They’re absolutely not that incompetent. They’re on the pockets of people who profit directly from this.

Follow the money, and all that.

I don’t think business really wants interest rates that high. Without conspiracy theories, a simpler explanation is that this is simply democracy in action. People don’t want the spending reigned in, and they don’t want their taxes raised.

I think in this thread it’s worth posting out that interest rates aren’t actually high historically. They’re pretty normal. They were just wildly low for around a decade or so.

If you look at a 30-year fixed mortgage chart, the <6% rate situation only existed between roughly 2008 and 2021. At no other time in the history of the 30-year fixed rate mortgage was it ever that low. Ever.

We also have a bunch of agents and harnesses for free

As always it’s about the packaging not the individual components.

Except these programs keep your people alive and healthy and able to work and consume and live. The other money just kills people. And it’s also not just about this “operation” (aggression war). It’s about the whole military budget. Come on, now.

> It’s about the whole military budget.

I also thought that the military budget was too big... in 1998. But in 2026, Europe is raising defense spending targets to 3.5% of GDP, which is more than what the U.S. spends: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyz4nq91wpo

It turns out that, if the U.S. isn't willing to guarantee your security, you have to spend 3-5% of GDP on defense (just like Europe used to do before 1990). As the U.S. loses hegemony and we move to a multi-polar world, everyone's military budgets will go up.

No. The point is that people are using AI for this, which was the question your parent comment was answering.

Humans select the wrong targets, computer select the wrong targets. It’s just that people really don’t care unless it’s hurting their bottom line.

Probably from actually paying human beings for their work

Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize.[1]

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

More likely implying they are not being compensated fairly.

Lots of countries around Brazil are taking pix. Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay.

And you can totally expand the idea. The fact that you need national id for pix doesn’t mean the idea “doesn’t scale.” It means the current implementation of it is not focused on use by visitors.

I really don’t understand what you’re getting at, it seems like a pretty narrow view of the possibilities.

Meanwhile US citizens are using paper (cash and cheques) for lots of transactions. Or one of the big credit card corporations.

Rioting is undemocratic…

Yeah, I guess we ARE hard-working sheep and get what we deserve…

Yes, it is? When the majority wants something different than you, forcing the government to your will by violence, is not a very democratic process.

> Or that they're targeting the mass retail market, where people are technically ignorant, and "unlimited" is required to compete.

So… Marketing has taken over, just as parent comment said. Got it.

Postponed my ios update as much as I could. Things are now brighter, bigger, full of animations, and somehow worse to read and use.

Some buttons are so big and colorful and confusing that I feel like I’m using a child’s toy, or windows xp. This is horrible.

> Postponed my ios update as much as I could.

That's what I did with iOS 6 on my iPhone 4. I never did upgrade -- it was stolen before I was forced to.

Now it sounds like iOS 26 is going the same way. Makes me glad I own no Apple product new enough to run it.

I installed a little hack on my M1 MBA to block Tahoe, and it seems to be working. I wrote a piece on how to do it for others:

https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/02/stop_tahoe_update/

Bright, big, and colourful are exactly the things I want from a theming kit, though (that said, I'm a GNU/Linux head, if I have my way I'll never touch anything from Apple again).