May 2019 is ~$2.70 and May 2024 is ~$3.70, a 37% increase, as opposed to a 100% increase for where you live.
I used May 2019 because there is no use in comparing May 2020 or any other part of 2020 due to COVID supply and demand disruption as well as seasonal differences.
> This must be due to increased state and local taxes
I don't know if it matters all that much why prices are increasing for everything, whether it's inflation, corporate greed, new/increased taxes, or whatever else
The fact is people are getting squeezed from a lot of directions, and meanwhile we're reading about record corporate profits, many companies are doing massive layoffs, and raises aren't keeping up with expenses
It's an interesting question (and I upvoted you, though I'm the GP):
First, dissent is mostly about speech, IMHO, and DEI is only incidentally about speech. But let's look at it as an act that contests the status quo.
The point of DEI is to change the status quo, in which power, status, wealth, and freedom are distributed disproportionately to white males. A widespread belief (that I share, but I'm trying to examine this neutrally) is that it's largely due to racism and sexism that are historic, current, and systemic [0]. The whole point of DEI is to change that.
DEI has been embraced by many in power, making it an odd 'dissent', though maybe that's just a successful dissent - it's an generations-old dissent that people finally came around to. At the same time, it's still a dissent against the many status quo powers that are fighting against DEI.
[0] By 'systemic', I mean it's a product of a system that nobody quite chooses, but as long as everyone keeps operating it, it produces these results. For example, disproportionate hiring of white males could be because hiring is based on your personal network, which is based on who you work with, etc., and it becomes circular. People don't have to be seeking racist outcomes to produce them.
SeaMonkey has a classic UI and is basically a modern Netscape Communicator. You can ignore the rest and just use the Mail part. It's a solid email program that has worked well for about a decade now.
There are qualifiers that make the claim specific. Conservatives love their strawmans, maybe they need to go back to college and pick a class on argumentation.
Counterpoints: social bonding in sharing a physical space, lots of nonverbal communication in face-to-face meetings.
Don't get me wrong, I love remote work. And Zoom meetings have made it way easier to pull together groups of people on different schedules. But there are significant benefits to being in-office too.
There was a science fiction story about this, with phone auto-message and auto-answer systems connecting with each other long after all the humans were dead.
Yes, one area where I am forced to tip significantly and very often is with my food delivery service. This is, of course, a matter of "pre-tipping": I must enter the tip amount when placing my order, not after receiving the service. So I consider any "pre-tip" to be a bribe, because I cannot know who is handling the service and I cannot know how the service will be performed.
I have seen many food delivery workers (they are all contractors, of course) who brag about stealing food from bad tippers. I am not a bad tipper, and delivery drivers steal the drink from my order all the time. In fact they did it more often when I just ordered one drink; now I often order two, and I find that it comes in a carrier and they leave it alone. Perhaps it's a huge bother for them to wrestle one lonesome moist cup, and they'd rather keep it for themselves.
If I do decide that the driver caused some big problem or outright stole from the order, I will pursue customer service to reduce the tip to $0. They don't always understand that, so I have to spell it out. And yes, I do increase the tip when I find that exceptional service has been rendered.
If stuff is missing from my order due to theft, then I'll be contacting customer service to let them know that either they replace the entire order(I'm not touching food messed with by the delivery driver) or I'll not be paying anything at all. If they refuse I let them know that I'll be contacting my card issuer asking for a chargeback. They usually comply before I do that.
> It's called bribery or corruption and is common in third-world countries. "You actually want me to do the job I'm already paid for? Give me cash."
While true, it is just veiled and normalized in 1st World nations and perhaps more pernicious due to severity; at least it's honest in the so called 3rd World as you mentioned which ironically makes it more tolerable to me.
I don't like it, but I'm also beyond the hope we can undo this until an immense reduction in population makes housing, and the maintenance that supports it, a post-scarcity commodity which I fear will likely never completely happen.
It's interesting how national media reports this. Whether you agree with them or not, Proud Boys are incredibly clear about protesting all-ages drag shows. "18+ gets rid of us" is common chant. "Groomer" only applies to events with kids present.
Yet the media reports it as a mysterious "war on drag," as though small-government types hate performance art. That's funny.
They protest all-ages drag shows because they view being transgender and other forms of gender-non-conformance as inherently deviant and perverted. They focus on all-ages drag shows so they can run a "think of the children" angle to get unwarranted sympathy. They absolutely oppose adults-only drag shows too.
Gas: 2020 = $2.36 a gallon 2024 = $4.69 a gallon
Celery: 2020 $0.90/head 2024 $1.50/head
Arby's Half Pound Roast Beef Sandwich: 2020 $5.50 2024 $8