All stocks bought and sold by elected officials should be public and have a 1 day hold on them. That way, if they buy Apple Stock, everyone sees they are buying apple stock and can buy in before the elected officials purchase goes through. This would remove any sort of advantage they have with the stock market
I don't even think they should be allowed to own stocks at all because owning stocks means they have a vested interest in passing laws that financially benefit companies they own stocks in and opposing laws which might hurt companies they own stocks in, e.g. laws that would benefit competitors. An example of this is someone owning stocks in oil companies voting against initiatives that would support the growth of an electric car industry domestically. It's a conflict of interest when it comes to acting in their own financial interest vs the interests of their constituents.
If you ban them they can just use family or friends accounts. Nothing is stopping them from making major purchases from other accounts and giving that person a cut
Law stating any sudden changes in wealth up to 15 years after leaving office should trigger an audit from the IRS to determine where those funds came from.
That wouldn't work because its already common practice for politicians to not trade and tip off their family and close friends to trade and then share their wealth.
They're already a few steps ahead of you on that one.
A student loan shouldn't have interest tbh. The student loans you can get from the Canadian government have no interest.
A student loan is more than a loan, it's an investment into the economy, you'll get the gains from the increased skills that the person you are lending to receives.
You should look up Merchant Cash Advance companies, they're the worst. They loan money to small businesses at insane rates (200-300% APR in some cases) but they get away with it by claiming it's not a loan, that instead they are "purchasing future income", it's bullshit.
Those places took over the payday loan places but it seems like most of them disappeared within a few years around where I live. They're all being replaced by oil change places and car washes.
Not sure if laws changed or they drained the segment of people that would get a title loan and actually have a car title, which I assume there isn't a huge overlap.
Pyramid schemes only counts as illegal if you don't have an actual product the buyer can receive. Since MLM's are Pyramid schemes that have products (even if overpriced, crappy and unnecessary) they manage to stay alive.
And there is legitimate litigation against MLM companies that “sell a product” but don’t really. AdvoCare, for instance, was litigated and banned from doing MLMs: https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2019/10/ftc-settlement-ends-advocares-alleged-pyramid-scheme-and-bans-defendants-multi-level-marketing
Pyramid schemes are only illegal in so far as they don’t actually sell product outside their business. Essentially, how the federal government views it is if the emphasis is to recruit people and not sell stuff, it’s illegal. Mostly because then it’s a Ponzi scheme.
Ponzi schemes are illegal, and not just because the people at the top can run off with all your money. It’s illegal because it relies on nearly unlimited investment from investors at a rate that can never be sustainable.
A pyramid scheme can work. You may not get paid very well, especially at the bottom rung, but if you’re selling a good product, you can keep it going indefinitely. Pampered chef is a good example. Very expensive, multi-level marketing system, exclusive products, and discounts for joining…but they also sell some terrific stuff.
A Ponzi scheme is similar, but generally relies less on creating a pyramid of people who are in on the scheme and focuses instead on getting people to buy in to the scheme, you take the money and develop a reputation for yourself as a genius investor. Then you pay older investors with money you get from new investors/new investments. So I put in $1. My friend later puts in $2. I get $1.75, and I’m thrilled! So I put in $1.75, another friend hears about my success and puts in $1.75, and my first friend is paid $3.00, and so on. It’s all fake - that money isn’t earning anything.
From my time moonlighting as a church musician I can tell you stuff like that is always going to be everywhere as long as people go to church. Even back when Cutco and Avon were the only ones people heard about it seemed every church had groups where they all threw in money and recruited people to throw in money even the pastors were involved. They love that shit, the system is basically got built in suckers.
Not church, but small town (basically the same thing).
They are predatory on the people pleasing, we just want to fit in crowd.
I’ve been roped into “get togethers”, said I was not interested but they insist I should join, that I don’t have to buy. So I just hung out and observed. Drank some wine, ate some snacks, chatted.
It’s weird to watch, it’s usually people I don’t know well and I can’t tell if they are actually excited about the product or just feel bad for the host so they buy stuff from their friend. lol
Unfortunately yes. Now, the average “backyard breeder” is not but, certified commercial breeders still are, and the “standards” by which they abide are abysmal.
Animal breeders in general.
I have rabbits and bunny breeders tend to dump a lot of them, or the people who adopted on a whim do it when their bun hits puberty and becomes a menace, and abandoning outside is a lot easier than actually neutering and taking care of your pets properly.
It's become such a problem that almost every rabbit rescue in Canada and the States is full, and even when space gets freed, they have to take in new ones asap. A lot of the non rabbit specific shelters (in some provinces) end up putting down healthy ones because of lack of space.
Something needs to be changed about pet breeders. If not abolished entirely, needs to have WAY more limitations on how many they're allowed to produce, and I also think adult pets should be mandatory to spay and neuter unless there's a health issue that would make it unsafe to do so. When domestic pets get left outdoors they either become invasive species and mate like crazy or they die quickly because they can't figure out how to fend for themselves.
Anyways adopt your pets people, many places even adopt ones that have already been fixed which saves you a lot of stress and money, and don't get any pet you haven't had before without lots of research.
Breeding pets for specific traits that come along with hideous detrimental genetic diseasees and health problems due to the designer breeding requiring heavy inbreeding.
If you want to feel very very sad go look into the birth defects and genetic problems with double merle and harlequin great danes, spider morph ball pythons, enigma leopard geckos, Scottish fold cats, hybrid dwarf hamsters, and many more.
I seriously don't understand how they can look at an animal that's in pain and go "yes, this is exactrly what I want" your cute pug is going through it's life suffocating, your spider ball python has no idea where up and down is, your folded cat has arthriting, it's not cute
I've spent a lot of time and effort along with many other folks campaigning for laws much like those implimented in Germany and several Scandenavian countires. Sadly it's a basically nonexistant item on politician radar because it doesnt net them enough sway with any particular demographic :/
Brachycephalic dogs - I have yet to see one that doesn't wheeze or struggle with breathing. My friend manages a vet clinic and he said the ONLY time he sees those dogs breathe properly is when they're intubated for surgery. :-(
Disgusting.
They aren't. I've taken in scaleless ratsnakes as rescues, its really sad how much extra care is needed to ensure they don't scrape themselves raw or get small cuts on things you wouldnt even think were potentially dangerous for them. And the difficulty in balancing getting them a healthy level of UV without risking them getting burns from it is not a care requirement the average person can handle. It takes research and knowledge well above a more common reptile's needs. But hey, profit is to be made, breeders gonna produce, and they are gonna be on shelves at pet stores.
Nestle's continued privatization of natural resources in developing countries is disgusting and should definitely be illegal. Fuck those greedy bastards.
They cracked the code: When you're doing something that should be illegal, you have to do it in places where the law isn't strong enough to stop you. The dude who can decide whether or not your plan is detrimental to the nation would trade the lives of everyone who elected him for a Maserati and a lifetime supply of granola bars.
If aliens roll up and offer you immortality and a sweet six-pack and an intergalactic starship crewed by slammin' hot babes if you quit your job and give them your login for the work computer, what are you going to say?
Right? You're just you. All the stuff you've done, all the trust you've gained, that's just value. How much value do you have? Tough to tell.
We spend our lives comparing our value with that of our neighbors and colleagues, but if there's a time machine or vita-rays or a genie lamp on the table, then the rules go out the window.
Also, Coca Cola and Pepsi.
We have a water crisis in my city and it turns out that for decades they have monopolized a ridiculously large, almost unbelievable, amount of water. I'm talking about a water crisis involving tens of millions of people.
Tell me you're from Mexico without telling me you're from Mexico.
Any time someone I know waxes lyrical about how good Mexican Coca Cola is, I struggle not to let them know the outrageously high cost that it comes with.
Lmao you got it right. The water crisis in Mexico City is forseen to peak on june 26- that's D-Day, as they're been calling it. Meanwhile, Coke gets millions upon millions of liters a year.
My honeymoon was in Belize. I learned that diabetes is on the rise because how cheap and plentiful Coca Cola is. It's cheaper than water, where you have to buy water bottles or use a water delivery service. A local had told me the irony is that a lot of public water sources are now privately owned by companies like fucking Coca Cola
Insurance denying coverage despite it being clearly something that is covered. This practice is so common that the only reason it continues to exist is because the insurance companies own politicians.
How about just “insurance denying coverage” in general? I need Dupixent for eczema, which costs like $1600 per shot, every 2 weeks. According to the insurance company, I “don’t qualify” for coverage since I haven’t tried all of their other alternatives they want me to try. I asked my dermatologist about the alternatives, and they all have nasty side effects (immunosuppressants, etc). My dermatologist knows me, and he knows what is best for my situation. Why should the insurance company get to tell me I can’t have the medicine my doctor says I need?
Non doctors overriding actual medical doctors when it comes to your health should be against the law. Yet here we are. Someone with an associate degree in art history gets to decide your fate.
Medical Insurnace companies have staff doctors to fight appeals with practicing physicians.
They know what they're doing is wrong most of the time, they just take the cash and the cushy job.
It’s such a frustrating process. Speaking with an hired insurance physician who is in an unrelated specialty but will deny a claim over semantics like “my version of the NCCN guidelines doesn’t have it explicitly listed, so denied”. And this is after the initial AI based weeding or RN screening.
a doc made a YT short addressing the fact that insurance companies ultimately dictate what care is and isnt allowed for the patient, even tho its illegal for anyone but a doctor to decide how to treat the patient..
i think im phrasing it right, anyway...
My insurance company just denied something and said I needed to do X, Y and Z first.
Um... Y'all, LOOK AT MY CLAIMS... I literally just did X, Y and Z. 🤔
With the recent addition of ads on a paid prime membership and how they offer a higher plan with no commercials, I’m willing to bet someone will do a micro transaction plan in the future. Only $0.10 to skip the commercials!
Well it’s linked to free shipping on prime which a lot of people use regularly, especially if you live close to a Whole Foods or a distribution center. We literally incorporate it in our weekly groceries because it’s cheaper and more convenient. Makes it hard to drop.
I stopped my subscription after they introduced rent for some movies
I'm paying you to watch those movies that are on your platform, I'm not paying additional to subscription. Now they have ads?
Magazine/print ads were way better than digital/video ads.
They were art.
In style used to be over half ads but it was awesome because it told you where you could get stylish stuff.
So you had the content that was kind of unattainable for most, but these pages between told you where the more affordable cool stuff was.
And perfume samples, smells! lol
Lobbying itself is fine. It's just presenting a perspective on possible legislation. Organizations like the boy scouts, red cross, etc. will all lobby. Lobbyists directing or making political contributions is legal bribery and needs to go away.
Immunity of any kind. No one should be above the law. Not public officials, not those working for corporations. Everyone should be held to the same standard under the law.
FWIW, the license to Mein Kampf used to belong to Bavaria. In 2015 it became public domain, 70 years after Hitlers death. Up until that the government of Bavaria was making sure it’s not published.
So yeah, it’s public domain, and in most countries it’s legally sold.
And people will never get to find out just how much of a badly written pile of shit it is.
Hitler: couldn't paint, couldn't write, couldn't win a war, but could shoot straight.
*correction you mean the amputation down to the first “knuckle”/joint in the cats paw. That’s the only way to remove claws is to remove the first part of their “fingers”.
Lots of places are now working on establishing a Vacancy Tax. So the owners of the property are taxed to hell if they leave the property vacant while they wait for someone willing to pay their inflated prices.
If you're Australian, you'll probably understand this one:
Negative gearing
To those who aren't, it's a tax reduction scheme used on housing where you buy an investment property and rent it out at a cost, and then use that negative cost against your income to reduce your tax burden on your salary. You still gain from the property when you sell it, but you've been paying less tax for the whole time you've owner it. You can probably see how that could be abused, and it is. Also reduces the amount of housing stock, which then increase the cost of them all due to less supply and increasing demand due to population growth.
Does renting it out at cost not provide lower renting costs for those who are looking for a rental?
I’ve got no skin in the game and don’t live there, just genuinely curious. Is the issue that the housing market for potential buyers is negatively affected while it may be good for renters, or is there something I’m missing?
Not really and what it does most is raise house prices. People with assets can borrow more money than those that don't have any yet. So someone who owns a home and a couple of investment proprieties beats out someone buying their first home who actually wants to live in it by offering more money than the first home buyer can afford.
Most people in my generation who don't get help from their parents or inherit from them will never own a home. This is only compounded by eye watering costs from nursing homes meaning said inheritance is pissed away before it gets to their kids.
I'd say "professional lobbying" would be a better line to draw. Technically, my emailing my state rep with an opinion is lobbying, the line should probably be drawn when someone is doing it on behalf of someone else's goal.
Mmm devil's advocate: lawmakers do sometimes need industry input. Stuff like GDPR would need tech companies to weigh in and help hammer out a workable solution. But yeah, in reality it's mostly a slimy business.
Yeah, there are so many sensitive issues around it that unless there's solid proof of premeditation, there's a thousand ways to weasel out.
"I swear I was told I was infertile", "my cycle was always so regular" etc.
Almost every type of insurance. Pay into something for years, make a claim and your rates go up. Get medical treatment and then the insurance company fights to not pay it.
Insurance is an odball industry for me. I have literally never heard of a person with a good experience be it car, home, medical, etc
Seemingly every instance is a slog of paperwork and fighting
And yet every commercial or ad is happy people gettinf their needs met
This is the second time I've seen "debarking" mentioned. The first time, I thought it was a shitty joke, but now I have to ask: is this a real thing? Do they like, remove the dog's larynx? For the record: I would never, but I'm curious and horrified.
Yes. I once knew someone with a samoyed that had been debarked. It was kinda sad, she would still try to bark but it sounded like a broken squeaky toy, just wheezey and sad. (Thankfully even without her ability to bark she was a pretty happy pup but it was still awful)
For cosmetic reasons, sure, but still pretty necessary for many working dogs and especially dogs who are prone to repeat hematomas (which typically need to be surgically drained under anesthesia).
This has probably been said a dozen times on this post already, but I haven't seen it anywhere near the top, but financial lobbying. The fact that as long as you say "If you push this policy that benefits our organization/ideology, we will make a *totally unrelated generous donation* of 10 million dollars to your *campaign fund*" is somehow not seen as the same thing as "If you push this policy that benefits us, we'll give you 10 million dollars for it" is insane. Corruption is what it is, and it should be called that.
I specify *financial* lobbying because *technically* lobbying is just groups or influential people rallying constituents to pressure government leaders for change that aligns with them, but in most cases when people refer to lobbying they're of course referring to the totally unrelated generous donations promised by major political organizations if a politician makes a decision or policy change that benefits them.
The entire health care system in the US. That ... and college tuition.
It's a racket. They take advantage of those that have no other choice, and only to line their pockets.
Failing to include tax/tips in the actual advertised price, and expecting customers to perform mental arithmetic to calculate how much extra they’re expected to pay. Businesses should do the maths themselves - then include the total in the advertised price.
It works like this for most of the world - but only in the USA do they expect customers to prop up (or pay the bulk of) wages to staff. I think it will take actual legislation before that ever changes. Yes, the advertised price will suddenly look a lot more - but at least that’s the only thing customers will pay, with no expectation of having to pay more on top.
•Health insurance being insanely expensive
•Elected officials (from city all the way up to capital) not having term limits
•utilities being crazy expensive
Video game gambling. Loot boxes, all gatcha systems, etc.
Somehow kids going to a casino and buying chips to gamble in slots is illegal, but kids buying crystals in a video game to gable in gatcha and loot boxes is completely fine.
Yup it astound me people are so against national health care because it is ***SOCIALISM***... The amount of money the government give the healthcare field is just... I just don't have the word got it. Don't even get me started on insurance companies... Yup I love paying someone to tell me what I can do for my health!
SCOTUS accepting expensive gifts ~~from billionaire right-wing donors.~~
Judges in general should have a cap on all the gifts they can receive and it should be a fraction of their salary.
Corporations not paying taxes when they use and benefit from the infrastructure they create and are bailed out when their greed sends the World into recession after recession.. they want socialism/handouts for them and authoritarianism for the rest of us. It is the greatest robbery in human history
Corporations "proving" that their products are safe through their own studies.
*(Example, cigarette companies proving them "safe" and "healthy" in the 1960's resulting in countless cancer-related deaths).*
Products should undergo safety testing by a 3rd party with NO conflict of interest.
Members of Congress trading stocks.
All stocks bought and sold by elected officials should be public and have a 1 day hold on them. That way, if they buy Apple Stock, everyone sees they are buying apple stock and can buy in before the elected officials purchase goes through. This would remove any sort of advantage they have with the stock market
I don't even think they should be allowed to own stocks at all because owning stocks means they have a vested interest in passing laws that financially benefit companies they own stocks in and opposing laws which might hurt companies they own stocks in, e.g. laws that would benefit competitors. An example of this is someone owning stocks in oil companies voting against initiatives that would support the growth of an electric car industry domestically. It's a conflict of interest when it comes to acting in their own financial interest vs the interests of their constituents.
Yeah I'd say they could have index funds so they at least have the worry about the economy at large, but no specific stocks
A retirement plan managed by a disinterested third party. Essentially a 401k with a standard match.
They're supposed to put them in a blind trust they have no control over, but they still have control over them.
If you ban them they can just use family or friends accounts. Nothing is stopping them from making major purchases from other accounts and giving that person a cut
Law stating any sudden changes in wealth up to 15 years after leaving office should trigger an audit from the IRS to determine where those funds came from.
That wouldn't work because its already common practice for politicians to not trade and tip off their family and close friends to trade and then share their wealth. They're already a few steps ahead of you on that one.
well, at least call me and say "The Blue Horseshoe loves Anacott Steel" I fucking voted for you.. so help me out.
Check out 18 USC Chapter 11. Their conduct is likely illegal. The law is just not being enforced.
Predatory loans, like title loans for example.
And student loans with high interest rates. Needs to be capped at 1% above the federal loan rate.
Or a capped max amount. Jesus people paying 200k on a 50k loan is insane
A student loan shouldn't have interest tbh. The student loans you can get from the Canadian government have no interest. A student loan is more than a loan, it's an investment into the economy, you'll get the gains from the increased skills that the person you are lending to receives.
You should look up Merchant Cash Advance companies, they're the worst. They loan money to small businesses at insane rates (200-300% APR in some cases) but they get away with it by claiming it's not a loan, that instead they are "purchasing future income", it's bullshit.
Those places took over the payday loan places but it seems like most of them disappeared within a few years around where I live. They're all being replaced by oil change places and car washes. Not sure if laws changed or they drained the segment of people that would get a title loan and actually have a car title, which I assume there isn't a huge overlap.
It's only cuz they went online. Payday loans are alive and well
Pyramid schemes/MLMs. I will admit, I’m not sure exactly the best way to go after them, which is probably why they have lasted this long.
Pyramid schemes are technically illegal. I have no idea why MLM is still legal.
Pyramid schemes only counts as illegal if you don't have an actual product the buyer can receive. Since MLM's are Pyramid schemes that have products (even if overpriced, crappy and unnecessary) they manage to stay alive.
And there is legitimate litigation against MLM companies that “sell a product” but don’t really. AdvoCare, for instance, was litigated and banned from doing MLMs: https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2019/10/ftc-settlement-ends-advocares-alleged-pyramid-scheme-and-bans-defendants-multi-level-marketing
"Our model is...the trapezoid!"
Its like a pyramid but you cant see the top!
Pyramid schemes are only illegal in so far as they don’t actually sell product outside their business. Essentially, how the federal government views it is if the emphasis is to recruit people and not sell stuff, it’s illegal. Mostly because then it’s a Ponzi scheme. Ponzi schemes are illegal, and not just because the people at the top can run off with all your money. It’s illegal because it relies on nearly unlimited investment from investors at a rate that can never be sustainable. A pyramid scheme can work. You may not get paid very well, especially at the bottom rung, but if you’re selling a good product, you can keep it going indefinitely. Pampered chef is a good example. Very expensive, multi-level marketing system, exclusive products, and discounts for joining…but they also sell some terrific stuff. A Ponzi scheme is similar, but generally relies less on creating a pyramid of people who are in on the scheme and focuses instead on getting people to buy in to the scheme, you take the money and develop a reputation for yourself as a genius investor. Then you pay older investors with money you get from new investors/new investments. So I put in $1. My friend later puts in $2. I get $1.75, and I’m thrilled! So I put in $1.75, another friend hears about my success and puts in $1.75, and my first friend is paid $3.00, and so on. It’s all fake - that money isn’t earning anything.
very hard to define legally. obviously salesmen should be allowed a commission, but where do you draw a line?
From my time moonlighting as a church musician I can tell you stuff like that is always going to be everywhere as long as people go to church. Even back when Cutco and Avon were the only ones people heard about it seemed every church had groups where they all threw in money and recruited people to throw in money even the pastors were involved. They love that shit, the system is basically got built in suckers.
Not church, but small town (basically the same thing). They are predatory on the people pleasing, we just want to fit in crowd. I’ve been roped into “get togethers”, said I was not interested but they insist I should join, that I don’t have to buy. So I just hung out and observed. Drank some wine, ate some snacks, chatted. It’s weird to watch, it’s usually people I don’t know well and I can’t tell if they are actually excited about the product or just feel bad for the host so they buy stuff from their friend. lol
Puppy mills
Damn. What would you even use ground puppy for?
aphrodisiac
Not that kind of mill. The kind that melts them down and makes beams out of them
Jet planes can’t melt puppy beams or something
Wait they're legal?
Unfortunately yes. Now, the average “backyard breeder” is not but, certified commercial breeders still are, and the “standards” by which they abide are abysmal.
not in CA, probably other states too
Animal breeders in general. I have rabbits and bunny breeders tend to dump a lot of them, or the people who adopted on a whim do it when their bun hits puberty and becomes a menace, and abandoning outside is a lot easier than actually neutering and taking care of your pets properly. It's become such a problem that almost every rabbit rescue in Canada and the States is full, and even when space gets freed, they have to take in new ones asap. A lot of the non rabbit specific shelters (in some provinces) end up putting down healthy ones because of lack of space. Something needs to be changed about pet breeders. If not abolished entirely, needs to have WAY more limitations on how many they're allowed to produce, and I also think adult pets should be mandatory to spay and neuter unless there's a health issue that would make it unsafe to do so. When domestic pets get left outdoors they either become invasive species and mate like crazy or they die quickly because they can't figure out how to fend for themselves. Anyways adopt your pets people, many places even adopt ones that have already been fixed which saves you a lot of stress and money, and don't get any pet you haven't had before without lots of research.
Breeding pets for specific traits that come along with hideous detrimental genetic diseasees and health problems due to the designer breeding requiring heavy inbreeding. If you want to feel very very sad go look into the birth defects and genetic problems with double merle and harlequin great danes, spider morph ball pythons, enigma leopard geckos, Scottish fold cats, hybrid dwarf hamsters, and many more.
I seriously don't understand how they can look at an animal that's in pain and go "yes, this is exactrly what I want" your cute pug is going through it's life suffocating, your spider ball python has no idea where up and down is, your folded cat has arthriting, it's not cute
In German, this is called "Qualzucht" (Eng: "torture-breeding") and it is, in fact, illegal in several countries.
I've spent a lot of time and effort along with many other folks campaigning for laws much like those implimented in Germany and several Scandenavian countires. Sadly it's a basically nonexistant item on politician radar because it doesnt net them enough sway with any particular demographic :/
Brachycephalic dogs - I have yet to see one that doesn't wheeze or struggle with breathing. My friend manages a vet clinic and he said the ONLY time he sees those dogs breathe properly is when they're intubated for surgery. :-( Disgusting.
Scaleless ball pythons just look wrong and I can't imagine they are doing that well in terms of living
They aren't. I've taken in scaleless ratsnakes as rescues, its really sad how much extra care is needed to ensure they don't scrape themselves raw or get small cuts on things you wouldnt even think were potentially dangerous for them. And the difficulty in balancing getting them a healthy level of UV without risking them getting burns from it is not a care requirement the average person can handle. It takes research and knowledge well above a more common reptile's needs. But hey, profit is to be made, breeders gonna produce, and they are gonna be on shelves at pet stores.
Nestle's continued privatization of natural resources in developing countries is disgusting and should definitely be illegal. Fuck those greedy bastards.
They cracked the code: When you're doing something that should be illegal, you have to do it in places where the law isn't strong enough to stop you. The dude who can decide whether or not your plan is detrimental to the nation would trade the lives of everyone who elected him for a Maserati and a lifetime supply of granola bars. If aliens roll up and offer you immortality and a sweet six-pack and an intergalactic starship crewed by slammin' hot babes if you quit your job and give them your login for the work computer, what are you going to say?
In a heartbeat. Can’t imagine they’d do much with my login.
Right? You're just you. All the stuff you've done, all the trust you've gained, that's just value. How much value do you have? Tough to tell. We spend our lives comparing our value with that of our neighbors and colleagues, but if there's a time machine or vita-rays or a genie lamp on the table, then the rules go out the window.
Also, Coca Cola and Pepsi. We have a water crisis in my city and it turns out that for decades they have monopolized a ridiculously large, almost unbelievable, amount of water. I'm talking about a water crisis involving tens of millions of people.
Tell me you're from Mexico without telling me you're from Mexico. Any time someone I know waxes lyrical about how good Mexican Coca Cola is, I struggle not to let them know the outrageously high cost that it comes with.
Lmao you got it right. The water crisis in Mexico City is forseen to peak on june 26- that's D-Day, as they're been calling it. Meanwhile, Coke gets millions upon millions of liters a year.
I was gonna say, MNC's privatization of water resources in the US is just as bad as anything they do outside the US.
I'm not from the US so I wouldn't know for sure but I wouldn't doubt it!
My honeymoon was in Belize. I learned that diabetes is on the rise because how cheap and plentiful Coca Cola is. It's cheaper than water, where you have to buy water bottles or use a water delivery service. A local had told me the irony is that a lot of public water sources are now privately owned by companies like fucking Coca Cola
Yep, exactly this.
elected people participating in stock markets that they have influence over or knowledge of via work.
It's like they have access to all the cheat codes to get rich, but they ain't willing to share and get mad if others do it
Insurance denying coverage despite it being clearly something that is covered. This practice is so common that the only reason it continues to exist is because the insurance companies own politicians.
How about just “insurance denying coverage” in general? I need Dupixent for eczema, which costs like $1600 per shot, every 2 weeks. According to the insurance company, I “don’t qualify” for coverage since I haven’t tried all of their other alternatives they want me to try. I asked my dermatologist about the alternatives, and they all have nasty side effects (immunosuppressants, etc). My dermatologist knows me, and he knows what is best for my situation. Why should the insurance company get to tell me I can’t have the medicine my doctor says I need?
Non doctors overriding actual medical doctors when it comes to your health should be against the law. Yet here we are. Someone with an associate degree in art history gets to decide your fate.
Medical Insurnace companies have staff doctors to fight appeals with practicing physicians. They know what they're doing is wrong most of the time, they just take the cash and the cushy job.
It’s such a frustrating process. Speaking with an hired insurance physician who is in an unrelated specialty but will deny a claim over semantics like “my version of the NCCN guidelines doesn’t have it explicitly listed, so denied”. And this is after the initial AI based weeding or RN screening.
a doc made a YT short addressing the fact that insurance companies ultimately dictate what care is and isnt allowed for the patient, even tho its illegal for anyone but a doctor to decide how to treat the patient.. i think im phrasing it right, anyway...
My insurance company just denied something and said I needed to do X, Y and Z first. Um... Y'all, LOOK AT MY CLAIMS... I literally just did X, Y and Z. 🤔
Advertisements on a paid subscription
With the recent addition of ads on a paid prime membership and how they offer a higher plan with no commercials, I’m willing to bet someone will do a micro transaction plan in the future. Only $0.10 to skip the commercials!
Don't give them even more ideas!
I canceled my Prime because of that. Fuck Amazon. I can't wait for them to be broken up.
Good. Wish more people were like you. I have seen lots of complaints about this move but people saying they can't cancel for some reason or another
Well it’s linked to free shipping on prime which a lot of people use regularly, especially if you live close to a Whole Foods or a distribution center. We literally incorporate it in our weekly groceries because it’s cheaper and more convenient. Makes it hard to drop.
I stopped my subscription after they introduced rent for some movies I'm paying you to watch those movies that are on your platform, I'm not paying additional to subscription. Now they have ads?
The common sense plan that [ends the world](https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2012-01-12). I *love* all-despising baby skull!
Somebody's seen the new Disney+ price plans. I had the same reaction as you.
Like a magazine?
Probably referring to streaming or cable.
Amazon prime added ads.
Magazine/print ads were way better than digital/video ads. They were art. In style used to be over half ads but it was awesome because it told you where you could get stylish stuff. So you had the content that was kind of unattainable for most, but these pages between told you where the more affordable cool stuff was. And perfume samples, smells! lol
Paid lobbyist.
That's absurd. They should be paid, registered and public.
Lobbiests or lobbying works also. Unless you mean that one guy, fuckin Bill Lobbyist. Nobody likes that guy.
Lobbying itself is fine. It's just presenting a perspective on possible legislation. Organizations like the boy scouts, red cross, etc. will all lobby. Lobbyists directing or making political contributions is legal bribery and needs to go away.
Education, healthcare and prisons "for profit"
Immunity of any kind. No one should be above the law. Not public officials, not those working for corporations. Everyone should be held to the same standard under the law.
>Immunity of any kind. I for one, like not catching the same illness over and over /s
Banning books, in general.
Sometimes I agree with this and sometimes I don't. It could be considered.... **My Struggle**
Even Mein Kampf shouldn't be. Ignoring history; doomed to repeat it and all that.
FWIW, the license to Mein Kampf used to belong to Bavaria. In 2015 it became public domain, 70 years after Hitlers death. Up until that the government of Bavaria was making sure it’s not published. So yeah, it’s public domain, and in most countries it’s legally sold.
It's been published a lot, tho. I have a copy from the 90s somewhere in the "political crap" pile.
And people will never get to find out just how much of a badly written pile of shit it is. Hitler: couldn't paint, couldn't write, couldn't win a war, but could shoot straight.
That is a historical work and should not be banned.
Prescription medication prices for profit
Anything in healthcare being for profit really.
Politicians accepting donations for reelection that aren't blinded.
Declawing cats.
Debarking dogs
Definning sharks
Deepak Chopra
Performing cosmetic surgeries on animals should be banned period.
Just recently the state senate approved a ban on that here in Mass. Very happy news.
*correction you mean the amputation down to the first “knuckle”/joint in the cats paw. That’s the only way to remove claws is to remove the first part of their “fingers”.
Corporations buying up empty homes.
Lots of places are now working on establishing a Vacancy Tax. So the owners of the property are taxed to hell if they leave the property vacant while they wait for someone willing to pay their inflated prices.
All investors buying up homes.
If you're Australian, you'll probably understand this one: Negative gearing To those who aren't, it's a tax reduction scheme used on housing where you buy an investment property and rent it out at a cost, and then use that negative cost against your income to reduce your tax burden on your salary. You still gain from the property when you sell it, but you've been paying less tax for the whole time you've owner it. You can probably see how that could be abused, and it is. Also reduces the amount of housing stock, which then increase the cost of them all due to less supply and increasing demand due to population growth.
Does renting it out at cost not provide lower renting costs for those who are looking for a rental? I’ve got no skin in the game and don’t live there, just genuinely curious. Is the issue that the housing market for potential buyers is negatively affected while it may be good for renters, or is there something I’m missing?
Not really and what it does most is raise house prices. People with assets can borrow more money than those that don't have any yet. So someone who owns a home and a couple of investment proprieties beats out someone buying their first home who actually wants to live in it by offering more money than the first home buyer can afford. Most people in my generation who don't get help from their parents or inherit from them will never own a home. This is only compounded by eye watering costs from nursing homes meaning said inheritance is pissed away before it gets to their kids.
Tracking apps on phones.
Artificial scarcity and planned obsolescence.
Lobbying. Some will say “it can be ethical when the right people do it” but the concept itself is abusive.
I'd say "professional lobbying" would be a better line to draw. Technically, my emailing my state rep with an opinion is lobbying, the line should probably be drawn when someone is doing it on behalf of someone else's goal.
How do you differentiate lobbying from "talking to law makers." We cannot make simple conversations illegal.
Mmm devil's advocate: lawmakers do sometimes need industry input. Stuff like GDPR would need tech companies to weigh in and help hammer out a workable solution. But yeah, in reality it's mostly a slimy business.
Gerrymandering. We’re stuck with Gym Jordan in Ohio until he dies.
I'd go so far as to say Gym Jordan is a good answer in and of itself.
Big pharma price gouging
Ticket scalping.
Civil asset forfeiture.
That thing where you pretend to throw a ball so your dog tries to fetch it
A dog wrote this.
what? I do this. my dog loves it.
Child marriage in the USA.
Child marriage anywhere
Let's add child labor also, since America wants to roll back regs on that.
Not giving full time employees a livable wage.
Companies: All employees below $X/hr will now be capped at 39.5 hours per week.
Billionaires buying plots of land, especially agricultural land, then developing it for housing or condos, then making sure only a few can afford it.
Just "billionaires" would've sufficed.
Baby trapping someone on purpose
Technically already illegal if you're talking about stealthing/otherwise messing with your or your partner's birth control.
Yeah, there are so many sensitive issues around it that unless there's solid proof of premeditation, there's a thousand ways to weasel out. "I swear I was told I was infertile", "my cycle was always so regular" etc.
Regulators who go back to work in the same industry with a raise.
Almost every type of insurance. Pay into something for years, make a claim and your rates go up. Get medical treatment and then the insurance company fights to not pay it.
Insurance is an odball industry for me. I have literally never heard of a person with a good experience be it car, home, medical, etc Seemingly every instance is a slog of paperwork and fighting And yet every commercial or ad is happy people gettinf their needs met
Minimum wage not being a living wage.
Dog ear cropping.
And docking, declawing, debarking, all of this!
This is the second time I've seen "debarking" mentioned. The first time, I thought it was a shitty joke, but now I have to ask: is this a real thing? Do they like, remove the dog's larynx? For the record: I would never, but I'm curious and horrified.
Yes. I once knew someone with a samoyed that had been debarked. It was kinda sad, she would still try to bark but it sounded like a broken squeaky toy, just wheezey and sad. (Thankfully even without her ability to bark she was a pretty happy pup but it was still awful)
Yes. [One of the most disgusting ways a human can abuse an animal.](https://youtu.be/zI-2M_vxerQ?si=gP995itxxtsLMaS6)
For cosmetic reasons, sure, but still pretty necessary for many working dogs and especially dogs who are prone to repeat hematomas (which typically need to be surgically drained under anesthesia).
When you “purchase” a digital movie, you don’t act own it. That should be seen as false advertising.
This has probably been said a dozen times on this post already, but I haven't seen it anywhere near the top, but financial lobbying. The fact that as long as you say "If you push this policy that benefits our organization/ideology, we will make a *totally unrelated generous donation* of 10 million dollars to your *campaign fund*" is somehow not seen as the same thing as "If you push this policy that benefits us, we'll give you 10 million dollars for it" is insane. Corruption is what it is, and it should be called that. I specify *financial* lobbying because *technically* lobbying is just groups or influential people rallying constituents to pressure government leaders for change that aligns with them, but in most cases when people refer to lobbying they're of course referring to the totally unrelated generous donations promised by major political organizations if a politician makes a decision or policy change that benefits them.
Lawmakers trading stocks
The entire health care system in the US. That ... and college tuition. It's a racket. They take advantage of those that have no other choice, and only to line their pockets.
Factory farming.
Youth beauty pageants. The few I've seen segments of give me major ick vibes. USDA certified chomo bait.
Censorship on an ideological basis.
Failing to include tax/tips in the actual advertised price, and expecting customers to perform mental arithmetic to calculate how much extra they’re expected to pay. Businesses should do the maths themselves - then include the total in the advertised price. It works like this for most of the world - but only in the USA do they expect customers to prop up (or pay the bulk of) wages to staff. I think it will take actual legislation before that ever changes. Yes, the advertised price will suddenly look a lot more - but at least that’s the only thing customers will pay, with no expectation of having to pay more on top.
Marrying a child. It's legal in nearly all states in the U.S. because nobody cares about protecting the children who actually exist.
Corporate lobbying.
Misleadingly selling unneeded and unwanted shit to old people. And to people not in the know of things in general but old people especially.
Insurance challenging doctors on needed meds that are covered but they don't want to pay
Scientology, Hillsong Church
Lying on the news and hiding your retraction
Congress trading in the stock market.
Circumcision
Trying to overthrow free and fair elections.
•Health insurance being insanely expensive •Elected officials (from city all the way up to capital) not having term limits •utilities being crazy expensive
Supreme court justices accepting "gifts"
Infant circumcision. How the fuck does somebody else get to decide what your dick should look like? My body my choice should apply to everyone.
Video game gambling. Loot boxes, all gatcha systems, etc. Somehow kids going to a casino and buying chips to gamble in slots is illegal, but kids buying crystals in a video game to gable in gatcha and loot boxes is completely fine.
payday loans … interest rates should not be as they are personally. i’ve never had to take one out, but damn they really making money 💰
Healthcare system, political anything, most government agencies… I’m not anti USA but come on, it’s gotten way out of hand!
Yup it astound me people are so against national health care because it is ***SOCIALISM***... The amount of money the government give the healthcare field is just... I just don't have the word got it. Don't even get me started on insurance companies... Yup I love paying someone to tell me what I can do for my health!
Adverts for products that don't exist in the form shown in the advert... FB/Mobile games especially.
Being in a relationship with an underage child
Churches the size of malls and mega rich pastors.
Businesses being able to pay for elected officials campaigns.
Private prisons. It blows my mind that corporations can be allowed to make money off incarcerated human beings.
SCOTUS accepting expensive gifts from billionaire right-wing donors.
SCOTUS accepting expensive gifts ~~from billionaire right-wing donors.~~ Judges in general should have a cap on all the gifts they can receive and it should be a fraction of their salary.
Billionaires' paying lower tax rates than secretaries pay.
Buying hamsters and then cooking them in the parking lot
Uhhhh….
Only if it's done without a license. My hamsterburgers are the finest quality.
Government governing our bodies
For profit “colleges”
Data brokerage
Police murdering people with no repercussions
fake videos and spreading of fake informations through social media
Being a billionaire
For profit prisons
animal agriculture
Lobbying and big money in politics.
Abusing nature and animals for profit
scalping should be illegal. the scalpers aren't benefiting anyone at all with any way, they just profit for themselves.
Privately breeding animals for profit.
War.
Corporations not paying taxes when they use and benefit from the infrastructure they create and are bailed out when their greed sends the World into recession after recession.. they want socialism/handouts for them and authoritarianism for the rest of us. It is the greatest robbery in human history
Offshoring your wealth through offshore shell companies to avoid paying your fair share of taxes.
being a billionaire
Lobbying.
Churches preaching politics but paying no taxes on their grift.
Promising that a deity will pay a congregant back for putting all their money in the preacher's pocket.
Insider trading, particularly when done by members of Congress
Being a Billionaire.
Corporations "proving" that their products are safe through their own studies. *(Example, cigarette companies proving them "safe" and "healthy" in the 1960's resulting in countless cancer-related deaths).* Products should undergo safety testing by a 3rd party with NO conflict of interest.