This is a fairly common system, it’s a bad idea for a number of reasons, but it’s also not some unique outrage, I’d wager probably one in five companies in the IT/tech space do something like this.

I’m lucky, personally, to live in a city with excellent local food— that’s not everyone. Not to mention some people have good money management skills, and that’s why they are in that position. It isn’t that they COULDN’T go someplace really nice, or wouldn’t for a special occasion, it’s that they prioritize savings…

precisely so. The only real alternative to title loans is often going outside the law entirely to a shylock. And as scummy as CarMax is, they aren’t going to take a baseball bat to your kneecaps (though in reality the Mafia doesn’t do that either, they want you going to work so you can keep paying the vig at least).

Exactly, we’ve lowered our expectations again and again. Forget about club med or a friday night at a steakhouse or dinner club, in much of the US we’re lucky to eat at a midmarket chain once a month and visit what would have been considered a blue-collar entertainment option like bowling every so often.  And that’s…

are you not Eatertained?!

I am not going to say that people deserve perpetual debt for financial illiteracy, but you have to weigh the practical alternatives.

Typical fearmongering from the medical establishment fearful of losing their role as the gatekeeper of all medicine able to charge whatever they want for expert advice most people don’t need if they already know what condition they have.

well, you need more expensive repairs but you also need FEWER repairs overall, so it tends to be a wash. Obviously you still have a drivetrain but there’s a lot less to go wrong with an electric motor than the complicated dance of pistons and valves that is an internal combustion engine. There’s a reason the electric…

right to work has nothing to do with it, right to work just says you cannot be forced to join a union to get/keep work.  You mean at-will employment, which is that either you or your employer can end the relationship at any time.  That is the law in all US states except Montana.

The US has the WARN act requiring notice of layoffs but it typically only applies to larger employers, even so notice and severance is the normal practice. Also, 49 US states are at-will employment, only 24 are right-to-work (as of the last count of the source I saw). People often confuse the two (and this…

Then I really hope none of those artists ever go to an art museum or read books on art.

That has been my experience everywhere, they also give you some ground rules of stuff you will NEVER need for a puzzle-- you aren’t to interfere with electrical outlets, cameras, etc.  Many rooms also use “no go” stickers which mark things which you are not allowed to interact with.

Every escape room I’ve done has very clear rules they go over repeatedly, and many have you sign, to the effect of “you will not disassemble furniture, interact with anything marked with out safety symbol (which is described and pictured) interfere with electrical outlets, interfere with game equipment (the cameras,…

This is a good point, “something that’s too expensive for someone to justify on themselves but not super specialized” is a great gift! Unless someone is a truly insufferable snob they’re not going to turn their nose up at a chance to try “the good stuff”. You just need an idea of what they usually like. If they’re a…

The mod community for Fallout New Vegas deserves a shoutout too.

any product can be misused, it’s always a balancing act of whether a product improves more lives than it endangers, the degree of improvement and the degree of danger, as well as what, if any, anti-abuse controls can be included.

I think that’s a rather sinister way to paint it.  A perfectly reasonable alternate way to say the same thing was “they realized that a small number of users might criminally misuse their technology but that the potential quality-of-life and peace-of-mind improvements for a wide segment of customers, from the mentally…

I do think it’s overpriced, especially if you know the area or have local friends-- but honestly expertise is part of what you’re paying for.  Knowing what is essential is one part of that but so is knowing what connects together in the form of a “tour”, how difficult it would be to get from point A to point B, the…

This, right here. If not for their rapey/gropey/groomey behavior issue and direct antagonism towards Nintendo this would probably be a non-issue.

The problem is all the OTHER stuff in the Smash scene. My impression is that Nintendo had some basic, quite understandable requirements— you allow any legally-purchased Nintendo OEM hardware to players, you institute a code of conduct and ethics, you adhere to Nintendo’s family-friendly image in your marketing and…