two things: 1) Most radar speed guns have a broad band and the radar bounces like crazy, so with a good radar detector, you'll get the warning a mile before the cop, well out of range of an accurate measurement and even out of line of site.
2) There are no "laser-based" guns. There is LIDAR which people refer to as "laser" because it is a much more narrow band and it doesn't bounce nearly as much as traditional radar. It also has to be shot from a stand still, at as close to a 0 degree angle as possible, in relatively low humidity. If you get tagged by lidar, you're likely busted, but it is a much more challenging tool to use.
$20 billion in the bank. Figure 5% annual return (highly conservative) for $1 billion gross income 15% unearned income tax rate. $150 million annual tax payment -$70 million annual tax credit
So yeah, cutting his tax burden in 1/2 for buying a basketball team seems a little out of whack.
For instance, imagine if you or I got to cut our income tax rate in half because we sponsored a little-league team. Wouldn't that be nice! But of course we can't. This law isn't set up to benefit the whole of society, it's set up to benefit those members of society who have enough money and power to effect the rules.
I have a friend who works for a laser microscopy manufacturer. They use this technology (or systems very similar to it) to be able to record, in real time, cellular activity, INSIDE the cell, without killing the cell.
You know how it's 2014 and we still don't understand how memories are formed, or what the exact interactions between cancers and health cells are, or how we're always looking for new ways to deliver targeted medication/toxins on a cellular level?
Yeah, all of that ties back to this. Want to know what exactly is going on as the ebola virus invades a cell? This will let you see it, in real time.
This is the stuff that is the bedrock that leaps in scientific knowledge is based on. We are staring at the shoulders of a giant.
My understanding is that in this case, if you had a non-FTDI driver on one computer, and a FTDI driver on another computer, that after plugging the device into the computer with the FTDI driver, the device would no longer function on the computer with the non-FTDI driver (assuming that it also did not account for PID 0).
Which means that they did in fact break it (as in intentionally misconfiguring it such that it would no longer function on any known systems).
Yup, which is what I point out when ever someone tells me they are "hard core". I'll give prop to people who even recognize what that means (props yo!), and anyone claiming to be a hard core gamer that doesn't understand what that means, well, lets just say that I'm not impressed;)
I do know a hard core raider woman in EVE. I don't play EVE though, so I don't know the details, but my buddy (her roommate) plays 2nd fiddle to her.
I'm also not big on the CoD/DotA games these days. I use to get my fair share of TMP kills back in the Counter Strike days (pre-Source). But I've been in WoW/EQ guilds with women GMs, women main tanks, and women achievement seekers that have put me to shame with their accomplishments (and I consider myself a pretty solid gamer).
Maybe there are other women shamming other women in the gaming segment, it's definitely an issue for some of the other pro-women activities I support (like the Slut Walk in DC). And that is something that should also be tackled. But Women-women shamming is a drop in the bucket compared to the flood of male dominated sexist stereotyping, harassment, and abuse that the vast majority of ALL women have to deal with.
We've got a lot of work to do on >our subculture's behavior before we worry about other groups.
There are some apps that are Windows/Adroid only. In order to run them side-by-side, you need some form of virtualization. Blue Stacks, Andyroid, etc...
The trick though, is that the Android VMs for Windows require a CPU and BIOS that support virtualization. Which means to pull this off, you explicitly need to know what processor (and BIOS) is in your phone or tablet.
The "reactor" includes the entire system, boiler, turbines, chillers, etc... The "reactor core" is effectively the nuclear element of it. You could replace the core with a coal fired furnace and the rest of the reactor would still function largely the same (although you probably wouldn't need the triple redundant cooling systems).
Seeing as how the conversation here revolves around the nuclear aspect of the reactor, I think it's fair to say that replacing the reactor core would count;)
Not sure if there is actually "data" for such an argument.
The USS Enterprise (1962-2012) was the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier in the US Navy. 1962 - refueling 1964 - refueling/upgrades 1968 - refueling 1970 - refueling/new reactor cores (10 year fuel cycles) 1980 - refueling/upgrades 1990 - refueling/upgrades
Those are just the obvious ones. There are a ton of other redacted service reports where the nuclear systems were likely refined. But this ship was not refueled only once at half it's life. It did receive new reactors less than 10 year in. And while there aren't any specific notes about other reactor replacements/upgrades, with how much of the service record isn't available to the public, it's quite possible there were other replacements as well.
Regardless of Quinn's behavior, the social reaction is the issue. I give two shits who Quinn sleeps with. But when I see the vomitus mass of vitriol spewed over any and all women in the gaming industry, I take offence.
It doesn't matter what Quinn did, she doesn't deserve death/violence/rape threats. Nobody does.
Even if she did lack journalistic integrity, it isn't a free pass for assholes to dox and harass her, nor any other women.
Skyrim's actually really popular with women. Partly because it's so fun to play
Fixed that for you.
Being "open-ended and exploratory" does not make it more enjoyable for women it makes it more enjoyable for anyone who enjoys open-ended or exploratory games.
Just as hardcore games are no more enjoyable for men than they are for women. Hell, my wife has ascended, how many guys do you know that have pulled that off?
Women are just as capable of being hardcore gamers as men are. Unfortunately the culture of hardcore gamers has largely shunned women trying to make it in the scene, so it's no big surprise that there are less women.
And while your post is a lot better than reading the rape and violence threats, you are still propagating some of the same old stereo types that were trying to break down.
-Rick
I disagree with the your analogy in that Netflix does not have any means by which to deliver to me directly. They provide a service accessible to the ISPs. The ISPs are using that service I their sales pitch to me the customer.
As for the behavior of ISPs, check the more recent.post about ISPs altering packets. Specifically the linked video of the guy showing the difference in quality of Netflix direct and Netflix via VPN. It becomes immediately obvious that there is an artificial cap that Verizon was enforcing on Netflix traffic. We've seen the same results over other ISPs numerous times over the last few years.
Before netflix it was the torrents. The ISPs will always look for ways to exploit their market control to maximize profits.
I'm with you that without the monopolies there wouldn't be an issue. But because of the realities we deal with, this type of behavior has to be monitored, objected to, and quite likely legislated.
Lets say I pay a sub shop for a sandwich. I then pay you to go get my sandwich. When you get to the sup shop, you tell them that if they want to have their sandwich delivered, they will also have to pay you.
At this point, if they decline to pay you, I'll never get my sandwich, which will impact my willingness to order sandwiches from them again.
And unfortunately, you personally are the only one who can get the sandwich for me. So I can't go out and find another sandwich getter.
That is the issue. Negotiating around an asymmetrical peering agreement isn't the end of the world. Allowing an entity with a monopoly dictate the negotiation of an asymmetrical peering agreement is a huge problem to the market.
As an independent software developer, how can I avoid getting dragged into a patent lawsuit? How can I leverage my rights to ensure others aren't exploiting my patents?
As a middle management cog in a large organization, how can I impress the importance of patents on the executive leadership? How can I work with our console on ensuring that our creations are correctly patented? And what steps should I be taking to minimize our risk of being sued?
He made a poor choice, he ignored others' warnings, and he has to live with the repercussions of it.
He didn't commit the crime. He wasn't "asking for it". He isn't to blame for someone else's bad behavior.
But he's still stupid.
He should be able to walk through his neighborhood loaded with easily fenced jewelry. Young women should be able to go to parties without worrying about getting drugged. Investors should be able to give money to financial investors without getting suckered into losing it all.
But that's not the world we live in. And yeah, we continue to teach our kids to no steal, to not rape, to not con. But the world shapes them, and they will make poor decisions at some point in time. So we also teach them to think defensively, to keep their valuables locked up, to hang out with trusted friend, and to thoroughly investigate anyone who is advertising a 10% return in a down market.
Making my child wear a seatbelt is not blaming him for the drunk driver that hit the car.
I don't need to know the exact mbps that is currently getting pulled off my server, I need to know at a glance if my load is going into the red. I don't have the time to take my eyes off the road to read that I am traveling at 55.4 MPH @ 2571 RPMs, I just need to know that my needle is pointing up and left, and that my tach isn't pointing straight up.
That said, I want digital values for all of those things, streaming in real time through the appropriate systems, feeding logs, and populating data warehouses for later analysis.
At 10 years, you are likely at the very brink of the lifespan of the battery pack.
The 60khw battery pack (since we're debating the bottom end options here) gets ~200 miles per charge. I would anticipate that would drop off over the 10 year life span we're looking at, but I don't have hard numbers on it.
1 kwh in Wisconsin costs ~13.1 cents. So roughly $7.86 full per charge (~4c per mile).
Comparatively, I'm spending ~10c per mile on fuel for my Golf TDI.
Figure ~13,000 miles driven per year by your average American. $520 for the Tesla, $1300 for the Golf. So you come out ahead, on average, $780 a year. Over 10 years, the savings on fuel is roughly half of the $15,000 you mentioned, assuming it can maintain a 200 mile charge for the 10 year lifespan.
But, you also have to look at the costs of the loan. A $70,000 car note over 5 years is going to cost ~$10,200 in interest. Compared to a $22k car (VW Golf TDI) where that same 5 year note is going to cost ~$3,200.
So the fuel savings ($7800) is almost entirely wiped out by the additional interest cost ($7000).
There are other savings, probably a hundred dollars a year in oil changes, the 100,000 mile timing belt ($800), but most of the other maintenance matches between the two cars.
There is really nothing here that makes it easier to swallow. If you want a $70k automobile as an upper-middle income household of 4, you will need to make radical spending changes and/or live paycheck to paycheck on the edge of your finances.
Wait for the kids to go off to college and buy one for your mid-life crisis.
A $70k car, with a 5 year note at 5.5% interest is a monthly payment of $1337.
A head house hold primary earner of family of 4 with a $100k annual salary is probably looking at ~80k after taxes.
A $250k mortgage, +PMI, +Homeowners insurance, +Property Tax is going to be ~1500 a month: 62k.
Health insurance, assuming they have a job with benefits is probably $600 a month (give or take depending on amorting the deductible over the year and out of pocket expenses), 55k.
Groceries are ~250 a week, 42k.
Electric/Gas/Water/Sewage/Home maintenance is another $500 a month, 36k.
Depending on your driving history/age/location, insurance is going to be between 1500 and 5000 a year, 34k.
Cable/Phone/Internet, pick your poison, you're likely out ~120 a month, 32k.
Add on that $1337/month car payment and you're down to $16k.
Note that at this point, you still need to buy clothes (especially for 2 growing kids) likely have a 2nd car, with insurance, a fuel bill, and maintenance (possibly even another loan), maybe student loans, heaven forbid either of your kids need braces, or your water heater dies.
So yes, an upper-middle income individual/could/ in theory do it. But it would mean living extremely modestly and surviving basically paycheck to paycheck. Any significant disruption would lead to immediate financial stability concerns.
That individual would be dramatically better off putting that 16k a year into a 401k and IRA or college funds for the kids. Buying a 70k car isn't an investment, even if it retains its value better than other vehicles, you're still losing out big time between depreciation and interest payments.
True story. I worked with a dick that had access to dozens of these in an old storage room. We moved from offices to a cube farm and he would beat on that thing so that the entire office had to listen to him. Eventually, we took to hiding his keyboard in the wall panels on the cubes, but he would just get another one out of storage and send out angry emails, and the cycle would repeat.
I pay $45 a month to a company that receives substantial government subsidies (from me, the tax payer) for a 6mb/512kb DSL connection that has never pulled more than 1.2mb down. My only other options are satellite (massive lag), cell (3g), or WiMax (with low uptime performance and significant lag).
There is a tax payer funded fiber line that follows the road right in front of my house, but it was sold/licensed out to a private company who does not service my house nor my neighbors.
At the end of the day, if you look at total communications as a % of GDP and compare the US to Sweden, my guess is that we wouldn't see a significant difference. The total cost balances out between pocket books and tax revenue. But there is clearly a difference in services provided.
And the US tax payers are paying for these networks. Every mile of interstate highway in Wisconsin has a matching mile of 30+ strand dark fiber sitting right next to it, paid for entirely by state and federal taxes. I would expect that every other state has similar programs. Eventually those lines will be lit up and leased/sold to private communications corporations, who will charge us all again for the privilege of using the pipes we paid for.
In my '06 VW TDI I was pulling 42+mpg (trip odometer and gas receipts) consistently with the cruise set at 65 and 79mph (highway/interstate) with little in-town travel. And I'm the kind of guy that, "drives it like he stole it". Even now with my new commute being ~15 mintues of stop-and-go traffic and ~10 minutes of blasting around country corners and hard accel/braking I still manage 34-36 mpg.
One day I bumped into a hyper-miler with a '06 VW Jetta TDI (non-hatchback version of the Golf) at the gas station in town that sells Diesel. He ran low resistance tires, swapped out 5th gear for the 6th gear out of the performance tranny, chipped the computer, and drove slow enough to be annoying. With all that he was pushing 60mpg.
Not real keen on nuking anyone, but this is one of the underlying issues.
We can pretty well mop up ISIL's ability to generate revenue via oil, but we can't control Turkey, UAE, or SA by bombing ISIL. We need economic sanctions and UN backing (good luck with that, between Russia's veto and the world's addition to oil) to start putting pressure on these nations.
We can kill all the "generals" we want, but so long as the princes with the purses are funding their causes, some new general will step up to collect that check.
Also, kinda handy for Ponetta to release a book critical of the President/Democrats and go on a press tour claiming a 30 year war exactly 1 month before the midterm election. I'm sure that's just a coincident... right?
Spray and Pray (not Prey) wasn't an trained approach to firearms use in the Marine Corps. Taking headshots with an M-16 on iron site at the 500 yard line on the other hand, that is some attention to detail.
We did use covering fire, but the intent there isn't to kill, it's to get people to keep their heads down while your buddy is advancing to a position where he can get a better shot.
Up until 2001 the USMC had computer programmers (MOS 4067) and IT Specialists (MOS 4066). We built our own networks, pulled our own cables, congifured our own servers, wrote our own SQL, built our own apps, cursed at IBM for the pain and suffering that was Lotus Notes, ripped on the old Chief Warrant Officers that were still writing green-screen crap. The whole nine yards.
Most of the guys/gals in those fields were actually pretty smart, creative, and had no problems converting to civilian life.
Unfortunately, Clinton started, and Bush Jr finished privatizing all of the 4067s and the vast majority of the 4066s (I think the handful of positions kept were lat moved into a new MOS in admin).
One of the guys I worked with, a Cpl, got out making $14.4k a year (base pay for an E4 in 2000), got hired by a contracting firm and started back up at HQ MC, in the exact same role and desk and his pay rate was $140k a year (bill rate was probably $200k+ per year).
So massive money savings move there...
I think the Air Force still has enlisted/officer software and network techs though. If I hadn't gotten out, I would have transferred that way.
Slashdot Mirror
two things:
1) Most radar speed guns have a broad band and the radar bounces like crazy, so with a good radar detector, you'll get the warning a mile before the cop, well out of range of an accurate measurement and even out of line of site.
2) There are no "laser-based" guns. There is LIDAR which people refer to as "laser" because it is a much more narrow band and it doesn't bounce nearly as much as traditional radar. It also has to be shot from a stand still, at as close to a 0 degree angle as possible, in relatively low humidity. If you get tagged by lidar, you're likely busted, but it is a much more challenging tool to use.
-Rick
$20 billion in the bank.
Figure 5% annual return (highly conservative) for $1 billion gross income
15% unearned income tax rate.
$150 million annual tax payment
-$70 million annual tax credit
So yeah, cutting his tax burden in 1/2 for buying a basketball team seems a little out of whack.
For instance, imagine if you or I got to cut our income tax rate in half because we sponsored a little-league team. Wouldn't that be nice! But of course we can't. This law isn't set up to benefit the whole of society, it's set up to benefit those members of society who have enough money and power to effect the rules.
-Rick
I have a friend who works for a laser microscopy manufacturer. They use this technology (or systems very similar to it) to be able to record, in real time, cellular activity, INSIDE the cell, without killing the cell.
You know how it's 2014 and we still don't understand how memories are formed, or what the exact interactions between cancers and health cells are, or how we're always looking for new ways to deliver targeted medication/toxins on a cellular level?
Yeah, all of that ties back to this. Want to know what exactly is going on as the ebola virus invades a cell? This will let you see it, in real time.
This is the stuff that is the bedrock that leaps in scientific knowledge is based on. We are staring at the shoulders of a giant.
-Rick
My understanding is that in this case, if you had a non-FTDI driver on one computer, and a FTDI driver on another computer, that after plugging the device into the computer with the FTDI driver, the device would no longer function on the computer with the non-FTDI driver (assuming that it also did not account for PID 0).
Which means that they did in fact break it (as in intentionally misconfiguring it such that it would no longer function on any known systems).
-Rick
Is that per offense?
-Rick
"Ascended. As in Nethack?"
Yup, which is what I point out when ever someone tells me they are "hard core". I'll give prop to people who even recognize what that means (props yo!), and anyone claiming to be a hard core gamer that doesn't understand what that means, well, lets just say that I'm not impressed ;)
I do know a hard core raider woman in EVE. I don't play EVE though, so I don't know the details, but my buddy (her roommate) plays 2nd fiddle to her.
I'm also not big on the CoD/DotA games these days. I use to get my fair share of TMP kills back in the Counter Strike days (pre-Source). But I've been in WoW/EQ guilds with women GMs, women main tanks, and women achievement seekers that have put me to shame with their accomplishments (and I consider myself a pretty solid gamer).
Maybe there are other women shamming other women in the gaming segment, it's definitely an issue for some of the other pro-women activities I support (like the Slut Walk in DC). And that is something that should also be tackled. But Women-women shamming is a drop in the bucket compared to the flood of male dominated sexist stereotyping, harassment, and abuse that the vast majority of ALL women have to deal with.
We've got a lot of work to do on >our subculture's behavior before we worry about other groups.
-Rick
There are some apps that are Windows/Adroid only. In order to run them side-by-side, you need some form of virtualization. Blue Stacks, Andyroid, etc...
The trick though, is that the Android VMs for Windows require a CPU and BIOS that support virtualization. Which means to pull this off, you explicitly need to know what processor (and BIOS) is in your phone or tablet.
-Rick
The "reactor" includes the entire system, boiler, turbines, chillers, etc... The "reactor core" is effectively the nuclear element of it. You could replace the core with a coal fired furnace and the rest of the reactor would still function largely the same (although you probably wouldn't need the triple redundant cooling systems).
Seeing as how the conversation here revolves around the nuclear aspect of the reactor, I think it's fair to say that replacing the reactor core would count ;)
-Rick
Not sure if there is actually "data" for such an argument.
The USS Enterprise (1962-2012) was the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier in the US Navy.
1962 - refueling
1964 - refueling/upgrades
1968 - refueling
1970 - refueling/new reactor cores (10 year fuel cycles)
1980 - refueling/upgrades
1990 - refueling/upgrades
Those are just the obvious ones. There are a ton of other redacted service reports where the nuclear systems were likely refined. But this ship was not refueled only once at half it's life. It did receive new reactors less than 10 year in. And while there aren't any specific notes about other reactor replacements/upgrades, with how much of the service record isn't available to the public, it's quite possible there were other replacements as well.
-Rick
Regardless of Quinn's behavior, the social reaction is the issue. I give two shits who Quinn sleeps with. But when I see the vomitus mass of vitriol spewed over any and all women in the gaming industry, I take offence.
It doesn't matter what Quinn did, she doesn't deserve death/violence/rape threats. Nobody does.
Even if she did lack journalistic integrity, it isn't a free pass for assholes to dox and harass her, nor any other women.
Let that sink in.
-Rick
Fixed that for you. Being "open-ended and exploratory" does not make it more enjoyable for women it makes it more enjoyable for anyone who enjoys open-ended or exploratory games. Just as hardcore games are no more enjoyable for men than they are for women. Hell, my wife has ascended, how many guys do you know that have pulled that off? Women are just as capable of being hardcore gamers as men are. Unfortunately the culture of hardcore gamers has largely shunned women trying to make it in the scene, so it's no big surprise that there are less women. And while your post is a lot better than reading the rape and violence threats, you are still propagating some of the same old stereo types that were trying to break down. -Rick
I disagree with the your analogy in that Netflix does not have any means by which to deliver to me directly. They provide a service accessible to the ISPs. The ISPs are using that service I their sales pitch to me the customer.
As for the behavior of ISPs, check the more recent.post about ISPs altering packets. Specifically the linked video of the guy showing the difference in quality of Netflix direct and Netflix via VPN. It becomes immediately obvious that there is an artificial cap that Verizon was enforcing on Netflix traffic. We've seen the same results over other ISPs numerous times over the last few years.
Before netflix it was the torrents. The ISPs will always look for ways to exploit their market control to maximize profits.
I'm with you that without the monopolies there wouldn't be an issue. But because of the realities we deal with, this type of behavior has to be monitored, objected to, and quite likely legislated.
-Rick
Lets say I pay a sub shop for a sandwich. I then pay you to go get my sandwich. When you get to the sup shop, you tell them that if they want to have their sandwich delivered, they will also have to pay you.
At this point, if they decline to pay you, I'll never get my sandwich, which will impact my willingness to order sandwiches from them again.
And unfortunately, you personally are the only one who can get the sandwich for me. So I can't go out and find another sandwich getter.
That is the issue. Negotiating around an asymmetrical peering agreement isn't the end of the world. Allowing an entity with a monopoly dictate the negotiation of an asymmetrical peering agreement is a huge problem to the market.
-Rick
As an independent software developer, how can I avoid getting dragged into a patent lawsuit? How can I leverage my rights to ensure others aren't exploiting my patents?
As a middle management cog in a large organization, how can I impress the importance of patents on the executive leadership? How can I work with our console on ensuring that our creations are correctly patented? And what steps should I be taking to minimize our risk of being sued?
-Rick
He made a poor choice, he ignored others' warnings, and he has to live with the repercussions of it.
He didn't commit the crime. He wasn't "asking for it". He isn't to blame for someone else's bad behavior.
But he's still stupid.
He should be able to walk through his neighborhood loaded with easily fenced jewelry. Young women should be able to go to parties without worrying about getting drugged. Investors should be able to give money to financial investors without getting suckered into losing it all.
But that's not the world we live in. And yeah, we continue to teach our kids to no steal, to not rape, to not con. But the world shapes them, and they will make poor decisions at some point in time. So we also teach them to think defensively, to keep their valuables locked up, to hang out with trusted friend, and to thoroughly investigate anyone who is advertising a 10% return in a down market.
Making my child wear a seatbelt is not blaming him for the drunk driver that hit the car.
-Rick
Especially when you don't need to know the exact number and you need a visual indicator that can be recognized at a glance.
Speedometers, tachometers, load balance reporting, etc...
I don't need to know the exact mbps that is currently getting pulled off my server, I need to know at a glance if my load is going into the red. I don't have the time to take my eyes off the road to read that I am traveling at 55.4 MPH @ 2571 RPMs, I just need to know that my needle is pointing up and left, and that my tach isn't pointing straight up.
That said, I want digital values for all of those things, streaming in real time through the appropriate systems, feeding logs, and populating data warehouses for later analysis.
-Rick
At 10 years, you are likely at the very brink of the lifespan of the battery pack.
The 60khw battery pack (since we're debating the bottom end options here) gets ~200 miles per charge. I would anticipate that would drop off over the 10 year life span we're looking at, but I don't have hard numbers on it.
1 kwh in Wisconsin costs ~13.1 cents. So roughly $7.86 full per charge (~4c per mile).
Comparatively, I'm spending ~10c per mile on fuel for my Golf TDI.
Figure ~13,000 miles driven per year by your average American. $520 for the Tesla, $1300 for the Golf. So you come out ahead, on average, $780 a year. Over 10 years, the savings on fuel is roughly half of the $15,000 you mentioned, assuming it can maintain a 200 mile charge for the 10 year lifespan.
But, you also have to look at the costs of the loan. A $70,000 car note over 5 years is going to cost ~$10,200 in interest. Compared to a $22k car (VW Golf TDI) where that same 5 year note is going to cost ~$3,200.
So the fuel savings ($7800) is almost entirely wiped out by the additional interest cost ($7000).
There are other savings, probably a hundred dollars a year in oil changes, the 100,000 mile timing belt ($800), but most of the other maintenance matches between the two cars.
There is really nothing here that makes it easier to swallow. If you want a $70k automobile as an upper-middle income household of 4, you will need to make radical spending changes and/or live paycheck to paycheck on the edge of your finances.
Wait for the kids to go off to college and buy one for your mid-life crisis.
-Rick
A $70k car, with a 5 year note at 5.5% interest is a monthly payment of $1337.
A head house hold primary earner of family of 4 with a $100k annual salary is probably looking at ~80k after taxes.
A $250k mortgage, +PMI, +Homeowners insurance, +Property Tax is going to be ~1500 a month: 62k.
Health insurance, assuming they have a job with benefits is probably $600 a month (give or take depending on amorting the deductible over the year and out of pocket expenses), 55k.
Groceries are ~250 a week, 42k.
Electric/Gas/Water/Sewage/Home maintenance is another $500 a month, 36k.
Depending on your driving history/age/location, insurance is going to be between 1500 and 5000 a year, 34k.
Cable/Phone/Internet, pick your poison, you're likely out ~120 a month, 32k.
Add on that $1337/month car payment and you're down to $16k.
Note that at this point, you still need to buy clothes (especially for 2 growing kids) likely have a 2nd car, with insurance, a fuel bill, and maintenance (possibly even another loan), maybe student loans, heaven forbid either of your kids need braces, or your water heater dies.
So yes, an upper-middle income individual /could/ in theory do it. But it would mean living extremely modestly and surviving basically paycheck to paycheck. Any significant disruption would lead to immediate financial stability concerns.
That individual would be dramatically better off putting that 16k a year into a 401k and IRA or college funds for the kids. Buying a 70k car isn't an investment, even if it retains its value better than other vehicles, you're still losing out big time between depreciation and interest payments.
-Rick
I would argue that a middle classer who bought a car that costs more than a year's salary has piss poor money management.
-Rick
True story. I worked with a dick that had access to dozens of these in an old storage room. We moved from offices to a cube farm and he would beat on that thing so that the entire office had to listen to him. Eventually, we took to hiding his keyboard in the wall panels on the cubes, but he would just get another one out of storage and send out angry emails, and the cycle would repeat.
-Rick
I pay $45 a month to a company that receives substantial government subsidies (from me, the tax payer) for a 6mb/512kb DSL connection that has never pulled more than 1.2mb down. My only other options are satellite (massive lag), cell (3g), or WiMax (with low uptime performance and significant lag).
There is a tax payer funded fiber line that follows the road right in front of my house, but it was sold/licensed out to a private company who does not service my house nor my neighbors.
At the end of the day, if you look at total communications as a % of GDP and compare the US to Sweden, my guess is that we wouldn't see a significant difference. The total cost balances out between pocket books and tax revenue. But there is clearly a difference in services provided.
And the US tax payers are paying for these networks. Every mile of interstate highway in Wisconsin has a matching mile of 30+ strand dark fiber sitting right next to it, paid for entirely by state and federal taxes. I would expect that every other state has similar programs. Eventually those lines will be lit up and leased/sold to private communications corporations, who will charge us all again for the privilege of using the pipes we paid for.
-Rick
In my '06 VW TDI I was pulling 42+mpg (trip odometer and gas receipts) consistently with the cruise set at 65 and 79mph (highway/interstate) with little in-town travel. And I'm the kind of guy that, "drives it like he stole it". Even now with my new commute being ~15 mintues of stop-and-go traffic and ~10 minutes of blasting around country corners and hard accel/braking I still manage 34-36 mpg.
The '06 VW Golf TDI was rated at 31 city, 40 highway, 34 combined:
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg...
One day I bumped into a hyper-miler with a '06 VW Jetta TDI (non-hatchback version of the Golf) at the gas station in town that sells Diesel. He ran low resistance tires, swapped out 5th gear for the 6th gear out of the performance tranny, chipped the computer, and drove slow enough to be annoying. With all that he was pushing 60mpg.
-Rick
Not real keen on nuking anyone, but this is one of the underlying issues.
We can pretty well mop up ISIL's ability to generate revenue via oil, but we can't control Turkey, UAE, or SA by bombing ISIL. We need economic sanctions and UN backing (good luck with that, between Russia's veto and the world's addition to oil) to start putting pressure on these nations.
We can kill all the "generals" we want, but so long as the princes with the purses are funding their causes, some new general will step up to collect that check.
Also, kinda handy for Ponetta to release a book critical of the President/Democrats and go on a press tour claiming a 30 year war exactly 1 month before the midterm election. I'm sure that's just a coincident... right?
-Rick
Spray and Pray (not Prey) wasn't an trained approach to firearms use in the Marine Corps. Taking headshots with an M-16 on iron site at the 500 yard line on the other hand, that is some attention to detail.
We did use covering fire, but the intent there isn't to kill, it's to get people to keep their heads down while your buddy is advancing to a position where he can get a better shot.
-Rick
Up until 2001 the USMC had computer programmers (MOS 4067) and IT Specialists (MOS 4066). We built our own networks, pulled our own cables, congifured our own servers, wrote our own SQL, built our own apps, cursed at IBM for the pain and suffering that was Lotus Notes, ripped on the old Chief Warrant Officers that were still writing green-screen crap. The whole nine yards.
Most of the guys/gals in those fields were actually pretty smart, creative, and had no problems converting to civilian life.
Unfortunately, Clinton started, and Bush Jr finished privatizing all of the 4067s and the vast majority of the 4066s (I think the handful of positions kept were lat moved into a new MOS in admin).
One of the guys I worked with, a Cpl, got out making $14.4k a year (base pay for an E4 in 2000), got hired by a contracting firm and started back up at HQ MC, in the exact same role and desk and his pay rate was $140k a year (bill rate was probably $200k+ per year).
So massive money savings move there...
I think the Air Force still has enlisted/officer software and network techs though. If I hadn't gotten out, I would have transferred that way.
-Rick