That's a false argument. The reason that Chinese manufacturing is less expensive is because you have lost of rural people from the villages willing to work for pennies. American and the rest of the industrialized world just can't compete. The average pay for a factory worker in China is ~$270 per month. How can you compete with that?
Europe's a mess like how America's a mess. Depends on where you look and who you visit. In general, however, the challenges that both America and Europe have are very similar - we are importing too much tat on the whole. In other words, it's due to a massive current account deficit and wealth is being hemorrhaging away to places like China through 'free' trade. The reason that countries like Germany is doing well is that it's high up on the manufacturing chain, so its products are needed to produce the cheap tat (industrial machinery) or high-ticket and premium such as luxury cars. The market for that is limited and it's also next to fall. German cars are already being produced in Mexico for the American market for example. Everything else is just local politics (including the Euro 'crisis', which is a ploy for forced European integration).
Good for you travelling outside your country - that doesn't mean anything at all to anybody though. For me, I've lived in both Europe and North America (both US and Canada) for extended amounts of time and that doesn't give me any insight, not sure how just a trip abroad can give you any.
1. Foxconn is a Taiwanese company. 2. Remember how Jiang Zemin came to power in 1989 replacing Zhao Ziyang (who championed the students). 3. Planned for the last 10 years? Bo Xilai anyone?
That's only for big tickets industrial goods (for example the stuff that Germany and Japan are good it). For labor intensive goods, the developing countries have an edge. Most of the developing countries you talk about that are getting a raw deal, for example in Africa, are in a poor situation due to the lack of stability and a good business environment, not to mention corruption.
That's all good and whatnot, apart from the fact that HTC also makes Windows phones... And so does Samsung, LG and Nokia... So that argument gets blown out of the water as well...
Wow.. talk about an ad hominem, let's not only target the guy, let's target his whole continent...
Ok, so I'll take the bait....
America has the same issue with demographics. After having a record number of births in 2007, birth rate has subsided to 1.9, lower than France and lower than the 2.1 needed to sustain the population. You can come to you own conclusion on what happened in 2007. Hispanic birth rates are historically higher and the big influx of immigrants from Central and South America mean that it is only a matter of time that white Americans will be a minority in the US. The only difference in the issue with integration is that Islamic radicalization is more prevalent in Europe, but then there is more home grown terrorism unrelated to geo-political disputes in the US, so this issue is not as clear cut as it seems.
Regarding the economic issues, what is really surprising is the resilience of the Euro in spite of all the issues with Greece, Ireland, Spain and Portugal.
Let's talk about Greece first. Greece has had big fiscal deficits (ie. public borrowing) since the early 90's that was hidden fro view in order for them to join the Euro. They shouldn't have joined the Eurozone at all the in beginning and it really was a failure of political leadership at the EU level that led to this situation. Having joined the Euro, the Greek government and normal Greek people can borrow money at much lower interest rates and this led to a worsening of the situation.
However, the issue with Spain (and Ireland) is a lot different. Spain fell into the current hole due to a property and credit bubble (private borrowing), which when it burst led to a sharp contraction of the economy and in turn - tax receipts. The Spanish government is paying record interest rates on its increased borrowing now because of a lack of regulation during the boom years. Saving the US from a similar fate is the amount of money pumped into the system through QE, and the fact that the USD is the main reserve and trading currency internationally. This also allowed the US to continue to borrow at low interest rates to stimulate growth. Otherwise it will end up in a death spiral like Greece.
It is not as clear cut as that though - defining how specific a particular market is and how dominant a product is in relation to that market (and what the cross elasticity of supply and demand is) has a huge effect on whether a particular action is in violation of Article 81 or 82.
Gnome 3 is the best thing that happened to the Linux desktop in recent years - the things that it fixed was the horrendous complexity that you get from using a traditional Window/Panel/Desktop metaphor. What I didn't like about Gnome 2 -
- The menu hierarchy was impossible to understand and modify. - Panels were clumsy, and tended to take up a lot of space (especially double-height panels and top/bottom panels) - Desktop is a directory - ends up with a lot of visible clutter after years of use - needs constant management - Plugins are only constrained to applets and nautilus-extensions. Poor extensibility - Window manager is old and busted - composite desktop an afterthought - why do I have to test out 3 different window managers?
And the list goes on and on.. Every single point above has been fixed in Gnome 3, so yes, I'm happy. But above all, Gnome 3 actually has a clue on how the desktop should work, and stick to the story. The windows pane and automatic virtual desktops is really intuitive and is my favorite feature. In fact, Gnome 3 is so good that a lot of those I know using Ubuntu use Gnome 3 instead of Unity.
The US wasn't standing up to the UN or the ICC. It was punishing those that did not dance to its tune. The UN and the IOC may be corrupt, but the US is both corrupt and powerful.
Applications moving to the web and the drive for BYOD might not kill Windows and Microsoft, but it will be very close and come much sooner than anybody would expect.
And they had daily recap programs for those that missed the live coverage.
Why is it so hard for some people to accept that you can have a high quality public service run by a public organisation without a profit motive? Is it so hard to see beyond the dogma?
The license fee is £145.50 or around $228 USD per year. What you get is around 10 channels (2 permananet HD channels) of TV and around the same number of radio channels - ad-free, mostly impartial, relatively high-quality content. For-profit channels with advertisers pad out the rest of the spectrum.
The beep is a public service, funded by the public, so yes, it's really a tax. In return you get a media service which doesn't pander to anybody - not to politician, nor to commercial interests, nor to any particular segment of society. You're probably paying a lot more than $228 a month due to the advertising spend on the products you buy.
Yes, that's how the system was built. There are only way to influence it is to change the constitution of the Supreme Court itself by loading it with judges that support your political and social views (this was done quite successfully by a string of republican administrations).
Otherwise, you will have to find the political support to change the role of the supreme court in government by amending the constitution.
That's why I'm saying sometimes it is better in a parliamentary system - not all the time, as I said there are drawbacks and benefits to both.
It leads back to my original premise - political acceptability. Only that in America millions was spent on litigation and the legislative program was put in real limbo for quite a while due to this politically driven sideshow.
If the supreme court has decided that it is within the Constitution, then it is - their interpretation is the only interpretation that matters legally. You know why? because that is what the Constitution says! If the people then accept this politically, as they have been for the past 100+ years, then man, you really should let it go.
Don't forget about the 24 *extra* HD channels that the BBC put on just for the Olympics. Was able to drop into any one of the Olympic events at any time through the red button, or just by navigating to the correct channel on my Freesat box. It really did blow my mind. Above all - no ads! The TV license is normally pretty good value for money, but the Olympic coverage was a cut above. Really feel for those that had to endure NBC.
You mean that people aren't poor unless they were poorer than you?
I'm afraid you've made up your mind already and no matter what the facts are (for example, the US has a much higher level of relative poverty than Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and most western European countries), it wouldn't change your view one single bit.
But it is wrong to say that the constitution prohibits the federal government from "taking over" (in your words) healthcare. Remember Medicare and Medicaid, the federal government already has it's fingers in the heathcare pie? The constitutional consideration was whether the federal government can fine you for failing to take out health insurance. Is this even a constitutional matter? Most people would say not. Americans have been paying federal taxes and fines for quite a while now and it is well within the constitution. Instead of the courts existing as a check and balance against the legislature and executive, it has turned into another political tool to further certain partisan interests.
So, really, you have to give it up to the British parliamentary system sometimes for the practical approach in that the only real and effective check against the government is the people.
The constitution of the UK is based on political acceptability due to the doctrine of Parlimentary sovereignty and the widespread use of convention within the apparatus of government. There are of course drawbacks in this system, but many people overlook the benefits - legislation cannot be challenged in court for constitutionality, resulting in a legislative program which can push changes through as long as the government has the mandate politically. Think of the issues that Obama faced *after* passing the health care reforms.
The social issues in the UK are overblown by the mostly cynical British press. Similarly, the social problems in the US are under reported by the American media. Statistics indicate there is less violent crime in the UK, less income inequality, higher social mobility, etc. in the UK and most western European countries than the US.
Corporate images are updated continously and employees/contractors come and go. When laptops gets returns to desktop support, they have to reimage it. So it will still be a massive burden for them.
Slashdot Mirror
That's a false argument. The reason that Chinese manufacturing is less expensive is because you have lost of rural people from the villages willing to work for pennies. American and the rest of the industrialized world just can't compete. The average pay for a factory worker in China is ~$270 per month. How can you compete with that?
Europe's a mess like how America's a mess. Depends on where you look and who you visit. In general, however, the challenges that both America and Europe have are very similar - we are importing too much tat on the whole. In other words, it's due to a massive current account deficit and wealth is being hemorrhaging away to places like China through 'free' trade. The reason that countries like Germany is doing well is that it's high up on the manufacturing chain, so its products are needed to produce the cheap tat (industrial machinery) or high-ticket and premium such as luxury cars. The market for that is limited and it's also next to fall. German cars are already being produced in Mexico for the American market for example. Everything else is just local politics (including the Euro 'crisis', which is a ploy for forced European integration).
Good for you travelling outside your country - that doesn't mean anything at all to anybody though. For me, I've lived in both Europe and North America (both US and Canada) for extended amounts of time and that doesn't give me any insight, not sure how just a trip abroad can give you any.
1. Foxconn is a Taiwanese company.
2. Remember how Jiang Zemin came to power in 1989 replacing Zhao Ziyang (who championed the students).
3. Planned for the last 10 years? Bo Xilai anyone?
That's only for big tickets industrial goods (for example the stuff that Germany and Japan are good it). For labor intensive goods, the developing countries have an edge. Most of the developing countries you talk about that are getting a raw deal, for example in Africa, are in a poor situation due to the lack of stability and a good business environment, not to mention corruption.
Two words: Cross-licensing.
Apple refuses to do it. Everyone else does. That's why we're here discussing this at all.
That's all good and whatnot, apart from the fact that HTC also makes Windows phones... And so does Samsung, LG and Nokia... So that argument gets blown out of the water as well...
vCenter Appliance + web interface is the way to go.. Nice to see VMware finally ditching Windows..
Wow.. talk about an ad hominem, let's not only target the guy, let's target his whole continent...
Ok, so I'll take the bait....
America has the same issue with demographics. After having a record number of births in 2007, birth rate has subsided to 1.9, lower than France and lower than the 2.1 needed to sustain the population. You can come to you own conclusion on what happened in 2007. Hispanic birth rates are historically higher and the big influx of immigrants from Central and South America mean that it is only a matter of time that white Americans will be a minority in the US. The only difference in the issue with integration is that Islamic radicalization is more prevalent in Europe, but then there is more home grown terrorism unrelated to geo-political disputes in the US, so this issue is not as clear cut as it seems.
Regarding the economic issues, what is really surprising is the resilience of the Euro in spite of all the issues with Greece, Ireland, Spain and Portugal.
Let's talk about Greece first. Greece has had big fiscal deficits (ie. public borrowing) since the early 90's that was hidden fro view in order for them to join the Euro. They shouldn't have joined the Eurozone at all the in beginning and it really was a failure of political leadership at the EU level that led to this situation. Having joined the Euro, the Greek government and normal Greek people can borrow money at much lower interest rates and this led to a worsening of the situation.
However, the issue with Spain (and Ireland) is a lot different. Spain fell into the current hole due to a property and credit bubble (private borrowing), which when it burst led to a sharp contraction of the economy and in turn - tax receipts. The Spanish government is paying record interest rates on its increased borrowing now because of a lack of regulation during the boom years. Saving the US from a similar fate is the amount of money pumped into the system through QE, and the fact that the USD is the main reserve and trading currency internationally. This also allowed the US to continue to borrow at low interest rates to stimulate growth. Otherwise it will end up in a death spiral like Greece.
Funny you mention that. It seems that "marketers" that have discovered that free will was an illusion long ago, hence this story.
We've been exposed to this clockwork orange treatment for much longer than you think. Logos of brands flashing before our eyes and all...
It is not as clear cut as that though - defining how specific a particular market is and how dominant a product is in relation to that market (and what the cross elasticity of supply and demand is) has a huge effect on whether a particular action is in violation of Article 81 or 82.
Only because of the Eurozone crisis.
Gnome 3 is the best thing that happened to the Linux desktop in recent years - the things that it fixed was the horrendous complexity that you get from using a traditional Window/Panel/Desktop metaphor. What I didn't like about Gnome 2 -
- The menu hierarchy was impossible to understand and modify.
- Panels were clumsy, and tended to take up a lot of space (especially double-height panels and top/bottom panels)
- Desktop is a directory - ends up with a lot of visible clutter after years of use - needs constant management
- Plugins are only constrained to applets and nautilus-extensions. Poor extensibility
- Window manager is old and busted - composite desktop an afterthought - why do I have to test out 3 different window managers?
And the list goes on and on.. Every single point above has been fixed in Gnome 3, so yes, I'm happy. But above all, Gnome 3 actually has a clue on how the desktop should work, and stick to the story. The windows pane and automatic virtual desktops is really intuitive and is my favorite feature. In fact, Gnome 3 is so good that a lot of those I know using Ubuntu use Gnome 3 instead of Unity.
The US wasn't standing up to the UN or the ICC. It was punishing those that did not dance to its tune. The UN and the IOC may be corrupt, but the US is both corrupt and powerful.
Applications moving to the web and the drive for BYOD might not kill Windows and Microsoft, but it will be very close and come much sooner than anybody would expect.
Did it roll out 24 extra HD channels? Does it air the segments live, back-to-back and without commercials?
Regarding your question about live coverage, the answer is yes -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympic_games/vancouver_2010/8468322.stm
And they had daily recap programs for those that missed the live coverage.
Why is it so hard for some people to accept that you can have a high quality public service run by a public organisation without a profit motive? Is it so hard to see beyond the dogma?
The license fee is £145.50 or around $228 USD per year. What you get is around 10 channels (2 permananet HD channels) of TV and around the same number of radio channels - ad-free, mostly impartial, relatively high-quality content. For-profit channels with advertisers pad out the rest of the spectrum.
The beep is a public service, funded by the public, so yes, it's really a tax. In return you get a media service which doesn't pander to anybody - not to politician, nor to commercial interests, nor to any particular segment of society. You're probably paying a lot more than $228 a month due to the advertising spend on the products you buy.
Yes, that's how the system was built. There are only way to influence it is to change the constitution of the Supreme Court itself by loading it with judges that support your political and social views (this was done quite successfully by a string of republican administrations).
Otherwise, you will have to find the political support to change the role of the supreme court in government by amending the constitution.
That's why I'm saying sometimes it is better in a parliamentary system - not all the time, as I said there are drawbacks and benefits to both.
It leads back to my original premise - political acceptability. Only that in America millions was spent on litigation and the legislative program was put in real limbo for quite a while due to this politically driven sideshow.
If the supreme court has decided that it is within the Constitution, then it is - their interpretation is the only interpretation that matters legally. You know why? because that is what the Constitution says! If the people then accept this politically, as they have been for the past 100+ years, then man, you really should let it go.
Don't forget about the 24 *extra* HD channels that the BBC put on just for the Olympics. Was able to drop into any one of the Olympic events at any time through the red button, or just by navigating to the correct channel on my Freesat box. It really did blow my mind. Above all - no ads! The TV license is normally pretty good value for money, but the Olympic coverage was a cut above. Really feel for those that had to endure NBC.
You mean that people aren't poor unless they were poorer than you?
I'm afraid you've made up your mind already and no matter what the facts are (for example, the US has a much higher level of relative poverty than Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and most western European countries), it wouldn't change your view one single bit.
But it is wrong to say that the constitution prohibits the federal government from "taking over" (in your words) healthcare. Remember Medicare and Medicaid, the federal government already has it's fingers in the heathcare pie? The constitutional consideration was whether the federal government can fine you for failing to take out health insurance. Is this even a constitutional matter? Most people would say not. Americans have been paying federal taxes and fines for quite a while now and it is well within the constitution. Instead of the courts existing as a check and balance against the legislature and executive, it has turned into another political tool to further certain partisan interests.
So, really, you have to give it up to the British parliamentary system sometimes for the practical approach in that the only real and effective check against the government is the people.
The constitution of the UK is based on political acceptability due to the doctrine of Parlimentary sovereignty and the widespread use of convention within the apparatus of government. There are of course drawbacks in this system, but many people overlook the benefits - legislation cannot be challenged in court for constitutionality, resulting in a legislative program which can push changes through as long as the government has the mandate politically. Think of the issues that Obama faced *after* passing the health care reforms.
The social issues in the UK are overblown by the mostly cynical British press. Similarly, the social problems in the US are under reported by the American media. Statistics indicate there is less violent crime in the UK, less income inequality, higher social mobility, etc. in the UK and most western European countries than the US.
You must have led a pretty sheltered life to say that.
Corporate images are updated continously and employees/contractors come and go. When laptops gets returns to desktop support, they have to reimage it. So it will still be a massive burden for them.