How could my standard be so low when my standard is simply to say that it's better than every other country with that shared post-Soviet history? And how will the people have the authority to run things? Liberal democracy? The people couldn't be more disconnected from what's happening in government in the rest of the CIS, or the USA for that matter. What would these people demand, anyway? Food? Shelter? Education? Employment? They already have that. Perhaps they will demand that the government sell all its assets to the mafia like they did in Russia! Enjoy your liberal democracy!
All the negatives of soviet style communism with none of the positives
Belarus avoided the collapse that plagued all other former Soviet republics (including Russia) by keeping its system intact and has a higher standard of living than the others because of it. http://www.elenastravel.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?action=belarus#eco
Better to have a corrupt dictator running the country who otherwise believes in what he's doing than to have normal business interests running things, it seems.
Then demand universal access to education instead of whining about a group of people who actually succeeded in pushing forward something that benefits them while doing no harm to you.
Well, they've had the function working right for a while. Now they're paying lots of extra attention to the form, they just happen to be getting it wrong!
People might actually do this if the roads in a typical American city weren't terrifying for cyclists. Bike lanes are cheap, but most cities are not building them in significant quantities. Even if they are built, the environment that people cycle through needs to have its parking lots removed to increase density so that there are actually things nearby to cycle toward. Of course, many cities actually have huge minimum parking requirements, which prohibits them from making their cities bikeable or walkable.
I detect some sarcasm there, but I didn't know until recently after clicking around for a while on Wikipedia, that the USSR not only sent the first man, satellite, and space stations into space, but still holds the record for longest solo flight (Bikovsky I think?(which was apparently cut short due to toilet malfunction)), first woman in space (who made a whole career of the space program and is still involved in space today), and that Mir was their final space station (before the end of the political entity) after some dozen launched since the 1970's.
It's impressive: look what they did, even in the midst of Brezhnev's cronyism and Gorbachev's dismantling of soviet power (nevermind the geriatrics in between). Seems like for us Obama and the current congress can be our Gorbachev: take a state that (though waning) was still capable of monumental cultural achievements and set the stage for complete collapse so that a handful of powerful people can become astronomically wealthy picking over the corpse of a failed state.
Because after reading about Mount Pleasant in Pennsylvania, I really have to wonder where someone gets that particular skill to be such a ruthless asshole.
You don't get it. An individual software developer may not be easy to replace, but he's still replaceable. You can't replace the whole office. A union can eliminate the question of being replaced entirely and secure appropriate compensation at the same time.
The situation you're describing only exists in your imagination. Unions practice solidarity with other workers because our opponent is capital, not other workers.
No, unions exist so that any type of workers can band together to push back against their employer when they inevitably get fucked over. Individuals are easy to replace, but there's power in numbers.
And it's amazing, too, since you can't just hire a scab to replace a programmer during a strike. It takes a month or two for a new hire to produce anything useful that integrates with your current software, and even that requires guidance from the people who are already there. If those people are out on strike, there is no such guidance, and maybe not even anyone to provide a list of servers and passwords. Nothing could possibly get done without the techies around to make it happen.
For us web developers whose work gets billed out at 10x what we bring home, it's obvious that we should be getting paid far more than we are now.
Oh grow up, it's just garbage entertainment. When you're really abused is when your food prices start going up, or the bank charges a mysterious fee, or you suddenly can't find work. Or, for that matter, when your wages stagnate while the cost of living continues to increase over the course of decades. That's when the real overlords laugh the hardest, knowing that your children will consider it a privilege to serve them their own siblings' flesh after you're gone. Netflix is just a sideshow.
Your entire counter-argument rests upon conflating happiness with the consumption of pornography. You're a simple pervert manipulating my post in a weak attempt to justify your own shameful lifestyle to yourself.
Slashdot Mirror
How could my standard be so low when my standard is simply to say that it's better than every other country with that shared post-Soviet history?
And how will the people have the authority to run things? Liberal democracy? The people couldn't be more disconnected from what's happening in government in the rest of the CIS, or the USA for that matter. What would these people demand, anyway? Food? Shelter? Education? Employment? They already have that. Perhaps they will demand that the government sell all its assets to the mafia like they did in Russia! Enjoy your liberal democracy!
All the negatives of soviet style communism with none of the positives
Belarus avoided the collapse that plagued all other former Soviet republics (including Russia) by keeping its system intact and has a higher standard of living than the others because of it.
http://www.elenastravel.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?action=belarus#eco
Better to have a corrupt dictator running the country who otherwise believes in what he's doing than to have normal business interests running things, it seems.
Four Seasons isn't counting on western tourists too much anymore; they're increasingly serving Chinese patrons.
Then demand universal access to education instead of whining about a group of people who actually succeeded in pushing forward something that benefits them while doing no harm to you.
Don't be ridiculous; I make very important websites with my college education!
What happened to function over form?
Well, they've had the function working right for a while. Now they're paying lots of extra attention to the form, they just happen to be getting it wrong!
What's all that? I'm going to design video games for a living!
*is ostensibly a grown man*
For those in a different location, the transportation museum in Spencer, NC has running diesel and steam train and a working roundhouse as well.
Addendum: repartition your entire hard drive; install Linux to prevent video games.
How can you blame just the Republicans when Obama's idea of compromise is doing what Republicans want?
Perhaps these two parties are not nearly as different as they portray themselves
Not to mention that most Pakistanis do not have access to the internet, if they even have electricity at all. It's a desperately poor country.
People might actually do this if the roads in a typical American city weren't terrifying for cyclists. Bike lanes are cheap, but most cities are not building them in significant quantities. Even if they are built, the environment that people cycle through needs to have its parking lots removed to increase density so that there are actually things nearby to cycle toward. Of course, many cities actually have huge minimum parking requirements, which prohibits them from making their cities bikeable or walkable.
Because America "won the space race" of course,
I detect some sarcasm there, but I didn't know until recently after clicking around for a while on Wikipedia, that the USSR not only sent the first man, satellite, and space stations into space, but still holds the record for longest solo flight (Bikovsky I think?(which was apparently cut short due to toilet malfunction)), first woman in space (who made a whole career of the space program and is still involved in space today), and that Mir was their final space station (before the end of the political entity) after some dozen launched since the 1970's.
It's impressive: look what they did, even in the midst of Brezhnev's cronyism and Gorbachev's dismantling of soviet power (nevermind the geriatrics in between).
Seems like for us Obama and the current congress can be our Gorbachev: take a state that (though waning) was still capable of monumental cultural achievements and set the stage for complete collapse so that a handful of powerful people can become astronomically wealthy picking over the corpse of a failed state.
ABC news also reports video surfaced of President Obama engaging in anal intercourse with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Don't tease like that and then fail to link!
Yes, now Apple knows how Xerox feels.
No joke about copying intended there...
Because after reading about Mount Pleasant in Pennsylvania, I really have to wonder where someone gets that particular skill to be such a ruthless asshole.
Business school.
You do realize that there's overhead and other costs involved, right.
10x? Fuck off.
You don't get it. An individual software developer may not be easy to replace, but he's still replaceable. You can't replace the whole office. A union can eliminate the question of being replaced entirely and secure appropriate compensation at the same time.
The situation you're describing only exists in your imagination. Unions practice solidarity with other workers because our opponent is capital, not other workers.
No, unions exist so that any type of workers can band together to push back against their employer when they inevitably get fucked over. Individuals are easy to replace, but there's power in numbers.
And it's amazing, too, since you can't just hire a scab to replace a programmer during a strike. It takes a month or two for a new hire to produce anything useful that integrates with your current software, and even that requires guidance from the people who are already there. If those people are out on strike, there is no such guidance, and maybe not even anyone to provide a list of servers and passwords. Nothing could possibly get done without the techies around to make it happen.
For us web developers whose work gets billed out at 10x what we bring home, it's obvious that we should be getting paid far more than we are now.
Maybe you should build a mini-itx computer, or even run an RDP or NX server at home and login to it when you're on the road.
Oh grow up, it's just garbage entertainment. When you're really abused is when your food prices start going up, or the bank charges a mysterious fee, or you suddenly can't find work. Or, for that matter, when your wages stagnate while the cost of living continues to increase over the course of decades.
That's when the real overlords laugh the hardest, knowing that your children will consider it a privilege to serve them their own siblings' flesh after you're gone. Netflix is just a sideshow.
Your entire counter-argument rests upon conflating happiness with the consumption of pornography. You're a simple pervert manipulating my post in a weak attempt to justify your own shameful lifestyle to yourself.
The Nazi apologists always disagree.