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The Hobbit To Be Filmed In New Zealand After All
An anonymous reader writes "John Key, Prime Minister of New Zealand, has confirmed this afternoon that The Hobbit will be filmed in NZ, after weeks of uncertainty. From the article: 'The future of the $670m production hung in the balance after an actors union issued a no-work order on the films last month. Talks were held overnight with studio executives from Warner Brothers to resolve concerns about industrial laws in New Zealand.'"
Hobbits are so gay.
Fairtax rules.
That brings me to an interesting point, / . is just "the ramblings of socially-inept, technology-literate news-mongers".
Well, it boils down to this. Any system that has to rely on the good nature of people will eventually fail. The only solution is not concentrating power along with establishing checks and balances. The Constitution set up the checks and balances, and tried to limit centralized power, but the Federal government has become so rich and powerful that corruption is endemic and the checks and balances no longer work. Labor unions started out as a balance against the corporations, particularly the "robber barons" of the 19th century. Now the labor unions are themselves so powerful that they are overrun with corruption, and of course, the same thing is true of corporations.
The one fact we know for sure is that we can't perfect human nature so pure capitalism only works well until monopolies develop. Socialism is doomed to fail because it cuts out that middle step of (working until the monopolies form). Pure Communism is doomed to fail because it's a hopelessly illogical concept unless all people are perfect and equal.
In the case of the U.S. if the power were more spread to the states like it was supposed to be, we would evolve more efficient government because there are 50 simultaneous experiments going on. People could vote with their feet leaving poorly-run states for well-run states. They can do that now, but it makes a lot less difference. Then the poorly-run states can say, "Gee whiz, we need fix ourselves or everyone will leave." With the Federal government having the vast bulk of the power they can say, "Gee whiz, people don't like us. Oh, well, what are they going to do, move to France? HA HA HA HA! Pass me the champagne."
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.