I remember there was one time where electro-swing was implicated in a gang massacre at a club. And the police seemed pretty shocked at the level of violence.
I'm lucky enough to have been financially able to buy a home. I had help making the down payment, but we've now got a 30 year mortgage. My monthly payments are less than what I was paying for rent, less than the average rent in the city by almost a third. I got this place with two above-average incomes, and had the good fortune to get it during the COVID housing and interest rate dip, and I still needed extra help.
If someone is stuck with renting, they're likely paying more than they would for a mortgage. They can't save up the money because they're already lagging behind, and the housing market isn't coming down in price, and wages absolutely aren't keeping pace. No one is saying a house would "lock them down," they're pointing out they can never afford it because they can't even come up with the money to show the bank they can save because they're already paying above the potential mortgage payments every month.
But you're saying they won't, not can't, so what should they do to come up with the money? Start selling kidneys? 78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, and that same link shows 71% have less than $2000 in their savings. So where exactly are people supposed to shit out your hypothetical $30,000?
I absolutely appreciate all the work done recently, but I was wondering if there was any chance we could get thumbnails that, when clicked, don't have ?thumbnail=1500&format=webp appended to them. For some posts, it doesn't make a difference, but for longer posts, or posts with smaller text, it makes the image blurry unless you click into the post comments, and select the image there. It feels like a needless extra step when trying to open an image.
I'd love it if clicking on the thumbnail of an image opened the raw image, instead of the compressed view, so instead I have to go into the post and click the image there for full resolution. It's especially noticeable for larger images with small text.
It's not though. None of those countries are explicitly banning government communication in other languages, and removing other services that have been in place. None of those countries are going out of their way to say to businesses "If you don't communicate in the language of our choice, you'll be required to pay us money."
Coming from the United States, services were often offered in Spanish because it was an uncommon language, but still prevalent enough that people spoke it regularly. Spanish isn't an official language of the US, but they recognized the need to serve their people better and took steps to do this. Citizens might be assholes who would say something like "This is America, speak American," but the government at least made the effort to help. Quebec is echoing those citizens, while saying their own heritage is so fragile that if they have to serve their populace better that it will disappear. I can't imagine any of those other countries you mentioned are so thin-skinned.
I need to file an official request to be served in English with businesses that are serving me paperwork since the bill was passed. This isn't because they can't serve me in English. Previously, they had been without issue. These official requests are cover-your-ass statements so they don't get in trouble when using English versions.
Additionally, the only language you can get certain things like birth certificates, wedding certificates, power of attorney, etc. is French. Need an English version? You'll need to pay for a translator.
Additionally, even if I wanted to access any government services in English, I need to lie. I don't speak fluent French, but have been here for more than 6 months, so technically, none of those English-provided services are legally accessible to me. If I want to find out what forms I need, or get information on government services, according to bill 96 I better learn French right now or stay ignorant.
And this is just the hassle it's caused me. Small businesses have to report headcounts of how many people don't speak fluent French. Signage needs to be put up by next year that's compliant with the need to be "visibly French dominant." Failure to comply means fines.
I don't care what the official language of Quebec is. I don't care if the government wants to devote holidays and school time to teaching about French history. This doesn't affect me, and it's educational and helps keep Quebecois heritage alive.
I care that, because French isn't my first language, I'm made to feel like a second-class citizen for asking for service not in French. I care that government services deny accessibility because they're speaking a different language. I care that businesses will have to jump through even more hoops to do business in Quebec, not because of product safety or consumer protection, and not even because of lack of accessibility, but instead because it's just not a language the government prefers. I got my citizenship last year, and I'm glad I'm a Canadian. But Quebec's government sure as shit doesn't want me living there.
Treasure Planet has solar sails used as the energy source for propulsion for ships.
Apparently, at least for groceries, there's an estimated extra $700/year increase next year, with food costs slowing to 2.5-4.5% increases in general, but sticking at 5-7% for bread, vegetables, and meat. It's still going to cost an average 4-person family $16.3k a year for groceries, though (AKA just over half a full-time minimum-wage salary, prior to paying taxes).
Metro reported a 14% increase in profits for their last quarter compared to last year, and Loblaw's 11%. According to Google's earning statements of the last year, Metro has made 27.4% more profits in the last four quarters than they reported in 2020. Loblaws, on the other hand, is actually down 12%, though Google reports they had two really bad quarters this year, and posted a 40% increase in profits between FY 2022 and 2020. So yeah, nothing as egregious as the article, but they're still outpacing (year over year for the last quarter) both regular and grocery inflation.
I'm sure if I really wanted to, I could dig up the same financial information for Soebys, but I have no clue if Walmart and Costco would keep clean financials readily available for Canada.
I'm not 100% sure, but I'm pretty sure the meme and OP are both referring to Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent.
I've heard that and decided to look myself. According to their fundraising report for fiscal year 2021/22, they received $165.2m from 13m people. Removing "major gifts," $20.8m (only 18,000 people), it comes out to a bit over $11 per person. Additionally, they got $13.5m to their trust, the Wikimedia Endowment (average donation of $13.91/person). So definitely, most of their income comes from small donations.
As to whether they need it, according to their FY 21/22 financials statement, they're sitting on $198m in assets ($51m of which is cash), with an additional $52m they can't touch because they're long-term investments. However, their expenditures made up $154m. In total, they're reporting they netted $8m last year for additional assets, but assuming that everyone stopped donating, Wikipedia would probably die in a year, even with liquidation of short-term assets.
Sometimes people need some help with the obvious.