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China Bans Gold Farming
InformationWeek is reporting that the Chinese government has declared a ban on the sale of virtual goods for real currency. This move is poised to shut down a several billion yuan a year business that has been growing by leaps and bounds every year. "The trading of virtual currency for real cash employs hundreds of thousands of people worldwide and generates between $200 million and $1 billion annually, according to a 2008 survey conducted by Richard Heeks at the University of Manchester. He estimates that between 80% and 85% of gold farmers are based in China. [...] Game companies typically forbid gold farming but committed virtual currency traders find ways around such rules. Some game companies have recognized the futility of trying to ban the practice and have built virtual commerce into their game infrastructure."
Let's do the math. 200+ million firearms in the hands of the civilian populace.
:-) Carry on.
2.5 million American soldiers, many of whom would be reluctant to drive tanks over protestors.
Many people will die, but as the carpetbombing of Tokyo, Berlin, and Iraq have proven, that only strengthens the will of others to take their place.
Chinese leadership realized that the key to "civil order" was well-fed, fat and lazy citizenry, just like the good old U.S.of.A.
God, that word makes me want to kill myself.
But the real trick here is that the world financial markets are getting gripped tighter every day, especially due to terrorism legislation, and new regulations from the shattering of the foundations of our financial system.
If Guido lives in Sicily, and has a few hundred kids on his payroll, he can give the gold in game to whomever he wants, let's say Freddie Crinkle Fingers. Freddie can sell the gold, and how would the police prove that Freddie hadn't been killing dwarves or whatever for six months, or made a good deal buying the account from some stupid kid?
Similarly, if you had those same hundred kids write a letter and drop $200 worth of cashier's checks in the mail, it's a novel way to move $20k. But it's highly traceable, and the final destination is somewhat out of Guido's control.
Your number is incorrect, unless you are counting 12-year-old crack dealers and 15-year-old gay suicides. In any case more than one million children are aborted in the US each year, so a few hundred more is nothing. Even if you consider these children imaginary, the ones sentenced to death by weak pollution and vehicle safety standards are not.
Since self-defense is a basic human right, it's funny how all you non-Americans think that not having guns make you human.