Related to this, hiking! It's free, is good for your health both physically and mentally, and accessible to most people.

Because exploration is in the human DNA. We seek to push out further, see and learn about new places, and further our understanding. Your question is like asking "why did explorers sail ships across the Atlantic when they had a perfectly good continent already?" At first, the new world was just "Europe but worse", or the various islands of the Pacific were just "Asia but worse" - humans have always felt the need to explore and see what's around every corner.

Sure, the Moon and Mars may be boring compared to all the sights on earth, but space exploration starts somewhere. Just like sailing the ocean, you start with learning how to build a boat that can cross a lake or river; you don't start by building an ocean liner.

You're assuming I'm not making provisions for myself and will be reliant on the system of taxes for my wellbeing. A declining population is only a problem when the entire system is in shambles. There is more than enough money and resources for every person on this earth to live comfortably; we're just busy throwing away food and spending wealth and resources bombing each other and preventing "unworthy" people from accessing basic necessities.

Don't come at me as if I'm some child hating monster who thinks all parents are bad. I replied because you called me a leech for having the audacity to choose differently than you. I respect parents for the tough job they've taken on, especially in this day and age, but that doesn't somehow make you superior. It takes a village, and not everyone in the village needs to reproduce to make it successful. Get off your high horse.

Leeches? You're kidding right? I pay into the taxes which fund your child's schools, WIC, libraries, Medicare and all of the other things which children benefit from, that I do not, because I do NOT have children. I'm the opposite of a leech, I contribute more and use less than most parents. You need people like me contributing monetarily, socially, and culturally and not using all of the services to make it all work. I'm not going to shit on people who have kids, because as you said we all make choices, but don't for a second think you're somehow superior because you made a different choice than me.

I just looked after my neighbor's cats and they gave me a card with a lovely thank you note and a door dash gift card. Totally wasn't expecting it but it was sweet. Maybe something like that?

You don't necessarily need to take it away, there are other avenues of punishment. Detention, Saturday school, no extra-curricular participation, suspension, etc. I was in high school right as dumb cell phones started to become a thing and those were our punishments if we were caught with phones out. We were allowed to have them, but they had to be either off or on silent, and in our bags (same as CD/MP3 players.) We were allowed to have them out to check them only during lunch and before and after school, or if we had to make a call, in the main office. I completely agree that kids shouldn't be using phones AT ALL during class time, but there's ways to allow them to exist and punish inappropriate usage that doesn't require teachers taking them. Teachers shouldn't be taking phones, that's a liability risk and not worth the effort.

Choose your battles. Not everything is worth the energy.

Wow, an actually unpopular opinion. You get an upvote ya psycho

Bartlet.

My husband wanted a special German stew this week and I went to price out chuck roast for it and it was $10/lb! It would cost us $20 in meat to make a pot of simple freakin stew. Round wasn't even cheaper either! I quickly decided we weren't having that stew right now. The price of beef is insane. Beef roast and stew was the poor meal when I was growing up - the thing my parents made to stretch the budget because you just buy a super cheap cut and cook it all day to make it edible, along with cheap veggies. Now those meals are damn near a delicacy considering the cost of the meat. Chicken isn't much better either at the moment. Grocery shopping has become exhausting.

I'm so glad my company a) has a "nobody wants teams" stance and even recommends against it to our clients, and b) doesn't give a fuck if I go idle for hours because they hired me to do a job and if it's getting done they're happy.

Micromanaging culture needs to die. Fire employees who don't do the job and be done with it.

One of the greatest joys of my life is being able to take my dog out with me in public because he's very well behaved. Not perfect, but 95% there. The last 5% is the golden excitement over people and comes out when someone excitedly fusses over him (think leaning over him squeeing excitedly and talking to him in baby voice) and he forgets his manners and jumps up trying to hug them. If people act normal, he's completely normal, chill and well mannered. He goes with me to all sorts of places like the hardware store, craft store, the liquor store, and out to eat at various restaurants with patios. I WISH we had a culture around dogs closer to France, because I think dogs would benefit greatly from it. Instead of being left at home they could be out living lives with their humans. Unfortunately that would put greater responsibility on owners to train their pups. Instead, we just ban dogs from most places because it's easier for the businesses to not have to put up with entitled assholes and their untrained dogs. It's sad.