This (French) study [0] published in 2023 on data from 2019 calculates that the costs from legal drugs such as tobacco and alcohol, including higher helthcare spend during the life of smokers/drinkers, are still higher than revenue from unspent money on pensions and taxes, and cost of healthy person living years.
Annihilated is very much exaggerated, even if the bakery sector is changing for sure and is facing the same issues of inflation as everyone.
Number of bakeries is stable around 33 000 in 2025, down from 36 500 in 1990 [0][1]
Revenues are up for both independant and franchised, and while the franchises grow faster than independants, they represent >90% of the total bakeries.
> The renegotiation — brokered by the French government — comes as many of France’s 33,000 bakeries face financial ruin amid spiking energy costs spurred in part by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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> Energy suppliers like TotalEnergies and EDF have agreed to allow the country’s bakeries to renegotiate their contracts if they struggle to pay their bills due to rising energy and crop prices, according to Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire.
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> These companies have agreed in principle “to dissolve contracts when prices have risen prohibitively high and unsustainable for some bakeries,” Le Maire told reporters.
The precise number of 33 000 bakeries would mean that all of them faced financial ruin?
That's a bit much.
I remember this was at the time when there was this EU rule which mandate to align the price of electricity on gas. Only Spain and Portugal did not apply it.
We have to remember those oven use enormous amount of electricity and in fact many bakeries do not produce much of what they sell on-site. It is often made in factories.
Funny enough there is a better chance that bread you buy in a supermarket have been cooked on-site than in a small bakery.
It would not be "langue-dans-la-fesse" for sure, even if this expression is very humoristic itself!
Tongue in cheek can be said "pince-sans-rire" : https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pince-sans-rire
Fully agree, I have found that above 300k rows Excel struggles even on a good laptop. Not even mentioning the Python integration into MS Excel that is so unbearably slow that it is much better performing the calculations outside of Excel first.
These days I use DuckDB to read massive excel files. DuckDB now ships with a nice local UI and it also works beautifully with Datagrip, my preferred database IDE. With SQL, it just becomes a matter of applying old grease to do whatever analysis I want.
I think standardization does not harm innovation. With more actors working on the same standard, it can evolve and get better while consumers are able to reuse hardware (here, phone chargers)
> I think standardization does not harm innovation.
Standardization isn't the problem. Enforced standardization is the problem. Standardization is beneficial when done by the industry because it's a collaborative process where everyone works together to create standards that are mutually beneficial. When the government comes in and enforces an already created industry standard it becomes impossible to change or improve it. This has happened in many industries where things are now done "just because" as the law enforced a now very outdated standard.
And no, the government doesn't create standards, they all come from industry originally.
It has in-depth analysis of current events and world topics, and is a nice mix of recent news and long-term stories.
I often find myself looking for more information after reading one of their articles, as they often include a lot of references to other topics or events I am not familiar with : it feeds my curiosity this way, and I get to read various news source about one topic.
I think the moral difference may lie in the balance of power between the IP holder and IP infringer :
In Zara vs indie designer, Zara steal the design and uses its power to distribute and sell it to the whole world. The indie designer cannot compete, or fight. The fact that Zara used her designs will not advertise her own products or make her money (maybe it did after the public outcry, but I guess it will not be the case for every indie designer).
In torrent website vs content producers, the torrent website or its user are not more powerful than the producers. They do not put the producers' business at risk. Everyone knows who made the original product, and may buy some genuine products or derivatives : torrenting can act as advertisement.
One of the other justifications for torrenting is that the content is not available in your country. Similarly, the indie design was not available in all countries. But the source of the issue is different : a small business may not distribute to the whole wold because of logistics, whereas producers and distributors voluntarily block content from being available when it could be.
I think a power analysis is incorrect here. Zara can and most likely will be held accountable for any illegal acts their lawyers committed by trying to intimidate the indie artist.
I am holding up the simple concept of property rights whether you are a big, and not necessarily bad, company, or you are a struggling moral artist. If you download torrents for any reason, it is still against the IP laws that protect them, even if you are doing it to make a statement. You are in effect against the concept of IP. Now, if you turn around, and call the big company evil or bad, because one of its 20,000 designers lifted a design off of a web site, how do you justify the apparent contradiction or hypocrisy.
I don't say this judgmentally, since I have struggled with this for decades. I buy indie games, donate to worthwhile endeavors when I can, and hope for the same reciprocation. I see the point for change and looking for new ways of doing business that benefit both sides of a deal. After all, the definition of a good bargain or deal is when both parties shake hands after exchanging goods and services, and each feels they received good value in the transaction when walking away.
To be honest, rigorously honest, sometimes demands calling ourselves out on our own contradictions and addressing them. I see to much dancing around the truth to justify what is currently stealing.
I agree that in both case (downloading torrents / copying design), one infringes IP rights. However, that does not necessarily mean that you are against the concept of IP : you could be against the way it is applied, or its extent.
Regarding power balance, I think it cannot be considered alone. Another justification to IP infringement is the damage or loss you potentially cause to the IP holder.
Not being against the concept of IP, I would like to see it applied with more nuance.
For example : big company stealing from indie is wrong to me, but big company stealing from big company seems less wrong in my mind.
To continue on indie games : downloading torrents for AAA game seems less wrong to me than downloading indie game. The relative damage that I cause is more important if I don't buy the indie game.
I am still struggling with this reflection. I would like to be able to remunerate each IP holder in proportion to the value the content had to me. And also, to add objective value in the calculation on top of my perceived value.
Zara had the ability to pay the indie designer for their work and didn't.
It'd be like if Bill Gates made a subscription payment torrenting site specifically for indie games.
If it had instead been a housewife in the Philippines who used the design to make clothes for her kids (or even a little money on the side) then very few people would care.
Again, I see a lot of incorrect or illogical arguments here.
You are arguing magnitudes here, not morality or ethics, so not so easy as you say.
If you agree and respect IP laws, stealing by a big company or by a poor person is indistinguishable morally. They are both wrong. You may emote or perceive them emotionally different, but that is a different argument. You can't selectively apply it to different entities. Abandoning a child at a roadside to die who was under 5 years old was not illegal in ancient Rome at one time. Morality or legality? All or none?
My cloudiness eluded above is one of thinking that a newer business model will evolve eventually on IP, but we cannot try to force or accelerate it by committing illegal acts if we agree and live under those laws. The alternative is anarchy and no government, which is a choice to some people.
[0] https://www.ofdt.fr/sites/ofdt/files/2023-08/field_media_doc...