That's a good point. Taking things to their extreme logical conclusion, insurance companies would screen everybody for every possible condition, their rates would cover exactly your highly individualized health risks and eventually everybody would end up paying what they would have paid for medical care if they were not insured.
You're assuming the US government would allow the mexican people to fix their government. If they did it might severely inconvenience US economic interests in Mexico like controlling the banking system and having US citizens buy the best beachfront property, against Mexico's constitution.
Other big businesses affected: drugs. You constantly hear about yet another Latin American drug lord captured, and in Latin America most people know the names of all the drug lords in their country, but how comes we never hear about the big drug lords in the US? I've read that aroud 90% of the drug money moves inside the US, certainly somebody must be benefitting from this, how can we buy the version that it's only a lot of small street gangs the ones controlling this money?
Guns. Drugs flow north, guns flow south. And lots of them.
So, if lax immigration laws allowed the US to colonize Texas, and a US-backed government allows US corporations and individuals take over Mexico, you shouldn't be whining that millions of Mexicans see moving to the States as their only option. And it's going to get worse because in the past it was poor farmers moving north. Today it's the middle class stampeding to the US to work as masons, nannys, etc. I get my kicks when I hear my American friends saying "but there are changes in the Mexican government now, isn't it?". Well, yes, they changed a group of thiefs by another one.
I'm not saying the US caused the problem in the first place, but it certainly is stopping Mexicans from fixing it. The Mexicans are perfectly capable of fixing their problems given half a chance. And believe me, most of them would rather live in their country and not in a semi-intolerant, racially divided country, that makes it difficult for them to integrate. Not racially divided? Why are there still white, blacks, reds, browns and yellows in the US? All races should have merged hundred of years ago like in Mexico.
Don't get me wrong, I, like Karl Marx, admire the US and its people, but like an illegal alien friend of mine said: "there is much we must learn from the Americans, but there is also much we MUST NOT learn from the Americans"
If her fellow teachers really support her, maybe they can do some sort of DDOS defense: all supporting teachers on the state have themselves photographed when drinking and publish the pics on the internet. They can't ban all the teachers of a state. If her fellow teachers don't want to support her, then maybe they all deserve to live in that kind of society.
OK, from the point of view of those up in the heights:
I control a whole country, or at least some function in a whole country, let say Education. Or I own/control a whole company, say Ford Motor Co.
A combination of economic/technical/political factors make a few strategists realize the whole organization/country would be better served changing to Linux or whatever. They present their conclusions at the next board meeting, the big boss quickly looks over the summary of the study, has a few words with the people around him, orders the move to the new system.
"But...but...the infrastructure, the certifications, the retraining, etc!!!" you say. "Come on, come on, I'm sure you can deal with it, that's why I've hired you. Besides you have all my support. Next issue please..."
And it's already happening in several parts of the world. As soon as a government or big companies start moving out of Microsoft, a whole supporting infrastructure starts being created for the new ecosystem, and smaller companies/organizations will have to follow the new standard.
What about just doing nothing? I mean literally nothing. If the whole town or a substantial part of it just sits doing nothing the government is down in less than one week. It works.
German language has this sinister sound to it...it's perfect for Metal. In fact Rammstein's singer says that the same way French is the language of love, German is the language of anger.
Good point! I have an international credit card, with billing address in Mexico, and even when shipping to a US address most companies refuse to accept it. Honorable exceptions are Amazon, Ebay and very few smaller ones. Some of them won't even take Paypal if you're an international customer. So I got a Western Union/Bidpay account and ask them if they accept a money order from BP, which I can order over the internet. In one case (Newegg) I had to walk accross the border (I live on the Mexican side) to a post office, buy a paper money order and send it by snail mail.
The funny thing is when I travel in the US I can pay anywhere with the same cards, just showing any ID.
They might not even be interested in showing up. I remember an old documentary about a researcher in Africa studying gorillas. Did she make contact with the leaders, explained the purpose of her visit, and established a commercial embassy to trade bananas for manufactured products? No, she just stayed out of range first, later got closer to the gorillas in the margins, trying to look familiar to them. Sounds too similar to aliens only talking with marginal, out of the mainstream "contactees".
The only way people in large quantities will siwtch to Linux/OpenOffice/whatever is when governments or big companies start mandating it. Since that's already happening outside of the USA, it will be eventually like with the metric system, used all over the world except in the USA.
I remember an old documentary about a researcher in Africa studying gorillas. Did she make contact with the leaders, explained the purpose of her visit, and established a commercial embassy to trade bananas for manufactured products? No, she just stayed out of range first, later got closer to the gorillas in the margins, trying to look familiar to them. Sounds too similar to aliens only talking with marginal, out of the mainstream "contactees".
Well, at that time there was this little country called, what's its name? Oh yeah, the USSR, that happened to have nuclear weapons too, and was supporting the Vietcong.
So India sells manufactured products to the USA and the USA sells food and raw materials to India. That's basically the relationship between industrialized countries and 3rd world countries. Way to go!
Look what happened with Europe. At a certain point each individual coutry didn't have enough population to compete with the US, so for a while they became quiet little countries with a reputation for excellence in a certain niche. When even that was in danger their only way out was to merge, become a single country, no borders, same currency, same laws, etc. Eventually the US will have to do the same. 300 million people won't be able to compete forever against 1,300 million. The US will have to merge. With whom? With Latinamerica.
Only if you're looking for corporate jobs or hang around with people with that semi-facist mentality, but more and more, technology and the spread of a more advanced outlook is allowing young and older people to create spaces away from fear-based corporate structures and closer to enthusiasm-based ones.
Not for long. Before they cross the border, all illegal aliens are rounded up by Mexican government representatives and instructed on watching less TV so they reproduce faster than the Anglos, and so eventually outnumber you...
Slashdot Mirror
Some animals seem to be evolving to the next level. What about us? We seem to have reached a plateau and entered an evolutionary blind alley.
Sarcastic intent acknowleged. Also, evolution rewards species that learn to cooperate among themselves.
That's a good point. Taking things to their extreme logical conclusion, insurance companies would screen everybody for every possible condition, their rates would cover exactly your highly individualized health risks and eventually everybody would end up paying what they would have paid for medical care if they were not insured.
You're assuming the US government would allow the mexican people to fix their government. If they did it might severely inconvenience US economic interests in Mexico like controlling the banking system and having US citizens buy the best beachfront property, against Mexico's constitution.
Other big businesses affected: drugs. You constantly hear about yet another Latin American drug lord captured, and in Latin America most people know the names of all the drug lords in their country, but how comes we never hear about the big drug lords in the US? I've read that aroud 90% of the drug money moves inside the US, certainly somebody must be benefitting from this, how can we buy the version that it's only a lot of small street gangs the ones controlling this money?
Guns. Drugs flow north, guns flow south. And lots of them.
So, if lax immigration laws allowed the US to colonize Texas, and a US-backed government allows US corporations and individuals take over Mexico, you shouldn't be whining that millions of Mexicans see moving to the States as their only option. And it's going to get worse because in the past it was poor farmers moving north. Today it's the middle class stampeding to the US to work as masons, nannys, etc. I get my kicks when I hear my American friends saying "but there are changes in the Mexican government now, isn't it?". Well, yes, they changed a group of thiefs by another one.
I'm not saying the US caused the problem in the first place, but it certainly is stopping Mexicans from fixing it. The Mexicans are perfectly capable of fixing their problems given half a chance. And believe me, most of them would rather live in their country and not in a semi-intolerant, racially divided country, that makes it difficult for them to integrate. Not racially divided? Why are there still white, blacks, reds, browns and yellows in the US? All races should have merged hundred of years ago like in Mexico.
Don't get me wrong, I, like Karl Marx, admire the US and its people, but like an illegal alien friend of mine said: "there is much we must learn from the Americans, but there is also much we MUST NOT learn from the Americans"
If her fellow teachers really support her, maybe they can do some sort of DDOS defense: all supporting teachers on the state have themselves photographed when drinking and publish the pics on the internet. They can't ban all the teachers of a state. If her fellow teachers don't want to support her, then maybe they all deserve to live in that kind of society.
OK, from the point of view of those up in the heights:
I control a whole country, or at least some function in a whole country, let say Education. Or I own/control a whole company, say Ford Motor Co.
A combination of economic/technical/political factors make a few strategists realize the whole organization/country would be better served changing to Linux or whatever. They present their conclusions at the next board meeting, the big boss quickly looks over the summary of the study, has a few words with the people around him, orders the move to the new system.
"But...but...the infrastructure, the certifications, the retraining, etc!!!" you say. "Come on, come on, I'm sure you can deal with it, that's why I've hired you. Besides you have all my support. Next issue please..."
And it's already happening in several parts of the world. As soon as a government or big companies start moving out of Microsoft, a whole supporting infrastructure starts being created for the new ecosystem, and smaller companies/organizations will have to follow the new standard.
Yeah, yeah, you're right, this is way more interesting.
Dream on Americans....
What about just doing nothing? I mean literally nothing. If the whole town or a substantial part of it just sits doing nothing the government is down in less than one week. It works.
German language has this sinister sound to it...it's perfect for Metal. In fact Rammstein's singer says that the same way French is the language of love, German is the language of anger.
http://www.zetatalk.com/index/zeta359.htm
Good point! I have an international credit card, with billing address in Mexico, and even when shipping to a US address most companies refuse to accept it. Honorable exceptions are Amazon, Ebay and very few smaller ones. Some of them won't even take Paypal if you're an international customer. So I got a Western Union/Bidpay account and ask them if they accept a money order from BP, which I can order over the internet. In one case (Newegg) I had to walk accross the border (I live on the Mexican side) to a post office, buy a paper money order and send it by snail mail.
The funny thing is when I travel in the US I can pay anywhere with the same cards, just showing any ID.They might not even be interested in showing up. I remember an old documentary about a researcher in Africa studying gorillas. Did she make contact with the leaders, explained the purpose of her visit, and established a commercial embassy to trade bananas for manufactured products? No, she just stayed out of range first, later got closer to the gorillas in the margins, trying to look familiar to them. Sounds too similar to aliens only talking with marginal, out of the mainstream "contactees".
The only way people in large quantities will siwtch to Linux/OpenOffice/whatever is when governments or big companies start mandating it. Since that's already happening outside of the USA, it will be eventually like with the metric system, used all over the world except in the USA.
In a few days you'll have a chance.
I remember an old documentary about a researcher in Africa studying gorillas. Did she make contact with the leaders, explained the purpose of her visit, and established a commercial embassy to trade bananas for manufactured products? No, she just stayed out of range first, later got closer to the gorillas in the margins, trying to look familiar to them. Sounds too similar to aliens only talking with marginal, out of the mainstream "contactees".
Well, at that time there was this little country called, what's its name? Oh yeah, the USSR, that happened to have nuclear weapons too, and was supporting the Vietcong.
So India sells manufactured products to the USA and the USA sells food and raw materials to India. That's basically the relationship between industrialized countries and 3rd world countries. Way to go!
Look what happened with Europe. At a certain point each individual coutry didn't have enough population to compete with the US, so for a while they became quiet little countries with a reputation for excellence in a certain niche. When even that was in danger their only way out was to merge, become a single country, no borders, same currency, same laws, etc. Eventually the US will have to do the same. 300 million people won't be able to compete forever against 1,300 million. The US will have to merge. With whom? With Latinamerica.
Well, for all practical purposes Mexico's economy is owned by the US. Mexico's economy depends on the following:
1.- Oil, still owned by the government but talks are already in progress with the new conservative president to "privatize" oil.
2.- Money sent back by illegal immigrants. It has become the 2nd or 3rd source of funds.
3.- Drug money. Most of it coming from the US.
4.- Turism. 75% of turists are Americans.
5.- Industry. At the border, practically all factories are American. As for the rest of the country, NAFTA is wiping out Mexican industry.
And 90% of the banking sector is owned by the US and Spain. So, I'd say if you buy an Xbox the US economy still benefits.Maybe if they hired retired veterans of the IT trade, too tired to actuallly work in the area, but willing to dispense advice to customers.
What is a frustrating experience for young and ambitious people can be a very enjoyable one for the veterans.
Only if you're looking for corporate jobs or hang around with people with that semi-facist mentality, but more and more, technology and the spread of a more advanced outlook is allowing young and older people to create spaces away from fear-based corporate structures and closer to enthusiasm-based ones.
Nature is telling us our definition of intelligence doesn't match hers.
Maybe that's why what we consider highly intelligent people look kind of unbalanced to the rest.
Maybe a race of highly cerebral people would be an evolutionary dead end, and maybe nature is looking for more balanced, intuitive people.
...the Caribbean area. That sure must be a good place to live! I think there is a lesson here...
Not for long. Before they cross the border, all illegal aliens are rounded up by Mexican government representatives and instructed on watching less TV so they reproduce faster than the Anglos, and so eventually outnumber you...