If you wouldn't allow children to play in waste effluent from a 1960s nuclear power plant

It was good enough for us!

Forget the kids, they don't vote so they can be safely trod upon. Who cares what their experiences are.

But seriously, what about the not-kids? Australian adults, are you having to show your ID when you get a DHCP lease? Do a lot of websites who didn't have mandatory logins, now have 'em?

How does it work, and what has changed for you?

Europe is now eyeing similar bans, as well as proposals for a late-night "curfew", curbs on addictive features, and an EU-wide age verification app.

LATE-NIGHT CURFEW?!

If Europe isn't careful, they're going to teach a generation of kids that it's ok to do their FTPing during business hours.

Yes, there are a few useful corners of social media.

And you could watch symphonies on TV too. And educational stuff. But kids didn't, did they? Or those who did were a rounding error.

And then of course there's the fact that social media is a million times worse than TV ever was. You wouldn't let your kids wander down every dark alley of every city on earth, so why would you let them wander every corner of the internet?

There's zero evidence to suggest Beanie Babies are not going to continue upward. Anyone who knows the first thing about Beanie Babies already knows about the bear market. It's not a surprise. Beanie Baby investors tend to have outlooks that see farther out than the next quarter.

What's the point of having a national military if you can't use it to pump taxpayer dollars into corporate coffers?

*scenario*

"Fox company, we'll airdrop a licensed mechanic and a licensed parts salesman onto your position around 0930, as soon as they finish repairing some stuff the enemy captured last year and make their way back to our side of the lines. Division says hold your position as best you can until then -- and remind the riflemen not to use their weapons as clubs, as that will void their warranty. It would be better for the overall war effort to let you position be overrun."

"No, Davies can't fix the autocannon even if your lives depend on it. Division says to shoot him in the arse if he so much as touches it."

Given the boom and bust cycle of fads like this, you also might not want to best they will,

Absolutely agree. I wouldn't bet either way, but I might bet on the company's ability to make the right bet.

In general, there are very few collectibles that can beat an index fund for returns. Those that do tend to do so because some particular instance had some association with someone famous, which means you're not ordering it from Amazon.

It is much easier to choose an index fund than guess which detritus will sell like Paul Newman's Rolex and acquire it before someone else.

30 years ago it was Beanie Babies.

I recall seeing infomercials selling "investing guides" for which dolls you should horde.

Hint: if the value of something hinges on the fact that the factory only goes so fast, you might not want to bet the retirement on them not spinning up another factory.

Also I almost laughed at that one: "Google's free Sheets product, launched in 2006, captured casual use cases like potluck sign-ups but failed to dislodge Excel from enterprise work"... Google apps were excellent for a V1. We've been waiting for a V2 ever since. It is terribly lacking in functionality.

Astute investors will note that Dude Bro's strategy was based on the notion that bitcoin would keep appreciating.

So if everything kept getting better forever, he would be right.

But so would everyone in an index fund. With far better performance when line go down.

if you go in to it thinking it is, or worse, wanting it to be, you will be very disappointed.

University sells you a bundle of services:

- Prefab peer collection - you get to pick friends/lovers/hopefully a partner from a pool of your supposed peers.

- Training to act like an adult while still adulting with training wheels.

- Somewhat related, but having time and space to explore who you want to be.

- Certification that you're capable of some professional acts that you will probably not use, but will get you in the door for some other job.

- And yes, if you want to learn, you can do that too, but many people don't. This is mainly training in how to pursue your own goals while paying lip service to someone else's. (Don't diminish the value of this - this is how most people spend most of their lives.)

Really ... so what?

An overwrought social media post is "inauthentic"?? A political speech or protest tirade is "inauthentic"? Seriously?

I mean, as if they weren't that way ... before chatbots?

Oh cool. Now its not just chat bots, but chat clients can take our jobs too.

What a world to live in.

Yeah the prices have gone up. But thats due to input tarifs. The thing thats squeezing US farmers, other than losing all their export markets, is that all their machinery and fertilizer costs have skyrocketed. A combine harvester is a huge investment, not just in initial outlay but continued maintainence. Couple that with fertilizer costs soaring (some of that is due to the ukraine invasion but most of its tarifs) and the loss of an affordable workforce due to ICEs rampage, and its really bad days for farmers.

 

Right... I worked for The Beer Store, the brewer-owned private company which distributes beer across the Province of Ontario. Our Premier (roughly equivalent to a State Governor) made a campaign promise of "A buck a beer!".

So, a new empty can cost roughly $0.20 at the time. The law in Ontario is that shelf prices include tax and deposit. So, the can is $0.30 - twenty cents for the can itself, plus another dime for the deposit to make sure the used can comes back for recycling.

Now, on top of that, you have to make a food-grade beverage, pay your excise tax to the federal government, and then there have to be profits for the manufacturer and the distributor/retailer (that would be Brewers Distributing Limited dba. The Beer Store).

Customers would come to me and - with that "I know more than you even though I haven't held a job in 16 years" expertise - tell me that we were going to be carrying "buck a beer" because they voted for Doug Ford (who also cut their welfare increases).

"When do you get it? It's gotta be soon!"

"The first shipment arrives February 31st, so mark your calendar!"

I must have used that line 500 times. Only one person realized that there's no February 31st. To his credit, he had to come back to the store to tell me. LOL

Exactly ONE brewer made the Buck A Beer - Cool Brewing of Etobicoke, in Doug Ford's riding. We were lucky if we got a single case (24 beers) a month. Promise fulfilled... Right.

Anyway... The Beer Store's shelf tags were printed at the distribution center and sent to stores with truckloads of beer and empties in and out. Of course, you always had too many tags you didn't need, and were always short of the shelf tags that you did need. If a tag was outdated and wrong, you have to - ethically if not legally - honour the price. And, of course, if a tag was damaged or lost, there was no tag for that product. All of this hearkened back to The Beer Store's roots as Brewer's Retail where everything was behind a counter and we had a selection wall. In a newer self-service store like mine, this did not work.

Electronic shelf tags were implemented. It was amazing. Snap the tag into place on the shelf. Scan the tag. Scan the product. Press a button. The scan gun would beep and a moment later, the tag would update with the item description and price.

Price changes? Automatically updated on all tags.

Now, something about selling addictive substances: Sometimes someone decides that the item's price is what they have, not what the shelf tag says. And they will argue with you until the cows come home. You get jaded to it.

"That will be $2.25 for the can of Pabst Blue Ribbon 5.9."

"The tag says $1.95 so you have to give it to me for that. You forgot to update the sticker."

"No sir, I assure you that it doesn't. They're not stickers, they're electronic and tied to the POS."

"It says $1.95."

"Sir, if the shelf tag says $1.95 for Pabst Blue Ribbon 5.9, I will give you a full case of it. On the house."

For a moment, they're elated. And then they realize that I'm coming out from behind the counter to call their bluff. In front of the lineup of impatient customers during the daily 10:01AM opening rush. Catcalls. Whistles. Jeers.

Walk over with the dude... shelf tag says $2.25 for PBR 5.9. Now, at this point, I'm annoyed, and I'm not going to short my till $0.30 for him. Or suggest to him an alternative beer that is $1.95 a can. If he'd just passed me all his change and come up a little short, I would have covered it. Personally, out of my pocket, if I didn't have a few nickels and dimes perpetually floating around my cash. I've spent way too much time on both sides of the counter at The Beer Store, so I have plenty of empathy - just don't be an asshole.

Anyway... Dollar stores are dealing with customers who are on the very bottom economic rung, whether from addiction or for some other bad life event. Now, sometimes these people are a nickel away from being able to afford a can of beer - or a jar of baby food. I have seen split tender three ways for a $2 item - $0.50 from returning 5 empty cans, $0.97 by scraping a prepaid Mastercard from last Christmas to the last cent, and then $0.55 from under the sofa cushions or wherever. Unexpected price changes can drastically upset plans these people have made to get a few supplies with their very last dollar.

"I can get a box of Kraft Dinner at Dollarama for $0.50, and two cans of cat food at A Buck Or Two with the other $0.50..." I've seen it, and I've personally lived it.

The shelf tags, especially at a dollar/discount/alcohol/cannabis store of any sort, must be accurate. As an experienced retail manager, electronic shelf tags are simply essential.

You can sell the boss on implementing them with the operational savings, the labour of having to change stickers with every price change. Electronic shelf tags will pay for themselves in very short order.