“There’s a special place in hell for scalpers.”

"I went shopping for a couple of plain T-shirts to destroy while painting this past weekend. Goodwill was $13 for a plain T-shirt. Walmart was $7 for literally the same shirt, and I do mean literally, same brand and everything."

"Literally. Van life influencers ruined camping. Most campsites are always booked, and prices have been climbing to near hotel prices. Even free dispersed camping areas are getting overrun."

"I’ve been to hundreds of shows in my life, but I haven’t been to a single one in five years. I’m just against the whole thing now. My friends and I used to be able to head to a local venue two to four nights a week, pay $10-20 and see great music. Maybe I sound like a ‘back in my day…’ fool, but I’m only 35!

One of the most expensive tickets I ever bought for a concert was in 2011. It was a Railroad Revival Tour featuring Mumford & Sons (around the height of their popularity), Edward Sharpe, and Old Crow Medicine Show. I paid right around $50, no fees. I remember thinking at the time that was a lot. I just saw that Mumford & Sons started a revival of their Railroad Revival Tour. It looks like the average price for a ticket now is $450. That is fucking outrageous."

"Ruined by corporations, but I guess that's the same thing."

"That’s a good one. There’s a special place in hell for scalpers."

"Buddy owns a hobby shop. He's almost had to call the cops a couple times when scalpers freak out on him. He has a strict one item per customer rule on new product release so everyone has a chance. One guy waited outside the door for like five hours for him to open. Then proceeded to freak the fuck out because he couldn't buy everything my buddy had on restock."

"When I was a kid, buying things was expensive, but you could take your family to the movies for $25 (or a museum, or theme park, or just about anything).

Now you can buy as much mass-produced plastic garbage as you want, but if you want to spend a day doing just about anything with your family, it’s like you have to decide which utility to risk getting shut off."

"It was never “cheap”, but $300+ for a daily lift ticket is insane. Not to mention the cost of food, hotels near resorts, etc. If you’re not upper middle class or higher, it’s a real stretch."

"Brisket and flank steak used to be dirt cheap back in the day, so much so that I preferred them because it's all we could afford. Now you need to take out a second mortgage to get a packer cut brisket. Fucking hamburger meat is going through the roof as well now."

"Nowadays they take over a large convention centre, and every hotel in a 5-mile radius is booked solid with very jacked-up prices.

Our local anime con used to be self-contained in a single hotel, with a bunch of nerds wearing cardboard cosplay and getting shitfaced with their fellow nerds for $35 for a weekend pass and a $50/night room split with four people. The dealers' room was local artists and creators. It was rowdy and fun. The con had a 24-hour video and board game room, late-night anime watch parties, and after-hours 18+ events. There was a rave, which used to have local DJs and performers, that always happened during the autumn time change, so it went for an extra hour.

Now it's sanitised for the whales who spend more on cosplay than my car is worth and bring more publicity for the new owners. The pass is $75 for the entry level (early bird deal, it goes up to around $100 after April), with options reaching up to $300 for the weekend. Hotel rooms are $400/night, and the convention closes at 10 pm. No silly watch parties of weird animes at 3am. The dealers' room is people hawking the same Temu garbage at every stall."

"They have cut back all of the freebies like Magical Express, the gift courier system, fast passes, etc. Now you have to pay for everything, and some of it is dynamically priced, like an Uber, based off demand. Many lifelong passholders can no longer afford passes because they are so overpriced, and many have extensive restrictions/blackout dates.

My husband and I are DVC members, and even we are cutting back on our holidays due to cost. Cruises used to be a better deal, but now they are cutting back on stuff as well, which is incredibly frustrating given how they are managed by different entities (DCL is managed separately from the Parks). There’s hope that Josh D’Amaro can kind of guide it back and reinstate some stuff, but none of us are holding our breath.

And don’t get me started on the way they treat their Cast Members. Those folks deserve to be paid so much more than they are. And the prices for the food and goods as well? Ridiculous. Spirit Jerseys shouldn’t be over $100 and ears over $35.""

"By the time I'd even heard of Burning Man, it had apparently become a gathering of Silicon Valley douchebros."

"Want your kid to play basketball? Soccer? Gymnastics? Dance? A lot of city rec leagues are disappearing as comp and travel teams take over. And if your kid wants to play high school sports, comp and travel teams are almost a prerequisite.

And forget playing multiple sports because you don’t have time, because there are no off-seasons now."

"Used to be able to pick up a brand-new paperback for $4.99. Used ones were 50p or a dollar. In the before times, Kindle books were even cheaper, because they didn’t have to print the books on paper.

Now… I recently paid TWENTY-FIVE dollars for the last book in a series I was reading. On a Kindle. For a book that had been out for fifteen years. WTF.

Yes, libraries are a thing. But they don’t always have what I’m looking for, or it’s been checked out for six months, or there are a grand total of 25 books on their free app."