Debt runs this world. You go into debt when you go to college, buy a car, buy a house...it's incredibly necessary for most people to have some form of debt. Most people aren't going to have 15K just laying around when they have to get a new car.

That is Rui Patricio, their keeper.

Every service is personal service, though. Do you think that bellman doesn't have other guests to serve, or is doing a more important job than the guest service rep at the front desk? And if we're talking about physicality of the job, do you tip a maintenance guy who fixes the AC in your room? Full disclosure, I worked in hospitality for many years, and I definitely thought it was BS that the bellman got tipped while the houseman and maintenance staff didn't.

He's lucky, and the fact that his name is plastered on everything he builds and buys gives off the air of sophistication and success. He was handed a successful company and tons of rental properties in New York City; if you fail at that, then you have no sense for business at all.

Edit: I'm tired of this conversation. I had a big long thing typed out but it won't do any good.

(https://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/sexuality-definitions.pdf)
They say that gender is tied into cultural expectations of your biological sex, but even then, there are at least three of those (male, female, and intersex). Gender identity is how an individual person sees themselves. So, gender and gender identity are two very different things.

Odd...hopefully these ones work (http://www.unescobkk.org/education/gender/what-is-gender-equality) (http://www.hrc.org/resources/sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity-terminology-and-definitions)
Who is officially putting out that definition? Because it looks a lot like the one that shows up when you Google gender.
Also, straight for the American Psychological Association: Gender refers to the attitudes, feelings, and behaviors that a given culture associates with a
person’s biological sex. Behavior that is compatible with cultural expectations is referred to as
gender-normative; behaviors that are viewed as incompatible with these expectations
constitute gender non-conformity.
Gender identity refers to “one’s sense of oneself as male, female, or transgender” (American
Psychological Association, 2006). When one’s gender identity and biological sex are not
congruent, the individual may identify as transsexual or as another transgender category (cf.
Gainor, 2000).

To summarize, gender is a social construct that is fluid and doesn't have set points. Genderspectrum.org has 58 identifiable genders, and even Facebook offers those choices. San Francisco State University and Colorado College are offering non-conforming gendered housing, and most professors and university staff I've worked work now include their preferred pronouns in their correspondence. While I assume most people are cisgendered (meaning their gender identity corresponds with their biological sex, but I couldn't find any studies or surveys about numbers), there are many, many other genders out there.

Fine. According to the Human Rights Commission, gender is "One's innermost concept of self as male, female, a blend of both or neither – how individuals perceive themselves and what they call themselves. One's gender identity can be the same or different from their sex assigned at birth." (http://www.hrc.org/resources/sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity-terminology-and-definitions)
UNESCO Gender Equality in Education states: "Gender roles are created by a society and learned from one generation to the next. Because gender roles are socially learned, they can be changed to achieve equity and equality for women and men. For instance, we can change the gender roles of “women as child caregivers” to “women as income earners,” “men as income earners” to “men as child caregivers,” or, better yet, “men and women as income earners and child caregivers.” (http://www.unescobkk.org/education/gender/what-is-gender-equality/)

I'm not here to do your research for you. Google gender identity and read the damn Wikipedia article about it.

@funsubstanceuser You made the point much better than I did. Congrats.

According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, illegal immigrants paid about 12 billion dollars total in taxes, including income tax, property tax, and sales tax.

No I'm not. I'm saying that the meme is wrong and this whole "but Irish people were slaves too!" thing is going about history in completely the wrong way. It proposes that the Irish somehow had it worse, when that is demonstrably false. If you want, read up on the writings of Irish historian Liam Hogan, or check out his interview with the Southern Poverty Law Center. He lays it out much better than I do.

There were 10.5 million African slaves sold to the Americas, vs. a liberal total of 30,000 for the Irish. 4 million African slaves died either during capture, transport, or upon arrival. The African slave trade destroyed nations and families on a much broader and insidious scale than white slavery did.

You're bringing in a lot of things I never brought up. The Irish of course have had a ton of shit happen to them, I'm not arguing against that. I'm arguing against the pervasive meme that the Irish had it as bad or worse than Africans during the slave trade.

It was also such a tiny number and only the once that the weird resurgence of this meme is more baffling than anything else.

Young Earth Creationism is bunk pseudoscience.