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Joined 3 months ago
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Cake day: March 21st, 2024

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  • This is true for the US as well. It’s why legal immigration into the US isn’t as easy as people would try to pretend. Other than a student visa, you are required to have a sponsor. Whether that be a family member or significant other that can support you, or a place of business that is going to be paying you a salary so a person can support themselves.

    There are also limitations based on country of origin. Some countries don’t have that much “competition” when it comes to people applying for citizenship, so they can get through the process quickly. Other countries have huge populations of people attempting to immigrate, causing year of delays on processing paperwork. That is why “illegal” immigration is so common in the US. The process is bogged down in bureaucracy and paperwork, all of which generally require time/money/legal representation. Something a majority of US citizens could not afford if they had to do so to stay in the country.


  • Let’s try that here in Minneapolis. See how well that works with several inches of snow cover and sub-zero temps.

    I’m def not a “I love cars” kind of person, but a heated and protected pod to transport me, my family and friends, my belongings and anything I purchase is a necessity. Can’t just “pop to the grocery” every day or two in winter conditions even if I didn’t live miles away from any viable store with food.


  • Can anyone explain why Apple is such a target when there are several other companies that truly are a Monopoly, not just popular? They might not have super great business practices, but under capitalism that it not only okay, but it seems to be the default.

    There isn’t a single product they sell that only Apple sells, there is a huge market for smart phones, smart watches, home computers, tablets, headphones, chargers, etc. Being a popular product does not make a company “a monopoly” and if we wanted to just go off market share, Microsoft needs to continue to be pursued, as does Amazon, Google, Disney, Comcast, the single other ISP in your region of the country, your power and water utility companies, every chain restaurant, most places that cut men’s hair.

    Why go after Apple specifically when there are many companies to go after? Because people don’t like them? Do you like your power company? Tough shit, they are the only game in town. Do you like your ISP? Tough shit, you have two options and one is the worst DSL connection you’ve ever seen. Did you like any of the 20 streaming options in 2018? Tough shit, 12 of them merged into 3. Want to buy a computer in a store? Better like Microsoft or have the ability to install and maintain a new OS (is Linux the only other option?)

    I’m not saying Apple is amazing or they have good business practices. But there are far more insidious companies where there simply isn’t many or any legal alternatives.



  • I agree that if Google is getting the content for free they should, at least try, to keep it ad free for the consumer. But I don’t know if Google has to pay licensing for stuff like PBS. PBS does technically have ads, but they are unobtrusive, shown at the beginning or end of a show and are presented as “Brought to you by….” Less of an ad and more recognition that a company has paid to support bringing PBS to you for free.

    I’ve never uses this service, so I’m not aware of how they might insert ads either. Between shows? Typical ad-breaks times every 8.5 minutes of broadcast time? More?


  • Isn’t that the agreed upon consolation for free content? Was nobody alive when TV was the primary means of content consumption?

    It always irked me that people are upset over YouTube running ads. Like, of course they had to start running ads, hosting/programming/daily operating millions of videos isn’t free for them. They need to make money some how, even at “break even” which prevents the idea of profit seeking would mean running ads.

    Hate to sound like a “kids these days” but seriously, absolutely nothing in life is free and if there isn’t a direct cost, advertising is going to be present.