Privatization of government institutions and programs.
Seriously this. The success of a public service shouldn’t be how much revenue is generated or shareholder value is gained. We as a society are the shareholders and deserve infrastructure that works for us. Corporations have pushed the idea that lower taxes is better, but when you have to spend more to a company to get basic necessities, you’re not really coming out on top buddy.
Regan really did a number on the US. Broad privatization of public services, with all the wrong incentives in place. Which was then a vicious cycle of people hating their experience with public services -> politicians cut their funding -> service gets worse -> people hate their experience -> repeat until all your taxes have been siphoned to private entities and your govt is in shambles.
Let’s be clear Reagan started it but Clinton really kicked it into overdrive. Privatization is unfortunately bipartisan.
Nobody wants public school anymore and the private schools are booming. Source: am private school teacher
Yes people want public schools.
Two party politics
Insurance
The real estate market. In many countries, the value of labor and materials necessary to build a house is about
30 to 4040 to 120 thousand euros. Everything else is speculation.Edit. Initially I put 30 to 40 thousand euros.
Location matters though. It wouldn’t make sense for a house to cost as much as it does to make. Though obviously prices have become completely detached from reality.
It’s not only speculation, it’s also because some locations are a lot more wanted by many people to live there: right next to a big park, walkable neighbourhood, city amenities nearby but few city problems, no highway audible when sleeping with open window et cetera et cetera. More people want to live in prime locations than prime location housing is available.
The big scam are the insane prices for run down shoebox-apartments in shitty locations.
I moved to Chicago a few years. I go to rent an apartment. It has a “move-in” fee.
I’m like what’s that.
Oh it’s $500 that you don’t get back.
I say. What about the deposit? They say. Oh yeah we don’t require that. Isn’t that great ,?
I’m like. So move in fee is my deposit but it’s just guaranteed I won’t get it back.
Them: well it’s different. It’s a move in fee. We don’t require a deposit but if you don’t clean out the apartment to this list of specifications, we will charge you per item you miss.
Example. Refrigerator not cleaned :$150 Floors not clean : $200
Etc.
So I was super unhappy about this and complained to anyone who would listen. To which my new Chicago neighbors and friends were like “that’s how it’s always been here,”
Bro. Y’all getting fucked. Hard. Non refundable deposit where you still have to clean out the old apartment.
Wtf. Should be illegal.
What the fuck? So it’s just a deposit you’re garuanteed to not get back? What if you don’t “miss” anything when cleaning up? You’re not getting your money back anyway so why clean anything when you’re moving out?
Yeah there was a whole list of things and the fine for not cleaning the items. So you had to make sure you got it super clean or you would get all the fines.
Of which amounted to something close to $1000.
I spent 2 days cleaning it when I moved out to make sure I didn’t get any of the fines.
You can basically get black listed as a renter if you don’t clean well.
that’s why you stiff em the last month’s rent
At least in Chicago, many landlords require references from past landlords when you are applying for a new apartment, so flaking on rent or trashing a place before moving out can doom your future endeavors.
Unless you get lucky and find a private owner to rent from that doesn’t bother with checking backgrounds.
Then you just have to deal with them taking ages to repair anything and letting themselves into your apartment unannounced to ‘check on things’.
In my experience the private landlords are the ones who actually fix shit. Last corp landlord I had lost a civil suit for 20 million in Cambridge mass for not maintaining the property.
I’ve had the opposite experience but I think it’s always a gamble with landlords. Especially when moving to a new city and you can’t ask around.
Just give your landlord a burner phone number. Don’t even clean the jizz stains when you leave.
Florida does both
Passive income. If value is being created and you’re being presented some of it without doing any work it necessarily means that someone else isn’t receiving the full value of the work they’re doing.
subset of capitalism
Absolutely
In most cases I agree with you, but what about a musician who makes passive income off of people streaming their music, or people who buy my fonts?
Cap it at the original 28 years after creation. The current 70 years after the creator’s death is ridiculous.
Even 15 years is a lot of money for something you most likely spent under 6 months creating. Of course, we could always have a detailed system and not just one flat time frame.
I think people overestimate how much the average creator can get from their work over time. They need to keep creating to maintain a livable income. Also, 28 years is a good number because it prevents mega corporations from stealing from small creators. Imagine if some novel series becomes a big hit, but Disney or Warner Brothers could just adapt it whenever they pleased without paying the author.
Not passive income, they did the work of creating the music or the font
Doesent all passive income require some upfront work outside of investing?
If you inherit/“born rich” I don’t think so…
No, that’s what makes it passive. Having money isn’t a job, investing isn’t work it’s gambling and extremely rigged.
Recycling being the responsibility of the consumer
And recycling most plastics. End up in a landfill because its cheaper than actually recycling them.
This. I have opinions on waste management, please indulge a little rant, if you will?
In my city they also now have us pay for the privilege of dumping residual waste. It’s worth noting that residual residential waste is stuffed into a silo - the users bring it to a collection point, and open it with an RFID key card. You’re sent a bill for each time this is opened.
It’s also worth noting that the plastic bin, if it looks like they can’t sort it, they will toss it in general waste.
These factors combine into a situation where:
- Tossing things in the recycling bin has it end up in gen waste anyway
- It’s cheaper for the end user to dump their residual waste inappropriately, either by stuffing it into recycling despite not going there, or by dumping it in the bushes somewhere
Imo, fixes would include the following:
- At the very least, using the general waste silo should not come with extra costs
- Recyclables and residual waste should be merged into a single waste flow, which is to be recycled in general.
- We should make work of actual plastic recycling at a commercial scale.
Ending a price in .99 so you think it is a whole dollar less.
I honestly don’t understand that, I have always rounded up for money going out and down for money coming in. So if I see something priced at $3.25 my brain thinks $4, and if I earn $3.25 my brain thinks $3 dollars.
Ah but then you’ll also see something priced at 3.99 as 4, same as something priced at 3.25
Ive always thought it was due tax related reasons. In México, most shops have it set up so the price + IVA (our consumer tax) gives you a rounded number.
college textbooks. have to have the latest edition for class, but almost nothing is different from the two-years-old one.
Anything priced: $X.99
Anything priced: tax not included
The stock market
Everything about cars from manufacturing, sales, insurance, repair, registration and taxes. We could just have Public transportation.
The car is a tool to move yourself and your family/friends from place A to place B. But James Bond, Batman, rap videos made a status symbol of it. They created a modern mythology around it.
The transformation of the automobile from a means of transport into a luminous totem of status is a near-perfect case study of what Pierre Bourdieu theorised as the conversion and misrecognition of capital.
Bourdieu argued that capital presents itself in three fundamental guises: economic capital (money, assets), cultural capital (knowledge, taste, credentials), and social capital (networks, group membership). These are not static silos; they are constantly converted into one another to legitimise and reproduce social hierarchies. The car, in its purest state, is merely objectified economic capital, a purchased good with a clear use-value: to move from A to B. But the moment it enters the cultural field, it is inscribed with meaning, and it becomes a vehicle for symbolic capital, which Bourdieu defined as the form the other capitals take when they are perceived and recognised as legitimate.
https://archive.org/stream/bourdieu-the-forms-of-capital-1/Bourdieu The Forms of Capital-1_djvu.txt
Capitalism
Impressed ot took this long. Every other comment is just describing capitalism working as designed, fucking over the poor to ensure a working class. Maybe do something about the torment nexus if you dont want to live under it?
Insurance.
The Dutch East India Company is still alive and well.
Subscriptions for everything. Especially hardware.
I already hate my always-online, have to use their shit app robot vacuum that gets worse after each update. I can’t imagine buying a new, overpriced car these days and having it do all the same shit.
