You become an adult when you no longer need support from your parents or the government.

grahamburger 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

So farmers who take advantage of subsidies in the U.S. to keep their farms going aren't adults? You should tell them that. To their faces.

	▲	WalterBright 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I expected the inevitable parade of what about this and what about that. When someone else is paying your way, you are not an adult. Or at least not acting like one. As for subsidies, a colleague of mine years ago bought some farmland. He had no intention of farming it, he made money off of the federal subsidy paying him to not farm. A friend of mine grew up on a farm. He said the usual pattern was 4 years of losses and 1 year of a bumper crop that paid for it. Nobody is entitled to be a farmer. If you cannot make money farming, it's not the responsibility of others to pay for it. There is a rationale for maintaining an agricultural base that can feed the country as a national security thing. Make of that what you want.

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tovej 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Do you lose adulthood when you get a pension then? Or when you get sick (in countries with functioning healthcare systems)?

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WalterBright 3 hours ago | parent [-]

A pension is an earned benefit. Paying for your own health insurance is an adult thing to do.

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tovej 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

You're still relying on the government for it, or a similar institution.

Paying for your own health insurance is insane. I would move out of any country that would force me to do that.

	▲	WalterBright 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		A pension is an earned benefit, part of one's pay package, not a free goodie. Welfare is a free goodie. It's a big difference. Your "free" health care is paid for by you and others. It's so expensive because of that. Healthcare wasn't particularly expensive before the government got involved in it. Modern governments do indeed treat the citizens like children.

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bdangubic 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

yea I would rather have the insane amounts of money I pay in taxes go to department of defense and I’ll spend X% of my income to pay for my own insurance - totally makes me feel like an adult each 1st of the month when the payment is processed. this is what makes america unique, there are no adults living anywhere else in the universe, just us :)

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WalterBright 3 hours ago | parent [-]

The problem with the defense budget is if it wasn't enough, losing a war would be far more costly. The pragmatic thing is to overspend on defense, because one doesn't really know where the "enough" is.

I've paid for my own health insurance ever since I became an adult.

If you don't have an HSA (Health Savings Account), consider setting one up. It's a very good deal.

I remember the day I phoned my dad and told him I didn't need any more support (I was in college at the time). It felt good to do that, it sure felt like I'd gone through a door. Interestingly, at that moment my dad switched from telling me what to do to advising me, and became my most trusted advisor.

A free market society is a society of adults.

	▲	bdangubic 10 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		> losing a war would be far more costly we won a war since WW II?? also if you want to live in free market society and you live in the USA you may want to consider moving