It also has to do with someone's risk tolerance. People who run their own business generally have a higher tolerance of risk (calculated or not) than someone who works for 'the man.' I see it personally all the time. I have friends who are VPs or SVPs and are easily smart enough and have the contacts necessary to start and run their own business, but they don't. They don't have the risk tolerance that's required to leave the sure thing even when large potential rewards (not just financial) are possible.
I see the Chinese government as actually a huge hurdle to research. They are walking a fine line right now. The free thinking required in research is the same free thinking that makes people not want to be controlled by their government. Eventually China is going to reach a crossroads where the government will have to become more democratic (at least less hands on) or we'll end up with another Tiananmen Square.
Good point. I've read a lot of research papers coming out of China and it is very much the "throw a lot of sh*t at the wall and see what sticks." Of course they do have some good research coming out of their facilities, but you're right about the lack of a good base seriously hampering the quality of their output.
They've need to close stores for awhile. I was in the airport, I think Dallas and from where I was standing I could see 3 Starbucks. Keep in mind that I could walk to all 3 w/o going through a security checkpoint or anything like that. I hope whoever was making decisions about where to expand has been replaced.
Exactly! Originally the US gov. rebate checks were only supposed to go to people making much less than 75k (the final agreed upon amount). The politicians would like you to believe it's because they wanted to help the poor, but the real truth is that they know the lower income people were more likely to spend the money on something new rather than save it or apply it to an existing debt.
What's funny is that with a little bit of work (and the right vid card) a linux desktop can be a better looking, more functional desktop than osx. The problem is that it takes work to get it setup:( I know it's hard, but when people can get that desktop out of the gate without having to do anything more it'll start to take hold in the eye candy crowd.
With ATT, for $20/month you can add unlimited data to your current plan. That doesn't seem too bad, considering what data plans cost from ATT and other carriers.
Now if you're talking about the international iphone plans you're right. I can't believe they've sold any with the plans people had to buy.
Microsoft is a Washington corporation; it owes its existence to the State of Washington. I don't know what the corporation laws of Washington State are, but if they were sensible, Washington could simply dissolve Microsoft if they moved out of state.
You're kidding right? I don't care where they are incorporated, MS could simply incorporate somewhere else. MS owes its existence to Bill Gates and whatever shananigans he pulled back then, not to some gov. entity.
Not at all. Corporate taxes reduce profits and redirect money away from "investors" - gamblers who expect to get paid without working. Payroll taxes reduce wages and redirect money away from people who actually work.
Investors don't work? Where do you think capital comes from? How do you think businesses get started? In your world how would startups get funded? And please don't answer "the gov." to any of those questions.
Actually it happens all the time. You should see what states and local communities are doing to get a Google data center put in their town. Giving tax breaks, promising power costs breaks, selling them the required land for pennies, etc... They know that regardless of what Google does at a corporate level, that high paying jobs will be brought in when they open a center in a town.
Warren Buffet was simply trying to make a point about how messed up the tax system is. If you look up Warren Buffet and charity you'll see he gives 10s of Billions of dollars to charity.
Would Washington rather MS move their operations to Nevada and lose the tax base of all the employees? This situation is actually a good argument for getting rid of corporate taxes. Corps wouldn't just sit on the money they saved. They would invest it by hiring more people and spending more money where they are actually based.
To be absolutely clear--the whole REASON why there's such demand for Apple products is because, unlike many tech companies, they DO care about the entire user experience. It makes using the product simple, easy, convenient. Would people buy Apple products if they WEREN'T easy to use, if that end-to-end experience WASN'T designed?
If that's the case then Macs should be a much larger % of the computer market. Good advertising and a $200 or less price point is what made the iPod, and thus Apple who they are today.
They want control because without control the phone companies ruin the devices and make them suck.
You can think that, but at the end of the day it's just money. Apple wants control so they can get a cut of the end user monthly subscription fees. The ATT phone plans sorta hide these extra fees, but the international plans offered by other carriers do nothing to hide the Apple tax.
I look at people and think most are 'average' though. Very few people are all democrat or all republican. They are a mix of both and end up comprising on some issues to pick the person that supports ones they feel are a higher priority to them. I think a great example is abortion. The media makes you think you're either for or against, black or white with no grey. But in reality you can be against using abortion as simply birth control, but for it when someone has been raped or when the mothers life is in danger. Interesting discussion, regardless.
I've got a better solution - make me your benevolent ruler. I even promise to steal less than the others, since I won't be beholden to any special interests.
Haha, I say we pick our President at random...like a jury. Basically, in my mind anyone who wants to be President shouldn't be allowed to be President. Pick 12 random people, have them campaign for 3 months, then have an election. Can't be any worse than we get now:)
I'm with you! I would respect that response from McCain, but at the end of the day I think you and I are not the average voter. I blame the 'everyone wins a trophy' crowd for making people who take decisive positions on issues unpopular.:)
I agree with you on the Dept. of Education. It's a complete waste of money and just a big money pit with not real ROI.
I can see your point about moving our currency back to some standard, but I don't think the lack of a standard has put us in the mess we're in. I look at money as just a agreed upon way to trade units of work, so I don't have to work for each person I want to buy something from. If this is backed by gold, fruit flies, or tulips it makes no difference to me as long as everyone agrees to accept it as payment.
IMHO, the monetary problem stems from the fact that the Fed (Greenspan and now Bernanke and crew) have looked to the stock market as a way to judge the countries current financial situation, whatever it may be at the time. If the market is going up, then everything must be great! LOL Low rates and essentially free money are what got us into this mess with housing and the only way out is going to be some pain. Banks, investment houses and even people played fast and lose with their risk analysis. The Fed needs to quit lying about inflation, raise the rates to something reasonable, and let the chips fall where they may.
1. Have health insurance under current employer 2. Cannot afford own health insurance 3. Therefore if starting own business,I need to save more money first so I don't lose health insurance
I'm sick and tired of politicians who don't tell it like it is and think we're stupid, which I guess means pretty much all main-stream politicians.
I agree, but the problem is that people don't want to hear it. I think it was Michigan where McCain told a group of autoworkers that their $30/hour to weld a part together jobs were probably not coming back (which is probably the closest thing to the truth). His numbers fell immediately. Then look at (I think it was Huckabee) who told a similar group he was going to bring all the jobs back (of course with not mention on how) and his number jumped.
Don't blame the politicians, blame the lemmings on both sides who won't think for themselves.
So, I'm supposed to pay for your health care so you can start a business? The healthcare system is currently a mess, but getting the gov. even more involved is not the solution.
That's fine, but then I question who the MBA is aimed at. I'm pretty sure more laptops sell than desktops at this point (it was close the last time I saw numbers and the trend showed laptops over taking desktops soon enough). So that leads me to believe people aren't buying laptops as second machines (like the MBA is positioned to be), but as primary machines. Can you see a college kid having a desktop and a MBA to carry around? No, they want a single laptop that they can have everything on and not use up much space (not to mention the cost of that setup). Executives? The ones I see and know all have laptops as their primary machines and docking stations at their various offices. Again, the laptop is their primary machine. I don't doubt that there is a market for an ultra-portable machine, but I question the market for the ultra-portable that pretty much requires you to have another computer as your primary, even moreso starting at $1800.
Well said. Reminds of a WSJ article of trader who worked at Goldman Sachs who got an $80M bonus for his team last year. This guy didn't sleep and sounded like a machine. For awhile he worked out of Hong Kong managing his foreign investments, the problem was that he also had investments in the US and Europe to manage. So, he ended up working 7 days/week doing small 2 hour sleep intervals b/c he was literally operating on a global clock. I guess he finally moved him and his family to London b/c it was a more central time, but continued to work like that. And people just don't one day act like that. To work that much is something that he's probably been doing since he got out of college.
I've often wondered if I took a year and worked* like that where would it take me...
*Work doesn't necessarily mean you job, but anything that would make you better (school, start a personal business, become a CFA for example)
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It also has to do with someone's risk tolerance. People who run their own business generally have a higher tolerance of risk (calculated or not) than someone who works for 'the man.' I see it personally all the time. I have friends who are VPs or SVPs and are easily smart enough and have the contacts necessary to start and run their own business, but they don't. They don't have the risk tolerance that's required to leave the sure thing even when large potential rewards (not just financial) are possible.
I see the Chinese government as actually a huge hurdle to research. They are walking a fine line right now. The free thinking required in research is the same free thinking that makes people not want to be controlled by their government. Eventually China is going to reach a crossroads where the government will have to become more democratic (at least less hands on) or we'll end up with another Tiananmen Square.
Good point. I've read a lot of research papers coming out of China and it is very much the "throw a lot of sh*t at the wall and see what sticks." Of course they do have some good research coming out of their facilities, but you're right about the lack of a good base seriously hampering the quality of their output.
Apparently the recent (10.5.2) Apple update did that to a lot of people.
They've need to close stores for awhile. I was in the airport, I think Dallas and from where I was standing I could see 3 Starbucks. Keep in mind that I could walk to all 3 w/o going through a security checkpoint or anything like that. I hope whoever was making decisions about where to expand has been replaced.
Exactly! Originally the US gov. rebate checks were only supposed to go to people making much less than 75k (the final agreed upon amount). The politicians would like you to believe it's because they wanted to help the poor, but the real truth is that they know the lower income people were more likely to spend the money on something new rather than save it or apply it to an existing debt.
You are correct! We know everything there is to know about science. There is nothing new to learn. WTF are all these scientist doing everyday?!
What's funny is that with a little bit of work (and the right vid card) a linux desktop can be a better looking, more functional desktop than osx. The problem is that it takes work to get it setup :( I know it's hard, but when people can get that desktop out of the gate without having to do anything more it'll start to take hold in the eye candy crowd.
As long as Hilary or Obama wins, the gov. is going to pay for all my meds anyways!
With ATT, for $20/month you can add unlimited data to your current plan. That doesn't seem too bad, considering what data plans cost from ATT and other carriers.
Now if you're talking about the international iphone plans you're right. I can't believe they've sold any with the plans people had to buy.
You're kidding right? I don't care where they are incorporated, MS could simply incorporate somewhere else. MS owes its existence to Bill Gates and whatever shananigans he pulled back then, not to some gov. entity.
Investors don't work? Where do you think capital comes from? How do you think businesses get started? In your world how would startups get funded? And please don't answer "the gov." to any of those questions.
Actually it happens all the time. You should see what states and local communities are doing to get a Google data center put in their town. Giving tax breaks, promising power costs breaks, selling them the required land for pennies, etc... They know that regardless of what Google does at a corporate level, that high paying jobs will be brought in when they open a center in a town.
Warren Buffet was simply trying to make a point about how messed up the tax system is. If you look up Warren Buffet and charity you'll see he gives 10s of Billions of dollars to charity.
Would Washington rather MS move their operations to Nevada and lose the tax base of all the employees? This situation is actually a good argument for getting rid of corporate taxes. Corps wouldn't just sit on the money they saved. They would invest it by hiring more people and spending more money where they are actually based.
To be absolutely clear--the whole REASON why there's such demand for Apple products is because, unlike many tech companies, they DO care about the entire user experience. It makes using the product simple, easy, convenient. Would people buy Apple products if they WEREN'T easy to use, if that end-to-end experience WASN'T designed?
If that's the case then Macs should be a much larger % of the computer market. Good advertising and a $200 or less price point is what made the iPod, and thus Apple who they are today.
They want control because without control the phone companies ruin the devices and make them suck.
You can think that, but at the end of the day it's just money. Apple wants control so they can get a cut of the end user monthly subscription fees. The ATT phone plans sorta hide these extra fees, but the international plans offered by other carriers do nothing to hide the Apple tax.
I look at people and think most are 'average' though. Very few people are all democrat or all republican. They are a mix of both and end up comprising on some issues to pick the person that supports ones they feel are a higher priority to them. I think a great example is abortion. The media makes you think you're either for or against, black or white with no grey. But in reality you can be against using abortion as simply birth control, but for it when someone has been raped or when the mothers life is in danger. Interesting discussion, regardless.
:)
I've got a better solution - make me your benevolent ruler. I even promise to steal less than the others, since I won't be beholden to any special interests.
Haha, I say we pick our President at random...like a jury. Basically, in my mind anyone who wants to be President shouldn't be allowed to be President. Pick 12 random people, have them campaign for 3 months, then have an election. Can't be any worse than we get now
I'm with you! I would respect that response from McCain, but at the end of the day I think you and I are not the average voter. I blame the 'everyone wins a trophy' crowd for making people who take decisive positions on issues unpopular. :)
I agree with you on the Dept. of Education. It's a complete waste of money and just a big money pit with not real ROI.
I can see your point about moving our currency back to some standard, but I don't think the lack of a standard has put us in the mess we're in. I look at money as just a agreed upon way to trade units of work, so I don't have to work for each person I want to buy something from. If this is backed by gold, fruit flies, or tulips it makes no difference to me as long as everyone agrees to accept it as payment.
IMHO, the monetary problem stems from the fact that the Fed (Greenspan and now Bernanke and crew) have looked to the stock market as a way to judge the countries current financial situation, whatever it may be at the time. If the market is going up, then everything must be great! LOL Low rates and essentially free money are what got us into this mess with housing and the only way out is going to be some pain. Banks, investment houses and even people played fast and lose with their risk analysis. The Fed needs to quit lying about inflation, raise the rates to something reasonable, and let the chips fall where they may.
Fixed that for you.
I agree, but the problem is that people don't want to hear it. I think it was Michigan where McCain told a group of autoworkers that their $30/hour to weld a part together jobs were probably not coming back (which is probably the closest thing to the truth). His numbers fell immediately. Then look at (I think it was Huckabee) who told a similar group he was going to bring all the jobs back (of course with not mention on how) and his number jumped.
Don't blame the politicians, blame the lemmings on both sides who won't think for themselves.
So, I'm supposed to pay for your health care so you can start a business? The healthcare system is currently a mess, but getting the gov. even more involved is not the solution.
That's fine, but then I question who the MBA is aimed at. I'm pretty sure more laptops sell than desktops at this point (it was close the last time I saw numbers and the trend showed laptops over taking desktops soon enough). So that leads me to believe people aren't buying laptops as second machines (like the MBA is positioned to be), but as primary machines. Can you see a college kid having a desktop and a MBA to carry around? No, they want a single laptop that they can have everything on and not use up much space (not to mention the cost of that setup). Executives? The ones I see and know all have laptops as their primary machines and docking stations at their various offices. Again, the laptop is their primary machine. I don't doubt that there is a market for an ultra-portable machine, but I question the market for the ultra-portable that pretty much requires you to have another computer as your primary, even moreso starting at $1800.
Well said. Reminds of a WSJ article of trader who worked at Goldman Sachs who got an $80M bonus for his team last year. This guy didn't sleep and sounded like a machine. For awhile he worked out of Hong Kong managing his foreign investments, the problem was that he also had investments in the US and Europe to manage. So, he ended up working 7 days/week doing small 2 hour sleep intervals b/c he was literally operating on a global clock. I guess he finally moved him and his family to London b/c it was a more central time, but continued to work like that. And people just don't one day act like that. To work that much is something that he's probably been doing since he got out of college.
I've often wondered if I took a year and worked* like that where would it take me...
*Work doesn't necessarily mean you job, but anything that would make you better (school, start a personal business, become a CFA for example)
Before the settlement it was an unknown. The stock market hates unknowns. Now that they've reached a settlement, it's over and people can move on.
Wasn't it the employees who started this war?