I would probably go for natural resources management or population biology.

Masters degrees are (from my experience in the US workforce) generally only professionally useful when there is an explicit requirement for one set by a professional standards body or codified in law. As in, you usually need a masters to get tenure as a teacher in a public school, and some government jobs have specific and inflexible degree requirements. But for private sector employment, masters degrees are mostly just for personal enrichment.

Huh, I could have sworn the goalposts were over here in the "tax it" debate, not the "ensure it is taxed by a specific entity" debate.

There’s a certain amount of independence between municipalities, counties, states, and the federal government.

Except in a minority of cases (e.g. NYC), it is states and the federal government that taxes income and capital gains, and they are already not taxing citizens on the y realized value of their home.

So if one is upset about that, you have to take it up with local elections or introduce a measure with your state to prevent municipalities from levying this specific tax.

Yes the idea of property taxes is NOT to tax based on increase in wealth, just the current amount of wealth. And it serves a good purpose in municipalities who have to make sure infrastructure such as roads power and sewage systems are paid somehow. More expensive houses typically require more of those.

I don't know what point you're trying to make. Are you saying that wealth should be taxed but only at the county/municipal level? Or are you saying wealth can't be taxed because of federalism?

Yes, I pay property taxes every year that are based on the current assessed values of my home and car. Only special classes of assets are subject to property taxes. "Wealth tax" proposals are a generalization of the idea of real property taxes so as to stop penalizing specific asset classes like homes.

If you dig into how property tax is allocated, your tax will only go up if your house appreciates more than similar properties - which usually has something like redevelopment or other externality.

It is normally not a fixed percentage of your value, but simply "here's what the county/city paid this/next year, divided amongst the properties proportionate to the value."

Some, like sewer, etc, are per-property, but most are done via the above.

California is an outlier because of Prop-13 but that makes it usually better except when buying.

Side-effects of this can mean that development in your district can reduce your tax rate, depending on what kind of development and who lives there (as property tax is often mainly a school tax, a development for 55+ will bring in more tax payers but not increase the school burden noticeably).

Right. Property taxes are a combination of fee-for-service for infrastructure, and a "congestion tax" for occupying land that nobody else can use. It's explicitly not a wealth tax because you owe it even if you have 0% equity.

You owe tax based on your percentage of ownership. The taxing authority doesn't care about equity because you own 100% of your house (albeit with a lien) even if your outstanding mortgage obligations exceed the value of the house. Generally, when you close on a house in the US, you walk away with the title to the house and a mortgage equal to a large percentage of the house's value. The bank only owes property taxes if they foreclose on the property and take the title from you.

I'm sure it depends on the jurisdiction, but all the property taxes I have ever paid (which, to be fair, has been in one county) have been a fixed percentage of the value of the property.

Those percentages tend to change over time though, right? What inputs do you think they have to their ideas on how to adjust it?

I don't think the percentage has changed since I moved here, though the dollar amount I pay has gone up significantly as the assessed value of my house has risen.

Like with any tax, I'm guessing the rate would change if the county's revenues didn't match their expenses?

In my county, tax rates have to be renewed every year. So every year there's a chance for the rates to change. There is an automatic suggestion of a "no new revenue" option formulated by the appraisal district based on their new assessments, there are then voter approved changes, and then the county (or taxing entity) decides.

My property taxes have practically only gone up over the years, but the tax rates from the various entities have mostly trended downwards.

My property taxes have doubled in the last 10 years.

Brian Merchant's Blood in the Machine is a good overall history of the Luddite movement (though be aware it does not strive to be ideologically neutral).

Genuinely curious: what did you see in GrapheneOS history that indicates that the OS is specifically designed to defeat law enforcement (as opposed to their stated goals of defeating ad surveillance and stalkerware)?

I get it, but I still wish I could use a non-realistic skin tone to match my mood instead of my body.

Sometimes I'm really into your suggestion of Taco Bell for lunch and want to give it a rainbow sparkle thumbs up.

Also known as Hyrum's Law (https://www.hyrumslaw.com/), but more people know the XKCD at this point :)

How much do you pay per month for substacks?

Probably $50 total.

Meh, just use a random number generator or dice. The "AI" is either just an inefficient frontend for an RNG, or it's using criteria that you don't know about and/or don't fully understand.

Did someone mention dice? There's a startup for that: https://chalculator.com/up/?world=diceroll&voiceChat=true&q=... First roll doesn't count. I think I'll write a blog post...

“Using AI” is a socially acceptable behavior in business environments.

And obviously, so is a calling a PRN, “AI.”

BlueSky users are already kind of doing this. Members of the US House and Senate tend to use their .house.gov/.senate.gov domains as usernames, which is a very trustworthy signal that the account is legitimate.