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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 13th, 2023

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  • I remember she tried to overhaul their drug cost model to be less opaque and supposedly cheaper for consumers. Doesn’t seem like it ended up happening from my point of view. CVS is my PBM and keeps raising the cost for generics to the point where it’s cheaper to buy them without using insurance from an online pharmacy.

    But I wouldn’t want the new jerk who replaced her to escape attention, seeing as he came from the PBM business and is likely the reason for my above complaint.





  • Developing standards, best practices, conventions, etc. One of the most valuable people on my team wrote some incredible quality automations a few years ago, and the only coding he does at this point is updates to them when necessary. By volume, he’s easily bottom 5% this year, but we’d be much worse off without his expertise/advise and the fact he advocates for the team.

    This is classic shit management metrics. It would take some time for the rot to set in after using a cudgel approach to a team, and by the time it did, the assholes responsible would have fucked off elsewhere with their huge bonuses.




  • Also look. If many Americans saw a tomato slice on their burger that was not perfectly round but instead very irregular with lots of divots and varying shades of red, orange, and yellow, they’d bring it to the counter and say they got a rotten tomato.

    A local supermarket some years ago put heirloom tomatoes right next to regular tomatoes for basically the same price one summer. They stopped selling heirloom tomatoes after that year because hardly anyone bought them. I did. They were incredible.


  • The major reason given is that taxes vary so much in the US by location that it would be onerous for businesses with locations in different areas to print different price tags and advertise prices broadly.

    It’s even an issue online because, until you enter your address, the online retailer has no clue what your tax rate will be, and they have to assess tax based on the purchaser’s location. Postal code isn’t always enough, as they can be shared by different cities with different tax rates.

    Some areas also vary tax by date (tax free holidays), though I don’t think consumers would care if their total ended up being cheaper than they thought.

    A national standard VAT would be the only way businesses might start including tax in price, but there’s no way to do that without a constitutional amendment. States have the power to tax, and they’re not going to stop now even if they receive VAT revenues.





  • Reading that article is a serious indictment of economic literacy in the United States. People don’t understand what role the president plays in the economy, what causes inflation, or how and why interest rates change. They draw really superficial causal links and don’t think about it after that; it’s fact to them.

    It’s reasons like this education may be the single most critical issue, since we can’t make progress on the climate or anything else if the population is incapable of critical thinking. I hate to say it like this because it feels patronizing, but Jesus fucking Christ.


  • Indeed. I think it’s why cults of personality are so dangerous. You don’t need to convince that many people if you can get a large enough, dedicated number to consistently do what the leader says and push others around.

    I’m not sure that love is the word for Bernie, but I was certainly much more enthusiastic about him. Some people did get weird about it which made me uncomfortable, though. The policy should always come before the politician.


  • I think the problem is that plenty of people might like Harris, but not so much that turnout for her matched Biden. The people who like Trump love him, and they turned out in the same numbers as 2020 basically. He didn’t need to meaningfully grow his base if people weren’t motivated to show up for his opponent.

    It’s definitely a demonstration that having the most palatable candidate doesn’t matter. It might if voting were compulsory, but it isn’t.