I’m not sure what country you are from, but as someone whose vote literally is counted before I even see a ballot, let me tell you, please vote or at least do something. If you don’t like the way politics in your country work, go out and demonstrate. Take it to the streets. Talk to your neighbors, make leaflets. But please don’t just go bitter and sit in your corner because everything is shit anyways. Because this is how we ended up with a lot of the messes we are having now. I “voted” for the first time this year in a rigged election and before that I also always thought the way you do. Democracy is dead, why bother, my vote doesn’t count anyway. But once I stood in this fucking line and smuggled in a non erasable pen and voted and went out knowing no one will even look at this ballot something changed.

It’s very weird because I am usually a prejudiced asshole about such things, but when I hear of Daniel Radcliffe, my mind doesn’t instantly go to Harry Potter. It goes to his other performances. And this despite being the Harry Potter generation, I grew up with the franchise, being about 13 when the first book came out. Still, Daniel Radcliffe is the weird guy from Swiss Army Man and Guns Akimbo first, then everything else. So, cudos to him. You, sir, farted your way out of the Harry Potter association. Congrats.

You know we all are so focused on him not being reelected in 2024 that we forget that if he won’t he’ll definitely find a way to run again in 2028 and we have all this hell all over again

Just to be clear, I brought the toddler, they didn’t provide the toddler

More. Definitely more

For real, fuck ICE. My fully booked evening train got cancelled after we had already boarded, the next two that day were fully booked as well, I had to find an airbnb with a toddler and travel the next day, and they replaced just half of the ticket price because I cOuLD HaVe tAKeN AnOtHer TrAiN

On the other hand their child merch is cute af

The funny thing is as long as you have a small kid with you - doesn’t even have to be a baby, just stroller-age - you can bring anything. I’m not even talking about a sealed bottle of water - which, to me, would kind of make sense with the regulations - but all of the sudden your normal 500ml bottle with water, juice, or whatever, is fine. A thermo can with boiling hot water inside? Sure, no problem.

I’m honestly baffled by how immigration in Germany is supposed to be a problem. We have a horribly low birth rate. Our retirement security is basically gone because there won’t be enough working people. Retirement homes, hospitals, kindergartens, all these places suffer from a lack of personnel. These jobs are notoriously stressful, have horrible working conditions, and underpay extremely.

The free market has obviously failed to solve this problem. Even with unions and tariffs: An increase of 1€ per hour does a good living not make. Neither are bonuses a long term solution. And even if you made these jobs attractive af: we will still not have enough people choosing them anytime soon. And even if we did, it’s simply still not enough people in the workforce to secure pension for the elderly and generations to come.

And let’s be very real for a second here. Skilled immigration from third countries (i.e. not EU, not talking about third world here) isn’t an easy ride. These high paying job offers of privileged jobs like IT or science are not going away but they are also rather rare. It’s a niche thing compared to the waves of immigration of, well, low paying and often low skilled jobs.

And while I can “understand” if an asshole wants to cut the former, why would you want to cut the latter? Jesus, no one is stealing your job because I doubt you want to work cleaning toilets at McDonald’s. If you want to go wipe asses in retirement homes you’ll find a job stat no matter whether the Ukrainian, Romanian or Syrian girls apply too.

We are literally insanely exploitative of immigrants. We either have a brain drain from countries that immensely need them, or cause them to have a demographic crisis of their own by buffering our birth rates with their people, or we simply give them jobs that pay so little that they hardly survive. All that while doing shit for their integration into society. But they still pay taxes and buy products in the supermarket and ride the tram and everything. We get all the positives and they get all the negatives. Why would you even want to get rid of that if you’re a cunt?

Oh fuck off

Just wait for it

Man, a guaranteed 5 mins of a quiet break and coffee that I don’t have to bring myself sounds kinda nice

That’s an interesting take, wanna tell me more? (I’m sick right now and my brain cells don’t function well enough to think for myself but that’s unironically an interesting take)

May I add: Hitler was largely supported by the youth. Putin is mostly supported by the elderly.

I’m sorry to disappoint you there but that’s not how childbirth works, even after the industrial revolution. This here might be a good start to see why a conveyor belt system isn’t feasible with kids

Honestly give me a 24 hour work week with a median salary income and I’ll become a birthing machine

Thank you for breaking it down to this as well, I tried to get the comment above but this helped make a bing sound in my head

And thank you for asking in the first place

Ok, follow up question. If you don’t take a painkiller in the morning, how does the headache progress?

For real man. We were so overworked when both of us had a full time job and no kids. Now we have one kid and one full time job. It is easier, hard in another way but somehow easier. Soon I’ll have to go back to work and I don’t even know how we will survive. We would love to have another kid but we either can’t afford it or we will go insane trying to afford it.

The other part is that stupid part time career pit. Ideally we would both work half jobs, but this will mean none of us can have a well paid job (per hour). But this also means that if my husband is laid off while I am at home, were fucked. Job security is a huge factor in work life balance.

But also, we are the “risky” ones. Most of my friends from school wanted to wait until they are “settled” financially. I don’t have one mom friend from school/university. They are either still settling in their careers or have given up on feeling settled and now have fertility issues.

Just for context, our kid arrived shortly before I turned 30. My friends are in their 30s and 40s. None of them is really “financially secure” since job security is just not a thing anymore.

I would argue it is a problem in a capitalist society where constant and eternal economic growth is necessary.

Then again, I would also argue that capitalism is the problem.

It’s grey and looks very cheap, like Kik style, with some glitter. It was actually a free clothing swap so it didn’t cost anything. My two year old likes cats right now so it has a lot of potential to become her favorite shirt. It gives me “precise dwarf bravery” vibes but by now these companies produce them on purpose. I am cherishing this shirt because I found it in the wild and it is very obviously an actual mistake. Especially since it’s a toddler shirt.

The only thing that I don’t like about that shirt is that it doesn’t come in my size.

I’m not sure if your colleague wore the shirt as a joke or in all seriousness. I kind of hope the latter, simply because its genuity would save the cringe.