I want to know what happens if your collection is stolen? If it's a license, the RIAA should let you get it back. (for a nominal processing fee)
What happens when you tell your wife to give that box of CDs to charity, and she grabs the wrong box? Do you still have rights to that music that was given away by mistake?
Fire? Scratched DVD?
I can borrow a DVD from my public library for free, for 2 weeks. Much better than the Redbox. Should they be able to make a copy of a rare DVD, lend the copy, and if the copy is not returned, lend out another copy?
Copyright law needs a complete overhaul. We the People should find a few persons to go to Washington to present our needs to the Government, especially where they conflict with the needs of the corporations. We could call these persons, "Representatives".
It can mean more sales. If used book stores burned every book they bought, the sales of new copies of those books would increase at least a tiny bit...and that sliver is what they're after.
That's what I'm assuming anyways. If they think that 1 used book sale = 1 lost new book sale, as with piracy they'll be sorely disappointed.
If they thought that, they'd just buy the used books at 30% and destroy them.
The problem with digital content, is that when properly cared for it doesn't degrade. Vinyl disks wear out with use. Cars rust.
Even books get cruddy. Unless a digital recording is released in a higher fidelity, a 20 yo used copy doesn't sound any worse than a new one.
I'm waiting for a sub-culture, a digital Amish, as it were, of people who only consume media that's at least N years old. People who band together with the latest hardware, but only content that's old and used. Device drivers will have to be open source and blessed by a software shaman. Maybe I'll start it for tax purposes....
If you're getting more than a 3% discount it's probably because they aren't planning on paying taxes on your purchase, not because they can skip the CC fee. Visa and MasterCard are in the 2.5-3% range mostly, Amex is a fair bit higher. Plus deposit fees plus the time you have to pay employees to balance the cash in tills aren't free.
That's also a possibility. I paid a tow-truck driver in cash once, and that's exactly what he said.
One reason that CC companies can charge n% is that cash does have a tendency to grow legs and walk away. When you're dealing with the owner of the business that's not a problem, but he could be under-reporting to the tax men.
Aside from fraud, the owner might take cash because he can use it to pay his bills, *right now*. Checks take a few days, but CC transactions take longer and are subject to recall.
Then how is it that the credit card companies have convinced retailers not to discount cash? People who pay cash miss out on all the great CC swag.
Contractual strong arming. The CC companies just won't deal with retailers who offer cash discounts. Most of the time, though, if you can talk to a real decision maker like the owner or an actual manager, you can ask for and receive a cash discount.
I had a good friend that went into the Navy. When he went in, he was far from thoughtful and responsible. When he got out, he worked his way through a Physics degree, and we hired him where I worked.
...this is the definition of crony capitalism. IT'S NOT CAPITALISM. This is incredibly important to understand so we can get out of this mess. Listen to him at 6 minutes in: "we're not living in capitalism, we're not living in socialism, we're living in some weird combination, with a cartel, the banks controlling more than their share". "It's a compensation scheme nothing more." "they blew up in 82-83, and they blew up now".
There are very few Capitalists in high end finance. Mostly, they are monopolists, trying to destroy the competition, rather than keeping the game fair.
Imagine that the economy is a marathon. Capitalist runners would run as hard and as fast as they could, to win the race. Monopolists try to trip up the competition, so that they can saunter across the finish line, and be declared the winner.
Every time in history, that the middle class has been wiped out, it has been from bad government monetary policy, or the institution of communism, period. Capitalism has always increased over time the quality of life for all.
Some pretty broad strokes there. That's true if we define the "middle class" very loosely. And to say "N has always increased over time the quality of life for all.', can't be true, because if the social system ends up with *you* dying, then your quality of life can't increase, even if the average quality of life increases. There are always some people getting the short end of the stick.
It's also worth noting, that there are very few Capitalists in high end finance. Mostly, they are monopolists, trying to destroy the competition, rather than keeping the game fair. Imagine that the economy is a marathon. Capitalist runners would run as hard and as fast as they could, to win the race. Monopolists try to trip up the competition, so that they can saunter across the finish line, and be declared the winner.
Things only make sense if the company goals are aligned with the individual goals. If we eliminate bonuses for the individual, we would have to do the same for the banks themselves. This would amount to nonprofit banking. I would put my money on such a bank...
Look at how little interest you can make on a traditional savings account. Modern bankers don't want *your* money. There's much more profit in moving around large amounts of money from corporations.
Credit card companies charge people huge interest rates for short term loans, but they aren't taking a dollar from you and loaning it to the person with the card. They're enabling the transaction, but they don't pay the retail store for quite a while after a purchase is made. The float on that money is part of where they get the cash to loan out. If they come up short at the end of the day, they can get a one day loan from Uncle Sam for a very low interest rate, and since they're loaning out at 12 to 24%, they'll make money.
The George Bailey style building and loan is an endangered species, if any are still alive today.
Good idea in theory, but in practice, only a fool would take such a contract.
There's too many ways that Creative/Hollywood accounting could make the five year away bonus disappear. Look to Silicon valley for examples of the vanishing bonus.
Most high level people are practically guaranteed their bonuses, as long as they keep breathing. VPs are routinely paid millions when they get fired.
If you did create a utopia bank that worked properly, your shareholders would eventually sell out, and it would become just like any other big bank. If you designed it so that they couldn't sell, you wouldn't get any investors. And if you did get investors anyway and build a proper bank, the rest of the banking industry would get rules and laws enacted to keep you small or kill you off.
If you're not corrupt, you can't win. If you are corrupt, well, you're corrupt.
Why don't laws, when tested, only need a majority of the Supremes to pass them? Shouldn't any decent law require unanimous approval of the supreme court to be good enough to apply to everyone?
E.g. Why should the common folk be required to follow a law that a *Supreme Court Justice* doesn't think should be.
We currently have a system in which the decision makers can't read every bill they vote on. Each has a staff of people who presumably can be trusted to steer the Congressperson the right way.
IANAL but a legal contract involves an exchange between to parties. Thus if the company were to revoke what they gave in the exchange, they could be required to surrender what they received.
The industry lawyers would argue that the limited time that you could use the music is what they gave, thus they are within their rights to keep the consumer's money.
The consumer's lawyer would argue that the consumer was lead to believe that the music was time-unlimited.
But, lawyers are expensive, so the industry is hoping that people won't hire one to get back the cash for a few $.99 songs.
Also, they tend to be cat people. How many autistic kids grew up with a big, messy, in-your-face dog? Dogs are better at discerning human emotion than most people, some of that has to rub off.
Depends on what you mean by downside. Intelligence might have only upsides for the individual, but unless it promotes reproduction, it won't be reinforced by evolution.
The "downside" might simply be that intelligent people have more interesting things to do than breed like bunnies.
Read some of the books by Don Lancaster. He maintains that a patent is the worst possible way for a small inventor to make money.
There are, most likely, small periodicals that cater to any market that don't have as strict requirements as the refereed journals. You can get paid a small amount to write articles for them, but most importantly, you get exposure.
Once your product has been exposed, but *not* patented, large corporations will license your idea from you so that their right to use is clear.
As an aside, I've thought you could eliminate accents when learning a foreign language by creating a "negative accent", that when applied to words, would cancel the students accent. (Never developed a product, though)
I have a neighbor that's still making good money buying distressed properties, renovating, then renting or selling them. He works hard, and it shows. When I said "investing", I was being more general than buying stocks or derivatives. I think of any money spent to make money later to be an investment. The other kind of spending is consumption.
Anyway the monopoly analogy is a (simple) model of economics. If the players start off uneven, the outcome is more sure and faster, but in the end, someone has it all. Just like the current economic situation. It's much easier to make money once you have money.
A non-programmer will never be able to change a program to do something other than what was intended.
I envy you. I've seen Excel spreadsheets that still make me wake up screaming in the night. Hell spawned Access databases that make grown men lose their lunch. Evil VB scripts opened that took 3 exorcists and a shaman to close down. *shutter*...
And how does that differ from what things are like now?
Right now, it's possible for someone to work hard, and put their money into investments that will earn future money. (Although, there are no guarantees)
In the disutopian future, a relatively few people will control all the means of creating wealth.
Just look at the game monopoly. With some luck, and some skill, you can own the "world".
I used to think that, but what do you think happens to capitalism when there is no more need for human labor? Why does "location location location" matter to real estate pricing if you have no job to commute to and free or near-free products are transported to wherever you happen to be, from anywhere in the world?
If you own enough great land where the weather is nice and there's no scarcity of water, you make money by renting to people who want to live there.
Alternatively, if you own the land where the raw materials are being mined, you also win.
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Can you imagine toyota demanding a transfer fee or the right of first refusal when you want to sell your car?
I'd be quite surprised if Toyota were to do that, since i own a Nissan.
However, for the RIAA, that's just business as usual. They're quite happy to charge money for something they don't own.
I want to know what happens if your collection is stolen? If it's a license, the RIAA should let you get it back. (for a nominal processing fee)
What happens when you tell your wife to give that box of CDs to charity, and she grabs the wrong box? Do you still have rights to that music that was given away by mistake?
Fire? Scratched DVD?
I can borrow a DVD from my public library for free, for 2 weeks. Much better than the Redbox. Should they be able to make a copy of a rare DVD, lend the copy, and if the copy is not returned, lend out another copy?
Copyright law needs a complete overhaul. We the People should find a few persons to go to Washington to present our needs to the Government, especially where they conflict with the needs of the corporations. We could call these persons, "Representatives".
It can mean more sales. If used book stores burned every book they bought, the sales of new copies of those books would increase at least a tiny bit...and that sliver is what they're after.
That's what I'm assuming anyways. If they think that 1 used book sale = 1 lost new book sale, as with piracy they'll be sorely disappointed.
If they thought that, they'd just buy the used books at 30% and destroy them.
The problem with digital content, is that when properly cared for it doesn't degrade. Vinyl disks wear out with use. Cars rust. Even books get cruddy. Unless a digital recording is released in a higher fidelity, a 20 yo used copy doesn't sound any worse than a new one.
I'm waiting for a sub-culture, a digital Amish, as it were, of people who only consume media that's at least N years old. People who band together with the latest hardware, but only content that's old and used. Device drivers will have to be open source and blessed by a software shaman. Maybe I'll start it for tax purposes....
"Take your stinking paws off it, you damn dirty producer!"
If you're getting more than a 3% discount it's probably because they aren't planning on paying taxes on your purchase, not because they can skip the CC fee. Visa and MasterCard are in the 2.5-3% range mostly, Amex is a fair bit higher. Plus deposit fees plus the time you have to pay employees to balance the cash in tills aren't free.
That's also a possibility. I paid a tow-truck driver in cash once, and that's exactly what he said.
One reason that CC companies can charge n% is that cash does have a tendency to grow legs and walk away. When you're dealing with the owner of the business that's not a problem, but he could be under-reporting to the tax men.
Aside from fraud, the owner might take cash because he can use it to pay his bills, *right now*. Checks take a few days, but CC transactions take longer and are subject to recall.
Then how is it that the credit card companies have convinced retailers not to discount cash? People who pay cash miss out on all the great CC swag.
Contractual strong arming. The CC companies just won't deal with retailers who offer cash discounts. Most of the time, though, if you can talk to a real decision maker like the owner or an actual manager, you can ask for and receive a cash discount.
I don't know the current rules, but when my dad retired from the Government, he was able to apply his 4 years in the Army to his retirement package.
I had a good friend that went into the Navy. When he went in, he was far from thoughtful and responsible. When he got out, he worked his way through a Physics degree, and we hired him where I worked.
The military really can transform people.
...this is the definition of crony capitalism. IT'S NOT CAPITALISM. This is incredibly important to understand so we can get out of this mess. Listen to him at 6 minutes in: "we're not living in capitalism, we're not living in socialism, we're living in some weird combination, with a cartel, the banks controlling more than their share". "It's a compensation scheme nothing more." "they blew up in 82-83, and they blew up now".
There are very few Capitalists in high end finance. Mostly, they are monopolists, trying to destroy the competition, rather than keeping the game fair.
Imagine that the economy is a marathon. Capitalist runners would run as hard and as fast as they could, to win the race. Monopolists try to trip up the competition, so that they can saunter across the finish line, and be declared the winner.
Every time in history, that the middle class has been wiped out, it has been from bad government monetary policy, or the institution of communism, period. Capitalism has always increased over time the quality of life for all.
Some pretty broad strokes there. That's true if we define the "middle class" very loosely. And to say "N has always increased over time the quality of life for all.', can't be true, because if the social system ends up with *you* dying, then your quality of life can't increase, even if the average quality of life increases. There are always some people getting the short end of the stick.
It's also worth noting, that there are very few Capitalists in high end finance. Mostly, they are monopolists, trying to destroy the competition, rather than keeping the game fair. Imagine that the economy is a marathon. Capitalist runners would run as hard and as fast as they could, to win the race. Monopolists try to trip up the competition, so that they can saunter across the finish line, and be declared the winner.
Things only make sense if the company goals are aligned with the individual goals. If we eliminate bonuses for the individual, we would have to do the same for the banks themselves. This would amount to nonprofit banking. I would put my money on such a bank...
Look at how little interest you can make on a traditional savings account. Modern bankers don't want *your* money. There's much more profit in moving around large amounts of money from corporations.
Credit card companies charge people huge interest rates for short term loans, but they aren't taking a dollar from you and loaning it to the person with the card. They're enabling the transaction, but they don't pay the retail store for quite a while after a purchase is made. The float on that money is part of where they get the cash to loan out. If they come up short at the end of the day, they can get a one day loan from Uncle Sam for a very low interest rate, and since they're loaning out at 12 to 24%, they'll make money.
The George Bailey style building and loan is an endangered species, if any are still alive today.
I've seen that movie. It's the one where New York City gets turned into a giant prison, and Snake Pliskin has to rescue the President. (:-)
Good idea in theory, but in practice, only a fool would take such a contract.
There's too many ways that Creative/Hollywood accounting could make the five year away bonus disappear. Look to Silicon valley for examples of the vanishing bonus.
Most high level people are practically guaranteed their bonuses, as long as they keep breathing. VPs are routinely paid millions when they get fired.
If you did create a utopia bank that worked properly, your shareholders would eventually sell out, and it would become just like any other big bank. If you designed it so that they couldn't sell, you wouldn't get any investors. And if you did get investors anyway and build a proper bank, the rest of the banking industry would get rules and laws enacted to keep you small or kill you off.
If you're not corrupt, you can't win. If you are corrupt, well, you're corrupt.
This is how Ice Nine was discovered in Kurt Vonnegut's, "Cat's Cradle"...
Why don't laws, when tested, only need a majority of the Supremes to pass them? Shouldn't any decent law require unanimous approval of the supreme court to be good enough to apply to everyone?
E.g. Why should the common folk be required to follow a law that a *Supreme Court Justice* doesn't think should be.
Yes, that sounds like the point.
We currently have a system in which the decision makers can't read every bill they vote on. Each has a staff of people who presumably can be trusted to steer the Congressperson the right way.
IANAL but a legal contract involves an exchange between to parties. Thus if the company were to revoke what they gave in the exchange, they could be required to surrender what they received.
The industry lawyers would argue that the limited time that you could use the music is what they gave, thus they are within their rights to keep the consumer's money.
The consumer's lawyer would argue that the consumer was lead to believe that the music was time-unlimited.
But, lawyers are expensive, so the industry is hoping that people won't hire one to get back the cash for a few $.99 songs.
The energy for the earthquake is already there, so if anything, fracking *prevents* large earthquakes.
However, if you're killed by a 5.x quake that wouldn't have released a 9.x until 100 years after your normal lifespan, Do you care?
Also, they tend to be cat people. How many autistic kids grew up with a big, messy, in-your-face dog? Dogs are better at discerning human emotion than most people, some of that has to rub off.
Depends on what you mean by downside. Intelligence might have only upsides for the individual, but unless it promotes reproduction, it won't be reinforced by evolution.
The "downside" might simply be that intelligent people have more interesting things to do than breed like bunnies.
Read some of the books by Don Lancaster. He maintains that a patent is the worst possible way for a small inventor to make money.
There are, most likely, small periodicals that cater to any market that don't have as strict requirements as the refereed journals. You can get paid a small amount to write articles for them, but most importantly, you get exposure.
Once your product has been exposed, but *not* patented, large corporations will license your idea from you so that their right to use is clear.
As an aside, I've thought you could eliminate accents when learning a foreign language by creating a "negative accent", that when applied to words, would cancel the students accent. (Never developed a product, though)
I have a neighbor that's still making good money buying distressed properties, renovating, then renting or selling them. He works hard, and it shows. When I said "investing", I was being more general than buying stocks or derivatives. I think of any money spent to make money later to be an investment. The other kind of spending is consumption.
Anyway the monopoly analogy is a (simple) model of economics. If the players start off uneven, the outcome is more sure and faster, but in the end, someone has it all. Just like the current economic situation. It's much easier to make money once you have money.
A non-programmer will never be able to change a program to do something other than what was intended.
I envy you. I've seen Excel spreadsheets that still make me wake up screaming in the night. Hell spawned Access databases that make grown men lose their lunch. Evil VB scripts opened that took 3 exorcists and a shaman to close down. *shutter*...
And how does that differ from what things are like now?
Right now, it's possible for someone to work hard, and put their money into investments that will earn future money. (Although, there are no guarantees)
In the disutopian future, a relatively few people will control all the means of creating wealth.
Just look at the game monopoly. With some luck, and some skill, you can own the "world".
I used to think that, but what do you think happens to capitalism when there is no more need for human labor? Why does "location location location" matter to real estate pricing if you have no job to commute to and free or near-free products are transported to wherever you happen to be, from anywhere in the world?
If you own enough great land where the weather is nice and there's no scarcity of water, you make money by renting to people who want to live there.
Alternatively, if you own the land where the raw materials are being mined, you also win.