Yeah, it’s easy to forget because of the power the parties have now but legally speaking, we elect a person not a party. They’re free to vote how the like.
Here in MN, Jesse Ventura was elected as a Reform party member and within a year had split with that party and officially became a member of the Independence party.
If we’re talking about things I use regularly, probably my desktop computer. I bought it at an auction. This was in '04 and have been upgrading it one piece at a time ever since. I’m currently gathering parts for another “gut it and start over” level rebuild and I think the only original parts at this point are the case and the floppy drive.
If it’s just things I own and don’t use, I do technically own a '76 Chevy pickup that is almost infinitely repairable but that hasn’t had an engine since the early 2000s
I have a round griddle that was warped enough it was almost un-usable on my glass top stove. Here’s what I did.
Using a ruler and an angle grinder, I knocked down the high spots. When I put it on the stove again it was significantly better but still a bit wobbly so I took a cheap 2-sided sharpening stone and continued taking it down with that. It took a few hours to get as flat as I wanted but, I felt like it was worth it.
I believe the Pac Man cartridge for my NES is probably the oldest video game I still pick up regularly.
OMG! So many things. I’d probably spend months looking through the stats of my life alone. But first, dinosaurs! What did they actually look like? How did they act? What actually killed them?
Depends on why you’re going TBH. If you just want to learn things before you die, it’s literally never too late.
If you’re looking for a purely financial payout though, there is a lot of math and it’s going to be hyper specific to your situation. First, you need to consider the total cost of going back. Not just books and tuition but lost income if you’re not working full time as you go to school. If you’re still working during school, don’t forget to factor in the free time that you’re burning and added costs (both social and financial ) to being busy all of the time. Want to fix your car yourself and save a few bucks, hope it can wait until spring break.
Next, you have to compare that to the amount of money you personally would likely make above your current trajectory. Don’t forget to factor in your chances of actually getting that job in your field. I have a friend with an English degree who sells insurance for a company that would absolutely have hired them with an associates or maybe even just a HS diploma. A co-worker of mine has a bachelor’s and makes the exact money as I do with my associates.
I don’t mean to sound down on college. My wife is a college professor and I honestly believe that for most people, a four year degree is a huge benefit in their career and personal life. Personally, I think the fact that we’ve turned the college experience into purely financial decision for most of the coming generations is a scathing indictment of our society. That being said, there are a lot of cases where it doesn’t pay off financially.