Hmm, I am working in Silicon Valley in a major tech company, and I am definitely not seeing a surplus of talent here. In fact, we usually have a hard time finding and retaining qualified people, even for somewhat generic positions.
Used to be that USA and Saudi Arabia were allies of necessity. Not so much anymore. Once the US can project power without risk of getting strangled by OPEC they are no longer a necessary ally, only a convenient one.
I guess Obama telegraphed this message early on in his presidency when he gave that speech in the middle east where he basically said the US would no longer prop up leaders that are not supported by their people.
My theory is that China and the US looked at the projections for 20 years ahead: Oil production would no longer be able to keep up with demand at that point. So time to make the change, and screw over Russia while they were at it. No longer having to prop up a cluster of corrupt despots who desperately tried to hold back the future with guns and bribes is a nice bonus. ISIS and Al Qaida is basically what USA reaps from that:(
It always seemed to me that you were positive about our future prospects and chances of surviving even during the darkest days of the cold war.
Were you, and are you still?
If you changed your point of view, what caused it to change?
I think it would be extremely instructive if it was expressed as a ratio of - say - life expectancy pr. $ expended pr. year. Or the marginal cost per year of increase, or something. The debate is not really about how long the average person lives . it's about how many people are not treated for even simple ailments (morals), and the effectiveness of the system (cost/benefit).
I am from Denmark, but married to a US citizen. We have a lot of opportunity to compare notes. While Danish doctors are often somewhat rude and will cheerfully refuse to give you a prescription for stuff you are sure you need, we would never see a case like my wife's uncle. He lost his leg because he didn't see a doctor about the pain, and his reason for not seeing the doctor was that he was worried the visit would not be covered by his insurance. When he finally went, it was too late, and they had to amputate. So it goes. Meanwhile, in Denmark the government is often imploring the citizens to see their doctor more often, to keep health costs down by spotting problems before they become expensive to treat.
Personally, I have received many, many treatments ranging from setting of broken limbs to specialist examinations for this and than, and every night I use a C-PAP machine, paid for and maintained by the socialized health system, but supplied by a private specialist. I can, in fact, choose any doctor I want as my GP, or just make an appointment or show up as a walk-in. The only practical limit is that in order to see a specialist, I need a referral from a GP. This has never been a problem for me.
Our system? Socialized with a private option, with an overflow to the private system if the public system is too tardy - again at no extra expense for the user. You can add a private insurance if you wish, and many people choose to do so for things such as dental, plastic surgery etc, but it's really not required to stay hale and taxable:)
First they came for the Hackers, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Hacker.
Then they came for Novell, and I didn't speak up, because I don't use Novell.
Then they came for the Windows Users, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Windows user.
Now it's nice and quiet. Thank you!:D
OK, I gave you the benefit of the doubt, and assumed you wanted to discuss like a rational person, despite you starting the whole thing with an ad-hom. Now you are - again - arguing that I am incapable of seeing the difference between the gloy that is the US, and my native country. Despite the fact that you have never been here, and I have been to the states many many times.
You, sir, keep not answering the points I bring up, sidestepping them, and moving the goal posts, while coming out with blanket statements about things you have never investigated in any meaningful sense. It makes you come off as an ignorant, stubborn person, and I think I have been wasting my time with you for quite a while.
I don't think you got my point about the homeless people: I have never met one here who was so hard up he/she was starving. I have seen that in the states.
Other things I have seen (or know exists) in the states, that I've never seen here in Denmark:
Trailer parks
Inner city slum
School children who show up for school hungry
Gun violence (so rare here as to be non-existent)
I could go on. These things are virtually non-existent here, due to redistribution of wealth.
Anyway, as I said, I think we won't get any further. I just want to point out that the bumblebee does in fact fly: I live in a socialist country, that manages to be as developed and as rich as the States by any meaningful metric.
Oh, and I/am/ a liberal who pays high taxes by choice (I could emigrate, and I don't), and who would not mind paying more.
I have little experience with poor people - mainly because there are so few here as to be non-existent, at least when applying any meaningful definition. Take homeless people: The few we have are mostly (for lack of a better word) crazy. They have been offered a place to live, and in many cases have one - they just don't use it. They get money. Should the money run out for the month, all they have to do is to "prove" that they are starving without it.
I don't think we will reach an agreement here. All I can say is that the difference in attitude towards, and treatment of "poor people" and people down on their luck (or just the lesser competent ones) is staggering. Usually Danes who visit the states come home much more socialist than they left, as was the case for me. I had never met a person who was truly begging for money for food in the street before (note: people beg here, and they claim it's for food, but they tend to be kinda drunk, and on the few occations I have offered them a burger instead of money they have declined).
The core is the accepted difference between the rich and the poor. You guys tend to give breaks to the rich - we tend to give them to the poor. Our choice is largely based on the assumption that the fortunate ones have proved they can take care of themselves, and thus need no breaks. I don't know what yours is based on, honestly.
The difference is profound. I honestly don't think that one of these ideologies is better than the other from any objective point of view, and I can't detach myself from the morals that were instilled (installed?) in me by my upbringing. All I know is that when I see so many poor people in the streets, I think it's wrong, and morally reprehensive.
Anyway, the topic is long dead now, and I think we will get no further. Thank you for a spirited discussion!
I live in a 180 square meter apartment in one of the most expensive cities in the world (Copenhagen), and I have all the toys you'd want. 40 inch HD LCD TV, Apple Pro laptops for me + wife etc. etc. etc. No car, but I don' t need it. We sometimes borrow one from the family, but that's like two times a year, and we would probably just rent one when the need arises if we did not have that option. We can handily afford it. This without my wife working, and despite her NOT getting any social benefits, because she is a dirty foreigner:D
As another poster noted more Americans have cars, because you can't live without them due to the infrastructure you have built. Yes, they are bigger (why? never met a yank who needed that big SUV), and your gas is cheaper, but if you instead measure the real expense (price per. commute), rather than the price per mile/kilometer, you will usually find that there is little difference between Denmark and the US, even when factoring in the price of the car (write off, insurance and upkeep).
As for the paycheck: I work for the state as my "day job", and make about USD 75.000 before taxes. My tax bracket is 39% - not so bad, once you factor in that I do not pay health care insurance for me, wife and two kids, nor day care, school etc. etc. etc. Were I in the private sector, I could get almost twice that - some of my friends do - but my company on the side makes about USD 200.000 a year, so I see no need to go for a better paying job with more stress and less job satisfaction. My marginal tax is 65%, but that's only if I want to spend it on toys or fun. I get tax breaks for mortgage debt, and a substantial tax rebate if I put it away in a pension fund (tax reduced from 65% to about 30%).
Did I mention I get 6.5 weeks off per year? And that I am contractually bound to working a maximum of 37.5 hours per week? Yes, that's a maximum.
Anyway, as I mentioned I have been to the states on several occations, both business and pleasure. I even worked at AT&T labs for a while as part of my PhD. I honestly feel I have a good basis for (unscientificly) comparing US and Danish living standards and private economics, at least for the areas and demographics I have personal experience of (mainly New Jersey, Michigan and the bay area). Have you been to Scandinavia?
Finally: Yes, some people will mooch. It is not as easy as you'd think. You will have a "proper job" forced on you, if you can't find one yourself. It is not freeloading, no matter how much some people would love it if it were:) Instead you should consider it a state investment in attempting to help people who are suffering a temporary setback back on their feet, so they can become tax payers again. The "free" education is another such investment: Why not offer poor kids the opportunity to get a degree and a proper job instead of letting them pay for their sin of having picked poor parents by having to become crack dealers or some such?;)
Remember we can leave. Any time. The better educated and the richer we are, the easier it is for us to leave for - say - the US.
You'll notice that I haven't left, although I could easily get a green card, despite the fact that my wife and our kids are US citizens. I also don't plan to.
Further, you make it out to sound as if the state controls everything in our lives. Not so: They merely buffer us from the most common mistakes, such as thinking "I won't be hit by a car when I'm young and healthy". In fact, when I look at what you refer to as being able to play with the variables, all I see is a society where the poor have the freedom of not being able to pay for their basic need.
I am indeed smart enough to see that. And also to do the math on, exactly how much I am ahead. The society has so far chosen to invest in me, without it paying off. Eventually it will, but that might take quite a while, and is risky (what if I got run over by a car?).
Additionally, I am ALSO smart enough to do comparisons with the US every time I go (often), by asking people how much of their income they spend on things I get "for free" over the tax (health care, unemployment insurance, child day care, school). I have yet to meet anybody who do not end up paying a comparable percentage of their income. I'm not saying this is a general rule, or proves anything, but for all the middle class people I have asked, this seems to be the case.
That's all the reply you will get from me. Somebody who starts off by badmouthing me is not worth any more of my time;)
Also, there are several ways to avoid the high marginal taxes - at least in Denmark. The only thing that is really expensive is conspicuous consumption here and now - if you save it up for your old age, you will get a substantial tax discount. Also, there are significant tax breaks for companies.
I am in fact a successful innovator (not taking over the world any time soon tho), and I'm staying. Denmark has been very good to me, both growing up, and as an environment for innovation. Hey, in some countries I understand you have to pay for your education. In Denmark I got paid, both during my masters and during my PhD. That's pretty hard to beat.
There are several current projects that address all or part of this problem, e.g. Fedora (not the Red Hat distro...) and DSpace, as well as a myriad of ongoing projects at various state, national and federal archives and libraries world-wide, such as my workplace The Royal Library in Denmark.
Somebody mentioned Microsoft. They actually participate in such a project, namely PLANETS, where they do in fact work towards open formats and preservation of our ability to access past, current and future file formats.
I used to live in a house I shared with a bunch of people from the humanities. They always always always nibbled at my leftovers without asking permission... until the day I made a truly toxic chicken vindaloo...
Problem solved!
Still had to get a padlock for my door to keep them from my computer tho:(
Damn. Used bracket b bracket instead of bracket br bracket. When will/. EVER get around to implementing an "edit comment" feature?!?!?!
This is how it was supposed to look:
If the Mini is anywhere NEAR as fast as the MacBook Pro is, then it will do very well. It contains largely the same hardware, but is a tad slower CPU-wise.
I just switched from a dual G5 1.8GHz with 2GB RAM, two 7200RPM SATA drives and a Radeon 9600XT card to the smallest MacBook Pro model with a Core Duo 1.83GHZ, 80GB 5400RPM drive and 1.5GB RAM. The MBP feels at least as fast as the G5 during normal operation, e.g., when switching apps, using the Finder etc. It is theoretically a bit slower for number crunching, but I just don't do much of that anymore, and when I did, found that the crunching I did do (computational linguistics) ran faster on my Centrino laptop, likely due to it being memory intensive and branchy.
Then again, the only non-UB program I use is Word, and it runs quite acceptably in emulation. YMMV.
If the Mini is anywhere NEAR as fast as the MacBook Pro is, then it will do very well. It contains largely the same hardware, but is a tad slower CPU-wise.
I just switched from a dual G5 1.8GHz with 2GB RAM, two 7200RPM SATA drives and a Radeon 9600XT card to the smallest MacBook Pro model with a Core Dus 1.83GHZ, 80GB 5400RPM drive and 1.5GB RAM. The MBP feels at least as fast as the G5 during normal operation, e.g., when switching apps, using the Finder etc. It is theoretically a bit slower for number crunching, but I just don't do much of that anymore, and when I did, found that the crunching I did do (computational linguistics) ran faster on my Centrino laptop, likely due to it being memory intensive and branchy.
Then again, the only non-UB program I use is Word, and it runs quite acceptably in emulation. YMMV.
You can read my Ph.D-dissertation (PDF, big) (abstract) (PDF, small) for more information, but frankly it is very hard to beat the QWERTY keyboard, as it is very very efficient at the task it is used for. Please note that the dissertation does not focus on QWERTY per se, but rather on various alternatives to QWERTY, and the factors involved in attaining good usability, ergonomics and performance in diverse text input scenarios.
Well, my experience was in the electronics area of Tokyo (its name escapes me right now), where perhaps they would be pushing the more futuristic stuff, rather than the status quo. Big city, Tokyo! (*):D
(*) THAT is the understatement of the century!
They did so a while back. When I was in Tokyo about 3 years ago, you could hardly find a CRT TV, uch less a CRT monitor. Everything new was flat and thin.
Slashdot Mirror
Hmm, I am working in Silicon Valley in a major tech company, and I am definitely not seeing a surplus of talent here. In fact, we usually have a hard time finding and retaining qualified people, even for somewhat generic positions.
Used to be that USA and Saudi Arabia were allies of necessity. Not so much anymore. Once the US can project power without risk of getting strangled by OPEC they are no longer a necessary ally, only a convenient one.
I guess Obama telegraphed this message early on in his presidency when he gave that speech in the middle east where he basically said the US would no longer prop up leaders that are not supported by their people.
My theory is that China and the US looked at the projections for 20 years ahead: Oil production would no longer be able to keep up with demand at that point. So time to make the change, and screw over Russia while they were at it. No longer having to prop up a cluster of corrupt despots who desperately tried to hold back the future with guns and bribes is a nice bonus. ISIS and Al Qaida is basically what USA reaps from that :(
It always seemed to me that you were positive about our future prospects and chances of surviving even during the darkest days of the cold war. Were you, and are you still? If you changed your point of view, what caused it to change?
Finally! :D
I think it would be extremely instructive if it was expressed as a ratio of - say - life expectancy pr. $ expended pr. year. Or the marginal cost per year of increase, or something. The debate is not really about how long the average person lives . it's about how many people are not treated for even simple ailments (morals), and the effectiveness of the system (cost/benefit).
:)
I am from Denmark, but married to a US citizen. We have a lot of opportunity to compare notes. While Danish doctors are often somewhat rude and will cheerfully refuse to give you a prescription for stuff you are sure you need, we would never see a case like my wife's uncle. He lost his leg because he didn't see a doctor about the pain, and his reason for not seeing the doctor was that he was worried the visit would not be covered by his insurance. When he finally went, it was too late, and they had to amputate. So it goes. Meanwhile, in Denmark the government is often imploring the citizens to see their doctor more often, to keep health costs down by spotting problems before they become expensive to treat.
Personally, I have received many, many treatments ranging from setting of broken limbs to specialist examinations for this and than, and every night I use a C-PAP machine, paid for and maintained by the socialized health system, but supplied by a private specialist. I can, in fact, choose any doctor I want as my GP, or just make an appointment or show up as a walk-in. The only practical limit is that in order to see a specialist, I need a referral from a GP. This has never been a problem for me.
Our system? Socialized with a private option, with an overflow to the private system if the public system is too tardy - again at no extra expense for the user. You can add a private insurance if you wish, and many people choose to do so for things such as dental, plastic surgery etc, but it's really not required to stay hale and taxable
Here's my version:
:D
First they came for the Hackers, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Hacker.
Then they came for Novell, and I didn't speak up, because I don't use Novell.
Then they came for the Windows Users, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Windows user.
Now it's nice and quiet. Thank you!
OK, I gave you the benefit of the doubt, and assumed you wanted to discuss like a rational person, despite you starting the whole thing with an ad-hom. Now you are - again - arguing that I am incapable of seeing the difference between the gloy that is the US, and my native country. Despite the fact that you have never been here, and I have been to the states many many times.
You, sir, keep not answering the points I bring up, sidestepping them, and moving the goal posts, while coming out with blanket statements about things you have never investigated in any meaningful sense. It makes you come off as an ignorant, stubborn person, and I think I have been wasting my time with you for quite a while.
Other things I have seen (or know exists) in the states, that I've never seen here in Denmark:
/am/ a liberal who pays high taxes by choice (I could emigrate, and I don't), and who would not mind paying more.
Trailer parks
Inner city slum
School children who show up for school hungry
Gun violence (so rare here as to be non-existent)
I could go on. These things are virtually non-existent here, due to redistribution of wealth.
Anyway, as I said, I think we won't get any further. I just want to point out that the bumblebee does in fact fly: I live in a socialist country, that manages to be as developed and as rich as the States by any meaningful metric.
Oh, and I
I have little experience with poor people - mainly because there are so few here as to be non-existent, at least when applying any meaningful definition. Take homeless people: The few we have are mostly (for lack of a better word) crazy. They have been offered a place to live, and in many cases have one - they just don't use it. They get money. Should the money run out for the month, all they have to do is to "prove" that they are starving without it.
I don't think we will reach an agreement here. All I can say is that the difference in attitude towards, and treatment of "poor people" and people down on their luck (or just the lesser competent ones) is staggering. Usually Danes who visit the states come home much more socialist than they left, as was the case for me. I had never met a person who was truly begging for money for food in the street before (note: people beg here, and they claim it's for food, but they tend to be kinda drunk, and on the few occations I have offered them a burger instead of money they have declined).
The core is the accepted difference between the rich and the poor. You guys tend to give breaks to the rich - we tend to give them to the poor. Our choice is largely based on the assumption that the fortunate ones have proved they can take care of themselves, and thus need no breaks. I don't know what yours is based on, honestly.
The difference is profound. I honestly don't think that one of these ideologies is better than the other from any objective point of view, and I can't detach myself from the morals that were instilled (installed?) in me by my upbringing. All I know is that when I see so many poor people in the streets, I think it's wrong, and morally reprehensive.
Anyway, the topic is long dead now, and I think we will get no further. Thank you for a spirited discussion!
I live in a 180 square meter apartment in one of the most expensive cities in the world (Copenhagen), and I have all the toys you'd want. 40 inch HD LCD TV, Apple Pro laptops for me + wife etc. etc. etc. No car, but I don' t need it. We sometimes borrow one from the family, but that's like two times a year, and we would probably just rent one when the need arises if we did not have that option. We can handily afford it. This without my wife working, and despite her NOT getting any social benefits, because she is a dirty foreigner :D
As another poster noted more Americans have cars, because you can't live without them due to the infrastructure you have built. Yes, they are bigger (why? never met a yank who needed that big SUV), and your gas is cheaper, but if you instead measure the real expense (price per. commute), rather than the price per mile/kilometer, you will usually find that there is little difference between Denmark and the US, even when factoring in the price of the car (write off, insurance and upkeep).
As for the paycheck: I work for the state as my "day job", and make about USD 75.000 before taxes. My tax bracket is 39% - not so bad, once you factor in that I do not pay health care insurance for me, wife and two kids, nor day care, school etc. etc. etc. Were I in the private sector, I could get almost twice that - some of my friends do - but my company on the side makes about USD 200.000 a year, so I see no need to go for a better paying job with more stress and less job satisfaction. My marginal tax is 65%, but that's only if I want to spend it on toys or fun. I get tax breaks for mortgage debt, and a substantial tax rebate if I put it away in a pension fund (tax reduced from 65% to about 30%).
Did I mention I get 6.5 weeks off per year? And that I am contractually bound to working a maximum of 37.5 hours per week? Yes, that's a maximum.
Anyway, as I mentioned I have been to the states on several occations, both business and pleasure. I even worked at AT&T labs for a while as part of my PhD. I honestly feel I have a good basis for (unscientificly) comparing US and Danish living standards and private economics, at least for the areas and demographics I have personal experience of (mainly New Jersey, Michigan and the bay area). Have you been to Scandinavia?
Finally: Yes, some people will mooch. It is not as easy as you'd think. You will have a "proper job" forced on you, if you can't find one yourself. It is not freeloading, no matter how much some people would love it if it were :) Instead you should consider it a state investment in attempting to help people who are suffering a temporary setback back on their feet, so they can become tax payers again. The "free" education is another such investment: Why not offer poor kids the opportunity to get a degree and a proper job instead of letting them pay for their sin of having picked poor parents by having to become crack dealers or some such? ;)
Remember we can leave. Any time. The better educated and the richer we are, the easier it is for us to leave for - say - the US.
You'll notice that I haven't left, although I could easily get a green card, despite the fact that my wife and our kids are US citizens. I also don't plan to.
Further, you make it out to sound as if the state controls everything in our lives. Not so: They merely buffer us from the most common mistakes, such as thinking "I won't be hit by a car when I'm young and healthy". In fact, when I look at what you refer to as being able to play with the variables, all I see is a society where the poor have the freedom of not being able to pay for their basic need.
I realize that not everybody thinks so, but YMMV.
Additionally, I am ALSO smart enough to do comparisons with the US every time I go (often), by asking people how much of their income they spend on things I get "for free" over the tax (health care, unemployment insurance, child day care, school). I have yet to meet anybody who do not end up paying a comparable percentage of their income. I'm not saying this is a general rule, or proves anything, but for all the middle class people I have asked, this seems to be the case.
That's all the reply you will get from me. Somebody who starts off by badmouthing me is not worth any more of my time ;)
Also, there are several ways to avoid the high marginal taxes - at least in Denmark. The only thing that is really expensive is conspicuous consumption here and now - if you save it up for your old age, you will get a substantial tax discount. Also, there are significant tax breaks for companies.
I am in fact a successful innovator (not taking over the world any time soon tho), and I'm staying. Denmark has been very good to me, both growing up, and as an environment for innovation. Hey, in some countries I understand you have to pay for your education. In Denmark I got paid, both during my masters and during my PhD. That's pretty hard to beat.
Kom nu! Du vil jo gerne!
Windows Meh. Captures the "wow", and a reference to Windows ME to boot!
Somebody mentioned Microsoft. They actually participate in such a project, namely PLANETS, where they do in fact work towards open formats and preservation of our ability to access past, current and future file formats.
It's exciting work. Relevant too ;)
My advisors must be punished, harshly. :D
Problem solved!
Still had to get a padlock for my door to keep them from my computer tho :(
Damn. Used bracket b bracket instead of bracket br bracket. When will /. EVER get around to implementing an "edit comment" feature?!?!?!
This is how it was supposed to look:
If the Mini is anywhere NEAR as fast as the MacBook Pro is, then it will do very well. It contains largely the same hardware, but is a tad slower CPU-wise.
I just switched from a dual G5 1.8GHz with 2GB RAM, two 7200RPM SATA drives and a Radeon 9600XT card to the smallest MacBook Pro model with a Core Duo 1.83GHZ, 80GB 5400RPM drive and 1.5GB RAM. The MBP feels at least as fast as the G5 during normal operation, e.g., when switching apps, using the Finder etc. It is theoretically a bit slower for number crunching, but I just don't do much of that anymore, and when I did, found that the crunching I did do (computational linguistics) ran faster on my Centrino laptop, likely due to it being memory intensive and branchy.
Then again, the only non-UB program I use is Word, and it runs quite acceptably in emulation. YMMV.
If the Mini is anywhere NEAR as fast as the MacBook Pro is, then it will do very well. It contains largely the same hardware, but is a tad slower CPU-wise. I just switched from a dual G5 1.8GHz with 2GB RAM, two 7200RPM SATA drives and a Radeon 9600XT card to the smallest MacBook Pro model with a Core Dus 1.83GHZ, 80GB 5400RPM drive and 1.5GB RAM. The MBP feels at least as fast as the G5 during normal operation, e.g., when switching apps, using the Finder etc. It is theoretically a bit slower for number crunching, but I just don't do much of that anymore, and when I did, found that the crunching I did do (computational linguistics) ran faster on my Centrino laptop, likely due to it being memory intensive and branchy. Then again, the only non-UB program I use is Word, and it runs quite acceptably in emulation. YMMV.
Probably not.
You can read my Ph.D-dissertation (PDF, big) (abstract) (PDF, small) for more information, but frankly it is very hard to beat the QWERTY keyboard, as it is very very efficient at the task it is used for. Please note that the dissertation does not focus on QWERTY per se, but rather on various alternatives to QWERTY, and the factors involved in attaining good usability, ergonomics and performance in diverse text input scenarios.
KNEEL!
But... But... But they did NOT confirm the myth! :D
Well, my experience was in the electronics area of Tokyo (its name escapes me right now), where perhaps they would be pushing the more futuristic stuff, rather than the status quo. Big city, Tokyo! (*) :D
(*) THAT is the understatement of the century!
They did so a while back. When I was in Tokyo about 3 years ago, you could hardly find a CRT TV, uch less a CRT monitor. Everything new was flat and thin.