Hence why I said “in all likelihood”. There are always exceptions to the rule. Apparently you are one of them.

This is really a huge oversimplification of a complex and nuanced topic. But the main thing worth mentioning is that your utility bills, in all likelihood, are already insanely cheap if you compare what you get to any other time in history. Like, keeping your home temperature at a perfectly pleasant temperature 24 hours per day probably costs you only a couple hours of labor each month. Compare this to gathering sticks in the forest and lighting a fire inside a mud hut - which, btw, also gives you lung cancer faster than cigarettes.

Should the government invest more in renewables? Yes, obviously. They should also fund the infrastructure necessary to make renewables work at scale, and research to improve renewable generation, transmission, and storage tech in order to close the gap between what is practical now and what we need to achieve. And while they are at it, they should introduce improved pricing schemes to head off increased wasteful usage. But will any of this actually have a direct impact on consumer pricing…? Probably not, since almost all utilities are already state owned or else heavily regulated. The cost of electricity is determined more by committee and political maneuvering than the actual price of, say, coal or solar on a day to day basis. The actual mechanism of paying for power to be generated and delivered to your house on demand is a combination of the price you pay per kwh, property taxes, government revenue in general, debt taken on by the government or utility, investments made in the past, etc. If you actually want a cheaper price per kwh, the solution is simply petitioning whatever regulatory body is in charge to lower it.

Of course, the problem with lower prices is that they encourage wasteful usage. If electricity becomes free, then aunt Ethel will start blasting the AC while leaving the windows open, because she likes to be comfortable while listening to the birds chirp. Without appropriate pricing schemes, people and companies will use up as much additional renewable capacity as is built as soon as you finish building it.

I used to be a “husky” kid. Now I have the opposite problem - so difficult to find 34x34 in thrift shops/marketplace. Seems everyone my height has more waistline than inseam.

under 16

Kids under 16 being banned because “sex bad” is dumb. A kid who is seeking out porn is mature enough to handle it. Part if “the magic of childhood” used to be finding your uncle’s stash of nudie mags.

*bath salts

Because I care about leaving, so I do everything I can to be faster. In economics, this is known as the principle-agent problem. At my local walmart, it is known as “I’m not a septuagenarian who’s been hitting a vape pen for the last 5 hours.”

following the airline model

? Are you talking about, like, baggage prices?

Iirc, airline margins are super thin, and their customers are extremely price sensitive. In order to stay competitive, airlines need to be able to sell their customers on the lowest possible flight price, while still not losing money on every single flight. The solution is to charge the customer more directly for the scarce resources they use on a flight. Extra weight on the plane means more fuel used to reach the destination. Charging for each checked bag rewards people for travelling light, while giving everyone a free bag punishes the light traveller with higher fares. Sure, the byzantine fee structure in the booking process is annoying - but at the end of the day, flights are now extremely cheap historically speaking, and a pay-for-what-you-use model makes sense.

Of course, the actual solution is to have a better system of busses and trains. And the airline industry is always lobbying against that. But I’m not sure what the comparable action in the grocery industry would be.

A hill I’m willing to die on: every time I end up in Walmart, something has gone horribly wrong with my life, and I want to leave as quickly as possible while interacting with as few people as possible. I love self checkout.

Whatever. It gives off the impression of confidence. We’re trying to explain observed phenomena here, not cast moral judgements.

Being an asshole implies confidence.

Women like confidence.

Except people accidentally join dumb instances. Nobody accidentally sets their pfp as a preteen anime girl. That shit is a choice.