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You mention the election cycle and things getting worse. I live in the US and I’ve watched in real time every sad, terrible decision made by the current admini

by josh_p 1mo ago

You mention the election cycle and things getting worse. I live in the US and I’ve watched in real time every sad, terrible decision made by the current administration and every sad terrible decision by what’s supposed to be the opposition party. It all makes me want to scream. And then I’m offline and my life carries on because none it has really affected my white privileged middle class tech worker butt. It all feels wrong.

Foobar8568 1mo ago
I don't live in the US, I live in Switzerland, and what happens in the US and Iran affects the world. And when I see this kind of shit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ58s4bwzG0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ58s4bwzG0 ( bbc Donald Trump dons 'Trump 2028' hat and jokes about 'fourth term' ), I am like, what the fuck? Europeans as a whole didn't have much a great opinions of republicans but I don't even understand how a republican voter can vote for a russian asset who is using the constitution as toilet paper. At this stage, just turn directly to a fascist state and stop pretending.
- josh_p 1mo ago
  The Republican Party is very good at propaganda. And the Democratic Party (the currently elected one, not the one the American people actually want), is happy to go along with a lot of it as long as they get to stay in power. We’re good at political theatre and pedantry here. All that and a steady diet of “American Exceptionalism” started as early as kindergarten in our public schools deludes whole swaths of the country into thinking that all of this is somehow good for them. I grew up going to public schools in the 90s and 2000s in a “blue” part of the country. As I’ve grown up into adulthood with kids, I’ve become so disappointed with my own education. It hasn’t gotten better and it’s worse in a lot of ways. We homeschool our kids and don’t whitewash our history.
johnnyanmac 1mo ago
Just gotta stay safe and count your blessings. S178 probably did a good part in driving tech to be the canary in the coalmine of the new "forever layoff" model. That was a political decision that affected a lot of us. even if that wasn't, I'm sure you were hit by higher prices for everything We're all being hit, it just depends on a bit of luck and how financially ready we are to buffer the storm. Most people unfortunately aren't.
- smolder 1mo ago
  Can you be more specific about what S178 you're referring to? There were several results.
  - johnnyanmac 1mo ago
    Me using the right number would have helped. My apologies, I meant Section 178, not 174 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/174 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/174 As a TLDR it's a way to amortize taxes for R&D over 5 years. High interest rates hit everyone, but this was a sneaky little code that would more specifically hit places like Software. setup to end in 2022 by the first trump administration, it was one of those "well they'll just renew it, right? And then they... Didn't. So yeah, 2022-2025 made it cost a lot more to hire SWEs than usual. The only silver lining of the "One Big Beautiful Bill" is that it ended up bringing back S174 for domestic labor. But companies are quick to tear down (and still have half a dozen reasons to tear down) and slow to build back up.

by josh_p 1mo ago

Foobar8568 1mo ago

I don't live in the US, I live in Switzerland, and what happens in the US and Iran affects the world. And when I see this kind of shit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ58s4bwzG0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ58s4bwzG0 ( bbc Donald Trump dons 'Trump 2028' hat and jokes about 'fourth term' ), I am like, what the fuck? Europeans as a whole didn't have much a great opinions of republicans but I don't even understand how a republican voter can vote for a russian asset who is using the constitution as toilet paper. At this stage, just turn directly to a fascist state and stop pretending.

josh_p 1mo ago
The Republican Party is very good at propaganda. And the Democratic Party (the currently elected one, not the one the American people actually want), is happy to go along with a lot of it as long as they get to stay in power. We’re good at political theatre and pedantry here. All that and a steady diet of “American Exceptionalism” started as early as kindergarten in our public schools deludes whole swaths of the country into thinking that all of this is somehow good for them. I grew up going to public schools in the 90s and 2000s in a “blue” part of the country. As I’ve grown up into adulthood with kids, I’ve become so disappointed with my own education. It hasn’t gotten better and it’s worse in a lot of ways. We homeschool our kids and don’t whitewash our history.

johnnyanmac 1mo ago

Just gotta stay safe and count your blessings. S178 probably did a good part in driving tech to be the canary in the coalmine of the new "forever layoff" model. That was a political decision that affected a lot of us. even if that wasn't, I'm sure you were hit by higher prices for everything We're all being hit, it just depends on a bit of luck and how financially ready we are to buffer the storm. Most people unfortunately aren't.

smolder 1mo ago
Can you be more specific about what S178 you're referring to? There were several results.
- johnnyanmac 1mo ago
  Me using the right number would have helped. My apologies, I meant Section 178, not 174 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/174 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/174 As a TLDR it's a way to amortize taxes for R&D over 5 years. High interest rates hit everyone, but this was a sneaky little code that would more specifically hit places like Software. setup to end in 2022 by the first trump administration, it was one of those "well they'll just renew it, right? And then they... Didn't. So yeah, 2022-2025 made it cost a lot more to hire SWEs than usual. The only silver lining of the "One Big Beautiful Bill" is that it ended up bringing back S174 for domestic labor. But companies are quick to tear down (and still have half a dozen reasons to tear down) and slow to build back up.