The Southern China Morning Post may or may not be a completely unbiased source in the matter.

Asking the real questions.

Ha! Same thought at pretty much the same time. Good to see you fellow elder.

The switch from NiCad to the mass adoption of LiPo was pretty revolutionary in my eyes. That might just be me showing my age though 😅

Nah. Ultra left socialist.

Fuck me. I wasn’t even thinking in that context. I thought it was in reference to a new Lemmy thing like “Rule”.

Protocol 2? Im definitely missing some context.

Now that you mention it, yeah. Why does loctite do that?

Deep breaths buddy. In… Out…

No one is attacking you. In… Out…

You are capable of taking a joke. In… Out…

It’s hyperbole, my guy.

This is America… That is not a guarantee.

So after some googling, apparently this is a VERY widespread practice spanning multiple brands, multiple manufacturers, all around the US; but I can’t seem to find any explanation. It can’t just be industry-wide madness, right? …Right?

Take a second look. Salted butter = Orange box, Blue wrapper. Unsalted butter = Blue box, Orange wrapper.

Watched the video just out of curiosity. The one thing they failed to mention is why we should care if they lose their trademark. That sounds like a them problem.

Bought my first home right at the end of low interest rates. I wasn’t planning on staying but I can’t afford to move now.

iMessage is the iPhone’s default texting app. It comes preinstalled on all their phones.

No, that’s normal and how it should operate. The problem arises when everyone is using the same software suite so everyone has immediate access to current prices, and the software essentially tells you what you should price your units at to maximize your income.

Maybe cartel was the wrong word as it wasn’t an intentional agreement between companies, just an outcome of the system and accelerated by instant access to information. A runaway feedback loop may be more appropriate.

While true, there are some markets where these properties are fighting for a very finite supply of tenants. If they see they are lagging behind in their leasing, they really don’t have any other choice than to lower their prices to make sure they don’t have any vacant units. The industry term is called “vacancy loss” and it’s the one thing the upper management money men actually fear. A unit without someone inside it is literally bleeding money from them so they’ll do nearly anything to fill it.

Hopefully soon they won’t be able to share their prices as easily and they’ll have to fight for their lives by lowering prices to fill vacancies before another property snaps them up.

I work in this industry. The biggest problem with the software is it gave the management companies instant access to everyone else’s current prices. The industry has used “market surveys” for years but you had to actually call around and gather those prices yourself. It’s a very time consuming process so many only did their surveys sporadically.

With the software you had instant access to current price data and everyone pretty much raised their prices to match the market average. Then the newer/fancier properties saw the new higher average and thought “We’re a better property so we can raise our prices above the competition.” Which then led to a higher average that the rest then met again. Rinse and repeat and you have a de facto price fixing cartel.