I don't know about that. I've heard stories of people maxing out their credit cards to buy more Bitcoin with the illusion/delusion that they're going to get 500% returns on their money, so it's probably going to have at least some ripple effect to the rest of the economy.
Those sort of people are basically gambling addicts, and would be wasting their kids' present money betting on snow at Christmas or something if bitcoin didn't exist. Although tragic individually, it wouldn't amount to much in the wider scheme of things.
Because of this obvious opportunity, for the next several months I will be referred to as "Bruce Blockchain Blockchain Blockchain Millionare Billionare Perens"
Just stick to "Bruce Blockchain" it sounds sort of super-heroey.
Considering that production of stuff like that basically costs nothing, $5 for 100 pills is already a rip off.
What is wrong with just eating healthy? You don't need vitamin supplements.
Reading through this thread it seems to be the case that we are talking about a vitamin being used as a specific drug to treat cholesterol, rather than general vitamin supplements, which are indeed a waste of time and money for almost everyone bar people with specific medical conditions.
This is a genuinely educational story for once, and makes a change from puff pieces about fucking bitcoins.
Doctors sell drugs marketed to them by drug companies.
Take an active role in your health care and question why you can't use a generic (which your insurance will most likely require) before you blindly pay for something.
This is one of the advantages of the NHS here in the UK. The doctors aren't selling you anything. They will happily tell you to buy a generic over the counter medicine if it's available.
No, I'm pretty sure OP was talking about buying a bottle of vitamins and leaving it (unopened) on a shelf for a while. Where I live (UK) you tend to buy things like vitamins in smallish bottles, usually one month's supply at a time. I'm sure you 're right that having a bottle with hundreds of pills and dipping into it over a period of several months will cause issues.
Monopoly pricing is not capitalism in action. Fraud is not capitalism in action.
You're right, it is unregulated capitalism in action.
Without laws to discourage and punish it, fraud is just another way of making extra profit. And any business would love to be a monopoly given the chance.
In Asia, I pay 2 cents per pill for an "obsolete drug" that stops some common forms of cancer metastasis but is unadvertised, ignored and/or unavailable in most of the world. This saves me $20-30,000 a month in the US for a biotech drug.
Any why is that I wonder? An obsolete miracle drug that stops the spread of common forms of cancer, it is cheap to make, and nobody outside Asia makes it or uses it... Doesn't that sound a little fishy to you? At what point does your bullshit detector go off? Asian 'medicine' is notorious for all sorts of worthless quack treatments and the FDA was created to keep useless, dangerous, and addictive medicine away from people. They aren't perfect, but they do a pretty good job of that.
If you have a real condition that is treated by this 'medicine', I am happy for you and I wish you a long life. But you should really read what you wrote and think carefully about why the entire rest of the world isn't using this miracle drug.
OP has the same plausibility as those people who say the ZOG NWO bought up the everlasting lightbulb/car that can run on water because they want to keep humanity enslaved.
In European countries etc. you are supposed to get drugs by a prescription. Not by "buying them cheap" in a drug store.
Depends on what sort of 'drugs' you're talking about. Things like vitamin supplements or paracetamol you just buy in a supermarket her in the UK (or pay ten times as much for branded products in a Health Store if you choose). They have to meet legal standards because of evil government regulations stopping you selling rat poison as aspirin, so yes there is a barrier to entry.
But things like anti-depressants, yes you need a prescription and quite right too.
If it were a public company, you'd be right. Which is why it's not.
It's getting funding from somewhere. If Musk is paying for it out of his own pocket, good for him, and he can indeed spend as much as he likes without worrying about making a profit.
This is not the same as saying that commercial space travel is viable.
It may be a legal right to have it available, but without competition, will the average person be able to afford it ? And if BT is legally required to provide it everywhere, but a large percentage of rural customers can't afford to buy it, then the costs will just be passed on to the city customers.
As BT are a government created monopoly, they are subject to rules on what they can charge. It is why the government can enshrine it as a legal requirement in the first place.
Free lawyers are worth what you paid for them, maybe less. That's not a good example, unless you like plea bargains when you're innocent.
Bullshit. Unless you're a career criminal and have a whizzkid lawyer on tap, a free duty solicitor is the same as picking out a random lawyer from the phone book.
This is from a UK perspective where we don't do plea bargains anyway.
With any sufficiently large number of items you can almost gaurantee the self checkout will complain at some point and require a member of staff to put in an override code.
I generally only use self checkouts if I have less than 6 items, nothing requiring weighing like loose vegetables, and nothing like alcohol that requires checking anyway. Otherwise, it's quicker to use a human cashier.
Between the alt-right who thinks the Jews are controlling the world and the left who thinks it's Putin who is controlling the world, I'm beginning to think that flat-Earthers are not that bad after all.
Am I the only person on this planet who is still sane?
I thought the left was pro-Putin because he's not Donald Trump? Or something.
Really any comment here doing down the West or claiming there's a moral equivalence between Russia and the West or they're all as bad as each other (or
mentioning NATO at all) is a good indication of a paid Russian troll.
Yes, anyone who criticises any aspect of US/Western life is definitely a paid Russian troll, because we are perfect and they are 100% evil, simple as that.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't know about that. I've heard stories of people maxing out their credit cards to buy more Bitcoin with the illusion/delusion that they're going to get 500% returns on their money, so it's probably going to have at least some ripple effect to the rest of the economy.
Those sort of people are basically gambling addicts, and would be wasting their kids' present money betting on snow at Christmas or something if bitcoin didn't exist. Although tragic individually, it wouldn't amount to much in the wider scheme of things.
Out of curiosity, have you considered that scenario with half the masses counting on their bitcoin portfolio to pay their rent?
I love that you think "the masses" have a portfolio of anything, never mind bitcoin.
"Jeeves, please pass me my morning's portfolio listing for perusal before I head off for my shift serving at McDonalds."
Because of this obvious opportunity, for the next several months I will be referred to as "Bruce Blockchain Blockchain Blockchain Millionare Billionare Perens"
Just stick to "Bruce Blockchain" it sounds sort of super-heroey.
I really can't tell.
I'm waiting for them to start sending people to play roulette in Vegas. I mean, $$$.
More like, they would charge people a commission to play roulette in Vegas, and get their cut whether the punters won or lost.
Considering that production of stuff like that basically costs nothing, $5 for 100 pills is already a rip off.
What is wrong with just eating healthy? You don't need vitamin supplements.
Reading through this thread it seems to be the case that we are talking about a vitamin being used as a specific drug to treat cholesterol, rather than general vitamin supplements, which are indeed a waste of time and money for almost everyone bar people with specific medical conditions.
This is a genuinely educational story for once, and makes a change from puff pieces about fucking bitcoins.
Doctors sell drugs marketed to them by drug companies.
Take an active role in your health care and question why you can't use a generic (which your insurance will most likely require) before you blindly pay for something.
This is one of the advantages of the NHS here in the UK. The doctors aren't selling you anything. They will happily tell you to buy a generic over the counter medicine if it's available.
No, I'm pretty sure OP was talking about buying a bottle of vitamins and leaving it (unopened) on a shelf for a while. Where I live (UK) you tend to buy things like vitamins in smallish bottles, usually one month's supply at a time. I'm sure you 're right that having a bottle with hundreds of pills and dipping into it over a period of several months will cause issues.
A redbull has that much and is much cheaper
Unfortunately, it tastes like redbull.
Monopoly pricing is not capitalism in action. Fraud is not capitalism in action.
You're right, it is unregulated capitalism in action.
Without laws to discourage and punish it, fraud is just another way of making extra profit. And any business would love to be a monopoly given the chance.
In Asia, I pay 2 cents per pill for an "obsolete drug" that stops some common forms of cancer metastasis but is unadvertised, ignored and/or unavailable in most of the world. This saves me $20-30,000 a month in the US for a biotech drug. Any why is that I wonder? An obsolete miracle drug that stops the spread of common forms of cancer, it is cheap to make, and nobody outside Asia makes it or uses it... Doesn't that sound a little fishy to you? At what point does your bullshit detector go off? Asian 'medicine' is notorious for all sorts of worthless quack treatments and the FDA was created to keep useless, dangerous, and addictive medicine away from people. They aren't perfect, but they do a pretty good job of that. If you have a real condition that is treated by this 'medicine', I am happy for you and I wish you a long life. But you should really read what you wrote and think carefully about why the entire rest of the world isn't using this miracle drug.
OP has the same plausibility as those people who say the ZOG NWO bought up the everlasting lightbulb/car that can run on water because they want to keep humanity enslaved.
In European countries etc. you are supposed to get drugs by a prescription. Not by "buying them cheap" in a drug store.
Depends on what sort of 'drugs' you're talking about. Things like vitamin supplements or paracetamol you just buy in a supermarket her in the UK (or pay ten times as much for branded products in a Health Store if you choose). They have to meet legal standards because of evil government regulations stopping you selling rat poison as aspirin, so yes there is a barrier to entry.
But things like anti-depressants, yes you need a prescription and quite right too.
If it were a public company, you'd be right. Which is why it's not.
It's getting funding from somewhere. If Musk is paying for it out of his own pocket, good for him, and he can indeed spend as much as he likes without worrying about making a profit.
This is not the same as saying that commercial space travel is viable.
Jesus, like he said, it's just a phone. Do you get all excited/upset when you have to buy a new microwave with the clock in a different place?
The UK has a reputation for keeping tabs and spying on its citizens.
The US has a reputation for being full of mass-murdering gun-toting maniacs.
See how that works?
It may be a legal right to have it available, but without competition, will the average person be able to afford it ? And if BT is legally required to provide it everywhere, but a large percentage of rural customers can't afford to buy it, then the costs will just be passed on to the city customers.
As BT are a government created monopoly, they are subject to rules on what they can charge. It is why the government can enshrine it as a legal requirement in the first place.
Pathetic.
I think he was taking the piss.
Free lawyers are worth what you paid for them, maybe less. That's not a good example, unless you like plea bargains when you're innocent.
Bullshit. Unless you're a career criminal and have a whizzkid lawyer on tap, a free duty solicitor is the same as picking out a random lawyer from the phone book.
This is from a UK perspective where we don't do plea bargains anyway.
Wow you're a tosser.
With any sufficiently large number of items you can almost gaurantee the self checkout will complain at some point and require a member of staff to put in an override code.
I generally only use self checkouts if I have less than 6 items, nothing requiring weighing like loose vegetables, and nothing like alcohol that requires checking anyway. Otherwise, it's quicker to use a human cashier.
Every task is either trivial or useless from a cosmological viewpoint.
In the long run we are all dead.
The division, which only exists because people are now hyper-aware of terrorism and related issues, goes something like:
Right: Terrorism is bad; open borders contribute to insecure nations. We shouldn't have open borders.
Left: This is our new way of life; you are a racist if you can't deal with it.
Gosh, I wonder whether you are on the right or Left? So hard to tell from your finely balanced strawman.
Between the alt-right who thinks the Jews are controlling the world and the left who thinks it's Putin who is controlling the world, I'm beginning to think that flat-Earthers are not that bad after all.
Am I the only person on this planet who is still sane?
I thought the left was pro-Putin because he's not Donald Trump? Or something.
Really any comment here doing down the West or claiming there's a moral equivalence between Russia and the West or they're all as bad as each other (or mentioning NATO at all) is a good indication of a paid Russian troll.
Yes, anyone who criticises any aspect of US/Western life is definitely a paid Russian troll, because we are perfect and they are 100% evil, simple as that.
The map is not the territory.