Joncash2

joined 2 years ago
[–] Joncash2@lemmy.ml 7 points 4 weeks ago (4 children)

I am being hyperbolic, but $8? That's crazy cheap. That's like prices in the areas I do live. I don't live in NYC but I visit all the time. I think the cheapest I found was $18. Now, don't give your location away, but which section of NYC can be that low? I'd like to visit sometime!

[–] Joncash2@lemmy.ml 6 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

It's not about inflating the costs. It's the reality of car ownership. Any financially literate person understands the concept of opportunity cost. Even if you go with cheap cars, you're now in the world of opportunity costs eating away at you. As long as you own a car, there's no escape. And the horrifying reality is, it's so absurdly high that when you just put it out there and calculate what it's costing your family regardless of new or used, it really highlights how screwed Americans are.

Edit: In fact I would argue that cheap used cars are worse than new cars exactly because of opportunity cost. Those who would buy a cheap used cars are the least able to afford the opportunity costs, but since they have to save on the upfront costs, the opportunity costs are inevitable. Whether that be lost wages because your car broke down, or having to pay too much to a mechanic because you didn't learn how to work with cars or even working on cars taking away time from after work college degrees. Just estimating it at the new car cost really undersells just how much damage it's doing.

[–] Joncash2@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (2 children)

So when I said $1000 a month I'm including that your going to have to repair. You can't really escape it unless you really understand cars. Sure the used car is cheaper up front, but those hidden repair costs can add up right quick if you don't know how to deal with a lot of them on your own. And that time to understand cars is also taking away from your self development. So even with cheap used cars, my estimate of $1000 a month is pretty spot on.

Edit. I forgot to add all the opportunity costs from travel instead of studying on a train. $1000 is really probably low balling even with a cheap used car.

[–] Joncash2@lemmy.ml 34 points 4 weeks ago (16 children)

I realized recently that the reason Americans are so poor is because they need cars. Every other nation has at least adequate public transportation. Think about how much richer Americans would be if they didn't have to constantly maintain a car. That maintenance easily takes out $1000 a month with fuel, loan, tax and insurance. And most places in the US your going to need 2 cars for the family. $2000, that's a months worth of food for a family of four. Yeah, not great.

And the one city in America that you don't need cars, NYC, a drink costs $30.

[–] Joncash2@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 month ago

It's OK guys, don't forget the one assassination per guest rule. It's just like Modi. That's why Putin's not invited, too many assassinations.

[–] Joncash2@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Just read the whole article, they admit at the end that it's really just a shared office space and people mostly go there for collaboration. They obviously cherry picked that one lady that's there to escape her family.

[–] Joncash2@lemmy.ml 28 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I'm pretty sure that's what these places are. At the end of the article it says people are mostly there for collaboration and office space, but that some people are there for fake work. Whenever I see articles about China now, I have to question the validity of them. Are there people there for fake work? Clearly, but that's not what that office is for according to the article itself. And you'd have to ask the simple question, does that happen in other nations as well? Absolutely. But for some reason, news about China, they'll only admit that at the very end. Suspicious

[–] Joncash2@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

It is isn't it? I actually talked about that further in the thread. What's up with that? I'm actually curious about it since well I'm not LGBTQ+ but I'm always interested in understanding more. It's strange to me that women would prefer lesbian porn films as well as queer films. It doesn't make sense to me, but statistically that's what we find. I'd love for someone to explain this to me.

Edit: Also yes, I can agree it doesn't show queer support, but it does show ambivalence. After all, it's the government censors that are letting it through, and they aren't LGBTQ+. So, they absolutely do not understand it's targeted at women.

[–] Joncash2@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Whooo boy that's a tough topic. So I'm sure what you're realizing is that LGBTQ+ issues in China isn't a government thing. The government doesn't care. The families though, oh god, I mean if we're going to say there's oppression in China, it's from the families. IF you're lucky and have a good family, great. If you're not, no one will help you.

So, of course your best bet is to find extended family that accepts you. This is how there's a thriving LGBTQ+ community in China. And leads to all the things I was talking about where grandparents over rule parents, but it can also be aunts or other family members. OR and importantly OR because of how guanxi works, you can also find groups of like minded friends who take you in and help you get past these things.

I'm not here to tell you it's a great system or it works well. Abuse IS a huge problem there. However, in the western mind it's all tied to an oppressive government, it's actually not. It's a deep cultural issue that is only recently coming to light, and frankly if I'm honest it will get buried just as quickly with a few more rights for people, such as gay civil unions. It's how China listens to the voice of the people. I know this is confusing, in the west people think of the voice of the people as a direct voice such as democracy. In China it's complicated. In a weird way, everyone in China is free to do whatever they want, as long as you have the guanxi to back it.

Edit

I feel like I should add this has been the way the Chinese government has done things since imperial times. China isn't communist, a better way of looking at them is they've returned to imperial China. It's bad in many ways as you've noticed, parental abuse is an insanely huge problem there. On the other hand, it's how they handle the rich getting too rich. It doesn't matter how rich you are if you've destroyed all your guanxi, as Elon Musk is discovering.

[–] Joncash2@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Parent in this case means relative. It's an Asian societal thing, nothing can happen without an agreement with the family as the family unit is more important than the individual. This is actually a thing in Japan as well.

So, you might be thinking couldn't I just fake it. And the answer is yes and happens all the time. Here's a Times article on it. It's some what biased since it's an American paper, but it has the issues fairly correct. The problem is calling it the black market isn't exactly correct. It's usually forged documents pretending that you have family consent.

https://time.com/6261675/china-transgender-hormones-black-market/

Of course, if you actually are alone and have no family, then you don't need approval. However, that doesn't really happen in China as they find your relatives for you, it's actually what the police stations around the world are actually about. It's a way for overseas Chinese to find familial contacts so they can proceed with whatever documentation they want.

Edit

Actually, hilariously if you get into a civil union with your boyfriend, they can act as consent for your trans gender therapy. So in that situation if you've already found a partner it's totally fine and everyone gets whatever they want. This is actually part of a way China promotes marriages in order to try to get that birth rate up. It just happens they don't have laws for gay people so it just default applies.

Edit 2

If you're now also thinking couldn't they just get the grandparents to do it? The answer is also yes. In fact, like 50% of Chinese dramas are about literally this. The grandparents going over the parent's head and making decisions for their grandchildren. It's quite a big deal in China. And I'm not talking about LGBTQ+, it's literally every part of life. China isn't so much a nation of individuals as it's a nation of families and the families make all the decisions. It even leaks up to the political level. It's confusing, but it all makes more sense if you study Chinese culture. This is what guanxi is about. It's not exactly nepotism.

[–] Joncash2@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 month ago (4 children)

So good news on that, that's changing too. The courts find gender conversion therapy illegal, although there's no specific law against it. You can get gender affirming surgery as well as hormone therapy, though not all options. However, they do have a parental consent requirement. Though if you understand Chinese culture, that makes a lot more sense than if you do not. Like I said, with everything in China, not terrible, not great.

[–] Joncash2@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (8 children)

Uh, you can have a civil union in China if your gay. They also have tons of what they call boy love movies. Additionally, there's gay bars in every major city in China. In fact, Chengdu is known as the gay capital of China.

The issues are they do have are, you can't show kissing in those movies and they don't allow parades anymore. Also, no legal protections for discrimination, though all discrimination laws apply. So while you can't say they fired you because your gay, you still have protections that they can't randomly fire you without cause and being gay isn't a cause.

Here's an article about what I am talking about.

https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-relationships/article/3114633/lgbtq-people-china-picture-mixed-global-report-finds

Not terrible, also, not great. That kind of described China as a whole though so take that how you will.

Edit

Here's a list of boy love films if your interested.

https://trakt.tv/users/133dle/lists/rainbow-cn-china-boys-love-bl-gay?sort=released%2Casc

Surprisingly they're more popular with women as opposed to men. Not entirely sure why.

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