You should really give this article here a good read. It's not long and it's fascinating. Does it prove Strauss-Kahn is innocent? Not conclusively. Does it show that there's a heck of a lot more going on than something as simple as a woman claiming rape? Yeah, I'd say it does.
News for you, big city police do it all the time. I'm from Chicago. Dress like a "delinquent punk" or gangbanger, get treated like one. Sorry, don't shoot the messenger. There needs to be a second consideration here, how to not set off the mental radar of the Man.
Ah yes - conform, or be put away. What does dressing like a gangbanger even mean? Big parka, hat turned sideways and baggy jeans? You'd be arresting half the young male population.
Again: programmers have real costs as well - rent, hardware to develop on, upgrading programming skills, food, clothing - these are all things that go into software development. Then distribution costs - bandwidth, server space, credit card processing fees, electricity charges. Maintenance of servers.
We like programmers to specialize because specialization allows for greater efficiency.
That's exactly what I thought as soon as I read the headline. Pass SOPA, allow MAFIAA to hire operators to shut down websites with nothing more than a claim of supporting terrorism. It won't change anything regarding file-sharing - but it'll sure make the people who are spending all that money supporting politicians feel better about their large bonuses.
Rome was, at its time, THE economic, social and cultural lighthouse of the world. But all that just came AFTER Rome became THE military power of that time. Just like USA.
Naw - the Qin empire was where it was at during that period.
But capitalism IS possible. We had it in the US from the end of Reconstruction until 1913, and had a shadow of it for much longer than that.
Jeez, what kind of wacky history books have you been reading?
I guess Andrew Carnegie, JP Morgan, John Rockefeller, were just poor innocent capitalists who lobbied against the government to remove tariffs on steel, broke up their own trusts willingly, and didn't organize collective actions.
The Chinese government needs to do like the South Korean government and buy the land from the farmers - create a whole new class of nouveau riche that are willing to consume like mad.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac purchased the bundled loans, they didn't do the actual bundling. The bankers bundled the crappy mortgages up with the AAA one and then flipped them into the fund market. How the hell they could get away with lending to NINJAs is ridiculous.
Indeed - reading Richard Feynman's "What do you care what other people think?" where he describes his role in the investigation into the Challenger disaster, one gets the sense that he asked innumerable questions. Now, Feynman may not have been an engineer, but he was a hell of a lot smarter than anyone posting on this board. If someone of his intellectual capability had no issues with asking questions, then there should be few reservations for anyone else!
I know your point wasn't to focus on the steel industry and rather the ill-effects of tariffs on trade. The wonders of history. It's just ridiculous to me that free-market advocates quote the period pre-WW1 as some golden era of free-trade. Also, isolating Smoot-Hawley as the cause of the Great Depression is an exercise in futility. There were many factors involved in that spectacular mess.
The problem is this: the basic interaction in trade doesn't work in the real world, even if you don't have a medium of exchange like currency. Factors of production are not equal, transportation costs make some goods non-tradeable, and economies of scale increase efficiency meaning labor/capital requirements change (land is considered part of capital in economics by the way). This has been shown by empirical studies. Nowhere near half of the people don't produce - unemployment is at 9% in the US. Unless you're counting children and the elderly in your rant. Are you really hoping for a return to the era when children could work to help support the family? The market does correct in time - but that's the issue - time. Wages could be too low for certain sectors of the economy for years because of the tendency for demand in the sector to decrease, as an example. Additionally, in a totally free market, when companies acquire enough market share, they can create barriers to entry.
I'm not going to argue you with you because you see civil rights as entitlements rather than rights, so I know this will be futile. Since civil rights are meant to ensure that an individual can pursue economic happiness free from discrimination, I would think that you and your great-grandfather would appreciate them more than the average person (see articles 12 and 17 of the UN declaration of human rights). We've seen what happens when there are no effective bureaucratic agencies in place - it's called Somalia.
The problem you have here is that you're working with an extremely simple model - 2 goods, one factor of production. The world is an exceedingly complex place.
You say "it cannot be that a small minority produce most of everything and then the large majority just consumes it." - but you are neglecting the effects of technology. In terms of consumer goods, production has become very efficient either due to technology (think robotics in the automotive plant) or cost-effective due to low wages. Using the H-O model as a base (which you seem to be doing since you're basing many assumptions on comparative advantage) one would assume that the US exports more capital intensive goods, but in fact the US exports more labor intensive goods and imports more capital intensive goods (for the US, the Leontief paradox still holds true). Now if you're working in a Ricardian model - then sure you can include human labor as part of the US's capital, but because of skill-biased technological change, the demand for unskilled labor has decreased. I find it interesting that you use China as your whipping boy - you might be interested to know that China and the US have very similar GINI coefficients. Now sure, the US currently has a higher GDP than China, but if you look at growth rates, the US has gone through negative growth over the last couple of years. Additionally, China's political economy hasn't been communist for about 20 years, just a little FYI.
Slashdot Mirror
You should really give this article here a good read. It's not long and it's fascinating. Does it prove Strauss-Kahn is innocent? Not conclusively. Does it show that there's a heck of a lot more going on than something as simple as a woman claiming rape? Yeah, I'd say it does.
News for you, big city police do it all the time. I'm from Chicago. Dress like a "delinquent punk" or gangbanger, get treated like one. Sorry, don't shoot the messenger. There needs to be a second consideration here, how to not set off the mental radar of the Man.
Ah yes - conform, or be put away. What does dressing like a gangbanger even mean? Big parka, hat turned sideways and baggy jeans? You'd be arresting half the young male population.
Ah...papers please comrade!
Again: programmers have real costs as well - rent, hardware to develop on, upgrading programming skills, food, clothing - these are all things that go into software development.
Then distribution costs - bandwidth, server space, credit card processing fees, electricity charges. Maintenance of servers.
We like programmers to specialize because specialization allows for greater efficiency.
That's exactly what I thought as soon as I read the headline. Pass SOPA, allow MAFIAA to hire operators to shut down websites with nothing more than a claim of supporting terrorism.
It won't change anything regarding file-sharing - but it'll sure make the people who are spending all that money supporting politicians feel better about their large bonuses.
What's up Sergeant Pepper Spray?
Christ I know and i just signed up for netflix streaming. Please oh ye of the noodly appendege - deliver us from verizon.
Goddamn I wish I had some mod points right now. I think you're the first person I've seen here on slashdot who understands that point.
Angelina Jolie?
and Thud457 was never heard from again.
Sorry - meant Han. Doh!
Rome was, at its time, THE economic, social and cultural lighthouse of the world. But all that just came AFTER Rome became THE military power of that time. Just like USA.
Naw - the Qin empire was where it was at during that period.
Aren't you lot supposed to be against cruel and unusual punishment?
But capitalism IS possible. We had it in the US from the end of Reconstruction until 1913, and had a shadow of it for much longer than that.
Jeez, what kind of wacky history books have you been reading?
I guess Andrew Carnegie, JP Morgan, John Rockefeller, were just poor innocent capitalists who lobbied against the government to remove tariffs on steel, broke up their own trusts willingly, and didn't organize collective actions.
Actually, you've never had free market capitalism. neither has anywhere else.
There are no truly poor in America.
The Chinese government needs to do like the South Korean government and buy the land from the farmers - create a whole new class of nouveau riche that are willing to consume like mad.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac purchased the bundled loans, they didn't do the actual bundling. The bankers bundled the crappy mortgages up with the AAA one and then flipped them into the fund market. How the hell they could get away with lending to NINJAs is ridiculous.
Somehow I don't think the Mexican Cartels are too worried about people finding out their names.
Indeed - reading Richard Feynman's "What do you care what other people think?" where he describes his role in the investigation into the Challenger disaster, one gets the sense that he asked innumerable questions. Now, Feynman may not have been an engineer, but he was a hell of a lot smarter than anyone posting on this board. If someone of his intellectual capability had no issues with asking questions, then there should be few reservations for anyone else!
Subsidize the steel industry!
Oh wait, that already happens
I know your point wasn't to focus on the steel industry and rather the ill-effects of tariffs on trade. The wonders of history. It's just ridiculous to me that free-market advocates quote the period pre-WW1 as some golden era of free-trade. Also, isolating Smoot-Hawley as the cause of the Great Depression is an exercise in futility. There were many factors involved in that spectacular mess.
I thought there were laws against cruel and unusual punishment?
The problem is this: the basic interaction in trade doesn't work in the real world, even if you don't have a medium of exchange like currency. Factors of production are not equal, transportation costs make some goods non-tradeable, and economies of scale increase efficiency meaning labor/capital requirements change (land is considered part of capital in economics by the way). This has been shown by empirical studies.
Nowhere near half of the people don't produce - unemployment is at 9% in the US. Unless you're counting children and the elderly in your rant. Are you really hoping for a return to the era when children could work to help support the family?
The market does correct in time - but that's the issue - time. Wages could be too low for certain sectors of the economy for years because of the tendency for demand in the sector to decrease, as an example. Additionally, in a totally free market, when companies acquire enough market share, they can create barriers to entry.
I'm not going to argue you with you because you see civil rights as entitlements rather than rights, so I know this will be futile. Since civil rights are meant to ensure that an individual can pursue economic happiness free from discrimination, I would think that you and your great-grandfather would appreciate them more than the average person (see articles 12 and 17 of the UN declaration of human rights).
We've seen what happens when there are no effective bureaucratic agencies in place - it's called Somalia.
The problem you have here is that you're working with an extremely simple model - 2 goods, one factor of production. The world is an exceedingly complex place.
You say "it cannot be that a small minority produce most of everything and then the large majority just consumes it." - but you are neglecting the effects of technology. In terms of consumer goods, production has become very efficient either due to technology (think robotics in the automotive plant) or cost-effective due to low wages. Using the H-O model as a base (which you seem to be doing since you're basing many assumptions on comparative advantage) one would assume that the US exports more capital intensive goods, but in fact the US exports more labor intensive goods and imports more capital intensive goods (for the US, the Leontief paradox still holds true).
Now if you're working in a Ricardian model - then sure you can include human labor as part of the US's capital, but because of skill-biased technological change, the demand for unskilled labor has decreased.
I find it interesting that you use China as your whipping boy - you might be interested to know that China and the US have very similar GINI coefficients. Now sure, the US currently has a higher GDP than China, but if you look at growth rates, the US has gone through negative growth over the last couple of years. Additionally, China's political economy hasn't been communist for about 20 years, just a little FYI.
Wait - an asshole has a hole in it? Is that like a meta-metaphor?