Honestly, just health care in general being locked behind insurance to the point where people conflate the two conceots entirely!

Dental insurance in most cases is closer to what health insurance should be: an entirely optional, and generally affordable, policy that can offset major expenses. Not an expense that rivals housing in magnitude and is required for most people just to access the basic care needed by nearly everyone.

This makes perfect sense from the supply side. Very few (younger) people need expensive medical care, so we can pool the risk. Almost everyone needs some, regular dental care, so it's more like a savings account than insurance. I'm not claiming that the insurance systems in any given country aren't exploitative, just that medical and dental insurance should be different.

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.

Listened to a really good podcast episode on this recently

https://citationsneeded.libsyn.com/ep-236-manufactured-austerity-and-the-media-assisted-public-private-partnership-rip-off

Nobody wants public school anymore and the private schools are booming. Source: am private school teacher

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?

that's why you stiff em the last month's rent

Florida does both

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%20The%20Forms%20of%20Capital-1_djvu.txt

But it works! Supposedly. Don't poke holes in the JC penney story.

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.

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.

Ohhh, this one 100 times. That nonsense about consumers' plastic straws killing all the ocean's turtles while only contributing 0.03% of all plastic pollution to the ocean, whereas commercial fishery nets constitute nearly 46% of the Pacific Garbage Patch was one of the biggest industry psyops of all time, and people fell for it hook, line and sinker (no pun intended).

I once had a professor who gave assignments with the last several editions page numbers because he thought it was bullshit too.

This is why I try, if possible, to find them online for free. That's been my first step whenever needed. Last time I needed a book and lab access code, it cost a little over $150USD!

Anything priced: tax not included

Only if you don’t have insider info.

This is what I came here to say! It generates zero wealth, and only serves to move wealth from one person to another.

Insurance is nothing but a legal protection racket. The only difference is when you lapse on your protection money, the insurers don't go and blow your kneecaps out, although United Health has effectively killed people who lapsed on payments before or denied them potentially life-saving drugs.

As a concept or in practice?

Show me a working alternative that’s actually been implemented in the real and I’ll happily shift.

Until then I’ll happily stick with a well-regulated, Nordic-style market economy.

Some places are worse for this than others. London, for example, chews up 20-somethings in shitty accommodation, underpaid jobs and plenty of places to spend the few pennies you’ve got left. Eventually, 95% leave the city to actually build a life after they’ve realised that London will never deliver a suitable lifestyle for them.

Ah cool, this is the first answer that isnt actually just capitalism.

Are people still out there buying new ink cartridges every time they need to print something? I was sick of that s*** in 2019 and returned my printer to Costco and I'm never buying another printer again.

What should just be a little plastic box containing ink has a tiny computer inside to prove to the printer it's not counterfeit. All so that the manufacture can have their give-the-razor-for-free-sell-the-blades business model, enforced by the anti-circumvention part of copyright law.

Just a polite reminder that if you only need to print a few papers, it's probably cheaper/easier/free to use the printer at local library! Mine does it for like 15 cents a paper, or for free if you have your own paper! Much less hassle than buying a good printer, sorting the ink situation and then fighting with that machine..

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.

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.

Depends on the country I believe. I've got a refund for my sixth eye surgery a couple of months ago thanks to my insurance.