"the overall knowledge of important issues is plummeting."
This is true. But, allowing CNN or MSNBC or Fox or even the New York Times do your analysis and filtering won't help. Drilling down to the root causes and drivers impacting the issues you care about most reveals dynamics that are never discussed by media conglomerate news outlets.
Yeah, people should just be happy they have a job... and if they can't find a job it's their own fault.
sanman2 has got a job and if sanman2 has got a job anybody can get one. Really. When ever sanman2 does something really competent people don't say "hey, sanman2 is unusually skilled and capable of doing things that the average joe isn't able to do." No. They say "Hell, if sanman2 can do it. Anybody can do it."
Corollary: If sanman2 has to go work everyday and make himself appealing to people who only hire him to profit from his labor, well then everyone else should have to do it too. It's only fair.
And if there aren't enough jobs to go around well you are probably just too ugly to deserve one. And, that's fair as long as you don't get any of sanman2's money.
At least in China they know how to kowtow. Or they used to.
I don't think IP is illusory, but it is clearly not equivalent to physical property. The low cost of reproduction is the difference. When you can fax me a piano or email me a lawnmower then we can talk about equivalence.
The main problem I see with IP rights is that the products are all, without exception, built on the combined achievements of the human race over many thousands of years. In the case of biological patents they are also based on the achievements of natural selection. No one individual or company or group of individuals owns these achievements.
No book, song, program, drug, seed, invention or production concept is possible without the information, knowledge, education, systems and resources that preceded it.
The combination of all human intellectual capital in the public domain is the birthright of the entire human race, collectively and individually.
Therefore, profits from products created using our collective intellectual property and based on the artificial scarcity engendered by IP laws should be taxed at a much higher rate, say 60 to 70 percent. This public income stream should be earmarked to fund public support for R&D. This won't, and shouldn't, eliminate private R&D. Private corporations should be eligible for R&D funding, but resulting property rights should still be taxed at the higher rate or put in the public domain. Think of it as a public private partnership.
I wouldn't mind if authors, artists and musicians could be eligible for a bit of an R&D stipend here and there, but the most pressing need for this reform is in the pharmaceutical industry. A system that holds lives for ransom based on pharmaceutical patents seriously flawed if not criminal.
If I can sell my house here and by a house in Brazil for 1/4 the price that's twice as nice, and if I can live in Brazil comfortably for 1/3 the cost here. How long can I live on the difference and how young do I have to die to retire now and move to the beaches and music...
I'm 54, so I might be getting close if I figure I'm only going to make to 75 anyway...
Slashdot Mirror
"the overall knowledge of important issues is plummeting."
This is true. But, allowing CNN or MSNBC or Fox or even the New York Times do your analysis and filtering won't help. Drilling down to the root causes and drivers impacting the issues you care about most reveals dynamics that are never discussed by media conglomerate news outlets.
whoa, that's depressing...
Yeah, people should just be happy they have a job... and if they can't find a job it's their own fault.
sanman2 has got a job and if sanman2 has got a job anybody can get one. Really. When ever sanman2 does something really competent people don't say "hey, sanman2 is unusually skilled and capable of doing things that the average joe isn't able to do." No. They say "Hell, if sanman2 can do it. Anybody can do it."
Corollary: If sanman2 has to go work everyday and make himself appealing to people who only hire him to profit from his labor, well then everyone else should have to do it too. It's only fair.
And if there aren't enough jobs to go around well you are probably just too ugly to deserve one. And, that's fair as long as you don't get any of sanman2's money.
At least in China they know how to kowtow. Or they used to.
I'm running a dual boot xp / hardy heron on a foxconn board no problem...
I don't think IP is illusory, but it is clearly not equivalent to physical property. The low cost of reproduction is the difference. When you can fax me a piano or email me a lawnmower then we can talk about equivalence.
The main problem I see with IP rights is that the products are all, without exception, built on the combined achievements of the human race over many thousands of years. In the case of biological patents they are also based on the achievements of natural selection. No one individual or company or group of individuals owns these achievements.
No book, song, program, drug, seed, invention or production concept is possible without the information, knowledge, education, systems and resources that preceded it.
The combination of all human intellectual capital in the public domain is the birthright of the entire human race, collectively and individually.
Therefore, profits from products created using our collective intellectual property and based on the artificial scarcity engendered by IP laws should be taxed at a much higher rate, say 60 to 70 percent. This public income stream should be earmarked to fund public support for R&D. This won't, and shouldn't, eliminate private R&D. Private corporations should be eligible for R&D funding, but resulting property rights should still be taxed at the higher rate or put in the public domain. Think of it as a public private partnership.
I wouldn't mind if authors, artists and musicians could be eligible for a bit of an R&D stipend here and there, but the most pressing need for this reform is in the pharmaceutical industry. A system that holds lives for ransom based on pharmaceutical patents seriously flawed if not criminal.
Well, that's the way the girls are down there in Texas... apologies to ry cooder...
If I can sell my house here and by a house in Brazil for 1/4 the price that's twice as nice, and if I can live in Brazil comfortably for 1/3 the cost here. How long can I live on the difference and how young do I have to die to retire now and move to the beaches and music... I'm 54, so I might be getting close if I figure I'm only going to make to 75 anyway...