Indeed. Regulation is deeply unpopular these days. At least with the oligarchs.

It sucks because I’ve always liked Logitech hardware. Though I suppose you don’t need to run the software suite (or if you’re on Linux it isn’t an option anyway).

You must be new here.

A similar argument can be made about nationalizing corporations which break various laws, betray public trust, etc etc.

I’m not commenting on the virtues of such an approach, but I think it is fair to say that it is unrealistic, especially for countries like the US which fetishize profit at any cost.

One company is charging less for a similar product. The numbers are big, so there are articles about it.

This is the way. For a lot of things, not just parking fees.

Same reason everything in the US is expensive: we have largely unregulated, runaway capitalism which pervades every facet of life. Everything from housing to academia to health care is for profit – not only profit, but for obscene year-over-year increases in profit. Those at the top regularly make money hand over fist even selling basic necessities, and if they don’t continue taking more and more, they’re seen as failures and replaced by one who will.

The cherry on top is that, for the most parts, the citizens no longer have any real power to change any of it.

Around the same time that health care becomes affordable in the US (major hypothetical, of course), it probably means a wind change has occurred such that university costs would also be coming down. But it would be a systematic change.

AMD is by far the price-per-unit-performance leader. Same is true on the CPU side. Intel and Nvidia aren’t even on the chart tbh.

The level of cohesion in opinions since this event is palpable. It should not be ignored.

Yeah, that’s why I was remiss to give an attribution.

This from a guy who says “the cyber”

Here’s a fun (related) one. I don’t know to whom to attribute it. I got it from a colleague in grad school.

Ghoti

What does it spell? The English spelling system is so screwy, you can make a decent case that it spells “fish”.

Gh – from enough (f)

o – from women (i)

ti – from nation (sh)

Edit: spacing and one addition

I tend to. The one exception is movies I have watched many times. I still enjoy those, but mostly because I don’t have to pay close attention to know what is going on. I can watch my favorite parts and ignore the rest without getting confused.

None of that work is a service.

Again, all those things you mention directly impact your profit as a landlord. They have nothing to do with your tenants. It is not a service.

If I want to be able to drive a car, I have to get a license. But that doesn’t mean that getting a license is a service to anyone who might ride in my car. It’s overhead that I have to perform in order to drive a car.

Hearing landlords complain about paperwork while sucking up their psssive income calls for the tiniest violins ever. But, thanks to that income, they probably haven’t had a real job in so long that the difference may be difficult for them to comprehend.

I meant more like, that’s the best accolade you may get as someone working for McDonald’s. But yes, McDonald’s absolutely has a reason to support the status quo in terms of corporate rule.

Well that’s really good to hear. I’m not trying to spread hate, and I know people have different experiences than me, so I love to hear these other viewpoints. I totally agree that shit is fucked and I think that has affected us in different ways.

Yeah, this resonates with me too.

Again, I’m not talking about intents, just what I see are clear-cut observations about the system and where it draws people / forces? people into.

All I can say is: it’s also designed such that you won’t have another choice. Protecting your own interests means taking advantage of those of others. And in that sense, it will seem deeply unfair if you are simply trying to do right for yourself and your family by a problematic method.

To me, it sounds like another example to speak out against the system.

All fair points.

I don’t think there is a good answer to this question. But if we agree that the system overall is broken (which maybe we do?), then we should expect things like this. There isn’t a good answer because the system itself is broken.

Why is it broken? Because things like passive income have been accepted for so long. Because regulation has gone out the window and corporations can do whatever they want. Because we have a real estate mogul as President-Elect. Lots of reasons to point to.

RE “fuck you treatment”, I’ll also mention: I do not believe that every landlord taking advantage of passive income is ill-intentioned. As you have alluded, there are reasons which don’t involve wanting to take part in, ultimately, limiting access to housing. The grand trick of the system is convincing good people that those reasons are not endemic, and that they don’t ultimately support the interests of the overlords.

Yes, because they’re not funny, but if I get in the habit of laughing at them myself, someone nearby may not be paying attention and laugh along with me.

That should work, as soon as I have friends to be around me