If you sense anger in my post, you better replace the batteries in your Emotimeter. I agree, there is no difference between D & R, but OWS will change nothing because they have no message and no target.
You're preaching to the choir on bailouts, corporate welfare and the like. However OWS will do nothing to change any of that. Americans are getting exactly what we deserve and the OWS is just more of the same. Crybabies who think the world owes them a comfortable living just because we exist. The world is going to pass us by and the US will be just another chapter in history books about empires of the past
Which Occupy Wall Street thingy? You mean the one filled with people who will blindly vote for Obama again next year even after he has proven himself to be just another authoritarian pro-corporate bastard? Yeah, that'll show 'em.
So you'd rather have a fucked up federally run system? The federal government has proven themselves good at doing one thing: siphoning massive amounts of money to politically connected corporations. I'll take states rights, thank you very much. Don't like crazy people teaching stupid shit in school? Move to a different state.
Bullshit. The US spends more per student than most of the world and gets worse results. Our education problem is cultural, not financial. The left in this country just doesn't have any idea other than "Throw more money at it."
On a somewhat related note, left wing nuts cry about the plight of the poor American blue collar worker, but mention anything about illegal immigrants and how they have taken over what used to be decent paying middle class jobs in construction, factory work, etc. they simply cry "RACISM!" and cover their ears.
The right wants to import cheap goods, the left wants to import cheap labor. The effect is very similar.
The problem is that now we have cultivated the mindset that to be employable AT ALL you need a college degree, meaning more people are going back to school, and those who already have degrees are getting their masters or doctorates. Eventually we're going to have the most educated ditch diggers in the world. Society will never recoup the cost of educating them for the first 25-30 years of their life, but it will all be worth it when they can wax philosophically as they work the shovel.
So you figure the best way for local streets to be maintained is to send all the money to Washington, have them send some of it back to the state while keeping a chunk for themselves, then having the state send some of that back to the city while keeping some of it for themselves? Sounds truly efficient.
If we as a country didn't send 20% of our GDP to Washington, we'd be able to spend more locally, maintaining our local economies as we see fit, and with less chance of backroom deals to divert that money to specific corporations with ties to corrupt federal politicians.
If I don't like the way my city is spending money, I can go to a city council meeting and complain. So you can you. When is the last time either you or I was invited to speak in front of the US Congress?
The left loves to complain about how capitalism doesn't deal well with externalities, but the federal government is all about hiding them. The real cost of life is hidden in government budgets that the average person has no ability to see, let alone understand.
Who do you figure has more influence on federal nutritional guidelines? Scientifically backed nutritional experts or corporate lobbyists? With an all encompassing federal government, a corporation can force their product into every school in the country by greasing the palms of couple of unelected bureaucrats in Washington, while it would take bribes to thousands of school boards across the country if education were handled locally as it should be.
If student loans were all gone, maybe education would actually be affordable. You don't suppose the ease with which students can borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars (not dischargeable in bankruptcy mind you) to get a degree in Underwater Basket Weaving has had anything to do with the fact that we have millions of unemployable college grads, now do you?
Amazon's suggestion engine will suggest things that your crowd likes, not what the Jersey Shore crowd. Unless of course your crowd is Jersey Shore, in which case I'm not sure what you're complaining about.
Way to miss the point. The free market is not a part of the music/book/film publishing industry. Government enforced monopolies (copyright) rule the day, and waiting for the free market to sort things out is about as intelligent as waiting for Santa to bring you a pony.
The GPs suggestion to buy the dead tree version to save money will simply kill the relatively new e-publishing model before it even gets off the ground, leaving us in the same shitty situation we were in before: with middle men having full control over what you see and hear.
Do you have any idea how fluid tax laws are? Computing power isn't the issue.
The state doesn't tax food but the county has a special tax on junk food to pay for a special project, but only in incorporated parts of the county, unincorporated parts of the county do not pay the tax. First define food. Then define junk food. Then I suppose you want to determine what zip codes fall under incorporated vs unincorporated. Too bad zip codes have nothing to do with taxation. Are you going to sit and draw polygon maps for every tax jurisdiction and attempt to classify every possible consumer product known to man to conform to tens of thousands of different tax laws put into place by special interest groups?
You don't have any idea the magnitude of what you're talking about. There is software out there, the one I'm most familiar with is Vertex as I've implemented it. Depending on the breadth of products an online store sells and the possible classifications and constantly changing tax laws in tens of thousands of potential tax jurisdictions, it's a gargantuan task. The company I was at routinely got calls from people complaining about the tax rate we charged them because they were in a different part of the county than the software said they were in, or that their city classifies a certain product as food and how we're ripping them off because they didn't get charged sales tax on that product by their local B&M.
You're ignorant, and until you become less so, keep your uninformed opinions to yourself.
Slashdot Mirror
If you sense anger in my post, you better replace the batteries in your Emotimeter. I agree, there is no difference between D & R, but OWS will change nothing because they have no message and no target.
You're preaching to the choir on bailouts, corporate welfare and the like. However OWS will do nothing to change any of that. Americans are getting exactly what we deserve and the OWS is just more of the same. Crybabies who think the world owes them a comfortable living just because we exist. The world is going to pass us by and the US will be just another chapter in history books about empires of the past
They don't want to derail the argument with politics? What exactly are they after then? Is it just one big smelly drum circle?
Which Occupy Wall Street thingy? You mean the one filled with people who will blindly vote for Obama again next year even after he has proven himself to be just another authoritarian pro-corporate bastard? Yeah, that'll show 'em.
So you'd rather have a fucked up federally run system? The federal government has proven themselves good at doing one thing: siphoning massive amounts of money to politically connected corporations. I'll take states rights, thank you very much. Don't like crazy people teaching stupid shit in school? Move to a different state.
Bullshit. The US spends more per student than most of the world and gets worse results. Our education problem is cultural, not financial. The left in this country just doesn't have any idea other than "Throw more money at it."
A short period of false prosperity is purchased with the suffering of the future.
For some reason that sounds vaguely familiar...
On a somewhat related note, left wing nuts cry about the plight of the poor American blue collar worker, but mention anything about illegal immigrants and how they have taken over what used to be decent paying middle class jobs in construction, factory work, etc. they simply cry "RACISM!" and cover their ears.
The right wants to import cheap goods, the left wants to import cheap labor. The effect is very similar.
Even worse, what happens when two dudes show up in a Delorean and finish the race before they even start?
Yeah, I hear communism works well. Just ask the Soviet Union and North Korea.
Then fix the shoddy grade school system in this country, don't just saddle every new adult with $100K in debt.
12 years of free education isn't enough for someone to contribute to society? They need to party for another 4 years?
The problem is that now we have cultivated the mindset that to be employable AT ALL you need a college degree, meaning more people are going back to school, and those who already have degrees are getting their masters or doctorates. Eventually we're going to have the most educated ditch diggers in the world. Society will never recoup the cost of educating them for the first 25-30 years of their life, but it will all be worth it when they can wax philosophically as they work the shovel.
So you figure the best way for local streets to be maintained is to send all the money to Washington, have them send some of it back to the state while keeping a chunk for themselves, then having the state send some of that back to the city while keeping some of it for themselves? Sounds truly efficient.
If we as a country didn't send 20% of our GDP to Washington, we'd be able to spend more locally, maintaining our local economies as we see fit, and with less chance of backroom deals to divert that money to specific corporations with ties to corrupt federal politicians.
If I don't like the way my city is spending money, I can go to a city council meeting and complain. So you can you. When is the last time either you or I was invited to speak in front of the US Congress?
The left loves to complain about how capitalism doesn't deal well with externalities, but the federal government is all about hiding them. The real cost of life is hidden in government budgets that the average person has no ability to see, let alone understand.
Who do you figure has more influence on federal nutritional guidelines? Scientifically backed nutritional experts or corporate lobbyists? With an all encompassing federal government, a corporation can force their product into every school in the country by greasing the palms of couple of unelected bureaucrats in Washington, while it would take bribes to thousands of school boards across the country if education were handled locally as it should be.
Federal guidelines yes. Federal mandates no.
If student loans were all gone, maybe education would actually be affordable. You don't suppose the ease with which students can borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars (not dischargeable in bankruptcy mind you) to get a degree in Underwater Basket Weaving has had anything to do with the fact that we have millions of unemployable college grads, now do you?
Amazon's suggestion engine will suggest things that your crowd likes, not what the Jersey Shore crowd. Unless of course your crowd is Jersey Shore, in which case I'm not sure what you're complaining about.
I'd say you're correct. In generally, stupid people just don't care. About grammar. In generally.
Way to miss the point. The free market is not a part of the music/book/film publishing industry. Government enforced monopolies (copyright) rule the day, and waiting for the free market to sort things out is about as intelligent as waiting for Santa to bring you a pony.
The GPs suggestion to buy the dead tree version to save money will simply kill the relatively new e-publishing model before it even gets off the ground, leaving us in the same shitty situation we were in before: with middle men having full control over what you see and hear.
The existence of copyright (for better or worse) means there is no free market on ideas. Ideas and words are owned through the force of government.
Do you have any idea how fluid tax laws are? Computing power isn't the issue.
The state doesn't tax food but the county has a special tax on junk food to pay for a special project, but only in incorporated parts of the county, unincorporated parts of the county do not pay the tax. First define food. Then define junk food. Then I suppose you want to determine what zip codes fall under incorporated vs unincorporated. Too bad zip codes have nothing to do with taxation. Are you going to sit and draw polygon maps for every tax jurisdiction and attempt to classify every possible consumer product known to man to conform to tens of thousands of different tax laws put into place by special interest groups?
You don't have any idea the magnitude of what you're talking about. There is software out there, the one I'm most familiar with is Vertex as I've implemented it. Depending on the breadth of products an online store sells and the possible classifications and constantly changing tax laws in tens of thousands of potential tax jurisdictions, it's a gargantuan task. The company I was at routinely got calls from people complaining about the tax rate we charged them because they were in a different part of the county than the software said they were in, or that their city classifies a certain product as food and how we're ripping them off because they didn't get charged sales tax on that product by their local B&M.
You're ignorant, and until you become less so, keep your uninformed opinions to yourself.
Hate to say it, but that particular horse has been dead a long time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FizXGoPkVs
Anyone who manages sales tax by zip code is doing it wrong. They would fail an audit. Zip codes are for the USPS, tax laws do not follow them.
A universal product classification system, can you imagine the kind of gaming that would go on by manufacturers if that came to pass?