• froh42@lemmy.world
    4·
    1 天前

    The door refused to open. It said, “Five cents, please.”
    He searched his pockets. No more coins; nothing. “I’ll pay you tomorrow,” he told the door. Again he tried the knob. Again it remained locked tight. “What I pay you,” he informed it, “is in the nature of a gratuity; I don’t have to pay you.”
    “I think otherwise,” the door said. “Look in the purchase contract you signed when you bought this conapt.”
    In his desk drawer he found the contract; since signing it he had found it necessary to refer to the document many times. Sure enough; payment to his door for opening and shutting constituted a mandatory fee. Not a tip.
    “You discover I’m right,” the door said. It sounded smug.
    From the drawer beside the sink Joe Chip got a stainless steel knife; with it he began systematically to unscrew the bolt assembly of his apt’s money-gulping door.
    “I’ll sue you,” the door said as the first screw fell out.
    Joe Chip said, “I’ve never been sued by a door. But I guess I can live through it.

    Philip K. Dick, Ubik

  • altphoto@lemmy.today
    3·
    1 天前

    I recommend bi-metal hole saws all day long!

    Why would you bother with a jigsaw or a router when you can get the confort of a well rounded hole!

      • Bongles@lemmy.zip
        7·
        2 天前

        What do you expect a person to go into their own bathroom (of which everyone has) and fake fail to open the toilet (that we all have) with the camera (that we all have on our phones)?!

        Unreasonable!

  • Kaligalis@lemmy.world
    2·
    1 天前

    The subscriptions which are actually still hard to avoid are: for a lot of people rent, for Muricans healthcare, power, water, trash, Internet. Parents get a few more and personal liability insurance is also a good idea (but also relatively cheap for most people).
    The other subscriptions are luxury and easy to just not have.

    • YawningNostalgia@thelemmy.club
      1·
      1 天前

      Even your house is a subscription in the US. My mom has to pay over $10,000 yearly in property taxes of her house that’s been paid off for over a decade. If she dies (she’s healthy so not soon, but as a hypothetical) I inherit a house I can’t afford the maintenance and taxes on. What are the luxuries? Netflix? That’s passé. We can all cancel Prime, that’s not the point.
      Any new tech is a subscription unless you do all you can to research it and make sure it only connects to your network.

      There is very little that people want and is easy to not have, unless you want to live a very bare-bones life. Cue Karl Marx quote about going to the pub.

      • teslekova@sh.itjust.works
        2·
        1 天前

        That’s an interesting situation, isn’t it? You own a house, but because you need to generate income to keep it, you have to either become a landlord and live somewhere else - perhaps using part of your income to pay the mortgage on another house - or sell it and draw down your new wealth by paying rent.

        • YawningNostalgia@thelemmy.club
          1·
          1 天前

          Exactlyyyy. It’s basically rent to the state. We have sales tax in this state too and why are we paying taxes on home valuations when the home isn’t being sold. The house is probably going to be sold for a nursing home and bye bye inheritance for me. I wonder when this bubble is going to burst. Only my wealthiest friends anticipate getting a substantial amount from their parents.

          I want to have a child but I don’t feel I can give them what they need. I would never pressure my family members to do what benefits me most, but I secretly wish that my mom would retire in Taiwan, where she was born, where she’ll have family and it might be kinder. Retiring in the US seems like the biggest grift. I won’t bring it up unless she brings up grandchildren and then I’ll say I can’t swing it unless she retires in a more affordable country. Now nobody is happy