CurlyWurlies4All

I'm posting this as I think it meets the criteria for enshittification of services, they just happen to be government services this time.

Broadcom stopped selling VMware perpetual licenses in November 2023 in favor of pushing a small number of VMware SKUs that feature multiple VMware offerings. Since Broadcom is forcefully bundling VMware products, the costs associated with running VMware have skyrocketed, with customers frequently citing 300 percent price hikes and some firms claiming even larger increases. As a result, some VMware users have opted to keep using VMware perpetual licenses, even though Broadcom refuses to renew most of those clients’ support services.

This year, Broadcom started sending such VMware users cease-and-desist letters [PDF], telling organizations to stop using any maintenance releases/updates, minor releases, major releases/upgrades extensions, enhancements, patches, bug fixes, or security patches (except for zero-day security patches) that VMware issued since the user’s support contract ended.

The letters also warned of potential audits, which appear to be underway now.

Credit: First dog on the moon.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2025/jun/02/bad-news-the-communist-albanese-government-is-introducing-a-new-superannuation-tax-on-the-rich

Ok so I don’t need to tell you that prices for basically everything you buy have been climbing faster than they really should be

Sustained inflation has been a major problem in most major economies around the world for almost half a decade at this point, BUT there are other… sneakier ways that your spending power is being eroded, that get much less attention but probably do much more harm.

You might already know about shrinkflation, where instead of the goods you purchase just getting more expensive, they stay at the same price, but they get smaller.

Toblerone’s that look like this when they used to look like this, YouTube play buttons that looked like this now look like this, or the packets of Oreos that are half empty for some reason, and if you were ever wondering why you can’t get a nice girthy can of soda anymore, well shrinkflation is probably to blame.

The price tag may have stayed the same, but you are still getting less for your dollar, and you need to repeat your purchases more often, so in the end it’s the same thing as just raising prices.

The problem for companies is that people are starting to catch onto this… in some countries food items now need to be labelled with their total price as well as the price per kilogram of the products inside.

Now this video isn’t about regular inflation or even shrinkflation, it’s about shitflation, which is probably costing you a lot more than these other 2, while also hurting your health, wasting your time, and just being a massive inconvenience.

Google offered three options: $50 cash money, a $100 credit to Google's online store, or a free battery replacement....

Bharath wanted me to know that I was eligible for the money and it would soon be in my hands... once I performed a small, almost trivial task: giving some company I had never heard of my name, address, phone number, Social Security number, date of birth, and bank account details...

To get the cash, I had to create an account with something called "Payoneer." This is apparently a reputable payments company, but I had never heard of it, and much about its operations is unclear...

And though Google promised "no transaction fees," Payoneer appears to charge an "annual account fee" of $29.95... but only to accounts that receive less than $2,000 through Payoneer in any consecutive 12-month period.