Inspirational tales of Glorious Unfettered Capitalism

[Niku]

i have never literally thrown my phone before watching that earlier today

[Mongrel]

what the fuck

God, it's time for another flood

mongrel gather two of every animal and two canadians

preferably not from Alberta

The cows can come from Alberta though, right?

[Mongrel]

Anyway, I'm pretty sure God won't be needed. Mother Nature's already on the job with regards to that flood.

[Brantly B.]

Now watch THAT guy turn out to be a pedophile.

[Mongrel]

LA Times: In one of the bigger whoopsies of the year, Philip Morris Distributes Report Among Czechs That It Is Killing Them, Somehow Thinking This Would Be A Good Idea

WARSAW —

Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman, a heavy smoker, once defended his habit by arguing that it helped his country’s finances. “As a smoker, I support the state budget, because in the Czech Republic we pay tax on tobacco,” Zeman said. “Also, smokers die sooner, and the state does not need to look after them in their old age.”

It somehow was OK--even darkly humorous--when Zeman made such a defense in his own behalf. But Philip Morris, the world’s largest cigarette maker, recently made the mistake of distributing a report in the Czech Republic that made those same arguments, opening itself to ferocious criticism from Czech media and U.S. anti-smoking groups.

In its most provocative calculation, the report said that by dying early, smokers saved the Czech government $30 million in 1999 because of reduced costs for health care, pensions and housing for the elderly. That figure reflected “5.23 years of life lost for the average smoker,” it said.

EDIT: Holy shit I just noticed this article is almost old enough to vote.

[Mongrel]

As it was going under, MoviePass changed the passwords of heavy users so that they wouldn’t be able to login to the service: https://www.businessinsider.com/inside- ... all-2019-8

Were you a frequent MoviePass user who suddenly found yourself unable to log in to the service? [MoviePass CEO] Mitch Lowe knew you were costing the company tons of money, but instead of figuring out some other way to offset costs (or, you know, doing some actual math before dropping the price to an unsustainable $9.99 per month in the first place), he targeted some heavy users and changed their passwords without their knowledge.

“…the temporary loss of cash led Lowe to make “Mission: Impossible — Fallout,” among the most anticipated releases of the year, unavailable on MoviePass. He also ordered that half of subscribers be frozen out the weekend of its release, former employees said. Complaints once again appeared online, leading MoviePass to send out a tweet saying it was “working on a fix towards this technical issue.”

In the wake of the Mission: Impossible fiasco, things somehow got even worse.

Per Lowe’s orders, big blockbusters would no longer be available on the app. MoviePass also enforced what it called a “trip wire,” an automatic shutdown mechanism for all users that would be activated if MoviePass went past a certain amount balance. If money ever ran out, subscribers would see the following message on the app: “There are no more screenings at this theater today.”

The trip wire started at a few million dollars, but eventually it wound down to a few hundred thousand.

“It was a guessing game,” said a former staffer. “There were some days we actually got all the way through without the trip wire going off.”

[Mongrel]

[Friday]

fucking unreal. 2018 has the poor paying more than the rich.

[nosimpleway]

"Why do people consider Ronald Reagan the greatest president?" is answered very clearly

[mharr]

And this is why we need to maintain constant growth even as it destroys everything. The money cycle is broken and the moment the engine stalls there will be food riots.

[Mongrel]

T-Mobile/Sprint merger approved by the FCC.

Unsurprising, but :/

[Mongrel]

[Friday]

So don't shop there

"Exclusive store is exclusive"

The horror.

I suppose next you'll complain about the existence of first class seating on airplanes.

I enjoy human beings

[mharr]

Is there a way to post the grotto scene from Pratchett's Hogfather in response to these?

Or just the entire text of the novel.

[Büge]

[Friday]

Death snapping his fingers to timefreeze the mom so that the kid can tell him what she really wants remains my favorite fucking moment in anything ever

[Mongrel]

[hngkong]

Oh wow, something I actually want Millennials to kill.

[Büge]

[Mongrel]

The Continuing Misadventures of Car Space Notch.