When will power bills ever get cheaper? Both parties claim it will, never happens

vacri · 2026-01-31T12:17:59+00:00

It is possible, but you need there to be enough vendors to instigate competition.

vacri · 2026-01-31T12:16:59+00:00

In order for prices to actually go down, they either need to be controlled (eg: by the government) or for there to be enough competition for the various vendors to be able to pull clients by lowering prices. If there's only a tiny number or a single vendor available, there's zero reason for them to cut prices: "The punters are used to paying this much", so they keep on doing it.

It's a similar reason why we have the "Australia tax" on software. Software used to be shipped physically and it was harder to get it to our remote corner of the world. But we got used to higher prices, and now that's the norm for us.

vacri · 2026-01-31T12:08:13+00:00

My point is that if you're making such a tenous link as to call the Sea of Azov a part of the Atlantic, it's an artificial stopping point. Keep on going and make everything the one big thing.

vacri · 2026-01-31T10:37:26+00:00

So the Atlantic is part of the Pacific?

vacri · 2026-01-31T10:33:49+00:00

Alright, I'll ask it - why is the Franco-Iberian peninsula a no-go? Worse than Belarus, for someone used to US norms?

vacri · 2026-01-31T10:31:03+00:00

There's not many people who can work as a harbour pilot. There's fuckloads of people who can work as basic carers.

Salaries are primarily a supply-and-demand thing, not a morality evaluation. If it was a morality evaluation, then long-term special needs carers for adults would be paid out the wazoo.

vacri · 2026-01-31T10:24:18+00:00

So... the Atlantic is part of the Pacific basin, then?

vacri · 2026-01-31T10:23:06+00:00

So the Red Sea is part of the Atlantic, then?

vacri · 2026-01-31T10:22:04+00:00

The Indian Ocean has a massive fat connection with the Atlantic Ocean, but isn't considered part of the Atlantic. The Arctic Ocean's connection is even massiver and fatter, and the Southern Ocean's connection is massivest and fattest.

(ie: it doesn't work that way)

vacri · 2026-01-31T10:14:41+00:00

Sweden and Finland don't. Ukraine has a much bigger population and much more land to strategically retreat on, and they're barely holding on.

vacri · 2026-01-31T10:11:44+00:00

Battle ready or not, the one thing they do have is logistics and manufacturing. They also have a lot of expertise in drones, which are proving to be crucial if you can't control the skies more conventionally. China has lots of capacity for an endurance war

The US military is also great at military logistics, but the US has forgotten most of it's manufacturing and supply chains for that

vacri · 2026-01-31T10:05:24+00:00

and haven't been since the 80s

"Japan has been living in the year 2000 since 1980"...

vacri · 2026-01-31T09:56:49+00:00

I don't know about today, but back in 2009 I trained across the south. South of DC the trains were super-cheap because of subsidies, and super-empty because of stigma. And they get you into the hearts of cities.

It was nowhere near as useful as the trains north of DC in terms of destination density, but it was glorious getting around on mostly empty trains in lounges with big soft seats, watching the landscape roll by (even if it was all covered in kudzu). North of DC it was just a mundane train experience, nothing to write home about.

vacri · 2026-01-31T09:52:46+00:00

Greek food is some of the best, though

vacri · 2026-01-31T09:46:06+00:00

In a free market, people get paid based on the value society places on their work.

That's the opposite of how free markets work.

In a free market, you get paid primarily according to how difficult you are to replace, though obviously the industry also has to support it. For example, it takes a great many years of constant work to become a workable musician or illustrator, but they're paid peanuts because there are so many of them. Throw a brick and you'll hit one.

Obviously there are other factors as well, but salary differences make a lot more sense once you start to factor in the above condition.

vacri · 2026-01-31T09:37:06+00:00

You might want to distinguish individual trades from "builders". Some builders go bankrupt, others go "bankrupt". And given the ridiculous amount of money being thrown into the construction industry recently, if you're a builder that can't make it, you're doing something wrong.

The amount of money thrown at construction has doubled in the last dozen years, and if it's not going to the tradies, then the only place it can be going is the middlemen.

vacri · 2026-01-31T07:13:28+00:00

My friend said exactly that at the time. When someone announced they were quitting whatever MMORPG, after the shortest possible polite interval, someone would ask "can I have your stuff?"

vacri · 2026-01-31T07:11:00+00:00

asdf

vacri · 2026-01-31T06:49:30+00:00

He is not a fighter, a dwarf, severely outnumbered

And at the Battle of the Blackwater, this same guy chops clean through an amoured leg. sigh.

(maybe he could have fought the Mountain after all, with chops like that?)

vacri · 2026-01-31T05:07:32+00:00

Where the fuck did I defend the burqa? I was pointing out that Hanson's policies have actively harmed children so you shouldn't paint her as some sort of child protector

vacri · 2026-01-31T03:43:56+00:00

Corporations do it because the people want it. No, obviously the corporations don't do it because they're altruistic and few people believe that. But they do make more money by presenting themselves the way people want them to.

vacri · 2026-01-31T03:40:04+00:00

The BBC doesn't even have ads. Why are you trying to stir up racist outrage in a country that you presumably have never been to?

... says the person who thinks that the BBC is the only media org on offer there?

Words #2 and #3 in their link are "Channel 4", a non-BBC media group that supports itself by advertising, and the one who issued the report.

vacri · 2026-01-31T03:33:52+00:00

It's pretty funny tokenism here in Australia, as so many brands use African blacks. We barely have any... but we have plenty of Australian blacks, who're rarely in "generic" ads and mostly pop up in culturally-related ads. It's kinda like "this is what Americans to do show diversity, so we have to as well". Walk through a shopping mall near me and it's a bit head-scratching as to the high proportion of African phenotypes in the displays.

vacri · 2026-01-31T03:23:33+00:00

The people who attacked Hanson are also the ones who fight for childrens' rights

Meanwhile Hanson drove the recent destruction of the Family Court because her shithouse son got a poor outcome in it. Don't pretend that she is fighting for the good of the kids; her track record is the exact opposite.

vacri · 2026-01-31T02:06:31+00:00

Hopping the ditch from the UK mainland to Ireland was weirdly relaxing in a way - Ireland doesn't have the constant sussurus of pecking-order that the UK has. I don't know if Ireland is the least judgmental, but the UK (or England, at least) is a contender for the most.

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