Plenty of people are saying, "the consumer always ends up paying the tax."
This isn't quite true. The economics says that it doesn't matter who is responsible for paying the tax: The outcome will be the same either way. The consumer and the producer will end up splitting the cost of the tax. Who pays more depends on the scenario.
If the computer market were a perfectly competitive market and everyone charged the same price for a computer, then the consumer would be paying the whole tax. But that clearly isn't the case. Different companies charge different amounts for identical hardware.
Therefore it is safe to assume that the tax burden will be shared by the manufacturer and the consumer (even if the tax is charged to the consumer).
Bottom line: Let them charge whoever they want. It doesn't matter who pays the tax.
If I put a print of a Van Gogh on my wall, I'll say the original is art, but the reproduction is just an image of art. The idea behind this being that the current version was created by an automated process, but the seed for that process (the Van Gogh) involved skill, creativity and innovation in its creation. By the same token, the TypoGenerator cannot make art, but it may be able to create images of art.
In this case, the seed would be the source code of the site. Though we could squabble over the definition of art, it isn't hard to argue that the original code is art. The output when you view the site, though, is (just) a non-unique representation of art.
Let me start out by saying that I'm not at all in favor of this move and I'm not much of a fan of Daley.
But lets clear up a couple of things:
He isn't planning to "install thousands of cameras." He's planning to centralize the monitoring of the existing cameras, while installing "a few hundred" more. Yes, "a few hundred" is vague, but the significance of this move is NOT the installing of these cameras, but rather the centralization. He could have installed those other hundreds of cameras without saying a word. Centralizing them, though, becomes a big deal, because it creates the "Big Brother" possibility. Bottom line: Most of these cameras already exist.
As for Daley himself: There are a lot of replies about Meigs and about all the bullshit Daley pulls. For background on this, read Boss by Mike Royko or read any and all of John Kass's columns in the Chicago Tribune (there is a particularly good recent one about his long-standing "freindship" with Daley) (free reg. req.).
On Meigs: The closure of Meigs did NOT place any further burden on any other airports. Meigs was ONLY general aviation and provided NO long-term parking. Furthermore, Meigs was scheduled to be closed in 2005. I, myself, was sorry to see it go (I have taken off and landed from Meigs only a couple of times, but they were plenty of fun). It WAS shady how he closed it, but you get over that. That's how politics work in Chicago.
Chicago wouldn't be Chicago without Chicago politics. City Hall is corrupt. Corrupt as hell. But it works. And it is a government of the People. Daley is from Bridgeport, a blue collar neighborhood southwest of downtown. You'll see truck drivers, construction workers, factory workers who are better connected than the richest businessmen in the city. In some sense, its the universal equalizer.
Chicago politics are great; great in a neverending-amusement way. But while you can bitch and moan about civil liberties in relation to these cameras (I'll be there right along with you), pay attention to what actually is being done here: The innovation here is CENTRALIZATION, not INSTALLATION.
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Plenty of people are saying, "the consumer always ends up paying the tax." This isn't quite true. The economics says that it doesn't matter who is responsible for paying the tax: The outcome will be the same either way. The consumer and the producer will end up splitting the cost of the tax. Who pays more depends on the scenario. If the computer market were a perfectly competitive market and everyone charged the same price for a computer, then the consumer would be paying the whole tax. But that clearly isn't the case. Different companies charge different amounts for identical hardware. Therefore it is safe to assume that the tax burden will be shared by the manufacturer and the consumer (even if the tax is charged to the consumer). Bottom line: Let them charge whoever they want. It doesn't matter who pays the tax.
If I put a print of a Van Gogh on my wall, I'll say the original is art, but the reproduction is just an image of art. The idea behind this being that the current version was created by an automated process, but the seed for that process (the Van Gogh) involved skill, creativity and innovation in its creation. By the same token, the TypoGenerator cannot make art, but it may be able to create images of art. In this case, the seed would be the source code of the site. Though we could squabble over the definition of art, it isn't hard to argue that the original code is art. The output when you view the site, though, is (just) a non-unique representation of art.
Let me start out by saying that I'm not at all in favor of this move and I'm not much of a fan of Daley.
But lets clear up a couple of things:
He isn't planning to "install thousands of cameras." He's planning to centralize the monitoring of the existing cameras, while installing "a few hundred" more. Yes, "a few hundred" is vague, but the significance of this move is NOT the installing of these cameras, but rather the centralization. He could have installed those other hundreds of cameras without saying a word. Centralizing them, though, becomes a big deal, because it creates the "Big Brother" possibility. Bottom line: Most of these cameras already exist.
As for Daley himself: There are a lot of replies about Meigs and about all the bullshit Daley pulls. For background on this, read Boss by Mike Royko or read any and all of John Kass's columns in the Chicago Tribune (there is a particularly good recent one about his long-standing "freindship" with Daley) (free reg. req.).
On Meigs: The closure of Meigs did NOT place any further burden on any other airports. Meigs was ONLY general aviation and provided NO long-term parking. Furthermore, Meigs was scheduled to be closed in 2005. I, myself, was sorry to see it go (I have taken off and landed from Meigs only a couple of times, but they were plenty of fun). It WAS shady how he closed it, but you get over that. That's how politics work in Chicago.
Chicago wouldn't be Chicago without Chicago politics. City Hall is corrupt. Corrupt as hell. But it works. And it is a government of the People. Daley is from Bridgeport, a blue collar neighborhood southwest of downtown. You'll see truck drivers, construction workers, factory workers who are better connected than the richest businessmen in the city. In some sense, its the universal equalizer.
Chicago politics are great; great in a neverending-amusement way. But while you can bitch and moan about civil liberties in relation to these cameras (I'll be there right along with you), pay attention to what actually is being done here: The innovation here is CENTRALIZATION, not INSTALLATION.