This is a perfect example of the point the above poster is making.
Workman's compensations laws are skewed in favor of the worker - that is, any injury suffered on the job is covered, regardless of whether there was any negligence on the part of the employer. If you deliberately hit yourself in the face with a hammer while at work, your company is still responsible.
This arrangement imposes extremely large potential liabilities on anyone who hires workers. This means businesses need high levels of workman's comp liability coverage, and need access to lawyers, etc. And economies of scale make it much easier for large centralised corporations to handle these expenses; some of them even have staff dedicated to handling workman's comp cases exclusively. Same thing for handling OSHA regulations, Labor Dept. regulations, etc. The more regulations you have, the more corporations' economies of scale give them an advantage over smaller competitors.
That's why even if all the claims we keep hearing of corporate influence over politicians are true, you still never hear anyone seriously advocating the abolishment of bureaucracies and regulations.
There's also the "agency capture" issue, which again, larger organizations can use to their advantage much more efficiently.
As for the towing example you brought up, the fact is that the towing industry must have been effectively exampt from the law from the get-go. After all, as you mentioned above, anyone else who takes strangers' cars and refuses to disclose where they are is generally considered a car thief. A free market implies that the law vigorously protects everyone's property rights; when one person can legally seize another's property and not return it, you no longer have a free market. If the law had been applied properly to the towing companies, there would never have needed to be a bureaucracy to regulate them.
Actually, the use of metric for common practical applications makes very little sense. Ironically, this is precisely because of its rigid decimal consistency; after all, the world isn't fixed to decimal factors, and the primary purpose of measuring units is to measure things in the real world. Customary units, however, evolved directly from the circumstances in which they're applied, and are therefore completely suited to them.
On the other medicine in Canada is extremely un-free, all of it being under the control of a single monopoly.
They also have some siginificant problems respecting freedom of speech - television is highly content-regulated, people can be prosecuted for publicly stating opinions the government opposes, etc.
They also severely restrict people's self-defense rights.
All in all, I still think the US is more free, although Canada certainly isn't as brutal in fighting the drug war.
Both multi-region and booktype editing can be done without voiding the warranty by using hacked firmware.
Lite-On themselves publish a booktype editing utility, and the official firmwares have a hidden option to disable region protection entirely, which can be accessed with some third-party utilites floating around on the internet.
What the hell is 'busybodyism'? Is it what happens when someone watches TV?
No, it's what happens when people concern themselves with strangers' TV-watching habits.
But I think its naive to ignore the nefarious nature of a TV-watching nation, particularly in this day and age, where it is *CLEAR* that Americans are watching far, far, far too much television, and not doing nearly enough thinking for themselves...
You might be right. But I personally disagree with you; given the choice between TV and more intellectually-stimulating activities, many people deliberately choose TV. This seems to indicate that many are specificakky seeking a source of recreation that relieves them of having to think for themselves for a while.
Besides, no one is forced to watch television, and those inclined to more productive and fulfilling activities will pursue those instead.
If you really want to identify the source of the intellectual and ethical decline of our civilization, I'd suggest looking at the schools.
Yes, and then Intermec paid for it. What's the difference between investing in R&D contemporaneously, and investing in it after the fact? You're still putting the same investment in either way.
The distinction is meaningless. All television signals, whether cable, satellite, or broadcast, require special equipment to receive. You have to go out and deliberately buy a TV set and an antenna just as you have to buy a satellite dish or cable box.
Nothing you will see on Television will ever actually encourage you to turn the Television off and go outside.
Perhaps not turn off the television and go outside -- I don't particularly enjoy spending time outdoors -- but plenty of what I've seen on television has certainly motivated me to turn it off and seek other activities.
I guess the only solution is to toss the TV out of the house and only read books to my children until they are old enough to deal with these things.
Yes, precisely. If you don't trust your children to intepret the average TV program in a reasonable way, don't give them access to a TV. It's that simple.
For those who want this crap in their homes I say to you go fetch it. It's in stores and on the internet. It is much easier to keep things out of my home when they are not beemed directly in to it.
And we do go out an fetch television sets and bring them into our homes specifically to watch television. If you don't like what's on TV, don't keep a television set.
I used to work an a computer shop, and one of the new hires -- whose job was assembling PCs -- did exactly this.
This was back when everyone used AT cases and boards, so thankfully there was no damage, since he'd come to me asking "why won't the keyboard plug fit in the port?" before trying to turn it on.
Oh yes, they can clearly say "We do not support running _____ under Linux, do so at your own risk" but that does not prevent the inevitable calls and e-mails, asking for support, hoping that an answer exists or worse... that they did not read the warning.
And if they deliberately make their game incompatible with Linux, they'll get even more calls from Linux users who didn't read the label.
Except that if Opterons are currently being made in Dresden, then the design specs have already been exported. And the government can't retroactively apply an export ban, as that would be an unconstitutional ex post facto law.
You seem to presume that everyone desires to switch to the metric system. This is not case, especially when you consider that English measures are superior to their metric equivalents.
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Workman's compensations laws are skewed in favor of the worker - that is, any injury suffered on the job is covered, regardless of whether there was any negligence on the part of the employer. If you deliberately hit yourself in the face with a hammer while at work, your company is still responsible.
This arrangement imposes extremely large potential liabilities on anyone who hires workers. This means businesses need high levels of workman's comp liability coverage, and need access to lawyers, etc. And economies of scale make it much easier for large centralised corporations to handle these expenses; some of them even have staff dedicated to handling workman's comp cases exclusively. Same thing for handling OSHA regulations, Labor Dept. regulations, etc. The more regulations you have, the more corporations' economies of scale give them an advantage over smaller competitors.
That's why even if all the claims we keep hearing of corporate influence over politicians are true, you still never hear anyone seriously advocating the abolishment of bureaucracies and regulations.
There's also the "agency capture" issue, which again, larger organizations can use to their advantage much more efficiently.
As for the towing example you brought up, the fact is that the towing industry must have been effectively exampt from the law from the get-go. After all, as you mentioned above, anyone else who takes strangers' cars and refuses to disclose where they are is generally considered a car thief. A free market implies that the law vigorously protects everyone's property rights; when one person can legally seize another's property and not return it, you no longer have a free market. If the law had been applied properly to the towing companies, there would never have needed to be a bureaucracy to regulate them.
A furlog is an eighth of a mile, and is used by name in horse racing. It also conveniently corresponds to the length of a typical city block.
He said "democratic", not "Democratic."
On the other medicine in Canada is extremely un-free, all of it being under the control of a single monopoly.
They also have some siginificant problems respecting freedom of speech - television is highly content-regulated, people can be prosecuted for publicly stating opinions the government opposes, etc.
They also severely restrict people's self-defense rights.
All in all, I still think the US is more free, although Canada certainly isn't as brutal in fighting the drug war.
Both multi-region and booktype editing can be done without voiding the warranty by using hacked firmware.
Lite-On themselves publish a booktype editing utility, and the official firmwares have a hidden option to disable region protection entirely, which can be accessed with some third-party utilites floating around on the internet.
What the hell is 'busybodyism'? Is it what happens when someone watches TV?
No, it's what happens when people concern themselves with strangers' TV-watching habits.
But I think its naive to ignore the nefarious nature of a TV-watching nation, particularly in this day and age, where it is *CLEAR* that Americans are watching far, far, far too much television, and not doing nearly enough thinking for themselves...
You might be right. But I personally disagree with you; given the choice between TV and more intellectually-stimulating activities, many people deliberately choose TV. This seems to indicate that many are specificakky seeking a source of recreation that relieves them of having to think for themselves for a while.
Besides, no one is forced to watch television, and those inclined to more productive and fulfilling activities will pursue those instead.
If you really want to identify the source of the intellectual and ethical decline of our civilization, I'd suggest looking at the schools.
Yes, and then Intermec paid for it. What's the difference between investing in R&D contemporaneously, and investing in it after the fact? You're still putting the same investment in either way.
Actually, it's decreasing the market share of the mint and increasing the market share of the BEP.
But how do distinguish "public airwaves" from other transmission media in such a way that legitimises censorship?
Why does using the "public airwaves" imply a responsibility to adhere to particular content standards?
Legality isn't the issue. Howard Stern has done nothing illegal, and no one is accusing him of such.
The question is appropriateness, which is determined by context.
The distinction is meaningless. All television signals, whether cable, satellite, or broadcast, require special equipment to receive. You have to go out and deliberately buy a TV set and an antenna just as you have to buy a satellite dish or cable box.
the public need education on propaganda
"Solution to ubiquity of propaganda: more propaganda."
Nothing you will see on Television will ever actually encourage you to turn the Television off and go outside.
Perhaps not turn off the television and go outside -- I don't particularly enjoy spending time outdoors -- but plenty of what I've seen on television has certainly motivated me to turn it off and seek other activities.
Why should standards for one mind-control industry not be applicable to any other?
I would tend to agree. For starters, there ought to be severe restrictions on busybodyism.
I used to work an a computer shop, and one of the new hires -- whose job was assembling PCs -- did exactly this.
This was back when everyone used AT cases and boards, so thankfully there was no damage, since he'd come to me asking "why won't the keyboard plug fit in the port?" before trying to turn it on.
It's driving me Krazy!
Same here.
I think I'll relieve the stress by indulging in some Crispy Cremes.
Oh yes, they can clearly say "We do not support running _____ under Linux, do so at your own risk" but that does not prevent the inevitable calls and e-mails, asking for support, hoping that an answer exists or worse... that they did not read the warning.
And if they deliberately make their game incompatible with Linux, they'll get even more calls from Linux users who didn't read the label.
Except that if Opterons are currently being made in Dresden, then the design specs have already been exported. And the government can't retroactively apply an export ban, as that would be an unconstitutional ex post facto law.
The term "liberal" has become hopelessly conflated with "socialist", at least in American usage.
The Economist is what would generally be described here as "libertarian."
You seem to presume that everyone desires to switch to the metric system. This is not case, especially when you consider that English measures are superior to their metric equivalents.
You mean 5.25" disc.
A 5 cm disc would be 2".