afloweroutofstone:

afloweroutofstone:

A lot of you asked for me to post that article about how movie theaters becoming fancier is the result of income inequality, and I can’t find it now, but I can just give y’all the gist of it. Money made from ticket sales are declining for movie theaters, but they’re making up for it by selling more food. Basically, I read something that argued that that trend in the can be partially explained by rising income inequality. Stagnant incomes for most and exorbitant incomes for a few means that there are fewer customers, but many of the remaining customers are willing to spend more money. This explains why movie theaters have started revamping themselves to be more high-end, have bigger and comfier seats, installing bars, and serving real food: they’re adjusting their business model to sell more stuff to a shrinking audience.

Here’s the article I was trying to find about this topic: “Not For You,” Willie Osterweil, The New Inquiry.

Texas woman sentenced to 5 years in prison for voting while on probation

afloweroutofstone:

oligopsoneia:

If she had known it was illegal, Crystal Mason said she would have never cast a vote in the 2016 presidential election.

The 43-year-old former tax preparer hadn’t even planned on voting until her mother encouraged her to do it. She had only recently been released from federal prison for a 2012 tax fraud conviction, in which she pleaded guilty to inflating returns for her clients, her attorney, J. Warren St. John, told The Washington Post.

She was still on community supervision at the time of the election — but no one, including her probation officer, St. John said, ever told her that being a felon on supervision meant she couldn’t vote under Texas law.

Now, she’s going back to prison for casting a ballot illegally — for five years.

Good, functional electoral and criminal justice system

Texas woman sentenced to 5 years in prison for voting while on probation