That is the biggest problem with Capitalism after all, that not everybody wants to be a capitalist.
"The biggest problem with being alive after all, is that nobody wants to have to compete and put forth any effort to survive. They want to be automatically rewarded, and considered precious and special, just for existing."
I mean just how DO you "put a spin" on tens of thousands of released documents?
Did they delete out all the emails that showed politicians petting kittens and hugging orphans?
while the rest of us see through the veil Wikileaks put up and saw it for what it really was.
What you just made is an ad hominem attack. Nobody cares about Wikileaks reputation, or Julian Assange's ego. Its his actions which we find heroic.
They are saying they won't allow you to use their system to contribute to what basically amounts to an anti-US group conducting what would by any other means be called espionage and using propaganda as information terrorism
Information terrorism? Is this what they call the truth these days?
So two points here. First, I don't care what they think, it matters what they do. Dislodging Paypal from its market dominance perch is a thing I would appreciate them for doing, regardless of their motives.
Even if eventually Google takes PayPal's place as the big, evil payment company? What the hell are you going to do to escape it when the company controlling the entire Internet is evil and now in charge of the payment system too?
But second, how do you even know what their reasoning is? I kind of doubt you've gone and interviewed the individuals who made the decision.
And if you did, you'd be foolish, because the way to discover someone's intentions and motivations is not to ask them, but to observe what they actually do. Google is on an evil path.
Which means that you're just applying the cynic's logic that because they're a corporation, they only care about dollars and never kittens.
No, it's more like I used to love this company, but have slowly become disenfranchised and jaded from seeing their foolish and somewhat evil actions.
So you want them to design a secure payment system, and issue you a high tech piece of plastic, and keep it secure against attacks, and operate servers to process payments until the end of time... for zero dollars, ever.
No, you misread what he said. What he actually said was he wants to be able to transfer money from his bank to another bank directly, using a simple plastic card, rather than having to go through every Guido and Ese who wants his cut. In Europe bank to bank transfers are easy and common. In the U.S. it's expensive and a hassle.
Because profit is bad, am I right? Anyone who manages to do something beneficial to humanity, like unseating the abusive and widely-loathed Paypal, must automatically be an evildoer as soon as they find a way to turn a profit doing it?
If they reduce their customers' and associates' choices and level of service for no other reason than to line their own pockets, with a larger percentage of profits taken from said associates in the bargain, then yes. They are automatically an evildoer. Especially considering this is far from the only thing Google has been doing lately which is just stupid, stupid, stupid. For example the utter stupidity (non-existence?) of their marketing department. The company has already lost my loyalty simply through their incompetence, and I used to be an ardent supporter. The being evil stuff just seals the deal.
Yes, PayPal are well established world-class shitbags....but they were actually a decent company in the very early days, ya know. Google's headed down the exact same path, they're just bigger and slower moving. Just wait. The last straw will eventually come for you too.
So you care as much about the old guy who just this second passed away (and another this second, and yet another this second) as you would (did?) about your own father passing?
If "caring for" means "not supporting the killing of/blowing to kingdom come in an airstrike", then yes, I do care about that man just as much as anyone else.
In order for the few to be at the top, many, many have to be below. We can't all run around with expensive smartphones doing white-collar jobs. Imagine for a moment if all people suddenly aspired to be "at the top." Do you think it's possible?
I think it's possible that every person in this world can improve himself. It's just that most choose not to, instead blaming their problems on "the way things are" and using excuses to do nothing. I have no sympathy for those who spout blame or negativity, no matter which "class" they belong to, because this is the root cause of almost all failure.
I also greatly admire anyone who has the drive and ambition to do something with their lives, again regardless of "class." I come from a old single wide trailer in the backwoods of Alabama; what class do you suppose that is? And yet the difference between me and the rest of that half of the family who still choose to live that way, is that I don't. It's is simple as that. And yet that simple difference in mindset makes all the world of difference in where I'm headed in life vs where they're staying.
And as the numbers of the aspiring grow, so does the competition as it continues.
See, there you are starting right in with the negativity. My dad used to tell me "stop looking for ways you can't, and start looking for ways you can" whenever I as a kid would start making up excuses why I couldn't do something. The lesson didn't really fully sink in then but I did eventually learn it.
What we see, as we have seen, is 'elites' becoming elites because they are more willing, able and capable of harming and sacrificing others to accomplish that.
That's what you've seen because your blinders are on. What you're NOT seeing is that for every 1 evil asshole CEO there are 10 more fair to good ones. Likewise for every 1 evil asshole corporation there are 10 more fair to good ones. The root of your problem is you are focusing so intently on negativity that it becomes ALL you can see.
If you cannot see that the act of stepping on others to climb to the top is sociopathic
1) The only way you can avoid stepping on others in this world is to sit in one place and do nothing with your life. The more and bigger actions you take, involving more people and resources, the more and more likely you will step on somebody's toes, inadvertently or not. It's inevitable.
2) Yes, I would agree that those who purposely look to step on others to rise in power could be described as (if we've talking from an extremely simplistic 1990s-ish black and white view of psychology) "sociopathic." The problem is you seem to believe every single person who acquires power behaves in this manner. This is quite simply incorrect and provably wrong.
My sociopathic brother has accurately observed that the real trick to success is learning the rules of the game. The rules aren't what they SAY the rules are. Of course they will say the rules are "work hard and get your reward!" The reality is that when you work hard, THEY get the reward and you get a pittance or a pat on the head at most.
Well of course, because "work hard and prosper" is a meaningless phrase, because the meaning is different depending on who hears it. What does it mean to work hard, or to prosper? If you ask some people, hard work means 120 hour weeks in the office at a job you hate, and prospering means going into six figures of debt to buy a house and cars you can't afford surrounded by neighbors you don't like.
To me that sounds more like slavery and stupidity, respectively. Hard work to me means spending a lot of time reading and learning, and putting my knowledge into acquiring useful skills, then using them to make money. It means being completely responsible for myself and my finances; having only my own brains and resources to fall back on, and only myself to blame if things go wrong, as well as being the focal point of everyone else's blame too. It's hard work.
With all that said, there are STILL individuals capable of overcoming this problem. These rare people can look upon the need and suffering of others and not feel a pang of guilt or a desire to help. We call them sociopaths, but we also call them leaders, bosses and idols.
This is utter trash which I've seen many times now you (and others I presume) incessantly spouting, and it's nonsense. Obviously you are a bitter omega male with NO status or power who spends his life bitching about how evil and wrong all those "leaders" and "bosses" and "idols" are.
You could spend your energy you know, becoming one of those leaders or bosses so that you could Do Good(TM) Things and prove all of those assholes wrong, but no! It's far easier to just sit on your fat ass, pounding out Insightful-sounding rants on your Cheetos colored keyboard, and gathering up those mod points preaching to other souls who feel envious and spiteful about their station in life.
The human capacity for empathy is quite limited. I speak as a person who is, I suppose, feels more empathy and understanding for folks than most. I'm the kind of guy who is always sticking up for the underdog because I can see his point of view. Most people are NOT like this. Even if their own personal "moral" judgment disagrees, most folks will go along with the crowd just to fit in.
Knowing that one could die just by coming in close contact with another human has got to limit our willingness to come into contact with others
Disease isn't "violence", dimwit, and the only people deathly worried about flu are those with compromised immune systems, or mommy's little boy who spent his life in a disinfected bubble and thus has no immune system to speak of.
The GP is pointing out why we enjoy violence on TV.
The GP is wrong. The reason we enjoy violence on TV is the same reason we enjoy other shows; because it's "exercise" for our brain, by allowing us to mentally "follow along" and act out the plot in our mind, and compare the actors' actions to our own in an analogical situation.
We expect (as humans) to be involved in conflict and warfare, so this is why we find competitions and such entertaining. Entertainment = learning. We are what we eat, and we are what we watch. Watching violent stuff prepares to be involved in violence.
Slashdot Mirror
That is the biggest problem with Capitalism after all, that not everybody wants to be a capitalist.
"The biggest problem with being alive after all, is that nobody wants to have to compete and put forth any effort to survive. They want to be automatically rewarded, and considered precious and special, just for existing."
The stupidity of this post speaks for itself.
I mean just how DO you "put a spin" on tens of thousands of released documents?
Did they delete out all the emails that showed politicians petting kittens and hugging orphans?
while the rest of us see through the veil Wikileaks put up and saw it for what it really was.
What you just made is an ad hominem attack. Nobody cares about Wikileaks reputation, or Julian Assange's ego. Its his actions which we find heroic.
They are saying they won't allow you to use their system to contribute to what basically amounts to an anti-US group conducting what would by any other means be called espionage and using propaganda as information terrorism
Information terrorism? Is this what they call the truth these days?
So two points here. First, I don't care what they think, it matters what they do. Dislodging Paypal from its market dominance perch is a thing I would appreciate them for doing, regardless of their motives.
Even if eventually Google takes PayPal's place as the big, evil payment company? What the hell are you going to do to escape it when the company controlling the entire Internet is evil and now in charge of the payment system too?
But second, how do you even know what their reasoning is? I kind of doubt you've gone and interviewed the individuals who made the decision.
And if you did, you'd be foolish, because the way to discover someone's intentions and motivations is not to ask them, but to observe what they actually do. Google is on an evil path.
Which means that you're just applying the cynic's logic that because they're a corporation, they only care about dollars and never kittens.
No, it's more like I used to love this company, but have slowly become disenfranchised and jaded from seeing their foolish and somewhat evil actions.
So you want them to design a secure payment system, and issue you a high tech piece of plastic, and keep it secure against attacks, and operate servers to process payments until the end of time... for zero dollars, ever.
No, you misread what he said. What he actually said was he wants to be able to transfer money from his bank to another bank directly, using a simple plastic card, rather than having to go through every Guido and Ese who wants his cut. In Europe bank to bank transfers are easy and common. In the U.S. it's expensive and a hassle.
Because profit is bad, am I right? Anyone who manages to do something beneficial to humanity, like unseating the abusive and widely-loathed Paypal, must automatically be an evildoer as soon as they find a way to turn a profit doing it?
If they reduce their customers' and associates' choices and level of service for no other reason than to line their own pockets, with a larger percentage of profits taken from said associates in the bargain, then yes. They are automatically an evildoer. Especially considering this is far from the only thing Google has been doing lately which is just stupid, stupid, stupid. For example the utter stupidity (non-existence?) of their marketing department. The company has already lost my loyalty simply through their incompetence, and I used to be an ardent supporter. The being evil stuff just seals the deal.
He's probably an ebay retailer. PayPal is required to be accepted on ebay.
That, my friend, is TRUE arrogance
Yes, PayPal are well established world-class shitbags....but they were actually a decent company in the very early days, ya know. Google's headed down the exact same path, they're just bigger and slower moving. Just wait. The last straw will eventually come for you too.
Shove it back in their face, snort derisively, and take your money elsewhere.
I'll also ask this: If Iran's program is peaceful, then there's no reason for them to limit access to UN inspectors
"If you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to hide"
if someone bombed the oil platforms the government would collapse
Yes, and that "someone" would be a terrorist.
So you care as much about the old guy who just this second passed away (and another this second, and yet another this second) as you would (did?) about your own father passing?
If "caring for" means "not supporting the killing of/blowing to kingdom come in an airstrike", then yes, I do care about that man just as much as anyone else.
In order for the few to be at the top, many, many have to be below. We can't all run around with expensive smartphones doing white-collar jobs. Imagine for a moment if all people suddenly aspired to be "at the top." Do you think it's possible?
I think it's possible that every person in this world can improve himself. It's just that most choose not to, instead blaming their problems on "the way things are" and using excuses to do nothing. I have no sympathy for those who spout blame or negativity, no matter which "class" they belong to, because this is the root cause of almost all failure.
I also greatly admire anyone who has the drive and ambition to do something with their lives, again regardless of "class." I come from a old single wide trailer in the backwoods of Alabama; what class do you suppose that is? And yet the difference between me and the rest of that half of the family who still choose to live that way, is that I don't. It's is simple as that. And yet that simple difference in mindset makes all the world of difference in where I'm headed in life vs where they're staying.
And as the numbers of the aspiring grow, so does the competition as it continues.
See, there you are starting right in with the negativity. My dad used to tell me "stop looking for ways you can't, and start looking for ways you can" whenever I as a kid would start making up excuses why I couldn't do something. The lesson didn't really fully sink in then but I did eventually learn it.
What we see, as we have seen, is 'elites' becoming elites because they are more willing, able and capable of harming and sacrificing others to accomplish that.
That's what you've seen because your blinders are on. What you're NOT seeing is that for every 1 evil asshole CEO there are 10 more fair to good ones. Likewise for every 1 evil asshole corporation there are 10 more fair to good ones. The root of your problem is you are focusing so intently on negativity that it becomes ALL you can see.
If you cannot see that the act of stepping on others to climb to the top is sociopathic
1) The only way you can avoid stepping on others in this world is to sit in one place and do nothing with your life. The more and bigger actions you take, involving more people and resources, the more and more likely you will step on somebody's toes, inadvertently or not. It's inevitable.
2) Yes, I would agree that those who purposely look to step on others to rise in power could be described as (if we've talking from an extremely simplistic 1990s-ish black and white view of psychology) "sociopathic." The problem is you seem to believe every single person who acquires power behaves in this manner. This is quite simply incorrect and provably wrong.
My sociopathic brother has accurately observed that the real trick to success is learning the rules of the game. The rules aren't what they SAY the rules are. Of course they will say the rules are "work hard and get your reward!" The reality is that when you work hard, THEY get the reward and you get a pittance or a pat on the head at most.
Well of course, because "work hard and prosper" is a meaningless phrase, because the meaning is different depending on who hears it. What does it mean to work hard, or to prosper? If you ask some people, hard work means 120 hour weeks in the office at a job you hate, and prospering means going into six figures of debt to buy a house and cars you can't afford surrounded by neighbors you don't like.
To me that sounds more like slavery and stupidity, respectively. Hard work to me means spending a lot of time reading and learning, and putting my knowledge into acquiring useful skills, then using them to make money. It means being completely responsible for myself and my finances; having only my own brains and resources to fall back on, and only myself to blame if things go wrong, as well as being the focal point of everyone else's blame too. It's hard work.
Prosperity to me means going to sleep a
We see what we want to believe. Sorry that your worldview is so distorted
What about the pending collapse of the U.S. dollar, do you think that would have any effect on anything?
Yeah, and while we're still talking about it the Chinese will be up there actually doing it
Yeah, I pretty much agree with everything in your post.
Aside: Slashdot: put in a fucking post edit system already, kplz'n'thx
With all that said, there are STILL individuals capable of overcoming this problem. These rare people can look upon the need and suffering of others and not feel a pang of guilt or a desire to help. We call them sociopaths, but we also call them leaders, bosses and idols.
This is utter trash which I've seen many times now you (and others I presume) incessantly spouting, and it's nonsense. Obviously you are a bitter omega male with NO status or power who spends his life bitching about how evil and wrong all those "leaders" and "bosses" and "idols" are.
You could spend your energy you know, becoming one of those leaders or bosses so that you could Do Good(TM) Things and prove all of those assholes wrong, but no! It's far easier to just sit on your fat ass, pounding out Insightful-sounding rants on your Cheetos colored keyboard, and gathering up those mod points preaching to other souls who feel envious and spiteful about their station in life.
My advice: get a life!
Have you ever tried to educate a stupid person?
Similarly vicious schoolgirls quickly evolve into attractive or sociable sex kittens.
Who are vicious, passive aggressive bitches to each other "behind the scenes."
No, but there are white harem owners who would be surprised indeed to see a black baby.
Which is yet another reason not to capitulate to the cock suckers' demands
DUI is a serious crime and deserving of very serious penalties.
No it's not. You've been emotionally brainwashed to believe this.
The human capacity for empathy is quite limited. I speak as a person who is, I suppose, feels more empathy and understanding for folks than most. I'm the kind of guy who is always sticking up for the underdog because I can see his point of view. Most people are NOT like this. Even if their own personal "moral" judgment disagrees, most folks will go along with the crowd just to fit in.
Knowing that one could die just by coming in close contact with another human has got to limit our willingness to come into contact with others
Disease isn't "violence", dimwit, and the only people deathly worried about flu are those with compromised immune systems, or mommy's little boy who spent his life in a disinfected bubble and thus has no immune system to speak of.
All of which are the end result of genetics
The GP is pointing out why we enjoy violence on TV.
The GP is wrong. The reason we enjoy violence on TV is the same reason we enjoy other shows; because it's "exercise" for our brain, by allowing us to mentally "follow along" and act out the plot in our mind, and compare the actors' actions to our own in an analogical situation.
We expect (as humans) to be involved in conflict and warfare, so this is why we find competitions and such entertaining. Entertainment = learning. We are what we eat, and we are what we watch. Watching violent stuff prepares to be involved in violence.