What did your daughter end up doing for her career, if I may ask?

No of course I haven't experienced it personally. We went to visit in 2015 and it was lovely, a lot of poverty but a lot of great food and the jungle was awesome. I don't know how old your girlfriend is or where she lived during the 90s - my husband lived in Satipo in the jungle as a kid with his family. He has a lot of good memories but unfortunately living through the terrorism as a kid sort of destroyed his family and probably his trust in Peru. They first fled to Canada as refugees and lost everything in the process. The family has a lot of trauma stemming from this. So this probably colors his vision of Peru.

However I will say that when we went to Peru we didn't stay in the touristy areas. If you only stay in the touristy areas, it looks quite nice. If you go to the miles of shantytowns outside Lima it doesn't.

Okay, I really don't care.

Peru had some good times for visitors, especially around 10 years ago, agreed. We went briefly. But as far as I know my husband hasn't thought it's been a good time to go now since Covid. He follows the news there every day and I know for the last year or two has been talking all the time about how the shit is gonna hit the fan.

Really, what is he supposed to do? How is he supposed to help them? Not everyone comes from a culture where you pretend to care about all the suffering in the world meanwhile you have 4 scheduled deliveries coming from Amazon with crap made in 3rd world countries in any given week.

Yeah my husband grew up with the terrorism and civil war in the 90s. His friend didn't make it home from school one day, was kidnapped and shot. They used to put the kids up in helicoptors and show them how to handle machine guns. His dad's coffee business was bombed. He saw live beheadings.

Every person who has ever asked him if they should go to Peru for vacation, he says no. Don't go. He won't even go back on vacation or to visit family. I think most Peruvians who have left wouldn't go back.

If you go to Peru you are either ignorant or accept the risks. If by this comment you actually think my husband is going to say "oh no, those poor naive middle class American tourists!!!" who ended up in this situation because they wanted to go on a vacation to a place that is so volatile they get a new president every year for the last 10 years... you're wrong.

My husband is a Peruvian immigrant and doesn't care, he says this is business as usual in Peru.

I'm a senior software engineer with 15 years experience. I can say when I worked for Connecticut based companies we tried to pull from UCONN. I really don't know anything about how the schools compare, but if UCONN is better for you financially, go there. You'll easily find employment as a developer if you go to UCONN.

You're right.

Ah you’re right I think. But then why are things like expensive jewelry or plasma TVs not taxed yearly as luxury personal property?

What am I missing? Check out the Personal Property section here.

Actually so the pony thing isn't a luxury tax it's a personal property tax. And all of us individuals in CT are supposed to be paying taxes on all of our personal property, from couches to computers, assessed at 70% of market value. So I hope you're paying your taxes.

Nope, it is also property on your personal residence. Unaffixed property. So you might want to get this sorted out with your town, you know, do your part.

"In Connecticut, personal property taxes are paid by individuals and companies that have property that is not permanently affixed to or part of real estate.

The good news is we should all be paying annual taxes on much of our personal property, and that includes furniture and computers. Here is the form for the town of Killingly:

https://www.killingly.org/sites/g/files/vyhlif4581/f/uploads/2022_short_form.pdf

Yeah but my car uses the roads which require maintenance. My ponies just sit on my property with no contact with the outside world. I also have a septic system and well water, so it's not even like they could say this is causing excess sewage somehow.

A luxury tax is taken once: when you purchase the luxury. A tax on horses is taken yearly. You don’t see the difference?

So what if you had to pay yearly tax for having a mobile phone and computer? Would you be into that?

I actually pull logs with my ponies too. I have a sheep farm.

Americans love war, they don't want to admit it but it's true. I think we've only not been at war or conflict as a country for something like 15 years total since the founding of the US.

I actually said "oh my god!" because I would be so psyched to find that. Cool find!!! I don't know what sponge it is but it's so much fun to find things at the beach. Thanks for sharing!