venturecruelty

I'm pretty sure the problem is "companies try to screw over poor people", and not "the sticker price doesn't include the tax".

And yet, here we are, with the terrible state of affairs for consumers.

Because my boss said if I don't, I'm fired.

Talk about a buried lead... Avi Loeb is, first and foremost, a discredited crank.

No, because this would cost tens of jobs and affect someone's profits, which are sacrosanct. Obviously the market wants exploding hammers, or else people wouldn't buy them. I am very smart.

"It's not a fentanyl problem, it's a people problem."

"It's not a car infrastructure problem, it's a people problem."

"It's not a food safety problem, it's a people problem."

"It's not a lead paint problem, it's a people problem."

"It's not an asbestos problem, it's a people problem."

"It's not a smoking problem, it's a people problem."

Somehow people don't kill people nearly as easily, or with as high of a frequency or social support, in places that don't have guns that are more accessible than healthcare. So weird.

No? Companies aren't about making things anymore, they're about stock buybacks and making as much money as possible while doing as little as possible (or selling our data). That's why the refrigerators have ads and break after two years. At least private equity is more honest about being vulchers, whereas Kohler is going to look you dead in the eyes and try to convince you you need a toilet with a camera in it. What a joke.

I mean this nicely: please don't prostrate yourself for these companies. Please have some more respect for yourself.

What a rude, dismissive comment about a very real issue affecting real people.

Just because your margins are low doesn't mean you still aren't screwing over poor people.

Those prices aren't because of tax; even the highest sales tax wouldn't cause $10.99 paper towels to ring up as $15.50.

We have those agencies as well. They've been steadily gutted since their inception, and the courts (well, the Court) don't care.

How do I travel to the alternate universe where private equity apparently makes things better instead of worse?

Galaxy brain: both are bad, although at least a public company is, ostensibly, trying to make a good or provide a service (lol).

I don't know why people take him so seriously. He said some decent things about software freedom, and the rest of his entire existence seems to be him being deliberately obtuse and generally off-putting. I find it bizarre that there's this strange carve-out here for him, especially considering that he would absolutely loathe 99% of the software that gets discussed here.

Hard to get a man to understand something, dot dot dot.

"I don't understand... just..." is almost never helpful in these situations.

This reads like a really bad Black Mirror episode. Holy hell.

Because you used to be able to buy TVs that didn't spy on you, and we, as a society, have the power to make that the case again. It should be possible to have a fancy-pants 75-inch OLED TV that does not phone home and spy on you. Full stop.

"Well, you have to jump through all these hoops and have a CS degree and de-solder the radio and then power the TV on carefully and then–"

Yes, it is technically possible to de-fang some TVs, but it should not be necessary.

And they cost an arm and a leg. Yes, all TVs. You ought to be able to go to Best Buy or Walmart and buy a TV that doesn't spy on you. That should not be controversial.

Missing the point.

Something tells me that the only people wandering the streets at 2:00 PM on a weekday are vacationing from other countries. Next you'll tell me that whi- I mean, "good, old-fashioned Americans" are disappearing because you went to Times Square and couldn't hear any English. Please don't do this here.

I think a lot of young people look at all of the wars waged post-WWII and are rightfully opposed to fighting for their governments. Would you want to die for nothing in Vietnam? Probably not, and a lot of other people didn't want to as well. Some of them did anyway, and it was all for nothing.

So please have some grace if today's kids have looked back at our miserable history and have decided that they'd rather not die for a country that doesn't seem to give a shit about them.

Classic move: make the kids struggle, then offer them a lifeline if they just put on a uniform. The GI bill is great, but you shouldn't have to step on an IED to go to college.

No, the past was not "cute", but it also wasn't entirely a Dickensian disaster, either. There are parts about the past we can miss: shared public spaces, authenticity, quality goods and services, ritual, deeper connectedness to each other. Why does it have to be this dichotomy? Why can't we have both now? In fact, we ought to have both. It's not like it's impossible. We just have to user the power we have to build that world. It won't be easy, but it isn't a choice between "Little House on the Prairie" and "Bladerunner".

Mm but that's not what you're doing, no. You're being "fair and balanced" and very much neutral and objective.

I mean, it's not like everyone having a personal automobile and AC set to 68 isn't an ecological disaster... I don't want to return us all to subsistence farming, but unless we do something, we won't really get to make that choice ourselves anyway.

Psst, hey, we hate all of those, too. Hating one shitty surveillance-state service doesn't preclude hating other shitty surveillance-state services.