johan

Oh interesting, where is that used? The only shorthand I've heard in Spanish is el aire

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 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.

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.

Except Flemish people tend to speak good French while people from Wallonia barely speak Dutch. I agree with your statement in general, but in the case of Belgium there's a lot more to it than that.

Not paid but where I live you get compensation for your travel time/distance (depends a bit on mode of transport, public transport vs car vs bike). I don't think anyone gets paid for their travel time, unless it's specifically travel for work rather than to work.

I really liked season 1. Season 2 as well I think (it's been a while), but season 3 was just too confusing and I really didn't care for it

????

Don't know where you live but in many (maybe even most) places on earth this is completely untrue. So many people across all kinds of different countries spend lots of time socialising outside. I literally just returned from having dinner and sat outside, total cost with drinks was €13.50 for two people. Simple, no nonsense place with plastic table and chairs, affordable also for working class people.

I pay with a normal card but I'd say the majority of people around me pay with their phone.

Also, I need to use my bank app to pay for things online. I scan a QR code and confirm the payment with a pin or fingerprint. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think many bank apps also don't work properly with graphene.

Edit: maybe I'm getting confused, I thought bank apps normally needed google play services and that because of that they don't work on grapheneOS, but I don't know if that's correct

Do you know where I can read more about this? I haven't been paying attention to this at all and am curious to know more.