We pay more because we are not so heavily subsidized by socialist healthcare government programs
No! You pay more because you do socialize medicine - everyone's! For example you have no bulk buying power for drugs, so you cannot negotiate sweet deals like the Canadian govt for example, or even the US VA hospitals, so you end up getting ripped off on the drugs and as a result you are subsudizing the lower costs other people get. The same goes for health insurance. Your premiums cover those who overrun their quotient.
You don't honestly believe you are paying only for the care you receive do you? Amazing how little you know about your own system.
Disagree. Its refreshing to see these articles because it pokes holes in the endless stream of hyperbole that our system produces better outcomes, which most (I would assume over 90%) of Americans believe in some way.
Like with healthcare, Americans laughably continue to cling to the notion that their healthcare is better because they pay more (much more) for it.
Cut that by 10% and spend it on infrastructure and you probably couldn't find enough people to man the projects.
Thats right, because no one would quit quality jobs like those offered at Walmart or Wendy's to work on a construction project. Your assumption is that only the unemployed could be drawn upon, which is false.
I'm not trying to troll, but is money really this tight in the US?
No, there is plenty of money, we just don't spend it on things most Americans really want it spent on. For the cost of the Iraq war you could have demolished and rebuilt from the ground up, a significant portion of all of the school in the US. Or you could have paid for everyone's healthcare for one year (every US resident), or you could have wired most major cities for 100MB connections to the residence, or at least made a dent in the debt.
Americans pay taxes comparable to other market-based nations too, so the idea that they are saving the wealth is also wrong,
Look at the northeast and the southwest. There is population density there but the broadband situation isn't that good overall..the fact that no one lives in flyover country has nothing to do with getting last mile broadband in densely populated areas.
Yes there is a huge amount of backbone fiber running all over flyover country, and no one really wants it, because it won't make your last mile connection any less crapful.
How about the hole in the roof of the local school? How about the 50% of bridges the US govt says are in need of serious repair? How about the 50%+ of municipal sewer systems local govts say are in need of "major" overhauls? Roads? Same. Don't even mention the power grid.
I like broadband but its pretty far down on the list of critical infrastructure projects we have neglected to pursue war, enriching the upper class, and funding a global colonial regime.
Please stop using this meaningless term. It was coined by an adman paid by a corporation to discredit organized labor. What you mean to say is antiestablishment, an entirely different term.
Low barrier to entry (just buy a library of the new releases from the last three years, which constitute 99% of rentals, throw up a website, set up a wharehouse, voila). Umpteen different companies have the resources to get into this business if they want, which means it will be impossible to make a lot of money at it. At best this will end up being a complementary service to more high-margin businesses elsewhere in a firm's offerings.
Universities (well, any large organization) tend to get long term contracts on software they choose to purchase, so they will be issued regular updates...which makes binary support sort of implicit. For the rest of the linux world, sources tend to be available, so once again, binary compatibility is not much of an issue.
Yes Sun boxes will last forever, but who keeps them that long? I would rather have a box that will work reliably for the expected lifespan before it is reasonable to upgrade.
...is get acquired by a large-pocketed firm that sees a demand for Moz coding experience. I mean, come on, do you think Flickr would have survived the next recession on photo sharing? These people are in it to get acquired.
Educate us all why we had to go to the moon in the 60s. Also let me know how it is that the rest of the planet that did not go to the moon continues to exist and thrive.
Where do you intend to go where humans can thrive without massive assistance from Earth? Mars? Stop reading scifi novels. Interstellar travel? See my last point.
If there is a disaster event we will have no choice but to procreate our way out of it if enough people survive, just like the last ice age.
The argument is a dead-end (no pun intended) - if there was a species threatening event (natural or manmade) right now or even in the next century we will not have any way of dealing with it other than trying to make sure enough of us stay alive and procreate our way back to vitality.
Space travel is not the answer to disaster-preparedness. It amazes me how naive people are about our actual rate of progress in these discussions...what gives you any indication we are ready to go anywhere else on a full-time basis in the next century?
There is no place we can realistically get to that can provide a self-sustaining environment for human populations. Don't tell me Mars - a civilization on Mars would require a huge support project based on Earth. Also don't tell me about intersteller travel, we haven't the foggiest understanding of even the basic principles involved.
No, there is no easy answer for our abuse and pollution of the only place we can be. We're just going to have to clean this place up.
Seriously, I think its a given that nanotech, quantum physics, protein research, environmental sciences etc are fields that will have a much much larger impact on the wellness and progress of humanity in the next century than speace research, and it is in these areas we should be spending.
It has been known since ancient times that the perfect model of governence is the benevolent dictator. Don't knock it! Seriously though, the other systems have had issues you are not bringing up. How did the apparently perfect governence of FreeBSD allow the 3.x series to come to pass, for example?
Having migrated from FC3 to Ubuntu, I can tell you there is still value add in distros that try to differentiate themselves. The distro has a great feel to it and "just works".
That was only because AOL's "play money" changed "value" versus TW's "play money".
This is incorrect, the acquisition was paid for by shareholders, and that amount of written off. This is a loss. It is borne by shareholders. Don't substitute your opinion for fact.
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We pay more because we are not so heavily subsidized by socialist healthcare government programs
No! You pay more because you do socialize medicine - everyone's! For example you have no bulk buying power for drugs, so you cannot negotiate sweet deals like the Canadian govt for example, or even the US VA hospitals, so you end up getting ripped off on the drugs and as a result you are subsudizing the lower costs other people get. The same goes for health insurance. Your premiums cover those who overrun their quotient.
You don't honestly believe you are paying only for the care you receive do you? Amazing how little you know about your own system.
Like with healthcare, Americans laughably continue to cling to the notion that their healthcare is better because they pay more (much more) for it.
Thats right, because no one would quit quality jobs like those offered at Walmart or Wendy's to work on a construction project. Your assumption is that only the unemployed could be drawn upon, which is false.
No, there is plenty of money, we just don't spend it on things most Americans really want it spent on. For the cost of the Iraq war you could have demolished and rebuilt from the ground up, a significant portion of all of the school in the US. Or you could have paid for everyone's healthcare for one year (every US resident), or you could have wired most major cities for 100MB connections to the residence, or at least made a dent in the debt.
Americans pay taxes comparable to other market-based nations too, so the idea that they are saving the wealth is also wrong,
Look at the northeast and the southwest. There is population density there but the broadband situation isn't that good overall..the fact that no one lives in flyover country has nothing to do with getting last mile broadband in densely populated areas.
Yes there is a huge amount of backbone fiber running all over flyover country, and no one really wants it, because it won't make your last mile connection any less crapful.
I like broadband but its pretty far down on the list of critical infrastructure projects we have neglected to pursue war, enriching the upper class, and funding a global colonial regime.
Please stop using this meaningless term. It was coined by an adman paid by a corporation to discredit organized labor. What you mean to say is antiestablishment, an entirely different term.
Low barrier to entry (just buy a library of the new releases from the last three years, which constitute 99% of rentals, throw up a website, set up a wharehouse, voila). Umpteen different companies have the resources to get into this business if they want, which means it will be impossible to make a lot of money at it. At best this will end up being a complementary service to more high-margin businesses elsewhere in a firm's offerings.
Record debt and deficits, and the Senate is right now discussing removing the Estate Tax. There is no money for this in your lifetime, it is scifi.
Universities (well, any large organization) tend to get long term contracts on software they choose to purchase, so they will be issued regular updates...which makes binary support sort of implicit. For the rest of the linux world, sources tend to be available, so once again, binary compatibility is not much of an issue.
Yes Sun boxes will last forever, but who keeps them that long? I would rather have a box that will work reliably for the expected lifespan before it is reasonable to upgrade.
If they are incorporated and brought in as a group, it is an acquisition.
...is get acquired by a large-pocketed firm that sees a demand for Moz coding experience. I mean, come on, do you think Flickr would have survived the next recession on photo sharing? These people are in it to get acquired.
I would be interested in hearing from people how either of these BSD alternatives stack up as a desktop box.
The MS Natural Keyboard is $40. Every six months I trash mine and get a new one.
Why can't I just spray Lyson on it?
Educate us all why we had to go to the moon in the 60s. Also let me know how it is that the rest of the planet that did not go to the moon continues to exist and thrive.
If there is a disaster event we will have no choice but to procreate our way out of it if enough people survive, just like the last ice age.
Space travel is not the answer to disaster-preparedness. It amazes me how naive people are about our actual rate of progress in these discussions...what gives you any indication we are ready to go anywhere else on a full-time basis in the next century?
No, there is no easy answer for our abuse and pollution of the only place we can be. We're just going to have to clean this place up.
Seriously, I think its a given that nanotech, quantum physics, protein research, environmental sciences etc are fields that will have a much much larger impact on the wellness and progress of humanity in the next century than speace research, and it is in these areas we should be spending.
It has been known since ancient times that the perfect model of governence is the benevolent dictator. Don't knock it! Seriously though, the other systems have had issues you are not bringing up. How did the apparently perfect governence of FreeBSD allow the 3.x series to come to pass, for example?
Having migrated from FC3 to Ubuntu, I can tell you there is still value add in distros that try to differentiate themselves. The distro has a great feel to it and "just works".
This is incorrect, the acquisition was paid for by shareholders, and that amount of written off. This is a loss. It is borne by shareholders. Don't substitute your opinion for fact.