The problem is they will apply it to people that are just causing mischief, and probably deserve a slap on the hands. Or they will start applying it to copyright infringement cases, and lump everyone using bittorrent into a "Criminal ring". Then since seizure of property will be allowed, they will take property to finance their departments in police/(whatever agency) auctions (such as computers, etc., and maybe even their house since that is where the crime was committed). I have absolutely no faith in law enforcement, they have too many conflicts of interest and too many cops are assholes. My friend got tased for leaving a party one time where some police "thought" underage drinking was going on. Then they charge him with resisting arrest because he walked out the back door, literally not know a cop was hiding in a bush and police were about to go inside the house. Turns out there wasn't anything illegal going on. My wife got a DUI because the cops just believed she was drunk. She didn't have a drink all day and passed 3 different breathalyzers on three different machines, until they brought out a fourth one and it "somehow" said she was over the legal limit. Her lawyer told her to just accept the DUI since the judge was a dried out alcoholic and pretty much rules guilty no matter the evidence in from of him. I got a ticket for 220 dollars for going 5 miles over the speed limit in some shithole town in north Texas. There are too many examples of this crap happening all over the US. Law enforcement has too much power and not enough oversight nor accountability for their actions. The Justice department as well as Police departments no longer bother with your constitutional rights, since the law has become so convoluted they can just get around everything with some bullshit excuse. There's a famous study about what that does to people : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment
At 3 universities I have been to, not one of them had Intel clusters for scientific computations. Some of them have Nvidia tesla, etc., but no Intel. The biggest one I went to was a Tier 1 research University, meaning they get shitloads of funding to buy whatever they want.
Ok, so basically you have said that "Monopolies = Competition", "Competition = Free Market", and "Free Market = Low Prices". So then, "Monopolies = Low Prices". Right, the Robber Barons are great examples of monopolies charging less and less to benefit the consumer.
You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about, and you come across as just another anti-intellectual nut-job. Its one reason our country is being left behind in industry and job growth, since only foreign governments actually pay for their students to study in our own damn country. Notice who is getting all the outsourced jobs? Nice of you to call my education my "hobby" since I am positive I know quite a bit more than you about quite a few more topics, and actually have a track record of implementing things that exist in systems which will shortly be in use. Eat shit asshole, and while your at it, stop using GPS, cell phones, the internet, computers, automobiles, etc. etc. since people like me created that technology and apparently, since we aren't worth a shit in contributing to our society our works must not be either.
Yes, and customers would have fewer choices in a market that is already an oligopoly. As-is if you want to send text messages you have to agree to pay rates all the cell companies have agreed upon through either testing eachother or agreeing upon it secretly, and they are 1000 times what it costs for them to send them. AT&T would charge the same damn rates regardless of economy of scale, simply because they could. Smartphones are quickly becoming something you need to remain in contact for business, or to get good jobs in this country. When your only alternatives are two companies charging the same overinflated rates, how is that a free market?
I greatly appreciate your post, and the non-confrontational nature of it. However I must say I disagree that CEO's hold all the cards when it comes to making "something". Jobs may have shown leadership and helped bring Apple out of a dire situation, but the people that did the actual work doing so are still there.
How the hell do you figure that this is primarily related to pro-union legislation? Give me a fucking break. This is related to the fact that cell companies are already an oligopoly, and they want to prevent less actual competition in a market (read, a less "free" market). If AT&T absorbed T-Mobile it would basically be the death of Sprint. That would leave Verizon and AT&T as the only major competitors. Its not like you can start up your own cell service to compete with either of them without capital that simply would never materialize through venture capital groups. No-one in their right mind would invest their money in your cell-start-up when you compete against 2 behemoth corporations that own all the infrastructure in the US. As is you would be totally unable to start your own cell service with 4 providers. Why make it worse? AT&T and Verizon already charge 1000 times what it costs them when you send a text message. Please, give. me. a. fucking. break. with. your. bullshit.
Im sorry, but Apple fans were always like this. When I became aware of it they were talking about how superior the G3 processor was over anything offered by Intel or AMD. This is in spite of actual evidence showing that other processors were superior at many things. I remember an ad campaign when Apple talked about how "Your Macbook is a super-computer, doing XXX gigaflops". Funny thing about that is they were making up lies by using an older standard of what a super-computer is. Apple fan-bois have always been assholes. The only difference now is that since Apple became mainstream, they have more people making decent enough money to afford their products who are also fucking idiots. I own some Apple products in spite of the distasteful ways Apple fanboi's handle themselves. There are legitimate reasons for using Macbooks, or iPods, etc. One in particular is that you can use Unix based scientific software on Apple with slightly less of a headache over using Unix. However, Apple products are hardly more advanced, or more capable over other products. They just slap on some prettiness and ergonomics to existing technology.
This is simply untrue. Every Caucasian person I know gets ridiculous amounts of help from their family. Its just that they pick bullshit degrees, and even the ones that pick science/engineering end up getting out-competed for career-building research opportunities by foreigners that have a free-ride education courtesy of their government.
Its not that they people in the US are unwilling to put in the work, its that they simply can't afford to do it. Tuition is out of control, and you get paid hardly anything for being a researcher at a US university (which is typically required as experience for the jobs you mention as well as to pay your tuition costs). Your VP is completely out of touch for not realizing this. I would guess he is from an old generation when it was much easier to do as they expect.
I received a wage of 1000 a month with NO health insurance benefits (unless I paid a quarter of my paycheck) as a research assistant at a tier 1 research university. This means that they get piles of funding for research beyond most other institutions. Most foreigners have government programs that pay their way through school in the US. When I worked as a research assistant, Chinese and Arab people were picked over Americans because they didn't require wages, since their government gave them a living stipend to study and work here. I even knew one individual from Saudi Arabia that received free tuition, health care, and 2500 a month from their government to study chemical engineering. In fact, it was well known that our department would pick foreign students over domestic because they are cheaper to employ as researchers since you can pay them nothing and use them as workhorses.
When it came time for me to renew my contract at the university, they flat out refused to pay me more and even told me point blank that I would possibly not be renewed because of "limited funding". I contributed 40-60 hour weeks on research topics at this point, and had publications under my belt. They told me that I would not be renewed and could not pay me more in spite of paying thousands of dollars for new equipment (computers for people who already had decent computers and access to state-of-the-art computing clusters), and hiring 5 new foreigners. I have nothing against these people for taking advantage of good situations for themselves, but you cannot say I was unwilling to work for my position nor can you say I was unwilling to continue my education.
I ultimately had to get out of there and pursue a PhD part-time while I work in industry. The funny thing is, if I were given opportunities to make a livable wage and study, there would be no end to how much I would want to educate myself. It was simply a matter of bullshit financial reasons due to our anti-education government that I got phased out, since its too expensive to use US citizens as researchers.
Let me correct myself and say I purchased a Ps2 about a year or so after it came out. That was a good console, and an example of when Sony was actually worth a shit.
Resale is not usually something most people do unless they are console gamers, and consoles have their own built in DRM. While I agree with the principal of being able to resale, the software industry as well as the government has basically frowned upon this practice for over a decade unless you are operating a console system. The appropriate reaction for one person is not the same as what you deem appropriate, because opinions differ.
Sony is a giant piece of shit, and this has been proven when people boycotted them for their DRM dvd's they produced, and when people traded in their PS3's for Xbox 360's after the PSN got hacked. Sony really doesn't have much going on for it anymore. I don't remember the last time I purchased a Sony product, since I refuse to. They publish too many sub-par games and require increasing control over them, even above and beyond industry standards. People are moving away from Sony products at a very rapid rate. The publishers producing the best games are not affiliated with one platform, and typically release it on Xbox, PS3, and many times PC.
I have no complaints about Steam, because they offer products for bargain rates, offer them deliverable the minute they are available, and/or as your connection will allow, and let you access them from any computer you are using as long as you are doing it from one computer at a time. This business model is INFINITELY better than the music and movie industry. Using them as an example was to show its possible to create a very profitable business that handles copyrights in a more consumer-friendly way.
YOU don't give a shit. Some of us are willing to share our life experience with others. Where would you plan to search for the answer to this question? Since many of us don't have fucking blogs about this type of thing, all you would find is a bunch of people talking about it who aren't engineers nor scientists.
It really depends on what you want to do with yourself. Do you want to manage a group of engineers or an entire plant? Do you want to be a researcher studying cutting edge technology? Do you want to be more on the technical side and spend time actually building things? I spent two years as a dual major in mathematics and computer engineering, before I decided I would rather just do mathematics since you have plenty of opportunities to work in most areas of research as long as you have programming skills.
As a mechanical engineer, you will have plenty of opportunities for material science classes, physics classes, mechanics classes, etc. So, my best recommendation to you to ensure you can get a job is to take programming courses. By this I mean, take enough to be able to program an application or scientific computation software comfortably in Unix. This should be in addition to any second major you would choose. From there its really up to you.
If you plan to be on the plant management side of things, statistics and/or operations research is a major plus. This is achievable through many math programs. If you want to manage a business or people, economics/finance or an MBA is always a plus, though generally engineers and scientists can take courses on these topics geared more towards their discipline. If you plan to be on the more research side, I would recommend either mathematics or physics. If you plan to actually build things, I would recommend sticking to just engineering disciplines and taking as many courses in it as possible rather than waste extra credits on a second major in the sciences. Even mechanical engineers have to specialize in something, and if you don't worry about a second major it leaves more time to work on a second specialization. For example, there are mechanical engineers that specialize in thermodynamics, and some that specialize in material science. You could have time to do both by not taking a second major.
I am a PhD student in computational mathematics. I have my MS in Applied Math, with a specialty in mostly computational topics as well as optimization. I was an engineering student for awhile, but I absolutely love mathematics and typically sacrificed an engineering class for a mathematics class I didn't even need to graduate. Ultimately I got some good advice and just pursued mathematics full time.
I don't understand why people allow their governments to continue to crack down on piracy as if its some kind of major problem. Markets will adapt, and to give an example of one look at the gaming industry. Many people now get games through Steam because its convenient. You get it the minute the game comes out, and you get access to a bunch of other features, like automated updates, etc. It is impossible for them to pirate games on these platforms, and many publishers are coming up with similar system. Also, there are multiplayer capabilities in many games that require unique CD-keys, like Starcraft II, etc. Another example is Netflix and Hulu. They offer a streaming service whereby you get to watch what you want when you want to and don't bombard you with more advertisements than actual television. If Hollywood would just release new movies over some premium streaming service, no doubt they would cut down on bootlegging and piracy in general. It boggles my mind why everyone isn't in a complete uproar over this, as all of the measures governments take are inherently anti-consumer and only meant to benefit the corporations failing business models.
I had a similar experience. I have a MS in Applied Mathematics with programming experience, research experience and publications. Looking at salaries, it appears like I should be able to make 60-70k a year, and possibly more if I were to land a really good job since Applied Mathematicians with CS background can pull in 90k sometimes. I applied to well over 100 jobs with not a single call back until I broadened my horizons. Now I work as a tech support guy for a trading platform company that pays me pretty good, if I didn't have student loans. They were absolutely ecstatic to have me work there, trying to be highly competitive with other jobs I had been offered (such as teaching math). However, they really aren't paying me what I feel like I should be worth compared to the statistics I read. I still need to make at least 1.5 times what I make now to live comfortably (i.e. able to contribute to a retirement account, own one car for my family, and pay bills, etc.) and pay off loans. Im pretty much going for broke at this rate, since I am now pursuing a PhD (with loans) AND working full time. If I don't get a job after I have a PhD, Ill probably just hide money in a mattress from a cash based business like mowing lawns until I can skip out of the country to some 3rd world country that is cheaper to live in, probably has cheaper wages, and probably has a shortage of people like me so I could maybe get a job as a professor or working as an outsourced worker for the US. It be pretty funny to end up in India working for US firms for half the price I would get here, but still being able to live decently. I haven't looked into whether or not I could conveniently "forget" all about my student loans and just get citizenship there, but we will see.
That's not totally the governments fault. Companies move jobs overseas to save money and increase profits. If it weren't so expensive to hire American workers (read if it weren't so expensive to afford to pay for things in the US like healthcare, gasoline and housing) than labor would be cheaper, and companies would hire here. If companies would hire people in the US then their wouldn't be as much of a need for welfare. Before the recent downturn in the economy, corporations were sitting on more money in profits than they had before the recession started, yet they still hired no-one.
Well, World War III will be a good fight since we still have the most advanced military in the entire world and I doubt other nations would just let China start taking places over.
What I am saying is that they will eventually have vast tracks of toxic lands and water. Even if they don't give a damn about their people, they will have to start caring when they can't farm or drink water anymore. You can only pollute for so long until it becomes more expensive to manage the consequences than it would cost to just not have the problem to begin with.
May I assume that means that he has a political opinion opposite yours?
No, you may not assume that since not enough information exists about their or my own political leanings. This person truncated the information available and then stretched the truth to make some bullshit political statement about "how bad government subsidies are". I am not for the majority of government subsidies, however I grow tired of people bending the truth to fit into their own little preconceived and unproven assumptions that come along with their political leanings. This was a gamble by the government, and even if the company would have worked out people would still be bitching about it as being "unfair". I really like how people pick and choose evidence rather than confront all of it and attempt to formulate objective opinions.
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The problem is they will apply it to people that are just causing mischief, and probably deserve a slap on the hands. Or they will start applying it to copyright infringement cases, and lump everyone using bittorrent into a "Criminal ring". Then since seizure of property will be allowed, they will take property to finance their departments in police/(whatever agency) auctions (such as computers, etc., and maybe even their house since that is where the crime was committed). I have absolutely no faith in law enforcement, they have too many conflicts of interest and too many cops are assholes. My friend got tased for leaving a party one time where some police "thought" underage drinking was going on. Then they charge him with resisting arrest because he walked out the back door, literally not know a cop was hiding in a bush and police were about to go inside the house. Turns out there wasn't anything illegal going on. My wife got a DUI because the cops just believed she was drunk. She didn't have a drink all day and passed 3 different breathalyzers on three different machines, until they brought out a fourth one and it "somehow" said she was over the legal limit. Her lawyer told her to just accept the DUI since the judge was a dried out alcoholic and pretty much rules guilty no matter the evidence in from of him. I got a ticket for 220 dollars for going 5 miles over the speed limit in some shithole town in north Texas. There are too many examples of this crap happening all over the US. Law enforcement has too much power and not enough oversight nor accountability for their actions. The Justice department as well as Police departments no longer bother with your constitutional rights, since the law has become so convoluted they can just get around everything with some bullshit excuse. There's a famous study about what that does to people : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment
At 3 universities I have been to, not one of them had Intel clusters for scientific computations. Some of them have Nvidia tesla, etc., but no Intel. The biggest one I went to was a Tier 1 research University, meaning they get shitloads of funding to buy whatever they want.
Or at least take some senior level math courses like Dynamics or PDE's.
Calling a PC a super computer when systems exist that actually are super computers and are thousands of times more powerful is a lie.
Well, be prepared to welcome an immigrant.
Ok, so basically you have said that "Monopolies = Competition", "Competition = Free Market", and "Free Market = Low Prices". So then, "Monopolies = Low Prices". Right, the Robber Barons are great examples of monopolies charging less and less to benefit the consumer.
You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about, and you come across as just another anti-intellectual nut-job. Its one reason our country is being left behind in industry and job growth, since only foreign governments actually pay for their students to study in our own damn country. Notice who is getting all the outsourced jobs? Nice of you to call my education my "hobby" since I am positive I know quite a bit more than you about quite a few more topics, and actually have a track record of implementing things that exist in systems which will shortly be in use. Eat shit asshole, and while your at it, stop using GPS, cell phones, the internet, computers, automobiles, etc. etc. since people like me created that technology and apparently, since we aren't worth a shit in contributing to our society our works must not be either.
Yes, and customers would have fewer choices in a market that is already an oligopoly. As-is if you want to send text messages you have to agree to pay rates all the cell companies have agreed upon through either testing eachother or agreeing upon it secretly, and they are 1000 times what it costs for them to send them. AT&T would charge the same damn rates regardless of economy of scale, simply because they could. Smartphones are quickly becoming something you need to remain in contact for business, or to get good jobs in this country. When your only alternatives are two companies charging the same overinflated rates, how is that a free market?
I greatly appreciate your post, and the non-confrontational nature of it. However I must say I disagree that CEO's hold all the cards when it comes to making "something". Jobs may have shown leadership and helped bring Apple out of a dire situation, but the people that did the actual work doing so are still there.
How the hell do you figure that this is primarily related to pro-union legislation? Give me a fucking break. This is related to the fact that cell companies are already an oligopoly, and they want to prevent less actual competition in a market (read, a less "free" market). If AT&T absorbed T-Mobile it would basically be the death of Sprint. That would leave Verizon and AT&T as the only major competitors. Its not like you can start up your own cell service to compete with either of them without capital that simply would never materialize through venture capital groups. No-one in their right mind would invest their money in your cell-start-up when you compete against 2 behemoth corporations that own all the infrastructure in the US. As is you would be totally unable to start your own cell service with 4 providers. Why make it worse? AT&T and Verizon already charge 1000 times what it costs them when you send a text message. Please, give. me. a. fucking. break. with. your. bullshit.
Im sorry, but Apple fans were always like this. When I became aware of it they were talking about how superior the G3 processor was over anything offered by Intel or AMD. This is in spite of actual evidence showing that other processors were superior at many things. I remember an ad campaign when Apple talked about how "Your Macbook is a super-computer, doing XXX gigaflops". Funny thing about that is they were making up lies by using an older standard of what a super-computer is. Apple fan-bois have always been assholes. The only difference now is that since Apple became mainstream, they have more people making decent enough money to afford their products who are also fucking idiots. I own some Apple products in spite of the distasteful ways Apple fanboi's handle themselves. There are legitimate reasons for using Macbooks, or iPods, etc. One in particular is that you can use Unix based scientific software on Apple with slightly less of a headache over using Unix. However, Apple products are hardly more advanced, or more capable over other products. They just slap on some prettiness and ergonomics to existing technology.
This is simply untrue. Every Caucasian person I know gets ridiculous amounts of help from their family. Its just that they pick bullshit degrees, and even the ones that pick science/engineering end up getting out-competed for career-building research opportunities by foreigners that have a free-ride education courtesy of their government.
Its not that they people in the US are unwilling to put in the work, its that they simply can't afford to do it. Tuition is out of control, and you get paid hardly anything for being a researcher at a US university (which is typically required as experience for the jobs you mention as well as to pay your tuition costs). Your VP is completely out of touch for not realizing this. I would guess he is from an old generation when it was much easier to do as they expect.
I received a wage of 1000 a month with NO health insurance benefits (unless I paid a quarter of my paycheck) as a research assistant at a tier 1 research university. This means that they get piles of funding for research beyond most other institutions. Most foreigners have government programs that pay their way through school in the US. When I worked as a research assistant, Chinese and Arab people were picked over Americans because they didn't require wages, since their government gave them a living stipend to study and work here. I even knew one individual from Saudi Arabia that received free tuition, health care, and 2500 a month from their government to study chemical engineering. In fact, it was well known that our department would pick foreign students over domestic because they are cheaper to employ as researchers since you can pay them nothing and use them as workhorses.
When it came time for me to renew my contract at the university, they flat out refused to pay me more and even told me point blank that I would possibly not be renewed because of "limited funding". I contributed 40-60 hour weeks on research topics at this point, and had publications under my belt. They told me that I would not be renewed and could not pay me more in spite of paying thousands of dollars for new equipment (computers for people who already had decent computers and access to state-of-the-art computing clusters), and hiring 5 new foreigners. I have nothing against these people for taking advantage of good situations for themselves, but you cannot say I was unwilling to work for my position nor can you say I was unwilling to continue my education.
I ultimately had to get out of there and pursue a PhD part-time while I work in industry. The funny thing is, if I were given opportunities to make a livable wage and study, there would be no end to how much I would want to educate myself. It was simply a matter of bullshit financial reasons due to our anti-education government that I got phased out, since its too expensive to use US citizens as researchers.
Too bad the market is flooded with business majors, and none of them can get jobs paying what an engineer or PhD mathematician can get.
Let me correct myself and say I purchased a Ps2 about a year or so after it came out. That was a good console, and an example of when Sony was actually worth a shit.
Resale is not usually something most people do unless they are console gamers, and consoles have their own built in DRM. While I agree with the principal of being able to resale, the software industry as well as the government has basically frowned upon this practice for over a decade unless you are operating a console system. The appropriate reaction for one person is not the same as what you deem appropriate, because opinions differ.
Sony is a giant piece of shit, and this has been proven when people boycotted them for their DRM dvd's they produced, and when people traded in their PS3's for Xbox 360's after the PSN got hacked. Sony really doesn't have much going on for it anymore. I don't remember the last time I purchased a Sony product, since I refuse to. They publish too many sub-par games and require increasing control over them, even above and beyond industry standards. People are moving away from Sony products at a very rapid rate. The publishers producing the best games are not affiliated with one platform, and typically release it on Xbox, PS3, and many times PC.
I have no complaints about Steam, because they offer products for bargain rates, offer them deliverable the minute they are available, and/or as your connection will allow, and let you access them from any computer you are using as long as you are doing it from one computer at a time. This business model is INFINITELY better than the music and movie industry. Using them as an example was to show its possible to create a very profitable business that handles copyrights in a more consumer-friendly way.
YOU don't give a shit. Some of us are willing to share our life experience with others. Where would you plan to search for the answer to this question? Since many of us don't have fucking blogs about this type of thing, all you would find is a bunch of people talking about it who aren't engineers nor scientists.
Computer engineers get more embedded systems, though they are basically a subset of EE.
It really depends on what you want to do with yourself. Do you want to manage a group of engineers or an entire plant? Do you want to be a researcher studying cutting edge technology? Do you want to be more on the technical side and spend time actually building things? I spent two years as a dual major in mathematics and computer engineering, before I decided I would rather just do mathematics since you have plenty of opportunities to work in most areas of research as long as you have programming skills.
As a mechanical engineer, you will have plenty of opportunities for material science classes, physics classes, mechanics classes, etc. So, my best recommendation to you to ensure you can get a job is to take programming courses. By this I mean, take enough to be able to program an application or scientific computation software comfortably in Unix. This should be in addition to any second major you would choose. From there its really up to you.
If you plan to be on the plant management side of things, statistics and/or operations research is a major plus. This is achievable through many math programs. If you want to manage a business or people, economics/finance or an MBA is always a plus, though generally engineers and scientists can take courses on these topics geared more towards their discipline. If you plan to be on the more research side, I would recommend either mathematics or physics. If you plan to actually build things, I would recommend sticking to just engineering disciplines and taking as many courses in it as possible rather than waste extra credits on a second major in the sciences. Even mechanical engineers have to specialize in something, and if you don't worry about a second major it leaves more time to work on a second specialization. For example, there are mechanical engineers that specialize in thermodynamics, and some that specialize in material science. You could have time to do both by not taking a second major.
I am a PhD student in computational mathematics. I have my MS in Applied Math, with a specialty in mostly computational topics as well as optimization. I was an engineering student for awhile, but I absolutely love mathematics and typically sacrificed an engineering class for a mathematics class I didn't even need to graduate. Ultimately I got some good advice and just pursued mathematics full time.
I don't understand why people allow their governments to continue to crack down on piracy as if its some kind of major problem. Markets will adapt, and to give an example of one look at the gaming industry. Many people now get games through Steam because its convenient. You get it the minute the game comes out, and you get access to a bunch of other features, like automated updates, etc. It is impossible for them to pirate games on these platforms, and many publishers are coming up with similar system. Also, there are multiplayer capabilities in many games that require unique CD-keys, like Starcraft II, etc. Another example is Netflix and Hulu. They offer a streaming service whereby you get to watch what you want when you want to and don't bombard you with more advertisements than actual television. If Hollywood would just release new movies over some premium streaming service, no doubt they would cut down on bootlegging and piracy in general. It boggles my mind why everyone isn't in a complete uproar over this, as all of the measures governments take are inherently anti-consumer and only meant to benefit the corporations failing business models.
I had a similar experience. I have a MS in Applied Mathematics with programming experience, research experience and publications. Looking at salaries, it appears like I should be able to make 60-70k a year, and possibly more if I were to land a really good job since Applied Mathematicians with CS background can pull in 90k sometimes. I applied to well over 100 jobs with not a single call back until I broadened my horizons. Now I work as a tech support guy for a trading platform company that pays me pretty good, if I didn't have student loans. They were absolutely ecstatic to have me work there, trying to be highly competitive with other jobs I had been offered (such as teaching math). However, they really aren't paying me what I feel like I should be worth compared to the statistics I read. I still need to make at least 1.5 times what I make now to live comfortably (i.e. able to contribute to a retirement account, own one car for my family, and pay bills, etc.) and pay off loans. Im pretty much going for broke at this rate, since I am now pursuing a PhD (with loans) AND working full time. If I don't get a job after I have a PhD, Ill probably just hide money in a mattress from a cash based business like mowing lawns until I can skip out of the country to some 3rd world country that is cheaper to live in, probably has cheaper wages, and probably has a shortage of people like me so I could maybe get a job as a professor or working as an outsourced worker for the US. It be pretty funny to end up in India working for US firms for half the price I would get here, but still being able to live decently. I haven't looked into whether or not I could conveniently "forget" all about my student loans and just get citizenship there, but we will see.
That's not totally the governments fault. Companies move jobs overseas to save money and increase profits. If it weren't so expensive to hire American workers (read if it weren't so expensive to afford to pay for things in the US like healthcare, gasoline and housing) than labor would be cheaper, and companies would hire here. If companies would hire people in the US then their wouldn't be as much of a need for welfare. Before the recent downturn in the economy, corporations were sitting on more money in profits than they had before the recession started, yet they still hired no-one.
Well, World War III will be a good fight since we still have the most advanced military in the entire world and I doubt other nations would just let China start taking places over.
What I am saying is that they will eventually have vast tracks of toxic lands and water. Even if they don't give a damn about their people, they will have to start caring when they can't farm or drink water anymore. You can only pollute for so long until it becomes more expensive to manage the consequences than it would cost to just not have the problem to begin with.
May I assume that means that he has a political opinion opposite yours?
No, you may not assume that since not enough information exists about their or my own political leanings. This person truncated the information available and then stretched the truth to make some bullshit political statement about "how bad government subsidies are". I am not for the majority of government subsidies, however I grow tired of people bending the truth to fit into their own little preconceived and unproven assumptions that come along with their political leanings. This was a gamble by the government, and even if the company would have worked out people would still be bitching about it as being "unfair". I really like how people pick and choose evidence rather than confront all of it and attempt to formulate objective opinions.