overcast5348

overcast5348 , 18 days ago

I'm a renter, and my parents have never owned a house, so I've dealt with landlords all my life. I don't agree with "landlord bad". Are there shitty landlords? Yes. But it's a leap to go from that to "all landlords are bad".

Can you imagine the backlash from the same left-leaning group that goes "landlord bad" if you applied the same logic to a racial or religious group?

Landlords serve an important purpose in the marketplace and any uncontrolled rampant exploitation is a failure of the government and not the entire group of people who sell the service.

overcast5348 , 18 days ago

No, I'm saying that it's unfair to criticize an entire group of people for the actions of some people who happen to belong to the same group while the rest are perfectly fine contributors to society.

On the other hand, if the sole purpose of the group is to spread hate/cause unrest/violence then I'd be okay with hating the entire group.

Hating landlord-ism as a concept makes sense to a certain extent, but I'm yet to see a realistic alternative provided by anyone. Hating landlords is something that I don't agree with. --> this seems to be a controversial stance.

Along the same lines, I hate religion but I don't hate all religious people. --> this isn't that controversial a stance. They're both essentially the same to me.

overcast5348 , 17 days ago

Okay, ignore race, consider only religion.

People are born into a religion and are free to leave it or embraced a different religion. It is completely in their choice.

Similarly, people can be born into a family that owns zero to two properties, are free to acquire more or sell what they have. It is completely in their choice.

Why is it okay to judge one group by the actions of "a few bad apples" and not the other?

overcast5348 , 13 days ago

I'm not from the US so correct me if I'm wrong - didn't the governments of US and Canada give away land in what was essentially "bumfuck nowhere"? Isn't land still cheap in comparable locations?

If only people who live on the property are allowed to own it then prices might go down a bit. Say 50%, a number that I'm pulling out of my ass. I genuinely don't believe that demand in cities will let prices go down by even that much. But even with a 50% crash, a shit ton of people would never get to live in a city (someone who just moved out of their parents' home, someone who is recovering from a loss due to a bad business, someone who just immigrated etc.)

So what would be the solution to those people? Live in a few hundred kms away from the city and commute every day?

As much as I'd like to own property in the city that I live in, I don't think banning landlords will lower prices enough for me to buy a house here. So, I'd rather rent and live in the city than go live in some village.

overcast5348 , 1 month ago

It's been 8+ years since I last used Ubuntu on my laptop. I faced massive issues with staying on the latest version of Firefox because apt had a much older version, and installing using the gui installer wouldn't replace the apt version etc etc. Probably a PEBKAC issue...

But, I do want to know- is this not an issue any more? Will apt install the latest (or almost latest) version of Firefox? Can I update it from the inbuilt update tool in Firefox?

overcast5348 , 1 month ago

I don't know why you are being an ass to me. I literally admitted that my lack of skill was the issue right at the beginning.

And then people wonder why noobs don't want to bother with Linux.

overcast5348 , 1 month ago

Okay, which instances should I block to get rid of the tankies?

overcast5348 , 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago)

I live in Toronto, and I don't have a car. I use buses and subways for most of my commute in winter. Along with these options, I use bikeshare (public bicycle rentals) in every other season. There are people who bike even in winter but I'm nowhere close to that hardcore.

I've spent maybe $250 on uber in urgent/lazy situations in the last one year - that would've been a monthly auto insurance payment.

I waited for a bus for around 20 minutes in -18°C a few weeks back. The biggest problem was that I had overdressed so I started sweating and had to unzip a layer.

An important fact that people who have only ever lived in suburbs miss is that you don't have to commute thaaat far thaaat often when you live in walkable cities. My cousin who lives in a suburb, drives for ~20 minutes to get to the closest big box store. I have 5 options for groceries in a 1 km radius and one of them is just one block over. So, I don't even need a bus for groceries, let alone a car. We have seniors who definitely shouldn't be driving walking around with grocery carts on the sidewalks. So, reducing car dependency improves mobility - not the opposite.

overcast5348 , 3 months ago

I'm happy to report that the number is cyclists is increasing every year with the addition of more bike lanes and a growing network of bikeshare stations. :)

overcast5348 , 4 months ago

You sure are putting a lot of effort into reading that, aren't you?

overcast5348 , 5 months ago

...and the website should have all that information, right?

overcast5348 , 5 months ago

Do you know how many scams happen because it's ridiculously easy for anyone to edit the "knowledge" panel? I'd rather click an extra button and get the real number from the business' own website than trust whatever is on Google.

"You're not this obtuse are you?" -- uncalled for, but, I guess you are who you are. So, you do you, buddy.

overcast5348 , 5 months ago

Are you completely incapable of communicating without resorting to personal attacks?

overcast5348 , 7 months ago

Dept of Transportation would be "dot", no?