In the US you can open a bank with about $500 worth of paperwork. As a result there are about 2-3 banks per person. The banks dont talk to each other. They dont have a common banking network. They often go belly up taking all of their customers money with them.
You know, Canadian ignorance is pretty glaring on this particular story, but your above statement takes the cake.
I suspect the reason more Americans don't move to Canada is because of the climate. I don't know about recently, but historically about 5 times as many canadians have moved to the US than vice-versa... plus for the job opportunities. I dunno how much this is changing.
When you say "personal copies" I was thinking copies of something you already own.
The Slashdot community is hopelessly stupid and hypocritical in terms of their complaints about copyright... copyright is the only thing keeping the GPL from having any meaning whatsoever and copyright is the only thing preventing a company like Microsoft from trolling a site like Sourceforge and stealing gigabytes of the crappy code that's usually posted there.
don't have any of the long rail lines like they do in Germany or Japan
Your post is absolute nonsense and completely untrue, the US has one of the best rail networks in the world, it's just that it's used for freight, not for passengers (which is more logical when you think about it).
Here is a copy of the US rail network, as you will see it's *far* more extensive than our interstate system (over 3 times as long I believe).
The more than 600 freight railroads operating today in Canada, Mexico, and the United States are vital to North America's economic health. They form a seamless integrated system that provides the world's most efficient, cost-effective freight service. North American railroads operate over 173,000 miles of track, and earn $42 billion in annual revenues.
The AAR organizes railroad statistics, background papers, rail cost indexes, profiles, as well as industry history papers.
Railroads remain the backbone of North America's freight transportation network. In the U.S., railroads account for more than 40 percent of all freight transportation -- and that's more than trucks, boats, barges or planes.
Seventy percent of all automobiles produced in the U.S. move by train. So does 30 percent of the nation's grain harvest and 65 percent of the coal which, in turn, provides more than half of the nation's electricity. Railroads move enough wheat to provide every man, woman and child a fresh loaf of bread six days a week... enough lumber to build almost three houses every minute of every day... and enough concrete to build 45 miles of new highway every day.
U.S. freight railroads are the world's busiest, moving more freight than any rail system in any other country. In fact, U.S. railroads move more than four times as much freight as do all of Western Europe's freight railroads combined.
efficient transportation can massively increase general productivity and boost business over the whole region affected
While this is true, it is only true if said transportation is what people wish to use. For example, highways (a far more advanced technology than rail) had this effect when they were first built, mainly because people will always choose their own personal transportation over public transit anyday.
Because simply put, nothing beats a car. It's a personalized environment, climatized to your settings and they go where you want to go. Nothing beats your own car.
Well under normal circumstances I would say that a corporation is in some ways more democratic than any government, for example you may choose not to buy their services.
However you have outlined a good point with ICANN, it's not a "normal" corporate situation where you can simply buy the services of a competitor. The enemy is ICANN's autocracy here, not whether or not it's a government or corporate institution.
Nonsense, US national debt is about 41% of our GDP. The 70% figure applies if you measure future trust fund liabilities, which depends on how you look at the debt I guess.
National debt doesn't have that much to do with the economy... in our messed up fiat currency system having more national debt can actually help your economy (devalued currency = cost advantage). Why do you think that Japan has a national debt well above 100% of the GDP yet still have a relatively robust economy (the deflation aspect is overvalued IMO)?
Slashdot is perhaps the most economically ignorant popular site around and your post is proof of that.
Canada should not really be throwing stones in it's own protectionist glass house. You still have "Canadian content" laws to protect whatever crappy culture Canada still has left... which are protectionist as hell quite frankly.
I do hope you realize that only Democrats like Orrin Hatch and Chuckie Rangel want to bring back the draft... specifically because they think that "rich" folks aren't doing enough of the fighting.
Well that's the thing, how can you be sure that there has never been an error in a UK election? It may be a long shot, but it doesn't take an intelligent man to realize that humans counting millions of ballots is going to be prone to errors.
Everyone uses roads because the government decided, thanks to Henry Ford and Mr. Firestone (and the massive swindles and fraud of the then recent railroad boom) that everyone would have to use roads.
I guess it's tin foil hat time for the slashdrones. For one thing, people like driving, I hate to tell you. I can live out in the suburbs away from the screaming families and urban anti-car nazis. No one forced cars on America against our will. Cars rule.
And so by policy fiat (more precisely special interest lobbying) one transportation means got absolutely incredible government subsidy: free land, free roads, free protection for the oil industry... 2% of the entire nation paved with tax dollars, literally.
Although I don't have the stats on hand, I can provide them for you if you'd like, roads are 90% paid for by excise taxes. So you're just spewing pure rhetoric here. So, people don't have a choice but to use roads, at least outside of pre-auto east coast cities.
I live on the east coast, it sucks. I'm in Volvo-driving, quasi-socialist, NPR-listening, latte-sipping hell. Wanna trade places?
Incidentally not just cars can use roads. Bicycles, walkers and runners can use the roads. Also roads have been used for centuries before cars, remember all roads leading to Rome? Your point about it not being fair that everyone pays is also valid. The counter point is that the collective cost is trivial. It should really be put up to local votes, and settled on a local level. If communities choose to divert some of their tax money to support free networks (and the local business that could thereby thrive) it's their far-sighted choice.
Now you're differentiating yourself from the slashdot hive mind. This thing about local communities voting for and paying for a government service, I like that. If a local community would rather get raped by the telecom monopoly and stifle local business, that's their short sighted mistake to commit.
Related to that, if a local community wants to waste their tax dollars on some ineffectual project that only benefits a few select individuals (like *cough light rail cough*), that's their choice. Not that I'm biased or anything. I really think they'd have the right to be that stupid. really.
Well how tolerant of you. But just think: if you were starting a company, hoping to grow, but short on cash at the outset (like almost all business starts) and you have a choice: a regular community with typical network service - a few cable modem companies, some random mediocre DSL service here and there, the opportunity to spend $1000/mo on business grade T1s - or a community that would give all your employees free megabit plus wireless service at home off municipal fiber trunks, that your biz could get a OC192 feed off of for $50 a month or so... which would you choose?
I would look at the bottom line and place my business where it would thrive the most at the lowest cost. Now don't try and tell me that you can provide a network for free. I know that lefties are dumb... but not that dumb. But the real question is: is it fair to pass a federal law making it illegal for communities to build municipal networks?
Nah, who wants to do that? Not me, if a local community wants to piss their money away, what business is it of mine? Now as for more accountable - the federal government is clearly not terribly accountable, possibly less so than Malwart - but malwort chooses to forgo a profitable business line to promote a corporate value that's not shared by every community it does business in, as does blockbuster. That's not accountability, it's a corporate agenda. And they can afford to run over local interests because of their size (big organizations of all sorts tend to be this way, it's a corollary to that old saw about absolute power).
Ahh yes, attacking Walmart, I wondered how long Walmart would be brough
Slashdot Mirror
I suspect the reason more Americans don't move to Canada is because of the climate. I don't know about recently, but historically about 5 times as many canadians have moved to the US than vice-versa... plus for the job opportunities. I dunno how much this is changing.
When you say "personal copies" I was thinking copies of something you already own.
The Slashdot community is hopelessly stupid and hypocritical in terms of their complaints about copyright... copyright is the only thing keeping the GPL from having any meaning whatsoever and copyright is the only thing preventing a company like Microsoft from trolling a site like Sourceforge and stealing gigabytes of the crappy code that's usually posted there.
Your post is absolute nonsense and completely untrue, the US has one of the best rail networks in the world, it's just that it's used for freight, not for passengers (which is more logical when you think about it).
Here is a copy of the US rail network, as you will see it's *far* more extensive than our interstate system (over 3 times as long I believe).
From the same site:
While this is true, it is only true if said transportation is what people wish to use. For example, highways (a far more advanced technology than rail) had this effect when they were first built, mainly because people will always choose their own personal transportation over public transit anyday.
Actually roads are hardly subsidized...
90% of roads are paid for by "user fees". The rest is paid for by gas taxes.
Because simply put, nothing beats a car. It's a personalized environment, climatized to your settings and they go where you want to go. Nothing beats your own car.
Mainly cost... I read somewhere it's the most cost-effective form of mass transit available... both in the initial building cost and in operation.
I believe it's even cheaper than buses in the operation phase (and certainly more effective).
As far as I know, we can make a copy here for personal use too (and have always been allowed to), we just can't distribute it to anyone else.
Well under normal circumstances I would say that a corporation is in some ways more democratic than any government, for example you may choose not to buy their services.
However you have outlined a good point with ICANN, it's not a "normal" corporate situation where you can simply buy the services of a competitor. The enemy is ICANN's autocracy here, not whether or not it's a government or corporate institution.
Although the fact that people believe this crap is evidence to your assertion.
EU economic performance is nothing to brag about, so I wouldn't say their economists are any better than ours.
Nonsense, US national debt is about 41% of our GDP. The 70% figure applies if you measure future trust fund liabilities, which depends on how you look at the debt I guess.
National debt doesn't have that much to do with the economy... in our messed up fiat currency system having more national debt can actually help your economy (devalued currency = cost advantage). Why do you think that Japan has a national debt well above 100% of the GDP yet still have a relatively robust economy (the deflation aspect is overvalued IMO)?
Slashdot is perhaps the most economically ignorant popular site around and your post is proof of that.
Yes but in the US highway speed works out (roughly) to be about 1 mile per minute (~60mph, probably more now).
That's just as convenient.
Linux is just a (bad) hack of an American OS. Most slashdotters are too dumb to realize this, of course.
Not according to nationmaster.
Canada should not really be throwing stones in it's own protectionist glass house. You still have "Canadian content" laws to protect whatever crappy culture Canada still has left... which are protectionist as hell quite frankly.
Sorry, Fritz Hollings.
Nonsense, the US barely makes the top 10. As of 2002 we spent about 3% of our GDP on the military, according to the CIA worldbook.
I do hope you realize that only Democrats like Orrin Hatch and Chuckie Rangel want to bring back the draft... specifically because they think that "rich" folks aren't doing enough of the fighting.
Asking me to do my part for my country is one thing, but making me fight in a conflict I may or may not support is tantamount to slavery.
You're talking to someone who thinks the draft should be made unconstitutional.
Well that's the thing, how can you be sure that there has never been an error in a UK election? It may be a long shot, but it doesn't take an intelligent man to realize that humans counting millions of ballots is going to be prone to errors.
I guess it's tin foil hat time for the slashdrones. For one thing, people like driving, I hate to tell you. I can live out in the suburbs away from the screaming families and urban anti-car nazis. No one forced cars on America against our will. Cars rule.
And so by policy fiat (more precisely special interest lobbying) one transportation means got absolutely incredible government subsidy: free land, free roads, free protection for the oil industry... 2% of the entire nation paved with tax dollars, literally.
Although I don't have the stats on hand, I can provide them for you if you'd like, roads are 90% paid for by excise taxes. So you're just spewing pure rhetoric here.
So, people don't have a choice but to use roads, at least outside of pre-auto east coast cities.
I live on the east coast, it sucks. I'm in Volvo-driving, quasi-socialist, NPR-listening, latte-sipping hell. Wanna trade places?
Incidentally not just cars can use roads. Bicycles, walkers and runners can use the roads. Also roads have been used for centuries before cars, remember all roads leading to Rome?
Your point about it not being fair that everyone pays is also valid. The counter point is that the collective cost is trivial. It should really be put up to local votes, and settled on a local level. If communities choose to divert some of their tax money to support free networks (and the local business that could thereby thrive) it's their far-sighted choice.
Now you're differentiating yourself from the slashdot hive mind. This thing about local communities voting for and paying for a government service, I like that.
If a local community would rather get raped by the telecom monopoly and stifle local business, that's their short sighted mistake to commit.
Related to that, if a local community wants to waste their tax dollars on some ineffectual project that only benefits a few select individuals (like *cough light rail cough*), that's their choice.
Not that I'm biased or anything. I really think they'd have the right to be that stupid. really.
Well how tolerant of you.
But just think: if you were starting a company, hoping to grow, but short on cash at the outset (like almost all business starts) and you have a choice: a regular community with typical network service - a few cable modem companies, some random mediocre DSL service here and there, the opportunity to spend $1000/mo on business grade T1s - or a community that would give all your employees free megabit plus wireless service at home off municipal fiber trunks, that your biz could get a OC192 feed off of for $50 a month or so... which would you choose?
I would look at the bottom line and place my business where it would thrive the most at the lowest cost. Now don't try and tell me that you can provide a network for free. I know that lefties are dumb... but not that dumb.
But the real question is: is it fair to pass a federal law making it illegal for communities to build municipal networks?
Nah, who wants to do that? Not me, if a local community wants to piss their money away, what business is it of mine?
Now as for more accountable - the federal government is clearly not terribly accountable, possibly less so than Malwart - but malwort chooses to forgo a profitable business line to promote a corporate value that's not shared by every community it does business in, as does blockbuster. That's not accountability, it's a corporate agenda. And they can afford to run over local interests because of their size (big organizations of all sorts tend to be this way, it's a corollary to that old saw about absolute power).
Ahh yes, attacking Walmart, I wondered how long Walmart would be brough