And the mere fact that 90% of businesses fail in their first year means that the ones who survive and flourish deserve the wealth they get.
Imagine how much harder it is to start a business in Europe. Way higher taxes, more regulations, and if you hire a bad employee they'll be harder to get rid of than herpes.
The only multi-millionaire I know was an engineer who mowed lawns after work and on the weekends, and who figured out he could make more money mowing lawns full-time. Twenty years later, he's got a thriving landscaping company. He's honest, hardworking, and rich.
To think all businessman are like the scumbags at WorldCom and Enron is just idiotic.
Laws of supply and demand, man. It doesn't just apply to labor, or material. It applies to money itself.
People who have money will try to put it work where it can get them the most money, just like a worker will go where he gets paid the most.
The genius businessman, who can use money to make money very effectively, will get all sorts of investor money. These people are rare; pro sports player kind of rare.
And obviously, the investors who are better at recognizing the genius businessman make more money than those that don't.
And when you get right down to it, a fair wage for an employee is determined by one thing, and one thing only: How much they can get for their labor elsewhere. You wouldn't stay at a badly run company that paid significantly less than what you could get elsewhere. Why should a well-run company pay you significantly more than you could get elsewhere?
Did that king hire mercenaries? Did the mercenaries enter into the contract knowing what the job entailed, of their own free will? And BTW, companies and capitalists still have to obey the laws of the land; they in no way are dictators.
*Anybody* can dig ditches. Very few people can effectivly "risk capital". Hell, less than a third of the households in the US make any serious attempt at investing towards their own freakin' retirement.
How about this analogy? Bob and Sue Doe invested their life savings into opening a restaurant. Guess what, they deserve to be the boss. The busboys don't get to decide how much they get paid. That situation is only, oh, about a thousand times more likely than little Billy dropping out of Harvard and starting Microsoft.
Obviously, you've never been able to accumulate much capital in your life, or you wouldn't be nearly so casual about what it means to risk it.
Read up on Mr Buffett. You know, the 2nd richest American (and if he lives another ten years, he'll take back the number one spot for damn sure).
Using your capital to earn money is just as valid as using labor. Someone ponying up a billion dollars for a project can get a lot more done that someone giving a couple years labor. And the guy putting up the billion dollars is risking a *hell* of a lot more than the guy getting a paycheck every two weeks.
So, not only do you not know how corporate ownership works, you are totally ignorant of the stock market.
Let me guess . . . you're an American public high school teacher?
Guess what. Wealth can *actually be created*. Seriously. The value of a company can actually increase. Don't confuse how the stock market was working in 1999 with how it's supposed to work. Nobody with any brains thought that tech stocks during the bubble were anything other that a pyramid scheme.
Oh please. Those investors knew how much Gates was going to get. They got to vote for the board members, they approved further stock options and grants. They were more than willing to give Gates that stock because having him run the company meant their stock value went through the roof. Trickery? Christ, I wish *I'd* been tricked into putting a few thousand bucks into Microsoft's IPO. I'd be retired by now.
You're unclear on the "stealing" thing, aren't you? If you think Gates defrauded the stockholders, call the SEC or the Justice Department. Or buy *one share* and file a class action suit yourself.
If you want to talk about stealing, why the *hell* do I have to pay taxes so the govt can give subsidies to tobacco farmers? That goes beyond stupid, it's *wrong*.
Couple summers ago, when the unions shut down the ports in California, I read that the average wage of a dockworker there was $120,000 a year, and they went on strike because management wanted to streamline the operation by using barcodes and handheld computers. Utterly bloated and inefficient, and the cost gets passed on to anyone paying for imports or trying to make money from exports.
You know, it's *really* hard to sympathize with unions in situations like that.
Somebody picking their nose is not using my bandwidth, wasting my disk space, and most importantly not exposing my kids to pr0n.
Well, I don't have kids, but hopefully you can see my point.
You can get fined for walking down the street with a megaphone at 2 AM screaming obscenities. There's a point where it's copacetic for the state to mess with people that are being a pain in the ass.
You could pretty easily convince The Man of your innocence, unless your business involves viagra, penis enlargement, or Nigerian fund transfers.
There are probably laws on the books that could be used to prosecute spammers that do this, and if not, they could be created. Go after the actual spammer, and if they can't display proof that the accused company contracted with them for the spam, nail them to the friggin wall.
Yeahhhh. Read "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman". The most powerful computers of the time were at Los Alamos, with Nobel prize winners writing the programs.
The other thing you need to consider is that if you regularly sell your CDs to the used music shop for $6, you'll likely buy more new CDs than you would otherwise.
Oh yeah, you're right. But then again, he wrote that back in the 30's or 40's, when science's understanding of stellar evolution was a lot more primitive (and when science fiction played a lot more fast and loose with the science). I doubt if he (or any competent science fiction author) would say the same thing today.
The prospect of eliminating all human life via nuclear war never existed, regardless of "On The Beach". Doesn't matter, though, any civilization that can build space colonies could easily destroy them in a war.
A space colony will be far more vulnerable to attack than an Earth-based nation/city. They'll either learn to get along, or they'll all die. If an all-Palestinian colony starts being a threat to other colonies, it won't last very long.
And to think of Star Trek as a serious attempt to describe the human race 300 years from now instead of as popular entertainment used to comment on current affairs is just plain silly.
Sure, the Greeks invented democracy. It ended up being limited to the Greeks, and died with them. American democratic ideals and culture (defined largely because America is a frontier society) has propagated around the world.
The nations on this planet that are the closest to their frontier origins (America, Canada, Australia) are also among the most tolerant societies on this planet.
Oh please. I seem to recall a bunch of Canadian soldiers being killed in Afghanistan by some gung-ho US pilots hopped up on speed.
As far as Iraq is concerned, while I have no problem with Saddam's regime getting taken out, I don't think it would have been possible for the Bush administration to bungle up the diplomacy involved more than they did. I don't blame Canada for not getting involved in that situation at all. France, Germany, and Russia, now, they're nothing but hooors.
Well, I imagine most people at the time kind of assumed that the Japanese wouldn't be that dumb. Ya gotta admit, it might even rank higher than Hitler attacking the USSR on the scale of stupid things to do.
With any luck, history will show that 9/11 will also rank right up there on the stupidity scale.
And you're weak on science:). There are plenty of stars around that will be shining a loooong time after the Sun is a cinder.
The problem with your parent's post is that there's no big hurry; we can put off evacuating the Earth for a couple of billion years. Maybe even a few years longer.
People on space colonies will have to learn how to get along better a lot more than anybody on Earth. And a frontier is just the place for the human race to develop new social systems. Remember that democracy idea that came from the last big frontier the human race had?
Yes, because the only place to find water and metal in the universe is habitable planets. Geesh. It was a stupid plot device back when I was a kid watching "V", and it's still stupid in "Independance Day".
If the human race goes to the stars, what is vastly more likely (assuming we are still in human form) is that the rare terraformable planet we come across will be treated like the jewel it is.
It's not because space is dangerous, it's because it's *expensive*. Space won't be colonized until it's a hell of a lot cheaper. And that ain't gonna happen as long as NASA or the govt has anything to do with it.
If you want to visit space, feel free to pony up $20 million and go to Russia. You wanna live there, you better be named Bill Gates the Third and work in the software industry.
This month's Scientific American has an interesting article on child labor. What you are suggesting could, in many ways, make things much worse for children and families in the developing world.
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And the mere fact that 90% of businesses fail in their first year means that the ones who survive and flourish deserve the wealth they get.
Imagine how much harder it is to start a business in Europe. Way higher taxes, more regulations, and if you hire a bad employee they'll be harder to get rid of than herpes.
The only multi-millionaire I know was an engineer who mowed lawns after work and on the weekends, and who figured out he could make more money mowing lawns full-time. Twenty years later, he's got a thriving landscaping company. He's honest, hardworking, and rich.
To think all businessman are like the scumbags at WorldCom and Enron is just idiotic.
Laws of supply and demand, man. It doesn't just apply to labor, or material. It applies to money itself.
People who have money will try to put it work where it can get them the most money, just like a worker will go where he gets paid the most.
The genius businessman, who can use money to make money very effectively, will get all sorts of investor money. These people are rare; pro sports player kind of rare.
And obviously, the investors who are better at recognizing the genius businessman make more money than those that don't.
And when you get right down to it, a fair wage for an employee is determined by one thing, and one thing only: How much they can get for their labor elsewhere. You wouldn't stay at a badly run company that paid significantly less than what you could get elsewhere. Why should a well-run company pay you significantly more than you could get elsewhere?
Did that king hire mercenaries? Did the mercenaries enter into the contract knowing what the job entailed, of their own free will? And BTW, companies and capitalists still have to obey the laws of the land; they in no way are dictators.
*Anybody* can dig ditches. Very few people can effectivly "risk capital". Hell, less than a third of the households in the US make any serious attempt at investing towards their own freakin' retirement.
How about this analogy? Bob and Sue Doe invested their life savings into opening a restaurant. Guess what, they deserve to be the boss. The busboys don't get to decide how much they get paid. That situation is only, oh, about a thousand times more likely than little Billy dropping out of Harvard and starting Microsoft.
Obviously, you've never been able to accumulate much capital in your life, or you wouldn't be nearly so casual about what it means to risk it.
Of course luck is involved. But *anyone* can get lucky, so how is it not fair? Do you call the lottery not fair because you didn't win it?
Read up on Mr Buffett. You know, the 2nd richest American (and if he lives another ten years, he'll take back the number one spot for damn sure).
Using your capital to earn money is just as valid as using labor. Someone ponying up a billion dollars for a project can get a lot more done that someone giving a couple years labor. And the guy putting up the billion dollars is risking a *hell* of a lot more than the guy getting a paycheck every two weeks.
So, not only do you not know how corporate ownership works, you are totally ignorant of the stock market.
Let me guess . . . you're an American public high school teacher?
Guess what. Wealth can *actually be created*. Seriously. The value of a company can actually increase. Don't confuse how the stock market was working in 1999 with how it's supposed to work. Nobody with any brains thought that tech stocks during the bubble were anything other that a pyramid scheme.
Oh please. Those investors knew how much Gates was going to get. They got to vote for the board members, they approved further stock options and grants. They were more than willing to give Gates that stock because having him run the company meant their stock value went through the roof. Trickery? Christ, I wish *I'd* been tricked into putting a few thousand bucks into Microsoft's IPO. I'd be retired by now.
You're unclear on the "stealing" thing, aren't you? If you think Gates defrauded the stockholders, call the SEC or the Justice Department. Or buy *one share* and file a class action suit yourself.
If you want to talk about stealing, why the *hell* do I have to pay taxes so the govt can give subsidies to tobacco farmers? That goes beyond stupid, it's *wrong*.
Couple summers ago, when the unions shut down the ports in California, I read that the average wage of a dockworker there was $120,000 a year, and they went on strike because management wanted to streamline the operation by using barcodes and handheld computers. Utterly bloated and inefficient, and the cost gets passed on to anyone paying for imports or trying to make money from exports.
You know, it's *really* hard to sympathize with unions in situations like that.
There are more billionaires in Mexico than there are in the US. You don't know what an "incredibly large gap between the rich and poor" is.
Somebody picking their nose is not using my bandwidth, wasting my disk space, and most importantly not exposing my kids to pr0n.
Well, I don't have kids, but hopefully you can see my point.
You can get fined for walking down the street with a megaphone at 2 AM screaming obscenities. There's a point where it's copacetic for the state to mess with people that are being a pain in the ass.
You could pretty easily convince The Man of your innocence, unless your business involves viagra, penis enlargement, or Nigerian fund transfers.
There are probably laws on the books that could be used to prosecute spammers that do this, and if not, they could be created. Go after the actual spammer, and if they can't display proof that the accused company contracted with them for the spam, nail them to the friggin wall.
Yeahhhh. Read "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman". The most powerful computers of the time were at Los Alamos, with Nobel prize winners writing the programs.
The other thing you need to consider is that if you regularly sell your CDs to the used music shop for $6, you'll likely buy more new CDs than you would otherwise.
Oh yeah, you're right. But then again, he wrote that back in the 30's or 40's, when science's understanding of stellar evolution was a lot more primitive (and when science fiction played a lot more fast and loose with the science). I doubt if he (or any competent science fiction author) would say the same thing today.
The prospect of eliminating all human life via nuclear war never existed, regardless of "On The Beach". Doesn't matter, though, any civilization that can build space colonies could easily destroy them in a war.
A space colony will be far more vulnerable to attack than an Earth-based nation/city. They'll either learn to get along, or they'll all die. If an all-Palestinian colony starts being a threat to other colonies, it won't last very long.
And to think of Star Trek as a serious attempt to describe the human race 300 years from now instead of as popular entertainment used to comment on current affairs is just plain silly.
Sure, the Greeks invented democracy. It ended up being limited to the Greeks, and died with them. American democratic ideals and culture (defined largely because America is a frontier society) has propagated around the world.
The nations on this planet that are the closest to their frontier origins (America, Canada, Australia) are also among the most tolerant societies on this planet.
Oh please. I seem to recall a bunch of Canadian soldiers being killed in Afghanistan by some gung-ho US pilots hopped up on speed.
As far as Iraq is concerned, while I have no problem with Saddam's regime getting taken out, I don't think it would have been possible for the Bush administration to bungle up the diplomacy involved more than they did. I don't blame Canada for not getting involved in that situation at all. France, Germany, and Russia, now, they're nothing but hooors.
Well, I imagine most people at the time kind of assumed that the Japanese wouldn't be that dumb. Ya gotta admit, it might even rank higher than Hitler attacking the USSR on the scale of stupid things to do.
With any luck, history will show that 9/11 will also rank right up there on the stupidity scale.
They'd have to start around Dec 30 and go through Jan 2 or so, that way they'd be under 2500 miles per year :)
And you're weak on science :). There are plenty of stars around that will be shining a loooong time after the Sun is a cinder.
The problem with your parent's post is that there's no big hurry; we can put off evacuating the Earth for a couple of billion years. Maybe even a few years longer.
People on space colonies will have to learn how to get along better a lot more than anybody on Earth. And a frontier is just the place for the human race to develop new social systems. Remember that democracy idea that came from the last big frontier the human race had?
Yes, because the only place to find water and metal in the universe is habitable planets. Geesh. It was a stupid plot device back when I was a kid watching "V", and it's still stupid in "Independance Day".
If the human race goes to the stars, what is vastly more likely (assuming we are still in human form) is that the rare terraformable planet we come across will be treated like the jewel it is.
It's not because space is dangerous, it's because it's *expensive*. Space won't be colonized until it's a hell of a lot cheaper. And that ain't gonna happen as long as NASA or the govt has anything to do with it.
If you want to visit space, feel free to pony up $20 million and go to Russia. You wanna live there, you better be named Bill Gates the Third and work in the software industry.
That sucks. Keep that up, and one day we'll run out of third world hellholes to exploit.
This month's Scientific American has an interesting article on child labor. What you are suggesting could, in many ways, make things much worse for children and families in the developing world.