DoubleD @DoubleD@merovingian.club

Learning the Cyrillic alphabet is difficult, but it tickles that part of my brain nicely.

Regarding the Chinese "gutter oil" meme, I learned today that people don't actually harvest oil from sewers and gutters since the 2010's for cooking unless they want to commit a crime.

It's interesting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G43wJ7YyWzM

@Tfmonkey You've said in the past that black Americans don't have anything to be proud of culturally except for a few people like George Washington Carver and need to have more achievements.
Why not incorporate mythical figures like John Henry as well? Cultural icons, whether real or not, can be a source of pride for a people of a nation or of an ethnicity.
I think herein lies the issue: to perpetuate the victim complex, one cannot exhibit pride.

I've been reading a book about a certain mustached fellow's struggle. I volume 1, he speaks about appalling conditions of the working poor in Vienna during his early working life. He watched people go from employment to unemployment and back again, make poor financial decisions: adopting a feast/famine lifestyle, squandering a week's pay on alcohol while not feeding their families. He blamed it on evil circumstances instead of the individuals themselves making poor choices.

@Tfmonkey Please take the time to watch Sargon's latest video. It is on his thoughts on how Mongolia "solved" a fertility crisis. His want an "ideological" means to make females want children: a carrot for females. It's up your alley and will give you an update of his perspective on the matter. I'd love to hear your take on this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dJBwAocP6M

Here are Mongolia's fertility numbers:
https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/MNG/mongolia/fertility-rate

Here is what Mongolia does that is so impactful:
https://www.jamogrand.com/post/mongolian-mothers

@Tfmonkey @RoninGrey She then proceeded to do the same and speak Juliet's part, but adapted the language to speak of the trials of scrubbing the floor.
It was all very adorable and wholesome.

@Tfmonkey @RoninGrey I had a wonderful RP interaction with my waifu today:
I came home and the floor was wet because she scrubbed it. She apologized for not timing the scrubbing better, but I magnanimously chose to enjoy the weather outside while she finished scrubbing.
I then proceeded to go to the kitchen window which is one story above the ground and begin speaking from the second scene of the second act of Romeo and Juliet, changing the language to be humorous and fit the context.

While this does not take advantage of the division of labor as effectively as if you completely specialized in a single occupation and paid for everything else with cash, it did create multiple streams of income for the household. In cases where you grew things to sell, you would sell the S and A-tier produce, and use the B-and below for yourself.

Reflecting on my business made me recall something: Many of our forefathers and many poorer people today didn't just have one job or even two jobs working shifts. Most had an occupation at which they worked and their household did whatever it could to get more money or cut costs. For example, if you wanted some extra cash maybe your wife would flowers to sell in town to restaurants for their tables...

After a few years of work, I have decided to close down my gardening, retail business because it's not profitable enough to justify the continued investment that I can spare in my local area.

On to the next endeavor!
Perhaps once my orchard becomes productive, I'll be able to have a market stall at the farmers' markets in the area instead.

I had the marvelous opportunity to watch the birds peck about the bird feeder outside my window this morning as the sun was coming up over the woods outside my homestead.

I'm so happy I left my residence in the city and can work remotely.

Unfortunately, it seems that once welfare is made a public institution, if Rome is typical, it is only ever to be overturned by dictatorial power or by a situation in which the government is unable to provide the service in 476 AD, and there are insufficient records to conclude that it was perpetuated.

All this made me consider that famous phrase from Jesus, "The poor you will always have with you". It is an undeiable fact that poor people exist, and we don't need to talk about why they are poor; however, we have to live in a society with people who are poor. There are many things we can do to help the poor if we are so inclined individually such as the above mentioned food donations.

The practice itself is not longer practiced in the West, largely due to health regulations where businesses like bakeries are not allowed to give away bread that is stale (not moldy, just stale).

This specific practice of donating extra food after dinners was also seen throughout a great deal of the middle ages where it was seen as bad form for a wealthy individual to see that all the bread baked was eaten by their guests and family.

Prior to the dole itself being proposed, Roman Patricians were expected to be philanthropic with their wealth. This was not limited to donations for public works such as libraries, it was even a cultural practice at dinner parties to donate extra or leftover food to the poor around you.

Sulla as dictator abolished it, but it was brought back before 90 BC. Politicians quickly learned that they could win support with the populous of Rome and thus power with offices like Tribune thus giving them sway over the frequently seen street mobs of the late republic. It took dictators like Sulla and Julius Ceasar to remove or reduce the dole in one way or another.

Thread...

I was contemplating welfare and its disastrous effects in contrast with private charity.
Rome had issues with the public grain dole from its inception as a subsidized and price-fixed grain purchase and storage program in the republican era, which even though it was financed by tax increases, saw a precipitous increases in demand as all price-ceiling schemes do. Once it was implemented corruption set in and was frequently a topic of reform but not abolishment by politicians.