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Attack of the Clones to Cost Economy $300m

Posted by timothy on from the but-think-of-the-toy-revenues dept.

Audent writes: "Attack of the Clones may make you sick but according to this story, it will cost the US economy $300 million in lost productivity what with all the nerds calling in with a bad case of midiclorianitis. ... Nerds and geeks and propellorheads are singled out as being most at risk. Take your medication now! dammit." A nameless reader also points to a review (looks like two, but only one is up at the time of this writing) up at http://www.pstwo.net/.

7 of 379 comments (clear)

  1. Flawed analysis by Quite+Inconsequentia · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The argument in the article is fundamentally flawed. In the US, as in most countries I think, employees typically have a fixed number of sick days, vacation days and/or personal days. Claiming that Attack of the Clones will somehow increase the total number of such days taken in 2002 by a non-negligable number is just plain silly. If an employee doesn't take vacation or call in sick on Clone Day, then surely he/she will make up for it some other time.

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  2. A question for techies by mikosullivan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My experience is that the high tech industry is pretty laid back about time off. I'm confident that if I wanted to take the afternoon off for something I considered important that I could simply do so and promise to make the time up. Even more likely, I probably already put in extra hours the night before. I certainly wouldn't feel any need to lie about it. How easy would it be for you?

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    Miko O'Sullivan
  3. No, it won't... by Boulder+Geek · · Score: 4, Insightful

    At least not around here, as most of the geeks are unemployed, and those with jobs are too scared to play hooky.

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  4. And how much does the 4th of July cost? by j09824 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Americans are working themselves to death compared to most other civilized nations. Is every holiday going to be counted as a "cost" now?

    People need to relax, have fun, and enjoy life. That both makes them more productive when they do work, and it gives them a reason to earn money.

  5. This is BS by Bandito · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Companies prepare for this when they give you sick/vacation time. By giving you that time they've already accounted for the lost productivity and agreed to pay you anyway.

    Everyone knows that vacation days are for vaction, and sick days are for when you just don't want to go in.

  6. If we'd only give up sleep. . . by kfg · · Score: 4, Insightful

    we'd all be walking on streets paved with gold.

    While hallucinating from lack of sleep.

    So what am I supposed to be doing to help the economy today, producing, or spending my income on leisure consumer goods? You can't have it both ways boys and girls.

    Hey, I've got a neat idea. I'll just * do what I want.* I think there's a term for that:

    Democratic Free Market

    Man, we don't want anything like *that* getting lose in the American economy!

    KFG

  7. I wish they'd quit abusing Jar-jar... by Dr.Dubious+DDQ · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No, seriously. As far as I can tell, Jar-jar's only REAL crime was being the only character in the first movie with a personality of any sort (the fact that the personality in question was that of an annoying muppet only made this fact more painful, as it meant HE was the only character a semi-sane human being could relate to...which of course, nobody wanted to do...).

    His speech and voice aren't really much sillier than Yoda's (and Yoda didn't even have the gee-whiz CGI effects to to keep him from being such an obvious puppet). His slapstick antics weren't really any more annoying than R2D2/C3P0's (heck, the "how rude!" schtick just REEKS of C3P0) were in the original movies...but in the original movies, the main characters HAD personalities that outshone the 'droids, so they weren't so "glaring". In TPM, it just made Jar-jar stand out way more than he would have if the other characters weren't acting like emotionless drones most of the time...

    From the brief blurb in the review, it sounds like Lucas is still keeping Jar-jar in the "annoying comic relief" category (though for only a very brief appearance this time)...but I'd much rather they actually let Jar-jar develop beyond that. Seriously - if they let him hang around the other characters long enough, they can have him lose the more outrageous aspects of his speech, get a grip on his tendency to comically panic everytime something happens, and accomplish something once in a while. Or, perhaps he'll just get fed up with the abuse he gets from the alleged "good guys" and give in to the Dark Side - perhaps Lucas' "Big Plans" involve Jar-jar coming back as a vengeful Sith to kick everyone's butts for tormenting him in the first two movies while letting R2D2 and C3P0 do their thing without comment (evidently, they're back in this movie as well).

    (If Jar-jar using Magic Force Powers(tm) seems improbable to you, take a look at this article. It may just be that Lucas overdid Jar-jar's "fool" act as much as he overdid the Jedi's "calm and cool" act in the first movie...)

    Now if only someone will found the Association for Prevention of Cruelty to Comedy Sidekicks, we'll be in business...

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