So is your statement. You seem to think that all gamers just yearn to play against other people, which is so far off the mark it isn't even funny. The vast majority of game sales are in SINGLE PLAYER games - one person against the computer. These folks, which include me, have no interest whatsoever in dick-measuring against some kid who brags about his "leet skillz" in Half-Life deathmatches, or whatever the hell is "the shitz" these days.
Most gamers don't give a shit about multiplay. It's right there in the sales figures.
Right. So you want to replace a free-market economy with communism, where everyone is forced, at gunpoint, to do what the government tells them to do in pretty much every aspect of their life. Great to see that you're so hot for freedom. I'll be sure never to vote for you or your pals should you run for office.
What we have now is that a government is so spineless and unwilling to oppose corporate and private power, that it is no government at all.
You narrow the field too far. Politicians will sell to anyone with the cash or influence, which includes a great many special interest groups that aren't associated with corporations or wealthy individuals. Of course, all of these special interest groups just *love* to claim how oppressed they are by Popular Target X, but in reality they wield far too much influence in comparison to their actual numbers.
By trying to tear down government (rather than the elite who exploit the government), you are in fact tearing down the one thing which stands there to protect you from being turned into nothing more than a wage slave or serf.
It takes government power to turn you into a wage slave or a serf in the first place. Without government power what's to keep the 'masses' from picking up their pitchforks and skewering the local lord? Nothing, that's what. Government's primary function, apart from amassing power just for the sake of amassing power, is to maintain the status quo any way it can. To keep those in power from being knocked off the hill.
The government must be powerful and effective to encourage people to participate in it.
The more powerful the government the LESS likely it is to listen to the people it supposedly represents. If government is weak - indeed, if it FEARS the people - it's far more likely to do what the hell it's told to do, rather than what individuals within the government WANT to do. The weaker the government, the easier it is to overthrow, the more vested it is in making sure it doesn't piss off the people enough to incite a revolution.
Our founding fathers were well aware of this, which is why they advocated a weak central goverment, tighly constrained by the Constitution.
And of course, the elite will extoll us to blaim government.
A powerful government is the tool of anyone who can afford it's influence. Of COURSE it's to blame. As are we, for allowing it to get this powerful in the first place.
If democracy worked, then the common man would want to share in the wealth and opulence which the wealthy hold by right
In an unfettered democracy vapid, greedy fools would simply take what others have by voting it away from them, then using government to appropriate that wealth at gunpoint. There is nothing good at all about pure democracy; it's no better than any other form of dictatorship on the planet.
And what the hell is up with you with all that "wealthy elite" garbage? Do you have a problem with the fact that other people are rich, and you aren't?
The government is OUR tool.
The government is a tool, all right. No question about that.
scrap free trade
Jesus H. Christ. Another fucking communist. Hey buddy, in case you've been out of the loop most of use LIKE free trade. What are you going to do about that? Use government to force the rest of us at gunpoint to give it up and live in your little dystopia, whether we like it or not?
ratify kyoto
For all the good it'll do. Even the experts, such as they are, say kyoto will do little to slow down global warming. And that's assuming that our very shitty, very spotty science on the subject is even remotely correct.
scrap the missile defense program
No thanks, I LIKE the idea of a working missile defense program.
don't invade Iraq looking for WMD you KNOW aren't there.
A bit fucking late, eh?
Tell your boss he has no right to dictate to you what political party you support, who you fraternize with off hours, or what personal belongings you bring with you to work. He DOES NOT OWN YOU.
Your boss has every right to tell you what you can or cannot bring to work. It's HIS property, not yours. If you don't like it then grow some balls and go work for someone else.
I'd say we've had a pretty steady rate of invention to population over our history.
You'd be wrong. It's a standard tenet in information theory that technological progress moves along an asymptotic curve. In fact, it's one of the first things you learn in the field.
Now we're seeing invention slow down
Not even the slightest bit true. We're still moving along the curve, and the doubling rate for all fields of endeavor is still decreasing. There's no credible evidence whatsoever that progress is in decline.
I think you will find that the advent of IP and IP protection slowed down development
This "what if" is something you can't test without going back in time and trying to convince the governments of the world to never implement any form of i.p. law. Until you manage this remarkable feat your statement is nothing more than idle, unsupported speculation.
Look at a 1920s pharmacy, and you see 'guaranteed' cures for the common cold, measles, influenza, and every other ailment under the sun, and of course, none of them could back their claims scientifically
Which differs from today's natural/homeopathic remedies how, exactly?
The entire country of Finland is slightly smaller than the state of Montana, one of 50 in the U.S. It has a population of a little over 5 million people. These two facts just might have something to do with why it's easier to get broadband to most of Finland's population than it is to do the same with the citizenry of the U.S.
A more open, international approach to this issue would have prevented the happenings in the FA.
Riiight. Pull the other finger. Neither the EU nor the UN has proven themselves to be any more moral, effective, or less corrupt than the United States. The EU has been especially amusing in it's ability to produce scandals where a) politicians sell out to corporate interests, or b) politicians completely ignore the constituency that elected them.
Of course, most socialists can't tell the difference between 'capitalism' and 'government-supported corporate oligarchy'. Anything that remotely looks like capitalism is, to them, the tool of the Great Satan. They paint us all with the same brush because they can't be bothered to make distinctions beyond 'socialism' and 'everything else'.
It *is* jealousy. When you consider that much of the vitriol comes from citizens of former imperialist powers - countries that once ruled most of the world - it becomes rather apparent that the nasty attitudes stem from something more than percieved grievances. Especially since the U.S. hasn't done dick to most of the countries where the criticism spews forth on a regular basis, other than ignore their demands to do as we're told.
So far as I can see the main sticking point is that we can, if we wish, act like a bull in a china shop. Their nations *used* to be able to do this, but no longer have the power or influence they once wielded. It seems to be a bitter pill to swallow, knowing that once you held large tracts of the world in abject slavery and now no longer do, nor have any realistic chance of ever regaining that former 'glory'.
Yes because you're too far up your own asshole to see beyond your own colon.
Typical liberal whiner. Anyone who disagrees with your "greater good" bullshit is obviously one of the low-brows that make your life such a trial. It's a damn good thing you and your ilk don't run the country and never will.
It's more luck and connections working in his favor.
That's true of any business endeavor. Connections are what get you customers, and luck applies in EVERY venture no matter what some of the self-important say. If anyone - anyone at all - says that luck isn't a factor in their success they're deluding themselves.
Urban planning has little to do with it. In most places in the U.S. people don't want to live packed together into tiny areas. The exceptions, like NYC, are notable for being *exceptions*.
In this case, the government is doing our bidding - as it's supposed to. We want an infrastructure that supports decentralized living, and that's exactly what we're getting. If certain tiny segments of the population don't approve of our choices, that's just too bad for them.
No-one *needs* a mini-van for 2 adults and two children.
So what? This is America, not some socialist shit-hole. Saying that people shouldn't have minivans because they don't 'need' them is fucking ludicrous.
It's a shame that most US citizens can't comprehend the benefits to society of having a good solid public transit system over a crappy (or non existant) public transist
If you want to argue the value of public transport, you'll have to do it from some other viewpoint than a 'greater good' one. Apart from a few liberal whiners, the 'greater good' argument doesn't mean dick here.
You don't have any idea what capitalism really is, and you don't understand how your greed and general unconcern will lead to your own destruction.
Save the socialist claptrap for someone who gives a shit. That person wouldn't be me.
There is no real capitalism in this country
No shit. Between the fucking socialist wannabes crying out for a nanny state and the corporate oligarchs the free market died a long, long time ago.
We have a highly structured and regulated economy
Specifically designed to make sure that everyone who's already 'got theirs' will never be bothered by any future competition, while at the same time appeasing whiners who want Daddy Government to run their lives - and everyone elses lives as well. Fortunately some of us can still make the grade, although the hurdles in doing so are beyond ridiculous.
If you don't have an interest in the financial health of the people who buy your product(s), then you're even more wacky than you seem.
Is it even possible for you to stay on-topic, or do you regularly jump about when you know you can't convincingly argue the position you've taken?
As a businessmen it's imperative that I hire the best employees possible - and for me, that means that I need employees who meet certain minimum standards. Those that fuck up their personal finances to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars of credit card debt sure as hell can't be trusted with something farther from home, like making sure they don't waste MY time and money. If you aren't going to be fiscally responsible, go find a job elsewhere. You won't see me crying a river if you walk out the door in a huff.
As for selling my products, it isn't my concern what my *customers* do - I'm not their daddy. And anyone who thinks that I *should* be their daddy (or that anyone should take on this role) is an idiot of the first order.
There's a difference between the words 'employee' and 'customer'. Try looking them up.
Please be more clueful in the future. It's not for nothing that you don't have any karma bonus.
Don't be an idiot. The reason I didn't use my karma bonus was that your comment wasn't worth applying it to. You could've verified this just by looking at any other post I'd made today, but apparently avoiding the appearance of stupidity just isn't high on your list of priorities.
Let me tell you this: Comments like yours usually come from investment banker jackasses who are too busy getting pedicures and blowjobs from Southeast-Asian sex workers
So, you have a great deal of experience in what? Giving pedicures, or blowjobs? Or both?
I'll give it to you in brief, since you clearly were born with a silver spoon in your mouth and have never worked an honest day in your life
I was born poor as dirt. Your character appraisal sucks about as bad as your understanding of the fundamentals of economics.
After that you blather on about how it's a good thing for people who sell to do it with a smile. Well, no shit, Sherlock! You discovered a fundamental principle of salesmanship!
Unfortunately you somehow failed to note that the conversation was about employers and employees, not businesses and customers. You cater to the customer because you want the customer to buy, then come back and buy again; you do NOT stroke the egos of self-important little shits who insist that their "worth" is far beyond what it actually is just because they think that's part of their employee 'rights'. Employees agree to do work X for wage Y, not work X for wage Y plus regular emotional handjobs from the boss. Those annoying little fucks can go work someplace else.
I don't shit in, or around it either.
Apparently not knowing dick about the stock market doesn't keep you from showing your ass to the world when making idiotic comments re Google's stock prices. I'm guessing that not knowing dick about *any* subject doesn't keep you from handing down comments from on-high. Damn glad to know you aren't working for me.
Um, I'm long out of the category, but I guess you aren't talking about the U.S. where new graduates have tens of thousands of dollars in debt for an education that is supposed to get them a job that pays more than minimum wage.
No, that's why I specifically said "credit card debt". Which applies to people who lack even the basic self-control to save, then spend.
What kind of employer wants to employ the kind of person that they are so busy targeting as a sales demographic?
There are the people you sell to, and the people you employ. I want quality employees, but I could give a shit who buys my products so long as they have the cash. That's called "capitalism".
I told this one before, but I'm getting old and repeating myself is something I get to do now.
Back in my college days I went to a small private university in southern California. It fancied itself as a west coast version of an ivy league institution, and it had the money, clientele, and professors to back up the claim. The students who went there (aside from the token scholarship saps, like me) were the sons and daughters of Fortune 500 CEOs, company founders with hundreds of millions of dollars, etc. If you flipped through the student roster it'd read like "The Sons and Daughters of the Insanely Rich".
In any event, all of this wealth and prestige required that the college keep up a certain reputation, especially during treasured events like Alumni Day. But some of us, especially the token scholarship boys and girls, saw such events as an opportunity of a, well, different sort.
In the middle of campus there was a clock tower, in a plaza. The damned thing never worked when I was there but it was a point of pride for reasons I can't recall, and the president of the college always escorted the uber-rich alumni through the plaza and made a point of showing off the tower as he went about milking these folks for more money in the coming year.
Only on that particular Alumni Day all those years ago, as said alumni were following the president on his tour into the plaza, they discovered that the tower had grown a very large paper mache penis, artfully mounted on the tower so as to appear to be standing 'at attention'. The shocked silence and looks of horror on the faces of all that blue blood were absolutely priceless.
Nobody was ever fingered for the crime. Nobody ever figured out how the huge paper mache tool had been made, in secret, nor how it had been transported to the site, nor reconstructed on the side of the tower. No one could ever figure out how it was even mounted since it wasn't possible to enter the tower itself. Nobody saw the monstrosity being attached to the tower, or admitted to it if they did. It had simply appeared, as if by magic.
I've always wondered why this never made it into at least urban legendry. Perhaps it's because the student newspaper was a tool of the administration and they made no mention of it whatsoever, despite the fact that every student on campus saw the thing (and took plenty of pictures). Perhaps someday some former student-turned-alumnus will see fit to post the pictures on the net.
I've also worked for government, at varying levels. And his estimation of the competency of government employees is spot-on. Many of the folks who work for government agencies are so bad at their jobs that the very reason they're in government is that the only job they'd be able to hold in the private sector is one where they'd regularly say "would you like fries with that?" This is especially true the higher up the ranks you go, where any sort of competence is quickly overshadowed by how well a person can suck up, or stab his coworkers in the back, or steal someone else's work and present it as his own.
I can say without hesitation thet the public sector employees are smarter, more dedicated, and harder working then their private sector counter parts.
Talk about pandering idiots. How long until you retire from suckling on the public tit?
having conducted several IT interviews, I can tell you that they were probably just trying to blow you off nicely.
It's obvious you haven't worked for government. Government agencies (including universities) are required, under most circumstances, to post job openings and interview qualified applicants from the general public. However in 99% of these cases the job has been earmarked for someone, either a person already in the organization or a friend/family member. It isn't legal, but that really doesn't mean shit so long as the formalities are observed.
The interviews are just for show so that if anyone makes a fuss, the management team has a paper trail backing up their actions and proving that they conducted the process properly. It also gives the suits a feeling of power to make applicants dance to their tune for an hour or two a day, knowing that none of those poor bastards has a chance in hell but came out to put on an impressive show anyway.
Jesus, a real '60's-style hippy commie, right here on Slashdot! I thought all of your sort had gone extinct. But please, keep us in chuckles with your rants on the evil "bourgeois" and how they're out to personally screw you!
the only book necessary for an exhaustive understanding of the economy would be The Wealth of Nations.
Given the abject failure of Keynesian economics and the fact that it's being disproven and repudiated at record speeds, it appears that Adam Smith still holds the record for having written the most comprehensive text on the fundamentals of supply and demand.
Likewise, a well-treated worker is more efficient than one who gets treated like shit, because being paid well and being valued by your employer raise your self-esteem.
Lines like this usually come from egomaniacs who expect their employers to spend inordinate amounts of time telling them just how valued they are. Really, get a fucking life already. You work for PAY, as in, I agree to give you X amount of dollars for Y amount of work. If you need your ego stroked, calling a phone sex hotline.
Why do you think Google is the envy of all of Silicon Valley?
Because it appears to be profitable, if only in trade. Investors don't give a flying fuck how Google treats its employees so long as the stocks remain overvalued and fluid. If you think otherwise you don't know shit about the market.
Judging by the fact that their stock is 423 bucks right now, there are at least a few people out there who believe Google is doing something right.
Yep, you don't shit about the market. People trade in Google stocks because clueless idiots have driven the price up far beyond any realistic P/E appraisal. Which means those of us with brains are trading against those who don't have them, moving wealth from the hands of fools to the hands of the savvy. That's what always happens with badly overvalued stocks.
Google's stock value will eventually crash and burn. Even the dumbest investor eventually gets a clue or two.
Slashdot Mirror
That's utter bullshit.
So is your statement. You seem to think that all gamers just yearn to play against other people, which is so far off the mark it isn't even funny. The vast majority of game sales are in SINGLE PLAYER games - one person against the computer. These folks, which include me, have no interest whatsoever in dick-measuring against some kid who brags about his "leet skillz" in Half-Life deathmatches, or whatever the hell is "the shitz" these days.
Most gamers don't give a shit about multiplay. It's right there in the sales figures.
Max
Right. So you want to replace a free-market economy with communism, where everyone is forced, at gunpoint, to do what the government tells them to do in pretty much every aspect of their life. Great to see that you're so hot for freedom. I'll be sure never to vote for you or your pals should you run for office.
Max
What we have now is that a government is so spineless and unwilling to oppose corporate and private power, that it is no government at all.
You narrow the field too far. Politicians will sell to anyone with the cash or influence, which includes a great many special interest groups that aren't associated with corporations or wealthy individuals. Of course, all of these special interest groups just *love* to claim how oppressed they are by Popular Target X, but in reality they wield far too much influence in comparison to their actual numbers.
By trying to tear down government (rather than the elite who exploit the government), you are in fact tearing down the one thing which stands there to protect you from being turned into nothing more than a wage slave or serf.
It takes government power to turn you into a wage slave or a serf in the first place. Without government power what's to keep the 'masses' from picking up their pitchforks and skewering the local lord? Nothing, that's what. Government's primary function, apart from amassing power just for the sake of amassing power, is to maintain the status quo any way it can. To keep those in power from being knocked off the hill.
The government must be powerful and effective to encourage people to participate in it.
The more powerful the government the LESS likely it is to listen to the people it supposedly represents. If government is weak - indeed, if it FEARS the people - it's far more likely to do what the hell it's told to do, rather than what individuals within the government WANT to do. The weaker the government, the easier it is to overthrow, the more vested it is in making sure it doesn't piss off the people enough to incite a revolution.
Our founding fathers were well aware of this, which is why they advocated a weak central goverment, tighly constrained by the Constitution.
And of course, the elite will extoll us to blaim government.
A powerful government is the tool of anyone who can afford it's influence. Of COURSE it's to blame. As are we, for allowing it to get this powerful in the first place.
If democracy worked, then the common man would want to share in the wealth and opulence which the wealthy hold by right
In an unfettered democracy vapid, greedy fools would simply take what others have by voting it away from them, then using government to appropriate that wealth at gunpoint. There is nothing good at all about pure democracy; it's no better than any other form of dictatorship on the planet.
And what the hell is up with you with all that "wealthy elite" garbage? Do you have a problem with the fact that other people are rich, and you aren't?
The government is OUR tool.
The government is a tool, all right. No question about that.
scrap free trade
Jesus H. Christ. Another fucking communist. Hey buddy, in case you've been out of the loop most of use LIKE free trade. What are you going to do about that? Use government to force the rest of us at gunpoint to give it up and live in your little dystopia, whether we like it or not?
ratify kyoto
For all the good it'll do. Even the experts, such as they are, say kyoto will do little to slow down global warming. And that's assuming that our very shitty, very spotty science on the subject is even remotely correct.
scrap the missile defense program
No thanks, I LIKE the idea of a working missile defense program.
don't invade Iraq looking for WMD you KNOW aren't there.
A bit fucking late, eh?
Tell your boss he has no right to dictate to you what political party you support, who you fraternize with off hours, or what personal belongings you bring with you to work. He DOES NOT OWN YOU.
Your boss has every right to tell you what you can or cannot bring to work. It's HIS property, not yours. If you don't like it then grow some balls and go work for someone else.
I'd say we've had a pretty steady rate of invention to population over our history.
You'd be wrong. It's a standard tenet in information theory that technological progress moves along an asymptotic curve. In fact, it's one of the first things you learn in the field.
Now we're seeing invention slow down
Not even the slightest bit true. We're still moving along the curve, and the doubling rate for all fields of endeavor is still decreasing. There's no credible evidence whatsoever that progress is in decline.
I think you will find that the advent of IP and IP protection slowed down development
This "what if" is something you can't test without going back in time and trying to convince the governments of the world to never implement any form of i.p. law. Until you manage this remarkable feat your statement is nothing more than idle, unsupported speculation.
Max
Look at a 1920s pharmacy, and you see 'guaranteed' cures for the common cold, measles, influenza, and every other ailment under the sun, and of course, none of them could back their claims scientifically
Which differs from today's natural/homeopathic remedies how, exactly?
Max
The entire country of Finland is slightly smaller than the state of Montana, one of 50 in the U.S. It has a population of a little over 5 million people. These two facts just might have something to do with why it's easier to get broadband to most of Finland's population than it is to do the same with the citizenry of the U.S.
Max
A more open, international approach to this issue would have prevented the happenings in the FA.
Riiight. Pull the other finger. Neither the EU nor the UN has proven themselves to be any more moral, effective, or less corrupt than the United States. The EU has been especially amusing in it's ability to produce scandals where a) politicians sell out to corporate interests, or b) politicians completely ignore the constituency that elected them.
Max
Of course, most socialists can't tell the difference between 'capitalism' and 'government-supported corporate oligarchy'. Anything that remotely looks like capitalism is, to them, the tool of the Great Satan. They paint us all with the same brush because they can't be bothered to make distinctions beyond 'socialism' and 'everything else'.
Max
It *is* jealousy. When you consider that much of the vitriol comes from citizens of former imperialist powers - countries that once ruled most of the world - it becomes rather apparent that the nasty attitudes stem from something more than percieved grievances. Especially since the U.S. hasn't done dick to most of the countries where the criticism spews forth on a regular basis, other than ignore their demands to do as we're told.
So far as I can see the main sticking point is that we can, if we wish, act like a bull in a china shop. Their nations *used* to be able to do this, but no longer have the power or influence they once wielded. It seems to be a bitter pill to swallow, knowing that once you held large tracts of the world in abject slavery and now no longer do, nor have any realistic chance of ever regaining that former 'glory'.
Max
Yes because you're too far up your own asshole to see beyond your own colon.
Typical liberal whiner. Anyone who disagrees with your "greater good" bullshit is obviously one of the low-brows that make your life such a trial. It's a damn good thing you and your ilk don't run the country and never will.
Max
It's more luck and connections working in his favor.
That's true of any business endeavor. Connections are what get you customers, and luck applies in EVERY venture no matter what some of the self-important say. If anyone - anyone at all - says that luck isn't a factor in their success they're deluding themselves.
Max
basically doesn't deserve it because it was "easy" money
Who elected you to decide whether or not the kid "deserves" the money? Or is this a self-appointed position?
Max
but only because of poor urban planning
Urban planning has little to do with it. In most places in the U.S. people don't want to live packed together into tiny areas. The exceptions, like NYC, are notable for being *exceptions*.
In this case, the government is doing our bidding - as it's supposed to. We want an infrastructure that supports decentralized living, and that's exactly what we're getting. If certain tiny segments of the population don't approve of our choices, that's just too bad for them.
Max
No-one *needs* a mini-van for 2 adults and two children.
So what? This is America, not some socialist shit-hole. Saying that people shouldn't have minivans because they don't 'need' them is fucking ludicrous.
Max
It's a shame that most US citizens can't comprehend the benefits to society of having a good solid public transit system over a crappy (or non existant) public transist
If you want to argue the value of public transport, you'll have to do it from some other viewpoint than a 'greater good' one. Apart from a few liberal whiners, the 'greater good' argument doesn't mean dick here.
Max
Debt is debt in a credit report
Apparently you've never seen a credit report.
You don't have any idea what capitalism really is, and you don't understand how your greed and general unconcern will lead to your own destruction.
Save the socialist claptrap for someone who gives a shit. That person wouldn't be me.
There is no real capitalism in this country
No shit. Between the fucking socialist wannabes crying out for a nanny state and the corporate oligarchs the free market died a long, long time ago.
We have a highly structured and regulated economy
Specifically designed to make sure that everyone who's already 'got theirs' will never be bothered by any future competition, while at the same time appeasing whiners who want Daddy Government to run their lives - and everyone elses lives as well. Fortunately some of us can still make the grade, although the hurdles in doing so are beyond ridiculous.
If you don't have an interest in the financial health of the people who buy your product(s), then you're even more wacky than you seem.
Is it even possible for you to stay on-topic, or do you regularly jump about when you know you can't convincingly argue the position you've taken?
As a businessmen it's imperative that I hire the best employees possible - and for me, that means that I need employees who meet certain minimum standards. Those that fuck up their personal finances to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars of credit card debt sure as hell can't be trusted with something farther from home, like making sure they don't waste MY time and money. If you aren't going to be fiscally responsible, go find a job elsewhere. You won't see me crying a river if you walk out the door in a huff.
As for selling my products, it isn't my concern what my *customers* do - I'm not their daddy. And anyone who thinks that I *should* be their daddy (or that anyone should take on this role) is an idiot of the first order.
There's a difference between the words 'employee' and 'customer'. Try looking them up.
Max
Please be more clueful in the future. It's not for nothing that you don't have any karma bonus.
Don't be an idiot. The reason I didn't use my karma bonus was that your comment wasn't worth applying it to. You could've verified this just by looking at any other post I'd made today, but apparently avoiding the appearance of stupidity just isn't high on your list of priorities.
Max
Let me tell you this: Comments like yours usually come from investment banker jackasses who are too busy getting pedicures and blowjobs from Southeast-Asian sex workers
So, you have a great deal of experience in what? Giving pedicures, or blowjobs? Or both?
I'll give it to you in brief, since you clearly were born with a silver spoon in your mouth and have never worked an honest day in your life
I was born poor as dirt. Your character appraisal sucks about as bad as your understanding of the fundamentals of economics.
After that you blather on about how it's a good thing for people who sell to do it with a smile. Well, no shit, Sherlock! You discovered a fundamental principle of salesmanship!
Unfortunately you somehow failed to note that the conversation was about employers and employees, not businesses and customers. You cater to the customer because you want the customer to buy, then come back and buy again; you do NOT stroke the egos of self-important little shits who insist that their "worth" is far beyond what it actually is just because they think that's part of their employee 'rights'. Employees agree to do work X for wage Y, not work X for wage Y plus regular emotional handjobs from the boss. Those annoying little fucks can go work someplace else.
I don't shit in, or around it either.
Apparently not knowing dick about the stock market doesn't keep you from showing your ass to the world when making idiotic comments re Google's stock prices. I'm guessing that not knowing dick about *any* subject doesn't keep you from handing down comments from on-high. Damn glad to know you aren't working for me.
Max
Um, I'm long out of the category, but I guess you aren't talking about the U.S. where new graduates have tens of thousands of dollars in debt for an education that is supposed to get them a job that pays more than minimum wage.
No, that's why I specifically said "credit card debt". Which applies to people who lack even the basic self-control to save, then spend.
What kind of employer wants to employ the kind of person that they are so busy targeting as a sales demographic?
There are the people you sell to, and the people you employ. I want quality employees, but I could give a shit who buys my products so long as they have the cash. That's called "capitalism".
Max
I told this one before, but I'm getting old and repeating myself is something I get to do now.
Back in my college days I went to a small private university in southern California. It fancied itself as a west coast version of an ivy league institution, and it had the money, clientele, and professors to back up the claim. The students who went there (aside from the token scholarship saps, like me) were the sons and daughters of Fortune 500 CEOs, company founders with hundreds of millions of dollars, etc. If you flipped through the student roster it'd read like "The Sons and Daughters of the Insanely Rich".
In any event, all of this wealth and prestige required that the college keep up a certain reputation, especially during treasured events like Alumni Day. But some of us, especially the token scholarship boys and girls, saw such events as an opportunity of a, well, different sort.
In the middle of campus there was a clock tower, in a plaza. The damned thing never worked when I was there but it was a point of pride for reasons I can't recall, and the president of the college always escorted the uber-rich alumni through the plaza and made a point of showing off the tower as he went about milking these folks for more money in the coming year.
Only on that particular Alumni Day all those years ago, as said alumni were following the president on his tour into the plaza, they discovered that the tower had grown a very large paper mache penis, artfully mounted on the tower so as to appear to be standing 'at attention'. The shocked silence and looks of horror on the faces of all that blue blood were absolutely priceless.
Nobody was ever fingered for the crime. Nobody ever figured out how the huge paper mache tool had been made, in secret, nor how it had been transported to the site, nor reconstructed on the side of the tower. No one could ever figure out how it was even mounted since it wasn't possible to enter the tower itself. Nobody saw the monstrosity being attached to the tower, or admitted to it if they did. It had simply appeared, as if by magic.
I've always wondered why this never made it into at least urban legendry. Perhaps it's because the student newspaper was a tool of the administration and they made no mention of it whatsoever, despite the fact that every student on campus saw the thing (and took plenty of pictures). Perhaps someday some former student-turned-alumnus will see fit to post the pictures on the net.
Max
I was surprised so many "animal activists" took the bait and ran with it.
I wasn't. Just talk to these guys; most of them are thicker 'n fence posts.
Max
that is false,and you are a pandering idiot.
I've also worked for government, at varying levels. And his estimation of the competency of government employees is spot-on. Many of the folks who work for government agencies are so bad at their jobs that the very reason they're in government is that the only job they'd be able to hold in the private sector is one where they'd regularly say "would you like fries with that?" This is especially true the higher up the ranks you go, where any sort of competence is quickly overshadowed by how well a person can suck up, or stab his coworkers in the back, or steal someone else's work and present it as his own.
I can say without hesitation thet the public sector employees are smarter, more dedicated, and harder working then their private sector counter parts.
Talk about pandering idiots. How long until you retire from suckling on the public tit?
Max
having conducted several IT interviews, I can tell you that they were probably just trying to blow you off nicely.
It's obvious you haven't worked for government. Government agencies (including universities) are required, under most circumstances, to post job openings and interview qualified applicants from the general public. However in 99% of these cases the job has been earmarked for someone, either a person already in the organization or a friend/family member. It isn't legal, but that really doesn't mean shit so long as the formalities are observed.
The interviews are just for show so that if anyone makes a fuss, the management team has a paper trail backing up their actions and proving that they conducted the process properly. It also gives the suits a feeling of power to make applicants dance to their tune for an hour or two a day, knowing that none of those poor bastards has a chance in hell but came out to put on an impressive show anyway.
Max
The bourgeois
Jesus, a real '60's-style hippy commie, right here on Slashdot! I thought all of your sort had gone extinct. But please, keep us in chuckles with your rants on the evil "bourgeois" and how they're out to personally screw you!
Max
the only book necessary for an exhaustive understanding of the economy would be The Wealth of Nations.
Given the abject failure of Keynesian economics and the fact that it's being disproven and repudiated at record speeds, it appears that Adam Smith still holds the record for having written the most comprehensive text on the fundamentals of supply and demand.
Likewise, a well-treated worker is more efficient than one who gets treated like shit, because being paid well and being valued by your employer raise your self-esteem.
Lines like this usually come from egomaniacs who expect their employers to spend inordinate amounts of time telling them just how valued they are. Really, get a fucking life already. You work for PAY, as in, I agree to give you X amount of dollars for Y amount of work. If you need your ego stroked, calling a phone sex hotline.
Why do you think Google is the envy of all of Silicon Valley?
Because it appears to be profitable, if only in trade. Investors don't give a flying fuck how Google treats its employees so long as the stocks remain overvalued and fluid. If you think otherwise you don't know shit about the market.
Judging by the fact that their stock is 423 bucks right now, there are at least a few people out there who believe Google is doing something right.
Yep, you don't shit about the market. People trade in Google stocks because clueless idiots have driven the price up far beyond any realistic P/E appraisal. Which means those of us with brains are trading against those who don't have them, moving wealth from the hands of fools to the hands of the savvy. That's what always happens with badly overvalued stocks.
Google's stock value will eventually crash and burn. Even the dumbest investor eventually gets a clue or two.
Max