After everything that happened in Ragnarok, imagine Thor hearing about Steve and Tony’s fight and being like “Really?! Thats why you all stopped working together?! Just get over it! I did! I’m still friends with Loki and he’s betrayed me three times since breakfast! This petty mortal shit is nothing!”
Loki: “Can confirm, poisoning his mead right now.”
Thor: “Ha! I’ve built up an immunity.”
Now I feel I was cheated on Civil War
Steve: “Well, we disagreed about this big political thing, and I mean big - almost every country in the world was involved.”
Thor: *nodding* “Right.”
Steve: “So we started to fight, I mean really fight. We each had about half a dozen friends backing us up.”
Thor: *nodding* “Always best to bring your friends along”
Steve: “And by the end, it was just me and Tony, and we… we really pounded each other…. no holding back.”
Willy Wonka sent out his chocolate bars worldwide, and 5 white kids (4 with first-world problems) still won.
To be fair, his goal was apparently to send a stern warning about the evils of entitlement by murdering them in ironic ways.
Also, the rich, spoiled, first world white kids aren’t presented in the story as having gotten the tickets by chance, the story is very clear that they and their families used their privilege and power to game the system - taking what was initially presented as a random selection and cheating by leveraging their disproportionate resources - wasting mountains of chocolate in pursuit of gold…
1 penny below reporting limit for the IRS… I see what you did there
(Don’t give me $599.99)
That’s not the right IRS rule.
$599.99 is the amount below which a business does not need to issue a 1099 to a contractor who provides business services. The contractor still needs to report the income on their taxes.
The correct number for the IRS rule for money that is gifted rather than received in a business transaction is $13999.99–more than that, and the recipient has to pay tax on the gift and report it to the IRS. Less than that, and there’s no taxation or reporting requirement.
If we’re choosing amounts on the basis of IRS limits, give these people $13,999.99.
Go. Do it.
Reblog if it’s ok for people to give you $13,999.99
Hearing somebody in a nearby practice room working on the same piano piece as me, doing better, and suddenly pausing and then crashing random keys out of frustration is strangely reassuring.
Got a quick screen grab so you could see what I was talking about.
WHAT IS THIS NONSENSE. WHOEVER MADE THAT NEEDS TO FIGHT ME
honestly this mindset hurts kids who love the arts so much.
imagine constantly fighting high school councilors just to get into the one class that keeps you alive. imagine constantly lying to teachers about what you plan on majoring so you don’t get “the talk” imagine no one you love believing in you, and constantly asking what your “back up plan” is. imagine being kind of miserable at your own graduation and grad party because people are always asking you about your future, and when you tell them they just look at you like your stupid.
imagine constantly being told that what you do isn’t good enough. that you’ll never succeed without changing who you are.
imagine having to try to stop yourself from flat out breaking down and sobbing in front of your professor after your first lesson, because they simply told you “you know what? I think you can do this. If you work hard I think you can be very successful in this field.”
because that’s the first time anyone’s actually believed in you.
yeah, science is great, but putting it above the arts is one of the biggest mistakes this society has ever made.
Music is one of the toughest majors out there. Not just because of
the classwork - although I can tell you, that part is tough too. No,
it’s tough because of the sheer number of people you’ll meet who do not
believe in it. There are hundreds of thousands of people out there who
will sit through a movie with an amazing soundtrack (written by
musicians, performed by instrumentalists), sing to the radio on the way
home (playing music written and performed by musicians), go to the
grocery store they like for its jingle (musicians!!), then finally get
home and scold you for wanting to go into a field “where there aren’t
any opportunities.”
There are a lot of those people. They
see something artistic as being lesser. They see something where women
regularly excel, and think it girly and therefore not as important. They
see something that ignites a passion in you, and believe that you’re
wasting your life, just because your job isn’t boring. These people are
everywhere, and they aren’t going away. I’m sorry.
However, that
doesn’t mean you need to listen to them. These people, these naysayers,
are trying to live their own lives through you. A parent insisting you
major in accounting? They want bragging rights. A friend who scoffs at
your dedication to something unprofitable? They want you to change
majors and validate their choosing of civil engineering for the money.
(Also, they’re a bad friend.) A stranger, asking what your backup plan
is? They want you to stay on their level, and not excel.
There’s a
type of thinking that Terry Pratchett labeled “crab bucket”. If you put
a bunch of crabs in a large bucket, something weird happens. Any one
crab is smart enough and strong enough to pretty easily get itself out
of a bucket. However, if there’s a bunch of crabs in the
bucket, instead of trying to get out, they just try to be the crab on
top. If one crab manages to get to the top of the pile, or tries to
escape, the other crabs grab it and yank it down, in order to get higher
up themselves. None of them ever make it out of the bucket.
People
think a lot like crabs. They see someone doing well, moving themselves
up in the world - or even moving away from that person’s idea of a
normal life! - and they have to yank that person back to their level.
“Well,
have fun going back to school in ten years.” (Translation: I have to
believe you can’t be successful as an artist to make myself feel better
about life.) That’s crab bucket.
“But what’s going to be your real
job?” (Translation: I cannot imagine a means of making an income except
for a 9-5 or retail job. I dream in black and white.) That’s crab
bucket.
“You’re wasting your potential.” (Translation: I feel like I wasted my potential.) That’s crab bucket.
If
you don’t let those people get to you, you’re okay. If they don’t
manage to grab you, to catch you with their petty-minded words, then
you’re home-free. You can be the crab that gets out. I can’t guarantee
that life outside the bucket is nice, or pays well, or safe.
But I do know it’s much nicer than being in the bucket, that’s for sure.
Check this bellend who doesnae ken that Scots, and indeed all “improper” dialects an accents ay English, arenae incompatible wi intelligence oar eloquence ay expression
(I mean, the original post insnae exactly the most poetic ay thoughts, but neither’s fuckin off tae bed wioot gien yer mate a cover, whit the fuck’s wrang wi you, were you raised in a fuckin shed)
“wouldn’t you rather earn something than have it just handed to you?”
Yeah when it comes to actual awards and fancy goods, but when it comes to basic needs, basic human decency, and accomodations, those things should always be handed to people. No one should have to “earn” those things.Value people as people, not base it on how much they produce.
yeah but that creates a severe dependency that could be exploited easily, and creates a slippery slope @musical-clarity
Actually studies show that people who live in places with universal income (who are given money with no strings attached just for being citizens) do far better work than those who don’t and are more enthusiastic to do work.
This is because they still want nice things and will work for those but the part of their energy that was devoted to worrying about if they have enough money to pay the rent and bills this month is now freed up to do other things.
Some people will always be lazy and take advantage of the system, but they are always a tiny percentage and it seems ridiculous to me to punish the majority and severly hamstring their abilities just because a handful of people will simply live of basic income rather than work.
It’s been tested a couple times. In Canada, in some European countries, and the results are always the same.
There are two groups of people who show a statistically significant (Greater than one half of one percent, or 1 in 200) increase in Not Working and living off the guaranteed income. Parents of Children under school age, and full time students.
Among ALL other groups, employment actually INCREASED. Why? Because guaranteed minimum income means that homeless people can get at least a basic low end apartment. It’s hard if not impossible to get an above board job without a permanent fixed address. Also more people were able to have and maintain a BANK ACCOUNT. It is often hard to get a decent job without an account that can accept Direct Deposit for paychecks.
Also, lost work time due to illness and injury decreased across the board. It turns out if people are getting a decent amount of money each month they can A> afford to eat better, and B> obtain decent medical attention both preventative and emergency. Crazy right?
So why hasn’t it caught on?
Because it doesn’t directly benefit the people in power, and it increases THEIR PERSONAL taxes, their CORPORATE TAXES, and thus decreases their PERSONAL INCOME.
So, because Jeff Bezos and Alan Greenspan might fall from making 100 billion dollars a year to making 99.8 billion dollars a year, it’s a hard NO and we can all fucking die..
There is no actual, tangible reason why we allow people to starve, to be homeless, to suffer and die needlessly. Food is plentiful. Empty homes are plentiful. Medicine is plentiful. It’s hidden away behind constructs and we pretend those constructs mean something. There is an empty home and a homeless family, give them it. There is a sick child and common medicine to treat it, give it to them. There is a starving person and so much food wasted by corporations or hidden behind a dollar sign, feed them.
