> you treated this possibility as a fatal argument against UBI,

That was not my intent. I was just thinking of what I perceive would be pros and cons.

And I agree that our current system is less-workable than a UBI, as income inequality gets ever more extreme.

> somebody else's money

In an highly-automated society, it is not so easy to determine who the wealth really belongs to.

I like the concept of a UBI - a minimum standard of living for everyone - but from a pragmatic standpoint, I see problems.

There are many people who will piss away every penny that they get. With a UBI, those people will still end up broke and homeless. In those cases, we will need public assistance based on need to provide essential services to them (e.g., food, shelter, clothing, medicine).

Also, it seems like a waste of tax money to provide UBI checks to wealthy people who don't need them.

So, we end up back to needs-based public assistance of services, rather than cash. Maybe this is a good thing, since we already have some of those systems in place, so we can just expand and strengthen them.

I think that the Germans are very justified in being careful about getting involved in war.

Sometimes, I hear friends complain that their contractor called and "wants more money" because they found some unexpected surprises in the course of the job.

There could be cases where the contractor is looking for excuses to increase the scope of the job, but I have done enough jobs myself to know that unpleasant surprises are the rule, rather than the exception. When it is safety-related (like the improperly-installed wiring that you discovered), then it is dangerous to ignore it.

Less than a year - impressive! :)

It has taken us a few years just to "fix" our broken closet door:

• We "had to" upgrade to new and better doors.
• We "had to" tear out the old shelves, repair the drywall, and paint.
• We "had to" build and install new shelves.
• We had to modify the door frames and rails (because they were not square, nor a standard size) to fit in the space.
• We had to repair the damage to the wall from the mistakes.
• Then, we could finally install the new doors and haul the old doors and hardware to the landfill.

... standard scope creep! ;)

I recommend considering a career in aerospace, especially electric or hybrid air vehicles, autonomous flight, air taxis, etc.

And now we have additive manufacturing (AKA 3D printing) as well as subtractive manufacturing.

You are probably correct. Our house is "only" 50 years old, so things are only half as messed up. ;).

I think that, once they remove that tape, they will know more. Maybe someone over-tightened the compression nut and then added the tape to cover the leak.

That is a different problem than a crack or corrosion hole in the pipe itself.

So, it is a standard project, then. /silly

I think this is what the Beltalowda did in the Sci-Fi series, "The Expanse."

I grew up in a rural area, and the rural elitism towards "city slickers" was *much* worse than the urban elitism that I see now in the urban area where I live.

It is all about perception. Right-wing outrage media muckrakers are making bank by yanking the chains of rural and working class people - keeping them afraid and angry to the point that they vote against their own best interests.