You do realise that this map is 600 KM wide, don't you?
You do realize that even that map has absolutely nothing outside Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, therefore anyone who lived outside of those countries is welcome to shut up?
I lived in Gomel at the time. And built a simple radiation meter a week after the disaster. And later worked at the place that provided most of information used for that map. The effect on humans outside of immediate surrounding area was far, far less than any politician claimed at the time -- the only thing that mattered was consumption of contaminated food, and that was prevented by some fairly draconian-looking measures.
but in Belarus they still have PULSE dialing on their landlines
So does US. Tone dialing is convenient, but for the sake of compatibility, pulse is supported on all landlines. Plug a Model 500 phone into any analog phone outlet in US, and it will work.
some of that money (not nearly enough, by the way), to use Reagan's words, trickles down, and some if it is taxed, so they are an important prop to Western economies.
You do realize that everything about "radiation dangers" outside of actually affected area (small chunk of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia) was an anti-Soviet propaganda campaign, right?
So it's like goatse -- you aren't shocked anymore to see a stretched anus on the screen, but you still aren't inclined to stretch your anus in front of other people or cameras?
You are one of these people who believe that someone is getting screwed when money is made.
Marx already demonstrated it -- by seizing control over resources that allow productive work to happen, people in control of companies inevitably screw everyone who does not have such control, and the only solution is to remove such degree of control from the hands of those people. American society just can't get out of denial (European one did -- mostly).
Why there is a high cost to begin with? This is all resource management, in any healthy system it is not supposed to take any noticeable percentage of resources to begin with.
WTF are you talking about? Everything you have mentioned is well within abilities of a trained accountant, statistician and a programmer -- three guys employed by some company that pays them salaries. Most of complexity in what banks do comes not from performing banks' functions but from intentional obfuscation (ex: mortgage based securities crap) performed in hope of outsmarting someone else.
But that would destroy financial industry as we know it. Not a single person who works for it now, will want to work in it when it is boring and does not provide opportunities to obtain ridiculous riches by doing nothing useful -- this is why they are there to begin with! They will all move into organized crime (and they will be less dangerous there).
Accounting may be hard, but it's by definition easier than engineering (because engineering involves resource management as a small part of itself) and it's done by accountants, just another kind of employees. Employees who do not demand giant percentage of profits, and would be laughed out if they did.
There is absolutely nothing to justify privileged position of financial companies -- they don't do anything more difficult that a simple accountant does, yet they are allowed to control access to other people's resources and insist on reward that would be too high even if it was their own resources to begin with.
Do you understand that all those "jobs" and "salaries" are nothing but decisions made by people as a result of a situation made by other people? That overwhelming majority of "jobs" in finance exists for one reason -- to allow financial company steal profits from everyone else? They are your enemies, not your company's competitors. They create a situation when it's a bad choice to pay scientists and engineers (or anyone, really) more than idiotic starvation-level wages that are paid now -- because they starve everything productive.
In 2008 no one could predict when exactly they will destroy themselves, so when shit hit the fan, the fan was spinning and we all were still standing around it. So government converted the fan into a shit pump, as that was the only thing that could be done at that point without being prepared to get rid of the shit. If the government will know when it is going to happen (because it will orchestrate it), thing will go into a completely different direction.
Of course, US government will be the last on Earth to do that, but such course of action is not just the only reasonable way to deal with this situation, it's inevitable. Just as inevitable as Catholic Church losing its complete control over science, culture and politics in Europe when development of science and culture had to go ahead -- it just taken a truly disgusting amount of time then.
"Entrepreneur" == "risk sink". An overwhelming majority of "entrepreneurs" failed, and yet society felt no effect of their failures because they just died in poverty, and those few who succeed, end up creating the companies that make up for the loss of production and employment due to failures. Without a method to predict at any extent if something is valuable enough to develop, "entrepreneurs" making nearly completely random choices and funding everything from their own pockets, it was the best way to drive progress.
A very long time ago (the end of Industrial Revolution) society outgrown the need for this -- we don't need every successful thief or descendant from aristocratic family to bet his life savings on some crackpot idea to determine those few ideas that weren't really so crackpot after all. Too bad, people who would otherwise destroy themselves in >99.999% futile search for riches, now have a reliable method of mooching those riches from the society by becoming financial middlemen. Effectiveness of the system is exactly the same as with crackpot "entrepreneurs" -- except now it is low because all profit is skimmed by those crooks.
Solution: destroy "financial services" industry. At this point it serves no purpose whatsoever, just sucks resources. Trade and investment can be handled without giant middlemen running their scams.
Slashdot Mirror
You do realise that this map is 600 KM wide, don't you?
You do realize that even that map has absolutely nothing outside Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, therefore anyone who lived outside of those countries is welcome to shut up?
I lived in Gomel at the time. And built a simple radiation meter a week after the disaster. And later worked at the place that provided most of information used for that map. The effect on humans outside of immediate surrounding area was far, far less than any politician claimed at the time -- the only thing that mattered was consumption of contaminated food, and that was prevented by some fairly draconian-looking measures.
but in Belarus they still have PULSE dialing on their landlines
So does US. Tone dialing is convenient, but for the sake of compatibility, pulse is supported on all landlines. Plug a Model 500 phone into any analog phone outlet in US, and it will work.
some of that money (not nearly enough, by the way), to use Reagan's words, trickles down, and some if it is taxed, so they are an important prop to Western economies.
Don't lie, you ARE American.
I am not, but you should be sure -- I am responding to you.
You do realize that everything about "radiation dangers" outside of actually affected area (small chunk of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia) was an anti-Soviet propaganda campaign, right?
gb2Poland
According to this, I have died of cancer, twice.
So it's like goatse -- you aren't shocked anymore to see a stretched anus on the screen, but you still aren't inclined to stretch your anus in front of other people or cameras?
You are one of these people who believe that someone is getting screwed when money is made.
Marx already demonstrated it -- by seizing control over resources that allow productive work to happen, people in control of companies inevitably screw everyone who does not have such control, and the only solution is to remove such degree of control from the hands of those people. American society just can't get out of denial (European one did -- mostly).
Who cares about "free market" except people who need it to run their scams without fear of retribution?
It's the dumbest thing ever -- hey, let's protect the rich when they fleece the rest of the society!
They reduce the cost of lending.
Why there is a high cost to begin with? This is all resource management, in any healthy system it is not supposed to take any noticeable percentage of resources to begin with.
So you want me (I am a foreigner) to suffer more than you want to get rid of people who are destroying your country's economy?
Your country indeed has a bright future...
Oh, it is nothing. At this point they literally can be replaced by perl scripts.
Oh wow, an American patriot.
WTF are you talking about? Everything you have mentioned is well within abilities of a trained accountant, statistician and a programmer -- three guys employed by some company that pays them salaries. Most of complexity in what banks do comes not from performing banks' functions but from intentional obfuscation (ex: mortgage based securities crap) performed in hope of outsmarting someone else.
But that would destroy financial industry as we know it. Not a single person who works for it now, will want to work in it when it is boring and does not provide opportunities to obtain ridiculous riches by doing nothing useful -- this is why they are there to begin with! They will all move into organized crime (and they will be less dangerous there).
Accounting may be hard, but it's by definition easier than engineering (because engineering involves resource management as a small part of itself) and it's done by accountants, just another kind of employees. Employees who do not demand giant percentage of profits, and would be laughed out if they did.
There is absolutely nothing to justify privileged position of financial companies -- they don't do anything more difficult that a simple accountant does, yet they are allowed to control access to other people's resources and insist on reward that would be too high even if it was their own resources to begin with.
Do you understand that all those "jobs" and "salaries" are nothing but decisions made by people as a result of a situation made by other people? That overwhelming majority of "jobs" in finance exists for one reason -- to allow financial company steal profits from everyone else? They are your enemies, not your company's competitors. They create a situation when it's a bad choice to pay scientists and engineers (or anyone, really) more than idiotic starvation-level wages that are paid now -- because they starve everything productive.
Answer this, you supposedly intelligent person:
WHY finances are complex and convoluted if their sole purpose in the society is resource management?
Average Americans can go jump off a cliff -- this is a job for a government. It's not like government ever cared what average American thinks.
Are you a moron?
If there will be no "decent wage" in financial scams, productive jobs will be paid decently.
They wouldn't go "home" if they had... wait for it... ... JOBS IN SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH here.
In 2008 no one could predict when exactly they will destroy themselves, so when shit hit the fan, the fan was spinning and we all were still standing around it. So government converted the fan into a shit pump, as that was the only thing that could be done at that point without being prepared to get rid of the shit.
If the government will know when it is going to happen (because it will orchestrate it), thing will go into a completely different direction.
Of course, US government will be the last on Earth to do that, but such course of action is not just the only reasonable way to deal with this situation, it's inevitable. Just as inevitable as Catholic Church losing its complete control over science, culture and politics in Europe when development of science and culture had to go ahead -- it just taken a truly disgusting amount of time then.
"Entrepreneur" == "risk sink". An overwhelming majority of "entrepreneurs" failed, and yet society felt no effect of their failures because they just died in poverty, and those few who succeed, end up creating the companies that make up for the loss of production and employment due to failures. Without a method to predict at any extent if something is valuable enough to develop, "entrepreneurs" making nearly completely random choices and funding everything from their own pockets, it was the best way to drive progress.
A very long time ago (the end of Industrial Revolution) society outgrown the need for this -- we don't need every successful thief or descendant from aristocratic family to bet his life savings on some crackpot idea to determine those few ideas that weren't really so crackpot after all. Too bad, people who would otherwise destroy themselves in >99.999% futile search for riches, now have a reliable method of mooching those riches from the society by becoming financial middlemen. Effectiveness of the system is exactly the same as with crackpot "entrepreneurs" -- except now it is low because all profit is skimmed by those crooks.
Solution: destroy "financial services" industry. At this point it serves no purpose whatsoever, just sucks resources. Trade and investment can be handled without giant middlemen running their scams.