You are correct, but that does not absolve the companies or the government of any responsibility. It should not be "anything goes" as far as intentionally addictive designs on anything with a screen for the same reason they can't just put cocaine in Doritos. They still engineer in what they can, but with some guardrails. And even in that case the regulations here in the US leave a lot to be desired.

Oh boy, I get to do more Freedumsplaining!

The luxury sport sedan price is the fake sticker price they bill up front.

The sensible commuter sedan price is the secret agreed-upon price that the insurance actually pays out to them.

The out of pocket costs are a completely separate number, where the individual is responsible for all the costs until they hit their deductible (and sometimes pay a percentage for a while until they hit a second complete out of pocket limit).

For some of us, however, there is a silver lining to this shitcloud. Obviously when a 2-hour stint in a chair gets paid out actually for real at tens of thousands of dollars, that money is not going to the wonderful nurses poking my arm and checking on me. Therefore, it is very much in the best interests of the pharmaceutical shareholders that I do not stop my treatment just because I can't afford it. So these companies have copay assistance programs that will pay your out of pocket costs, with no income threshold.

So the reward that I get for having a health condition is... I effectively get decent healthcare coverage as an American. For 11 months of the year. If something bad happens in early january it can cost a few grand in the blink of an eye.

You can't be on government insurance and use those programs though. But Medicaid on its own is great coverage.

I have a "fun" american anecdote for you then! The office that gave me crap for being late a while back is also coincidentally the expensive one.

I'm on a biologic medication that I get every month via IV. I get the infusions at a cancer treatment center at the local hospital. The chairs are comfy and the nurses are amazing. They will actually give me free snacks and drinks too. I am typically there for about two hours.

The amount they charge my insurance company? About a new BMW.

What my insurance company actually pays them? Surprisingly, about a new Honda!

Is this an elaborate "yet you participate in society!" retort?

I am a regular consumer of our ridiculous inhuman healthcare system in the US. The people who are hands-on with patients are generally NOT the problem.

The meme got me thinking of what modern "eco-terrorism" could look like. Assuming data centers were involved, we would be following along in the exact opposite of terrified.

But your version seems to fit this timeline better. It feels more uniquely American to imagine armed militias assaulting and razing facilities out of desperation rather than conservation.

Oh shit. This is how we get private corpo-militaries isn't it?

Yeah I bet there is absolutely DNS in space, but that didn't fit the joke, lol.

I'm sure my anecdote applies to people from all three, and even to some of the boomers that didn't ingest as much lead and have kept their head on straight.

When I mentioned The Oregon Trail generation though, that's usually an Xennial label.

You would have to do the transfer several years beforehand anyway, iirc. There's a 5-year lookback on medicaid anyway.

I have been existing in a superposition of both of these states for a few years and really like it.

During the day I'm a senior engineer on embedded c/c++ stuff. During free time at home I dig in the dirt and build shit and do my "farm chores" like tending to my koi pond. Feels good man.

I think most people would agree that fresh air, exercise, hobbies, and personal goals are good for your body and mind. It's still wild when I notice it actually working.

Haha yeah, I use outlook at work as a webpage in LibreWolf in Linux, so even with open stuff on my local hardware I can definitely still have outlook issues.

That's impossible. They don't even have that in space.

Whoa whoa, has "eat the rich" been one of those situations where the hyphen/comma is in the wrong place?

It's really "Eat, the rich!"