this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2023
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
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As long as piracy is easier than obtaining something legally, I'll continue to do it. I stopped pirating music, because Spotify is much much nicer to use and gives a better experience overall. I stopped pirating games since steam is nice. I almost stopped pirating movies when Netflix came out. Only pirated some extremely niche stuff. But now I'm back in the high seas, baby!
I think I'll be pirating until the economy gets better. And I don't mean wall street, I mean when the average person get paid enough to have extra money for entertainment stuff. Aint nobody gonna pay for a netflix subscription every month or $70 for a game that could still have bugs, people got food to buy, bills to pay.
You want less piracy? Simple. Just give people a higher quality of life.
Mate, 95% of the world's population lives in worse conditions than US, what higher quality of life are you talking about?
Ah yes, 'some people are starving so be happy you're only struggling to pay rent'
US has one if the most affordable housing in the world https://www.numbeo.com/property-investment/rankings_by_country.jsp?title=2023-mid&displayColumn=6
Yeah, you should be very happy.
I think its worth taking a look at how this index is calculated: https://www.numbeo.com/property-investment/indicators_explained.jsp This is taken from an investment rather than housing standpoint. The US is great for people who invest in housing as landlords, not so much for those that must rent from them. One of the measures in your index is rental profitability, which is great for some and terrible for many. Our rental situation also varies dramatically in different regions. I live in California, where it is very bad. No prospect for home ownership unless you are very wealthy, and insane rent (most of our exploding homeless population is local people priced out of the market). Also note that the average wage in the united states is significantly higher than the median wage. This is because the US has fairly high inequality for a western country and we have a lot of crazy rich people who act as outliers. This does not make life better for working Americans.
It's way better than living in many post colonial states, but a lot of countries such as France or Germany or Sweden or Denmark simply have a staggeringly higher quality of life for working class people, and the quality of life for working class Americans has also been diving downhill in recent years due to a number of developing crises. Median wage has shot down, even as inflation has spiked. Our hospitals are critically understaffed, and medical debt has exploded.
You mentioned you were from the UK, and you have my sympathy. It sounds like the UK is also suffering from similar crises, but to a greater degree, especially this past winter. I don't doubt that it may currently be rougher in many ways for the average working class Brit than the average working class American. Though I still envy the NHS.
You see, the problem is that advanced Western countries are home to about 10% of world's population. That still leaves 90% living in worse conditions.
Yes, California has very high prices, but you can just pack your stuff and move to a neighbour state. If you live in Syria or India you can't really move anywhere because all your neighbours are not that better.
Also have you ever noticed how migrants from poor countries often end up being landlords and businessmen? I moved to UK from a poor country some years ago, it took me just two years to buy a flat. Yet Brits complain non stop how expensive their properties are and how everyone will be stuck renting forever. And I guess they will unless they change their attitudes and start working hard and responsibly. I believe the same applies to US.
Ah, so you're a landlord? That explains things.
Ah, so you're a landlord? That explains things.
Landlord and cops are both always bastards