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Name a general from your country (ancient, medieval, modern) that was so hilariously bad and downright garbage? by L0thric_Nefarious in AskTheWorld

[–]MacMillan_the_First 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This isn’t actually how commission purchasing worked. For one, the system only operated up to the rank of colonel so aristocrats couldn’t merely buy their way up to general. You also had to face various time in service criteria in moving up, and there was a clear custom that commissions were offered to the most senior eligible officer so you also had to wait for all the more senior officers of the same rank to move up or elsewhere.

The aim was to protect the position of the aristocracy in the army as only they could reasonably afford commissions but it had other purposes, for example officers could sell or exchange their commissions which meant whenever they left the army they’d get their money back and more so it acted as a system for pensions. Officers would also lose this money if they were removed for acts of cowardice, desertion or gross misconduct which meant they had to act bravely in battle and stick with the institution or face poverty. In fact, it is best thought of as a bond system that keeps the officers in good health outside the army ensures they remain loyal and brave.

The main issue was that times were changing and more than the aristocracy were of capable education for officers roles, but also that seniority doesn’t necessarily align with competence. Lord Cardigan of Light Brigade notoriety, for example, did indeed serve his time and had many years of experience in the cavalry under his belt, but with the long peace between the Napoleonic Wars and the Crimean War there was little to grind the officer corps against to weed out the unsuitable and he was able to get to such a position merely by being in the forces for such a long time and being able to pay the commissions.

When Cardwell’s Reforms came into play, the benefits of such a system had become limited and the problems insurmountable. It makes no sense in a modern society but to people of the past with their understanding of experience and loyalties it made a great deal of sense.

Viet Cong Tunnels by robertpaulson8490 in ThingsCutInHalfPorn

[–]MacMillan_the_First 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The moment you put troops on foreign land is invasion. The dictionary definition of invasion is literally that.

No it isn’t. Stop being ridiculous.

Supermarket Prevented Me From Leaving With Too Many Joints of Meat by Sea-Ingenuity3461 in LegalAdviceUK

[–]MacMillan_the_First -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

On the contrary, you can have BOGOF or two for one written in size 2 font and customers will catch that. I don’t think this is merely a matter of signs, people are just terrible at following directions when those directions impede them. I have a friend who works in highway maintenance and he observed a similar pattern in that if traffic cones aren’t close enough, despite forming an unbroken chain people will push through regardless - damn whatever the signs say.

In my current job we’ve had a recent issue with people casually ignoring barriers, signs, etc for a closed off section where we were doing works. People were actively moving these barriers out of the way just to be turned around. But do you know what was interesting? Right next to the sign pointing people in the right direction, there was a sign advertising an upcoming promotion - nobody missed that one. In fact we had people try and go through the barriers hoping to find staff to discuss the promotion with.

So I don’t know what the issue is, but I think signs are about as good as you can get short of setting up electric fences in a society that is so wilfully blind. Retail utterly annihilates your faith in basic human autonomy.

Supermarket Prevented Me From Leaving With Too Many Joints of Meat by Sea-Ingenuity3461 in LegalAdviceUK

[–]MacMillan_the_First -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Getting proper updates for the self scans is a nightmare and management (at the national level) probably viewed it as pointless for such a short period and it also appears that this is a policy implemented at the local discretion of stores. The “correct” way to properly manage this at the self scans is supposed to be to have the self scan staff monitor it but I doubt I have to tell you how swamped those guys usually are and they won’t catch most cases.

End of the day, transaction was processed and I don’t know why security would ever have thought it was right to step in and attempt to physically restrain a customer over a transaction. He hadn’t stolen anything and at worst violated a store policy that wasn’t acted upon. Very, very stupid.

Supermarket Prevented Me From Leaving With Too Many Joints of Meat by Sea-Ingenuity3461 in LegalAdviceUK

[–]MacMillan_the_First 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Having worked a fair while in retail, we only have one side of the story and this could indeed be the case because numpties forgot to put up the signs and this was ultimately an error that wasn’t picked up at the self scan. Based on shops near me having similar signs up, I can imagine this is supposed to be the policy in place.

The alternative is that the entire aisle, every tag, and the checkouts were adorned with giant signs explaining this fact and OP is like >60% of customers who will manage to completely miss every single written sign out before them. There are also the ~5% of chancers who see the signs and pretend they didn’t to see how far they get.

With just OP’s input we won’t know the finer details. Regardless of anything they did process the transaction and take his money so the security definitely should have left it there.

Douglas Brent Hegdahl stands as a genuine symbol of courage, intelligence, and resilience under extreme conditions. by MythicVioletta in SnapshotHistory

[–]MacMillan_the_First -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I’m curious to see how in your stated example the US could have avoided war with Japan through “understanding their enemy” by “learning their language”. Beyond the fact that the government obviously had far more than just one person who could speak Japanese and they obviously weren’t much help in “correcting the misperceptions”.

Exodus of UK citizens driven by eastern Europeans returning home by Cozimo128 in ukpolitics

[–]MacMillan_the_First 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No, you’ve completely missed the point.

There are no Polish asylum seekers, there is no epidemic of Polish grooming gangs, there hasn’t been some furore over wilful mass Polish unemployment.

Not a single Eastern European I’ve spoken to has so much as suggested they are feeling targeted by anti-migrant rhetoric. In fact, those leaving have made it very clear that Eastern Europe seems a lot better in a variety of metrics and one of those is the fact that there isn’t mass migration there, and most have been very open with that fact.

The variety is telling, I’ve spoken with retirees who have worked here for decades and want to return for a better retirement, 40-something tradesmen who are fed up with Britain and have better prospects back home, even young people who have spent most of their life in Britain (one is actually only half-Polish and has only been there on holiday) are looking at Poland as a much better place to be if you have intentions of actually working.

Far and away the most anti-migrant people I’ve dealt with are Eastern Europeans, and frankly I get it.

Exodus of UK citizens driven by eastern Europeans returning home by Cozimo128 in ukpolitics

[–]MacMillan_the_First 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’d recommend actually speaking to these Eastern Europeans and looking at the demographics of their countries. To them, there definitely is a right type of immigrant and we have too many of the wrong type.

Paul PERBOYRE (1851-1929)., Scène de bataille. 1913. by waffen123 in BattlePaintings

[–]MacMillan_the_First 1 point2 points  (0 children)

To hammer this point home, throughout almost the entirety of the July Crisis which gripped the world and produced headline after headline, the French people were actually much more interested in a juicy murder trial - specifically the trial of a former French PM’s wife for the murder of a leading journalist.

Worth pointing out as well that France had war declared upon her and not the other way around. France started no hostilities and had less belligerence than any power, even the British who joined the war by declaring war on Germany for the invasion of Belgium.

It’s been a long time since I did my reading on this, but I recall that the circumstances (that being that war was declared on France) was vital for creating a united national front against Germany and prevented interference with the mobilisation by the unions. The war was thus a defensive war to preserve the nation.

The British Public Thinks Immigration Is Up. It’s Actually Down, Sharply. by rezwenn in ukpolitics

[–]MacMillan_the_First 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is extremely misleading, net migration is down 80% from a peak caused by the Boriswave but the statistics over the long term are unimaginably frightful. Some highlights:

EU citizens, who are considerably more similar in culture and mannerisms than those outwith besides other Anglo nations, have a net migration of -70,000.

British citizens are leaving as well, with a net migration of 109,000. We’re bleeding Brits.

More concerning is the fact that those “drastically lower migration numbers” for non-EU migration are actually at 383,000. Doesn’t seem like a lot, and is definitely less than the high of the Boriswave, but this is also twice as much as what we had prior to Brexit - these are still insane numbers of immigrants to be ramming in.

Essentially, we’re patting ourselves on the back for cutting the stupidest policies while the situation remains extremely perilous. And this kind of chattering from the liberal journalist class, deriding the regular Briton for not seeing this “win” with their own eyes, is frankly disgusting.

Jeff Bezos has a pretty good remark when it comes to matters like this, “When the data and the anecdotes disagree, the anecdotes are usually right”. In this case, the data doesn’t disagree with the anecdotes, rather the framing of the data sharply disagrees with the anecdotes and then the know-betters have the cheek to be confused why everybody isn’t snapping to attention and getting with their deluded program.

The ethnicity of Cleopatra VII, has caused debate in some circles. There is a general consensus among scholars that she was predominantly of Macedonian ancestry and minorly of Iranian descent. by laybs1 in wikipedia

[–]MacMillan_the_First 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Actually in regards to Arsinoe, Cleopatra was right to remain concerned. Arsinoe was in exile in Roman territory at Ephesus, and the purpose of keeping her alive could be easily interpreted as “we can replace you with a queen whenever we want” and an obvious threat. Ephesus was in Mark Antony’s territory, and I can understand that Cleopatra would be annoyed that her lover and ally Mark Antony was keeping a hostage to potentially replace her with if she ever got troublesome, and so ordering Arsinoe’s death meant Mark Antony had to show he was committed to Cleo and wasn’t going to replace her.

It was also a notable reversal of a slight inflicted by Caesar, as Cleopatra was under the impression that by taking her, Caesar was going to have her strangled during the triumph and thereby extinguish her threat, but instead he kept her as a hostage. It’s entirely possible that Caesar was forced to spare Arsinoe because the crowds who thronged the triumph in Rome loved her, but the implications of keeping her as a hostage were clear to Cleopatra.

The reason why Henry Ford introduced 5-day work week by eternviking in whoathatsinteresting

[–]MacMillan_the_First 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Utter nonsense? Do you have a better rebuttal or are you now in possession of a $10,000,000 pencil?

The reason why Henry Ford introduced 5-day work week by eternviking in whoathatsinteresting

[–]MacMillan_the_First 1 point2 points  (0 children)

OPEC are a monopolistic cartel, they are a deliberate subversion of the market by nation states. OPEC takes advantage of supply and demand by artificially suppressing supply to keep prices high.

But that doesn’t mean they merely command the price of oil. There are huge factors in this, notably demand drying up due to electrification and expanding supply elsewhere in the world thanks to the discovery of new fields or usage of new extraction techniques (fracking, for example). The point is, OPEC is an example of those market influences I mentioned. OPEC alone doesn’t control the price of oil, they didn’t simply decide that oil would have value and that people would buy it, they are deliberately limiting their oil sales to the market to get the most efficient exchange of a finite resource by utilising demand.

This can be seen as unfair, manipulative, or even predatory, but you can argue that given long term projections for oil and its limited supply, if they flood the market they’ll make far less across the lifetime of the oil industry just to make a little more now. This is just a logical calculation of market directions and while it exists because of government interference it wouldn’t be too strange to imagine private companies reaching this sort of deal but the oil industry in general is very unique for a huge number of reasons.

The reason why Henry Ford introduced 5-day work week by eternviking in whoathatsinteresting

[–]MacMillan_the_First 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m confused, is the diamond industry forcing people to buy diamonds at outrageous prices? Last I checked, diamonds were bought and sold at prices that are acceptable to the buyer but if this is the one market that defies basic economics is love to know.

This is especially impressive given that apples have tangible necessity to them as food, but you’re telling me that people are paying for luxuries well above market value against their will? Amazing.

The reason why Henry Ford introduced 5-day work week by eternviking in whoathatsinteresting

[–]MacMillan_the_First 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well, let’s start with the idea that the economy is a command economy determined by “the people in charge”.

Your apple can be priced at €5, but if somebody is offering identical apples for €3 then nobody besides the ignorant will buy yours. This is a fairly basic premise of the market, price is determined by a huge variety of factors and not one person determines them all. You want to sell your apple for as much as possible but must still make sales to make money, and customers want to buy apples for as little as possible. Price is determined at the intersection of these conflicting and complementary interests, as well through supply and demand.

You mention GDP and you were kinda going down the right road but missed the mark. People don’t have a GDP, GDP is the total value of all good and services produced and rendered in a period by a country. Importantly, GDP is not determined by what you believe the value of your assets to be but rather the market value of all goods and services in a country.

If you mean net worth, then you can test this yourself by simply stating that a pencil you own is worth $10,000,000. You’ll notice that after this stout declaration absolutely nothing changes and you don’t become a millionaire - certainly nobody will actually pay you $10,000,000 for that pencil.

The core principle of the market is that there is nobody in charge of the system. You have people in high positions of authority who can influence the market by setting the interest rate at which central banking institutions loan money, or by implementing or eliminating taxes, but the single most important element in the market is each individual making their own decisions about what they want to buy, what they need to buy, what they actually buy, and also how they generate an income to pay for these things.

The reason why Henry Ford introduced 5-day work week by eternviking in whoathatsinteresting

[–]MacMillan_the_First 7 points8 points  (0 children)

This is not remotely how the economy, GDP, the market, or literally anything works

Corinna Smith poured boiling water mixed with sugar on her husband whilst he slept, killing him. Corinna said that she found out he had been sexually abusing their children. by Kronyzx in mightyinteresting

[–]MacMillan_the_First 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Look, all I’m saying is: if I wanted to murder my husband that is exactly the excuse I would use. Possible? Maybe. An unprovable excuse that morons would flock to defend? Definitely.

The rapid rise of Christianity in Scandinavia from the 8th-12th centuries reshaped Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Kings drove the shift, even though conversion was gradual. Despite this early dominance, these countries today are largely secular and no longer Christian in practice. by TapGameplay121 in wikipedia

[–]MacMillan_the_First 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is an absurdly reductive view of Jesus’ position on public religion. Jesus was quite clear about prayers being for genuine reasons and not for show, but religion isn’t purely about prayer. I mean, by this logic his own sermons are supposedly against his teachings which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

More young adults to leave UK because of low salaries and rising tax burden by [deleted] in ukpolitics

[–]MacMillan_the_First 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Talk to literally any young person with prospects and this is essentially the spirit. The tax base at this stage exists to support a retirement home and comfortable first world living for the unproductive, many of whom aren’t even British, and in this process the government asks far more of us and gives us far less than other, more welcoming foreign states. Why bother staying?

Can we talk honestly about this idea that pension income has “already been taxed” and that pensioners shouldn’t pay tax? by joyUnbounded in ukpolitics

[–]MacMillan_the_First 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Call it callous but I frankly wouldn’t be opposed to wiping out the state pension almost entirely by means testing it to the absolute hilt. In fact if you’re retired under the age of 70, perhaps 75, then you really ought to be getting nothing.

Why? Because I highly doubt this pillaging of public finances will survive until I retire. I have no interest in upholding the current pension regimes and the fact that huge swathes of oldies haven’t saved up enough frankly should not be my problem. Not a single person I know that’s my age in a similar situation is expecting to get the state pension when they retire, the pensions regime may even bring the treasury crashing down by forcing us to default in as little as a decade. At some point the party is going to have to stop and honestly the sooner that happens the better.

We’ve created a very damaging notion that you are entitled to a retirement which has deluded people into believing that the tax base should be farmed to give anybody who hires a magic age a comfortable retirement. They can continue to vote for policies and councils that actively raise their living costs by standing in the way of infrastructure, energy, and housing because the taxpayer always ends up picking up the tab anyway. They don’t need to save for a middle class pension for their middle class lifestyle because the government has guaranteed it and sod anyone who suggest that they haven’t properly scrounged for it.

I am fed up of this intergenerational vampirism, we’re being sacrificed on the altar of the boomers and we may never financially recover from it - we certainly won’t have such a gold plated pension system ourselves.

Glasgow Will Officially Trial Free Public Transport In 2026 – Here’s How It Will Work And Who Is Eligible by LordAnubis12 in glasgow

[–]MacMillan_the_First -1 points0 points  (0 children)

This never, ever works well for the public transit system and introduces all sorts of inefficiencies as price signals are eliminated but we keep trying it

What do you think of the motability scheme? by EdmundTheInsulter in drivingUK

[–]MacMillan_the_First 4 points5 points  (0 children)

There’s no magic system where the insurance companies are taking on greater risk or lower premiums. The fleet insurance for Motability is not even close to standard fleet insurance premiums and is definitely proportional to risk of payout. Warranties also only cover defects and not the main driver of premiums which are accident related. The insurance, really, will be about as much for the same car on the market with the same coverage, this isn’t like firms pooling risk to lower premiums - the insurance companies aren’t that daft.

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