If they had a big sign on their street view vans that said "All your data are belong to us", that would be good enough for everyone currently complaining? I doubt it. So why would it be good enough if they post something anywhere on their websites that says the same thing? It's not like people are agreeing to some terms-of-service with Google when they buy their house!
Do some research and get good estimates of what people doing your job(s) in the area earn. Figure out how much you are worth based on how much time you spend doing each of these jobs and sit down with the person who has the power to give you the raise you deserve and present your case. You'd be surprised how willing most bosses are to give you a small bump to keep you happy, especially if they know you are being overworked.
On the other hand, if this company is going through budget cuts and layoffs and can't afford to hire the right people for the job, you might be better off keeping your mouth shut, updating your resume, and shopping for a new job.
There's a major flaw in your idea: Nobody has made any money investing for the long term in more than a decade. Well, except maybe Warren Buffett. The stock market is trading at levels seen in the 1990s.
This already happens, just not in the way you described. There are a number of people who have access to news information before the public, in particular people working for investor magazines. In this example, a guy working for the printing company that printed BusinessWeek would tell his partner-in-crime to buy stocks mentioned favorably in the magazine, knowing that once the magazine was public, others would buy and push the price up.
Telling that the summary of this stupid article mentioned DuMont, as DuMont is the only one of the four networks that also manufactured TVs. Shows how well the combined broadcaster/manufacturer business model worked back then.
It sounds to me like the article is suggesting Apple start producing its own shows, and not just a few shows, but enough to replace the dozens of shows that people watch on the networks currently. Being a broadcaster has never been a very profitable business; they make their money from producing shows.
it is no more required that a doctor remember to say please than it is required that air traffic controllers say "please" when directing airplanes.
You read the book Outliers? Supposedly a Colombian flight crashed in New York and killed everyone on board partly because the pilots were intimidated by the brusk manners of the air traffic controllers.
That's the least of their problems. Number 2 (Harry Potter) was created for a book. Number 5 (Joker) was created for comics in the 1960s. Numbers 8 (Hannibal Lecter) and 9 (Carrie Bradshaw) were originally created for books as well. So this is really the list of the top characters appearing in television or film in the last 20 years.
Better stats are available here: http://www.who.int/mental_health/media/chinurban.pdf
A little outdated, but the point remains that suicide rates vary greatly by age, going up as you get older, so you cannot compare a national suicide rate to a suicide rate in a factory where everyone is in their 20s. In fact, based on the stats cited (somewhere between 3.5 and 6.3 per 100,000 for the relevant age groups) and the size of the Shenzhen factory (300,000), you would expect 10-20 suicides for the year on average. This plant has had 10 suicides or so in 5 months. Not extremely high, but high enough to warrant closer inspection into possible causes.
The suicide rate among foxconn workers is not only lower than for the population of China in general, but also lower than every US state. Every suicide is a tragic event, but I'm not buying the contention that their jobs are driving them to do it.
Suicide rates vary widely between different population segments; you cannot fairly compare the suicide rate of factory workers in Shenzhen to the suicide rate of rural farmers, for example. The better comparison would be the suicide rate of Foxconn employees to the suicide rates at other electronics manufacturing, and I'd think if other factories had similar suicide rates we might not be hearing so much about this in the news.
While these suicides may be due to statistical chance, do you not feel it is worth it to investigate possible causes and show some empathy for factory workers making $100/month working 100 hours/week? Let me provide an analogous real world comparison: Helix High School in La Mesa, California, had four teacher-student sex scandals in as many years. Given the sheer number of high schools in the United States, it is probably within statistical reason to expect a single high school to coincidentally have four sex scandals. Should parents and the community write the problem off, or should they look at their faculty policies and other factors that might be contributing to the problem and see if there is something they can do to prevent future sex scandals?
Does this mean that I'll be able to deduct all of my capital purchases from my income tax, as I may later sell it on eBay? I bought the things with after-tax dollars in pretty much all cases, so I think I should be able to recoup any money made from selling it without paying taxes on it personally. Taxing the sale of used items is taxing twice, which doesn't seem right.
Items are not taxed, transactions are. So by definition an item cannot be taxed twice. A transaction being taxed twice (by the same entity, as in, not state + federal) might be something to complain about. You think the provider of raw materials, the manufacturer, the transporter, etc., aren't all effectively paying taxes on different transactions regarding the same item?
As a side note, the goal of efficient taxation should be to tax everything a little bit and tax nothing a lot, since every tax distorts the economy. So it's better to have a little sales tax, a little income tax, a little investment tax, etc., instead of having all taxes concentrated in one area or aspect of the economy. (This is why the "Fair Tax" is such a bad idea.) Right now we probably have too much income tax relative to the other taxes simply because it is the easiest to make progressive, but it distorts the labor market.
[S]tate-owned companies remain a gargantuan force in the economy. In 2003 they employed half of China's 750 million workers and controlled 57 percent of its industrial assets.
And what's with the strawman of "10 million people... who's (sic) sole job it is to annoy and slow down their economy"? I never said anything of the sort. By the way:
State-owned companies grow 70% in first four months [of 2010]
Slashdot Mirror
If they had a big sign on their street view vans that said "All your data are belong to us", that would be good enough for everyone currently complaining? I doubt it. So why would it be good enough if they post something anywhere on their websites that says the same thing? It's not like people are agreeing to some terms-of-service with Google when they buy their house!
Great idea. Then let's see them defend their news search from lawsuits claiming they are re-publishing copyrighted material without permission.
Do some research and get good estimates of what people doing your job(s) in the area earn. Figure out how much you are worth based on how much time you spend doing each of these jobs and sit down with the person who has the power to give you the raise you deserve and present your case. You'd be surprised how willing most bosses are to give you a small bump to keep you happy, especially if they know you are being overworked. On the other hand, if this company is going through budget cuts and layoffs and can't afford to hire the right people for the job, you might be better off keeping your mouth shut, updating your resume, and shopping for a new job.
There's a major flaw in your idea: Nobody has made any money investing for the long term in more than a decade. Well, except maybe Warren Buffett. The stock market is trading at levels seen in the 1990s.
RTFS. As long as the transaction costs are less than 1% of the transaction, it will be making a profit.
This already happens, just not in the way you described. There are a number of people who have access to news information before the public, in particular people working for investor magazines. In this example, a guy working for the printing company that printed BusinessWeek would tell his partner-in-crime to buy stocks mentioned favorably in the magazine, knowing that once the magazine was public, others would buy and push the price up.
This is how it all started:
AT&T is a sack of douchebags that doesn't know their ass from a hole in the ground
They heard "goatse" could help them with their problem...
now they're trying to cover their ass
After news of this broke, they are now claiming...
they somehow proactively found the hole themselves.
Telling that the summary of this stupid article mentioned DuMont, as DuMont is the only one of the four networks that also manufactured TVs. Shows how well the combined broadcaster/manufacturer business model worked back then.
It sounds to me like the article is suggesting Apple start producing its own shows, and not just a few shows, but enough to replace the dozens of shows that people watch on the networks currently. Being a broadcaster has never been a very profitable business; they make their money from producing shows.
The US telcos feeling data use, :)
bandwidth upgrades and pricing is clear.
Apple and telco $$$ time for all
I have no idea what this means, but it's a beautiful haiku.
it is no more required that a doctor remember to say please than it is required that air traffic controllers say "please" when directing airplanes.
You read the book Outliers? Supposedly a Colombian flight crashed in New York and killed everyone on board partly because the pilots were intimidated by the brusk manners of the air traffic controllers.
Only if there was a 50% chance that a given asset market was a bubble.
Can I mod myself -1, Dumbass?
That's possibly the dumbest thing I've read in a long time.
everyone is quoting TFA and TFS
Never thought I'd see the day on Slashdot where RTFA was not even good enough!
And man, I had forgotten how old Batman is.
That's the least of their problems. Number 2 (Harry Potter) was created for a book. Number 5 (Joker) was created for comics in the 1960s. Numbers 8 (Hannibal Lecter) and 9 (Carrie Bradshaw) were originally created for books as well. So this is really the list of the top characters appearing in television or film in the last 20 years.
Better stats are available here: http://www.who.int/mental_health/media/chinurban.pdf A little outdated, but the point remains that suicide rates vary greatly by age, going up as you get older, so you cannot compare a national suicide rate to a suicide rate in a factory where everyone is in their 20s. In fact, based on the stats cited (somewhere between 3.5 and 6.3 per 100,000 for the relevant age groups) and the size of the Shenzhen factory (300,000), you would expect 10-20 suicides for the year on average. This plant has had 10 suicides or so in 5 months. Not extremely high, but high enough to warrant closer inspection into possible causes.
The suicide rate among foxconn workers is not only lower than for the population of China in general, but also lower than every US state. Every suicide is a tragic event, but I'm not buying the contention that their jobs are driving them to do it.
Suicide rates vary widely between different population segments; you cannot fairly compare the suicide rate of factory workers in Shenzhen to the suicide rate of rural farmers, for example. The better comparison would be the suicide rate of Foxconn employees to the suicide rates at other electronics manufacturing, and I'd think if other factories had similar suicide rates we might not be hearing so much about this in the news.
While these suicides may be due to statistical chance, do you not feel it is worth it to investigate possible causes and show some empathy for factory workers making $100/month working 100 hours/week? Let me provide an analogous real world comparison: Helix High School in La Mesa, California, had four teacher-student sex scandals in as many years. Given the sheer number of high schools in the United States, it is probably within statistical reason to expect a single high school to coincidentally have four sex scandals. Should parents and the community write the problem off, or should they look at their faculty policies and other factors that might be contributing to the problem and see if there is something they can do to prevent future sex scandals?
There is a long history of similar behavior among Jews and Christians as well.
Your parents can ... keep you from having to face a touch teacher
You sick bastard! I surely do empathize with the unfortunate students who have to face those kinds of teachers!
Items are not taxed
Sorry, except real estate.
Does this mean that I'll be able to deduct all of my capital purchases from my income tax, as I may later sell it on eBay? I bought the things with after-tax dollars in pretty much all cases, so I think I should be able to recoup any money made from selling it without paying taxes on it personally. Taxing the sale of used items is taxing twice, which doesn't seem right.
Items are not taxed, transactions are. So by definition an item cannot be taxed twice. A transaction being taxed twice (by the same entity, as in, not state + federal) might be something to complain about. You think the provider of raw materials, the manufacturer, the transporter, etc., aren't all effectively paying taxes on different transactions regarding the same item?
As a side note, the goal of efficient taxation should be to tax everything a little bit and tax nothing a lot, since every tax distorts the economy. So it's better to have a little sales tax, a little income tax, a little investment tax, etc., instead of having all taxes concentrated in one area or aspect of the economy. (This is why the "Fair Tax" is such a bad idea.) Right now we probably have too much income tax relative to the other taxes simply because it is the easiest to make progressive, but it distorts the labor market.
McDonald's for the food you buy.
If you are spending $600/year on McDonald's food, you have worse problems than mailing out a few extra 1099s.
My guess is they do this to make the citizenry feel better about the existence of Google maps and Streetview and the like.
Oh, get over yourself.
[S]tate-owned companies remain a gargantuan force in the economy. In 2003 they employed half of China's 750 million workers and controlled 57 percent of its industrial assets.
from http://www.forbes.com/2004/11/04/cx_1104mckinseychina6.html
And what's with the strawman of "10 million people... who's (sic) sole job it is to annoy and slow down their economy"? I never said anything of the sort. By the way:
State-owned companies grow 70% in first four months [of 2010]
from: http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90778/90860/6993084.html
owned or controlled by the Chinese government
Isn't everything in China owned or controlled by the government?