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Joined 4 days ago
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Cake day: April 28th, 2026

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  • I think there’s a degree of moving goalposts here.

    A mid-XIX-century worker could die of hunger if they lost their job. There wouldn’t be any social services or boarding houses for poor to feed their children, and their wife - you know. OK, I mean, there were boarding houses, but that was even worse than growing up in a poor family.

    An early-XX-century worker was still in similar danger, but there were both organized labor and changing level of life. Working their way out of poverty being real and a lot more accessible press and education were some of the changes from the previous. And political rights too.

    A mid-XX-century worker could basically live normally through hard work. And one could say that both in Warsaw block and in the West social nets were in place. In the third world not yet. !@#, me and writing about hard work.

    “Wage slavery” of a person who’ll die of hunger and of a person who’ll feel bad from looking poor, but will have socialized options for food, board and even help with looking for a job, are two very different situations.

    So let’s please remember that we, Americans included, already sort of live in a socialist heaven compared to 100 years ago.

    I think humanity is improving.


  • Americans are also the primary target it’s all adjusted for. Ads are a social mechanism.

    Even ads for non-American audiences sometimes copy ads aimed at Americans in various detail which doesn’t make sense there.

    Somewhat similar to perception of fashion differing between living in a big city or in a rural area. In a big city everything is happening around you. In a rural area you learn of things happening, might get interested, might not.

    OK, I might be simplifying things.


  • Compared to the rest of the world - yeah. Be that 30 years ago or now. Things that are normal for Americans are something impractically good for the rest of the world.

    I mean, there are median and average income maps and such on the web.

    But I admit that everything is different, say, in most countries you can do fine without a car. Of what I’ve read and heard about USA, a car seems more important than a place to bunk (I mean, the whole concept of someone with financial problems sleeping in their car seems wild from a country where a car is something less basic than a living place).


  • Some people might think it’s nonsense to pay more to reach some group than it gives directly, but there might be a degree of diffusion such that it’s not.

    Suppose, that computer-savvy woman is the source of advice for her many friends after trying some things out or whatever.

    Suppose, that professional man uses occasionally a free tool for their task, that seems to be “first page in Google”, but is in fact the most familiar from 8 things listed on that first page.

    Then they use it again or their coworkers or friends know that the tool exists. Then eventually they might buy it.

    It’s all probabilities, but those that spread.

    Why did I even write this, it’s obvious.