It's not just greenflation. Companies have realized that they can make more money focusing on the top 10% of consumers and just what the bottom 90 go to hell. If they had the slightest fear of competition then they wouldn't take that risk because a competitor might work their way up in the cheaper markets and then jump into the more profitable ones, but since we don't enforce antitrust law because we're busy freaking out about trans girls playing field hockey in the Midwest you can kiss that goodbye.

Our cheapest EV starts at $30k for a Nissan Leaf. No wonder I've been seeing more people riding around on e-scooters lately.

During incognito browser mode. So that's fun. As usual we found out as part of a lawsuit and settlement.

Only on Slashdot can you get modded down for pointing out that there are a lot of Walmart stores.

And that map is from like 6 years ago, so there's probably even more than what's shown. So my point still stands, if none of your grocery stores take credit cards, where out in BFE do you live that there isn't even a Walmart?

Yeah, the hotel industry is in a sorry state right now. Most are clearly neglecting maintenance and then jerk you around on price and amenities. Oh, and they are shrinking the rooms too!

I live in the US and often pay extra for my reservation to allow cancellations. Even when booking directly through the hotel's website. Marriott is the worst offender IMHO.

We're talking the same thing, I don't disagree with your overall point of the human condition but you are holding Bezos actions as virtuous and that's my disagreement. Maybe barely versus him doing nothing but from the outcome of what this company does it could be negative utility particularly because this is just another me-too bandwagon AI venture.

  Basically we should t hold Bazos on any real esteem for this decision, he risks nothing, the success or failure of this venture will not affect him meaningfully nor is he really being altruistic at all either.

Yep. Whole society doing enshittification.

On the other hand, I wonder whether that slop will get any listeners.

Back in the '80s which kept the economy going and then we followed that with two huge economic bubbles that kept things going. There was also a lot more government assistance back then in a lot of ways that we don't think about. I'm not talking about food stamps I'm talking about heavy duty subsidies like the aforementioned infrastructure spending that made it easier to get jobs.

We were in a much better position to weather 12 years of Republican rule back then. The Republicans have been building up to this for 60 years, ever since Goldwater lost. Trump is the final form of the party. A pedophile pretending to be godly while openly admitting he will burn in hell and still somehow tremendously popular with the party.

It's not just about how terrible Trump is it's about how voters would let somebody like that have that much power. It's a sign that our civilization is near collapse. A fundamental breakdown in the institutions that have been protecting all of us for our entire lives.

It's the opposite. People here have mostly done okay for themselves. Most of us are well over 50 and we got the full benefit of the Great society and the New deal. For example the government paid for 70% of our college tuition.

I don't think anyone here believes that they are going to ever suffer any serious hardship. And that's why we have so many Trump supporters here. They keep quiet because this isn't a safe space and Trump supporters won't talk about it if they're not in a safe space. But I know they are there.

These are the same people that are learning the kind of terms typically associated with libertarians right now.

They always think they will get off scot-free and maybe some of them will. But the point is not all of them will.

We're sliding down the slippery slope.

A few states already did the age check thing with porn, and the SCOTUS ruled that was just fine by the 1A. Now comes the ID just to prove you're not a kid, in order to participate in social media.

It's never been about protecting kids, it's about being able to eliminate online anonymity.

Longer than most think.

You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter, don't you call me, 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

-Sixteen Tons, Tennessee Ernie Ford

"Harvard is a hedge fund with classrooms" - Scott Galloway

Both iOS and Android have built-in parental screen time limit functionality. Why is the government getting involved?

I think it's a good key indicator to include in evaluating the health of the lived economy (not the stock market). Here's what I watch:

1. Credit card delinquency (https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/DRCCLACBS_
2. Sub-prime car loan delinquency (https://www.marketplace.org/story/2025/11/12/a-record-number-of-americans-are-behind-on-their-auto-loans)
2. BNPL companies like Klarna not meeting earnings expectations from their PRIMARY business (as opposed to propping up the business with speculative investment). Incidentally, Klarna has an earnings call tomorrow.