I'd give this more weight if other commenters hadn't already helpfully cited studies in this very thread on the topic at hand. The story from Miami in particular was very telling. I also liked the European method where they made fares themselves free, but still enforced people using their smart tickets to record journeys.
Making people pay a token amount isn't about preventing unnecessary travel. It's about keeping everyone with a little 'skin in the game', where they feel they are paying for a service. Even if the amount itself is negligible. It also provides data where journey projections and trends are revealed.
A Toscano Gluten Free Pizza Base. $7.
I went to 2x Woolies and 2x Coles on the weekend in a futile search for the bloody thing. Can't have family pizza night without it.
Update: Dad went down to Coles this afternoon and found one! Pizza night is on!
I'm no expert on this topic, but I've previously read that when a thing is made free people stop valuing it. I don't know how much weight to put on this, I certainly valued my hospital visits for my children and I and those were free.
I think the simple fact is people evade fares because they believe they will face no consequences for it. If transit authorities put Coles style cameras on the entrances and flagged evaders who were then picked up every single time, evasion would drastically drop. And we'd hate having Big Brother watching us.
I think a token amount is reasonable. It costs me more than 50c to ride my bicycle or walk/run 50km. When a train fare is cheaper than wear on your shoes for walking that distance, I can't see how you can complain about it.
Dawnguard gives you crossbows! Though I prefer travelling light and using bound weapons, personally.
I also love to go wood elf archer. 😃
I tried going full Nord warrior so I'd pick the Stormcloak path. But I just hate the Stormcloaks and Ulfric. Even on my Nord build, I always go Empire.
Headphones I can wear all day at work. Noise blocking is fine (it isn't that noisy in the office). I need to take video calls a couple of times a day, so the mic quality is crucial. I don't want to be raising my voice to be heard by other parties as that'll annoy people in my area.
I love my Jabra in-ear headphones for running, but they're not awesome for calls and they'll go flat after about 4-5 hours of constant use. In fairness, they're probably ok for wearing all day with a couple of charges in their case but the mic quality isn't good enough.
Headphones! My work headphones for about six years have been a pair of Google Pixel earbuds that have been fine. No complaints, nothing to rave about. I've ogled a pair of Sony XM5's for the longest time, but have never been able to justify buying a pair while I have a perfectly working pair.
The Pixels are starting to wear out. I'll be getting replacement headphones this year.
Here the thing: If I wait a couple of months, I'll have enough points for a free pair of Apple Airpods Max. Only, at work the only Apple device I have is the iPad. I have a Macbook at home, but these will be for work. The biggest strength of Airpods is their ability to seamlessly work with all your Apple devices. They'll do regular Bluetooth, but they aren't special for that.
The Airpods are stupidly priced at $900. Even getting them for free that pricetag is the biggest thing I have against them. I don't really want to look like the sort of moron who would waste that much money on a pair of headphones. I thought of getting them, selling them and then buying a pair of Sonys. Only, Ebay seems to have Airpods going at around the price of the XM5's anyway. So, that pathway looks like a hassle for no real gain.
Options:
Buy a pair of XM5's and claim them on tax like a normal person.
Get the Airpods and cope.
Get Airpods, sell them and get XM5's. Put the remainder towards something I actually want.
Get a free pair of cheaper Beats headphones and look like even more of an idiot who pays too much for headphones.
What to do? I don't suppose anyone has had any experience with both XM5's and the Airpods Max, do they?
I have another! On my first visit to Las Vegas, I was walking through the New York, New York casino - headed for the roller-coaster. I needed to pass by a room full of slot machines (pokies). I figured I'm in Vegas, I need to gamble something. So, I dropped a quarter into a slot machine. It paid out $27 or so. I cashed out immediately, It was enough to pay for dinner and a couple of rides on the roller coaster.
So, Freddy just came on today and caught me in a pensive moment.
This song hits sooooooo hard looking back on it. It was a dud at the time, his solo efforts were a complete failure. The lyrics of this cover though: I’ve been thinking about what was going on in his life at this time. Hiding his sexuality. Hiding the fact that he has Aids. Looking closely at his made-up face, you can see he is already starting his decline even here. But, he’s pretending.
I've seen them in the city Coles, but my suburban Coles doesn't have them. I assume they install them as a deterrent for shoplifting. Which I guess says that not enough people in my area are shoplifting to justify these things.
I hate cameras watching my face and the overhead one that can't handle me doing something unexpected like trying to scan 4 milk cartons at once a lot more than these gates. I've also never seen them actually close though. My attitude might change if they closed on me.
I sometimes resent a little the disparity between what the clients pay for my services vs. my salary. Without exaggeration, I take home a little under 50% of what the client pays.
But at least I spent 0% of my time wondering about this. Plus I get paid leave (sick/holiday etc). I know my employer is still making a hefty profit, but I'm not sure I'd want to go the pure consulting route. Stories like this put me off. I would hurt my family if I had to routinely deal with chasing up the money.
I can't understand that industry at all. It costs parents a fortune (I think it was something like $135/day per kid 10 years ago?) but apparently the whole industry runs on a shoestring. Revenue of $16k/week per room of kids, and apparently that amount is barely scraping by.
I know the front-line workers are seriously underpaid, but someone is making money here.
I spent my youth pirating every game under the sun, so I can't really judge you for using a pirated game - but I just pay the $6 these days. Which is how I've ended up with hundreds of games I've never played. No regrets though - the kids will discover that library soon, and I feel like I need to make it up to game developers a bit for that misspent youth I just mentioned. 😀
Nath @ Nath @aussie.zone Posts 32Comments 2,014Joined 2 yr. ago
I've shared this one before. 😃