by the store on the way home? Then don’t buy perishables for the week, buy them for the meal you are making.

Some foods and meals freeze pretty well, freeze them and keep a list of what’s in the freezer so you remember to eat it.

I hate meal planning but it helps a lot. I sometimes put a note on the fridge “we have food for dal with spinach, chicken & cabbage, sheet pan gnocchi with sausage and broccoli, eggs and potatoes” or whatever we have the food to make, and cross them off as they are made.

Some foods make other foods. So if I make a hunk of pork, it’s pork, rice and beans then enchiladas then burritos, and so on.

I don’t understand this either, but if you don’t like plain water, there are ways to make it taste different. Squeezed lemon in water is delicious, fizzy water is nice, there’s always Crystal Light, lol.

I love so many drinks but if I could only have one, iced water is it. It’s the best drink of all and goes with every food.

The circumstances.

If it wasn’t a situation where it was a recurring character trait thing, but one time, unusual circumstances, quickly disclosed, STD tested before we did it again, and if we’d been together a long time first.

Now, having said that - I don’t think infidelity comes out of nowhere, if it’s not a person who just always will cheat, there are usually problems leading to it. So it’s unlikely to work out. But I might be willing to see if it could.

You are in Dallas? The main redeeming quality of Texas is the music. I wholeheartedly agree with this suggestion.

Also going out to the same places at the same time can pay off, you will make acquaintances and some may become friends. I see a group of old guys at the cafe I go to for coffee, pretty sure they are only friends because they go get breakfast at the Cuban place and ended up talking and sitting together.

I will say though, almost all my friends I met as adult came from work or from them going out with someone in my family. The medium level friends you are probably looking for. Do you not have work?

Slash it by what? My kids got the same $ amount I did, back when I went to college when they were little. For me, it covered tuition and some of the books, for them about 1/10th of the tuition. It’s already slashed.