turboSnail

I’m just thinking that people with extreme tastes might want to visit USA exactly because there’s a good chance you’ll never return.

Some people also visit North Korea. Is that insane too?

Yeah, I guess we need a third category then. What they’re currently doing involves overproduction at first, but that is later turned into artificial scarcity by destroying the products. How’s “extra wasteful, diabolical scarcity” for a term?

And the decision is always guided by greed and complete disregard for sustainability.

Here’s an idea. Instead of having artificial scarcity, they could have actual scarcity. Don’t manufacture 10 000 super fancy shirts. Make only 500. They will run out sooner than anyone wants, you’ll still make absurd profits and customers are left wanting more. When the next season rolls around, you make 500 of the same shirt, but in a different color. Charge 2x more than last time, but you’ll be able to sell them anyway now that people know how fast they disappeared last time.

Side note: Making stuff to feed the vanity of millionaires is revolting, but at least this way it doesn’t have to be so wasteful.

I think Antarctica is the best. No people, no healthcare, no wait time.

On the other hand, people say that private healthcare is more efficient than a centrally governed public one. Don’t know if that’s actually true or not, but that’s the argument used in these kinds of debates.

Obviously, US is a total exception, and that argument clearly doesn’t apply. Just look at those absurd prices and tell me how that’s efficient. In a European context though, people routinely claim that public healthcare is somehow inefficient, low quality etc. Regardless, IMO public healthcare is still great because it’s available to everyone. Although, in recent years I’ve heard quite a few stories of pretty brutal prioritization. If your head isn’t about to fall off, you’ll be at the back of the queue for a long time. Actually, there are also situations where people fall outside a specific cutoff and they aren’t sick enough to receive any treatment in the public sector. Well, I guess that’s resource optimization, but it is very sad as well.

Long ago, many people said they would move to Canada. I wonder if they did, though.

Exactly. It’s one of those “I know it when I see it” type of things rather than a solid definition. Like Froot Loops definitely are UPF, but what about a salad in a plastic box? Sure, it’s been through a factory where it got chopped, mixed and packaged. That’s industrial scale food processing too, right?