Is the US a dystopia?

the entire phenomenon of having to pay 'subscriptions' for things one 'owns' to fully work is indeed dystopian, but it's not really limited to the US

that's capitalism, baby

am i really "alive" this month? or am i actually just 1/840th alive for my life

I was kind of annoyed when that movie Repo Men came out cos they didn't go far enough with the concept, but like we're probably a year or two away from heart transplants being ripped out of you for failing to make a hospital bill payment.

schroedinger's infinitesimal z_tbd

oh, Wikipedia tells me that Repo! The Genetic Opera has a similar plot? huh. maybe i should finally watch after all.

in the alternate dvd-only ending of Repo Man, it ends with Estevez weeping "fuck!" to himself for way too long

lol I mean the shitty 2010 film with Jude Law. ain't even seen the 84 Estevez flick.

i do like that ending though

the 84 flick is a classic imo. it makes you root for the repo men, just a bit

harry dean stanton doing exactly what you want him to do

total classic

"Otto, we don't have much time, so I'm going to have to torture you"

Essential viewing

I dunno, cars driving themselves back to the dealership sounds less dystopian than repo men stealing them back.

To what extent do car dealerships care, though? They got the sale. Seems likelier to me that it's the banks/lending institutions who care. I'd be a little more worried about my car wanting to drive to Bank of America as opposed to Honda of Springfield or whatever.

Yeah, on the local news last night they said that if the car wasn't worth worth what was owed on it, it would drive itself to the junkyard & that does seem pretty fucked up.

Also Repo! The Genetic Opera movie is a super weird production. I fell asleep to it one night and my wife came to bed later and was like "what the hell were you watching?!" the next morning.

From Philip K. Dick's Ubik (1969):

“The door refused to open. It said, “Five cents, please.” He searched his pockets. No more coins; nothing. “I’ll pay you tomorrow,” he told the door. Again he tried the knob. Again it remained locked tight. “What I pay you,” he informed it, “is in the nature of a gratuity; I don’t have to pay you.” “I think otherwise,” the door said. “Look in the purchase contract you signed when you bought this conapt.” In his desk drawer he found the contract; since signing it he had found it necessary to refer to the document many times. Sure enough; payment to his door for opening and shutting constituted a mandatory fee. Not a tip. “You discover I’m right,” the door said. It sounded smug. From the drawer beside the sink Joe Chip got a stainless steel knife; with it he began systematically to unscrew the bolt assembly of his apt’s money-gulping door. “I’ll sue you,” the door said as the first screw fell out. Joe Chip said, “I’ve never been sued by a door. But I guess I can live through it.”

meanwhile, down the hall, joe chip's neighbor was fucking the door

As mentioned above, it's crazy how much chat GPT (or more specifically the current iteration of GPT-powered bing) makes me think of Philip K Dick's dystopian view of artificial intelligence. A future where I am constantly arguing with various appliances in my house now seems totally plausible.

I don't remember which novel has some sort of suitcase designed to constantly start pointless arguments with you until you are driven insane enough to not be drafted by the military, but that kind of tech seems to have arrived.

In a remarkable live hit, this local reporter covering the horrific school shooting in Nashville shared her own experience of surviving a school shooting when she was in middle school. I didn't catch her name. pic.twitter.com/qFLu6uWQxl

— Reem Akkad (@reemakkad) March 27, 2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLMMxgtxQ1Y

It's AI generated... apparently the DNC reacted with absolute glee when they say how bad it is

you would think all the work silicon valley has put into teaching AIs to be racist would have paid off more

I posted that b/c it sucks, just to be clear

The "feels like the train is coming off the tracks" for the famously Amtrak-loving Biden is decent political-snark praxis tho

not as good as that 2020 ad with the trains and “electric avenue”

Thought the train reference also might be a dog whistle about the Palestine train derailment.

I don’t know where else to put these things

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/05/04/jordan-neely-nyc-subway-choking-death-sparks-outcry-investigation/70182957007/

pretty sure Eric Adams just wishes this story would go away

Fox News's advice for life in America: "Have a plan to kill everyone you meet" pic.twitter.com/MaOE6WfIyh

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 7, 2023

Ok

Run. Hide. Fight. (part one) #txlege pic.twitter.com/sJfQRoUyAs

— Michelle (@LivingBlueTX) May 7, 2023

Didn't see this one coming...

Consumers already contending with a squeeze on their bank accounts due to inflation are now facing more pressure as businesses introduce new tipping features at self-checkout machines.

Companies, including airports, bakeries, coffee shops and sports stadiums, have now introduced the self-serve tipping option, where customers can leave tips including the typical 20%, despite facing minimal to no interaction with any employee, according to a recent report by The Wall Street Journal.

On the one hand, I work next door to a unionized Starbucks and like to tip of only to show some solidarity. On the other hand, I can see companies encouraging the spread of tipping in order to avoid paying a fair wage.

“If only”

I don't mind tipping 20 or 25 or 30 %, because fuck capitalism and yay workers. If I couldn't afford reasnably generous tipping, I suspect I would stay home more and be more choosy about then and where to go out.

But here is my one weird quibble: I wish that suggested tips were calculated on pretax totals rather than post-tax totals. I don't know why this matters to me but at some point I decided that it did.

Fuck capitalism yay feudalism

Surely the question here is what guarantee do you have that tipping a self checkout machine will go to workers? Especially since these machines are there to stop there being workers?

So, what were vails, exactly? They would be paid to servants after visiting someone’s house for a meal or party or whatever event. The servants would line up at the door, and if a person failed to give them their vails, they could be harassed. (One story goes that a person asked their friend why they hadn’t come to any of their meal invitations, to which the friend replied that they couldn’t afford it.) Vails were usually 1 s. or 2 s. per servant, though they could be more, depending on how the giver felt. For many servants, vails made up the bulk of their income, with one footman claiming he could make over £100 a year in vails alone. Another claimed that he made £59 in nine years under one master, and received a further £28 in vails and perquisites.

i welcome more fodder for a good old fashioned tipping debate

The character Mr. Wilcox in Howard's End - played by Anthony Hopkins in a rather dreary movie - says to always tip the carver.

Just the idea that you live a life where you're regularly encountering someone whose entire job is to slice meat for rich people is weird enough.

But it does make me wonder: at present, tipping is seen as an American thing, but surely it must have been enough of a thing in Britain for Forster to notice and make it a point of characterization.

When did tipping decline in the UK, such that it is now seen as an American vulgarism?

in an absolutely classic example of cultural misunderstanding, 'tipping the carver' is ofc a british term for the most extreme and public acts of masturbation

Thanks, dmac. In the US we just call it "waxing the tadpole."

Reminds of a gross tip jar at a coffee place that had a sign that said "It's OK to just put the tip in" or something like that. I tipped, but did not want to.

When did tipping decline in the UK, such that it is now seen as an American vulgarism?

lol I wasn't here for any of the previous tipping epics so sure let's do this

I don't think tipping is viewed as "American" in and of itself - it's the idea of tipping as an obligatory thing that if you don't do it the worker won't make enough to survive that's American. I used to tip a fair bit in London and the only reason I don't as much anymore is almost every restaurant now charges a service charge, which I guess is in effect an obligatory tip. Other services I'd guess tipping has fallen out of fashion as living wages became better established and the old noblesse oblige attitude retreated somewhat. Which means it's probably coming back, considering the UK's current trajectory.

saw a tweet awhile back: "Whenever I see an iPad at the register, I know I'm going to be asked to tip for something I've tipped before"

there's a wine shop by my house like this... you buy a bottle of wine, cork intact, and they ask if you'd like to tip for, idk, the transaction?
No idea if it goes to the cashier, or just pads the bottle sale for the owner

(NEVER tipped before ^^^)

I remember reading an article or seeing some thing on twitter that for a lot of these businesses the tips just go up to corporate and don't go to the workers. Relatedly, a few times I've either seen a sign next to the console or even a message on the tip screen that clearly states that "All tips go to the employees" or something to that effect, which usually make me more likely to throw something on top. On the other hand, there was a lunch spot that was part of a small chain near me where they had a physical cash tip jar next to the console that had a sign saying "Please tip with cash as tips on the iPad don't go to the workers." At another place I go to regularly, the guy at the counter manually forwards past the tip screen on his end when I pay with a card for what I imagine are similar reasons.

it very much depends— two local businesses, family owned and operated, will often get a tip just for selling me beer or a bag of chips and dip or whatever. they also give me significant discounts since i’m a regular customer.

In my experience it's not so much that electronic tips don't go to workers - it's that they get taxed as reported income.

Like lots of folks I don't use cash as much as I used to, but one of the best arguments for having cash is that you can just fuckin' GIVE ot to people. And then boom, suddenly those people have some money. (Not enough, of course, but more than nothing.)

These days I pretty much use cash only for tips, handouts, and (oddly) haircuts.

Those are still reason enough for the cash infrastructure to exist.

Every once in a while I find myself with no cash at all, and that means I can't always help the people I want to help. A couple weeks ago I literally bought a beer for a guy outside 7-11 and just handed it to him.

On the occasions that I encounter cash-centric workers, I find myself making a special trip to an ATM and then a further special trip to go buy a candy bar or something so that I have useful denominations.

Sidenote: Given how cash is really used today (mostly for small transactions), I feel ATMs should be way better about dispensing 5s and 10s instead of only 20s. $20 is usually more than I want to give out to Mr. 7-11 Rando Guy.

If there were an easier way to have a pocket full of 1s and 5s I would totally go for that.

(Insert SNL "change bank" clip here)

Sidenote: Given how cash is really used today (mostly for small transactions), I feel ATMs should be way better about dispensing 5s and 10s instead of only 20s. $20 is usually more than I want to give out to Mr. 7-11 Rando Guy.

I used to live near a Chase lobby with ATMs that allowed me to select what denominations I wanted my withdrawal to consist (albeit none smaller than $5). I wish that would become the standard, hate having to buy some small cheap item just to break a $20.

Also wish more receipts had the tip numbers for 20% etc--I'm horrible even at simple math and always feel slightly embarrassed at having to use a tip calculator app at the counter.

Blatherskite, I also cannot math. I usually just put one finger over the rightmost three digits of the total, then double it. That is usually close to a 20% tip.

So, like, lets say the bill is $30.04. I put my thumb over the 0.04 and see a 3. Twice three is six. Boom. Done.

If I go to a fancy restaurant and the bill is $202.50, I do the same thing. I put my thumb over the the rightmost three digits. Twice twenty is forty. Boom. Done.

Sometimes I round up or ddownbeat that is pretty much my method.

* down but