Divitiae mutant mores, raro in meliores.
- Riches change habits; seldom for the better

 

Excellent quote by Pacino ... my quote refers more about people who come into riches without any effort put into getting them. Nothing wrong with that either, but history is filled to the brim with examples of people who self-destruct (or lose it all) after coming into unexpected wealth. It is usually those whose discipline (and not necessarily hard work) put them at the top that manage to live a decent life despite all the abundance surrounding them.

 

https://moneywise.com/news/top-stories/oakland-chinatown-businesses-graffiti-vandalism-fines

'It's not my fault': Oakland Chinatown businesses say they're fed up with the city for fining them thousands after vandals repeatedly graffiti their properties. Now they're fighting back

 

We are doomed.

FWIW, the left coast sinking into the ocean would have its benefits.

 

https://archive.ph/2025.05.20-00253...er-shows-how-far-the-city-has-fallen-322e0f2d

After Digital Trends moved out of the U.S. Bancorp Tower in Portland, Ore., the technology publisher didn’t hold back about why it left.
The property, once a premier address in the city, was afflicted with “vagrants sleeping in hallways of vacant office floors.” They were “starting fires in stairwells, smoking fentanyl and defecating in common areas,” according to papers the company filed in a lease-termination lawsuit.
Two years later, the city’s biggest office tower stands more than half empty. U.S. Bank, the largest tenant whose parent company’s name is on the building, pulled most of its employees out last year after more than a century in the city.

https://www.kptv.com/2025/05/23/2m-...-parks-recreation-officials-businesses-react/

$2m in Portland police funds given to Parks and Recreation, officials, businesses react

 

No escape into books.

 

​

 

Yebbut, $107 in 1956 is about $1260 in 2025, which is still cheap. Six days in hospital would cost you more than an arm and a leg.

 

I don't care about the skewered object: I can prove only bacon and beer are real food (carrots excluded, of course!).

But I love the analysis.

 

Yebbut, $107 in 1956 is about $1260 in 2025, which is still cheap. Six days in hospital would cost you more than an arm and a leg.

In 1956, the infant mortality rate in the United States was 26.0 deaths per 1,000 live births.

In 2023, the provisional infant mortality rate in the United States was 5.61 infant deaths per 1,000 live births

So, how much is a live child worth?

 

So, how much is a live child worth?

UK infant death rate in 2023 = 3.9/1000. Hospital costs £0.

 

Hospital costs £0.

It's amazing how they build their hospitals and buy their medical equipment for free, and pay their quality staff nothing.

Almost magical.

 

It's amazing how they build their hospitals and buy their medical equipment for free, and pay their quality staff nothing.

Almost magical.

Yes, things are done so much better here aren't they.

 

I don't care about the skewered object: I can prove only bacon and beer are real food (carrots excluded, of course!).

But I love the analysis.

 

So, how much is a live child worth?

Haven't googled it, but last I checked, the average price of childbirth inna US hospital is close to $16k nowadays ... assuming no complications arise

 

I don't care about the skewered object: I can prove only bacon and beer are real food (carrots excluded, of course!).

But I love the analysis.

Bacon and other cured meats are more or less poisonous and this is common knowledge, you won't grasp that point until you yourself get diagnosed of course, but I might at least try to educate people.

The best meat by far here in the US is bison meat, an astonishingly healthy meat too many Americans are ignorant of. Less fat than turkey or chicken, no artificial hormones or antibiotics (by law) none of the crap they pump into these cured meats.

​

 

Bacon and other cured meats are more or less poisonous.

But they've been cured.

So it's ok.

 

But they've been cured.

So it's ok.

Sure, but you might not be.



Mmmm yummy!

 

Haven't googled it, but last I checked, the average price of childbirth inna US hospital is close to $16k nowadays ... assuming no complications arise.

Most forget that nearly all children could be -- and throughout most of history have been -- birthed outside of a hospital setting, for nothing more than the cost of a midwife (or not!).