Are there books in libraries? Yes, and the publishers don’t have to do a thing. And it is good for society. Similarly, can you fix an old car, even if the manufacturer went bankrupt? Of course you can.

We have precedent, my friend.

There are two different problems. One is easier to solve.

Who is “we”, my friend?

If only CO2’s warming properties had been discovered in 1856. If only good models of global warming had been created in 1896. If only those had happened, maybe society could have taken more substantial actions…

Your counterexample, “purchase a subscription”, actually undercuts the point you’re trying to make. The goal is honesty here. If you are renting or subscribing, you want to know that up front, in big text, using the simplest possible word. That word is “RENT”.

The issue about the lease business model being bad for society and consumers is also important, but it’s complicated and different from basic truth in advertising.

In the last six months, yes. It suggests short cuts that can create long delays. Shorter by miles, but often worse in the end.

I probably wouldn’t describe them as flawed, because the goal wasn’t and couldn’t ever be perfection, so then everything is flawed, but then is it really a flaw? It sounds like more of an issue of what’s useful in what type of situation.

You’re talking about the wrong thing. The Mozilla Foundation is and has been acting a fool in recent years. Firefox, the open source program, is doing mostly OK. Obviously the two are closely connected, but they’re definitely not the same thing, and this matters when discussing policy.

Now now. If Mozilla is breaking the law here, of course someone would report them for it. There’s no need to shoot the messenger when everything was predictable.

I appreciate your apprehension. Fortunately, you don’t need to speculate. Go try it and find out.

Stop buying the cheap ones. :-)

Think about the natural conclusion to the problem that you’re trying to address. What if we pay teenagers who don’t need the money less than everyone else. That would incentivize employers to … check notes … only hire teenagers who don’t need the money. Everyone else, who actually does need the money, they would have trouble finding a job. Facepalm.

Also. Because your teenagers are getting lucky, in that they have a family that’s paying all of their bills, you somehow wish that they weren’t getting lucky, and that some rich person was getting richer? Do I understand that correctly?

Furthermore. There might be value to your teens in working less so that they can do other things when they’re still teenagers. That might be something you would want to explore, since your family’s finances are in a solid state.

And hey, if you think your teenager is being overpaid, why don’t you encourage them to donate some of their money to charity?

In many other families, finances aren’t so strong. Maybe the parents can pay the bills, but if the kids want to go to college, they’ll have to take out student loans. Or they could start saving in high school, and use that money for college, or to get an apartment if they have to move out, or to buy a car, or whatever else they need after they graduate high school. All of a sudden the extra money sounds really important, doesn’t it.

And they could just regulate the tech itself, keep everyone safe, but no, they only block the Bad Countries. Because it’s about money. Nobody calling the shots cares about safety here.

I ate the chicken right after the cat. Sorry about that.

They are scared of losing power. Shitty rulers always are, because they know how bad they are, or at least they assume others would treat them just as badly if given the chance, which is almost synonymous.

I remember sex ed class having textbooks with drawings, not photographs. It wasn’t icky. The topic was awkward AF, of course… Well, I dunno what textbooks are like these days tho.

It ended OK after three weeks behind bars accused of murder? That’s not an OK end unless people get fired and she gets paid.

Russia has many different rich people in it. Some have more free cash than others, of course. It isn’t some monolithic entity.

I cannot. But he can, and somehow he’s really really bad at doing so!

For staple food items, especially things like eggs or bananas that were very cheap in the past, pointing to increasing prices is one way to make the cost of living figure easy to see and feel.

Using examples to illustrate a point is perfectly normal, both in politics and real life, and I expect people will continue to do so.