u/slicheliche

In later seasons, the series establishes a pretty clear split between the "old gang" and the new characters. This becomes especially evident in the last few episodes of the series when the "old" characters are called back for a final "throwback" get together. Carter, Benton, Lewis, Weaver, and Corday hang out together at the bar and later the hospital. Ross and Hathaway were featured in an earlier episode. Greene and Romano were brought back in flashbacks. Jeanie Boulet also came back in season 14.

I still feel that Abby and Luka could have been part of that "gang". Sure they were only introduced in season 6, and they basically stayed until the end so maybe a final comeback wasn't needed, but they were still central characters in the show when it still was the "old" show, and they had key interactions with nearly all the "old" characters. Kovac had a romantic relationship with Hathaway. Abby obviously had her time with Carter but she was also friends with Lewis and Weaver, and pretty close to Greene whom she saw as a mentor. They weren't part of the show when it became a sensation, but they still were part of its history.

And what about Chen? She was never THE star in the show, she was always kind of in the background but she was also technically one of the oldest characters in the show. She met all the old characters AND the new ones. She was possibly the closest non-romantic relationship Carter ever has in the show (maybe after Benton). She was there when he was a young inexperienced med student, she was there when he was a resident and got stabbed, she was there when he became a confident attending after Mark died. I feel she could have been included.

Putting price controls and currency controls is generally considered unwise because they tend to generate a lot of distorsions which end up hurting the economy. See Venezuela for an extreme example. And in fact most countries that used to have Forex controls gradually abandoned them over the course of the 20th century. Nowadays, Forex controls are only adopted as a last resort emergency measure by weak economies that are witnessing heavy capital flights as well as often high inflation and constant currency devaluation and in fact, if you look up the list of countries currently adopting this measure they are mostly weak and unstable...except China. How does China maintain a good economic performance whilst having all these controls and restrictions in place?

(Disclaimer: utilisé Deepl para traduir este post por simplicidad, pero entiendo español entonces pudiais responder como quereis)

Soy de Italia y siempre pensé que Italia y Venezuela tenían un vínculo especial debido a su historia de inmigración. Venezuela siempre me pareció «cercana a nosotros»: un país de gente de clase media con un agradable clima tropical, herencia italiana y muchos profesionales inteligentes y formados. Por eso, la crisis me resultó especialmente impactante, y escuchar las noticias sobre gente corriente que luchaba por encontrar comida o que se trasladaba a Colombia a pie me parecía algo extraño. No dejaba de leer historias de personas que, de la noche a la mañana, se habían quedado en la indigencia tras toda una vida trabajando y disfrutando de la vida como cualquier otra persona. Es el tipo de historias que uno esperaría encontrar en una remota zona de guerra del África subsahariana.

Tenía un conocido lejano que solía trabajar como profesor en los años 80 y 90 y que tenía un buen sueldo, un piso en el este de Caracas, un coche y dinero para viajar al extranjero. Sin embargo, en 2017 hacía cola a diario para conseguir productos subvencionados en los supermercados y le habían robado varias veces a punta de pistola. A menudo no tenía agua ni electricidad en su propia casa y había ido perdiendo peso. Solo podía conseguir medicamentos cuando su hija se los traía de Italia una vez cada pocos meses. Tenía miedo de salir a cualquier hora del día y quería marcharse, pero no podía porque no tenía los papeles en regla y el proceso era demasiado complicado, por lo que se quedó atrapado en Venezuela todo ese tiempo. Tampoco volvían a coger el metro después de oír historias de amigos que habían sido asaltados y gravemente heridos por los agresores. Al principio, en 2014-2015, parecía una crisis «normal», pero luego no hizo más que empeorar. Este tipo de detalles minuciosos me fascinan porque son una parte importante de la historia, aunque fuera trágica.

¿Cuál fue tu propia experiencia con la crisis? ¿Cuándo empezaste a darte cuenta de que las cosas se estaban desmoronando? ¿Cómo se desarrollaron los acontecimientos para ti y cuándo y cómo mejoró la situación, si es que lo hizo?

P. D.: Pido disculpas si la pregunta resulta irrespetuosa o grosera; no dudes en ignorarla.

I'm from Italy and I always thought Italy and Venezuela had a special connection due to their past immigration history. Venezuela always seemed "close to us"; a country of middle class people with a nice tropical climate, Italian heritage and lots of smart educated professionals. So the crisis was particularly shocking and hearing reports of regular people struggling to find food or moving to Colombia on foot was bizarre. I kept reading stories from people who simply found themselves destitute overnight after a lifetime of working and enjoying things like anyone else. It's the sort of stories you'd expect from a remote warzone in Sub-Saharan Africa.

I had a distant acquaintance who used to work as a teacher back in the 1980s and 1990s and they had a nice salary, an apartment in eastern Caracas, a car, and money to travel internationally. By 2017 however, they were standing in line on a daily basis to get subsidized goods at the supermarkets and they had been robbed multiple times at gunpoint. Often they had no water or electricity in their own home and they had been losing weight. They could only get medicines when their daughter brought them over from Italy every once in a few months. They were scared to go out at any time of the day and they wanted to leave but couldn't because they didn't have their papers sorted and the process was just too messy so they were stuck in Venezuela the entire time. They also never took the subway after hearing stories of friends getting jumped and severely injured by attackers. Initially in 2014-15 seemed a "normal" crisis but then it just kept getting so much worse. This sort of minute details fascinates me because it's an important piece of history even though it was tragic.

What was your own experience with the crisis? When did you start realizing things were collapsing? How did the events unfold for you and when/how did it get better, if it did?

Ps. Apologies if the question is disrespectful or rude, please feel free to ignore it.

And I'm sick and tired of it.

People are coming out of the woodwork and being increasingly vocal about their MAGA type ideas that women should just stay home and have kids and modern feminism basically caused the collapse of our societies.

Throw in a sprinkle of racism and "immigrants are ruining us" and that's where 90% of comments here on this sub are going.

This used to be a space to have level headed discussions on natality and fertility trends and now it's just becoming yet another alt right trash sub.

There are plenty of places in the world where you can enjoy your tradwife fantasy freely. Arabia is one of them. Just move there already.