Dude, this isn't some little backwater ecommerce site, this is the most hit site in the world. I think it's safe to say they considered the performance
Or maybe they want to reverse the IT recession singlehandedly by buying all the cheap hardware around these days. Then when the recession is over, they'll migrate to FastCGI, and then sell the old hardware at a profit (assuming Sun and Intel go bankrupt). That'll look beautiful on the balance sheet. CLEVER!
The overwhelming majority hit Limewire to find the latest Shania Twain song that they heard on the radio. Again, that refutes any idea that it's the little "Free Music" guys that are to gain: They've had the ability to gain for years, but they haven't
Joe sixpack consumes what he wants. The fact is that I've downloaded the music of Mongolian sheep farmers and native American chants which would *NEVER* appear on the shelves. If Kazaa/Limewire were to be removed now, I would class that as censorship and will overthrow the Government as I'm required to under the Constitution.
And what, pray tell, will this "new business model" be? So they spend millions cultivating an encouraging the arts at a low level, taking a loss on the vast majority of bands that they underwrite, but they should just suck it up so that you have a right to steal somes on Gnutella? Uh huh. What business are you in? I'd like to make some comments about how theft and illegal acts can deprive you of your ability to make a living,
The MBAs and VCs have deprived many of us hAxOrS of our living, why should we give the MBAs in RIAA money?
New business model: Media falls into *the Commons* (Government terminology). Our taxes will pay for media content, thus it will truly be for everybody.
If you don't like taxes, then stop using that road you use everyday that you haven't purchased, and stop calling 911 when someone robs you. I've never called 911 in my life why should I pay for other people that use 911 all the time??? Gotcha.
HA HA!! Pathetic attempt. If they want to dampen noise then they should use modern-day carbonite (Hans Solo style).
The potting compound will ooze around all components and then harden in 24 hours, making your PCB into an instant black box. Also makes it *very* hard for a competitor to reverse-engineer your electronics. Heh, I knew that joint major Comp-EE would come in handy:-)
As I said before, not giving something to someone is not the same as taking away something that they already own. If someone chooses not to work, no-one is forcing them to starve - they have made the choice themselves.
And in saying that you say that every CEO is 100% honest (Enron, Worldcom) and gives everybody jobs which they like, and when recessions occur all the people fired can get jobs automatically and immediately elsewhere and seamlessly relocate their children anywhere in the country within 24 hours. If you're in the IT industry and lose your job every month, then your kids will be fucked up, making the future generation heroin addicts and unable to work at all. Who's going to pay for you to relocate (especially if your new job is minimum wage)? Who's going to compensate your children for ripping them away from all their friends once a month? Who's going to compensate you for having to drive 500 miles just to see your mates now?
The tax system is unfair because the people who contribute the most receive the least, and the people who contribute the least receive the most. In a truly fair system, most tax would be paid by the poor, since they are the biggest users of the government's services
It has to be unfair. The Government is not a corporation and it's providing a service for both business and the citizens. See below. I hope that one day your boss sacks you and you can't find another job for 1 year. Only then will you understand that the companies don't care about you unless they're very small, but then the Bank pulls the strings and they don't care about the business. Someone should throw you into the middle of a rainforest with man-eating pygmies who will rape your wife and children, steal all your possessions and tie you up and eat your arms and legs while you sleep so that you appreciate why civilisation is necessary.
why should people who pay for private healthcare, education, pensions etc, have to pay for everyone elses? After all, they're saving the government money by providing for themselves!
Fine. If you get a cancer that will cost $30,000,000 to cure (well above your insurance policy) then I'll give you a gun so you can shoot yourself in the head, after you pay me for rental of the gun and one bullet.
If you get insurance that covers you for more than a few million then as soon as you go to your Doctor, he'll see you as a cash cow and say that everything is wrong with you, other Doctors will tacitly co-operate with him as they'll refer people to him to make money for themselves as well. Thus it'll be impossible to get an honest and impartial opinion. When he wants to milk your cash cow insurance policy he'll diagnose you with schizophrenia, inject you with Lardactyl (Glaxo Smithkleine?) to make you look and act schizophrenic, then he'll lock you up in a mental asylum for the rest of your lifetime.
The Doctors will make money from the insurance company, you'll be a sacrifice in the name of commerce.
You keep using the word "slavery" but I don't think you know what it means. Slavery means forcing someone to produce economic value and confiscating it from them, without allowing them any control over its use. Slaves worked in fields or mines or building pyramids. People who do not work produce nothing, therefore, the term slavery is irrelevant.
Isn't it? If I offer you a job for £0.25 per hour, 22 hours per day seven days a week, manual labour, I will whip you and cut off your arms and feed you cyanide. But hey it's a job so somebody (like you) will be forced into it. Some jobs go unfilled for a reason. I sugest you read up on the necessity of involuntary employment.
there's no need to interact with them at all. Let the live the lives they choose - well away from decent folk, and with their own money.
No job, therefore no money leading to starvation and death. Forceful relocation at gunpoint is something that I'm not even going to comment on
It takes weeks to bring a reactor from cold to a working state, so your example is nonsensical - the excess power would simply be met from reserves. That's why your TV doesn't go out during the interval when everyone in the country switches their kettles on.
Incorrect, when demand on a regional grid increases, there's a complex electrical mechanism based around the massive transformers and switching stations where regional grids would be split, brought into phase and regional inefficient power stations would be brought online the cost of which might be well over what I've stated. You say that people should pay according to their use of a service, not how much it costs to provide.
The corporations pay for their use of employees, and pay tax for the care of the people who are not their employees. If the corporations didn't pay this tax then there would be anarchy and the business would collapse, likewise if the business didn't pay its employees then they would revolt and run away.
At the end of the day every corporation needs two services - 1. Employees to provide productivity 2. A stable business environment
Paying salaries provides (1). Paying tax provides (2) (the business purchases the Government's service). And yes, providing a good business environment does entail taking care of the destitutes as otherwise we'll have a situation like Bombay India where peasants come and beg in the streets and steal, murder and thieve from the workers. If you don't pay you taxes take my word for it, like in India there'll be 1000 starving beggars attacking you and stabbing you as soon as you walk out of the office, eventually all the workers would have been stabbed to death, and having zero workforce will collapse the economy.
Fair enough. Perhaps the solution is to grant loans to asylum seekers rather than writing them a blank cheque.
Hmmmmmm, I'll have to ponder over that one.
Simple analysis shows that isn't true. What could be simpler than a burger flipping job at McDonalds? Surely simple jobs will move first? No, because a burger flipper in Bangalore can't flip burgers for a customer in London!
I'm glad that you'd like a McDonalds job for minimum wage, have fun!
Actually, the reason is that bankers like to be close to other bankers (videoconferencing is no subsititute for being there except for the most trivial of conversations) so they tend to cluster in banking hotspots like London, Frankfurt, NYC, etc. When banks do move, it's only to go to another hotspot. That isn't going to change any time soon
And who are you to say that, God? I know lots of bankers that would love to move the LSE to Goa and bathe in the Sun.
Any job that does not require interacting directly with people can be moved offshore - but any job that does is perfectly safe here.
With many many jobs being computerised, automated and converted to web services, most jobs can be moved offshore, especially in the future as the younger generation is communicating mainly by SMS, IM, email and webcam. I predict in future we will have a completely global workforce, when you get sacked from your job in London, your next job will be in Kandahar starting in 24 hours.
I am enjoying this conversation; a pity that Slashdot eventually locks old discussions
As am I.
In fact, the welfare state itself is a form slavery - it compels a class of workers to give the economic value they produce to a class of people who do not work
The lives of workers aren't threatened by paying taxes, unless the country's economy is in deep shit. Taking $100,000 from a CEOs $1,000,000 salary to clothe and feed other hungry citizens is less slavery than forcing those other citizens to die because they are unable to work (schizophrenic, ME, undiscovered or undiagnosable mental disorder). If only CEOs were taxed then nobody would become a CEO so a sliding scale is used on all employess, a McDonalds burger-flipper pays almost zero tax, he supports himself only (as it should be), and an IT worker earning $60,000 supports himself plus a few people on welfare (as it should be). Forcing people who do not wish to work is:
1. Slavery on the people who do not wish to work 2. Slavery on the company which has to pay the salary of this employee who can't be trusted with company secrets, etc. because he doesn't wish to work. 3. Slavery on the other employees in this company because their productivity which goes towards their own salaries is sucked up by this employee who also kicks, scratches, stabs and punches the other employess. But hey at least the company gets a.001% tax rebate.
So no welfare results in 3 types of slavery, and a welfare state results in only 1 type of partial slavery, well actually I'd rather call it compulsory community donation.
There are certain people who are simply unemployable, it's true. But the fact is that we don't owe them a living
Uhhhh £40 per week isn't a living, and I feel damn good that those damn CEOs are paying the Lion's share of this.
In the vast majority of cases it is a choice freely (if unwisely) entered into. The individual in your example is a parasite, nothing more. I don't advocate "disposing" of such people, but I don't believe that honest, law-abiding citizens have any responsibility to people who deliberately choose not to be honest or law-abiding themselves. It would be very different if she were a good citizen facing circumstances beyond her control
The only way to stop someone (even a criminal heroin addict needing food, clothing and shelter is by killing them or cryogenically freezing them (killing them). If you live in the projects or in Hull then there's 50% unemployment in those cities. Damn right 'cos if I'm offered a job in those hell-holes I'll refuse.
Not at all; they are free to earn money and spend it like anyone else.
So were the enslaved Niggers. Work for your Aryan Master all day, then you're free to spend a small pitance of money freely. Freedom means freedom to work wherever you like, freedom to eat whatever you like, freedom to buyy whatever you like, freedom to not work if you like.
If we were forced to work then what reasone would employers have to make workplaces nice? Sellafield has exploded killing all employees, so what? Your employees are wasting time between 12-1 having "Lunch". Employees shouldn't eat during the working day, they're decreasing productivity. Employees breathe out hot air whilst working, increasing the cost of air conditioning. Force all employees to hold their breath whilst working. If the employee dies I don't give a shit because another person will be forced into the job at gunpoint as nobody pays for anyone else to "sit on the dole". Everybody's forced into jobs, so why should we give them a salary? Make them work for free, and then when they die of starvation replace them with another worker.
Here's an idea - create a state where nobody must work. In that case employers will have to make jobs nice and jobs that don't breach employees' principles eg. dumping waste in rivers which decreases the need for policing, saving taxes.
it is unfair to those who have contributed to the system by paying taxes if people who have contributed nothing enjoy all the benefits of the system, leaving nothing left for those who have contributed.
It's unfair for the old woman who switched on her kettle, putting the grid power usage 1kW over capacity, requiring an entire nuclear reactor to be brought on line just for her damn kettle to get a standard bill. Does she get a $300,000 bill for her electricity? Nope, everybody absorbs the cost. Life's unfair, providers just have to absorb the cost. Next time you switch on an electrical appliance, how would you feel getting a $1,000,000 bill? All tarriffs have welfare at some time, like "Buy one get One free".
Example: ordinary British citizens have to pay for flu vaccinations, but illegal immigrants get it for free.
Ordinary citizens should pay, their companies should pay for it. But you'll see the companies won't pay because they don't give a damn, because people in work don't want to quit and go on dole due to miserly welfare. Immigrants in detention should get it free, because if they get flu then they'll have to be given medicines and taken to hospital, taking up a hispital bed for a few days, I'd guessthe cost at £5,000 which the Government must absorb.
e.g. Windows 3.1 administrators. The Capitalist system makes productive people into freeloaders involuntarily
This is a classic economic fallacy, called the "lump of labour" by economists. It is based on the assumption that people have fixed skill sets, which isn't true in practice. What happens is that people re-train and re-skill themselves and find other work. Let me give you an example: unemployment in Britain is currently around 3-4%, amongst the lowest in Europe. 2-3% unemployment is perfectly natural and is caused by people changing jobs or taking career breaks. What happened to all the miners laid off in the 80s? Why, they found other jobs - there aren't a million miners still sitting idle.
In tech, few people become obsolete, because we learn new technologies all the time - if anyone chooses not to keep their skills up to date, they have no-one to blame but themselves if they can't find work
Not always, try telling all of Slashdot "Hey, all C++ jobs are gone, so do data entry for the rest of your life". Picasso, Beethoven and Mozart would have been mentally unable to do Data Entry/Secretarial jobs. Look at my previous discussion about my friend's inability to find a software job. He's spent £16,000 and the Government has paid >£30,000 on his 6 years of IT education, which has now been wasted by the companies which suddenly decided "Oooooh, we need experience". Your taxes have paid for that, so on his behalf I thank you. He's now on the dole and can't spend more money to re-skill himself as he's too deep in debt now.
No, do what most ordinary citizens do: live on savings until you find another job. I was laid off last year, and that's exactly what I did
Immigrants generally don't have savings. My Dad came to England with £3 in his pocket - that was all. He lived on welfare initially, but then within a short time he got a very good job due to his work ethic.
BTW, I think that native-born citizens should have to earn welfare rights too, by contributing into the system by working and paying taxes.
See above, some areas have 40% unemployment, what self-respecting company would start up in the glamorous Hull or entrepreneurial Teeside? If you're born in these areas you'll be on dole for the rst of your life, unless you move but who's going to pay for you to move house/rent and which hiring manager would employ a scanky heroin-addicted scallywag from Teeside?
Again, it doesn't work like that in practice. Money sitting in an offshore haven is useless; like electricity, money is only useful when it moves from place to place. People talk about "massive corporations" as if they are some sort of alien presence, but in reality corporations are employees and shareholders. (Do you have an ISA or a pension? You're a shareholder too). Money made by a corporation pretty soon gets spent in a country.
Example: banking has not moved offshore, London is still THE financial centre of the world. There are 700-ish American banks with a presence in London, compared with 400-ish in NYC. (NYC does have more volume in certain instruments, but London is a one-stop shop). This is an example of service economy that is not paid for by salaries, and even in these down times, it's thriving.
Look at the automotive industry - now cars are made by robots, and these companies have virtually no employees. shareholders also can be anywhere in the world. A company that becomes automated isn't tied to one country, this means that the factory can easily relocate to China where everything is cheaper. Historically all companies that can become automated/mechanised soon move offshore. With massive IT investment the majority of companies will become automated. If the majority of UK companies move offshore, using offshore web services instead of local labour, our economy will implode and you my friend will be on welfare as well. Banks are also being automated, think about it, you can easily do your job in India, why do you have to be in the UK? So your job is doomed, pretty much every job can move to India/China. Merrill Lynch is moving most of its operations to India, the only jobs left in the UK will be very few sales/equities/debt related.
If your job can be moved to India/China then if you're no willing to relocate, you better shut up and pay your taxes for the welfare that you'll be on. And they won't necessarily relocate to the nice parts like Goa, Puna, Bangaloe but to Calcutta where everything is cheaper still and epidemic Government corruption means that the company CEOs own and run everything including Government as the majority of voters are peasant farmers. Before elections the Government uses taxpayers' money to repackage UN food aid into Government handout sacks, so it looks ike the Government is giving free stuff out to the peasant farmers. So the corrupt incumbent Government stays. But your job's going to be moved there, want to go?
Well, although some posts on here have suggested otherwise (hopefull thinking maybe?) college degrees don't mean jack right now -- experience does.
For what its worth, if there is real skills and a good amount of real professional experience (and isn't socially inept), at least here in the Boston area, your friend wouldn't have a problem finding a job
Well without experience he can't get a job, an without a job he can't get experience. Catch-22.
Well, I suppose his 6 years of University education has been wasted then, he's fallen out of the workforce and become "lump of labour". Yipee. Software Engineers can't do mindless data entry, so I thank you in advance for your taxes which will pay for his lifetime on welfare.
Actually, I haven't killed anyone, and I'm not even white. Don't let the facts stand in the way of your opinions, tho'.
OK
More likely voter apathy is caused by seeing taxpayer's money wasted on white elephant projects like the Dome, run by cronies of the Prime Minister, completely unaccountable to the taxpayer and the voter
Disagree. This shows the public that massive projects go ahead without their permission, reinforcing the God-like appearance of the top echelons of Government to the masses, allowing the ancien regime to reign supreme! This stabilises the masses and decreases crime (I mean the Peckham Estate people that make up the majority of this country, just go to Kirby where there's a permanent ambulance outside every bar)
So what you're saying is that you want handouts, without having to work and earn them, and you'll use violence against anyone who doesn't hand over their money? Exactly how does that make you different from the common criminal? And why would anyone welcome criminals into their country?
Just the same right that everyone else gets. If Welfare is shut down completely then there'll be a massive backlash of the general population. If welfare for immigrants only is shut down, then there should be the same backlash. Once a Welfare state starts excluding certain people from welfare that's called a slave race in which case the American civil war was not won at all, the slave race just changed to a different group of people. I don't think our capitalist system is advanced enough to be completely fair, e.g.: Linus Torvalds: Hey Bill Gates, please give me a job, you've smashed Unix by buying Sun's kernel IP rights, giving Windows XXXP a bootmenu of "1. Safe Mode - Unix kernel" and "2. Game Mode - Microsoft kernel" Linux has been made illegal by DRM. Bill Gates: Shut up! I'm not gonna give you a job, go on welfare, OOOOHHHHH BUT THERE'S NO WELFARE ANY MORE IS THERE LINUX-MAN!!! You better work for Exxon who uses Micro$oft, oh but that's right, they will prefer one of the ten million MCSEs we have produced ha ha ha!!! Looks like you're just gonna have to starve and die 'cos there's no welfare ha ha ha ha!!!
If you go to Kirby(Liverpool) and force a young heroin-addicted girl to work in an office, then that'll decrease the work output of the office as she thieves, kicks, punches and stabs all the other employees with her syringe. The country's GDP would decrease if these people were given salaries to decrease a company's output by greater than the miniscule amount of tax that would give such a person shelter. She can then thieve off other unemployed people, leaving GDP unaffected.
If you think forcing everyone into a job will solve all your problems, then there are hundreds of thousands of paranoid murderous schizophrenics (some of whom my Uncle sees) who would happily oblige, and then make every company in the UK a living hell which would make all UK industry and skilled labour force flee to Afghanistan/Bali for peace and quiet. In a recession, there's usually a call for a stronger socialistic system, even communism. You are an unusual man to ask for aggressive capitalism in the midst of a recession, but I admire that I suppose.
I'm all for open borders - the only problem is that along with doctors and teachers, we get freeloaders too. The solution is to abolish all forms of welfare for immigrants, so that the only ones who come are the ones willing to work for a living and contribute to society. Once they are integrated and have paid taxes into the system, than and only then should they receive the rights and benefits of citizens.
Temporary slaves, "Be a Nigger for 25 years and then you'll be freed!". How's that different from "I, the Aryan master hereby free this Nigger for good work." Just as digusting. The most any Government should do is to deport potentially unproductive asylum seekers almost immediately, with 2 rights to appeal which will be handled by a differrent judge on the same day.
There must be some freeloaders, these "freeloaders" are just people who've fallen out of fashion e.g. Windows 3.1 administrators. The Capitalist system makes productive people into freeloaders involuntarily (Microsoft upgrades their OS then thousands lose their jobs). What you gonna do with these out of fashion people who have worked too long in your country to go back, but not long enough to earn welfare rights - shoot them? Same "starve and die immigrant asshole" argument as above.
Very simple arithmetic shows that this cannot work. Lets say a shopkeeper pays $10 in tax, and a bureaucrat comes in and spends $10 on some goods. The bureaucrat now has some goods, but the shopkeeper has only gotten his own money back! That system works very well for the government, but destroys the shopkeeper, who must now spend more money to buy more stock.
Too simple, CEOs pay maximum tax and the poor pay almost none. Thus maximum redistribution occurs from the top which is the way it's supposed to be. So the $10 good in your shop purchased by a beauracrat = $9.99 from CEOs and $0.01 from average workers like us. With a $3 profit margin, the CEOs are subsidising businesses.
Automation and industrialization create the economic surpluses that pay for sanitation, healthcare, education, a legal system and all the other advantages of a modern society. The computer you use would be impossible in a subsistence economy
The service economy is paid for by salaries. If all jobs are automated then there will be no salaries, and the massive corporations that would benefit from such automation will have the resources to move their money to an offshore tax haven, robbing your economy of investment and salaries. The people must be employed by the companies in your country, or you better set one hell of an export tarriff and give high welfare, oh but you're against welfare.
Are you seriously suggesting that you'd rather live in a subsistence economy?
Nah, just sounded kinda poetic. I've seen a lot of arrogant b*stards driving around in Porsches during the dotcom boom, they should damn well be forced to tend farm and raise cattle now, see how far their Porsche gets them in taming stampeding cows.
I see from your URL that you are British. How about the Millenium dome as a simple example?
The public must see high profile projects otherwise there will be nationwide depression and indifference, voting numbers will decrease massively, Government representatives can be interviewed about failing projects (THE MEDIA DOESN'T REPORT GOOD NEWS!) so this is just a PR excercise.
How about the billions wasted on asylum seekers?
My Father was an asylum seeker, and was succesful in staying here in the UK. I'm glad that you feel money is wasted on me, would you rather kill people like me? If you threaten my life (that of immigrants and immigrants' descendants) by starving us to death (no welfare) then I will fucking join Al Qaeda and kill you first (I mean it!). The Italian Americans, the Indian Americans, the Native Americans, the Mexican Americans, the Japanese Americans, the Negro Americans, etc. will rise up and destroy you from within.
Take your Aryan race superiority and bury it with the corpses of the millions of native American that you slaughtered and now don't give a damn about. Those billions will continue to be spent on Asylum seekers whether you like it or not. The creation of a multi-ethnic society is a one-way trip, the failure of this project will result in worldwide civil war in all multi-ethnic countries. People like you will cause this unless you watch your tongue Now I know why you have agorophobia, if I had your views I'd hang myself
Or the massive amounts of red tape tying up teachers and doctors, and the bureaucrats to enforce it all?
My Mother is a teacher and I know hudreds of Doctors. There is no red tape tying them up, just a shortage of skill because they keep going to the United States to get more money, and then when they do malpractice (in America this happens all the time) and the medical insurers refuse to insure them, they come back here and serve. We have to import our operational surgeons from India now, and they'll refuse to come here unless promised eventual permanent stay. BUT India has technologically advanced so far that for the first time about 40% of them WANT to go back to India.
The beauracrats produce reports and purchase products and services to bring wealth and investment into the economy. If a shop-owner pays tax which goes to a beauracrat who then goes into his shop and buys products, then good products will be provided for him, thus shops with good products will be rewarded by consumers, so what if the consumers are paid via tax?
Or the CAP, which spends billions every year subsidizing farmers to produce food that must be destroyed because there's no demand for it?
If we stopped production then the Americans will send us Monsanto and Sky? Genetically Engineered filth that you sent to Zimbabwe, and hormone-pumped beef, all you Americans can keep your heart attacks and massive obesity to yourselves, we don't want to import that thank you. The US has the biggest food surplus done deliberately to keep food prices low so you Americans can enjoy 55c triple cheeseburgers while Bolivian farmers starve at the hands of massive monopsonies.
Or legal aid, on which billions are wasted on frivolous actions?
These people keep the law in check. What stops me suing every Ameican on welfare who can't afford a lawyer? You would be guilty by default! 99% of Joe sixpack citizens will see the fight against DMCA as a frivolous action, so what if some geeks wanna change some laws, why listen to geeks? Governments should listen to honest people like those that tend farm and horse and live a good honest living on the farm, the DMCA will not effect these people. as the Government will not allow the extortion of these honest workers. No IT man is an honest worker who tends farm, raises cattle and actually gives something good to society; all we do is turn skilled jobs into Data Entry, Salesmens' jobs into CRM automatons, typesetters' jobs into Epson inkjets, recordkeepers' jobs into NAS/SAN, and mathematicians/operations jobs into mainframes.
Or that the EU's own accountant won't sign the accounts because billions every year are lost?
Frankly, anyone imprudent enough not to save for retirement, and irresponsible enough not to insure their health, does not deserve help from anyone. It's easy to be "compassionate" with someone elses money. I don't care if they say they're going to spend it on puppies for orphans, the fact is that the money I earn is taken away from me and spent on things that don't benefit me at all.
WHAT???!!!!! I'm happy to pay my taxes, if the Government wasted lots of money it would be in the news. It's essential to have some redistribution of wealth, and taking it to the extreme did you pay for the road you use everyday? Did you pay for the water you use? Did you pay for an independent company to make sure Walmart is hygenically preparing food?
IMPORTANT: If the citizens were responsible then if the Government disappeared tomorrow, we would all band together and invest in a company which would provide water, sanitation, policing of hygene standards, policing of streets, etc. Well here's news this company exists and it's called the US Government, and if you don't like it then you're free to go to the Brazilian rainforest and live out your days with man-eating pygmies. There will be no laws and your children will be slaughtered and eaten during some drought, but yeah anarchy works in theory. Ask yourself this - would you have a job and would the company paying your salary exist in an anarchy? Can cavemen use software?
Allow the people to live out simple lives (food, housing and sanitation provided by Government) whilst if they wish consuming some products and services, this is good Government. If you didn't pay your taxes then those people in the projects, (yes they ARE people) will come into your house and steal all your stuff, and then kill you and your family. Just look at the rich-poor gap! Police need taxes to pay for them, so shut up.
In 1999, about 20% of Britain's population was over 60. This is predicted to rise to 34% by 2050, with half that number over 80.
Fewer children are being born: 91 live births per 1000 women in 1961, dropping to only 55 in 2000. In the 25-29 age group, the drop is even more dramatic, from 178/1000 in 1961 to 95/1000 in 2000
The high birth rate of both legal and illegal immigrants (following the lack of birth control culture of their originating country) will compensate for the deficit in births. Any child born in the UK is a British citizen so they should be counted plus the Parents who will be granted asylum
Between 1993 and 2000 the number of under-25s owning their own property has fallen from 21% to 19%. The number of 25-29 year olds living with parents rose from 18% in 1978 to 23% in 1998
Right to buy schemes and the massive increase in house prices (supply-demand) has caused younger people to be unable to afford houses (much like Paris with decadent aristocratic landlords living on the rent of a peasant underclass). My friend recently received a quotation from a London mortgage company: Mortgage value: £500,000 Monthly repayments: £800 ($1400) Repayment period (years): infinity
A mortgage that can never be repaid, hmmmmmm.
The number of 25-35 year olds living alone rose from 2% in 1973 to 12% in 2000. The average age of a first time house buyer is now 35. The average household income is GBP 24,000/year - the average mortgage exceeds GBP 140,000
Damn right, I'm one of them. In London the mortgage would be GBP650,000 which would be $950,000 how the hell can I afford that? An infinity mortgage, it'll be like one of Orwell's novels!!!! Also don't forget the conformist '70s culture effect where everybody wore a suit and if you walked out in the street by yourself without a girlfriend you were loitering or a Nazi/IRA, and were treated as such by the police. YOU HAD TO HAVE A GIRLFRIEND AT ALL TIMES. Recently, Chinese/Korean people walking around in large groups have destroyed this part of British culture (Thank God!)
Tax relief on mortgages and grants for university education have been slashed. Professor Tinker believes that people born within the last 30-40 years face paying 1/3 of their lifetime's earnings in taxes just to support pensioners born before them.
Exactly why globalisation and monopolistic organisations are going to screw us (Microsoft) and every Ethiopean (Monsanto GM food sprinkled from aircraft to contaminate) for every dollar we have, and why Linux will be made illegal and DRM established - to get more money out of the citizens, and citizens always pay more easily for perceived use e.g. ATT MESSAGE: PAY $100 NOW OR LOSE YOUR INTERNET CONNECTION, YOU HAVE 10 SECONDS TO COMPLY, of course you'll pay.
In 1997, Gordon Brown started taxing pension funds. It is estimated that GBP 100 billion has already been siphoned off - money that belonged to current contributors. The principle of compound interest means that the people who suffer the most will be the most recent joiners. Meanwhile, MPs recently voted themselves a 20% boost in the pensions - funded by the taxpayer
To be fair, a lot of good's been done with that money, the National debt has decreased by tens of Billions and the Government looks healthy, and has initiated long-term repairs on the NHS and taken drastic action on Railtrack. Here in Europe our democracy and controls are superior to the US so an Enron-style problem is almost impossible in Europe, and even if it does there's a strong socialist net as is needed which shows the superior compassion of the Europeans over the American "Pay or die" hospitals.
These coffee-slingers-come-Java-developers were still only really qualified for coffee slinging. Every joe-blow who sent out a resume because they read HTML For Dummies wasn't a qualified web developer
Time-warped man, why don't you put your money where your mouth is? Here's my friend's resume, he's on welfare now:
Bachelors CompMajor 3year 2-1Hons Imperial College UK specialist in Java, C++ and Supercomputer Simplex algorithm optimisation Masters CompMajor 1year Computing Leeds specialising in search engine technology and web services Bachelors Economics London School of Economics
I personally vouch for him he's damn good and can code circles around C++ "gurus". Of course being an IT specialist he's crap at networking, you can't be good at everything. With IT people if you count networking as a critical skill then that's 99% of the IT workforce gone right there. Might as well just out with it and say "gay, transsexual IT people only please".
Got a job for him? Nooooooo? Thought not, Americans talk so much hot air. Right now a software engineering career is like being at the top of a cliff, you are simply choosing to not look down
My Uncle is a shrink and is having a lot of sessions with 1st class Honours degree Cambridge/Oxford graduates who can't get jobs.
What do you get when you cross an Arab terrorist with a skyscraper?
Rubble
Hmmmm, this is more difficult than I thought, I'll try again
Kid: Mommy, why did binLaden destroy twin towers? Mom: He made a giant firefighter kebab to feed us
Kid: Uncle Osama, you have struck a great victory to unify the worldwide Muslim nation into an Ummah so that the Kalifah could return to Earth and destroy the American Kaffir like he promised. You must be proud of your achievement! Osama: Nope, I just wanted my own TV show, but Tom Green and Jackass stole my idea, so that was the best thing I could come up with. The moral of the story is that sometimes the backup plan really sucks. Now let us reunite. At least I got a few old buildings around Kabul demolished yeeeehaaa. It wasn't me, it was Allah and Jesus!
But the guy probably didn't want to die. He was unemployed, and probably depressed. He probably wandered in their in hopes of happiness, got "zoned", and didn't see any reason to leave, as he thought he was having fun. I've been like that, only to a much lesser degree
The more interesting question is should Internet cafes kick out whinos as a matter of policy? I think this would be bad as then nothing stops you from kicking people out of your store because they're Black/Chinese/Whatever.
Unemployed people aren't depressed, the depression rate is only 20% (Warwick University PDF, link lost) which is only 5 times higher than the working population.
If whinos played Quake instead of getting drunk in the street we might see a better America "Will Frag for Food"
I'm always very happy when my parents kick me off my computer, and I do something productive with my life, instead of wasting it
Oh my God, you're a sadomasochist!
I would thank God, whoever kicked me off, and really look at how pathetic I was, and try to change
And what would you do if you had no house to go to and had to sit outside in the cold? When the hell did Americans become so anti-Socialist? Doesn't your own Bible say, "Do not covet what thy neighbor has" right next to "Thou shalt not kill"? I think this implies Jesus wants a Socialist Government.
Have you *ever* tasted meth? It isn't something you'd overlook in water
Rohipnol has no taste, and then under it's effect they can make you drink your own piss and you woudn't notice. This is when they should add the amphetamine, and hey presto - one recharged customer at only slight risk of injury like Ford Pinto.
I wonder if it means that the MPAA/RIAA would be buying senators to add DRM (digital restrictions mechanisms) to our bodies now
Oh for God's sake the IT industry dwarfs the media industry. Hollywood buys Senators, and then in their movies they call Senators assholes and then Arnold Schwarzennegger kills them.
Senators like the IT industry more than the media industry, and the IT industry can buy double the number of Senators that the movie industry has, but IT people in general (apart from usless MBA types) are shy and think they can just email the Democrats back into power.
Never before in history has such an important part of the economy been run by geeks that are too afraid to lobby the Senate and too afraid to protest and have virtually no union (I think). The DMCA was supposed to help the IT industry, but the geeks were so shy to say anything that the legislature had to guess at what the IT industry wanted. As a result we have the DMCA we have today
Bill Gates or Linus can pick up his phone right now and call Bush, then Bush will say, "Hello Mr Gates/Torvalds nice to hear from you, I will see you at your convenience, sir. Is there anything you would like from the US Government? We are your humble servants.". But the geeks that run the IT industry can't even understand the power they have. Funny.
Indeed, exactly like the strong armed way they dealt with Microsoft
The WTC attacks would have made you Americans grow up, obviously I expected too much. Micro$oft hasn't killed anyone, neither does it import heroin into the US, etc.
When Enron was lying and their stock prices were rising through the roof, did anybody say, "Shut 'em down"? No, everybody just shut up and felt good and made money, nobody cared it was fake. Should the Government shut down all growing companies now?
Now that everybody's calling for accounting integrity, the Government's passing anti-corporate laws. So democracy works, what's the big deal here?
Before Enron went bust, everybody wanted money and nobody cared about accounting, so the Government didn't do anything. After Enron went bust, everybody wanted accounting integrity, and now the laws are being passed by Bush real fast. What you should mean is that THE PEOPLE (Joe sixpack) on average don't care what Micro$oft has done, same as they don't care what Exxon has done to get the oil, they just shut up and fill up their tanks.
You/. people should shut up and do some cold-calling like I've been forced to do now, see how business is really done.
Slashdot Mirror
Me is a saying let taxes pay for Hollywood's content.
New business model: Media falls into *the Commons* (Government terminology). Our taxes will pay for media content, thus it will truly be for everybody.
If you don't like taxes, then stop using that road you use everyday that you haven't purchased, and stop calling 911 when someone robs you. I've never called 911 in my life why should I pay for other people that use 911 all the time??? Gotcha.
The potting compound will ooze around all components and then harden in 24 hours, making your PCB into an instant black box. Also makes it *very* hard for a competitor to reverse-engineer your electronics. Heh, I knew that joint major Comp-EE would come in handy :-)
If you get insurance that covers you for more than a few million then as soon as you go to your Doctor, he'll see you as a cash cow and say that everything is wrong with you, other Doctors will tacitly co-operate with him as they'll refer people to him to make money for themselves as well. Thus it'll be impossible to get an honest and impartial opinion. When he wants to milk your cash cow insurance policy he'll diagnose you with schizophrenia, inject you with Lardactyl (Glaxo Smithkleine?) to make you look and act schizophrenic, then he'll lock you up in a mental asylum for the rest of your lifetime.
The Doctors will make money from the insurance company, you'll be a sacrifice in the name of commerce.
Isn't it? If I offer you a job for £0.25 per hour, 22 hours per day seven days a week, manual labour, I will whip you and cut off your arms and feed you cyanide. But hey it's a job so somebody (like you) will be forced into it. Some jobs go unfilled for a reason. I sugest you read up on the necessity of involuntary employmentThe corporations pay for their use of employees, and pay tax for the care of the people who are not their employees. If the corporations didn't pay this tax then there would be anarchy and the business would collapse, likewise if the business didn't pay its employees then they would revolt and run away.
At the end of the day every corporation needs two services -
1. Employees to provide productivity
2. A stable business environment
Paying salaries provides (1). Paying tax provides (2) (the business purchases the Government's service). And yes, providing a good business environment does entail taking care of the destitutes as otherwise we'll have a situation like Bombay India where peasants come and beg in the streets and steal, murder and thieve from the workers. If you don't pay you taxes take my word for it, like in India there'll be 1000 starving beggars attacking you and stabbing you as soon as you walk out of the office, eventually all the workers would have been stabbed to death, and having zero workforce will collapse the economy.
Hmmmmmm, I'll have to ponder over that one.I'm glad that you'd like a McDonalds job for minimum wage, have fun!And who are you to say that, God? I know lots of bankers that would love to move the LSE to Goa and bathe in the Sun.With many many jobs being computerised, automated and converted to web services, most jobs can be moved offshore, especially in the future as the younger generation is communicating mainly by SMS, IM, email and webcam. I predict in future we will have a completely global workforce, when you get sacked from your job in London, your next job will be in Kandahar starting in 24 hours.1. Slavery on the people who do not wish to work .001% tax rebate.
2. Slavery on the company which has to pay the salary of this employee who can't be trusted with company secrets, etc. because he doesn't wish to work.
3. Slavery on the other employees in this company because their productivity which goes towards their own salaries is sucked up by this employee who also kicks, scratches, stabs and punches the other employess. But hey at least the company gets a
So no welfare results in 3 types of slavery, and a welfare state results in only 1 type of partial slavery, well actually I'd rather call it compulsory community donation.
Uhhhh £40 per week isn't a living, and I feel damn good that those damn CEOs are paying the Lion's share of this.The only way to stop someone (even a criminal heroin addict needing food, clothing and shelter is by killing them or cryogenically freezing them (killing them). If you live in the projects or in Hull then there's 50% unemployment in those cities. Damn right 'cos if I'm offered a job in those hell-holes I'll refuse.So were the enslaved Niggers. Work for your Aryan Master all day, then you're free to spend a small pitance of money freely. Freedom means freedom to work wherever you like, freedom to eat whatever you like, freedom to buyy whatever you like, freedom to not work if you like.If we were forced to work then what reasone would employers have to make workplaces nice? Sellafield has exploded killing all employees, so what? Your employees are wasting time between 12-1 having "Lunch". Employees shouldn't eat during the working day, they're decreasing productivity. Employees breathe out hot air whilst working, increasing the cost of air conditioning. Force all employees to hold their breath whilst working. If the employee dies I don't give a shit because another person will be forced into the job at gunpoint as nobody pays for anyone else to "sit on the dole". Everybody's forced into jobs, so why should we give them a salary? Make them work for free, and then when they die of starvation replace them with another worker.
Here's an idea - create a state where nobody must work. In that case employers will have to make jobs nice and jobs that don't breach employees' principles eg. dumping waste in rivers which decreases the need for policing, saving taxes.
It's unfair for the old woman who switched on her kettle, putting the grid power usage 1kW over capacity, requiring an entire nuclear reactor to be brought on line just for her damn kettle to get a standard bill. Does she get a $300,000 bill for her electricity? Nope, everybody absorbs the cost. Life's unfair, providers just have to absorb the cost. Next time you switch on an electrical appliance, how would you feel getting a $1,000,000 bill? All tarriffs have welfare at some time, like "Buy one get One free".Ordinary citizens should pay, their companies should pay for it. But you'll see the companies won't pay because they don't give a damn, because people in work don't want to quit and go on dole due to miserly welfare. Immigrants in detention should get it free, because if they get flu then they'll have to be given medicines and taken to hospital, taking up a hispital bed for a few days, I'd guessthe cost at £5,000 which the Government must absorb.Not always, try telling all of Slashdot "Hey, all C++ jobs are gone, so do data entry for the rest of your life". Picasso, Beethoven and Mozart would have been mentally unable to do Data Entry/Secretarial jobs. Look at my previous discussion about my friend's inability to find a software job. He's spent £16,000 and the Government has paid >£30,000 on his 6 years of IT education, which has now been wasted by the companies which suddenly decided "Oooooh, we need experience". Your taxes have paid for that, so on his behalf I thank you. He's now on the dole and can't spend more money to re-skill himself as he's too deep in debt now.Immigrants generally don't have savings. My Dad came to England with £3 in his pocket - that was all. He lived on welfare initially, but then within a short time he got a very good job due to his work ethic.See above, some areas have 40% unemployment, what self-respecting company would start up in the glamorous Hull or entrepreneurial Teeside? If you're born in these areas you'll be on dole for the rst of your life, unless you move but who's going to pay for you to move house/rent and which hiring manager would employ a scanky heroin-addicted scallywag from Teeside?Look at the automotive industry - now cars are made by robots, and these companies have virtually no employees. shareholders also can be anywhere in the world. A company that becomes automated isn't tied to one country, this means that the factory can easily relocate to China where everything is cheaper. Historically all companies that can become automated/mechanised soon move offshore. With massive IT investment the majority of companies will become automated. If the majority of UK companies move offshore, using offshore web services instead of local labour, our economy will implode and you my friend will be on welfare as well. Banks are also being automated, think about it, you can easily do your job in India, why do you have to be in the UK? So your job is doomed, pretty much every job can move to India/China. Merrill Lynch is moving most of its operations to India, the only jobs left in the UK will be very few sales/equities/debt related.If your job can be moved to India/China then if you're no willing to relocate, you better shut up and pay your taxes for the welfare that you'll be on. And they won't necessarily relocate to the nice parts like Goa, Puna, Bangaloe but to Calcutta where everything is cheaper still and epidemic Government corruption means that the company CEOs own and run everything including Government as the majority of voters are peasant farmers. Before elections the Government uses taxpayers' money to repackage UN food aid into Government handout sacks, so it looks ike the Government is giving free stuff out to the peasant farmers. So the corrupt incumbent Government stays. But your job's going to be moved there, want to go?
Well, I suppose his 6 years of University education has been wasted then, he's fallen out of the workforce and become "lump of labour". Yipee. Software Engineers can't do mindless data entry, so I thank you in advance for your taxes which will pay for his lifetime on welfare.
Linus Torvalds: Hey Bill Gates, please give me a job, you've smashed Unix by buying Sun's kernel IP rights, giving Windows XXXP a bootmenu of
"1. Safe Mode - Unix kernel" and
"2. Game Mode - Microsoft kernel"
Linux has been made illegal by DRM.
Bill Gates: Shut up! I'm not gonna give you a job, go on welfare, OOOOHHHHH BUT THERE'S NO WELFARE ANY MORE IS THERE LINUX-MAN!!! You better work for Exxon who uses Micro$oft, oh but that's right, they will prefer one of the ten million MCSEs we have produced ha ha ha!!! Looks like you're just gonna have to starve and die 'cos there's no welfare ha ha ha ha!!!
If you go to Kirby(Liverpool) and force a young heroin-addicted girl to work in an office, then that'll decrease the work output of the office as she thieves, kicks, punches and stabs all the other employees with her syringe. The country's GDP would decrease if these people were given salaries to decrease a company's output by greater than the miniscule amount of tax that would give such a person shelter. She can then thieve off other unemployed people, leaving GDP unaffected.
If you think forcing everyone into a job will solve all your problems, then there are hundreds of thousands of paranoid murderous schizophrenics (some of whom my Uncle sees) who would happily oblige, and then make every company in the UK a living hell which would make all UK industry and skilled labour force flee to Afghanistan/Bali for peace and quiet. In a recession, there's usually a call for a stronger socialistic system, even communism. You are an unusual man to ask for aggressive capitalism in the midst of a recession, but I admire that I suppose.
Temporary slaves, "Be a Nigger for 25 years and then you'll be freed!". How's that different from "I, the Aryan master hereby free this Nigger for good work." Just as digusting. The most any Government should do is to deport potentially unproductive asylum seekers almost immediately, with 2 rights to appeal which will be handled by a differrent judge on the same day.There must be some freeloaders, these "freeloaders" are just people who've fallen out of fashion e.g. Windows 3.1 administrators. The Capitalist system makes productive people into freeloaders involuntarily (Microsoft upgrades their OS then thousands lose their jobs). What you gonna do with these out of fashion people who have worked too long in your country to go back, but not long enough to earn welfare rights - shoot them? Same "starve and die immigrant asshole" argument as above.
Too simple, CEOs pay maximum tax and the poor pay almost none. Thus maximum redistribution occurs from the top which is the way it's supposed to be. So the $10 good in your shop purchased by a beauracrat = $9.99 from CEOs and $0.01 from average workers like us. With a $3 profit margin, the CEOs are subsidising businesses. The service economy is paid for by salaries. If all jobs are automated then there will be no salaries, and the massive corporations that would benefit from such automation will have the resources to move their money to an offshore tax haven, robbing your economy of investment and salaries. The people must be employed by the companies in your country, or you better set one hell of an export tarriff and give high welfare, oh but you're against welfare.Nah, just sounded kinda poetic. I've seen a lot of arrogant b*stards driving around in Porsches during the dotcom boom, they should damn well be forced to tend farm and raise cattle now, see how far their Porsche gets them in taming stampeding cows.Take your Aryan race superiority and bury it with the corpses of the millions of native American that you slaughtered and now don't give a damn about. Those billions will continue to be spent on Asylum seekers whether you like it or not. The creation of a multi-ethnic society is a one-way trip, the failure of this project will result in worldwide civil war in all multi-ethnic countries. People like you will cause this unless you watch your tongue
My Mother is a teacher and I know hudreds of Doctors. There is no red tape tying them up, just a shortage of skill because they keep going to the United States to get more money, and then when they do malpractice (in America this happens all the time) and the medical insurers refuse to insure them, they come back here and serve. We have to import our operational surgeons from India now, and they'll refuse to come here unless promised eventual permanent stay. BUT India has technologically advanced so far that for the first time about 40% of them WANT to go back to India.Now I know why you have agorophobia, if I had your views I'd hang myself
The beauracrats produce reports and purchase products and services to bring wealth and investment into the economy. If a shop-owner pays tax which goes to a beauracrat who then goes into his shop and buys products, then good products will be provided for him, thus shops with good products will be rewarded by consumers, so what if the consumers are paid via tax?
If we stopped production then the Americans will send us Monsanto and Sky? Genetically Engineered filth that you sent to Zimbabwe, and hormone-pumped beef, all you Americans can keep your heart attacks and massive obesity to yourselves, we don't want to import that thank you. The US has the biggest food surplus done deliberately to keep food prices low so you Americans can enjoy 55c triple cheeseburgers while Bolivian farmers starve at the hands of massive monopsonies.These people keep the law in check. What stops me suing every Ameican on welfare who can't afford a lawyer? You would be guilty by default! 99% of Joe sixpack citizens will see the fight against DMCA as a frivolous action, so what if some geeks wanna change some laws, why listen to geeks? Governments should listen to honest people like those that tend farm and horse and live a good honest living on the farm, the DMCA will not effect these people. as the Government will not allow the extortion of these honest workers. No IT man is an honest worker who tends farm, raises cattle and actually gives something good to society; all we do is turn skilled jobs into Data Entry, Salesmens' jobs into CRM automatons, typesetters' jobs into Epson inkjets, recordkeepers' jobs into NAS/SAN, and mathematicians/operations jobs into mainframes.Example please and on which accounts?IMPORTANT: If the citizens were responsible then if the Government disappeared tomorrow, we would all band together and invest in a company which would provide water, sanitation, policing of hygene standards, policing of streets, etc. Well here's news this company exists and it's called the US Government, and if you don't like it then you're free to go to the Brazilian rainforest and live out your days with man-eating pygmies. There will be no laws and your children will be slaughtered and eaten during some drought, but yeah anarchy works in theory. Ask yourself this - would you have a job and would the company paying your salary exist in an anarchy? Can cavemen use software?
Allow the people to live out simple lives (food, housing and sanitation provided by Government) whilst if they wish consuming some products and services, this is good Government. If you didn't pay your taxes then those people in the projects, (yes they ARE people) will come into your house and steal all your stuff, and then kill you and your family. Just look at the rich-poor gap! Police need taxes to pay for them, so shut up.
Mortgage value: £500,000
Monthly repayments: £800 ($1400)
Repayment period (years): infinity
A mortgage that can never be repaid, hmmmmmm.
Damn right, I'm one of them. In London the mortgage would be GBP650,000 which would be $950,000 how the hell can I afford that? An infinity mortgage, it'll be like one of Orwell's novels!!!!Also don't forget the conformist '70s culture effect where everybody wore a suit and if you walked out in the street by yourself without a girlfriend you were loitering or a Nazi/IRA, and were treated as such by the police. YOU HAD TO HAVE A GIRLFRIEND AT ALL TIMES. Recently, Chinese/Korean people walking around in large groups have destroyed this part of British culture (Thank God!)Exactly why globalisation and monopolistic organisations are going to screw us (Microsoft) and every Ethiopean (Monsanto GM food sprinkled from aircraft to contaminate) for every dollar we have, and why Linux will be made illegal and DRM established - to get more money out of the citizens, and citizens always pay more easily for perceived use e.g. ATT MESSAGE: PAY $100 NOW OR LOSE YOUR INTERNET CONNECTION, YOU HAVE 10 SECONDS TO COMPLY, of course you'll pay.To be fair, a lot of good's been done with that money, the National debt has decreased by tens of Billions and the Government looks healthy, and has initiated long-term repairs on the NHS and taken drastic action on Railtrack. Here in Europe our democracy and controls are superior to the US so an Enron-style problem is almost impossible in Europe, and even if it does there's a strong socialist net as is needed which shows the superior compassion of the Europeans over the American "Pay or die" hospitals.
Bachelors CompMajor 3year 2-1Hons Imperial College UK specialist in Java, C++ and Supercomputer Simplex algorithm optimisation
Masters CompMajor 1year Computing Leeds specialising in search engine technology and web services
Bachelors Economics London School of Economics
I personally vouch for him he's damn good and can code circles around C++ "gurus". Of course being an IT specialist he's crap at networking, you can't be good at everything. With IT people if you count networking as a critical skill then that's 99% of the IT workforce gone right there. Might as well just out with it and say "gay, transsexual IT people only please".
Got a job for him? Nooooooo? Thought not, Americans talk so much hot air. Right now a software engineering career is like being at the top of a cliff, you are simply choosing to not look down
My Uncle is a shrink and is having a lot of sessions with 1st class Honours degree Cambridge/Oxford graduates who can't get jobs.
Yummy
Rubble
Hmmmm, this is more difficult than I thought, I'll try again
Kid: Mommy, why did binLaden destroy twin towers?
Mom: He made a giant firefighter kebab to feed us
Kid: Uncle Osama, you have struck a great victory to unify the worldwide Muslim nation into an Ummah so that the Kalifah could return to Earth and destroy the American Kaffir like he promised. You must be proud of your achievement!
Osama: Nope, I just wanted my own TV show, but Tom Green and Jackass stole my idea, so that was the best thing I could come up with. The moral of the story is that sometimes the backup plan really sucks. Now let us reunite. At least I got a few old buildings around Kabul demolished yeeeehaaa. It wasn't me, it was Allah and Jesus!
Unemployed people aren't depressed, the depression rate is only 20% (Warwick University PDF, link lost) which is only 5 times higher than the working population.
If whinos played Quake instead of getting drunk in the street we might see a better America "Will Frag for Food"
Oh my God, you're a sadomasochist!And what would you do if you had no house to go to and had to sit outside in the cold? When the hell did Americans become so anti-Socialist? Doesn't your own Bible say, "Do not covet what thy neighbor has" right next to "Thou shalt not kill"? I think this implies Jesus wants a Socialist Government.Moderation Totals: Troll=1, Interesting=3, Funny=3, Overrated=3, Total=10.
Senators like the IT industry more than the media industry, and the IT industry can buy double the number of Senators that the movie industry has, but IT people in general (apart from usless MBA types) are shy and think they can just email the Democrats back into power.
Never before in history has such an important part of the economy been run by geeks that are too afraid to lobby the Senate and too afraid to protest and have virtually no union (I think). The DMCA was supposed to help the IT industry, but the geeks were so shy to say anything that the legislature had to guess at what the IT industry wanted. As a result we have the DMCA we have today
Bill Gates or Linus can pick up his phone right now and call Bush, then Bush will say, "Hello Mr Gates/Torvalds nice to hear from you, I will see you at your convenience, sir. Is there anything you would like from the US Government? We are your humble servants.". But the geeks that run the IT industry can't even understand the power they have. Funny.
When Enron was lying and their stock prices were rising through the roof, did anybody say, "Shut 'em down"? No, everybody just shut up and felt good and made money, nobody cared it was fake. Should the Government shut down all growing companies now?
Now that everybody's calling for accounting integrity, the Government's passing anti-corporate laws. So democracy works, what's the big deal here?
Before Enron went bust, everybody wanted money and nobody cared about accounting, so the Government didn't do anything. After Enron went bust, everybody wanted accounting integrity, and now the laws are being passed by Bush real fast. What you should mean is that THE PEOPLE (Joe sixpack) on average don't care what Micro$oft has done, same as they don't care what Exxon has done to get the oil, they just shut up and fill up their tanks.
You /. people should shut up and do some cold-calling like I've been forced to do now, see how business is really done.