Florida couple saves $100,000 after deciding to 'go bare' by not purchasing wind and flood coverage (youtube.com) (year ago)
One way is to just build in a way that is less risky, and build cheap. Some people have an $800k property and a $200k house.
But if you have a mortgage varias coverages are required.
20% of Florida homeowers didn't have a property insurance policy last year.
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Was going to create a new hobby blog today to put some history things, but I tried Blogger and it required me to grant cookie permissions in order to upload photos (which no site ever even asks for when you upload photos or videos), so I went and tried WordPress, but it just directed me to a domain purchase page, which I couldn't even back-click out of (back-click just refreshed the page, you know that scammy thing). 10 or 15 years ago, you could make as many blogs as you want, and you'd just go to these and make one. There also was Wix (the Israeli software company), which was presented as Google's top search result every time you search for Blogger or WordPress, as a ‘sponsored' top result, but I didn't even bother with them. I just suspect they're super commercial because I only even know of them through paid ads on YouTube, not through any positive word of mouth or finding random websites, and probably also not a data private organization, given their country basis.
So instead of someone waking up and starting a new blog, writing and sharing ideas, they get frustrated by corporate-or-nothing, privacy-invasion-or-nothing options and either quit or have to deep dive. This is an example of how people could (and used to) start their day, and how they start their day in 2024. The main reason, the only way this can be solved practically, is politicians, but we don't have a system that seems capable of protecting citizen interests from corporations and spying, as continuously shown over the past 15 years of internet.
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We've been seeing a lot of negative press on Starbucks and other companies who now have no room, practically, to grow. They have instead sought and got profit increases through offering different products (more sugar drinks, basically sugary milkshakes, instead of their original foreign coffee roasts) and cutting back costs (baristas, cleaning staff).
We could say that some companies can be scaled to max all the time, but only if there's nothing that they can ruin by doing so. Other companies, like Starbucks, should aim at a profit maximization strategy that is 60 or 80% of what they could physically do, because such increase would deteriorate their brand, lower the quality of their product, and tend towards generalization which is very competible. This limit could probably only be maintained by boards and sort of rules, because CEOs would usually try to push into it and maximize profits despite long term detriment.
Amazon is another one. Amazon really only has shipping and international shipping. Their products aren't great and their reviews are almost worthless. This is because they profit maximized into their product, deteriorating their sellers by stealing their best products, and then, it seems, almost all products. Amazon is turning into a Kmart that sells its own generic options for every product type. It's not inclusive and doesn't offer much variety.
As soon as any other company manages to get the same shipping capabilities, Amazon will start to really decline.
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CA couple loses home insurance after draining pool to save water (youtube.com) (because the pool ‘showed signs of deferred maintenance’. They had vegetable plants in the basin of the pool because they didn't use it for swimming.
The insurance companies are flying aircraft and photographing properties to do assessments of their back yards and roofs. Drone surveillance. One of the guys called and spoke to an agent for his provider and she ‘basically said they’re looking for excuses to eliminate home owners policies in this area.' ‘I feel like a victim of some conspiracy.’
Satellites and drones make it very easy for the companies to create a ‘keep’ and a ‘discard’ pile for their customers, an expert said.
Two of the people this happened to, covered in this news story, found new cheaper plans, and the other, after sending in lots of photos showing his case, his policy was reinstated.
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Ancient tree from India may replace petroleum, company hopes (youtube.com)
Greyhound bus stations closing around the nation (youtube.com)
This Could Happen to You: Man orders TV from Walmart but finds something else! (youtube.com)
They gave him some crappy TV in a Samsung box. He returned it and they said no refund or exchange. He posted on Facebook and was contacted by TrustDALE TV who made it a story, and he got a refund.
This is what you deal with when you allow one giant company to dominate selling in a location (let alone a country). They don't have to care about any individual consumer, but they do have to care about giant SM reputation.
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9-month cruise comes to an end: Passengers share experience (youtube.com)