#prices would depend on the currency

[jsuika]

I had this one idea whereas if I did convert them into stickers and/or keychains to turn into a merchandise immediately. But lmao, I guess this would be a great concept I'm looking forward also in events like cosplay events or anything I'm hyped for.

I was also thinking if I ALSO did make my sona as a marketable plushie for fun! I'm pretty sure he's gon' be short aside from being oversized too much lol.

[probablyasocialecologist]

The economic indicators speak of nothing less than an economic catastrophe. Over 46,000 businesses have gone bankrupt, tourism has stopped, Israel’s credit rating was lowered, Israeli bonds are sold at the prices of almost “junk bonds” levels, and the foreign investments that have already dropped by 60% in the first quarter of 2023 (as a result of the policies of Israel’s far-right government before October 7) show no prospects of recovery. The majority of the money invested in Israeli investment funds was diverted to investments abroad because Israelis do not want their own pension funds and insurance funds or their own savings to be tied to the fate of the State of Israel. This has caused a surprising stability in the Israeli stock market because funds invested in foreign stocks and bonds generated profit in foreign currency, which was multiplied by the rise in the exchange rate between foreign currencies and the Israeli Shekel. But then Intel scuttled a $25 billion investment plan in Israel, the biggest BDS victory ever.  These are all financial indicators. But the crisis strikes deeper at the means of production of the Israeli economy. Israel’s power grid, which has largely switched to natural gas, still depends on coal to supply demand. The biggest supplier of coal to Israel is Colombia, which announced that it would suspend coal shipments to Israel as long as the genocide was ongoing. After Colombia, the next two biggest suppliers are South Africa and Russia. Without reliable and continuous electricity, Israel will no longer be able to pretend to be a developed economy. Server farms do not work without 24-hour power, and no one knows how many blackouts the Israeli high-tech sector could potentially survive. International tech companies have already started closing their branches in Israel. Israel’s reputation as a “startup nation” depends on its tech sector, which in turn depends on highly educated employees. Israeli academics report that joint research with universities abroad has declined sharply thanks to the efforts of student encampments. Israeli newspapers are full of articles about the exodus of educated Israelis. Prof. Dan Ben David, a famous economist, argued that the Israeli economy is held together by 300,000 people (the senior staff in universities, tech companies, and hospitals). Once a significant portion of these people leaves, he says, “We won’t become a third world country, we just won’t be anymore.” 

19 July 2024

[regencyama]

Getting Married in the Regency Era

Let's say you, a writer, have two Regency Era characters that want to marry. Assuming both are members of the Church of England, there are three respectable ways to do it, depending on their finances and social status.

Banns. The cheapest option. Having the banns "published" mean that for three Sundays in a row, the pending marriage is announced at church during the service. As long as no one objects to the pending marriage when those announcements are made, the marriage can proceed within the next three months. This is the least-fashionable (and most-public) way to go about it and anyone who can afford one of the other options would do so.

A license. For "a few pounds," a couple can skip having their pending marriage announced and get a license from a local clergyman. They are then allowed to marry in a parish that at least either party has lived in "for at least fifteen days." If someone can't afford a special license, this is what they go with.

A special license. This is what all the wealthy and well-connected couples obtain. It's what Mrs. Bennet insists on in Pride an Prejudice once she hears Lizzie is going to marry Mr. Darcy. Bridgerton S1 might give the impression that special licenses are for emergency situations only but that was not the case. A special license simply means a couple could marry at any parish at any time. Only the Archbishop of Canterbury can give them and they are done at his discretion, so the couple has to be well-connected. The price? "Twenty-eight guineas in the middle of the century." Guineas were literally a rich people unit of currency and one was equivalent to twenty-one shillings, so just over the value of a pound (twenty shillings). So, twenty-eight guineas was 588 shillings, so just over twenty-nine pounds. Since England actually had deflation between the Regency Era and the middle of the 19th Century, twenty-nine pounds in 1850 was equivalent to fifty-seven pounds in 1813. That is £5,059.19 ($6,646.90 USD) today. To put that in perspective, a marriage license in the county I currently live in is $25.00 USD/£19.04.

There is one other way to get married and that is running off to Gretna Green, a small town just over the border in Scotland. No parental permission, banns, local residency, or license needed. A couple says their vows in front of a witness (usually the blacksmith) and they are legally married. (It's what everyone assumes Lydia and Wickham were going to do in Pride and Prejudice until they find out that no, they're actually just living together.) Gretna Green is the option for people who are desperate and (society assumes) have low moral character.

Source: What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist -- the Facts of Daily Life in 19th-Century England by Daniel Pool

[indig0trolls]

TINY BUSTS - PRETTY PASTELS

Yippee!! I'd originally planned to do these early September, but realized 4 sets of 4 was. A lot to space out. And then October was a wash. So you get them THIS month instead!

34$ Each! [ONE] [TWO] [THREE] [FOUR] [FIVE] [SIX] [SEVEN] [EIGHT]

Buy limit of 1 for first 12 hours! (Time posting: 2:30pm EST)

Tos under cut, please be sure to read it!

TERMS OF SERVICE

You MAY change the design/species of any design i've made after youve bought it, but you must leave credit with INDIG0TEA for the design, and the design itself must be recognizable.

Gender/sex/etc is ultimately up to the buyer.

If the design is gifted/traded at any point, all financial value up to that point is lost and it may not be resold until further art is made/commissioned for it.

You may NOT resell the design for more than you paid for it, unless it comes with extra art either made by you (listed for your current or historical commission rates), or commissioned by you. Gift art/free art does not count towards the value of any design I make, ever.

Additionally: You may not ever ask for, recieve, or offer full resale plus non-currency add ons (such as, but not limited to: art, characters, merchandise, games, game currency, etc.). Yes, even if the offer as couched as "free art/commission/character". Partial resale may be negotiated only for designs whose original buying price was 30 or more dollars USD, and split dollar amount may be for no less than 2/3 of the list price to prevent people trying to workaround this TOS to encourage other people to accept their offers. (For example: Partial resale on a 30$ design may be a maximum of 20$ partial + non-currency add on.) This is to prevent overoffering/artificially inflating resale value. I am willing to make exceptions to this clause, but you will have to speak to me directly to ensure my TOS is being respected.

You may not include my designs in resale bundles. Period.

You may not EVER feed ANY of my art into an AI interface of ANY kind.​​​​​​​​

If you resell, trade, or gift this design, please inform me that it has been traded/resold/gifted so that I may update the TOS to reflect that and so future buyers cannot be scammed.

You may not resell, gift, or trade this design (or any of my designs) to anyone on my blacklist, which is linked below for your convenience. Doing so will result in immediate blacklisting/blocking of your accounts.

You may not ever edit the original artwork(s).

You may not repost the original artwork to deviantart, instagram, or other social media/portfolio sites.

You may not use this design for the creation of license-able media such as (but is not limited to): books, animated shorts/shows, Vtuber/twitch streamer sonas, comics/webcomics, and video games (free or otherwise). If you would like to use this design in anything like this, we can negotiate a one time licensing fee which covers use in all of the above. This can be anywhere form an additional 150-500$ depending on your intended use.

You MAY use your design for any other purpose, so long as you are not profiting financially off of my work nor passing it off as your own.

You are allowed to store it in your deviantart sta.sh, post it to tumblr profiles, or upload it to websites like toyhou.se with proper credit. However, you may not reupload to toyhou.se, to keep the ownership log intact, and to keep the original tos consistent.

For my personal comfort, you may not delete original TH listings from toyhou.se and resell it separately. This is again to keep the ownership log intact, and to keep the original tos consistent. If the person you wish to resell it to does not have a toyhou.se, I have plenty of invite codes I can give out as necessary.

You MUST credit to INDIG0TEA the first time you post art of them to websites other than toyhou.se

Violation of many of these terms will result in permanent blacklisting/banning from buying or owning designs by me in the future.

[whencyclopedia]

Ghosts in Ancient China

Ghost stories were the earliest form of literature in ancient China. They were almost certainly part of a very old oral tradition before writing developed during the Shang Dynasty (1600 - 1046 BCE) and they continue to be popular in China today. Ghosts were taken very seriously by the ancient Chinese.

In modern-day China, ghosts only have power to harm if one believes in them, but in ancient China, they were a reality whether one believed in them or laughed them off. When a person died their soul journeyed across a bridge to the afterlife. They were judged as worthy or unworthy on this crossing; if they had lived a good life, they continued on, or if they had done evil, they fell from the bridge into hell.

If they reached the other side, they were either reincarnated or went on to live with the gods depending on one's beliefs. Buddhists, for example, believed that people were more often reincarnated while Confucians believed that the ancestors dwelt with the gods and could be prayed to for assistance or protection. The first step in this journey after death was one's burial and funeral service, and if this was not done right, the soul of the deceased would return to earth to haunt the living.

The Importance of Proper Burial

In China, the ground under the earth was considered the property of the gods. Cemeteries were located outside of towns and cities in rural areas and there were earth spirits there known as Tudi Gong as there were anywhere else. One could not just go and dig a grave without first honoring the gods and local spirits and purchasing the land from them.

The relatives of the deceased would choose a spot and then write up a legal contract purchasing that plot from the gods and spirits. This contract cited "the dead person's name, titles, and date of death; the exact dimensions of the plot, the price paid for the land...and signatures of witnesses" (Benn, 271). They placed the document in the grave and then honored it by paying a certain amount of cash. Since physical currency was of no use in the afterlife, people would purchase sheets of paper, cut out a certain amount of "bills" from it, write denominations on them, and burn them at the grave. Once all this was accomplished and signs were received that it was acceptable, the person could be buried.

Since it was hoped the dead person's soul would pass over the bridge to the land of the gods, grave goods were included in the burial, which consisted of favorite objects and food. The dead then had to be mourned for an appropriate amount of time. For parents and grandparents the minimum was three years during which one had to wear special mourning clothing, could not attend parties, listen to or play music, and, in the case of government positions, go to work. Government officials had to resign for three years when a parent or grandparent died, and failure to report a death to the authorities carried a penalty of exile or hard labor. These rules and many others applied to royalty as well as to the peasant class and if any of these steps was not done properly, or was ignored, the soul of the deceased would return to earth.

Continue reading...

[tetrakys]

New Gen is much cheaper than old MCL

I've finally played the first episode and I'm very relieved to see that prices have been decreased quite a bit, and doing some math New Gen ends up being way cheaper than old MCL. A lot cheaper.

In old MCL we received 600 free APs every month, and each episode used to cost around 1000 APs (University Life and Love Life). Here, we receive 1,780 free APs every month. The first episode ended up costing me around 1,150 APs. Even if the following episodes are slightly more expensive, we will be able to easily play each episode for free by logging in every day.

Additionally, they really listened to the beta feedback. The AP cost has been decreased of around 50 APs for each choice. Neutral choices used to cost 40APs -> now they cost 2APs like every normal line of dialogue. Medium choices used to cost between 80 and 120 APs depending on Ysaline's personality -> now they cost ~50 APs Critical choices used to cost 150-170 depending on personality -> now they cost ~100 APs Archibald's choice used to be a critical choice and it's now a medium choice.

They also increased the number of currency we receive by logging in every day. During the beta the listing price reported that we would get 1290 AP for free and 300 additional APs with the VIP pass every month. Now we get 1,780 AP for free and 700 additional APs through the VIP subscription. (And I haven't calculated the other currencies yet but they also seem to have been increased.)

tldr: New Gen is much cheaper than old MCL and the basic game can be easily played for free.

[lazarusemma]

obviously universities claiming “we can't divest from arms companies because tuition costs would rise” is on the face of it a facile claim—

(tuition, like all prices, is set to establish profit more than to reflect actual costs of production; student loan rates are famously high, and without debt forgiveness many people are already unable to pay them off; hopefully most people would agree to slightly higher tuition in exchange for stopping mass murder)—

but it’s a useful illustration of how privilege in the imperial core depends, by definition, on exploitation of the global south.

education is made available to a portion of the US’s population limited by wealth and other societal factors. it is inequitable even within the country. but as an institution, it is bound to & reliant upon the wealth of the country, which sits atop a global economy of neoliberalism and resource/value extraction. the only reason middle- or upper-class USAmericans have material access to “quality” education is because of their country’s deriving that wealth from oppression of the global south.

this is true on a literal, physical level—where do we get the paper for textbooks? where do we get the cobalt, aluminum, nickel for electronics? who makes our plastics or textiles, under what conditions, and what price do we pay for these items?

this is also true on an ideological level—what is printed in our textbooks, and in what language(s)? what websites are deemed trustworthy sources to cite academically, and whose authority makes that call? which currency is used to purchase materials from abroad, and who benefits from this?

notice also that none of the points raised above are exclusive to higher education. colleges and universities may be making headlines right now for being directly invested in the systems we want them divesting from, but all of the US's internal resources are driven by money, and the US's economic power comes from a history of settler colonialism, human rights abuses, and environmentally-unsound practices across the world.

this country has leveraged its money—collected by way of torture and murder of Black people, forced displacements and murder of Indigenous people, and non-sustainable exploitation of natural resources (along with white European settlers’ wealth, which of course has its own chain of wealth extraction as its source)—all to bring itself to the head of the global economy, produce a military meant to be too threatening for other countries to risk invoking, and enforce its hegemony across the production process.

our response to the claim that divesting would make tuition more expensive needs to be twofold:

1. challenging its veracity—no, it won’t;

2. challenging its value—so what if it does?

any serious justice movement needs to acknowledge that some things which are currently available will need to become unavailable (or less available, or less convenient) under an equitable system. for another example: projects like UBI would be great for residents of the imperial core, but in our current setup, UBI will be a privilege of those whose countries have the wealth to back it.

no liberatory project is complete without a complete restructuring of the systems that enabled inequity to begin with. for those of us living in the imperial core, this means accepting that even if increasing quality of life in the global south will/does cost us, the cost has to be considered worth the result!

[erzvolnes]

Hey Flight Rising folks! My name is Zac and I love drawing dragons! I'd love to draw YOUR dragons! I'm offering dragon/dino comms right now and would really appreciate it if you'd check out my art & pricing under the cut! (@fr-boosts if you don't mind sharing this, thank you!)

I'm willing to draw things besides FR dragons as well, so please take a look & see if my art might interest you (:

My pricing is £10 for a sketch, £15 for flat colours, and £25 for full rendering. I can add a time-lapse of your commission for £3! Please convert these prices from GBP to your currency so there are no surprises! I will draw dragons, dinosaurs, animals or people, but dragons are my favourite. Want me to draw you/your fursona/your pet as a dragon? I can do that! Here are some examples of my dragon art (sketch, flats and rendered!) Unfortunately I don't have many examples of FR dragons, but I have drawn them in the past! For more examples of my art in general, please check here:

If you're interested but want to discuss style or pricing, please let me know and I'm sure we can work something out! I'm very open to negotiation so please don't be afraid to ask! Here's an example of a simpler style that would be less expensive than a fully rendered piece. (Approx. £15 depending on complexity.)

Thanks so much for checking me out, and please get in touch with me if you're interested. Thanks!!

[illwilledomen]

My Piglin Headcanons !

Piglins have a lot more body fat than humans as they often must go without food for long periods. This does not mean they are just blubbery however, as piglins have considerably more muscle mass as well, which makes them considerably stronger and more resilient in their environment.

Their large ears help dispel heat to keep cool, and also to detect prey and other piglin over vast distances.

Similar to how some humans developed yodeling to communicate over long distances, piglins have developed various vocal techniques to herd strider and hoglin and signal to other piglin tribes or bastions over the Nether’s large, precarious mountain ranges and chasms. Because it is an enclosed space, the sound can echo off of the walls and travel a great distance.

Piglin settlements and communes are often found nestled in valleys or banks, which are often cooler and shielded from the lava “oceans” heat. Their culture is entirely dependent on crimson fungus, strider and hoglin meat, and so they often set up camp near crimson forests.

Due to there being very few true plants able to survive in the nether, piglins cannot digest most vegetables from the Overworld. Their stomachs are evolved to mostly digest meat. Travelling groups of piglins often eat dense, highly nutritious foods similar to pemmican, but made from nether ingredients.

Piglin have a high resistance to multiple hallucinogenic chemicals produced by Nether fungus, having a far less potent reaction than one would see in a human. They are also immune to multiple toxins found in the flesh of native nether life forms, such as magma cubes.

Recreational hallucinogenic substances are very important to piglin culture, and has influenced their mythology, medicine and philosophy.

Inspired from the Farmers Respite mod, an expansion to farmers delight, coffee beans are one of the few native but rare plants of the nether. Due to this, piglins are the inventors of coffee, which helps keep them active and alert during long treks and hunts.

Like dolphins, when piglins sleep, a part of their brain remains awake. For unknown reasons which baffle Netherologists, entities which enter full REM sleep while in a dimension they do not originate from have a very high chance of spontaneous combustion. Due to their Overworld ancestry as wild pigs millions of years ago, Piglins have had to evolve to combat this.

Piglins have three main universal forms of language. Vocal language, which is both talking and non-speech vocalizing. Piglin sign language - which is used with extradimensional beings such as humans or Endermen as neither can physically speak piglin very well, as well as deaf or mute piglins. And finally, their written word, which consists of symbolic hieroglyphics. Stone tablets are typically used, and smaller tribes or communities may not use it.

Bastions are vastly different to other piglin communities, as they are closed religious groups. They only allow outsiders (piglin or otherwise) if it is by blood or formal invitation by a religious leader. Piglin of the bastion may be hostile toward humans and players, as humans have stolen from them in the past during tensions between piglins and human explorers, which occurred before the fall of the ancient humans.

Nearly all Piglin worship their goddess, a golden sow, which represents different things depending on what tribe you’re talking to, but usually power and honor. This may stem from the fact female aligned piglins are larger and thus considered more powerful in their society.

This is why gold is very important to them. Contrary to outdated beliefs held by old school Netherologists, gold is not a piglin currency - piglins trade goods for other goods amongst themselves, not with currency but with produce (there’s probably a word for this but idk it. Things don’t have fixed prices, you can buy a basket of mushrooms and pay that with some hoglin meat yk what I’m saying). Gold is rather a sign of respect and allyship, hence why if one wears it you will be allowed near hunting parties who may share some of their resources with you.

Piglins have a peculiar ability to detect disturbances in a soul. For example, they will be heavily psychologically affected (moreso than others) by soul sand, and may be wary of players (humans that have altered souls & can respawn) as opposed to normal humans (when they die, they die.)

Piglins raise their piglets communally and tribes are often led by an older female. Piglins, like all minecraft creatures, are intersex, and, again, like all other minecraft creatures, can alter their hormone levels naturally - a piglin that decides to remain with high levels of estrogen is what I mean when I say a female piglin.

[vorekody]

I know I'm taking a risk here, but.. What are his prices? Asking for a friend and definitely not myself ;)

"it would depend on the quality, size and species you were looking to purchase, and even then prices are flexible based on currency"

[transtundras-fr]

Examples. I’m thinking of $40-$70 for a medium sized dragon, and $100-$200 for a big huge 3 foot long dragon. I’m open to suggestions though!

[indig0trolls]

You guys ready to get spooky?

Cat Scratch - 25$ // Child's Play - 45$ // Are you my Mymmy? - 25$

As a courtesy to your fellow community members, please limit yourself to 1 design for the first 24 hours! Thanks!

TOS UNDER CUT!

TOS

By purchasing you will be agreeing to follow these terms as follows. PLEASE make sure you read them in full to understand them.

You MAY change the design/species of any design i’ve made after youve bought it, but you must leave credit with INDIG0TEA for the design, and the design itself must be recognizable.

Gender/sex/etc is ultimately up to the buyer.

You may NOTresell the design for more than you paid for it, unless it comes with extra art either made by you (listed for your current or historical  commission rates), or commissioned by you. Gift art/free art does not count towards the value of any design I make, ever. Additionally: You may not ever ask for, recieve, or offer full resale plus non-currency add ons (such as, but not limited to: art, characters, merchandise, games, game currency, etc.). Yes, even if the offer as couched as “free art/commission/character”. Partial resale may be negotiated only for designs whose original buying price was 30 or more dollars USD, and split dollar amount may be for no less than 2/3 of the list price to prevent people trying to workaround this TOS to encourage other people to accept their offers. (For example: Partial resale on a 30$ design may be a maximum of 20$ partial + non-currency add on.) This is to prevent overoffering/artificially inflating resale value. I am willing to make exceptions to this clause, but you will have to speak to me directly to ensure my TOS is being respected.

If the design is gifted/traded at any point, all financial value up to that point is lost and it may not be resold until further art is made/commissioned for it.

You may not include my designs in resale bundles. Period.

You may not EVER feed ANY of my art into an AI interface of ANY kind.​​​​​​​​

If you resell, trade, or gift this design, please inform me that it has been traded/resold/gifted so that I may update the TOS to reflect that and so future buyers cannot be scammed.

You may not resell, gift, or trade this design (or any of my designs) to anyone on my blacklist, which is linked below for your convenience. Doing so will result in immediate  blacklisting/blocking of your accounts.

You may not ever edit the original artwork(s).

You may not repost the original artwork to deviantart, instagram, or other social media/portfolio sites.

You may not use this design for the creation of license-able media such as (but is not limited to): books, animated shorts/shows, Vtuber/twitch streamer  sonas,  comics/webcomics, and video games (free or otherwise). If you  would like to use this design in anything like this, we can negotiate a one time licensing fee which covers use in all of the above. This can be anywhere form an additional 150-500$ depending on your intended use.

You MAY use your design for any other purpose, so long as you are not profiting financially off of my work nor passing it off as your own.

You are allowed to store it in your deviantart sta.sh, post it to tumblr profiles, or upload it to websites like toyhou.se with proper credit.

However, you may not reupload to toyhou.se, to keep the ownership log intact, and to keep the original tos consistent.

For my personal comfort, you may not delete original listings from toyhou.se and resell it separately. This is again to keep the ownership log intact, and to keep the original tos consistent. If the person you wish to resell it to does not have a toyhou.se, I have plenty of invite codes I can give out as necessary.

Please credit to INDIG0TEA the first time you post art of them to websites other than toyhou.se 

Violation  of many of these terms will result in permanent blacklisting/banning  from buying or owning designs by me in the future.

BLACKLIST

[bloghrexach]

💥 … good news!!! — July 20, 2024!!

By: LaillaB, founder of ‘Reclaim the Narrative’, from LinkedIn …

“As Israel's genocidal war against Gaza continues unabated, the Israeli economy is facing a catastrophe.

The economic indicators speak of nothing less than an economic catastrophe.

Over 46,000 businesses have gone bankrupt, tourism has stopped, Israel's credit rating was lowered, Israeli bonds are sold at the prices of almost "junk bonds" levels, and the foreign investments that have already dropped by 60% in the first quarter of 2023 (as a result of the policies of Israel's far-right government before October 7) show no prospects of recovery.

The majority of the money invested in Israeli investment funds was diverted to investments abroad because Israelis do not want their own pension funds and insurance funds or their own savings to be tied to the fate of the State of Israel.

This has caused a surprising stability in the Israeli stock market because funds invested in foreign stocks and bonds generated profit in foreign currency, which was multiplied by the rise in the exchange rate between foreign currencies and the Israeli Shekel.

But then Intel scuttled a $25 billion investment plan in Israel, the biggest BDS victory ever.

Three Israeli historians, two Zionists and one anti-Zionist, have declared that the Zionist project has come to an end.

Israel's power grid, which has largely switched to natural gas, still depends on coal to supply demand.

The biggest supplier of coal to Israel is Colombia, which announced that it would suspend coal shipments to Israel as long as the genocide was ongoing.

After Colombia, the next two biggest suppliers are South Africa and Russia.

Without reliable and continuous electricity, Israel will no longer be able to pretend to be a developed economy.

The physical destruction in Israel has been minimal, but one thing has been destroyed: its future.

When a critical mass of Israelis, regardless of their political opinions, become convinced that Israeli apartheid has become unsustainable, they will no longer agree to invest energy and money and risk their lives and their families for the sake of the Zionist project.

They will seek out a better future for themselves, as every sane person would, either by leaving Israel, or better yet, by working towards a new and democratic political system in Palestine 🇵🇸 إن شاء الله

Mondoweiss.

🃏 An economy built on the exploitation and suffering of others is a house of cards destined to collapse.

إن شاء الله

#reclaimthenarrative — 🍉🕊 — #FreePalestine … @hrexach

[argumate]

In fact there is no meaningful distinction between trade and industrial policy, and tariffs are simply one of the forms these policies can take. What is more, their impacts are more likely to occur systemically through income effects than incrementally through price effects.

That’s why I don’t find very helpful discussions about whether or not tariffs in the abstract are good policies that should be embraced or bad policies that should be reviled. They are neither, and whether or not they might lead to desirable outcomes depends on the specifics.

In that sense imposing tariffs is not very different from currency depreciation, and most economists would recognize that it would make little sense to argue that depreciation was a good idea or a bad idea regardless of the specific conditions under which it occurs.

But for reasons that are perhaps more ideological than empirical, tariffs are usually considered a special kind of policy (price controls are another) you must support or oppose on principle, as a way of defining the kind of person you are.

Pettis on tariffs

[im-adrienne]

We're Kind of Doomed...Just a Little

Tonight while I was playing PVE DayZ, I came across a large gas canister that I didn't need. I typed out in the chat that I had a large gas canister that I didn't need and if anyone needs it then it's theirs. I would even leave it where they could find it later if need be. Someone responded with, "We can buy that at the Trader." This didn't exactly break my brain yet it started me thinking. Capitalism is a certain kind of brain rot that goes so deep into the psyche of a person that they impose its rigidity on a fucking video game.

I say this because that person and many other people on the server:

Believe that there should be no "hand outs".

Believe that community is not about sharing as much as it is about making a profit from others and expect rewards.

Find it foreign/baffling when a person doesn't want a reward or payment for something.

Get mean & aggressive when you want to share items with others. (Ex. "WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT?!?!? THAT'S WORTH X-AMOUNT YOU C*NT!")

Cannot comprehend bartering or mutual aid.

What baffles me is that DayZ is about surviving a zombie apocalypse. Keyword being "surviving". Just because there are traders it does not mean that the survival aspect must be capitalistic. Helping people and building a communal aspect in a post-apocalyptic environment where you could be mauled to death by zombies, bears, wolves, etc at any time is the best survival option and not where one must depend on having enough cash on hand to buy every little thing.

The more I think about a zombie/post-apocalypse type scenario happening in a place like the United States or United Kingdom (or any hyper-nationalist capitalist state) the more I think we're kind of fucking doomed. Like just a little fucking doomed. Mainly because of the individualist, "pick yourself up by your bootstraps" mentality that has gotten only the 1% farther in life yet brainwashed billions into thinking they are millionaires in-waiting while they get paid unfairly. Too many do not understand mutual aid...yet they set up GoFundMe accounts so they can pay off their medical bills. It's disturbing how around-the-facts people can go and for how long.

Even in a fucking survival video game where you loot to survive in a post-apocalyptic world full of stuff that wants to kill you there are people that put a price on everything and hold currency over necessity. If you've ever been in a WoW Guild it can also be this way too.

We all saw and were impacted by the Pandemic. We all saw what people did with hoarding supplies and buying up supplies so they could sell them online at a markup...during a global pandemic. The world is still recovering from that greed (and Covid-19 has not gone away at all). Supply chains are still fucked. Imagine if the Pandemic was worse. Imagine if The Last of Us came to pass. I don't even want to think about it not because of the clickers. No. I don't want to think of it because of the ultra-individualism of too many people that would become a faction of rabid capitalists without a world bank or a stable currency.

Just a little fucking doomed.

[vulpes-ferus]

FFXIV LFRP On Hiatus

Full name: Miyako Akane

Race: Auspice/Yokai

Gender: Genderfluid? Nonbinary? Really, it's whatever they feel like at the moment. Her pronouns depend on the skin she's in at the time: she/they, or he/they. Typically prefers her female presenting form unless her masculine form is more preferable to those she's interacting with.

Sexuality: All of it. Anything.

Marital Status: Single! She's not settling down, she's always on the prowl.

Age: Several centuries old

Profession: She doesn't have one! Though technically they may read your cards or offer a boon...for a price, and she rarely accepts actual currency

Hobbies: Pranking mortals. Preying on mortals. Seducing mortals, people watching... and generally just about anything to do with the forest, or nature.

Hair: Dark orange/white accents

Eyes: Amber

Distinguishing Marks: Typically veiled as a Miqo'te, there is little distinguishing about her person to those unable to see through the magic she uses - although on occasion, one might spot a fluffier tail than she actually seems to have, out of the corner of their eye. To those able to see through this magic... she's quite a bit different than her feline glamour would suggest to the average person. In their feminine presenting forms, she always has red tattoo-markings around her eyes.

RP Hooks

She's still as-yet un-roleplayed, so there's a lot of potential - and there's less impetus for me to want longer storylines on her, so if you just want a few one-off scenes to have your cards read or the like, those are easier on her than on my other characters, though I'm always a sucker for a long plot/storyline that's steeped in character growth! Never be afraid to approach me if you have an idea!

Maybe you want your cards read! I have several tarot decks IRL, and an oracle deck that's well-suited to her too, and I could no doubt use the practice, myself. She essentially makes fey bargains - deals with weird prices that aren't always clear at first.

She may be centuries old, but she was barely over a century when she was imprisoned out in the East, and only escaped her magical prison in the last couple years! (I was, in fact, inspired by JJK and Sukuna for her imprisonment.) She ran from the East and took a new face to pose as, since she was captured and imprisoned in the East, and the people there still respect the old legends... and the Black Shroud is an excellent forest, vibrant with life! ...and unsuspecting mortals.

Speaking of the Black Shroud, there's a lot of ways to interact with her in regard to that! You could randomly run into her. She could do what kitsune do in the old tales, and lure you off the road at night and get you lost. Maybe you've seen something weird in the forest, or heard strange tales from travelers. Maybe you're just really in tune with the elementals and they've mentioned a new entity in the forest...really, I'm open to about anything with some talk about it beforehand!

She feeds on aether! She doesn't have to kill people to do this, though she's certainly not above it - what are morals to an animal, anyways? Food is food. Prey is prey. But sometimes, it's easier to just seduce someone and feed on their aether, before leaving them naked and drained in the forest to have a laugh at their expense.

Given her long imprisonment, much about the world is new to her! Maybe you lure her in by showing her all the nifty new stuff there is, and blowing her mind at how much things have changed in a few hundred years.

You could be an antagonist! Hunt her, if you like! Maybe she hurt you, or someone you care(d) about! Maybe you're from the East and found out her prison was dismantled, and you fear yokai; or you're just a Shroud Dweller who has been wronged, etc.

Romance! While I don't tend to like interactions that are solely focused on seeking out ERP - she is a sensual creature, and physical intimacy is an indulgence and a way to consume aether... though I don't know how she'd feel about genuine romance... last time she indulged in that, it got her caught and imprisoned!

She likes pranks/mischief... and sometimes that mischief can seem cruel if you don't understand the mindset of a creature of the wild. Engage her on her level, and she might find you more 'fun' than 'food'.

Alternately, she carries her soul around in an orb she wears as jewelry, and if someone got their hands on it, it'd be bad news for her!

About anything you can think of and want to brainstorm together! She's an alt that's good for long-term or short-term RP; serious, or not-so-serious moments... there's plenty of potential!

The OOC

Writer is 30+, and I prefer RP partners to be 21+ - I do prefer darker, more mature RP, but that's not all I'm capable of! I just like morally grey explorations - and questions like 'what really drives a person?'

Late nights aren't really something I can do anymore, past 11-12pm my writing isn't any good, though my schedule is open enough to allow earlier starting times. Also I'm CST, and prefer in-game RP. I simply can't stay in character when RP isn't moving in real time, and tend to just forget to respond to out of game stuff, or not feel well enough to write some days, and it ends up taking so long that I can't stay in character. Thus, scheduling in-game scenes ahead of time will always be what works best for me.

No canon characters please, it just really breaks my immersion/my character wouldn't have any reason to interact with canon characters really! Unfortunately, this means WoL OCs as well - their power level is just so intense that I can't really justify my OCs interacting with the WoL: time-traveling slayer of gods at the edges of the universe. (And no shade to canon RPers of any kind - it's just not my cup of tea, is all. Embrace your fun, my friends!) I also don't mind bending lore, but outright ignoring/breaking with it is also not really for me - and again, there's no judgement for how others choose to have fun, but I like to respect the canon.

I prefer plots, and RP with a purpose - contact solely focused on ERP is not welcome. ERP as part of an on-going story doesn't bother me, however.

Don't bring IC into OOC, or vice verse!

Communicate! If the RP isn't working for you, just tell me! I prefer 'organic RP,' but if you want to steer a story (RP) in a certain direction or don't want it steering in a direction, let me know! I much prefer having that conversation, rather than allowing an RP partner to be silently upset or uncomfortable!Follows come from @ooc-miqojak , and my other blogs are @miqojak and @antlers-and-omens!