Now do Chop Suey.

John Q. Sapien? The guy they named the species after?

In some cities, typically heavily Democrat ones like Chicago and LA, they’re the monopoly holders, and push their own politics up and force the City Council to take it or accept the political costs of fucking with a union or of fucking with the perception of security and crime. Police unions flip everything you think you know about unions on its head. Unlike normal worker unions, the city can’t close up shop and move if the labor costs get too high. And yet in many large cities police are incredibly ineffectual at everything short of harassing the general public over smalltime BS because it’s easy for them.

Ironically, another Chicago union, the Teacher’s Union, treats themselves with the same level of monopolistic power occasionally, and then asks for a raise and gets smacked down quickly because no one actually cares about schools or learning. Even though most residents support the Teacher’s Union, they are nothing close to holding the same power as the Police Union.

What commander wants to go against senior guys? What Union wants to throw members under the bus?

And now it means it’s time to hire more officers! /s

That’s the problem with making anyone or any group untouchable, is that you lose the ability to weed out corruption, or even make small changes that affect a few bad actors because the group sees any action against one as an action against all. Which is the point of unions in the first place.

Unions are double-edged swords, and when set in a monopolistic situation like this, you can’t just close the Police Department like you can a coal mine in WV if costs get too high. In Chicago the Police Union IS the monopoly holder - and the same happens in many other cities, like LA. Police reforms become a suicide pact. It’s one of a few situations where everything is flipped from the usual company owner vs. union scenario, and then instantly becomes a national-level “Ah, but we’re a UNION!” when bothered in the slightest.

Honestly, not really. Someone that worked with Chicago PD was telling me that a lot of the more senior officers (this was also 10 years ago) leverage accruing enough leave to cover half the year. So they collect a salary 6 months of the year, and a lot end up getting second jobs because they want more money. These are taxpayer-funded services, so I’d rather not give ample avenues to abuse the system because politicians have no spine.

This is true, though police unions typically leverage the “fuck you all” nature of being a union, that Dems won’t touch, and being police, that the GOP won’t touch. So no one stops policies that give wacky amounts of leave.

Oh, wait until you find out about the documentary Harlan County USA from 1976.

Amazing film to watch. What’s sad is that the descendants of those same miners would today vote a million times for anyone telling them they’re against unions.

Right, so I’m talking about real inflation. What you’re talking about would be fraud. The way companies commit this fraud is by leaning on the "well, prices of manufacturing went up! Won’t you think of the shareholders?!?! 😭 😭 😭 😭 😭 😭 😭 😭 😭 " But the input price data is generally seen as proprietary data, so it’s not public shareholder data.

Still fuckin’ fraud, though. It also takes coordination and collusion, which is price-fixing, and is illegal.

I’ll agree with “no, not really.”

Inflation happens when demand for something goes up, and/or cost of production goes up (or speculation on the cost of production or restocking something). So with RAM, a few companies bought it all up, so the prices went up. In January 1848 shovels and picks were normally priced in San Fransisco - then the gold rush started and prices went up because people showed up to buy them faster then they would be made. Uber surge pricing is based on the same idea.

The argument against the minimum wage going up is that it would cause inflation because increased wages would make things cost more to make (lol, yeah, what manufacturing?) - AND that shitbag stores would see people with more money buying more things and say “see? more demand. Let’s raise prices!” While COVID and post-COVID inflation is unique, a lot of that was tied to increased costs because supply chains fell apart and made it hard to get all sorts of things, everything from groceries to plastic goods shipped from China. This was a global thing, not just in the US. Why did the price of locally produced coconut cookies go up in Nigeria in late 2020? Because there were no plastic containers from China to put them in to sell.

So inflation can happen either across the entire economy, or on singular things. So for the rich getting richer, inflation would be more likely on things they go in for. So RAM is one example. Exotic sports cars are another example, the number of cars made is kept low, which increases price. Especially if there’s a trend where every rich person wants a specific Ferrari, the price on that goes up and others wouldn’t.

Based on this, what is money not being spent going to affect? Nothing other than people with rich people goods over-pricing them on spec, which is just trying to lure rich people into spending money, or if everyone knows rich people are hoarding wealth, they’ll raise prices for them since they expect them to be able to pay more. That’s risky, as it has to be coordinated and targeted. Rich people are also usually finicky assholes, so it’s easy for them to just talk shit about the high-priced thing that’s only high-priced for them.

Sadly, this isn’t a “the market can handle it” thing either. Gas stations have underground tanks which have to be dug up and disposed of before the land can be used again, and it’s expensive. So gasoline infrastructure will remain for a while regardless of how many gas powered vehicles there are.

Yes, but that makes sense. Don’t you know that’s not allowed?! /s

This is exactly right. Like it or not, an easily transportable, easily stored energy source is hugely important to modern society.

Can 75% or more of average road traffic be addressed through electric cars and induction roadways? Absolutely. And we should keep going with the conversion so that high energy density needs like construction mining, large-scale transportation, etc. have access to remaining petroleum fuels. On top of getting diesel-fueled plants out of the power grid.

This isn’t even hard. Does the vehicle need a CDL to drive? No? Then make it electric. Do you need special tests, licenses, and insurance to drive the vehicle? Does it weigh over 3 tons? Great, use that diesel all you like. No, your Ford F-350 SuperDuty does not entitle you to roll coal just to drive to and from your job at Bass Pro Shop, Dale.

On Mint, it’s rare and only when I try and do something that isn’t already packed up as an app. I might go weeks without using it, then use it all day for a few days.

I have no idea, the account is new and this is their first post. The comm itself notes Zitron’s name in the description in the sidebar, though the only way I knew it was Zitron’s podcast was the title card is used as the header. My guess would be no.

95% of youtube is people repeating what someone else said, or having an AI voice repeat what everyone else said.

OP, to be a bit more clear, this is about the Cool Zone Media podcast with Ed Zitron.

Probably a very sexist reversal, where “her” is the no underwear fem, and “me” is the lazy douche. I imagine the red lacy number is added in as well on the right side.

I should mail this guy $5. Or, like, an edited image of a $5 bill with his face on it.

There does seem to be a cyclical nature to new users. Same with new communities. I’ll go looking for a niche community and find one, only to see a half dozen posts 2 years ago during the first big push to the fediverse, and then it’s dead after that. It’s entirely possible I’m looking at an entire ghost community where every one of those users bailed a couple years back.

Welcome! The thing worth knowing is that corporate social media has intentionally trained you to expect zero friction because that’s the basis of their business model - to trap you. Once you spend a bit of time or watch a YT video and understand how lemmy works, it’s not that complicated at all.

Consider that things worth doing in life are not so easy that they suck you in. No one gets in shape at the gym on accident. A small bit of effort pays off here.