The future is people will have to get an education and make good decisions - or be left behind. Honestly, I don't get this massive psychological flip in Slashdot over the years - people here used to look down on the morons - now it's trendy on Slashdot to promote being a moron and insult anyone who wants to move society forward.
Yes, yes, I know, the trolls with modpoints are going to come running to mod me down. Think about it though - which society would you rather live in: One that's technologically advanced and has a smaller population, but a higher percentage of them are intelligent or a society that's not particularly advanced and has a large population with a very small percentage of intelligent people?
It's also a matter of this delusion that unskilled labor should be paid as much as skilled labor. Sorry, but factory work that takes a couple hours of training is NOT worth the same as a job that requires years of education. A factory job is in essence no different than a fast food job and is NOT worth more than say $30,000 a year tops. That's the real reason for the massive outsourcing in recent years - because people think that an unskilled job should be paying as much as an engineering job that requires a BS in Mechanical Engineering. When Americans accept that menial labor in a factory is going to be a below average paying job, then manufacturing will start to come back to the US.
Personally I think the right answer in a situation like this is to do as they ask.
Personally I think it's best to tell them to go fuck themselves (I mean actually say that too) and pull out of the country. After enough companies do it, the government will change their mind or risk revolt due to the lack of consumer goods that people once had access to.
Then again, my parents always taught me to stand up to bullies. Apparently yours didn't.
And in a wonderful twist of fate, RIM's marketshare is still plummeting like Ashley Olsen's weight. Not only are they still imploding, but they've fucked over their remaining users. Truly epic.
Yes, there's everything Blackberry can do about it - you don't hand over the encryption key / let them into the system. So what if they ban you? Guess what - the companies pouring billions of dollars into those third world countries will tell the government "Either play ball or we're out and your country becomes even more of an irrelevant shithole than it already it". This isn't some massive multi-trillion dollar a year GDP country we're talking about, it's nothing third world countries with no actual power.
Wrong, wrong, impressively wrong. The 16th amendment allows for income tax - nothing more. It does not give them the authority to redistribute wealth and to force one person to pay another persons bills.
There's another type of drive similar to this, only it wipes itself if power is ever cut. Sure, law enforcement count swipe the computer, but odds are they'd turn it off before taking it.
You only use truecrypt? I use 7zip to compress and encrypt it, store that in a truecrypt volume, then compress and encrypt THAT before moving it to another truecrypt volume. Sure it takes some time to access files and it involves remembering four complex passwords, but goddamit I'm secure!....STOP STARING AT MY TINFOIL HAT!
Because your "rest of the world" stopped believing that people have rights long ago and now thinks of people merely as objects to be exploited as politicians see fit. Thanks to people like you, the right to property, even in the "evil capitalist" US is gone and the right to have an opinion and free speech (thanks political correctness) are gone as well. Now it's "You exist to serve the state and do whatever we goddamn tell you to do" while the delude up ever more "rights" to get votes from the people who've done nothing to earn anything in their lives.
You think it's all funny now to fuck people over and take away their freedom - you won't be laughing down the line when they decide to take away freedoms you care about. You my friend, make the world a worse place to live in.
Thank you for being one of the few to realize what a load of shit this is. Every few years another moron comes along and claims "X is a right". No, it's not. A car is not a right, video games are not a right, broadband is not a right, etc.
I'm waiting for the day when they try to actually pull what you jokingly said, and they try to claim that it's a "right" for everyone to be rich - then we watch as hyperinflation ensues as they try to print money to make people "rich".
Good god, you truly have no concept of how much they spend in a year, do you? You also don't realize that most of their wealth is NOT in the form of paychecks, but in things like stocks and other investments that are taxed at much lower rates than income taxes. Also, due to the elimination of tax loopholes, they'd pay out the ass any time they built a new mansion, bought a new car, threw a huge party etc. The poor on the other hand would be given rebates on necessities and would NOT BE TAXED on used goods (cars, clothing, furniture, etc). You also are horribly deluded about what a "necessity" is - most people (regardless of if they're poor, middle class, etc) spend tons of money on a little thing experts call "shit you don't need" every year. The people who do a better job of managing how much they spend on "shit you don't need" move up in wealth even if they have the same income as someone else who's worse at managing how much they spend on "shit you don't need". We see this every day in life.
Steve Jobs making $10 million a year in stocks would NOT BE TAXED because it's not income. Even when he DOES sell those stocks, capital gains tax is only about 15%. If you think someone with his money doesn't spend at least $1 million a year, you're sadly delusional. I've met CEO's and business owners who are billionaires and the rate that they go through a million dollars is unbelievable. How you and I view $10,000 is how they view a million dollars.
It's fairly easy for you to have no goddamn clue how they spend their money OR how different forms of income are taxed. You also don't realize that most of the people who fall into the highest tax brackets take every last deduction and loophole imaginable to cut themselves down into the low to mid-20's for their tax rate. But instead of actually learning how the tax system actually works or how the rich actually behave - or hell, even just researching the actual law we're talking about instead of getting one small bit of information and then going off on an irrational rant, you just want to rant about how not ass-raping people who were more successful than you is "evil". Grow up and get over your jealousy.
Taxes that redistribute wealth ARE stealing. There is a difference between paying a tax (a tax EVERYONE pays) for a shared resources, such as police, fire fighters, roads, etc and paying a tax that exists to take money from one person / group of people and give it to another.
Your income after taxes will be much higher than now
Yet the proportion of the money I fucking earned that I'm "allowed" to keep is significantly smaller. That's what you don't seem to understand. Neither you, Obama, George Bush, or anyone else have a right to the money I earned. Just like I don't have the right to your money. That's what goes right over your head - you don't seem to grasp this whole "property rights" issue...you seem to think that you get to just take what you want to do whatever you feel is best.
You want to say it's "not stealing" just because the government does it. There was a quote from a long time ago (I forget who said it) that goes something like this: "If I do not have the legal right to do something, what right do I have to petition the government to do it on my behalf?"
These "fair" people cannot even admit what the actual tax rate would be. They call it a "27% tax" when an item that would otherwise cost $73 becomes $100 at the cash register. Why, 27% of the price is tax, so it is a "27% tax rate", right? No. It is a 37% tax rate. You pay 37% of the price of the item as a tax.
It's a simple matter of how you do the math - both are correct. If you start at $100 (final price) and deduct the amount of tax, it's a 27% tax rate. If you start at the price of $73 and add on the amount of tax to get $100, it's 37%.
Second, it taxes money YOU HAVE ALREADY BEEN TAXED ON. I've been saving for a decade for an expensive item. I've paid income tax on every penny of that money. Boom. Fair tax gets implemented, now I pay a tax on the item when I actually buy it. Double taxation. That's fair? Yes, in the eyes of the "fair tax" people, it is. I'm obviously richer than I ought to be because I can actually put money in the bank and save it.
Wow, you're an idiot. We already have sales tax which - SURPRISE! Taxes money you already paid tax on. Even your beloved anti-profit Europe has a VAT that taxes money that's already been taxed.
Then you wind up taxing children on the money they spend to buy candy. You wind up taxing POOR people at the same rate as the rich people. Fair? Yes, according to the "fair tax" people, it is.
Yes, because everyone should be taxed equally. This way, the more you earn (and thus the more you spend), the more you pay in taxes. Do you not realize that Steve Jobs paying 27% sales tax on a Ferrari is going to be a hell of a lot more than Joe Sixpack paying 27% tax on a Ford Focus? Also, if you bothered to read, it only applies to FIRST SALE, meaning that those with lower incomes who buy used products (clothing from thirft stores, used cars, used games at Gamestop, etc) don't have to pay tax - so the poor are NOT paying tax unless they choose to buy new.
Oh, but you solve this poor-people problem by giving them money taken from the rich people, trying to guess how much they spent that year and sending them just the right amount of handout, I mean "rebate", to cover what they paid in "fair tax". Nothing like buying votes to keep the incumbent in office, huh?
Actually it's taken from the tax that they already paid and then refunded. It's no different than when you get a tax refund from income taxes now - except it happens every month instead of once a year. Also, it's based on a continually adjusted amount that the average family of your size would spend. You can actually make choices to buy used (see above) and pay less tax and actually PROFIT from this rebate system if you're poor.
But this "fair tax" gets rid of the IRS and all the tax enforcers, right? That's got to be "fair". Well, it might be fair if it wasn't a whopper of a lie. With a "fair tax" you create an entire organization to manage the handouts to the poor people, to manage the collections from the rest of us, and keep track of who is and isn't paying. Just like today. Plenty of jobs for those out-of-work IRS agents, and no reduction in the size of government.
Wrong. We already have the infrastructure in place for collecting sales tax - all you have to do is make a slight modification to the code in the registers. Also, since it's simply a matter of family size, it's something that doesn't need to be updated much and they just mail it to you / direct deposit it automatically, thus requiring very few people. If you get married, you do the paperwork for change of family size - same if you have a kid or if a kid grows up and moves out. These are not things that will happen often for each family, thus it doesn't require that many people to maintain the system.
Yeah, like the terrible loophole that you can deduct mortgage interest on your home from your federal taxes. A "loophole" that many pe
Self interest is only OK if you're protecting your property from being stolen, not when you're stealing to improve your lot.
Only in the USA have I seen deluded poor people speak your words.
Because apparently the USA is the only place where there's anyone left to realize that stealing is wrong. If you want more money, get off your lazy ass and EARN it like all those "evil rich" people did. Just because you failed at life (general "you", not speaking to you personally) doesn't give you the right to steal from those who did something with their lives.
People like you make me wonder why I kill myself working full time at a shit job while going to grad school, when all I'll get for it is called "evil" for working hard and getting an education and have my taxes go through the roof so that my income after taxes won't change much from what it is now.
Not sure if you're from the US or not. In the US, sales tax is collected added on at purchase - not factored into the price, so both prices would go up by 10% (or whatever local sales tax is). So in this case it would be $44 for the cable at best buy and $5.48 for the cable on Newegg. Even if you paid for overnight shipping on the cable, it would probably still be cheaper.
Here's an idea - how about the brick and mortar stores sell at the same profit margin as Amazon? Charging twice as much at Best Buy (or any other physical store) for what someone can buy on Amazon is absurd. Sure, brick and mortar stores have higher costs, but that's not going to double the cost. I might - MIGHT raise the cost to break even by 20%, but the brick and mortar stores are greedy (as they've always been) and refuse to lower prices to compete - instead they want to legislate against those providing a better deal to consumers.
Pretty sure that inventory tax applies to warehouses as well.... It's cost of operation (employees, property tax, upkeep on more buildings, etc) that hurts brick and mortar stores.
Bullshit. It's all about greed on the part of people like you who are jealous of those who make more. I don't make much and I constantly have people like you say to me "But you should support taking money from people who have more so that it can be given to you" - no, because it's their fucking money. No one has the right to someone else's money. Saying "Well you worked hard and made something of yourself - to congratulate you, we're going to cut the amount of your income that you get to keep from 85% to 65%!" is punishing hard work. Even if you just had a flat tax rate so that everyone pays the same percent, you'd still have people who earn more paying more taxes but it would at least be fair because everyone would get to keep the same proportion of their income.
It's so infuriating to hear people like you try to make excuses for your greed and jealousy instead of just doing more with your life and earning as much money as you wish you had.
^ This. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FairTax The Fair Tax is exactly that AND it includes a system for making sure that poor people aren't being harmed by it by being taxed on necessities. It also eliminates tax loopholes in the process.
OK, so lets say that this happens and all prices online go up by 6.5% (sorry, I forgot at first each state is different, but that's the sales tax rate in my state). Guess what - online is STILL cheaper. Why? Because their costs to operate are lower (fewer employees, less real estate to pay tax on, lower energy bills due to fewer buildings, etc). Seriously, look online - even before you factor in taxes (since sales tax in the US is added on at checkout) the prices online are usually a good 30% lower. So even if you pay the extra 6.5% (or whatever for yours state) at checkout, it's still going to cost you 30% less to buy online.
Just like how video rental stores like Blockbuster and Hollywood Video are dying / already died out in place of newer methods that are cheaper and more convenient, brick and mortar stores need to drastically reduce their presence in order to remain competitive or cut their profit margins. It's part of why Borders went bankrupt - you could pick a random Blu-ray movie and it would (generally) be $40 at Borders, $30 at Best Buy, and $25 (or less) on Amazon...and all of those prices are before sales tax, so that's not a factor. Just like how the US Auto industry got used to being able to charge obscene prices for equal (or lower) quality products, brick and mortar stores got used to having very little competition. Now that they actually have to compete and can no longer ass rape customers, they're screaming like children over the fact that someone is giving consumers a better deal and as a result, consumers are flocking to the better prices.
Yes, and Obama's first year alone out spent all 8 years of Bush. Facts - they're a beautiful thing.
I despise the Republicans almost as much as the Democrats - but this childish "The Messiah is perfect!" crap that completely defies all facts is really getting old.
In case you haven't paid attention to the last 50+ years of US history, those up for election are not chosen by the people (so we only get to choose from those they let us choose from) and even then, they generally don't give a damn about what the people want.
If he's going to be labeled a criminal either way, why choose the option that he has to pay for?
Because then when he said that he was happy to pay, but that the DRM forced him to pirate, it would sound like he meant it, rather than him just making excuses.
And all that means is that instead of paying a couple million in fines, he'll pay a couple of million in fines and the added insult of paying for the legitimate copy.
Slashdot Mirror
The future is people will have to get an education and make good decisions - or be left behind. Honestly, I don't get this massive psychological flip in Slashdot over the years - people here used to look down on the morons - now it's trendy on Slashdot to promote being a moron and insult anyone who wants to move society forward.
Yes, yes, I know, the trolls with modpoints are going to come running to mod me down. Think about it though - which society would you rather live in: One that's technologically advanced and has a smaller population, but a higher percentage of them are intelligent or a society that's not particularly advanced and has a large population with a very small percentage of intelligent people?
It's also a matter of this delusion that unskilled labor should be paid as much as skilled labor. Sorry, but factory work that takes a couple hours of training is NOT worth the same as a job that requires years of education. A factory job is in essence no different than a fast food job and is NOT worth more than say $30,000 a year tops. That's the real reason for the massive outsourcing in recent years - because people think that an unskilled job should be paying as much as an engineering job that requires a BS in Mechanical Engineering. When Americans accept that menial labor in a factory is going to be a below average paying job, then manufacturing will start to come back to the US.
Individual users - you're right. Companies on the other hand might very well cite the issues in the Middle East / Asia regarding security.
Personally I think the right answer in a situation like this is to do as they ask.
Personally I think it's best to tell them to go fuck themselves (I mean actually say that too) and pull out of the country. After enough companies do it, the government will change their mind or risk revolt due to the lack of consumer goods that people once had access to.
Then again, my parents always taught me to stand up to bullies. Apparently yours didn't.
And in a wonderful twist of fate, RIM's marketshare is still plummeting like Ashley Olsen's weight. Not only are they still imploding, but they've fucked over their remaining users. Truly epic.
Yes, there's everything Blackberry can do about it - you don't hand over the encryption key / let them into the system. So what if they ban you? Guess what - the companies pouring billions of dollars into those third world countries will tell the government "Either play ball or we're out and your country becomes even more of an irrelevant shithole than it already it". This isn't some massive multi-trillion dollar a year GDP country we're talking about, it's nothing third world countries with no actual power.
Wrong, wrong, impressively wrong. The 16th amendment allows for income tax - nothing more. It does not give them the authority to redistribute wealth and to force one person to pay another persons bills.
There's another type of drive similar to this, only it wipes itself if power is ever cut. Sure, law enforcement count swipe the computer, but odds are they'd turn it off before taking it.
You only use truecrypt? I use 7zip to compress and encrypt it, store that in a truecrypt volume, then compress and encrypt THAT before moving it to another truecrypt volume. Sure it takes some time to access files and it involves remembering four complex passwords, but goddamit I'm secure! ....STOP STARING AT MY TINFOIL HAT!
Because your "rest of the world" stopped believing that people have rights long ago and now thinks of people merely as objects to be exploited as politicians see fit. Thanks to people like you, the right to property, even in the "evil capitalist" US is gone and the right to have an opinion and free speech (thanks political correctness) are gone as well. Now it's "You exist to serve the state and do whatever we goddamn tell you to do" while the delude up ever more "rights" to get votes from the people who've done nothing to earn anything in their lives.
You think it's all funny now to fuck people over and take away their freedom - you won't be laughing down the line when they decide to take away freedoms you care about. You my friend, make the world a worse place to live in.
Thank you for being one of the few to realize what a load of shit this is. Every few years another moron comes along and claims "X is a right". No, it's not. A car is not a right, video games are not a right, broadband is not a right, etc.
I'm waiting for the day when they try to actually pull what you jokingly said, and they try to claim that it's a "right" for everyone to be rich - then we watch as hyperinflation ensues as they try to print money to make people "rich".
Good god, you truly have no concept of how much they spend in a year, do you? You also don't realize that most of their wealth is NOT in the form of paychecks, but in things like stocks and other investments that are taxed at much lower rates than income taxes. Also, due to the elimination of tax loopholes, they'd pay out the ass any time they built a new mansion, bought a new car, threw a huge party etc. The poor on the other hand would be given rebates on necessities and would NOT BE TAXED on used goods (cars, clothing, furniture, etc). You also are horribly deluded about what a "necessity" is - most people (regardless of if they're poor, middle class, etc) spend tons of money on a little thing experts call "shit you don't need" every year. The people who do a better job of managing how much they spend on "shit you don't need" move up in wealth even if they have the same income as someone else who's worse at managing how much they spend on "shit you don't need". We see this every day in life.
Steve Jobs making $10 million a year in stocks would NOT BE TAXED because it's not income. Even when he DOES sell those stocks, capital gains tax is only about 15%. If you think someone with his money doesn't spend at least $1 million a year, you're sadly delusional. I've met CEO's and business owners who are billionaires and the rate that they go through a million dollars is unbelievable. How you and I view $10,000 is how they view a million dollars.
It's fairly easy for you to have no goddamn clue how they spend their money OR how different forms of income are taxed. You also don't realize that most of the people who fall into the highest tax brackets take every last deduction and loophole imaginable to cut themselves down into the low to mid-20's for their tax rate. But instead of actually learning how the tax system actually works or how the rich actually behave - or hell, even just researching the actual law we're talking about instead of getting one small bit of information and then going off on an irrational rant, you just want to rant about how not ass-raping people who were more successful than you is "evil". Grow up and get over your jealousy.
Taxes that redistribute wealth ARE stealing. There is a difference between paying a tax (a tax EVERYONE pays) for a shared resources, such as police, fire fighters, roads, etc and paying a tax that exists to take money from one person / group of people and give it to another.
Your income after taxes will be much higher than now
Yet the proportion of the money I fucking earned that I'm "allowed" to keep is significantly smaller. That's what you don't seem to understand. Neither you, Obama, George Bush, or anyone else have a right to the money I earned . Just like I don't have the right to your money. That's what goes right over your head - you don't seem to grasp this whole "property rights" issue...you seem to think that you get to just take what you want to do whatever you feel is best.
You want to say it's "not stealing" just because the government does it. There was a quote from a long time ago (I forget who said it) that goes something like this: "If I do not have the legal right to do something, what right do I have to petition the government to do it on my behalf?"
These "fair" people cannot even admit what the actual tax rate would be. They call it a "27% tax" when an item that would otherwise cost $73 becomes $100 at the cash register. Why, 27% of the price is tax, so it is a "27% tax rate", right? No. It is a 37% tax rate. You pay 37% of the price of the item as a tax.
It's a simple matter of how you do the math - both are correct. If you start at $100 (final price) and deduct the amount of tax, it's a 27% tax rate. If you start at the price of $73 and add on the amount of tax to get $100, it's 37%.
Second, it taxes money YOU HAVE ALREADY BEEN TAXED ON. I've been saving for a decade for an expensive item. I've paid income tax on every penny of that money. Boom. Fair tax gets implemented, now I pay a tax on the item when I actually buy it. Double taxation. That's fair? Yes, in the eyes of the "fair tax" people, it is. I'm obviously richer than I ought to be because I can actually put money in the bank and save it.
Wow, you're an idiot. We already have sales tax which - SURPRISE! Taxes money you already paid tax on. Even your beloved anti-profit Europe has a VAT that taxes money that's already been taxed.
Then you wind up taxing children on the money they spend to buy candy. You wind up taxing POOR people at the same rate as the rich people. Fair? Yes, according to the "fair tax" people, it is.
Yes, because everyone should be taxed equally. This way, the more you earn (and thus the more you spend), the more you pay in taxes. Do you not realize that Steve Jobs paying 27% sales tax on a Ferrari is going to be a hell of a lot more than Joe Sixpack paying 27% tax on a Ford Focus? Also, if you bothered to read, it only applies to FIRST SALE, meaning that those with lower incomes who buy used products (clothing from thirft stores, used cars, used games at Gamestop, etc) don't have to pay tax - so the poor are NOT paying tax unless they choose to buy new.
Oh, but you solve this poor-people problem by giving them money taken from the rich people, trying to guess how much they spent that year and sending them just the right amount of handout, I mean "rebate", to cover what they paid in "fair tax". Nothing like buying votes to keep the incumbent in office, huh?
Actually it's taken from the tax that they already paid and then refunded. It's no different than when you get a tax refund from income taxes now - except it happens every month instead of once a year. Also, it's based on a continually adjusted amount that the average family of your size would spend. You can actually make choices to buy used (see above) and pay less tax and actually PROFIT from this rebate system if you're poor.
But this "fair tax" gets rid of the IRS and all the tax enforcers, right? That's got to be "fair". Well, it might be fair if it wasn't a whopper of a lie. With a "fair tax" you create an entire organization to manage the handouts to the poor people, to manage the collections from the rest of us, and keep track of who is and isn't paying. Just like today. Plenty of jobs for those out-of-work IRS agents, and no reduction in the size of government.
Wrong. We already have the infrastructure in place for collecting sales tax - all you have to do is make a slight modification to the code in the registers. Also, since it's simply a matter of family size, it's something that doesn't need to be updated much and they just mail it to you / direct deposit it automatically, thus requiring very few people. If you get married, you do the paperwork for change of family size - same if you have a kid or if a kid grows up and moves out. These are not things that will happen often for each family, thus it doesn't require that many people to maintain the system.
Yeah, like the terrible loophole that you can deduct mortgage interest on your home from your federal taxes. A "loophole" that many pe
Self interest is only OK if you're protecting your property from being stolen, not when you're stealing to improve your lot.
Only in the USA have I seen deluded poor people speak your words.
Because apparently the USA is the only place where there's anyone left to realize that stealing is wrong. If you want more money, get off your lazy ass and EARN it like all those "evil rich" people did. Just because you failed at life (general "you", not speaking to you personally) doesn't give you the right to steal from those who did something with their lives.
People like you make me wonder why I kill myself working full time at a shit job while going to grad school, when all I'll get for it is called "evil" for working hard and getting an education and have my taxes go through the roof so that my income after taxes won't change much from what it is now.
Not sure if you're from the US or not. In the US, sales tax is collected added on at purchase - not factored into the price, so both prices would go up by 10% (or whatever local sales tax is). So in this case it would be $44 for the cable at best buy and $5.48 for the cable on Newegg. Even if you paid for overnight shipping on the cable, it would probably still be cheaper.
Here's an idea - how about the brick and mortar stores sell at the same profit margin as Amazon? Charging twice as much at Best Buy (or any other physical store) for what someone can buy on Amazon is absurd. Sure, brick and mortar stores have higher costs, but that's not going to double the cost. I might - MIGHT raise the cost to break even by 20%, but the brick and mortar stores are greedy (as they've always been) and refuse to lower prices to compete - instead they want to legislate against those providing a better deal to consumers.
Pretty sure that inventory tax applies to warehouses as well.... It's cost of operation (employees, property tax, upkeep on more buildings, etc) that hurts brick and mortar stores.
Bullshit. It's all about greed on the part of people like you who are jealous of those who make more. I don't make much and I constantly have people like you say to me "But you should support taking money from people who have more so that it can be given to you" - no, because it's their fucking money. No one has the right to someone else's money. Saying "Well you worked hard and made something of yourself - to congratulate you, we're going to cut the amount of your income that you get to keep from 85% to 65%!" is punishing hard work. Even if you just had a flat tax rate so that everyone pays the same percent, you'd still have people who earn more paying more taxes but it would at least be fair because everyone would get to keep the same proportion of their income.
It's so infuriating to hear people like you try to make excuses for your greed and jealousy instead of just doing more with your life and earning as much money as you wish you had.
^ This. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FairTax The Fair Tax is exactly that AND it includes a system for making sure that poor people aren't being harmed by it by being taxed on necessities. It also eliminates tax loopholes in the process.
OK, so lets say that this happens and all prices online go up by 6.5% (sorry, I forgot at first each state is different, but that's the sales tax rate in my state). Guess what - online is STILL cheaper. Why? Because their costs to operate are lower (fewer employees, less real estate to pay tax on, lower energy bills due to fewer buildings, etc). Seriously, look online - even before you factor in taxes (since sales tax in the US is added on at checkout) the prices online are usually a good 30% lower. So even if you pay the extra 6.5% (or whatever for yours state) at checkout, it's still going to cost you 30% less to buy online.
Just like how video rental stores like Blockbuster and Hollywood Video are dying / already died out in place of newer methods that are cheaper and more convenient, brick and mortar stores need to drastically reduce their presence in order to remain competitive or cut their profit margins. It's part of why Borders went bankrupt - you could pick a random Blu-ray movie and it would (generally) be $40 at Borders, $30 at Best Buy, and $25 (or less) on Amazon...and all of those prices are before sales tax, so that's not a factor. Just like how the US Auto industry got used to being able to charge obscene prices for equal (or lower) quality products, brick and mortar stores got used to having very little competition. Now that they actually have to compete and can no longer ass rape customers, they're screaming like children over the fact that someone is giving consumers a better deal and as a result, consumers are flocking to the better prices.
Yes, and Obama's first year alone out spent all 8 years of Bush. Facts - they're a beautiful thing.
I despise the Republicans almost as much as the Democrats - but this childish "The Messiah is perfect!" crap that completely defies all facts is really getting old.
In case you haven't paid attention to the last 50+ years of US history, those up for election are not chosen by the people (so we only get to choose from those they let us choose from) and even then, they generally don't give a damn about what the people want.
A Democrat in favor of increased taxes - is there a person on the planet who's actually surprised by this?
If he's going to be labeled a criminal either way, why choose the option that he has to pay for?
Because then when he said that he was happy to pay, but that the DRM forced him to pirate, it would sound like he meant it, rather than him just making excuses.
And all that means is that instead of paying a couple million in fines, he'll pay a couple of million in fines and the added insult of paying for the legitimate copy.