Drop all the military spending and "we are the earth's policeman" crap. Stay out of everyone else's hair and stick to business. Use 100% of the taxes taken in for social services and/or national defense (meaning, if no one is actually pulling up into Boston Harbor with warships, we don't go to war). Nationalize health care and create a *real* national pension system which activates at age 65. Create a *real* unemployment system. Concentrate on improving the economy and getting everyone who wants a job hired. Eliminate the loopholes letting companies declare workers "exempt" and go back to the 40 hour work-week. Actually PUNISH corporate criminals. Harshly. Work on the environment and the oil/petroleum problem. Reform the prison system. Reform the voting system, disbanding the electoral college and creating a TRUE popular vote.
I could go on, but you're probably going to have a fit with what I've said already. 'sok, though. Makes life interesting.;)
Without a government, you have chaos. There would be nothing whatsoever stopping gangs of people from teaming up and slaughtering anyone they choose to (for example, the rich nobody's fond of) and redistributing all their money, wealth and land. There would be nothing stopping rape, pillage, and destruction. Our society would fall apart in no time at all, and would devolve into armed camps ruled by force, and individual groups would be communist because money would completely lose its meaning. Because there would be no more interstate commerce, due to highway piracy and the confiscation of goods by rogue local police departments, armed collectives would have to grow their own food. You'd be stuck eating sweet potatoes and corn for the rest of your life. If you were lucky, and your collective was a fishing town, you might get to eat fish, instead. But you'd get rickets because of the lack of vitamin C. And, of course, there would be no medication, no glasses, no surgery...
Before too long, the U.N. would come in and take over, and just like that, you'd have a government again. A government manned by Europeans backed up with military might. Which would result in widespread bloodshed as local warlords ambushed the U.N. troops and slaughtered them, leading to a serious, prolonged vietnam-like war.
I agree completely. In my opinion, only a pansy bedwetter would get his panties in a bunch just because someone else borrowed the same name HE borrowed. It's lame, and stupid. Of course, no one was using their product, anyway -- everyone's using either PostgreSQL or mySQL, right? So maybe this is a case of a forgotten, lonely child screaming at the top of its lungs for someone, anyone to notice it.
Sad. I thought all these phony dot-com tactics had died off.
Seriously, try to foster a practice of taking the whole team out for an hour or two, a couple of nights a week to hang out together, and casually shoot the breeze. Social bonding outside of the office gets people a lot tighter than any amount of "Lucy, fall down; Dave, catch her" exercises. Hit the pub, shoot pool, and have a few beers together. Cops, soldiers, and firemen have been doing it for hundreds of years...
This is an update from the ministry of truth. You may cease your labor for two minutes to enjoy this announcement. Ignite your Freedom Cigarettes now.
The war with Eurasia is near an end, with several more cities having fallen to the allied armies. The downtrodden people of Eurasia are welcoming us with open arms, and Big Brother assures us that the war will be over shortly. Support your government! Buy Freedom bonds today.
Several agents of the terrorist Goldstein were apprehended as they tried to purchase toilet paper in the East Village today. It is not known for what purpose the toilet paper was meant, but it is suggested that the use of outdoor toilets be suspended until the scope of this problem is fully evaluated. The Terror Alert Level is as of this moment raised to FUSCIA.
Literacy rates in Sector IV have risen by 25%; malnourishment in Sectors I through VI has been reduced by 12%. Students have reported that belonging to the Freedom Scouts has increased their overall skill level, and had a direct effect on raising their IQs. Big Brother will visit the Scouts in New York this afternoon for a motivational speech and a nap.
The Ministry of Privacy announced a new initiative this morning, which will end the plague of net divers who do not permit Freedom Cookies to be registered on their machines. It is now considered an act of treason to bar cookies from your browser. The consequences for such activity are doublePlusUngood, citizens. Enable Freedom Cookies today!
FOR THE COMMONWEALTH! FOR BIG BROTHER!
Citizens, extinquish your cigarettes, and resume your labor.
I've read your points, and while they're well thought-out, I think they're wrongheaded. I don't think you're a freak, but rather that you've bought into a party line supported by the wealthy (yes, you have!). The exact set of rationalizations you've described here have been pushed by the Republican party since the Reagan years, when they were called Reaganomics. Reagan believed in a trickle-down effect, in which taxes would be slashed and the rich would share the savings with the rest of us by hiring more people and spending more on salaries. What actually HAPPENED was that the rich put the extra money in their stock and bank accounts, and social welfare programs got clobbered so that military spending wouldn't have to take the hit. Unemployment was high, and people were relatively poorer than they had been previously. So much for "compassionate conservatism"... By the 1990s, we were in a recession. A recession, I might add, that Clinton brought us OUT of, by balancing the budget, raising taxes, and concentrating more on social programs. Bush, with his return to Reaganomics, is dragging us right back down the crapper.
We're never going to agree about politics. We might as well get used to that. Your story about food stamps is irrelevant; it doesn't prove anything, except that one creep manipulated the system and another creep cooperated with him (at the time, you were being a creep; you may or may not still be a creep). Actually, who knows what he was going to spend that ten bucks on. It could have been something legitimate for all you know. Of course, you *assume* he was going to buy booze with it. Who knows?
Welfare may be abused by some, but it feeds the vast majority of people on it. Just as social security was meant to feed the elderly, instead of letting them fall by the wayside, and unemployment is meant to give you a buffer in which you can find a new job without getting thrown out of your apartment. Only a fairly evil person would begrudge others these safety nets. Only a fairly evil person would want to hold all of his taxes, and not cooperate to help his community. I don't mind paying taxes, as long as my money goes to help someone else. I WANT my taxes spent on the poor, and plenty of other people just like me want the same thing. As long as there are more of us than there are of people like you, our society will remain at least somewhat compassionate.
Because it really is all about compassion, and all your talk about taxes and helping the poor by giving them back the few bucks they're paying weekly to the fed won't change that. My position is compassionate and yours is not. My position is civic-minded and yours is not. A just society cares for all members, not just the few that are on top. And, a just society taxes the wealthy more heavily than the poor because they're getting the lion's share of society's output -- so they can shoulder the lion's share of society's burden as well.
It is cold, and evil, to begrudge a society's disadvantaged the help they deserve. It is selfish, and petty, to say "I don't want to pay taxes because they'll just go to poor people". If you're doing well, you're doing well BECAUSE you're a member of this society and because that society provided you with an opportunity. If you are unwilling to give something back to that society, and I don't mean a token stint in a soup kitchen as a lark, you don't deserve the success you've had, no matter HOW hard you worked for it.
You, and everyone else who's doing well, owe a debt to your society for your good fortune. You OWE society. Your taxes are not being stolen from you! They are YOUR CONTRIBUTION. They are you being a good citizen and contributing to the commonwealth. Don't be so bitter and selfish about it. It's unseemly.
Republican: as opposed to Democrat, or Green. A political party aligned with the wealthy, which pushes heavily for the elimination of what they call "Big Government" and the rest of us call "Social Programs". It also pushes heavily for pork-barrel military spending, and is highly militaristic, classist, and reliant on propaganda and sound bites. In calling you a republican, I am referring to the fact that many of the things you say are remarkably similar to traditional republican rhetoric.
Note that the Democratic party has begun to converge with the Republican party, leaving socially conscious citizens stuck with the Greens.
Allright, hang on, let's go full stop and start over again. This whole train of conversation has been derailed, and there are cars strewn all over the place.
First of all, people only see you in terms of what you say to them. We're not talking face to face, so all I have to go on is what you actually say. You said your mother's store makes an income in the low 7 figures; that implies two to three million dollars a year. This is the information YOU added to the picture. You also said your father was some kind of real estate bigshot, and lost his money due to a RICO investigation, which implies that he was involved in something shifty. In doing this, you're not painting a very middle or working class picture. Ok? And, whether your mother uses the money her store makes for herself, or dumps it back in, she's still getting it. So you see why I might be skeptical about your assertion that none of you are rich. You might be a little nutty, and you might be doing this working class thing for some weird internal reason; but you still have the money available to you. Most people definitely do not.
A friend of mine once said, "people are your mirrors", meaning that you see how you present yourself to others in the way that they respond to you. If you're bemused by the fact that people see you as a rich creep, maybe it's what you're telling them that gives them that impression. When you spout the things you've been spouting, for instance telling me I'm lazy and don't work just because I believe in worker protections -- how do you think you come across? I'll tell you the impression you made on me: you reminded me of the stockbrokers my sister used to work for, who were amazingly crass and cruel and whose contempt for everyone who wasn't "on their level" was legendary. What I'm saying is, you don't present well. You come across as a somewhat evil, misguided person. The way you talk, you evoke one of the followers of Bob Roberts in the movie, a hyper little flag-waving, welfare-hating Republican from hell. You inspire strong, strong dislike, and rabid responses.
Your point of view is unpleasant. You insult me as soon as I don't agree with you, and then you claim that it is ME who is resorting to ad-hominem (turnabout is fair play, so since you started it by calling me a communist and rudely discarding what I was saying, well... What did you expect?).
I don't agree with you that all a poor person has to do is work hard. The poor are already working hard. They work their asses off, and what do they have to show for it? A low minimum wage, and a crappy apartment in a shitty building. It's wretched, and when you act like they're just lazy or something, it really bugs me.
If you really ARE working or middle class, it makes your opinions even worse, because you're a class traitor. My ex girlfriend was like this. Her entire family was lower class, but they were all devout Republicans. They hated welfare, they hated childrens programs, they despised poor Mexicans BECAUSE they were poor (they lived in Phoenix) even though the Mexicans hadn't done anything to them at all, and they weren't that different... It was really ironic, because her mother's side of the family came from Nicuragua!!! I couldn't get my mind around it; I used to ask her, "But wait, your family came from Nicuragua, so how can you hate people who come in from Mexico???" She totally didn't get the irony in it. It was amazing.
So, look. Let's reframe this thing. It's been interesting fencing with you, because a little casual flamewar can get the blood going. However, since we've reached this point, let's get serious and can the games. Listen to what I'm saying -- all seriousness, now, no more playing around.
The middle and working classes deserve a lot more than they're getting. If the government works for us, and we pay enough taxes that I think it should, it should at least pretend to protect our interests. People should be able to make enough of a minimum wage to stay above the poverty line. People shouldn't have to wor
Thanks! But, hang on; it was another poster who said it was a conspiracy. I don't think they're actually getting together and having meetings over this. I think it's a situation in which a large number of rich people are all acting in their selfish self interest, weighted by a disdain for the middle class and perhaps a subconscious desire for the middle class to just go away. This is a possible result of their activities, which are consistent not because of a conspiracy but because they all want the same things (e.g. get rid of all those pesky salaried positions dragging down the bottom line, and so on) and don't particularly care about consequences. When I'm in the mood for rationality, I'm more rational.;)
I sometimes get a little frisky and talk conspiracy, but that's more tongue in cheek, like my recent comment to a republican, "guys like you'll be the first ones up against the wall when the revolution comes" -- which he actually took at face value, and was horrified by! Amazing. He didn't recognize it as a paraphrase from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Ah, well. What can we do? That crowd isn't known for friskiness (the republican and I are currently at each other's throats -- I'd point you towards the thread, but it's tiresome, just a big pissing match really, and I'm vaguely embarassed it's gotten so nasty, but jeez, the guy's so full of it I find it hard to resist throwing down with him).
I'm enjoying chatting with you, by the way. You're A-OK.
Well, hang on a sec there. I'm defining middle class in its formal sense, i.e. people making between 28,000 and 110,000 a year, i.e. the 28% and 31% tax brackets. And, I define a living wage as that which provides people with the means to live comfortably enough that they don't spend most of their time trying to hustle money for groceries.
Setting minimum values for wages is not a form of welfare; it is a form of worker protection, just like the forty hour work-week, mandatory overtime pay for hourly workers, and unemployment insurance. Worker protections are designed to support social equality, so that people can live well. The reason this is a good thing is that a person who has a good job with a living wage isn't going to be stealing cars, selling drugs, or mugging people. But it's also because it's just plain fair; a just society should ensure that all of its members are dealt with fairly and that their labor is rewarded equitably. Pure capitalism is a cold, unkind, sharp thing. Rules enforcing fair treatment of workers take the edge off of it somewhat.
In contrast to rules requiring businesses to play fair with the people whose labor makes the business possible, welfare is designed to prevent the poor from starving or freezing to death. Its proper name is "Aid to families with dependent children" -- which means, basically, that it's designed to help families keep their innocent, helpless children fed, warm and safe. I would argue that a society that doesn't provide welfare is a society I wouldn't want to live in. Not because I use welfare myself -- no one in my family ever has, as far as I know -- but because I wouldn't want to be associated with a society cold enough to turn its back on the poor.
About the "living wage": The middle class are receiving a living wage, and the rich are doing everything they can to eliminate that. Working class people aren't making a living wage at all; most of them are barely over the poverty line, and a lot are working two or three jobs just to make ends meet. Seems kind of too close to slavery to me, man. Anyway, that's my take on it.
I guess it's pretty obvious that the proposals you mentioned, to raise the minimum wage over the poverty line for any given area, are totally ok in my opinion. I think it's a great idea! Maybe people will feel a little less desperate when they can make rent with only one job (as opposed to two or three). Always a good thing.
See, here's my problem with this whole thread: Say what you want about my lack of tact, at least I'm consistent. You, on the other hand, are wildly inconsistent. You go from claiming your parents make "in the low 7 digits" annually to claiming that they aren't rich. And, you talk like a hardcore Republican stockbroker type, but you claim you have no money. Rich parents don't want to share? I find that hard to believe, unless you're some kind of black sheep, shunned by all. Pardon me, but when someone makes more than a million dollars a year, I think they qualify as wealthy, and so do their kids. But it's ok -- this is slashdot, and it's perfectly acceptable for you to demonstrate a surreal grasp of reality. Everyone does it here. Some of my posts have been, shall we say, a little odd, and I'm the first to admit that I don't always tell the absolute truth. So, your strange, convoluted line is cool with me. You're rich, but not, but sorta? Sure, why not? What's the difference?
I still think you're full of crap, and I'm not saying that in any nasty way. It's meant in a purely friendly, "just us folks" way. Don't be ashamed of being a bullshit artist! Revel in it, like I do! What's the big deal, really? So you're talking out your ass on Slashdot. So what? Aren't we all?
But, let's get back on topic, and resume the pretense that we're actually serious about this thing. Straight faces, now, folks...
Ahem.
First of all, you are clearly not a "working stiff". You are a trust fund baby. If you were not a trust fund baby, you would not have parents who make several million dollars a year, by your own admission. IF you're working, as you claim, you're doing it out of some perverse desire for street cred. But, all that street cred gets wrecked as soon as you mention the "seven figures" thing, so I don't see why you bother.
But just in case you'd like a counterexample, why don't I weigh in with what a REAL blue-collar family is like. Just for your edification, in case you actually give a damn.
My father started out in the Marine Corps, and left the corps to marry my mother. She was a secretary on Wall Street, and he was a longshoreman on the piers. In the late fifties or so, the piers closed down and everyone got laid off, after which he became an air conditioning technician -- my mother paid for his training while he was laid off. He worked for around forty years -- FORTY YEARS -- back breaking work, installing multi-ton air conditioning equipment in a variety of relatively unsafe locations, and finally retired last year. He was union all the way, and so was my mother, for the last fifteen years or so (CSEA). I went to college, paying for it with my OWN stint in the Marine corps, including time in the first Gulf war. I spent years with barely two nickels to rub together, and finally worked a few decent years in NYC during the dot-com boom as a software developer. After that I started working for the government, in a unionized position -- basically, low salary, no bonuses, but the work benefits the poor and the disadvantaged. I've been working my butt off keeping their systems working ever since.
Let's be clear: your father was a real estate investor who got his assets seized under RICO (which by the way, doesn't imply innocence on his part!), and he and your mother opened up some humongous store and make a few million a year (YOU said this, so don't contradict it now, it's too late for that). YOUR FAMILY IS NOT MIDDLE CLASS -- IT IS NOT WORKING CLASS EITHER. Ok? So drop the working class hero bullshit and be honest with yourself. You're a rich guy's kid, and you're spouting the rich-guy point of view.
Your basic principles are the traditional, Republican, "Fuck the poor, I want my tax cut now" rhetoric. Ok? Let's call a spade a spade. Your politics are the politics of selfishness. Your principles are the "me-first" principles of the wealthy. The reason you take such offense at what I say is that you have no defence for the charges I make. The reason you spit back commen
It's weird and clunky, the battery lasts no longer than a notebook's, it weighs like a laptop, and forces you to jump through hoops during installation. I don't see why this would ever be considered worth buying. If you get a nice PDA for less money, the battery lasts way longer, it's more portable, and you can use whatever O/S you want on your main system.
Just get a Sharp Zaurus. Or a Vadem Clio if you want to be flashy. I got a Mobilon Tripad for a hundred and fifty bucks or so on Ebay...
The fact that your parents were fortunate enough to do well for themselves has nothing to do with anything, and it proves nothing. It could just as easily have gone the other way, with them collapsing into poverty and raising you in a trailer park in the middle of nowhere. If you don't realize that good fortune figures heavily in your family history, you're a fool. Without a fortunate coincidence here, a fortuitous meeting there, a lucky convergence of market factors at the moment your mother did A, or B, the sort of success you're bragging about wouldn't have happened. But telling you this won't convince you of it; you're too busy congradulating yourself for all that "hard work" and telling yourself that it was all your parents, and no external factors were at play. Sooner or later, your luck could reverse itself, and you'll see EXACTLY what I mean.
The fact is, for MOST PEOPLE the kind of experience you're arrogantly bragging about is simply impossible. And, it isn't because they're lazy, or because they don't want to work. It's because the game is rigged, whether people like you want to admit it or not. People like you really piss me off, with your bullshit comments about how "wonderful you" deserves all the good fortune you've received, and how everyone else is poor because they somehow deserve it... You should be ashamed of yourself, you really should. It's people like you who are stripping the budgets for social programs, just so some fat-cat rich asshole can have a tax cut. It's people like you who, out of one side of your mouth talk about charity, and out of the other, demand that welfare be eliminated because you don't think the poor deserve to eat. It's people like you who are gutting this country and it's your cruelty and selfishness that are ruining things for millions of innocent people.
Go ahead and call me a communist. I'd rather be a dyed-in-the-wool red than whatever slimy creature you've grown up to be.
Most mature industries have a very high barrier to entry. Virtually all established forms of commerce have at least a modest barrier to entry (think of this in terms of the hundreds of thousands of dollars it would take to, say, simply open a small office somewhere). It is therefore nearly impossible for a "newly freed worker" (???) to muster up the scratch to enter any lucrative area of business. He's lucky if he can make RENT, much less start a company. But of course you knew that.
The fortunes that were made in the past were made during a period in which the industries in question (which were, themselves, much simpler than today's industries) were in their infancy and therefore, the barriers to entry were very low. Today, this is no longer true. Even new industries today have very high barriers to entry -- consider biotechnology. Is a recently unemployed man going to muster the tens of millions of dollars it would take to build a biotech lab and hire scientists? Of course not.
But, even your simple examples are far off. Amazon? Best Buy? Are you kidding? It takes millions of dollars of startup capital to build out a warehouse system capable of supporting Amazon-type activities. And, Best Buy is a chain store -- think tens of millions, and the setting up of numerous locations around the country. You're a madman, and what you're saying doesn't even make sense (much less add up to anything).
As far as conspiracies go, I'll say this: what is the difference between a conspiracy of malevolent rich assholes, and the effect of thousands of malevolent rich assholes acting selfishly, independently? Either way, everyone who isn't rich gets to hold the bag as the rich sail off in their yachts with all the money they basically plundered from our economy. You're a fool if you think this isn't happening. And, stating the obvious is NOT "making wild conspiracy accusations".
I don't have any sympathy for people like you, who spout rah-rah cheerleading bullshit for the rich while they steal MY lunch. Guys like you are going to be the first ones up against the wall when the revolution comes. Heh heh...
But, seriously, you're full of shit. You know that, right?
Exactly! Thanks! My favorite quote is: "The fact that you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you!"
But, in all seriousness, consider this from a rich person's point of view:
Firing all the white collar workers and offshoring all of their jobs makes millions of dollars for Joe Bigshot at Company X -- the board loves him, so he gets a fat bonus, plus his monster salary (some executives are making tens of millions of dollars). Slashing social spending in favor of a tax cut makes him more money. Removing the tax on dividends makes him even more money. The rest of the country gets screwed, but he's ok; he's got millions (maybe tens of millions) of bucks now.
So, next step: all those white collar workers are now working class. They're down at the mall, serving hamburgers. Joe Bigshot hasn't lost anything; his company is still in business. And, if the crashing economy starts to take his company down with it, he'll sell off his stock and make millions *more*. By the time the economy is really bad he'll be off in Europe somewhere, in a villa. His money will be safe in offshore bank accounts, converted into whatever is the most stable currency at the time.
In other words, he won't see any consequences whatsoever for his actions. There's no downside for him! He gets millions of bucks, with which his family can live like kings for the rest of all time.
It doesn't even have to be a conspiracy; all it takes is enough rich people doing the math, figuring out the above progression, and opting for their personal gain instead of that of their country. Numbers of rich, selfish people, acting independently, have the same exact effect as a conspiracy. Either way, the rest of us end up holding the bag.
It's been happening for years. But whenever I point it out, people tell me I'm paranoid. Thanks for giving me some credit...;)
Still, you have to admit -- it IS a quite tasty conspiracy theory. Plus, I was bored. It killed fifteen minutes.;)
I don't understand what you meant about "living wage"; I think we define the term differently -- I wasn't talking about government assistance. Where I live, "living wage" is generally meant to mean "a high enough salary to live on"; it doesn't have anything to do with welfare. It's kind of weird that you read it that way; where are you from, and how is it used there?
Bush may have gotten a significant part of the vote, but he didn't win the election. He was cast into office by court fiat. Still, I'll grant you that point -- a large number of people voted for the man, which I think is a testament to the power of television to deliver propaganda. But I won't get started with my OTHER conspiracy theories, amusing though they may be. I've got some good ones, though...
As far as the rich having enough common sense to not kill the golden goose, riddle me this, batman: why are the owners of corporations doing everything they can to move every white collar job overseas if they care about those people's spending power? Answer: because they don't; they'll make enough money in the short term to set their families up for life, so it won't MATTER over time what happens, at least not to them. The long-term result will be a crashing of prices which in turn will make their dollar go further. So, in their case, killing the golden goose means they get to eat a roast goose, not that they starve. If the economy starts to crash, they'll move their money offshore and retreat to a country estate somewhere. The net effect is that the rich cash in, sell everyone else out, and get to be rich and privileged for the rest of all time, with no consequences whatsoever. I don't think they see any downside in that.
Of course, this IS a conspiracy theory. But it's mine, and I'm enjoying it too much to discard it.;)
I tend to agree; C, C++, Java, and other languages in that family have pretty nearly perfected the way in which we express how we want our computers to handle a task for us. The syntax isn't changing much, anymore; only the libraries are, and the overall approach (i.e. procedural led to OOP, etc). So, in a hundred years, I'd bet we're still using a C-like syntax, but we'll have incredibly powerful libaries available to us, and our development environments will be really clean and easy to use.
Will we be using C? Java? Who knows. Both languages will probably be at least somewhat used, because they're useful and have good libraries. You know what I think? I think we'll have some kind of superlanguage, a development environment with every potential interaction you can imagine available as a library call, with components for everything under the sun. Programmer education, then, will be a matter of knowing what libraries are available, how they're best used, and knowing how to find them. It'll be more of an art than anything else. In some ways, Java is already like this. Let's call the superlanguage Sex, and be done with it. Imagine how much more fun work would be:
"Hey, Bill, what are you working on, there?"
"Sex, Bob. Sex."
"Get some! Woo hoo! But, seriously, what system is that?"
"Oh, this is our new app server, JohnnyWad. It can handle twice as many simultaneous sockets as our last one, and it goes four times as long between errors. Not to mention the size of the toolkit that comes with it."
"No kidding! We've been tinkering with Bimbo(tm) downstairs; it works great, but once a month, the server crashes and we have to take it offline for repairs."
Space radiation??? What space radiation??? I thought the hats were worn because they were crinkly and shiny, and made fun noises when you moved your head!!!
No, but it sure explains a lot. For example, the fact that we live in a republic instead of a democracy is what makes travesties like the current government possible. Electoral votes? Pah. What a scam.
And, it wasn't too close to call. Gore won. Then the courts handed it over to Bush. Weighted coin toss, my butt.
You know what I think makes the Earth such an amazing and strange place? That even though these particular guys are kidding (and hilariously), there are other guys out there who are *actually* like that. I mean, it's inexplicable. Inconceiveable! But, there it is. The longer I live, the more amazing and bizarre life becomes. Every time you think you've seen it all, you see something else.
)v(agnus inexplicably said: " No, he won't grow up to be a mental case, you God-less plick. LOL He'll simply be a talented, multiligual adult that can speak Klingon. I respect that (...and wish I'd thought of it). ~)v(agnus"
What's a plick? Is that a Chinese pecker? And, why does my disdain for nut-jobs who abuse their children by forcing them to speak imaginary languages make me "God-less"? I would think that God would probably agree with me on this one.
As far as your "talented multilingual adult" idea, I can see the kid trying THAT one out on the schoolyard:
Kid: (calls some other kid a weirdo, Klingonish name, acting vaguely Klingon-y): "Gubba gubba boom-y-k!" (or whatever, I don't follow the series).
Other kid: "What the fuck was that? What are you, retarded?"
Kid #1: "I'm not retarded! I'm smart and multilingual, I speak Klingon!"
Other kid: "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Hey, Bobby, check out this dork! He says he's a fucking Klingon!"
Bobby: "What? A cling-on? Like, a turd stuck to hair?"
Other kid: "That's what he said!"
Kid #1: "No! I speak Klingon, like from Star Trek."
Bobby: "I think we had it right the first time, ha hahhahahahaha"
Other kid: "Yeah, no shit! WAAAUGHHHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Kid #1: "Stop it! Stop laughing at me! You're dishonoring me!" (or some other weirdo trekkie response).
Bobby: "OH MY GOD! HAHAHAHAHAAHA! IF THIS KEEPS UP I'M GONNA PISS MYSELF!"
Other kid: "OH MY GOD, KID, STOP IT, YOU'RE KILLING US! MUHAHAHAHAHAHA"
(by now a dozen kids are watching and the teachers have noticed).
Kid #1: "That's it! Prepare to die!"
Bobby: "Grab 'im, Richie! Let's show him what a REAL cling-on is like!"
Principal: Um... Mr. DumbassTrekkie, it appears your son claimed he spoke Klingon? And, started a fight with several other children, which resulted in his getting a swirly?
Mr. DAT: My son didn't start any fights! He's smart, and the other kids hate him for it. They pick on him all the time!
Principal: Ummm... Yeah, right. Ok, look, your kid's wacked in the head, ok? He's way too into star trek, so I'm going to suggest you cut his television watching until he gets a little bit more involved with reality. Also I'm going to put in a request for counselling for the boy, and I'm going to recommend that you find some yourself.
Tinfoil? Nah. I hate the way those look. A famous home improvement talk-show host (who will remain nameless) is doing a show about how to make the hats out of rejected prison-labor license plates, and those have the new, cool, NY State license plate logos on them. They're snazzy!
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My ideal government:
;)
Drop all the military spending and "we are the earth's policeman" crap. Stay out of everyone else's hair and stick to business. Use 100% of the taxes taken in for social services and/or national defense (meaning, if no one is actually pulling up into Boston Harbor with warships, we don't go to war). Nationalize health care and create a *real* national pension system which activates at age 65. Create a *real* unemployment system. Concentrate on improving the economy and getting everyone who wants a job hired. Eliminate the loopholes letting companies declare workers "exempt" and go back to the 40 hour work-week. Actually PUNISH corporate criminals. Harshly. Work on the environment and the oil/petroleum problem. Reform the prison system. Reform the voting system, disbanding the electoral college and creating a TRUE popular vote.
I could go on, but you're probably going to have a fit with what I've said already. 'sok, though. Makes life interesting.
Without a government, you have chaos. There would be nothing whatsoever stopping gangs of people from teaming up and slaughtering anyone they choose to (for example, the rich nobody's fond of) and redistributing all their money, wealth and land. There would be nothing stopping rape, pillage, and destruction. Our society would fall apart in no time at all, and would devolve into armed camps ruled by force, and individual groups would be communist because money would completely lose its meaning. Because there would be no more interstate commerce, due to highway piracy and the confiscation of goods by rogue local police departments, armed collectives would have to grow their own food. You'd be stuck eating sweet potatoes and corn for the rest of your life. If you were lucky, and your collective was a fishing town, you might get to eat fish, instead. But you'd get rickets because of the lack of vitamin C. And, of course, there would be no medication, no glasses, no surgery...
:)
Before too long, the U.N. would come in and take over, and just like that, you'd have a government again. A government manned by Europeans backed up with military might. Which would result in widespread bloodshed as local warlords ambushed the U.N. troops and slaughtered them, leading to a serious, prolonged vietnam-like war.
Oh, yeah, sounds like a blast. Get real.
I say we just go for the gusto and call it "The Mighty Penis" like the yacht of the same name in the Dice Clay movie. Imagine:
"Hey, what browser are you using?"
"The Mighty Penis. It's a pretty big download, but it sure is powerful!"
I agree completely. In my opinion, only a pansy bedwetter would get his panties in a bunch just because someone else borrowed the same name HE borrowed. It's lame, and stupid. Of course, no one was using their product, anyway -- everyone's using either PostgreSQL or mySQL, right? So maybe this is a case of a forgotten, lonely child screaming at the top of its lungs for someone, anyone to notice it.
Sad. I thought all these phony dot-com tactics had died off.
Seriously, try to foster a practice of taking the whole team out for an hour or two, a couple of nights a week to hang out together, and casually shoot the breeze. Social bonding outside of the office gets people a lot tighter than any amount of "Lucy, fall down; Dave, catch her" exercises. Hit the pub, shoot pool, and have a few beers together. Cops, soldiers, and firemen have been doing it for hundreds of years...
Attention citizens of New York!
This is an update from the ministry of truth. You may cease your labor for two minutes to enjoy this announcement. Ignite your Freedom Cigarettes now.
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Several agents of the terrorist Goldstein were apprehended as they tried to purchase toilet paper in the East Village today. It is not known for what purpose the toilet paper was meant, but it is suggested that the use of outdoor toilets be suspended until the scope of this problem is fully evaluated. The Terror Alert Level is as of this moment raised to FUSCIA.
Literacy rates in Sector IV have risen by 25%; malnourishment in Sectors I through VI has been reduced by 12%. Students have reported that belonging to the Freedom Scouts has increased their overall skill level, and had a direct effect on raising their IQs. Big Brother will visit the Scouts in New York this afternoon for a motivational speech and a nap.
The Ministry of Privacy announced a new initiative this morning, which will end the plague of net divers who do not permit Freedom Cookies to be registered on their machines. It is now considered an act of treason to bar cookies from your browser. The consequences for such activity are doublePlusUngood, citizens. Enable Freedom Cookies today!
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Citizens, extinquish your cigarettes, and resume your labor.
I've read your points, and while they're well thought-out, I think they're wrongheaded. I don't think you're a freak, but rather that you've bought into a party line supported by the wealthy (yes, you have!). The exact set of rationalizations you've described here have been pushed by the Republican party since the Reagan years, when they were called Reaganomics. Reagan believed in a trickle-down effect, in which taxes would be slashed and the rich would share the savings with the rest of us by hiring more people and spending more on salaries. What actually HAPPENED was that the rich put the extra money in their stock and bank accounts, and social welfare programs got clobbered so that military spending wouldn't have to take the hit. Unemployment was high, and people were relatively poorer than they had been previously. So much for "compassionate conservatism"... By the 1990s, we were in a recession. A recession, I might add, that Clinton brought us OUT of, by balancing the budget, raising taxes, and concentrating more on social programs. Bush, with his return to Reaganomics, is dragging us right back down the crapper.
We're never going to agree about politics. We might as well get used to that. Your story about food stamps is irrelevant; it doesn't prove anything, except that one creep manipulated the system and another creep cooperated with him (at the time, you were being a creep; you may or may not still be a creep). Actually, who knows what he was going to spend that ten bucks on. It could have been something legitimate for all you know. Of course, you *assume* he was going to buy booze with it. Who knows?
Welfare may be abused by some, but it feeds the vast majority of people on it. Just as social security was meant to feed the elderly, instead of letting them fall by the wayside, and unemployment is meant to give you a buffer in which you can find a new job without getting thrown out of your apartment. Only a fairly evil person would begrudge others these safety nets. Only a fairly evil person would want to hold all of his taxes, and not cooperate to help his community. I don't mind paying taxes, as long as my money goes to help someone else. I WANT my taxes spent on the poor, and plenty of other people just like me want the same thing. As long as there are more of us than there are of people like you, our society will remain at least somewhat compassionate.
Because it really is all about compassion, and all your talk about taxes and helping the poor by giving them back the few bucks they're paying weekly to the fed won't change that. My position is compassionate and yours is not. My position is civic-minded and yours is not. A just society cares for all members, not just the few that are on top. And, a just society taxes the wealthy more heavily than the poor because they're getting the lion's share of society's output -- so they can shoulder the lion's share of society's burden as well.
It is cold, and evil, to begrudge a society's disadvantaged the help they deserve. It is selfish, and petty, to say "I don't want to pay taxes because they'll just go to poor people". If you're doing well, you're doing well BECAUSE you're a member of this society and because that society provided you with an opportunity. If you are unwilling to give something back to that society, and I don't mean a token stint in a soup kitchen as a lark, you don't deserve the success you've had, no matter HOW hard you worked for it.
You, and everyone else who's doing well, owe a debt to your society for your good fortune. You OWE society. Your taxes are not being stolen from you! They are YOUR CONTRIBUTION. They are you being a good citizen and contributing to the commonwealth. Don't be so bitter and selfish about it. It's unseemly.
Republican: as opposed to Democrat, or Green. A political party aligned with the wealthy, which pushes heavily for the elimination of what they call "Big Government" and the rest of us call "Social Programs". It also pushes heavily for pork-barrel military spending, and is highly militaristic, classist, and reliant on propaganda and sound bites. In calling you a republican, I am referring to the fact that many of the things you say are remarkably similar to traditional republican rhetoric.
Note that the Democratic party has begun to converge with the Republican party, leaving socially conscious citizens stuck with the Greens.
Allright, hang on, let's go full stop and start over again. This whole train of conversation has been derailed, and there are cars strewn all over the place.
First of all, people only see you in terms of what you say to them. We're not talking face to face, so all I have to go on is what you actually say. You said your mother's store makes an income in the low 7 figures; that implies two to three million dollars a year. This is the information YOU added to the picture. You also said your father was some kind of real estate bigshot, and lost his money due to a RICO investigation, which implies that he was involved in something shifty. In doing this, you're not painting a very middle or working class picture. Ok? And, whether your mother uses the money her store makes for herself, or dumps it back in, she's still getting it. So you see why I might be skeptical about your assertion that none of you are rich. You might be a little nutty, and you might be doing this working class thing for some weird internal reason; but you still have the money available to you. Most people definitely do not.
A friend of mine once said, "people are your mirrors", meaning that you see how you present yourself to others in the way that they respond to you. If you're bemused by the fact that people see you as a rich creep, maybe it's what you're telling them that gives them that impression. When you spout the things you've been spouting, for instance telling me I'm lazy and don't work just because I believe in worker protections -- how do you think you come across? I'll tell you the impression you made on me: you reminded me of the stockbrokers my sister used to work for, who were amazingly crass and cruel and whose contempt for everyone who wasn't "on their level" was legendary. What I'm saying is, you don't present well. You come across as a somewhat evil, misguided person. The way you talk, you evoke one of the followers of Bob Roberts in the movie, a hyper little flag-waving, welfare-hating Republican from hell. You inspire strong, strong dislike, and rabid responses.
Your point of view is unpleasant. You insult me as soon as I don't agree with you, and then you claim that it is ME who is resorting to ad-hominem (turnabout is fair play, so since you started it by calling me a communist and rudely discarding what I was saying, well... What did you expect?).
I don't agree with you that all a poor person has to do is work hard. The poor are already working hard. They work their asses off, and what do they have to show for it? A low minimum wage, and a crappy apartment in a shitty building. It's wretched, and when you act like they're just lazy or something, it really bugs me.
If you really ARE working or middle class, it makes your opinions even worse, because you're a class traitor. My ex girlfriend was like this. Her entire family was lower class, but they were all devout Republicans. They hated welfare, they hated childrens programs, they despised poor Mexicans BECAUSE they were poor (they lived in Phoenix) even though the Mexicans hadn't done anything to them at all, and they weren't that different... It was really ironic, because her mother's side of the family came from Nicuragua!!! I couldn't get my mind around it; I used to ask her, "But wait, your family came from Nicuragua, so how can you hate people who come in from Mexico???" She totally didn't get the irony in it. It was amazing.
So, look. Let's reframe this thing. It's been interesting fencing with you, because a little casual flamewar can get the blood going. However, since we've reached this point, let's get serious and can the games. Listen to what I'm saying -- all seriousness, now, no more playing around.
The middle and working classes deserve a lot more than they're getting. If the government works for us, and we pay enough taxes that I think it should, it should at least pretend to protect our interests. People should be able to make enough of a minimum wage to stay above the poverty line. People shouldn't have to wor
Thanks! But, hang on; it was another poster who said it was a conspiracy. I don't think they're actually getting together and having meetings over this. I think it's a situation in which a large number of rich people are all acting in their selfish self interest, weighted by a disdain for the middle class and perhaps a subconscious desire for the middle class to just go away. This is a possible result of their activities, which are consistent not because of a conspiracy but because they all want the same things (e.g. get rid of all those pesky salaried positions dragging down the bottom line, and so on) and don't particularly care about consequences. When I'm in the mood for rationality, I'm more rational. ;)
I sometimes get a little frisky and talk conspiracy, but that's more tongue in cheek, like my recent comment to a republican, "guys like you'll be the first ones up against the wall when the revolution comes" -- which he actually took at face value, and was horrified by! Amazing. He didn't recognize it as a paraphrase from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Ah, well. What can we do? That crowd isn't known for friskiness (the republican and I are currently at each other's throats -- I'd point you towards the thread, but it's tiresome, just a big pissing match really, and I'm vaguely embarassed it's gotten so nasty, but jeez, the guy's so full of it I find it hard to resist throwing down with him).
I'm enjoying chatting with you, by the way. You're A-OK.
Well, hang on a sec there. I'm defining middle class in its formal sense, i.e. people making between 28,000 and 110,000 a year, i.e. the 28% and 31% tax brackets. And, I define a living wage as that which provides people with the means to live comfortably enough that they don't spend most of their time trying to hustle money for groceries.
;)
Setting minimum values for wages is not a form of welfare; it is a form of worker protection, just like the forty hour work-week, mandatory overtime pay for hourly workers, and unemployment insurance. Worker protections are designed to support social equality, so that people can live well. The reason this is a good thing is that a person who has a good job with a living wage isn't going to be stealing cars, selling drugs, or mugging people. But it's also because it's just plain fair; a just society should ensure that all of its members are dealt with fairly and that their labor is rewarded equitably. Pure capitalism is a cold, unkind, sharp thing. Rules enforcing fair treatment of workers take the edge off of it somewhat.
In contrast to rules requiring businesses to play fair with the people whose labor makes the business possible, welfare is designed to prevent the poor from starving or freezing to death. Its proper name is "Aid to families with dependent children" -- which means, basically, that it's designed to help families keep their innocent, helpless children fed, warm and safe. I would argue that a society that doesn't provide welfare is a society I wouldn't want to live in. Not because I use welfare myself -- no one in my family ever has, as far as I know -- but because I wouldn't want to be associated with a society cold enough to turn its back on the poor.
About the "living wage": The middle class are receiving a living wage, and the rich are doing everything they can to eliminate that. Working class people aren't making a living wage at all; most of them are barely over the poverty line, and a lot are working two or three jobs just to make ends meet. Seems kind of too close to slavery to me, man. Anyway, that's my take on it.
I guess it's pretty obvious that the proposals you mentioned, to raise the minimum wage over the poverty line for any given area, are totally ok in my opinion. I think it's a great idea! Maybe people will feel a little less desperate when they can make rent with only one job (as opposed to two or three). Always a good thing.
Hey! What can I say? I lean left.
See, here's my problem with this whole thread: Say what you want about my lack of tact, at least I'm consistent. You, on the other hand, are wildly inconsistent. You go from claiming your parents make "in the low 7 digits" annually to claiming that they aren't rich. And, you talk like a hardcore Republican stockbroker type, but you claim you have no money. Rich parents don't want to share? I find that hard to believe, unless you're some kind of black sheep, shunned by all. Pardon me, but when someone makes more than a million dollars a year, I think they qualify as wealthy, and so do their kids. But it's ok -- this is slashdot, and it's perfectly acceptable for you to demonstrate a surreal grasp of reality. Everyone does it here. Some of my posts have been, shall we say, a little odd, and I'm the first to admit that I don't always tell the absolute truth. So, your strange, convoluted line is cool with me. You're rich, but not, but sorta? Sure, why not? What's the difference?
I still think you're full of crap, and I'm not saying that in any nasty way. It's meant in a purely friendly, "just us folks" way. Don't be ashamed of being a bullshit artist! Revel in it, like I do! What's the big deal, really? So you're talking out your ass on Slashdot. So what? Aren't we all?
But, let's get back on topic, and resume the pretense that we're actually serious about this thing. Straight faces, now, folks...
Ahem.
First of all, you are clearly not a "working stiff". You are a trust fund baby. If you were not a trust fund baby, you would not have parents who make several million dollars a year, by your own admission. IF you're working, as you claim, you're doing it out of some perverse desire for street cred. But, all that street cred gets wrecked as soon as you mention the "seven figures" thing, so I don't see why you bother.
But just in case you'd like a counterexample, why don't I weigh in with what a REAL blue-collar family is like. Just for your edification, in case you actually give a damn.
My father started out in the Marine Corps, and left the corps to marry my mother. She was a secretary on Wall Street, and he was a longshoreman on the piers. In the late fifties or so, the piers closed down and everyone got laid off, after which he became an air conditioning technician -- my mother paid for his training while he was laid off. He worked for around forty years -- FORTY YEARS -- back breaking work, installing multi-ton air conditioning equipment in a variety of relatively unsafe locations, and finally retired last year. He was union all the way, and so was my mother, for the last fifteen years or so (CSEA). I went to college, paying for it with my OWN stint in the Marine corps, including time in the first Gulf war. I spent years with barely two nickels to rub together, and finally worked a few decent years in NYC during the dot-com boom as a software developer. After that I started working for the government, in a unionized position -- basically, low salary, no bonuses, but the work benefits the poor and the disadvantaged. I've been working my butt off keeping their systems working ever since.
Let's be clear: your father was a real estate investor who got his assets seized under RICO (which by the way, doesn't imply innocence on his part!), and he and your mother opened up some humongous store and make a few million a year (YOU said this, so don't contradict it now, it's too late for that). YOUR FAMILY IS NOT MIDDLE CLASS -- IT IS NOT WORKING CLASS EITHER. Ok? So drop the working class hero bullshit and be honest with yourself. You're a rich guy's kid, and you're spouting the rich-guy point of view.
Your basic principles are the traditional, Republican, "Fuck the poor, I want my tax cut now" rhetoric. Ok? Let's call a spade a spade. Your politics are the politics of selfishness. Your principles are the "me-first" principles of the wealthy. The reason you take such offense at what I say is that you have no defence for the charges I make. The reason you spit back commen
It's weird and clunky, the battery lasts no longer than a notebook's, it weighs like a laptop, and forces you to jump through hoops during installation. I don't see why this would ever be considered worth buying. If you get a nice PDA for less money, the battery lasts way longer, it's more portable, and you can use whatever O/S you want on your main system.
Just get a Sharp Zaurus. Or a Vadem Clio if you want to be flashy. I got a Mobilon Tripad for a hundred and fifty bucks or so on Ebay...
You are. As I said.
The fact that your parents were fortunate enough to do well for themselves has nothing to do with anything, and it proves nothing. It could just as easily have gone the other way, with them collapsing into poverty and raising you in a trailer park in the middle of nowhere. If you don't realize that good fortune figures heavily in your family history, you're a fool. Without a fortunate coincidence here, a fortuitous meeting there, a lucky convergence of market factors at the moment your mother did A, or B, the sort of success you're bragging about wouldn't have happened. But telling you this won't convince you of it; you're too busy congradulating yourself for all that "hard work" and telling yourself that it was all your parents, and no external factors were at play. Sooner or later, your luck could reverse itself, and you'll see EXACTLY what I mean.
The fact is, for MOST PEOPLE the kind of experience you're arrogantly bragging about is simply impossible. And, it isn't because they're lazy, or because they don't want to work. It's because the game is rigged, whether people like you want to admit it or not. People like you really piss me off, with your bullshit comments about how "wonderful you" deserves all the good fortune you've received, and how everyone else is poor because they somehow deserve it... You should be ashamed of yourself, you really should. It's people like you who are stripping the budgets for social programs, just so some fat-cat rich asshole can have a tax cut. It's people like you who, out of one side of your mouth talk about charity, and out of the other, demand that welfare be eliminated because you don't think the poor deserve to eat. It's people like you who are gutting this country and it's your cruelty and selfishness that are ruining things for millions of innocent people.
Go ahead and call me a communist. I'd rather be a dyed-in-the-wool red than whatever slimy creature you've grown up to be.
You're quite foolish.
Most mature industries have a very high barrier to entry. Virtually all established forms of commerce have at least a modest barrier to entry (think of this in terms of the hundreds of thousands of dollars it would take to, say, simply open a small office somewhere). It is therefore nearly impossible for a "newly freed worker" (???) to muster up the scratch to enter any lucrative area of business. He's lucky if he can make RENT, much less start a company. But of course you knew that.
The fortunes that were made in the past were made during a period in which the industries in question (which were, themselves, much simpler than today's industries) were in their infancy and therefore, the barriers to entry were very low. Today, this is no longer true. Even new industries today have very high barriers to entry -- consider biotechnology. Is a recently unemployed man going to muster the tens of millions of dollars it would take to build a biotech lab and hire scientists? Of course not.
But, even your simple examples are far off. Amazon? Best Buy? Are you kidding? It takes millions of dollars of startup capital to build out a warehouse system capable of supporting Amazon-type activities. And, Best Buy is a chain store -- think tens of millions, and the setting up of numerous locations around the country. You're a madman, and what you're saying doesn't even make sense (much less add up to anything).
As far as conspiracies go, I'll say this: what is the difference between a conspiracy of malevolent rich assholes, and the effect of thousands of malevolent rich assholes acting selfishly, independently? Either way, everyone who isn't rich gets to hold the bag as the rich sail off in their yachts with all the money they basically plundered from our economy. You're a fool if you think this isn't happening. And, stating the obvious is NOT "making wild conspiracy accusations".
I don't have any sympathy for people like you, who spout rah-rah cheerleading bullshit for the rich while they steal MY lunch. Guys like you are going to be the first ones up against the wall when the revolution comes. Heh heh...
But, seriously, you're full of shit. You know that, right?
Exactly! Thanks! My favorite quote is: "The fact that you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you!"
;)
But, in all seriousness, consider this from a rich person's point of view:
Firing all the white collar workers and offshoring all of their jobs makes millions of dollars for Joe Bigshot at Company X -- the board loves him, so he gets a fat bonus, plus his monster salary (some executives are making tens of millions of dollars). Slashing social spending in favor of a tax cut makes him more money. Removing the tax on dividends makes him even more money. The rest of the country gets screwed, but he's ok; he's got millions (maybe tens of millions) of bucks now.
So, next step: all those white collar workers are now working class. They're down at the mall, serving hamburgers. Joe Bigshot hasn't lost anything; his company is still in business. And, if the crashing economy starts to take his company down with it, he'll sell off his stock and make millions *more*. By the time the economy is really bad he'll be off in Europe somewhere, in a villa. His money will be safe in offshore bank accounts, converted into whatever is the most stable currency at the time.
In other words, he won't see any consequences whatsoever for his actions. There's no downside for him! He gets millions of bucks, with which his family can live like kings for the rest of all time.
It doesn't even have to be a conspiracy; all it takes is enough rich people doing the math, figuring out the above progression, and opting for their personal gain instead of that of their country. Numbers of rich, selfish people, acting independently, have the same exact effect as a conspiracy. Either way, the rest of us end up holding the bag.
It's been happening for years. But whenever I point it out, people tell me I'm paranoid. Thanks for giving me some credit...
Still, you have to admit -- it IS a quite tasty conspiracy theory. Plus, I was bored. It killed fifteen minutes. ;)
;)
I don't understand what you meant about "living wage"; I think we define the term differently -- I wasn't talking about government assistance. Where I live, "living wage" is generally meant to mean "a high enough salary to live on"; it doesn't have anything to do with welfare. It's kind of weird that you read it that way; where are you from, and how is it used there?
Bush may have gotten a significant part of the vote, but he didn't win the election. He was cast into office by court fiat. Still, I'll grant you that point -- a large number of people voted for the man, which I think is a testament to the power of television to deliver propaganda. But I won't get started with my OTHER conspiracy theories, amusing though they may be. I've got some good ones, though...
As far as the rich having enough common sense to not kill the golden goose, riddle me this, batman: why are the owners of corporations doing everything they can to move every white collar job overseas if they care about those people's spending power? Answer: because they don't; they'll make enough money in the short term to set their families up for life, so it won't MATTER over time what happens, at least not to them. The long-term result will be a crashing of prices which in turn will make their dollar go further. So, in their case, killing the golden goose means they get to eat a roast goose, not that they starve. If the economy starts to crash, they'll move their money offshore and retreat to a country estate somewhere. The net effect is that the rich cash in, sell everyone else out, and get to be rich and privileged for the rest of all time, with no consequences whatsoever. I don't think they see any downside in that.
Of course, this IS a conspiracy theory. But it's mine, and I'm enjoying it too much to discard it.
Phil
Thanks for your kind reply -- you've got a pretty good sense of humor yourself. ;)
I tend to agree; C, C++, Java, and other languages in that family have pretty nearly perfected the way in which we express how we want our computers to handle a task for us. The syntax isn't changing much, anymore; only the libraries are, and the overall approach (i.e. procedural led to OOP, etc). So, in a hundred years, I'd bet we're still using a C-like syntax, but we'll have incredibly powerful libaries available to us, and our development environments will be really clean and easy to use.
;)
Will we be using C? Java? Who knows. Both languages will probably be at least somewhat used, because they're useful and have good libraries. You know what I think? I think we'll have some kind of superlanguage, a development environment with every potential interaction you can imagine available as a library call, with components for everything under the sun. Programmer education, then, will be a matter of knowing what libraries are available, how they're best used, and knowing how to find them. It'll be more of an art than anything else. In some ways, Java is already like this. Let's call the superlanguage Sex, and be done with it. Imagine how much more fun work would be:
"Hey, Bill, what are you working on, there?"
"Sex, Bob. Sex."
"Get some! Woo hoo! But, seriously, what system is that?"
"Oh, this is our new app server, JohnnyWad. It can handle twice as many simultaneous sockets as our last one, and it goes four times as long between errors. Not to mention the size of the toolkit that comes with it."
"No kidding! We've been tinkering with Bimbo(tm) downstairs; it works great, but once a month, the server crashes and we have to take it offline for repairs."
It's got potential...
Space radiation??? What space radiation??? I thought the hats were worn because they were crinkly and shiny, and made fun noises when you moved your head!!!
Uh oh... I feel a tumor coming on...
No, but it sure explains a lot. For example, the fact that we live in a republic instead of a democracy is what makes travesties like the current government possible. Electoral votes? Pah. What a scam.
And, it wasn't too close to call. Gore won. Then the courts handed it over to Bush. Weighted coin toss, my butt.
You forgot:
22. How to make your developers afraid: why layoffs should be random and unpredictable
23. Nepotism is your friend: why your cousin and a couple of Java books are cheaper than a Real Programmer
24. Golfing: networking for the businessman
25. "No sushi for you!" or: why technical staff don't deserve the hiring parties you throw for salesmen and executives
That was some funny stuff! The Onion rocks...
You know what I think makes the Earth such an amazing and strange place? That even though these particular guys are kidding (and hilariously), there are other guys out there who are *actually* like that. I mean, it's inexplicable. Inconceiveable! But, there it is. The longer I live, the more amazing and bizarre life becomes. Every time you think you've seen it all, you see something else.
)v(agnus inexplicably said: " No, he won't grow up to be a mental case, you God-less plick. LOL He'll simply be a talented, multiligual adult that can speak Klingon. I respect that (...and wish I'd thought of it). ~)v(agnus"
;)
What's a plick? Is that a Chinese pecker? And, why does my disdain for nut-jobs who abuse their children by forcing them to speak imaginary languages make me "God-less"? I would think that God would probably agree with me on this one.
As far as your "talented multilingual adult" idea, I can see the kid trying THAT one out on the schoolyard:
Kid: (calls some other kid a weirdo, Klingonish name, acting vaguely Klingon-y): "Gubba gubba boom-y-k!" (or whatever, I don't follow the series).
Other kid: "What the fuck was that? What are you, retarded?"
Kid #1: "I'm not retarded! I'm smart and multilingual, I speak Klingon!"
Other kid: "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Hey, Bobby, check out this dork! He says he's a fucking Klingon!"
Bobby: "What? A cling-on? Like, a turd stuck to hair?"
Other kid: "That's what he said!"
Kid #1: "No! I speak Klingon, like from Star Trek."
Bobby: "I think we had it right the first time, ha hahhahahahaha"
Other kid: "Yeah, no shit! WAAAUGHHHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Kid #1: "Stop it! Stop laughing at me! You're dishonoring me!" (or some other weirdo trekkie response).
Bobby: "OH MY GOD! HAHAHAHAHAAHA! IF THIS KEEPS UP I'M GONNA PISS MYSELF!"
Other kid: "OH MY GOD, KID, STOP IT, YOU'RE KILLING US! MUHAHAHAHAHAHA"
(by now a dozen kids are watching and the teachers have noticed).
Kid #1: "That's it! Prepare to die!"
Bobby: "Grab 'im, Richie! Let's show him what a REAL cling-on is like!"
Richie: "HAHAHAHAH! You're fucked, now, kid! It's SWIRLY TIME!!!"
(FLUSSSSH!)
(Later, in the principal's office)
Principal: Um... Mr. DumbassTrekkie, it appears your son claimed he spoke Klingon? And, started a fight with several other children, which resulted in his getting a swirly?
Mr. DAT: My son didn't start any fights! He's smart, and the other kids hate him for it. They pick on him all the time!
Principal: Ummm... Yeah, right. Ok, look, your kid's wacked in the head, ok? He's way too into star trek, so I'm going to suggest you cut his television watching until he gets a little bit more involved with reality. Also I'm going to put in a request for counselling for the boy, and I'm going to recommend that you find some yourself.
Mr. DAT: "YOU HAVE DISHONORED MY FAMILY..."
(Here we go again...)
Tinfoil? Nah. I hate the way those look. A famous home improvement talk-show host (who will remain nameless) is doing a show about how to make the hats out of rejected prison-labor license plates, and those have the new, cool, NY State license plate logos on them. They're snazzy!