quiddities and agonies of the ruling class - a rolling new york times thread

tbh probably 85% of my engagement with my space age supercomputer $600 phone is either checking the time, listening to the radio, looking at maps of my own city or sending "electrical mail". could ditch the phone and replace it with a $5 radio, a $30 road atlas, a few books of stamps, and a $250 watch and still have a few hundred bucks left over

i use my awesome $200 computer phone to send messages to other people's phones, talk to them in real time, answer technical questions of random strangers, like things, and take screenshots of funny things on the internet

HOLD UP ... YOU SPENT $1000 ON A PHONE??? ...

Almost, yeah. Bought an iPhone XS for myself and an iPhone 11 for my wife, last summer. We were paying for them bit by bit with the phone bill for 6-7 months, but some money fell from the sky last month so I paid 'em both off in full.

1k+ for the top of the line iphone w/all bells and whistles and case and warranty and whatnot has been apple's business model for years.

yes, but that's a business model for assholes and people who get their jobs to pay for their phones. ... It's like buying a new car vs. a used car with like 10k miles.

n.b. I have done fairly well as an owner of shares of Apple stock

I'm a freelance journalist. A smartphone is a business expense.

yeah, but it's still $1000 ... idk dude, you are generally posting about being relatively low-income and the need to be frugal. If the $1k phone is your special treat, then I can respect that.

I mean, my laptop is from 2013, my wife's desktop computer is from 2011, our car is from 2009, so...I guess it kind of is, yeah.

my last phone lasted for five years; my attitude is buy top of the line and then amortize. (nb, the phone i bought last week was $650 all in i think and it better last me until the next republican president)

phones aren't amortized, they are depreciated. Amortization is for intangibles.

i'm feeling pretty intangible myself these days

(i meant amortize the capital cost over the usage time tbh but point taken)

i only get android phones that are a year or two old when i get a new phone because top of the line androids and iphones are just too expensive for me. and phones aren't get any more durable as the years pass afaict

xp - yes, I know what you meant, but the term for that re a phone would be depreciation. If you were talking about points on a mortgage loan, that would be amortization.

NERD!

the number of times i check the time i gotta say it’s nice not to fish into my pocket. small but big, if you know what i mean. a thousand dollar device not necessary for this operation

lol. I haver had my Android phone since November of 2017. Only thing I've noticed is that my pictures aren't as sharp as they used to be. Oh well.

if I can't correct the misuse of the term amortization in the quid/ag NYT thread ...?

Amortize deez

(I haven’t had lunch yet)

That's actually an interesting question -- would you amortize deez in the sense that it could be perceived as an entitlement, which would be intangible, or would deez, as a physical thing, be something that would be depreciated, like a breeder horse or cow?

I don't think it would qualify for depletion like you would take for mineral deposits or timber ... even though, biologically, deez do deplete over time

deez are appreciated

table: try putting scotch tape over your lens. For real.

too much agonizing in here. let's talk tactics.

Politicians, diplomats and the media elite are returning to their playgrounds in Washington, D.C., emerging from the depths of the pandemic and returning to their playground — some would say swamp — with a growing appetite for surreal displays of normalcy. https://t.co/MU13t36L7o

— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 18, 2021

Ruling elites caught acting like almost everyone else, but with more money to play with.

I am confused about how having three houses as investments can serve as the basis of a hardship story and I don't mean this in a dick way https://t.co/64BBIZBpSN

— Katie McDonough (@kmcdonovgh) July 10, 2021

was expecting to feel like the twitter commenter (that's risk baby!) but the obvious propaganda worked on me a little, I admit. those renters sound like a nightmare

are NY landlords not already suing the state government for the moratorium only applying to tenants?

Here's the kicker on @matthewhaag's pro-slumlord puffpiece for @nytimes: the apartments for which the landlord has allegedly not received rent do not appear to be legal nor registered with HPD as a de facto multiple dwelling (3 units). She cannot legally collect rent. pic.twitter.com/tRPErmHX4t

— literally show me an honest landlord (@wyrdtweeter) July 10, 2021

“Journalism”

lol fuck her

So, the landlord profiled this New York Times article has a Twitter account where she calls tenants "parasites", admits she doesn't need the money, and makes jokes about evicting people and making them homeless.

Amazing "reporting" here by the paper of record. 🤡 https://t.co/Kii5KAGuXO pic.twitter.com/geeZJGLxqf

— Chad Loder (@chadloder) July 9, 2021

wow

workers-eager-office-return https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/23/business/workers-eager-office-return.html

article links to a bunch of other stuff but doesn't seem to link to the actual survey? why would retail workers be surveyed in the same group as office workers if the question is "would you like to go back to the office"?

also while i am in favor of accommodations being made for parents, i would hate if my employer did a survey and ordered a return to the office based on the responses of parents who couldn't work with their kids there. or of the person who benefits from her walking commute but didn't know she could take a walk in the morning during the time she would have been commuting.

Just the premise of that article was so absurd that I didn't read it until now out of perverse curiosity. What a bunch of weirdos! Working from home has its challenges, yes, but it's miles better than going into an office.

Big assumption, that one doesn't hate their family

"That’s when I remembered the bag of dead rats."
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/guides/how-garbage-guard-really-works

Love this relatable story about people who, w/o intending to, bought a $6million townhouse with its own elevator, which is a normal thing that happens to us pic.twitter.com/9nYNP7zjXl

— Carly Goodman, Ph.D., emerita (@car1ygoodman) November 7, 2021

is that…. former ilxor carly?

It is indeed <3 <3 <3

when you enter "elevator" into the search you have to buy the first house that comes up, it's the law

Just regular New Yorkers who own television production companies, as one does

https://variety.com/2019/biz/news/tony-hernandez-lilly-burns-variety-creative-leadership-award-1203402823/

Apparently they graduated from college and searched the career services website for "television" and were given that job, crazy

https://i.imgur.com/fkr3RQ3.jpg

I hate when that happens!

I've never been to a fete

(sung to the tune of "Fell in Love with a Girl")

Or "Never Been In A Riot."