How many people listed in the credits of your favorite show do you truly think own one, much less multiple Porsches?
I don't think those people are responsible for pricing. The Porsche comment was a flippant way of pointing out the whole parasitic machine that sits atop the actual creatives - the actors, the set designers, the script writers, all those people that you and I do want to support. All those people are not involved in pricing decisions or exclusivity contracts, and they're mostly paid a salary so by the time a movie or series is out, they're already on to the next job. By refusing to subscribe to all the myriad streaming services, you are mainly putting pressure on those executives to make a more appealing product.
I think you're right in that it's very reminiscent of US tipping culture (I'm not in the US), in that the people at the bottom are the ones who do the real work and yet they don't get a fair share of the profits and instead have to take on unfair risk (i.e. the risk of not being tipped).
That said, I need to confess that I'm partly playing devil's advocate, I pay for Netflix and just the other day I paid YouTube to "buy" a digital copy of a movie - for the exact reasons you said, I want to support the creative people behind the shows & movies I enjoy. I just don't think it's accurate to say that there's a moral requirement to pay for entertainment, especially given how unfair the system currently is.
what would happen if nobody paid and everybody pirated
they wouldn't just slowly starve to death you know. they'd start making the price more competitive and the service more user-friendly before they'd even had to pawn a single Porsche.
In all locations presumably? Do you know if it's indistinguishable from you being at your main residence? Like are there any technical ways a service you're connecting to could tell that you're going through a VPN? (Just curious BTW!)
I never know much about political figures so I did a quick search and thought I'd share a summary here. Any corrections or comments welcome (I put this together myself based on a couple of articles so I may well have missed stuff)
Born in 1983, Streeting grew up in a council flat in Stepney, east London, before reading History at Selwyn College, Cambridge University
funded his way through university by doing shifts in the customer service department at Comet.
became President of Cambridge University Students’ Union, and then President of the National Union of Students from 2008 to 2010
under his presidency, the NUS - previously considered left wing - took a turn to the right, notably changing stance to accept the principle of paid-for higher education
Streeting then became Director of Education for the LGBT group Stonewall (he is himself openly gay)
became a councillor for the London Borough of Redbridge in 2010, becoming Vice President after the Labour victory there in the local elections of 2014
first elected to parliament as the Labour MP for Ilford North in 2015, being reelected in 2019 with a majority of 5,198
appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in 2021
fierce critic of the NHS strike of 2022, promising that Labour would oppose the unions
An effective media performer, Streeting is seen as a rising figure on the centre right of the Labour party. Seen as politically ambitious, Streeting is often touted as a future labour leader.
in 2024 he made it illegal for puberty blockers to be prescribed to minors
he probably could but carting it around in a shopping trolley and going through the rigmarole of setting it all up in the lecture halls at the start of every lecture gets to be a bit of a ball-ache!
How do you define left wing? I would define it as pro-worker, and in the UK, that has historically meant working closely with unions. It makes sense given we have a representative democracy, and unions represent their members, so the government talking to union leaders is consistent with being left wing (at least in the UK, no idea about the US tbh).
It is and it's not even about whether the work is being done well or not, it's about showing fealty to your lords and masters. If you want to check the quality of my work and give intelligent and constructive feedback, I actually appreciate that and it helps me to gain confidence and do a better job (regardless of where I'm working from).
Granted, based on my experience, it's probably a minority of managers who actually possess the skills to constructively appraise someone's work, so for most of them, just shut up, keep out of my way and let me get done what needs to be done.
You'll also see the national flag flying happily in France and Spain. Not everywhere, but it doesn't have any negative connotation. In Germany however the national flag does have dodgy overtones. It seems to be related to whether your country has anything less than pleasant in its recent history.
This really depends on where you live. I didn't realise how spoilt I was living in Berlin until I moved away. Vegan butter that is as good as actual butter is widely available there, at about the same price - albeit unsalted.
I'm now in France, where big supermarkets often have a whole row of fridges dedicated to butter, and I've not as yet even seen one place selling any kind of modern vegan butter. I think it was the same story in Spain too, although I wasn't staying in large cities there.
I've tried a range of different vegan butters while I've been at home in the UK and they all just taste like margarine. France I can understand, as they have a big dairy culture (no pun intended - that would be too cheesy), but I'm at a loss to explain why the good stuff isn't widely available in the UK as the demand is there.
yeah well when you're ready to join us in the 21st century, we'll be here waiting. until then have fun with your stone age incomprehension of the heavens and self-aggrandizing tales of fabulous rewards after death.
People would be in awe of this creature. It's speaking the perfect word of god, understandable to all. It cannot be killed and clearly defies all scientific understanding of our modern age. (This thing would pre-date the birth of true science though and more than likely prevent science even coming to be - there would be no need of science or any kind of human progress if we had an indisputable communication channel with god such as this)
I can't help but chuckle at the puny god that you seem to believe in though. God - if it exists and I genuinely believe that question is unanswerable - would be an entity outside time and space way beyond the tiniest comprehension of any human. It would have absolute power over every aspect of the universe. Protecting a dog from any number of humans with any type of weaponry would be such a trivial task for such a being. If the dog didn't want to be moved, it wouldn't move. If it wanted to pass through a wall it would pass though like a red hot ball bearing through butter.
Seems like there's a lot of ways, no? A talking immortal dog, just off the top of my head. That would be hard to counter, especially after the first 500 years and it's still there, spouting the word of god in any language you like.
I'm convinced from the evidence that God doesn't care what we believe. If there even is such a thing, and I don't think it's possible to meaningfully answer that, there are many better ways to communicate vital information to people on earth other than choosing someone to relay your messages in a way that is indistinguishable from a mentally ill person who just hears voices in their head.
ah I see. I misunderstood - when you said "I’d rather pick what is actually true", you meant you'd pick a story you like and call it truth. Yes that's also an option, why not.
I guess there isn't a point given to you by someone/something else, but you're free to pick one of your own if you want. Or not. Ultimately we just have our evolved desire to survive and see our loved ones do well.
I don't think those people are responsible for pricing. The Porsche comment was a flippant way of pointing out the whole parasitic machine that sits atop the actual creatives - the actors, the set designers, the script writers, all those people that you and I do want to support. All those people are not involved in pricing decisions or exclusivity contracts, and they're mostly paid a salary so by the time a movie or series is out, they're already on to the next job. By refusing to subscribe to all the myriad streaming services, you are mainly putting pressure on those executives to make a more appealing product.
I think you're right in that it's very reminiscent of US tipping culture (I'm not in the US), in that the people at the bottom are the ones who do the real work and yet they don't get a fair share of the profits and instead have to take on unfair risk (i.e. the risk of not being tipped).
That said, I need to confess that I'm partly playing devil's advocate, I pay for Netflix and just the other day I paid YouTube to "buy" a digital copy of a movie - for the exact reasons you said, I want to support the creative people behind the shows & movies I enjoy. I just don't think it's accurate to say that there's a moral requirement to pay for entertainment, especially given how unfair the system currently is.