Actually, we were getting military defense. Otherwise, there would have been no redcoats to shoot at when the revolution started.
If the roads were full of holes, the cops were corrupt, the toilets wouldn't flush and nobody had electricity, AND a foreign power was exerting military control over us, we'd have a problem. Again.
Well, the roads suck in my home state, cops are corrupt in many cities, California was plagued by rolling blackouts last year... but at least it's domestic power exerting control over us via the PATRIOT act. So I guess you're right, no need for tax revolt. We are clearly getting our money's worth. 40 percent of the economy to keep the plumbing working. (Talk about flushing money down the toilet!) Where do I go to return the money I got from the Bush tax cut? I want to pay more! Weee!
The way it really works could not be far from the truth.
Holy crap, that sentence made no sense at all. Sorry. I was on a rant. Obviously, I meant to say something along the lines of "The way they see it could not be farther from the truth," or "The way it really works is just the opposite." My bad.
It seems that you are getting very close to reaching the heart of the matter, which is that the protectionists' greatest fear is that free markets will lower our standard of living.
We like our current prosperity relative to most of the rest of the world, and want to keep it. (Few people would disagree with that.) However, people that haven't moved past "zero sum" evaluations of economics look at a job being done in Bangalore that used to be done here, and can only see it as a bad thing. It means we are raising Bangalore up from desperate poverty at the expense of moving us away from massive luxury.
The way it really works could not be far from the truth. The success of America over the last 50 years has been built entirely on the fact that we have been aggressive about international trade. There's 2-4 televisions in every home in America today because a company in Japan found a way to make money building things with transistors, and we were not afraid to buy those "tiny" Sony radios. You can buy jeans for $15 at Old Navy because a guy who invented a new athletic shoe realized he could make Nike sneakers cheaper in Asia, and set a new trend for clothing manufacturers. Sure, RCA stopped making TV's, and Levi just closed their last American plant, but the benifits to the standard of living for every American far outweigh the fact that we don't have a few thousand workers soldering TV sets and stitching jeans.
(sigh) All taxes are paid for by citizens. Sometimes directly, as with income tax, sometimes indirectly, as with "sales tax" (which is technically paid by the company doing the selling, even though 100% is directly passed along to you and printed right on your receipt.)
The more you tax corporations, the more you hide how much you are actually taxing the American people. A tax on truck fuel will raise the price of your salad, because it will cost more to ship the lettuce. You won't see it as a tax, but it will be you paying it.
Personally, I favor abolishing all taxes other than income tax. Everybody pays once for all the services government has to offer. Then, when the masses see that our government actually slurps up about 40% of our entire economy, we can have some long-overdue tax revolt. We rose up violently against King George for taxing us far less than our current government does.
Actually, the $150 Million from MS was a drop in the bucket. Apple had $400 Million in liquid currency sitting around at the time of the deal. What they got out of it was shiny new versions of Office and IE, a MS development team working full-time in Cupertino on Apple solutions, and a lot of good press assuring people that Apple was not going away any time soon.
The part that almost never gets reported was that part of the deal was an "undisclosed" money transfer as an informal settlement for all the technologies that MS stole from Apple over the years, as well as an agreement that would allow MS to buy future Apple developments. (This has a lot to do with why XP looks so much like a Macintosh OS in some ways.)
What MS got out of it was an end to their legal wranglings with Apple, a weakening of the case that MS held a monopoly on computer operating systems, and the ability to legally use Apple as a sort of out-sourced R&D department.
The real winners in the deal were us. As consumers, we got to see systems from both Apple and the PC world get much, much better over the last three years.
"Is it also [Sony's] responsibility to support [Americans] with jobs? Or is their only responsibility, in fact, to their shareholders? I answered "Both. Their responsibility is to both."
Okay. "Both" means yes to both questions, so you did, in fact, say that Sony has a responsibility to the American worker to provide them with jobs. Stop trying to back-pedal.
Really? I thought HP's model was "buy Compaq and form as many press-grabbing strategic partnerships as possible, so Carly Fiorina and her friends can pump & dump the stock."
What you said was that if a company is making money selling to a nation, they should be expected to employ people there. When I offered Sony (a company that's not even based in the US) as an example of reducto ad absurdum, you actually stood by the position in that case as well. So then, I turned it around to be an example of a US business where we export far more than we import, and suddenly I'm putting words in your mouth, and that you were speaking of HP and Sony as "a single company facing a single situation" (never mind that you made the same assertion about two companies.)
Well, which is it? Is a company obligated to employ people in a nation where they are making profits, or is it not?
Erm. That should have read "without also employing them." I was so flummoxed by the display of ignorance concerning free trade I was responding to, that I mistyped.
A company has only one duty to the consumer: Provide the good or service that they are charging for, with the level of quality and support they claimed at the time of the sale. If the consumer is willing to pay, then it is a fair exchange. No matter how much profit the company makes, their "responsibility" to the consumer ends there. They certainly have no obligation to provide jobs in the customer's neighborhood. That kind of xenophobic provincialism stifles trade between nation, and leaves everybody worse off than they would be.
Um... You really think that Sony has a responsibility to employ Americans!?
By your logic, all the agricultural companies in the US who are exporting billions of dollars worth of grain to other countries should be employing farmers in the countries we export to, including those where the climate makes it impossible to bring a crop in.
What is the point of international trade if you can't sell to anybody with also employing them?
All taxes on corporations are hidden taxes on consumers. There's no such thing as a "tax break" for corporations, because ultimately they are not the ones who pay the corporate taxes in the first place.
What, you thought corporations would let taxes mean lower profits for their shareholders, rather than pass the cost on to the consumer? How naive.
They have profited greatly from the American people, it's their responsibility to support them with jobs.
Sony has also profited greatly from the American people. Is it also their responsibility to support them with jobs? Or is their only responsibility, in fact, to their shareholders?
A lack of trade between nations depresses economies, and ultimately costs jobs. As long as you have trade, you will sometimes be buying stuff that was made elsewhere. It's the 21st Century. Try to catch up with at least the 20th.
1. "Until last year" there was not much of a market slowdown. Prior to 9/11, all indications were that we would climb our way back from the dot-com bust. In 2002, the landscape changed dramatically because of the rise of terrorism awareness at the end of 2001, and the H1B expansions were suspended.
2. CEOs are hiring people who can do the work for the least money. In some cases they get burned by that because it turns out that the outsourced workers are inferior. However, in those cases where somebody can do your job just as good as you for a fraction of the wage... Guess what? You were getting paid more than you were actually worth. C'est la vie.
3. The "paper MCSEs" are not going to be willing to work cheap. Most of them went chasing after the advertising of "big $$$" because they wanted to make a lot of cash, not because they love to work in IT. When it they discover that they more as a plummer than as a PC help desk worker, they will change jobs, and we will be right back to needing H1Bs to fill some of our jobs when the market picks up again.
It's not just about style. Little all-in one devices (such as the PSX and the iMac) are popular in Japan because Japan is a tiny island with about 150 million people on it. Anything that saves space is worth a premium, because housing there makes an American efficiency apartment look like a mansion.
I don't really care if I need to set an entire room aside, separate from the media room, for just my entertainment devices. My "server closet" is practically a walk-in, and I'm fine with that. I've got plenty of space. Most Japanese people, even if they are well off, don't have that luxury.
Wouldn't some thin pieces of foam rubber wherever bare plates meet (such as the expansion slot covers) dampen the vibration noise they cause?
I took apart an eMac once (violate the warranty and risk electrocution on day one of ownership, woo-hoo!), and discovered that Apple used this sort of trick to reduce a lot of the noise their systems could make. Since the guts of the eMac are nested right under the CRT on your desk, they were pretty hard-core about keeping the machine quiet. The only fan is a huge (looks like 5 or 6 inch diameter) case fan at the back, with airflow all guided though the heatsinks to get there, and little bits of padding and "weather stipping"-like material is wedged between any two parts that could cause a noise problem. It's quite a sight to behold.
this is their attempt at grabbing the lower priced crowd?
Nope.
Apple has always ignored the "lower priced (re: poor) crowd." It's why they've stayed in business for so long. If your business model depends on selling luxury items to poor people and cheap bastards, you will not last through the next recession. Ask the folks at Packard Bell or Compaq. Oh wait, they're already gone. Never mind.
As somebody who hates every HD recording software product I've tried (and I've tried many), I will be waiting at the door for the Apple Store to open when Garage Band comes out.
Now if only MOTU can make their OS X driver for the Firewire808 a little more reliable, I will achieve pure bliss.
This is why Apple hates rumor sites. If this announcement came out of nowhere, people would be saying "huh, a tiny 4Gig MP3 player for $250. That's a pretty good deal."
Instead, everybody is saying, "WHAT!?!?! You mean we can't buy this bleeding edge system, which is technically superior to the competition in almost every way, for $99!? OMG!!1! Apple is t3h suck!"
Why would I not spend 50 dollars more for 3 times the storage space?!?!
If you are a chick who only owns 30 CD's, why would you pay another $50 for a bigger player with more space that you don't need?
Don't get me wrong, I've got a 10 Gig iPod, and plan on selling to to a friend and buying the 40 in the near future. I'm just saying I can see how some people would want that thing.
WHY, in any world, would it be smart to pay half the price ($249 instead of $499) for ONE TENTH of the space?
If you own less than 100 albums, and don't plan on expanding your collection very far in the next few years, why not get the smaller player (which also holds all your music) for $50 less?
It's not the right player for you, but the mini is just about perfect for some people.
Re:What we DON'T know about other life existing. .
on
Lonely Planets
·
· Score: 1
Physics is a ladder. Engineering is not. Discovering EM energy is physics. Using it as a communications medium is Engineering.
For all we know, they found a bizarre method of using refracted light (or something) to communicate across distances during their Iron Age that was good enough to suppress demand for a radio innovation. Why go through the expense of developing the crystal radio when a vast infrastructure of communication mirrors is already laid out all over the civilized world?
To say it is a "near certainty" that their civilization developped utilizing the same methods as us ignores the many directions are own development almost took, but didn't. (Ask any Nikola Tesla geek about abandoned technologies. They'll talk your ear off.)
Slashdot Mirror
For every one of you, there's somebody with 8.
Having 8 TV's in your home is freakish and weird, but then so is having none.
If the roads were full of holes, the cops were corrupt, the toilets wouldn't flush and nobody had electricity, AND a foreign power was exerting military control over us, we'd have a problem. Again.
Well, the roads suck in my home state, cops are corrupt in many cities, California was plagued by rolling blackouts last year... but at least it's domestic power exerting control over us via the PATRIOT act. So I guess you're right, no need for tax revolt. We are clearly getting our money's worth. 40 percent of the economy to keep the plumbing working. (Talk about flushing money down the toilet!) Where do I go to return the money I got from the Bush tax cut? I want to pay more! Weee!
Holy crap, that sentence made no sense at all. Sorry. I was on a rant. Obviously, I meant to say something along the lines of "The way they see it could not be farther from the truth," or "The way it really works is just the opposite." My bad.
We like our current prosperity relative to most of the rest of the world, and want to keep it. (Few people would disagree with that.) However, people that haven't moved past "zero sum" evaluations of economics look at a job being done in Bangalore that used to be done here, and can only see it as a bad thing. It means we are raising Bangalore up from desperate poverty at the expense of moving us away from massive luxury.
The way it really works could not be far from the truth. The success of America over the last 50 years has been built entirely on the fact that we have been aggressive about international trade. There's 2-4 televisions in every home in America today because a company in Japan found a way to make money building things with transistors, and we were not afraid to buy those "tiny" Sony radios. You can buy jeans for $15 at Old Navy because a guy who invented a new athletic shoe realized he could make Nike sneakers cheaper in Asia, and set a new trend for clothing manufacturers. Sure, RCA stopped making TV's, and Levi just closed their last American plant, but the benifits to the standard of living for every American far outweigh the fact that we don't have a few thousand workers soldering TV sets and stitching jeans.
The more you tax corporations, the more you hide how much you are actually taxing the American people. A tax on truck fuel will raise the price of your salad, because it will cost more to ship the lettuce. You won't see it as a tax, but it will be you paying it.
Personally, I favor abolishing all taxes other than income tax. Everybody pays once for all the services government has to offer. Then, when the masses see that our government actually slurps up about 40% of our entire economy, we can have some long-overdue tax revolt. We rose up violently against King George for taxing us far less than our current government does.
The part that almost never gets reported was that part of the deal was an "undisclosed" money transfer as an informal settlement for all the technologies that MS stole from Apple over the years, as well as an agreement that would allow MS to buy future Apple developments. (This has a lot to do with why XP looks so much like a Macintosh OS in some ways.)
What MS got out of it was an end to their legal wranglings with Apple, a weakening of the case that MS held a monopoly on computer operating systems, and the ability to legally use Apple as a sort of out-sourced R&D department.
The real winners in the deal were us. As consumers, we got to see systems from both Apple and the PC world get much, much better over the last three years.
Okay. "Both" means yes to both questions, so you did, in fact, say that Sony has a responsibility to the American worker to provide them with jobs. Stop trying to back-pedal.
Really? I thought HP's model was "buy Compaq and form as many press-grabbing strategic partnerships as possible, so Carly Fiorina and her friends can pump & dump the stock."
Well, which is it? Is a company obligated to employ people in a nation where they are making profits, or is it not?
A company has only one duty to the consumer: Provide the good or service that they are charging for, with the level of quality and support they claimed at the time of the sale. If the consumer is willing to pay, then it is a fair exchange. No matter how much profit the company makes, their "responsibility" to the consumer ends there. They certainly have no obligation to provide jobs in the customer's neighborhood. That kind of xenophobic provincialism stifles trade between nation, and leaves everybody worse off than they would be.
By your logic, all the agricultural companies in the US who are exporting billions of dollars worth of grain to other countries should be employing farmers in the countries we export to, including those where the climate makes it impossible to bring a crop in.
What is the point of international trade if you can't sell to anybody with also employing them?
All taxes on corporations are hidden taxes on consumers. There's no such thing as a "tax break" for corporations, because ultimately they are not the ones who pay the corporate taxes in the first place.
What, you thought corporations would let taxes mean lower profits for their shareholders, rather than pass the cost on to the consumer? How naive.
Sony has also profited greatly from the American people. Is it also their responsibility to support them with jobs? Or is their only responsibility, in fact, to their shareholders?
A lack of trade between nations depresses economies, and ultimately costs jobs. As long as you have trade, you will sometimes be buying stuff that was made elsewhere. It's the 21st Century. Try to catch up with at least the 20th.
I wish I had mod points to give. You are clearly one of the few people who considers the Law of Unintended Consequences.
2. CEOs are hiring people who can do the work for the least money. In some cases they get burned by that because it turns out that the outsourced workers are inferior. However, in those cases where somebody can do your job just as good as you for a fraction of the wage... Guess what? You were getting paid more than you were actually worth. C'est la vie.
3. The "paper MCSEs" are not going to be willing to work cheap. Most of them went chasing after the advertising of "big $$$" because they wanted to make a lot of cash, not because they love to work in IT. When it they discover that they more as a plummer than as a PC help desk worker, they will change jobs, and we will be right back to needing H1Bs to fill some of our jobs when the market picks up again.
I don't really care if I need to set an entire room aside, separate from the media room, for just my entertainment devices. My "server closet" is practically a walk-in, and I'm fine with that. I've got plenty of space. Most Japanese people, even if they are well off, don't have that luxury.
I took apart an eMac once (violate the warranty and risk electrocution on day one of ownership, woo-hoo!), and discovered that Apple used this sort of trick to reduce a lot of the noise their systems could make. Since the guts of the eMac are nested right under the CRT on your desk, they were pretty hard-core about keeping the machine quiet. The only fan is a huge (looks like 5 or 6 inch diameter) case fan at the back, with airflow all guided though the heatsinks to get there, and little bits of padding and "weather stipping"-like material is wedged between any two parts that could cause a noise problem. It's quite a sight to behold.
I was playing on the criticism that men would not want to be seen with it, due to the pretty colors.
Nope.
Apple has always ignored the "lower priced (re: poor) crowd." It's why they've stayed in business for so long. If your business model depends on selling luxury items to poor people and cheap bastards, you will not last through the next recession. Ask the folks at Packard Bell or Compaq. Oh wait, they're already gone. Never mind.
Now if only MOTU can make their OS X driver for the Firewire808 a little more reliable, I will achieve pure bliss.
Instead, everybody is saying, "WHAT!?!?! You mean we can't buy this bleeding edge system, which is technically superior to the competition in almost every way, for $99!? OMG!!1! Apple is t3h suck!"
If you are a chick who only owns 30 CD's, why would you pay another $50 for a bigger player with more space that you don't need?
Don't get me wrong, I've got a 10 Gig iPod, and plan on selling to to a friend and buying the 40 in the near future. I'm just saying I can see how some people would want that thing.
If you own less than 100 albums, and don't plan on expanding your collection very far in the next few years, why not get the smaller player (which also holds all your music) for $50 less?
It's not the right player for you, but the mini is just about perfect for some people.
For all we know, they found a bizarre method of using refracted light (or something) to communicate across distances during their Iron Age that was good enough to suppress demand for a radio innovation. Why go through the expense of developing the crystal radio when a vast infrastructure of communication mirrors is already laid out all over the civilized world?
To say it is a "near certainty" that their civilization developped utilizing the same methods as us ignores the many directions are own development almost took, but didn't. (Ask any Nikola Tesla geek about abandoned technologies. They'll talk your ear off.)
Actually, diabetes is one of the major causes of heart disease.
And coffee is not. It has yet to be shown conclusively that moderate coffee drinking by healthy adults causes any problems whatsoever.
Furthermore, Decaf is a tool of the devil.
I'm off to get my daily Sumatra blend...