#Economical Travel

[thriftx]

Inspiring Others with Affordable Adventures: A Guide to Sharing Budget Travel Experiences

Introduction :

Embarking on budget-friendly adventures not only enriches your own life but also offers the opportunity to inspire others to explore on a dime. This guide explores effective ways to share your budget travel experiences on social media, provides insights into starting a budget travel blog or vlog, and encourages others to embark on their own affordable adventures.

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[techdriveplay]

What Are the Best Ways to Save Money on Travel?

Traveling can be an enriching experience, but it can also be expensive. However, with a few smart strategies, you can significantly reduce your travel costs without sacrificing the quality of your trip. Here are the best ways to save money on travel. Did you know? 78% of travellers save an average of $250 per trip by booking flights in advance. Using travel reward programs can reduce travel…

[thepanvelite]

Journey on a Budget: Your Ultimate Guide to Economical Explorations

Travel on a budget: plan ahead, travel off-season, use public transport, savor local food, choose budget stays, seek free attractions.

Embarking on a journey doesn’t have to drain your wallet. With the right strategies, you can enjoy your travel adventures without worrying about expenses. Here’s your ultimate guide to saving money while satisfying your wanderlust. 1. Early Bird Catches the Deal Planning ahead is the key to snagging the best deals. Booking your flights and accommodations in advance can lead to significant…

[useless-catalanfacts]

Xavier Olivé is the last person renting a flat in a building in the Eixample [neighbourhood of Barcelona, Catalonia], after a Dutch company has bought the whole building. He denounces that the owners have expelled all the neighbours who always lived here and now all the other flats are touristic or luxury apartments.

Despite being saddened by the situation and fearing they might expel him as well, he is decided to resist because he doesn't want to leave.

By Barcelona TV. English subtitles added by me.

Sadly, this is a common story in Barcelona and other cities and towns affected by touristic massification.

We urgently need laws that regulate housing so that locals aren't massively expelled to make room for tourists or second homes for rich foreigners, and to stop vulture funds from buying up huge amounts of property to raise the prices. But right now, as a tourist, the most important thing you can do to stop kicking people out of their homes is easy: NEVER, NEVER STAY AT AN AIRBNB, AN UNCONTROLLED TOURISTIC APARTMENT, OR SIMILAR. Always stay at certified hotels (or, of course, with friends and family if you have them there).

If you rent an apartment that is being marketed to tourists where there's a housing crisis for locals, or an Airbnb anywhere, you're effectively destroying the local community.

[robertreich]

Why Does Flying Suck so Much? 

You might not believe this, but I’m old enough to remember when flying was fun.

Now I'm sure you've got your own airline horror stories, which I hope you’ll share. But what happened to make flying such a nightmare?

The answer is simple: the same things happening across most industries. In fact, a close look at airlines reveals five of the biggest problems with our economy.

Number 1: Consolidation means fewer choices.

While there were once many more airlines, a series of mergers and acquisitions over the last three decades has left only four in control of about 80% of the market.

This kind of consolidation has been happening all over the economy. For example, four companies now control 80% of all beef production, and two control over 60% of all paper products. This lack of competition has led to:

Number 2: Companies Charging More for Less

Even before recent airfare spikes, air travel was getting more expensive because of new fees for things that used to be free, like in-flight meals, checked bags, or even carry-ons.

Spirit Airlines even charges $25 to print your boarding pass at a ticket counter! It’s just a piece of paper!

One of the ugliest ad-ons is the fee some airlines charge for families to sit together. That doesn’t even cost them anything!

Airlines are leading an economy-wide trend of adding often unexpected new charges to goods and services without adding value.

And you’re getting less in return. Airlines have cut an estimated 8 inches of legroom and two inches of seat width in the last two decades. Doesn’t bother me (I’m short), but many of you may feel the squeeze.

This parallels other industries where you’re paying more for less — just look at how cereal boxes, rolls of toilet paper, and candy bars are all shrinking.

Number 3: Exploiting Workers

While their jobs have become more difficult, many flight attendants haven’t had a raise in years.

And a lot of their hardest work is totally unpaid, because most flight attendants don’t get paid during the boarding process. They’re off the clock until the plane’s doors close.

And if the flight is delayed, those are often extra hours for no extra money.

Again, this mirrors trends in the overall economy, where too many workers are pushed into unpaid overtime or made to do work or be on call during their off hours.

Number 4: The Illusion of Scarcity

Airlines pretend they have no choice but to raise prices, cut services, and limit payroll. But their profits are in the stratosphere. In the five years before the pandemic, the top 5 airlines were flush enough to pay shareholders $45 billion, largely through stock buybacks.

During the pandemic, they got a $54 billion bailout from taxpayers (you’re welcome).

In the years since, they’ve resumed flying high, with nearly $10 billion in net profit expected across the industry in 2023. They can afford to take care of workers and customers.

Whether it’s multi-millionaire movie moguls pretending they can’t afford to pay writers or a grocery chain blaming “inflation” for high prices while raking in record profits, this illusion of scarcity is a sham.

Number 5: Misdirected Rage

Instead of being mad at the people at the top, we’ve been tricked into being mad at each other. Fights have broken out over whether it’s ok to recline a seat or who gets overhead bin space. But reclining’s only an issue because airlines intentionally put the seats too close together. And bin space is only running out because they’ve made it expensive to check bags — and also risky, with the rate of lost bags doubling over the last year.

Airlines are pitting us against each other the same way billionaires and their political lackeys pit groups against each other in society, hoping we’ll blame unions or immigrants or people of other races or religions or gender identities for why it’s so hard to get ahead, and that we won’t notice how much wealth and power is in the hands of so few.

So what do we do?

A lot of these problems could be solved with tougher antitrust enforcement — which we are starting to see. The Justice Dept is suing to block JetBlue from buying Spirit Airlines. We need that kind of anti-monopoly protection across the board.

Another part of the solution is unions. Airline workers are among the wave of American workers organizing to demand better pay and working conditions.

And then there’s your power as an informed consumer. Companies get away with bad behavior when we accept their excuses that there’s just no other way to run a business. They’re counting on us not knowing what’s really going on. So share this video, and share your airline stories in the comments.

Finally, try to be a little nicer to service workers and your fellow passengers — on planes and in life. After all, we’re all on this journey together.

[relic-seeker]

i wonder what quirrel's job actually was

we get some snippets in game that yes, he was an apprentice of sorts to monomon & knows many things about hallownest in general -- but overall, we have no idea what actual things he may have researched

most fan interpretations of this i see make him very culturally aware in mostly a socio-economic-political way. like he's done some sort of political science degree. it makes sense due to his wide knowledge of the kingdom's intertwined politics and society.

however, he still seems to have some sort of appreciation for the physical landscape of hallownest? take the blue lake for example, him wanting to see the source of the rain or his comments on the hot springs.

everything could simply just be seen as a thirst for knowledge, but then again i think quirrel is much of an observer as he is as someone who just wants to learn: it's also much about experience to him.

therefore, putting everything i have together, quirrel simply must be:

a geographer

[solis-angelus]

READ THIS FIC I BEG YOU. PLEASE. THE BEST TAKE EVER. YOU WILL NOT REGRET CLICKING.

Fic: Muggle Studies is Economics in Disguise by May_May_0_0

[pratchettquotes]

Genua nestled on the delta of the Vieux river, which was the source of its wealth. And Genua was wealthy. Genua had once controlled the river mouth and taxed its traffic in a way that couldn't be called piracy because it was done by the city government, and therefore sound economics and perfectly alright.

Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad

[sendmyresignation]

i'd erase warped tour from the timeline if i could just because the most insufferable people on planet earth mythologize it

[wonder-worker]

"Among their complaints [in 1460, the Yorkists] specifically blamed the earls of Wiltshire and Shrewsbury and Viscount Beaumont for ‘stirring’ the king [Henry VI] to hold a parliament at Coventry that would attaint them and for keeping them from the king’s presence and likely mercy, asserting that this was done against [the king's] will. To this they added the charge that these evil counselors were also tyrannizing other true men* without the king’s knowledge. Such claims of malfeasance obliquely raised the question of Henry’s fitness as a king, for how could he be deemed competent if such things happened without his knowledge and against his wishes? They also tied in rumors circulating somewhat earlier in the southern counties and likely to have originated in Calais that Henry was really ‘good and gracious Lord to the [Yorkists] since, it was alleged, he had not known of or assented to their attainders. On 11 June the king was compelled to issue a proclamation stating that they were indeed traitors and that assertions to the contrary were to be ignored." - Helen Maurer, "Margaret of Anjou: "Queenship and Power in Late Medieval England"

Three things that we can surmise from this:

We know where the "Henry was an innocent helpless king being controlled and manipulated by his Evil™ advisors" rhetoric came from**.

The Yorkists were deliberately trying to downplay Henry VI's actual role and involvement in politics and the Wars of the Roses. They cast him as a "statue of a king", blamed all royal policies and decisions on others*** (claiming that Henry wasn't even aware of them), and framed themselves as righteous and misunderstood counselors who remained loyal to the crown. We should keep this in mind when we look at chronicles' comments of Henry's alleged passivity and the so-called "role reversal" between him and Queen Margaret.

Henry VI's actual agency and involvement is nevertheless proven by his own actions. We know what he thought of the Yorkists, and we know he took the effort to publicly counter their claims through a proclamation of his own. That speaks louder than the politically motivated narrative of his enemies, don't you think?

*There was some truth to these criticisms. For example, Wiltshire (ie: one of the men named in the pamphlet) was reportedly involved in a horrible situation in June which included hangings and imprisonments for tax resistance in Newbury. The best propagandists always contain a degree of truth, etc. **I've seen some theories on why Margaret of Anjou wasn't mentioned in these pamphlets alongside the others even though she was clearly being vilified during that time as well, and honestly, I think those speculations are mostly unnecessary. Margaret was absent because it was regarded as very unseemly to target queens in such an officially public manner. We see a similar situation a decade later: Elizabeth Woodville was vilified and her whole family - popularly and administratively known as "the queen's kin" - was disparaged in Warwick and Clarence's pamphlets. This would have inevitably associated her with their official complaints far more than Margaret had been, but she was also not directly mentioned. It was simply not considered appropriate. ***This narrative was begun by the Duke of York & Warwick and was - demonstrably - already widespread by the end of 1460. When Edward IV came to power, there seems to have been a slight shift in how he spoke of Henry (he referred to Henry as their "great enemy and adversary"; his envoys were clearly willing to acknowledge Henry's role in Lancastrian resistance to Yorkist rule; etc), but he nevertheless continued the former narrative for the most part. I think this was because 1) it was already well-established and widespread by his father, and 2) downplaying Henry's authority would have served to emphasize Edward's own kingship, which was probably advantageous for a usurper whose deposed rival was still alive and out of reach. In some sense, the Lancastrians did the same thing with their own propaganda across the 1460s, which was clearly not as effective in terms of garnering support and is too long to get into right now, but was still very relevant when it came to emphasizing their own right to the throne while disparaging the Yorkists' claim.

[iftitah]

there was a buffalo that was about to die soon but we were not allowed to tell it to the owner

[thriftx]

Staying Healthy and Safe on a Budget: A Comprehensive Guide for Budget-Friendly Travel

Introduction : 

Prioritizing health and safety is essential for every traveler, even those on a budget. This guide explores practical strategies for maintaining well-being during budget-friendly travel, covering aspects such as affordable travel insurance, staying safe in budget accommodations, and incorporating budget-friendly health tips on the road.

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[economicsresearch]

page 562 - Do you ever feel overwhelmed scrolling through all the pictures you took, that you transferred from one phone to the next, backed up on a laptop or locked up in the cloud? Memories that could have been left to fallow, instead rise up zombie-like into your emotional present on a random Tuesday night when you scroll back too far?

There is so much and you don't need most of it. Most memory is meant to disappear after all; maybe only rising up when the light and the smell of an evening combine just so, or a photo falls out of an old notebook. Save the very few -- privileged or damned -- we all have corners and rooms that stay dark. You are meant to forget. It is not natural to scroll and be reminded of every 20 minutes from the last 15 years.

And so you feel feel sick from remembering. And you feel sick because you can't remember, because the remembering you just subjected yourself to isn't really remembering. It's forced and unnatural; a decisive moment abstracted from the life that surrounded it. There was smell and touch and emotion present when the photo was taken. Gone, killed by the visual. Another memory tried to surface, spurred by the photo in front of you. Gone, recall smashed apart by distraction. Only the remorseless engine remains, the piston of the scroll as a new picture is stamped over the old and again and again and anything gnawing at the edge of consciousness never has a chance. You're left with the feeling that you've lost something before it was even in your grasp. That you had finally remembered the combination to the safe where your most precious treasures are stored but the door was slammed, the dial spun and the numbers changed again.

[awesomecooperlove]

🏕️🏝️🗼

[flashhwing]

I should’ve made the fortunes favor chapters shorter. like split them up more, not write less. then I would’ve had more of a backlog and may not have just stopped writing. which I didn’t do I’m definitely still writing it

[tricornonthecob]

"If modern day people went back in time they'd be fucked" this, "you'd never survive a day in x time period" that, I like to think time-travel isekai had at least one thing right: someone, *someone* would watch you floundering about like a wee little baby fawn and go "oh god oh nooooo oh sweetie come here something is terribly wrong with you but you're trying so hard, let me help you, dear"