Or refuse to buy
I refuse to purchase anything from Amazon. Bezos is not getting any of my money.
I feel like I should stop buying on eBay.
Actually, I kind of want to see a price fixing lawsuit against eBay now. They are explicitly telling sellers what price to list their items at, raising the prices of goods sold on eBay to the detriment of buyers so that they can get more money out of the commission fees.
The funny thing is my income has risen dramatically in the last few years, but I’m still approximately at the same level of purchasing power that I was six years ago.
If you had told me in 2012 I would be making low-mid six figures and still feel poor, I would have laughed at you.
I just bought some things on ebay to avoid Amazon. They dropshipped Amazon to me, individual packages and all, for nearly 100% markup. I don’t know how to avoid that and find “real” sellers dropshipping non-branded warehoused Chinese goods like the good old days.
- sponsored posts are usually drop shippers
- free returns are usually drop shippers
- check reviews and search for amazon or usps or post office to see if anyone mentions how they ship
- be wary of sellers with tens of thousands of feedback
If you get drop shipped, report a problem say it’s damaged or whatever, and don’t let them send you the Amazon return - use the eBay generated label. Then they have to pay for it and returns absolutely destroy drop shippers. Then leave feedback saying they just drop ship from Amazon
A sandwich. A cheesesteak in Norway cost just over $30.
Basically any fast food. Within my lifetime fast food went from cheap end of week treat, to being a complete ripoff that’s almost never worth shelling out for…
Which is weird cause the price of actual restaurants hasn’t gone up as much during that time, so it now oftentimes makes more sense to just go to an actual restaurant where you’ll (usually) get better food in better portions
I remember $0.39 cheeseburgers at McDonalds and $0.79 bean burritos at Taco Bell.
But this was when gas was $0.89/g and we didn’t live under fascism.
A two bedroom apartment in Bergen sentrum
Was there for a week early in the summer. Wonderful little city, but even for the Nordics expensive as well.
Then again, you have a lot of very wealthy shipping executives living there.
If I was more familiar with it, I’d replicate Bane’s speech from the Dark Knight Rises on being born in the darkness, but replace darkness with poverty.
So, just pretend I did and that it was awesome.
Oh, you think poverty is your ally? You merely adopted it. I was born in it. Molded by it. I didn’t see wealth until I was already a man, and by then, it was nothing to me but sickening. The bargains betray you, because they belong to me. I will show you where I have made my home, whilst preparing to bring taxation. Your precious hoard, gratefully accepted. We will need it. Ah yes, I was wondering what would break first. Your spirit, or your property.
Not perfect, but is that what you wanted?
Masterfully done!
SD cards. Used to be able to get 32 or even 64GB cards for basically pocket money, and now it’s something you’d have to save for
Yeah, I sure could use some cheap SD cards now. I feel like a lot of the more privacy conscious gadgets use SD cards to save you from the menace of manufacturer-controlled cloud storage, rightly so!
I remember USB thumb drives hitting crazy lows at one point too, to the point where I was getting some decently sized drives as promo items. I think I paid $40 or so for my very first 250MB USB stick, maybe it was even smaller than that. I also distinctly remember buying a 128GB USB stick for a very similar price in the last decade or two and seeing them even cheaper than that. You do notice a build quality difference between them when you hold them side by side. The old Sandisk feels solid, the led, the cap, the enclosure are all solid and feel super sturdy and like they’re one single piece. The newer 128GB PNY is cheap, rattly, trashy plastic wrapped around a circuit board with a goofy retractable usb connector, but obviously outperforms the old one by miles. Would love to have cheap and quality. :-)
I found the Kingston DataTraveller Exodia offers a good compromise. You wouldn’t give them any awards for build quality, but they’re sturdy enough and they cost like £12 for 128GB. (Even now!)
Admittedly I can’t speak to their longevity, and I can confirm that of the five or six I’ve used, one has ended up corrupted and unusable. (Might be fixable, but no luck so far)
Fast Food. Went in to Subway yesterday and got a single sandwich meal and it was 25 bucks. Hell, McDonalds isn’t even really cheap, the sandwiches that used to be on the dollar menu are like 4 bucks a pop now.
You have to use the app. A footlong is like $7.
If I have to use an app to use a restaurant, I’m not.
Going bowling.
I hate bowling now. Every alley looks like the same shitty club. Darkness, neon lights, pounding music, and screens all over the place trying to sell you a $10 plate of nachos with a $12 beer.
I actually watched a YouTube video about this a few weeks ago, but can’t remember what it was called. But basically, all the bowling alleys got bought out by Bowlero and we’ve been seeing the enshittification of bowling because of it. We can’t have fucking shit without corporations finding a way to ruin it.
Remember when you could go to a bowling alley or a skating rink and feel like (or know for sure) that you could absolutely buy drugs there? Or maybe just find some in the carpet?
The good ol’ days
Brisket
Fast food
Fast casual food
Applebee’s-tier restaurants
Japanese cars
Used cars, motorcycles, ATVs, boats
Camping
Skiing
Taxi rides
Corn mazes
Pumpkin patches
Escape rooms
Concerts
Bars/Clubs
Retro video games and consoles
Thrift stores
Storage units
Apartments in the bad part of town
There’s no more middle class :( can’t afford a house, can’t afford “affordable” entertainment, can’t afford shit
Go have some kids
Shitty life protip: can’t afford life as it is? Have some kids, that way you won’t be miserable alone!
Just send them down the mines to help earn rent
