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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 29, 2025

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You hear stories all the time of people having to put essential home repairs like a water heater or an HVAC system on a credit card because that's all they had. And yet, I have literally never heard that story end with "And then next month I scrounged up the money to pay it off".

That's because if we do, it's a nonissue and not something we talk about.

Last year, my car needed some repairs. As I tell the story, I paid for them - with some grumbles, but I paid it.

To tell it with some more detail... I didn't have a lot of money in my checking account at the time. But that was a nonissue: I just put the repairs on my credit card, and then a few weeks later I transferred enough money to my checking account to pay off the bill when it came due. So a credit card was rather handy then. Except I don't tell that part of the story, because it was rather a nonissue in my life.