With our excellent English and knowledge of American culture, we could have those Indian tech jobs in a heartbeat. Sure, we would have to live in Delhi, Bombay or Calcutta, but the wages we would make there would let us live almost as well as here in the US.
One big reason that Europe may not have deficits as large as ours is that, courtesy of the US, they have been given a free ride over the last half-century when it comes to defense and security. The US spent trillions of dollars saving Europe from Hitler, rebuilding Europe after WWII, and then protecting Europe from subjugation by the Soviet communist oligarchy. During that time, Europe cut their defense budgets, and built up a huge, decadent welfare system secure in the knowledge that the US would protect them. Europe has been coddled and protected from the realities of the world so long they appear to have forgotten that we live in a dangerous world and you have to be aggressive in defending against evil, whether it be fascism or Islamic fundametalism.
But I digress. Your point about capitalism in which everybody is an owner is a good one. The majority of Americans already are owners in the form of retirement plans that are invested in securities.
You sound like it is some kind of sin to be a hard worker and pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. Those are the kind of people who make this country great. Is hard work always rewarded by becoming rich?...No. But it is sometimes. And the last thing that should be rewarded is sitting around on your ass waiting for a handout from the government. That is a recipe for laziness and social decay.
I think it's a good thing that there are plenty of incentives in the American system for workers to remain productive and keep a good work record. God knows, Europe is now dealing with the massive fallout of decades of increased welfare which has made their workforces complacent and lazy.
Rather than increase the welfare state, America needs to find a way to create plenty of incentives for employers to treat their employees fairly and hire more of them at fair wages. One way to do this is by reducing the tax burden on employers. Maybe create tax breaks for adding new employees or not laying people off. Another way is by making sure their are stiff penalties in place for unfair labor practices.
Remember that a low unemployment rate is the most powerful weapon that workers have when it comes to getting better pay and being treated better by employers. With low unemployment, an employer is willing to pay more money to hire and retain employees. With low unemployment, if an employer tries to exploit employess by working them like slaves, then the employees can take other jobs elsewhere. The European welfare model results in higher taxes and much higher unemployment rates.
Don't be an ass. I'm a conservative, and generally pro-business. Being pro-business does not mean I am pro-crook. Any employer who engaged in this should be thrown in jail.
Think "minute shaving" by your employer is bad? Wait till the powers that be figure out a way use insecure, unverifiable electronic systems to "shave votes."
I have refused to install RealPlayer for the past several years, restricting myself to Windows Media, Quicktime and of course MPG and AVI. For a long time, Real Media became scarcer and scarcer on the web and it looked like Real was just going to go away and die. Since Real are a bunch of privacy-invading losers, I was thrilled. However, lately it seems like I have been seeing more and more websites that offer Real Media only. This story makes it clear why: Real Media is now so desperate that they are giving their stuff away for free to try and rebuild market share.
I'm still not going to install their crapware, though, no matter what the EU says:)
I am just as much a believer in capitalism as you are, but you vastly overstate the industry's role in making nuclear plants safer. Before 3 Mile Island, safety took a backseat to keeping operating costs down to maximize profits. The reason nuclear plants in the US are safer today is because 3 Mile Island scared the crap out of the public causing demands for better government oversight. The industry went along with it because they were afraid they wouldn't be able to operate at all if they didn't. The NRC was a joke before 3 Mile Island, but today it keeps a much closer eye on safety at nuclear plants.
I am a capitalist, but there is an important watchdog role for government to play in most industries.
Well, in California your taxes go to pay for all them liberal social welfare programs that attract illegal immigrants like a picnic basket attracts ants. There is probably some state-run program to boost the self esteem of the criminal who robbed you in the hope that he will see the error of his ways, but no money to round up the illegals and cart them back to the border, and no money to put up a real, SECURE border.
They are working on this problem too. The next time you buy a car in the EU, you will get only the car body. You will have to buy the wheels, engine, steering wheel, stereo, heat/AC system, and headlamps separately.
1. The best person should get the job, regardless of race.
2. Affirmative action merely masks deeper problems by creating double-standards and instituting quotas.
3. Affirmative action casts doubt on the achievements of hard-working, intelligent, successful Black people. It perpetuates the belief that Black people can't make it if they are held to the same standards as White people.
4. Efforts are better put toward improving the educational achievement of Black children in grades K-12 so that they can attain greater success later in life without the need for the crutch of affirmative action.
I guess a liberal extremist in academia didn't like me trying to clue good scientists at academic insitutions into tha fact that their politically-correct extremist colleagues are creating a PR problem for academia that hurts their own ability to be taken seriously by the public.
The next version will require you to pee into a urine-testing device before your car will start. Make sure you drink lots of water while driving so you can pass all of the "rolling retests." The upside is that you will no longer need to stop to at rest areas on long trips:)
Because academia has embraced political correctness so completely, it has undermined the one-time public perception that academia is unbiased and apolitical. Even if these scientists are right, the obvious politically correct bias of their institutions and academia in general makes it possible for the Bush administration to deflect this criticism by labelling it as another example of left-wing political correctness in academia. By embracing "scientifically challenged" policies like affirmative action (reverse discrimination) and Title IX, tolerating the extreme left-wing faculty rantings about patriarchies and globalization, moral equivalency to support the actions of terrorists, etc., academia has justly earned a reputation as a breeding ground for anti-establishment liberal extremists. Good scientists in academia should demand that their institutions abandon their politically correct ways, because it hurts their own ability to be taken seriously by the public.
Yeah, but but what do you do about the person who is so clueless that they drive their car 15,000 miles without ever using a turn signal or changing the oil, and then are shocked and irate when the engine seizes up on them? There are people who operate their computers like that--they have no concept whatsoever of how to operate a computer responsibly, and they aren't interested in learning either.
I'm sick of providing free tech support for Microsoft. But it is no all MS's fault. My parents and many of their friends are just lazy and cheap about keeping their computers secure. They bring all kinds of crazy/crappy application software home from work and install it, and then when they have a problem, I'm supposed to be an expert on accounting software to help them out, etc. At work, people install all kinds of spyware-laced crap like Hotbar and then wonder why their computer has slowed to a crawl. Most people are just idiots and shouldn't be allowed to use computers at all.
It is certainly a tumultuous world economic situation right now. Corporations have no loyalty, except to their own bottom line. Companies that can't keep their prices competitive will go out of business, and everybody at the company loses their job. Managers who fail to make their companies competitive by taking advantage of all available means (including cheaper outsourced labor) to keep their prices competitive will lose their own jobs.
This reality doesn't make the job exportation trend any easier for affected American workers to accept, however. Workers resent the management/MBA types who smugly point out that corporations taking advantage of cheaper sources of labor is just an example of Darwinian market forces at work, while those same managers rake in huge paychecks and enjoy considerably better job security.
What we need is to give these American management types a dose of their own medicine. I'm sure there are plenty of bright, well-educated foreign MBAs who would be happy to have the jobs of American mangers for pennies on the dollar.
I believe that the world market is indeed evolving, and things will all work themselves out in the end. I am just nervous that if steps aren't taken to soften the transitions for workers, it will result in devastating social upheaval that will be bad for everyone.
Make that two! I'm also a conservative. I don't know all the details of the allegations yet, but what I read in the Globe this morning sounded bad. I'll wait for more to become known about what happened (and hear it from sources other than just the liberal-leaning Boston Globe) before I form any final opinions on this. However, if it turns out to be true, it was wrong and the people involved should be fired and or thrown out of office. Not just because what was done was illegal, but because it was unethical and will be used (unfairly) by Democrats to try and paint all Republicans as sneaky crooks.
Great MS, now we will be plagued by tons of crappy little utilities that you have to install on your PC to enable it to view and drap/drop the contents of digital cameras, USB thumb memory modules, and MP3 players. Every device will have it's own unique file system and require a little utility installed on your PC, instead of having a nice, relatively seamless common standard. That will really make people want a PC instead of a Mac.
If manufactureers of these devices are smart they will come up with a standard filesystem and utility of their own so at least you only need one utility installed to use all of these devices.
A "mod" implies that is it freely downloadable. An "add-on" or "expansion pack" implies that it costs money.
The problem with "add-ons" and "expansion packs" is that you can never count on them selling widely enough to be worth purchasing. Nothing sukcs more than laying out cash for an expansion pack only to find that there are hardly any games running online that use the expansion pack. At least with a mod, you haven't wasted any money if you can't find enough games being played online.
Yeah, the toothpaste example you used would probably be easier to model realistically in a fully-rendered 3d simulation with an accurate physics engine. A text adventure doesn't model everything. It just provides the most important/significant descriptors and then lets the various reader's imaginations fill in everything else. This is why having the game respond appropriately to a player's actions in a text adventure is so much more complicated than it is in a game with a 3d graphics/physics engine.
Slashdot Mirror
With our excellent English and knowledge of American culture, we could have those Indian tech jobs in a heartbeat. Sure, we would have to live in Delhi, Bombay or Calcutta, but the wages we would make there would let us live almost as well as here in the US.
But on the other hand, IBM is outsourcing your job to India.
But maybe there is consistency here. Linux = free software. India = cheap labor. They both help IBM keep their costs down.
But I digress. Your point about capitalism in which everybody is an owner is a good one. The majority of Americans already are owners in the form of retirement plans that are invested in securities.
You sound like it is some kind of sin to be a hard worker and pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. Those are the kind of people who make this country great. Is hard work always rewarded by becoming rich?...No. But it is sometimes. And the last thing that should be rewarded is sitting around on your ass waiting for a handout from the government. That is a recipe for laziness and social decay.
Rather than increase the welfare state, America needs to find a way to create plenty of incentives for employers to treat their employees fairly and hire more of them at fair wages. One way to do this is by reducing the tax burden on employers. Maybe create tax breaks for adding new employees or not laying people off. Another way is by making sure their are stiff penalties in place for unfair labor practices.
Remember that a low unemployment rate is the most powerful weapon that workers have when it comes to getting better pay and being treated better by employers. With low unemployment, an employer is willing to pay more money to hire and retain employees. With low unemployment, if an employer tries to exploit employess by working them like slaves, then the employees can take other jobs elsewhere. The European welfare model results in higher taxes and much higher unemployment rates.
Don't be an ass. I'm a conservative, and generally pro-business. Being pro-business does not mean I am pro-crook. Any employer who engaged in this should be thrown in jail.
Think "minute shaving" by your employer is bad? Wait till the powers that be figure out a way use insecure, unverifiable electronic systems to "shave votes."
I'm still not going to install their crapware, though, no matter what the EU says :)
Wow, how the heck did something this old get through as "news."
I am a capitalist, but there is an important watchdog role for government to play in most industries.
Well, in California your taxes go to pay for all them liberal social welfare programs that attract illegal immigrants like a picnic basket attracts ants. There is probably some state-run program to boost the self esteem of the criminal who robbed you in the hope that he will see the error of his ways, but no money to round up the illegals and cart them back to the border, and no money to put up a real, SECURE border.
They are working on this problem too. The next time you buy a car in the EU, you will get only the car body. You will have to buy the wheels, engine, steering wheel, stereo, heat/AC system, and headlamps separately.
1. The best person should get the job, regardless of race. 2. Affirmative action merely masks deeper problems by creating double-standards and instituting quotas. 3. Affirmative action casts doubt on the achievements of hard-working, intelligent, successful Black people. It perpetuates the belief that Black people can't make it if they are held to the same standards as White people. 4. Efforts are better put toward improving the educational achievement of Black children in grades K-12 so that they can attain greater success later in life without the need for the crutch of affirmative action.
I guess a liberal extremist in academia didn't like me trying to clue good scientists at academic insitutions into tha fact that their politically-correct extremist colleagues are creating a PR problem for academia that hurts their own ability to be taken seriously by the public.
The next version will require you to pee into a urine-testing device before your car will start. Make sure you drink lots of water while driving so you can pass all of the "rolling retests." The upside is that you will no longer need to stop to at rest areas on long trips :)
Because academia has embraced political correctness so completely, it has undermined the one-time public perception that academia is unbiased and apolitical. Even if these scientists are right, the obvious politically correct bias of their institutions and academia in general makes it possible for the Bush administration to deflect this criticism by labelling it as another example of left-wing political correctness in academia. By embracing "scientifically challenged" policies like affirmative action (reverse discrimination) and Title IX, tolerating the extreme left-wing faculty rantings about patriarchies and globalization, moral equivalency to support the actions of terrorists, etc., academia has justly earned a reputation as a breeding ground for anti-establishment liberal extremists. Good scientists in academia should demand that their institutions abandon their politically correct ways, because it hurts their own ability to be taken seriously by the public.
Yeah, but but what do you do about the person who is so clueless that they drive their car 15,000 miles without ever using a turn signal or changing the oil, and then are shocked and irate when the engine seizes up on them? There are people who operate their computers like that--they have no concept whatsoever of how to operate a computer responsibly, and they aren't interested in learning either.
I'm sick of providing free tech support for Microsoft. But it is no all MS's fault. My parents and many of their friends are just lazy and cheap about keeping their computers secure. They bring all kinds of crazy/crappy application software home from work and install it, and then when they have a problem, I'm supposed to be an expert on accounting software to help them out, etc. At work, people install all kinds of spyware-laced crap like Hotbar and then wonder why their computer has slowed to a crawl. Most people are just idiots and shouldn't be allowed to use computers at all.
It is certainly a tumultuous world economic situation right now. Corporations have no loyalty, except to their own bottom line. Companies that can't keep their prices competitive will go out of business, and everybody at the company loses their job. Managers who fail to make their companies competitive by taking advantage of all available means (including cheaper outsourced labor) to keep their prices competitive will lose their own jobs. This reality doesn't make the job exportation trend any easier for affected American workers to accept, however. Workers resent the management/MBA types who smugly point out that corporations taking advantage of cheaper sources of labor is just an example of Darwinian market forces at work, while those same managers rake in huge paychecks and enjoy considerably better job security. What we need is to give these American management types a dose of their own medicine. I'm sure there are plenty of bright, well-educated foreign MBAs who would be happy to have the jobs of American mangers for pennies on the dollar. I believe that the world market is indeed evolving, and things will all work themselves out in the end. I am just nervous that if steps aren't taken to soften the transitions for workers, it will result in devastating social upheaval that will be bad for everyone.
Why not just go all out and name it the "S.E. X Windows System," for Special Edition X Windows System :)
Make that two! I'm also a conservative. I don't know all the details of the allegations yet, but what I read in the Globe this morning sounded bad. I'll wait for more to become known about what happened (and hear it from sources other than just the liberal-leaning Boston Globe) before I form any final opinions on this. However, if it turns out to be true, it was wrong and the people involved should be fired and or thrown out of office. Not just because what was done was illegal, but because it was unethical and will be used (unfairly) by Democrats to try and paint all Republicans as sneaky crooks.
Moonhoax
And when you pay, be sure to send payment in the form of 25 separate checks for 1 cent apiece. They will really appreciate that. :)
Great MS, now we will be plagued by tons of crappy little utilities that you have to install on your PC to enable it to view and drap/drop the contents of digital cameras, USB thumb memory modules, and MP3 players. Every device will have it's own unique file system and require a little utility installed on your PC, instead of having a nice, relatively seamless common standard. That will really make people want a PC instead of a Mac. If manufactureers of these devices are smart they will come up with a standard filesystem and utility of their own so at least you only need one utility installed to use all of these devices.
A "mod" implies that is it freely downloadable. An "add-on" or "expansion pack" implies that it costs money. The problem with "add-ons" and "expansion packs" is that you can never count on them selling widely enough to be worth purchasing. Nothing sukcs more than laying out cash for an expansion pack only to find that there are hardly any games running online that use the expansion pack. At least with a mod, you haven't wasted any money if you can't find enough games being played online.
Yeah, the toothpaste example you used would probably be easier to model realistically in a fully-rendered 3d simulation with an accurate physics engine. A text adventure doesn't model everything. It just provides the most important/significant descriptors and then lets the various reader's imaginations fill in everything else. This is why having the game respond appropriately to a player's actions in a text adventure is so much more complicated than it is in a game with a 3d graphics/physics engine.