awsamation

Depends on how exactly you define popular.

If you use a definition that includes anything like "liked and admired" then she doesn't fit. Her service is busy but as this thread shows, most people openly state they only go to her because they have no other choice for these cracks.

Using popular hides how many people actively want to jump ship if only there was competition. It's like saying that Comcast is popular because they have so many customers who don't have a viable alternative to using them.

Popular feels like the wrong word. If you're the only game in town for a specific service, that doesn't inherently mean you're popular.

Even assuming they're mostly spam, you still need to listen to them in order to sort out which messages are legitimate.

I understand being annoyed by the task, but this is a job that's justifiable. It's not some petty make work bullshit (unless these messages have been collecting for months, then they can probably be safely ignored). Either way, it doesn't seem worthwhile to try and get all petty revenge about the situation.

Factories employ a fraction of people they did before the 80s.

Depends on the industry. Automobiles? Yeah, that has been largely automated. Trailers? The most common trailer brands I can think of are still built manually.

CNC machines still need operators, and those operators are still doing manual labor. An entire factory only needs one guy on a computer to manage all the programing those CNC machines need. Everything else is about making sure the material is correctly positioned and the machine is working correctly.

Manufacturing isn't nearly as automated as you might think. Not as many industries have adopted the rote programing robotic arms that you're imagining from some Ford production line.

Plus factories and industrial are only a fraction of the manual labor world. Agriculture, construction, forestry, trades, all sorts manual labor jobs exist that have nothing to do with factories. And that's not even counting other unskilled labor fields like the service industry.

The problem is that replacing art is an entirely software task. You don't have to figure out a robotics issue for actual manual labor to be done. And for white collar work, art doesn't have an objectively correct finishing point, spreadsheets and reports do.

That explains why when you're alone by the fire, but it doesn't explain why there's always one unlucky bastard when it's a large group. There's plenty of bodies so it's not just air pressure pulling the smoke. It's fate that someone must be the sacrificial smoked lamb.

So real world money that I can't actually take into the real world. This just feels like calling they're premium currency dollars and pretending it's not locked into their system.

In this context it feels less like an ad, and more like "hey look how desperate they're getting".

I will not ask my fellow lemmy community members to blindly trust me on this.

This is the primary thing you are asking people to do. Literally everything else you said hinges on people blindly trusting you.

I understand wanting to protect your sources. But you're taking it to the other extreme by providing literally nothing except unprovable claims. Give us something, anything, even an easily faked email or pm. Just anything that requires even the slightest bit of effort beyond just typing up straight lies.

Exactly. You're unlikely to spend a significant percentage of the total cost on your third party inspection. But that third party inspection will give you information worth way more than they cost. Either the peace of mind that you're paying a fair price (and doing so fully aware of the issues that you may need to resolve), or encouraging you to negotiate lower/walk away. In all 3 situations you end up leaving the deal more confident that you made the best choice, and usually the inspector earns that money.

Shit, I did more due diligence than she was planning when I bought my $2300 motorcycle. And all I did was bring a knowledgeable friend.

If you are spending any amount that you couldn't comfortably survive losing entirely, make sure you bring in your own expert. Now obviously their level of expertise can vary based on value (I'll stake 2.5 thousand on my friends word, I wouldn't stake 100+ thousand without a licensed professional). But unless you're willing to call yourself knowledgeable enough, always have a second opinion.

And for bonus points, knowledgeable or not, that second opinion is uninvested emotionally. I fell in love with my bike as soon as I heard it fire up, same with my car. But in both cases, I brought someone knowledgeable who didn't give a fuck if I bought that vehicle. They were able to confirm if I was getting a fair deal without emotion clouding their judgements.

And neither of those cases were risking 6 digits worth of money. Nowhere near the price or due diligence of a house.

Edit: spelling

But you did go on to compare this situation to the war on VCRs. Which I think is a poor comparison. You gave your opinion, so I gave mine. That's kind of how this works here for everyone, not just for you.