They cost you more already. Your telemetry is uploaded to data aggregators, your insurance company buys that data, and can charge you more based on things like speeding or hard braking.

If you’re referring to CA, it’s % of the entire state. Think of how much of CA is arid, mountainous, or otherwise unsuitable for corn or other agriculture.

And you would still need to pay extra to watch the newest or older titles even if you subscribed to every service, and there are plenty of movies that just aren’t available regardless of which service you subscribe to.

It’s all enshittified.

I find it hard to disagree with anything you said. Having lived in towns small enough to make someone say “There’s a town here?” That is definitely the case.

Yeah. I get that. I’m actually super aware of the difficulty in upending your life and spending years making shit money with the hope it will get better. I’ve done it.

But seeing as you “country bumpkins” (are we really doing lousy stereotypes?) constantly tell others to pick themselves up by their bootstraps while undercutting social programs as well I figure it was fair game. Y’know, the same people working jobs that minimum wage hasn’t kept up with for more than a decade but keep getting told those jobs aren’t supposed to support a living. No, of course you won’t move. No, you don’t want anything that might change the situation either. No, you won’t take advantage of loans or other assistance and upend your life to make a major change, because doing that sucks and is risky. But that thought process never applies to other people. Crabs in a bucket. Just reinstate some magical yesteryear that in reality pretty much sucked just as bad except for the part where mom still made dinners for you. Your comment is in a nutshell all of this. We won’t change, and fuck those fictional guys over there for taking advantage of a system that doesn’t actually exist.

Funny thing is that even the immigrants are smart enough to know the shouldn’t settle in these places because they’re going down the toilet. But the locals? We’re being ignored! Save our useless town with no economic prospects, no educated workforce, and no infrastructure to support anything worthwhile! No, of course we won’t move!. …while they proceed to vote against any social policy that might help them or their future generations out of their trap.

Keep the proles out.

Why?

The internet at large is still a cesspool.

The only difference is who is in control of it.