Haha, that is always an option... but I'd rather the drunks be able to use an app to get home, than fight the larger, and largely self-defeating battle of trying to convince or cajole people into not getting out of their heads.
Professional musicians these days earn their living by going on tour and selling concert tickets and merchandise (esp. T-shirts). The biggest ones are quite profitable, and the concert ticket prices I've seen lately are rather high ($50 to sit on the lawn, $200+ for seats, for one big concert in my area).
The problem is getting to that level where you have so many fans that you can fill an arena or even a smaller venue.
Taken as a whole, sure, but all those things you refer to in a browser are components, probably developed by different teams or even reused by entirely separate projects. By that measure, a modern Linux distribution is far more complicated than a web browser, since it includes a kernel, compilers, multiple web browsers, codecs, etc. The Firefox browser, for instance, I believe uses the SQLite database, so you can't claim that the Mozilla devs created that complexity, they just included it.
I think a compiler is different because you can't break it apart into separate projects like that. All the parts that go into a compiler are really only useful for that compiler, not as common pieces of "infrastructure" that can be used by many disparate larger projects.
It's not going to be enough, that's why. Sure, you can work more right now to try to save up money, but making 30% more money now isn't remotely enough to make up for how much those kids are going to cost.
On top of that, you have to remember that you can't have kids by yourself (at least not easily, if you're male): you need a willing partner. If you're working your ass off to save money for kids, that means you're either letting your relationship suffer because you're at work all the time, or you're missing out on opportunities to find a partner. And the older you get, the harder it is to find a good partner (really, you need to find her in college; if you haven't found her by age 25, you probably won't).
All in all, our society simply isn't set up to have an enjoyable middle-class lifestyle and have kids. You need to pick one or the other: either be poor and have kids and struggle financially, or enjoy a more financially comfortable lifestyle and forgo having kids. Also, having a happy relationship and having kids are at odds with each other, so again you have to pick one. Either have kids and look forward to divorce and child support or at least a miserable marriage where you dread coming home from work, or find a partner who doesn't want kids and enjoy spending time with her.
It's little wonder that the birth rates in developed nations have fallen so low.
"Also, having a happy relationship and having kids are at odds with each other, so again you have to pick one. Either have kids and look forward to divorce and child support or at least a miserable marriage where you dread coming home from work, or find a partner who doesn't want kids and enjoy spending time with her."
That's a very dark line of thinking, and I'm sorry your life has led you to believe that is the case.
It's absolutely possible to have kids and a happy relationship, just as it's absolutely possible to not have kids and have a happy relationship, or have kids and a miserable relationship, or not have kids and have a miserable relationship.
Also, it's possible to have a middle-class lifestyle with kids; difficult, but possible. Living in the middle states of the US, with an in-demand skillset relative to the area you live in, and a semi-frugal mindset- it's absolutely possible. In San Francisco or DC? Not so much.
>It's absolutely possible to have kids and a happy relationship, just as...
Oh, I completely agree it's possible. Plenty of people do. But what are the odds that you'll achieve this? IMO, not very good. Considering the divorce rate, and how many kids grow up with divorced parents these days, I think the odds are actually against you. I think it makes perfect sense to avoid a situation that has a greater-than-50% chance of horrible failure (and given the struggles I see my single-parent friends going through, I don't think I'm exaggerating when I use the word 'horrible').
>Living in the middle states of the US, with an in-demand skillset relative to the area you live in, and a semi-frugal mindset- it's absolutely possible. In San Francisco or DC? Not so much.
Yeah, as with anything, YMMV. But if you're a software engineer or similar (as is probably rather common here), you're not going to do well in the middle states of the US; there just aren't many jobs there, and they don't pay that well, and you have the problem that if that job doesn't work out, you now have to pack up and move because that was the only such job within commutable distance. So we're mainly stuck in high cost-of-living locales (and to be honest, I've lived in both, and the lost CoL places have their own problems, such as lots of very conservative people and policies, making them not a lot of fun to live in).
I fail to see what the problem is. If you don't like their service, then switch to a competitor, or just set up your own git server. It's like this for any vendor: if you don't like the product or service you're getting, you can either bitch and complain endlessly, or you can look for alternatives. One of these choices is more productive than the other.
In the days of the Slant-6, cars never got to 300k miles unless they had ridiculously meticulous maintenance. Detroit cars were lucky to get to 100k without falling apart. These days, cars are barely broken-in at that age, and 200k is nothing remarkable. If you're not getting that kind of lifetime, then you need to stop buying a crappy brand.
>"In the days of the Slant-6, cars never got to 300k miles unless they had ridiculously meticulous maintenance"
As the former owner of mid 1960s Slant 6 purchased with ~ 220K miles on it that I personally put another 120K before the block cracked I am telling you that you claim of "never" is just plain wrong.
Aside from periodic oil changes I wouldn't describe my maintenance regime as ridiculously meticulous at all.
There are many vintage Duster/Dart/Valiant owners with cars that have 200K and greater miles on them. Here are some links with attestations that corroborate this fact:
How ironic that you put it that way, considering that I've known slant 6s with 300K on them. I don't know if they all did that, as I've never known a slant 6 to die, so I'm not knowledgeable of their average life. And every small block Chevy (of that era or a little later) I've owned or knew the owner could easily top 100K. The later American compact four cylinders, OTOH...
>So yeah, it happens; it's just a spectacularly bad idea for the police to do it. If they hadn't declined to file charges, my friend and another murder victim would probably still be alive today
Sorry about your friend, but why is it a "spectacularly bad idea" for police to do so? What alternative do they have? If the sole victim is unwilling to cooperate with the investigation and subsequent trial, their chances of actually succeeding in imprisoning that scumbag are approximately zero. If you want to blame someone, go find the stupid, selfish woman who wanted to "let it drop" 5 years ago. Remember that old saying about evil flourishing because good people do nothing.
Arizhel, I have never been subjected to rape and attempted strangulation myself. But someone that I know well has.
In the country that I live in, the justice system rightly requires that guilt in criminal cases is proved "beyond reasonable doubt". In court, the accused has every reason to allege that the alleged victim was "up for it" and "consenting" and "enjoyed it".
The victim who "lets it drop" in these circumstances may be selfish - but they aren't stupid when they weigh the cost to themselves of an adversarial court case against the gain to themselves of a rape conviction. In an ideal world all women would feel strong enough to testify in a rape case but maybe this isn't an ideal world.
Testifying that someone raped you isn't like testifying that someone stole your wallet. It's way more intimate and personal and dangerous.
To the thread starter - I am so sorry that your friend was raped and killed. Please look after yourself and talk to someone about how you are feeling.
OK, but that still doesn't explain why it's a "spectacularly bad idea" for police/DA to not bother prosecuting in cases like this. What exactly are they supposed to do when they don't have a cooperative victim? Why is it not-stupid for the victim to avoid the costs of an adversarial court case, but it's stupid for the DA to avoid a case that he or she is guaranteed to lose?
My Dad was a police officer for 41 years and, by chance, he is visiting me. I read him your comments. Based on his 41 years of extremely high level investigative experience (including lead investigator in more sexual assaults than he cares to remember) , you literally don't know what you're talking about. He laughed at your comment and said, "Wow, another asshole armchair investigator with no experience."
First, the DA in the American system is not guaranteed to lose. Rather, unless the alleged perpetrator is extremely wealthy, the DA has a tremendous advantage. This is unbelievably common knowledge and something he picked up working closely with FBI and DEA agents.
Second, when you don't have a cooperative victim, a skilled investigator will investigate why. Often this happens because either the perpetrator made a very graphic threat and/or the victim suffers from post traumatic stress disorder. In this case, a highly skilled investigator would make sure that the victim had access to the best victim services people around.
Further to that, a skilled investigator/prosecutor combination will take steps to shield and protect the victim from an adversarial system. One common method would be to overcharge, announce they're going for a max sentence and plea down to avoid trial, while still guaranteeing a sentence, probation and sex offender registries.
There is your precious answer. Now, take some time to evaluate what kind of heartless asshole calls a victim 'stupid'.
Soldering? Soldering for electronics is almost all automated now, and with most electronics being surface-mount it's mostly done by stenciled solder paste and reflow. The exception is for the few remaining items that can't be done that way, such as when wires need to be soldered to PCBs (though here for high-volume stuff they usually use connectors because the wires can be assembled with connectors elsewhere, and then the wire harnesses simply plugged in during final assembly).
Are you talking about some other kind of soldering, such as for stained glass or plumbing? Stained glass with real lead and real glass is pretty rare these days, much more rare than high-quality woodwork, and mainly for hobbyists. Plumbing soldering is done with a blowtorch and isn't all that difficult, but worse, copper in plumbing is being replaced by plastic which doesn't use soldering, but rather press-fit connectors. So don't count on that as a long-lived profession either (the soldering part I mean; plumbing itself will be around as long as humans have biological bodies and need to use water for cooking, hand-washing, toilets, and bathing, it'll just be easier as new technologies replace legacy ones).
That is mass production you are talking about. But there are a lot of people who build their own special purpose devices, and all the alpha/beta testing happens with manually soldered hardware, since prepping a machine for just 10 boards is way too expensive. For that reason even in production many of these devices are at least partly manually assembled to save money. We are talking 1000+ devices to make machine production profitable. Many devices don't have that many customers, at least until the next set of hardware is there.
>But there are a lot of people who build their own special purpose devices,
Those are called "hobbyists".
>and all the alpha/beta testing happens with manually soldered hardware, since prepping a machine for just 10 boards is way too expensive
This is absolutely wrong. You can't manually place BGAs with any accuracy. I work in an R&D environment; our electronics are custom-built in-house at very low volumes, and they do use machines even for a one-off. Some parts can be fixed manually if they didn't get reflowed right, but BGAs cannot.
Even if you're doing boards with nothing smaller than SOICs, even there it's simpler and easier to just get a Kapton stencil and use solder paste, though you can of course pick-and-place with tweezers.
Most of the jobs you're talking about are absolutely useless to people in foreign nations. People in China don't care about your child protection case workers, health care workers, utility workers, construction workers, and teachers, because they have zero effect on their economy. What incentive is there for people in China to manufacture stuff and send it to your country if you have absolutely nothing to offer in return for trade? International trade only works when you have stuff to trade; you can't run an economy based on consumption only, and have the rest of the world working hard to provide you stuff to consume. That "buying power" comes from your nation exporting something, whether it's manufactured goods, specialized services, etc. Otherwise, it's eventually going to fall apart. What does the US export?
Building houses is a "more-or-less one-time event" too by your logic. I don't see the construction industry evaporating any time soon.
In addition, as someone else said, there's a LOT of roofs left to install solar on.
On top of those factors, these systems will surely need some amount of maintenance and repair; the installation companies can do that too, since they're already experts on that particular hardware.
On top of that, solar panels degrade with age, and newer panels are technically superior, so just like people replace cars after using them a certain amount of time, people are going to replace their solar panels eventually (though it may be 25 years), so there's also going to be business in upgrades.
Commercial construction sustainably employs a lot of people (and commercial buildings last a minimum of 50 years).
HVAC installation and repair sustainably employs a lot of people.
Roofing sustainably employs a lot of people (and shingle roofs typically last 20-30 years).
I can name lots of other industries just like this. You're just spouting nonsense, or you have unreasonable expectations. If you're expecting solar to employ gigantic swaths of people in this country, you're being unreasonable; you don't expect that of HVAC or shingle roofs or just about any other industry, so why would you expect this of solar?
