Inspirational tales of Glorious Unfettered Capitalism

[Mongrel]

Fuck people who want this.

[Friday]

China Passes United States in Life Expectancy, United States Drops out of Top 50 Countries for Life Expectancy

Lacking a generalized healthcare thread I could find, I figured this one was correct.

[Mongrel]

Out of top FIFTY. Goddamn.



EDIT: Wow, this might be one of the best photo-colouring jobs I've ever seen. I thought this was a re-enactment photo at first.

[KingRoyal]

My suspicions are that the American life expectancy dropped because of a combination of increased Black mortality and letting over a million die of Covid in two years, which are actually slightly related

[Mongrel]

Er, you mean increased black mortality?

Or are you just riddling me!

[KingRoyal]

Yes

[beatbandito]

[Thad]

Welp, we got us another writers' strike.

Hollywood Hit With Writers Strike After Talks With AMPTP Fail; Guild Slams Studios For “Gig Economy” Mentality

The decision was made following six weeks of negotiations with Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Disney, Discovery-Warner, NBC Universal, Paramount and Sony under the umbrella of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). The WGA Negotiating Committee began this process intent on making a fair deal, but the studios’ responses have been wholly insufficient given the existential crisis writers are facing.

The companies’ behavior has created a gig economy inside a union workforce, and their immovable stance in this negotiation has betrayed a commitment to further devaluing the profession of writing. From their refusal to guarantee any level of weekly employment in episodic television, to the creation of a “day rate” in comedy variety, to their stonewalling on free work for screenwriters and on AI for all writers, they have closed the door on their labor force and opened the door to writing as an entirely freelance profession. No such deal could ever be contemplated by this membership.

I...can't say as I'm surprised the studios are pulling that shit, but I'll say things are worse than I thought, and I didn't exactly have a high opinion of the media companies going in.

[Upthorn]

[Büge]

[Thad]

NewEgg's "make it easy to accidentally sign up for spam and difficult to intentionally unsubscribe" policy got me thinking about enshittification. I know we've discussed the concept at some length over the years but don't know if we've ever actually used that word or Doctorow's handy definition of it (a quick forum search results in "The following words in your search query were ignored because they are too common words: enshittification." and y'all I think forum search might be borked).

Cory Doctorow defines "enshittification":

Here is how platforms die: First, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.

I think that "Then, they die" part is maybe a little optimistic -- sure, Twitter's teetering on the brink of collapse, but Amazon (the retail site) and Google (the search engine) are more popular than ever despite being poster children for once-useful products that are now substantially worse. Sometimes enshittification kills good things, but sometimes they just stick around being all enshittified.

Corporate buyouts aren't a necessary step in the enshittification process but they're a common one. That's what's happened with NewEgg. Good site gets bought out by some VC firm, and that's where the short-term-growth obsession comes in. And invariably, that obsession with short-term growth leads to long-term damage.

I haven't had as many problems with new NewEgg as I've seen other customers report, but I've hit the point where if I'm looking for computer equipment, I start with B&H Photo and then try NewEgg if I can't find what I'm looking for there. In this particular example (an open-air case for testing computer parts), I think I'd have been better off just going with eBay.

[Mongrel]

That's telling because oh man, if any major ecommerce site has been enshittified, it's ebay.

[Thad]

I dunno, I've found eBay more consistent than most.

With the caveat that the problems Amazon, NewEgg, et al have developed with lack of quality control and dodgy third-party sellers hawking counterfeits or knockoffs are things eBay has always had by its nature.

[Mongrel]

It occurs to me that they've probably retained a few services domestically that are no longer an option outside the US (like having literally any option for shipping outside "Pay us quadruple or more compared to literally any other service and enjoy your ass-reaming").

[Thad]

Oh yeah, we still typically have a few different shipping options listed.

Though shipping costs aren't reflected when you filter by price, which, depending on what you're looking for, can completely eliminate the utility of filtering by price. Yeah, no, eBay, an item listed for $40 does not actually meet my "$0-$50" stipulation if shipping is $110.

[Thad]

Editorial: Turns out it’s bad business to jack prices just because you can

Bosses of consumer products and packaged food companies are scratching their heads for reasons why consumer demand for their goods has slackened so much since the spring.

Stocks of those companies — locally based examples include Kraft Heinz and Conagra Brands, owner of familiar names like Birds Eye, Slim Jim, Duncan Hines and Reddi Whip — are down by well over 20% in 2023, disappointing investors. Each quarter this year sales have been softer than those executives anticipated in the previous quarter.

These companies are proffering lots of theories as to why. Consumers are becoming choosier. They’re prioritizing spending on experiences over convenient food options. This isn’t a long-term trend, just some short-term belt-tightening. Consumer habits are pretty much ingrained. Don’t worry, they’ll be back.

The most obvious explanation is one these CEOs tend to dismiss or de-emphasize. But it shouldn’t be. Many of these companies, if not most of them, simply hiked their prices too much in 2022.

I'm beginning to suspect that these titans of industry are not the economic geniuses they're frequently depicted as.

[Friday]

I was just having a discussion with my friend about how history is littered with dead companies that went under not because of some emerging new tech that killed them (though those examples exist as well) but because they made really bad decisions that led to them becoming non-competitive.

Specifically, we were talking about how Blizzard is making more money than it ever has at any point in its history at the cost of losing a huge percentage of its playerbase and poisoning its brand name. I was musing on whether or not such business tactics would prove out to be self-destructive in the long term or not. Because obviously it's massively profitable in the short term. The question is, will continuing such tactics be profitable, say, ten or twenty years from now? It's possible that the answer is yes, you should never underestimate how much money a whale is prepared to dump into their chosen addiction that they were manipulated into.

Either way, it's immoral, of course. They make all their money now off of predatory FOMO micro-transactions. And, granted, there are still quite a few people who still "believe" in Blizzard for reasons beyond my understanding. Even Tycho from Penny Arcade, who I normally am 1:1 with in everything he has ever typed and said, defended Diablo 4 because he felt bad for the people working there. Which, I mean, sure. You can feel bad for the people working there who have to watch their game be injected with more and more FOMO predatory horseshit. It does not change the fact that the game is now filled with FOMO predatory immoral manipulative money sucking assholery.

I mea, jesus Tycho, I quote you on the daily about how it's irrelevant that Diablo Immortal is fun. Of course it's fun, it's a trap. Traps have to look and seem appealing on the outside. You came up with that and it was perfect. I guess he just feels really really bad that there are still people at Blizzard trying to make good games. And I have no doubt that he is correct. But again, that is irrelevant.

[Büge]

You can feel bad for the people working there who have to watch their game be injected with more and more FOMO predatory horseshit. It does not change the fact that the game is now filled with FOMO predatory immoral manipulative money sucking assholery.

You've just outlined my biggest issue with late-stage Magic: The Gathering.

[Mongrel]

That's basically the vast majority of any sort of multiplayer games now. It's not gaming anymore; it's gaming.

[Friday]

Oh yeah, I quit MTG awhile back too for the same reasons. It's not as bad (yet) as Diablo Immortal, because nothing is, but it's getting there.