I'll add more later.
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That is one motherfucker of a markup, there. There's just no other way to put it. I mean, if your cost on a product is $0.23 and you sell it for $59.99?
...in actuality the manufacturer doesn't sell it for that. Typical retail markup is about 150% of cost, so if the retail price is $60, then the manufacturer is selling it for "only" $40.
Which is a profit of 17,391%.
This is why I absolutely cannot stand inkjet printers. I knew that the ink was hideously overpriced; I figured it was "assrape" territory but didn't think that it was "an eternity of getting buggered without lube by every last demon in Hell" territory.
This is why printer companies are so desperate to prevent cartridge refills. There's absolutely nothing special about the ink; though they're (so far) successfully charging thousands of dollars per gallon for it, they buy the stuff in 55 gallon drums for a couple of hundred bucks and then, by virtue of injecting it into custom plastic housings, magically increase the price a hundred and seventy times.
Laser printers? Extremely economical. Five thousand pages or so from a $50 toner cart. Notice that those printers never cost less than about $100 and can only print--unlike inkjet printers, where you get a printer, fax machine, and scanner all in one unit for about $80. The laser equivalent isn't usually less than about $200.
Because they expect to sell you a lot of ink for that inkjet all-in-one. At a 17,000% profit.
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Socialized medicine in the US would cost as much as the current revenue. Which, not to put too fine a point on it, is earmarked for other things; we're not running a $3,200 billion surplus every year, after all.
He does the math and it comes to about $20,000 more per taxpayer per year. Sounds about right. I don't know where Bernie thinks that's going to come from. Perhaps he thinks it will be pooped out by magical rainbow unicorns or something.
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And who is it who's been running Michigan for the past fifty years? Someone remind me, is Kalamazoo a Republican city?
Somehow I doubt it.
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You idiots can just STFU now. "We want more police on the streets!" But the instant police actually, you know, fight crime, you asshats will be out there protesting the police for shooting another choir boy who was going to go to college.
His conclusing paragraph gets it right:
How about you people (or folks) (A) stop shooting, (B) stop covering for shooters, (C) stop electing assholes who get money from shooters, (D) clean up your neighborhood, (E) start snitching, and (F) stop whining about the bed of shit you've created for yourselves.All you have to do is start treating the police like they are there to help you stay safe. Stop blaming the police for shooting the thugs who try to kill them. That alone would go a long way towards making your neighborhoods safer.
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Got Tuesday to get through; and then Wendesday promises to be extremely busy for a day off. Might get a little nap late in the afternoon. Or might not.
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Cool weather the past few days, but it's supposed to be hotter this weekend. Maybe we'll get to swim a bit. Maybe not. Could be worse.