... How working in an office was the standard for centuries but somehow in the last 5 years has become a necessity.

The entire place is a swampy echo chamber.

Paid for by taxpayer dollars. Oh, and the public funding drives.
(which of these is "the most important" depends on who's begging in front of whom) ...oh and $2.5 million per state? So a flat $125 mill annually?

"The commission's decision to drop PBS membership is a blow to Arkansans who will lose free, over the air access to quality PBS programming they know and love,"
IT'S CLEARLY NOT FREE.

Please link to the post you made Feb 6 2023 when Blinken decreed the use of Calibri for also-stupid reasons.

Because calling this a wasteful bother and not that just means you're in ignorable tendentious hypocrite.

Thanks for playing.

"use their personal card for work travel and then file paperwork for reimbursement"
Oh no, you mean like 80% of businesses do?

THE HORROR that someone is actually checking this shit off and signing for it.

Oh, and then the person themselves gets the rewards for their travel which is pretty awesome, instead of the organization using some GSG9's ff miles so Hegseth can pinch the stewardii in first class.

Tell me you don't do actual work without outright saying it.

The kind of people who are wanting/trying/thinking about killing excel are, in my view the same people who believe the same thing about email, and think you can do useful ongoing work communication on teams or other shit-chat platforms.

In May DOGE deactivated more than a HALF MILLION credit cards that were just floating around in Gov't slush drawers that couldn't be attributed to a specific employee, and this was noted as "nearly 10% of all the official credit cards held by the federal govt"...meaning the gov't had 5 MILLION open cc accounts.

Oh shut the fuck up with your tiresome bullshit.

I honestly don't give the slightest fuck if a family member is convicted of a crime because of my DNA sample. In fact I'd be delighted.

DNA is pretty low error.

US imports are up 10%?

That's funny, all the Internet experts here on slashdot insisted, INSISTED that the widespread application of tariffs was going to ruin our economy.

That's curious, didn't you think?

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.

Feels like a simple thing to audit: snap inspection and see the average ages of currently in use equipment.
If it's what they're claiming, give them a refund.

So the various state attorneys general got huge settlement for these.

As long as we are bitching about harming the poor... Shall we ask what % of those settlement ended up in, say, the actual hands of poor customers?

Just wondering.

Ironically the only streaming service I know of that doesn't interrupt with ads is.... Netflix.

Yes, I believe there are several others that if you pay enough (generally a LOT more) you can avoid them.

I'm not defending the system, because I too think it's broken... But please let me know a society where the rich don't get more of what they want?

And before you reply with something like "but in my country they can't buy their way out of a parking ticket" note that I'm not defining "rich" either. Generally assertions of virtue in this context merely means the price is higher and/or indirect, ie hiring better lawyers, funding the right politician in the next election, or donating to the right thing.