Among the wealthy there will always be the search for the rare and exotic. I’m not surprised that this has become some kind of distorted 'destination"

I had hope that this would be a blip of an assault and a ceasefire would be brokered. Now, it feels almost certain that one of the most cursed regions in the world is going to be plunged into a civil war without a clear justification, and where everyone loses.

I’m not surprised at all. Even if I WANTED to move, we wouldn’t be able to afford to buy our house back on the open market. We got lucky, and now we’re stuck.

Building or buying up in this market feels like a dream, so we’re slowly improving the house we have to fit our needs.

Great article. If Morocco’s claim is rejected, what’s stopping Algeria from trying to step into that power vacuum? Does Western Sahara have any sort of organized military that could resist against armed conflict over its resources?

I wouldn’t be surprised if we just saw the region become a capitalism pseudo-country, with US/China coming in to buy off the resources.

I respect the remote grind but that does NOT look good in public office

Insurance companies are about the purest form of capitalism around. If they aren’t making money, they aren’t going to participate. This is going to be a problem for California, Florida, Louisiana, and places in the Mountain West.

Quite a few. I grew up in a conservative, racist family. It took me a long time to unwind the problematic casual phrases I grew up with. I’m not proud of it, and I occasionally cringe looking backwards. I realize now the tremendous weight and damage those phrases could do. Now I just try to be better day by day, and to make sure I don’t perpetuate those damaging habits in my own children.

Yeah. While I do feel like the impacts of inflation are slowly slightly (maximum price gouging achieved), 3% CPI has to be some wildly-creative math.

You say “used to”. Has it been overfished?

Great question. A lot of government agencies consider Kentucky as part of the southeast, but I would say that culturally Kentucky falls squarely into Appalachia, along with West Virginia, Tennessee, western NC, southwestern Virginia, and southern Ohio. I would also say that Kentucky has a pretty wide metro/rural split, with Lexington and Berea being very different places.

Time to waste $3!

My wife got me a fitbit. I resisted a little bit because I didn’t want to have yet another device to monitor, charge, and maintain etc. I’ve been really surprised and impressed and how effective it has been in subtly encouraging me to make some small improvements in my habits. Not a bad deal for $100.