The Republicans feed off of this, too - only they direct their ire at the unions and public employees. I'd say Republicans are more likely to make comments about "ivory tower" academics as well. I'm registered Republican, and I find myself rolling my eyes at much of the literature that comes my way from GOP candidates.
there is mass resentment of other people having any kind of job security.
I think it is our acceptance of envy. You see it when people talk about unions and public servants, and you see it in the 99% crowd as well. It's a shame because there are legitimate gripes in there, but they get overshadowed by the blind hatred (which IMHO often starts with envy).
Usually they practice price discrimination, which any Econ 101 student can demonstrate as a way to price that maximizes your profits. A single, fixed price only benefits the wealthy.
The key problem in the US is probably that ANY governmnet intervention is frowned upon
By some, sure - but there are a roughly equal number who welcome it. Regulation varies state by state. In my state (Pennsylvania), the power and natural gas delivery is exactly as you describe: a public corporation, but highly regulated utility maintains the lines and infrastructure. They have to run price increases by a rate board. The power itself is generated in a competitive market, and we buy from any company we would like. Our phone company is a more traditional setup - they are highly regulated and run increases past a rate board. They maintain both the infrastructure and provide the actual service; there is no competition at all except for long distance service. Recently, the cable TV company started offering VOIP over their cable lines - but they are much less regulated. I believe the cable phone is required to support 911 emergency calls and the township we are in has them under a franchise contract as opposed to serious regulation on the state level. They also have some federal regulation, but nothing like the phone company.
We also have a public company providing our water service, which is highly regulated. They maintain the lines and provide the water. Sewer and trash pickup are provided by the local government. Most of the streets are maintained by the state, but the local government also has a significant number... this is somewhat unique to PA, most states don't have so many state-maintained roads.
What we don't have at all in the US is a tightly-controlled internet infrastructure. Except for some net neutrality rules, there isn't really much in the way of regulation. At least, not compared to other utilities.
That's effectively what a public utility with a rate board is, but since they still need to make a profit they tend to keep their size (and their service) as low as they can get away with. Of course, with the government in charge you'd get the extra size, but probably little in the way of extra service.:)
I know that - I use git. It's great, but it is not a complete computer backup system. By its nature, it does a good job keeping copies of Linux all over the world, so that even when the very smart but also apparently very cocky maintainer drops the ball, it only costs the project a few days. However, had he run any of the very, very simple to setup backup applications available out there, we would not have even heard about his SSD dying. No one should know that Linus's drive died - it should be a non-event.
If you give them a motive to keep costs down by capping their rate increases, you get something a little bit better than a government monopoly... but not a whole lot better. The crazy thing is that Verizon and Comcast compete in my area for both phone and television, and yet the world has not ground to a halt and the skies are not cluttered with wires. I think perhaps we can rethink our ideas of where monopolies should exist.
Let's take your car analogy and run with it. If I found a car on a planet full of self-replicating creatures that shared many features of the car, and even found very simple car components all over the place, as well as a underground record showing many iterations of creatures that eventually led to the car... then yeah, I would assume it evolved there.
If you are going for criminal charges, you need a unanimous jury and the threshold is "beyond a reasonable doubt". You (or the government) can sue them for what they might have done in civil court, but speculation and heresy does not belong in criminal court.
It's a stretch to connect a cleaned-up spill to a violent crime. A guy who neglects his brakes until he crashes his car into a potato patch likely won't go to jail. The same man plowing into someone and killing them probably would.
you had better believe if it was up to me that kind of thing would result in jail time too.
I don't generally support jail time for nonviolent offenders.
Clearly we have different definitions of suffer, these folks are not sleeping in a cell, or missing meals, or worried about paying their bills. Not being able to buy a 5th Ferrari is not suffering.
I'd rather they give it to me than sit on it or spend it recklessly. You can only ramp up your organization so fast, and efficiencies are lower beyond a certain organization size (Microsoft -ahem-).
I bought Apple and Dell after the tech crash. Guess which stock I'm happier with?:)
Not sure how they are now but if you are just running Linux/windows I found them fine and their support was good (in europe at the time anyways).
That's the problem. They are a "fine" player in a commodity market with declining volumes. They made a couple of half-hearted attempts at other markets: personal organizers, re-badged iPods, phones, reselling TVs, etc. But their margins will always reflect their business model, and they have chosen a very low-margin model. In other words, they kind of won the race to the bottom. I'll miss them if they exit the PC market - I think competition is a great thing, even if I was unwilling to hold their shares any longer.
Compared to the people whose livelihoods they nearly destroyed, yeah I would say that is fine.
I was just demonstrating that the owners of the company did in fact suffer as a result of the spill. One more would kill the company - it barely survived this spill. They have a very strong incentive to take more precautions going forward.
something that mere mortals would rot in jail for,
Really, can you show me an instance of someone sitting in jail for accidentally spilling oil?
Perfectly fine? Take a look at the 5-year stock price chart for Exxon vs BP. That's on top of the cash payments (to the owners, the dividend hit). Total return since just before the spill is very poor. Someone who purchased $10k worth of stock in BP is down over $5800 compared to someone who bought Exxon, and down almost $2900 in absolute terms.
Yes, and they had to make it all fit in MPEG2 over-the-air and the TV technology of the time was still CRT. They did a decent job given those constraints. If you designed the system today you might make different choices and you'd almost certainly use a different CODEC.
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This is how the Democrat Party wins elections.
The Republicans feed off of this, too - only they direct their ire at the unions and public employees. I'd say Republicans are more likely to make comments about "ivory tower" academics as well. I'm registered Republican, and I find myself rolling my eyes at much of the literature that comes my way from GOP candidates.
there is mass resentment of other people having any kind of job security.
I think it is our acceptance of envy. You see it when people talk about unions and public servants, and you see it in the 99% crowd as well. It's a shame because there are legitimate gripes in there, but they get overshadowed by the blind hatred (which IMHO often starts with envy).
Usually they practice price discrimination, which any Econ 101 student can demonstrate as a way to price that maximizes your profits. A single, fixed price only benefits the wealthy.
Well, the problem is that FIOS wasn't proving profitable for Verizon so they have mostly stopped capitalizing it.
The key problem in the US is probably that ANY governmnet intervention is frowned upon
By some, sure - but there are a roughly equal number who welcome it. Regulation varies state by state. In my state (Pennsylvania), the power and natural gas delivery is exactly as you describe: a public corporation, but highly regulated utility maintains the lines and infrastructure. They have to run price increases by a rate board. The power itself is generated in a competitive market, and we buy from any company we would like. Our phone company is a more traditional setup - they are highly regulated and run increases past a rate board. They maintain both the infrastructure and provide the actual service; there is no competition at all except for long distance service. Recently, the cable TV company started offering VOIP over their cable lines - but they are much less regulated. I believe the cable phone is required to support 911 emergency calls and the township we are in has them under a franchise contract as opposed to serious regulation on the state level. They also have some federal regulation, but nothing like the phone company.
We also have a public company providing our water service, which is highly regulated. They maintain the lines and provide the water. Sewer and trash pickup are provided by the local government. Most of the streets are maintained by the state, but the local government also has a significant number... this is somewhat unique to PA, most states don't have so many state-maintained roads.
What we don't have at all in the US is a tightly-controlled internet infrastructure. Except for some net neutrality rules, there isn't really much in the way of regulation. At least, not compared to other utilities.
Right, as opposed to the friends and family of the Governor. Either way, you have the same shit going on.
Or have the government provide the infrastructure
That's effectively what a public utility with a rate board is, but since they still need to make a profit they tend to keep their size (and their service) as low as they can get away with. Of course, with the government in charge you'd get the extra size, but probably little in the way of extra service. :)
I know that - I use git. It's great, but it is not a complete computer backup system. By its nature, it does a good job keeping copies of Linux all over the world, so that even when the very smart but also apparently very cocky maintainer drops the ball, it only costs the project a few days. However, had he run any of the very, very simple to setup backup applications available out there, we would not have even heard about his SSD dying. No one should know that Linus's drive died - it should be a non-event.
I think we've had a few stories on here showing that areas with FIOS and cable internet had overall lower prices and higher speeds. Here's one.
If you give them a motive to keep costs down by capping their rate increases, you get something a little bit better than a government monopoly... but not a whole lot better. The crazy thing is that Verizon and Comcast compete in my area for both phone and television, and yet the world has not ground to a halt and the skies are not cluttered with wires. I think perhaps we can rethink our ideas of where monopolies should exist.
I was referring to ATSC, but yes - even ATSC plans on using newer codecs in the not-too-distant future.
Let's take your car analogy and run with it. If I found a car on a planet full of self-replicating creatures that shared many features of the car, and even found very simple car components all over the place, as well as a underground record showing many iterations of creatures that eventually led to the car... then yeah, I would assume it evolved there.
If you are going for criminal charges, you need a unanimous jury and the threshold is "beyond a reasonable doubt". You (or the government) can sue them for what they might have done in civil court, but speculation and heresy does not belong in criminal court.
I, too, wish the Stones had not sold out and just stayed true to their core values of sex and drugs.
How in the world will this kill someone? Or even injure someone? They did remediation to the EPA's satisfaction, AFAICT.
It's a stretch to connect a cleaned-up spill to a violent crime. A guy who neglects his brakes until he crashes his car into a potato patch likely won't go to jail. The same man plowing into someone and killing them probably would.
Save your scorn for Michael Dell - it's a direct quote.
you had better believe if it was up to me that kind of thing would result in jail time too.
I don't generally support jail time for nonviolent offenders.
Clearly we have different definitions of suffer, these folks are not sleeping in a cell, or missing meals, or worried about paying their bills. Not being able to buy a 5th Ferrari is not suffering.
Most of "these folks" are pension funds.
I'd rather they give it to me than sit on it or spend it recklessly. You can only ramp up your organization so fast, and efficiencies are lower beyond a certain organization size (Microsoft -ahem-).
I bought Apple and Dell after the tech crash. Guess which stock I'm happier with? :)
Not sure how they are now but if you are just running Linux/windows I found them fine and their support was good (in europe at the time anyways).
That's the problem. They are a "fine" player in a commodity market with declining volumes. They made a couple of half-hearted attempts at other markets: personal organizers, re-badged iPods, phones, reselling TVs, etc. But their margins will always reflect their business model, and they have chosen a very low-margin model. In other words, they kind of won the race to the bottom. I'll miss them if they exit the PC market - I think competition is a great thing, even if I was unwilling to hold their shares any longer.
Yes, there is some delicious irony there.
Compared to the people whose livelihoods they nearly destroyed, yeah I would say that is fine.
I was just demonstrating that the owners of the company did in fact suffer as a result of the spill. One more would kill the company - it barely survived this spill. They have a very strong incentive to take more precautions going forward.
something that mere mortals would rot in jail for,
Really, can you show me an instance of someone sitting in jail for accidentally spilling oil?
Perfectly fine? Take a look at the 5-year stock price chart for Exxon vs BP. That's on top of the cash payments (to the owners, the dividend hit). Total return since just before the spill is very poor. Someone who purchased $10k worth of stock in BP is down over $5800 compared to someone who bought Exxon, and down almost $2900 in absolute terms.
Yes, and they had to make it all fit in MPEG2 over-the-air and the TV technology of the time was still CRT. They did a decent job given those constraints. If you designed the system today you might make different choices and you'd almost certainly use a different CODEC.
I would think that Apple would much rather get parts from Intel than from Samsung.