USA government spending as a percent of GDP is on the lower side of developed nations (high 30s depending on the source). Our peers are Luxembourg and Norway, and we’re well below France and Germany. Granted that we are one of the few developed nations that don’t provide universal healthcare which biases us lower.
While I’d share your concerns about fiscal sustainability, we’re an outlier on tax receipts not spending.
An interesting outsider perspective is this clip of Steven Fry going to an Auburn game: https://youtu.be/FuPeGPwGKe8
Regarding the latter, it’s weird and certainly was exploitative when college athletes weren’t allowed to monetize through sponsorships and frankly still is exploitative.
Nationally there’s FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, who (despite a recent name change) are focused on campus free speech rights.
Yes, I prefer YouTube and use it for background audio when I'm not listening to podcasts. YouTube Music is a product trying to kludge way too much into a single app to be good at any one thing. It's an okay music player, decent podcast tool, and back YouTube secondary/audio only augmentation.
While I'm not all-in on the ecosystem, I'm pretty far. It's still terrible.
I still can't "cast" YouTube audio to my Google Home Mini unless I use the Home Mini in Bluetooth mode (I have more reliable Bluetooth speakers for that) even as a YouTube Premium user.
My Nest devices are stuck in limbo between the Google Home and Nest apps; it's been like this for years.
Integrating new Google devices into Google Home tends to fail without helpful troubleshooting a few times before they succeed.
I refuse to upgrade my Nest Thermostat 1, even though it doesn't support needed features like the temperature sensors. I've also had to turn off all the learning because it decides I'm not home, and doesn't infer that I am home from my Google Wifi hubs.
Whenever I submit Google Home/Chromecast bugs/feature requests I include some snark in my sign-off like "I know you don't care about this product and it will be killed soon, but if I'm wrong please consider the suggestions above."
Yes, it’s interesting but mostly a shift of concentration of earnings. Market weighted PE multiples are slightly elevated historically but not insane; forward PE even less so (taken with a grain of salt of course).
The only EV I’ve rented from Turo was the opposite experience. They gave me the car at 75%, they capped charging at 90% in settings, then they charged me for bringing it back at 70% (which was just past their threshold but considering I could only charge it to 90% that should be the baseline).
Tangent, but my experience with this was when I needed to upgrade my mobile plan for international service... but I had 2FA via text message enabled for the account.
Claiming that merchant fees result in higher prices is different from claiming that reducing merchant fees would directly, immediately, or measurably lower prices. Isn't a plausible explanation that companies are hesitant to lower prices for any reason?
Let's consider the opposite scenario, if Visa raises their fees do merchants keep prices where they are? I suspect not.
Are you factoring in the federal tax credit with your math? I suspect not when I look at their website where lightly used EUVs are ~$20k. Of course, you may not be eligible for the federal tax credit, but $8500 doesn't strike me as much of a deal.
Until Tesla changes their Model 3 sourcing to be eligible for the $7500 tax credit, I don’t understand who would buy one over the Model Y even with the “highland” improvements.
I think structuring the law as a penalty is "smart" in that the government does not have to explicitly ask providers to require ID, but I can't imagine them not being at significant financial risk without doing so. This will make the providers look like the "bad guy" to an end-user.
While I’d share your concerns about fiscal sustainability, we’re an outlier on tax receipts not spending.