jogjayr

If you buy MSFT specifically you'll get regular, fairly predictable dividend payments and not just an unknown amount of money in the future.

MSFT goes up a tiny fraction when you buy. That means MSFT employees with stock grants get a tiny "raise" courtesy of you and with no cost to the company. Microsoft can also use their more expensive stock to make acquisitions. So you are contributing to the company's productive use in at least 2 ways if you buy its stock.

Buying MSFT doesn't meet the criteria to be called gambling, for me.

how common was it for farmers to take orders from another man like he was their boss?

Historically most farmers were some form of serf. So I think it was common.

This page https://www2.calrecycle.ca.gov/BevContainer/InStoreRedemptio... says regular stores take them too.

And the recycling center I went to was right smack in the middle of South Bay. Not inconvenient.

California - you pay 5 or 10 cents but there is no practical way to redeem it

I once brought my cans to a recycling center and got paid. This was in the Bay Area. For the cost of driving it is uneconomical unless you bring hundreds of cans. Someone with a bike and trailer could make it work.

Speaking from experience, both are necessary. Public childcare and afterschool programs aren't a replacement for quality time with grandparents. They also don't cover weekends or evenings like grandparents can do.

A professional usually needs a tool when they need it and can't rely on the vagaries of availability at a library. And it's easy to kick out someone who checks out a tool all year.

Most consumable parts can be excluded from lending. Batteries are trickier.

I like tool libraries. I belong to one myself. But I also own some tools, like a car jack and and torque wrench, even though I use them exactly twice a year.

If I relied on the tool library for those, they'd be checked out all month when I most needed them to put on or remove winter tires.

Who would even want a Waymo in Mumbai? Human-driven taxis and autorickshaws there are cheap and comfortable. Public transit is fast and low-latency.

It seems perfect for cities without cheap taxis or fast public transit.

Disclosure: I'm a Googler but have no inside knowledge of Waymo.

Waymo works where it works and it's useful where it works. Can a Mumbai autorickshaw handle an American freeway? Does that make it a pointless vehicle?

I, a human who learned to drive in Mumbai, can't handle driving in Mumbai anymore.

A french door refrigerator with ice maker costs about $25 per month to run

Which one?

Money quote:

“As automakers were profit maximizing during the supply chain crisis era, you are going to prioritize the bigger vehicles, the more expensive vehicles with their higher margins,” Tyson Jominy, vice president of data and analytics at J.D. Power, told me. “Now we just don’t have” these cheaper models.

a $1M house bought with $100K down and $900K mortgage is a worse deal for the seller as compared to $500K down and $500K financed.

Do sellers in the US know how large your down payment is? AFAIK that's not a thing in Canada. Offers either have a financing condition, or don't. If the offer doesn't have a financing condition, the buyer might be paying cash. But they could just be trying to present an offer with better terms, gambling that they'll definitely find financing somewhere or the other.

But that $2k a year?

$18 * 12 = $216

Like I said it's non-zero value. But is it more value than a fair wage, negotiated without artificial restrictions? Why can't they grant the athletes admission and give them the option of either studying tuition-free, or pay tuition but earn a salary for playing?

Sorry it sounded like you were saying there isn't a problem because you said

there is no real wage theft occurring

I know you qualified it with

Outside of top men's basketball and football programs

But that was my point. Where no one's making money, no one's making money.

It's non-zero value, but we can't say it's the market-clearing price for their services. And anecdotally the quality of that education is compromised.

Student-athletes in the serious football and basketball programs spend a lot of their time at practice. During the season, travel to away games eats up much of their free time. They're "encouraged" to take only easy courses. There are reports of grading corruption so their GPA is high enough to remain eligible to play.

The USA wasn't plundered as a colony.

Singapore allows visa-free travel to passport holders from 159 countries + many more with an e-visa or visa on arrival.

The UK allows only 83 countries' passport holders visa-free.

I picked Singapore at random. Probably some other country is even more visitor-friendly.

https://embassies.net/singapore-visa-exemption

https://embassies.net/united-kingdom-visa-exemption

Outside of the places where money is being made, money is not being made.

Edit: but even when money is being made, the athletes don't get it.

In Canada we get a carbon tax rebate, fixed per-head. A family of four will get up to $1800 in 2024-25, and rural areas get more than everyone else. High income households consume more of everything than low income households overall, so they still pay more carbon tax in absolute terms. Meanwhile the tax rebate is not income based. It balances out some of the regressiveness of the carbon tax.

https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2024/02/can...

EV subsidies can help build demand for the vehicles. As adoption grows, charging becomes more widely available and manufacturing costs come down with volume.

You always need a license to fly your own plane. You don't always need a license to do your own plumbing. There might be many test pilots or double-phds fixing the plumbing on their houses without telling anyone.

Loblaws is a luxury retailer

Is that why they own the chain "No Frills"?

with a limited set of stores

Only in the sense that it is a finite number of stores. Loblaw Companies is Canada's largest food retailer.

It isn't a truism. Summer is when the weather is good.

we should ban lava too

Have we not already? That seems like an oversight...

I agree. It would be much better if wealthy nations subsidized clean energy technology for developing countries so that they can leapfrog the fossil fuel stage.

As an Indian immigrant to Canada, it is frustrating to see people believe it's a choice. I also hear a lot of hate for the carbon tax and rebate program in Canada. I support the program, even though it costs me money.

someone who lives in Canada and has spend so much money

Which means Canada has money. India is much poorer on a per-capita basis. They can become wealthy by developing their economy. India can't spend as much per-capita on clean energy as Canada or any other wealthy nation.

India has much more to lose from climate change compared to Canada. The heatwaves are already horrific, and many cities have water supply problems so drought due to climate change could spell disaster.

The air quality in most Indian cities is terrible. No one is burning coal for fun.

Gasoline is CA$1.81/l in Mumbai, in a country with a fraction of the per-capita income of Canada. Cars are much smaller on average and most people take public transport.

The electricity grid isn't as reliable as Canada and of course most people don't live in houses. It's mostly apartments, often with no assigned parking. Despite that I saw many electric cars and scooters on my last trip, even in small towns. I don't know how they charge. But I began to question why the US or Canada can't build enough charging for apartment-dwellers.

The "choice" India and China are making is no choice at all. They can either develop their economies or languish in poverty. Poverty means less food, less medical care, less education. It means lower life expectancy, higher infant and maternal mortality, an overall lower quality of life. Staying poor means when climate change gets worse, they'll have less money to mitigate it.

If you want developing countries to decrease their carbon emissions, invest in cheaper clean energy. Support programs and policies that give developing countries subsidies on clean energy technologies.

That's fair. Most of the popular soft drinks today were invented in the US - Pepsi, Sprite, Dr. Pepper, 7-up, Slice, Dr. Pepper.

They're all popular drinks associated with their respective food cultures. That's all. I'm not comparing the skill in manufacturing Coke vs beer or wine.

Inventing Coke, toaster pastries, and breakfast cereals was neither quick, nor easy. And drinks are a part of cuisine. If we can't count Coke, we also can't include French wine-making or German brewing.

What's a "cultural food"?